Shelf of Little Treasures

My husband is a dumpster diver (so embarrassing). Well, he doesn't really dumpster dive. But only because we don't have dumpsters. Let's just say he is a "junk connoisseur." Let me give you a few examples:

-Once he saw a pair of shorts in the road. He stopped. He picked them up. They were Nike brand. His size. They are in his drawer. He wears them.

-One day, I was having a yard sale. My husband drove up with a table on the back of his truck. He had picked it up off the side of the road. He put a for sale sign on it. I laughed at him and told him how ridiculous he was (as I was sorting through all my cute little sale items). He sold the table for $50. That was more than I made all day.

-The rug at my front door came from the people up the street. From their trash pile. Glad they don't visit.

-All of my garden "art" is from my husband. Old golf hole markers and other things I'm not certain of.

-The old metal swing. The sign said Free. It was. He took it. I painted it pink. Then it broke. And we couldn't take it back.



-This Thing:
Don't know what it is.
Don't know where he found it.
It is heavy.


-My shelf of little treasures:

When he finds these little goodies, he comes home, treasure in hand...
"Look what I found".
And with a wideeyed grin, he hands it over to me, keeper of the things.
And he is so happy and so proud and so excited to give me the new gift.
And I keep all the treasures on this shelf.

Except the best treasure of all....

him.

A New Trick I Learned

Okay, so you came here looking for something about sewing, or something about Etsy, or pretty pictures, pretty words... instead, you get a picture of my gross, dirty, filthy, nasty oven... but hey, stick around and I'll let you in on something I learned.

Here's what happened. Three days ago when I was on that cleaning spree, remember? Well, I sprayed the oven with oven cleaner intending to give it the regular 5-year cleaning treatment. But I got sidetracked (yes unusual for me huh?), and never got the oven cleaner wiped out. And since that time, three days ago, everytime someone asks,
"What's for breakfast?"
"What's for lunch?"
"What's for dinner?"
I answer, "Well, I can't cook right now because there is oven cleaner in the oven."
Let me say it again. This has been going on for three days.
We had Chinese one night. We had Mexican one night. My husband cooked on the grill one night.
Hmmm... how long do you think I can leave that oven cleaner in there?

Anyway, I kept thinking someone was going to ask just how long it takes this oven cleaner to do its thing, but no. No one has asked. And I finally figured out why.

Because no one is hearing my answer. I may as well be Charlie Brown's teacher standing there saying "WaWaaaaWaWa", because they don't care about ovens, much less oven cleaner. All they really want to know is "What's for dinner?"

So the trick I learned is this. If you don't want to cook, just say there's an alien in your oven and you can't open the door because it might get out. Nobody will mind. They'll just say, "Okay, so what's for dinner?"

Today's Featured Etsy Seller - ME!!!

Today I decided to feature myself as the Featured Etsy Seller... well, it is MY blog, you know??? This isn't a treasury... come to think of it, don't know that I've ever had anything featured in a treasury... anyhow... my latest craze is pillow covers and I absolutely love these two and they look so good in my newly painted bedroom. Can I keep them, can I keep them???

Okay, so head on over to dailybread Market and get you a pillow cover or two or three! They are hot off the machine!

And Pillows to Match!

Today's project is making pillow covers. I had these ugly pillows I wanted to cover, so i used my leftover fabric from yesterday's fabriframe project and made these for my bedroom! What do you think??? Well, scroll down and see the matching fabriframes... oh, I am matchy, aren't I?

If you give a mouse a cookie...

If you give a mouse a cookie, it will lead to him asking for a glass of milk; if you give him a glass of milk, it will lead to him asking for a napkin; if you give him a napkin...

So goes it with me. I bought a new sewing machine. Which somehow led to my painting the bathroom and bedroom. I've been trying to figure out how one led to the other and I think it happened like this: My fabric is stored in a chest in the bedroom (easily accessible from the diningroom/sewingroom). So since I had a new machine, I really wanted to organize my fabrics. But I wanted them to be organized in a nice, pretty room so I decided to paint the bedroom. And since the bathroom is off the bedroom, it had to be painted too. So I first painted the bath and have almost finished the bedroom. But I still don't have the fabric organized. And I haven't much used my new machine. What is WRONG with me?? Geez... why couldn't I just be satisfied with organizing the friggin' fabric?? My brain do go into overload sometimes!

But I did play with some fabrics along the way...



These are the new fabriframes I made for the bedroom wall. The picture didn't turn out too well, but they look really nice!

So, can you relate to this? In the process of doing all this painting, I moved all the stuff not being used into the diningroom. So now my diningroom looks like a bomb went off in there. And I'm thinking, okay, I've got to get this mess cleaned up... hmmm... while I'm at it, a fresh coat of paint wouldn't hurt! But no, no, I can't be doing any more painting right now... I've got to get to sewing. We have a craft show coming up in April and I am so not ready! And my Etsy shop is bare! So for now, no more painting.

My Happy Place!!

Okay, so now when someone tells me to go to my happy place, I will go to my bathroom! See how happy it is!! I just painted it. Notice the paint can in the floor. I'm now working on the bedroom. Yea, well, one thing leads to another....

It is all my sister's fault. I spent the night with her on Saturday and we had fun playing (more on that later); but I always return from her beautiful home and find my own extremely boring and depressing. No more, I say!

The valances were a Goodwill find, and the Tracy Porter picture came from a thrift store. Oh, how I love a sweet, thrifty bargain!!!