Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Fabric scissors


I saw this on facebook this morning, and it cracked me up.......


Growing up, this was a hard and fast rule. The fabric scissors were for fabric, and fabric only!!! We didn't dare use them for anything else! We didn't want to take a chance on unleashing the fury of our normally sweet natured mother!

And, when I grew up and had a home of my own, the rule went with me.

My mom was a wonderful seamstress who made many of our clothes, including my wedding gown. (though she said if she had it to do over again, she would have just bought my gown! lol)

My sewing skills are limited to craft projects. Which means my fabric scissors don't get nearly the work-out hers did. But still.

They are for fabric, and fabric only.

That's just the way it is.

Ted in the above picture must not have grown up in a sewing household, or he would have known better!

Monday, September 24, 2012

"Junkin" finds

Too busy to blog! We hit 3 good "junkin" opportunities lately. This involves the actual trip with all it's buying decisions, loading everything, unloading it again to clean it, reloading, taking it to the store, unloading again, putting it out on the floor, rearranging to make it FIT out on the floor, entering it into inventory and finally pricing it. Whew!

On top of that, I've been spending extra time crafting.....fall and Christmas is the busiest time in the craft world! And getting ready for the Fall Festival on our street that was held last weekend.

And on the homefront......canning the last of the harvest of tomatos.

Can I take a nap now?

(and please, don't look at my house.....I've got to find some time to clean!)

 
Always on the lookout for more sleds!
Oh, by the way, that school desk on the left?
 That's the kind I used in grade school.
Ahhh, memories.
 
 
I love this old chair with arms.
Perfect for your porch.
 
 
Note part of the wagon wheel spokes are missing on the left lower side.
We call that "character".
 

Another school desk.
We've been finding several different styles lately.



We bought this park bench mainly to have a spot where customers can sit
and rest a spell. But, a couple people have shown interest in buying it, so......
I may be on the lookout for another seat for customers to sit and rest a spell.
 

 
My favorite thing about this chair is the way it folds up.
Which I didn't get a picture of.
Oops.
 
 
These sold within an hour or so of being put on the floor.
With 2 other people also wanting them.
Where can I find a dozen more?!?
 
Can't you just see them this time of year
with pumpkins and mums spilling out of them?
 
Or ferns in the summer?
 
 
Windows, windows, windows.
Always in demand.
 
So many uses for old windows!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Plow with a surprise twist


We bought this marking plow at an auction over the weekend. Isn't it cool?
 

But what's really cool is how it turned out in the photo. Look closely just under the handles. See the ghost?

It's actually in the opposite display window, but it's reflection showed up in the photo. How fun is that!

You never know where a ghost might be lurking..............

HA!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Shop harvest and Home harvest

It's harvest time! Both at my craft shop and at home. Late summer/early fall is always a very busy time of year for me.
 
Turning this.........

 
into this.......
 
 
And this.........
   
 
into this..........
 
 
*And this.......
 
 
 into this.......
 
 
There's not much I can do about the timing of the garden. You plant in the spring & harvest in late summer/early fall. That's just the way it is.
 
There is certainly something I can do about the crafting harvest though. I can sew and paint pumpkins in the heat of summer. Or the harsh cold of winter.
 
But somehow, I always end up crafting pumpkins at the same time as I'm harvesting the garden. I never learn........
 
I had planned to sew some Indian Corn for the craft harvest, but when my friend and supplier Debbie beat me to it, I happily placed a wholesale order with her......
 
 
Why? Because the green beans may be pulled up, the corn may be cut down and the stalks fed to the cows, the cucumbers and cabbage are long gone...but the tomatos are still going strong. There's more juice and salsa and tomato pieces for chili etc. to can.
 
In case you're wondering what we do with all that tomato juice, I'll tell you. It's the main ingredient in the best Tomato Soup you will ever taste.
 
Sorry, no photo, but I'll tell you how we do it.
 
Stir together:
3 TBSP sugar
4 TBSP flour
 
Stir this into 1 quart tomato juice. Heat to just boiling, stirring often.
 
SOOOOO much better than condensed soup! Once you've eaten this homemade tomato soup, you'll never be able to eat condensed tomato soup from a store again. Well...that's been our experience anyway.
 
You can use store bought tomato juice, but I'll warn you, it's not the same. Years ago, we ran out of juice and bought some brand that tasted pretty good when made into soup. But I don't remember what brand it was, and we've tried again from time to time if we ran out of our own juice. We've never found a good substitute for our own juice again. It may be out there, but we haven't found it again.
 
This soup and a grilled cheese sandwich is a winter classic in our house, especially when we come home on a cold winter's day after church and want something hot in a hurry. Ahhh, good stuff.
 
*Keepin' em honest - I did not take this green bean picture. I don't have a picture of our green beans, and we have already pulled the plants up since they are done producing. Google brings up just about any picture you want, and that is where I found this one that looks like the green bean plants did in our own garden.
 
The rest of the pics are mine. All mine. Honest.
    

Thursday, September 6, 2012

These are different...

We're always on the lookout for unique antiques. Something different. Our last junkin' trip netted us these goodies...


"What is it" you say? Good question! We're calling it a grain drill piece. We have two of them, this one has the curved doodad on the front.

 
And this one doesn't. Other than that, about all I can tell you about them is that they are heavy! I love the architectural feel of them, they are just super cool. (can you use the words 'super cool' when describing antiques?)
 
 
This is a...a...a...

Well, we have no idea what it is. When we bought it, there was a tag on it that said Daisy board, but that didn't help us any. It's obviously a board off of something old, possibly some piece of equipment.

As we buy things, we jot them down on a piece of paper. I said to George, "what do I call this?" He said, "write down snow board, we'll know which piece that was."

So there ya go, it's a snowboard. Or not.

Probably not.

But it's super cool!

First Occasional Shop Weekend of the Year

Our first occasional shop opening started today, and runs through tomorrow. Why am I just now posting pics here on my blog? Because my lapt...