Thrift Finds

It was planned. Yes I found a need to go to a Church sale. It came to me that my rosemary plant was being squeezed between my basil and not growing as it should so the need came up for a larger pot to transplant the rosemary and add to my container herbs growing here at the townhouse. We had no intentions of getting up this past Saturday to search this sale, but I refuse to pay top dollar for what we can pick up for nearly nothing. Call me cheap, call me frugal but I prefer to be called thrifty. I was very successful. I found two twelve inch dirty flower pots with saucers and they were $1 each.

Here they are after being scrubbed clean and disinfected with bleach and the rosemary now has a pot of it's own and is doing much better. I may cut a few stems to propagate new plants so I have some growing inside through the winter. 

It looks so very happy doesn't it and I am ready to harvest a little for cooking and when it gets a bit larger I'll dry some.

We found a Martha Stewart colander for $1 which will be used for our cheese making and a few more canning jars. On the way back from the Church sale we stopped at a thrift store and found the lime green desk lamp and vintage sheet.

The Church sale was over loaded with books and my daughter found a couple she liked. The wooden doll she spotted on the first table just inside the door. She brings home many new faces. The apple corer, shot glasses and cookie cutter she got at the thrift. The apple corer is heavy plastic/Plexiglas with red handles and is very strong. She got this item because she saw that she could cut potatoes for baked french fries and have a more consistent size. 

Lastly she found many vintage patterns at the thrift store. She chose several coat patterns and a foundation ware pattern. She also found the large Georges Briard plate and two suction handles. One has been added to the shower for my benefit. I get the help I need from them getting my old knees and bad hip in and out of the shower. One handle she attached to her cutting ruler for a more ergonomic way to use it cutting fabric. Works great. So for something that was planned, but not intended we found what we needed and a few extras to make living easier along with a few items of pleasure and store inventory. Thanks for stopping by and visiting. Have a great week.

Thrift Gift of Fabrics

Thrift shopping was put on hold this past week because of one of those events that happen in life, so these are last weeks finds, but Wow! What a time we are having. Got out a bit while the sun was shining and found linens, which are our favorite things to find, along with a few other items. 

Just so excited about these curtains and pillow shams. I have already reclaimed the lace and salvaged the pleats on the drapes to up cycle. Envisioning a few projects with the remaining fabric.

This is just a few of the sheets we found. We are so addicted to fabric and sewing.

Imagine the thrill of finding NIP vintage sheets. The trip was getting better every minute.

Then there were napkins, a Vera scarf and an embroidered linen just right for a pocket on my up cycled robe. Got to have a pocket.

My favorite fabric find is the beautiful piece of vintage pink floral fabric. Almost silk like, but so Hollywood. I remember fabric of this kind made into wonderful bed covers. The vintage Vera scarf is a poppy pattern and then there's the lovely bowl with it's cover.  A couple of years ago I found four pear shaped dishes that are part of a Lazy Susan set. They were so nice that I couldn't leave them behind because I felt that some one could use them as serving dishes. Who would have thought that a couple years later I'd find the center bowl that matches them, in a totally different place on earth and in excellent condition. I can't wait to put them together, but now the challenge will be to find the wooden base to put it on. Not impossible. I just need to put it out on the radar and it will come.

I just had to show everyone how beautiful this is. Imaging finding the pieces years and miles apart. Currently listed on butterflyplace.etsy.com.

Vintage table cloth being re loved.

ON THE CUTTING TABLE

 

I just couldn't do it. It would have taken a life time to soak the stains out of this well loved vintage table cloth. I'm usually good at soaking items to give them new life. Even things everyone else would have thrown away years ago. My success rate has been great with soaking. This, however, I couldn't do. Instead I used it as a cutter for new projects. It was my goal to give myself time to get back to some sewing and I finally did this past week. There was so much that I salvaged from this table cloth.

 

 

The four corners of the table cloth were in almost excellent condition and I attached them to white muslin and cotton batting to make four place mats. I backed them in yellow checkered gingham. I had recently reclaimed a bed skirt for the eyelet lace trim and saved the 100% cotton fabric from it. From this I managed one dozen twelve inch napkins and just simply appliqued salvaged fruit pieces to them.

 

 

I made two fry pan handle pot holders and there will be two round pot holder/hot plate pads. So far that's twenty new items from this table cloth. I went through my stash and the two new curtain panels I found a couple of weeks ago with a bright colorful trim will be turned into aprons. I searched through my stash of fabric and found some fruit print fabric that I'll use for pockets and ties.

 

 

These items are not going to be sold or given away. They are for me. The next rebuild in my life is to get back into traveling and these will go in my camping, glamping, trailer or may I just call it my dream chest.

 

There was a trip to a neighborhood sale and I found two items. I spent all of $4 for both. I also got to the thrift store and found a few items. I know I took time for myself this past week and the stats on my stores show it, but it was a great mental health week and I did something green and kept stuff out of the landfill. It's back to work today and I would love for you to stop by and visit my stores and visit my Facebook page and check like to see my future updates. Have a great week.

 

butterflyplace.etsy.com

butterflyplace.storenvy.com

 

https://www.facebook.com/TheCraftZone1

 





Christmas ornaments from scrap fabric.

For those of you who follow my blog you know how addicted to fabric I am. I just love it and yes I sell it and yes I sew with it, but there's always those scraps. These are made from reclaimed trim and a yoyo and bead in the center. All of these are about four inches in diameter and required fabric no longer than 18 inch strips or eight inch squares or circles.

Yoyo's are easy to make and these became ornament bells with a jingle bell to finish them off. A star can go on the top to make it a small tree also, but I like the bell.

 

Inspired by Kumiko Sudo (Flower Origami) who is a fabric origami artist,  I folded these pieces of fabric to make these ornaments and added the bead to class them up a bit.

 

 

Also origami folded fabric, just a little more folding. These are my favorites and the red and white one's looked the best on a green tree.



These are also folded fabric but a log cabin pattern. I found the direction in a booklet I bought in Lancaster PA. I have been fascinated by folding fabric for several years now.

I added some folded origami to my Christmas stockings and made them look better than just plain white and green. This is how I use my scrap fabric and I hope to be semi retired to do more of the things I like some day. Scrap fabric is always for sale on my stores. butterflyplace.etsy.com and butterflyplace.storenvy.com. I hope everyone has a great week and a wonderful holiday.

I was slow in September.

 

I only went out thrifting twice in September. Not because I didn't want to, but because of time. I did okay when I went. I found vintage 70's curtains, some bright wavy stripe sheets, a crochet doily that is now in the thrifted bathroom, and believe it or not four 100% cotton baby blue NIP vintage twin size sheets. That was the best score.

 

I also came by a bag of coat zippers, another bag with rick rack for sewing projects, and some vintage 1962 school reading picture cards. I believe they were used to assist in story telling. They are so cute and would look good framed in a nursery.

I found a Cape Cod souvenir tray. All of the Cape Cod trays I've found I have sold. There was a Napcoware pink house with bunny planter made in Japan, another Japanese flower and bunny planter and a set of six Pyrex small bowls. These are larger and thinner than the smaller one's I've always seen. These are going in my kitchen. I need small bowls to use in cooking projects. It may seem like the pickings were slim, but I left things behind. Most of these items are going to be resold on my Etsy store. butterflyplace.etsy.com  I am a bit behind in listing items and need to get busy. Many items are prepped, but pictures need to be taken, edited and organized so that the listing can begin. With canning season coming to a slow down I think that will be happening soon. Have a wonderful week everyone and I'll be seeing you on your blogs.

One estate sale this week.

I was not going to go to this estate sale, but it was on my way home from work and the very end of the sale. As I thought, most of the items I had seen in the preview were gone, but to my surprise most of the closets and bedrooms still had plenty to rummage through. Reclaimed linens and fabric are my favorite items and are always fun to me. This picture shows some vintage curtains. Some of a wood panel and kitchen pattern and others with a vintage Dutch ribbon that I will up cycle into something new. There was a linen towel with a country store theme and square linen napkins that I will also up cycle. I moved on to another room and to my amazement had a closet that seemed untouched but once past the old terry towels I found more linens to reclaim.

I found three sheets in excellent condition and to my surprise two vintage pink and white Swiss dot bed spreads with those lovely large ruffles. One is more loved than the other but if not usable as is will be great to reclaim the fabric. The best part of the short visit was that they were so happy not to have to pack all the leftover stuff up that I got great prices. It encouraged me to keep up the hunt and go on your instinct. You just never know. I hope soon to be able to go through these items more thoroughly and list them on my etsy store. butterflyplace.etsy.com. Have a wonderful weekend everyone and keep on going.

Finished quilts and afghans for charity

Just finished the sixth blanket for the Linus Project. It was the twin size crochet basket weave pattern afghan that needed all the loose yarns worked in and trimmed. It will keep someone nice and warm. It is made of all the leftover balls of yarn that have accumulated over the last year. It feels good to have it done. There are two smaller afghans and three quilts. I have several more that I would like to start working on so that I can have a dozen before I contact them to deliver.

I also spent more time today working on preparing items for my store. butterflyplace.etsy.com. All the pictures are taken and edited and now it's just a matter of finding the time to get them listed. I haven't done much thrifting this past month. Most of the items have come from the boxes moved and just the stash hanging around that needs to be downsized.

This week has been a learning week. My daughter and a great California gal are teaching me more about the Internet and how to make it work for me. The challenge has been a newsletter for my etsy store. They've helped me create a mailing list on excel and create buttons for my page. They make it look so easy, but teaching me has been an experience for them both. I can still learn. How exciting.

This has been a slow week.

Although I was able to thrift and find a few items it has been very slow here this week. I've had Internet issues and hope to get them taken care of soon. My finds this week included two pair of reclaimed tab curtains that are already taken apart to reclaim the fabric. A bright pink and orange sheet for fabric, a floral ash tray from Japan, a mushroom print trivet from Japan, four plastic coffee cups with the same exact print as the trivet only made for Sears, a whimsical frog and mushroom wall hanging and last but not least a set of Georges Briard Christmas coasters. Some of these items need some maintenance and others will be listed shortly if not already on my etsy store: butterflyplace.etsy.com.
When I moved a few months ago I put merchandise in boxes and marked them as store inventory. Since my service was slow or not available at all this week I shopped in those boxes. This morning I have begun to take the pictures of these items. It feels good to empty out and move on. Some items I asked myself why I kept them, but I quickly found ways to donate them and move them along to other homes. I cannot believe the items that I have accumulated and kept in boxes. So onward and upward to find them new lives with new families and continue the recycle, renew and reuse aspect of life. Have a wonderful week everyone.

Favorite thrift finds this weekend.

My favorites of the weekend, but not the only finds are these two loving owls music box and an unusual cheese cutting board that folds like a cupboard. It was so unusual that I just had to pick it. It was in excellent condition for it's age and is made in Japan. I can't tell the song that the music box plays, but it works and was irresistible.

Other finds this weekend include some more fabric, vintage and modern. Two cut glass candy dishes, wooden trivets made in India, a pink and orange vintage cotton towel and a large bell shaped trivet that is silver. A good cleaning and it will make a wonderful addition to any holiday table setting. I had a great time hunting this weekend, but have been careful not to over spend. So far setting a budget has worked.
Other events of the weekend include more research for business growth and learning my way around more internet sites. It's fun and work at the same time. Feel free to visit my Etsy store at butterflyplace.etsy.com .  Have a great thrifting week everyone.