Rayen

I save nearly all of my fabric scraps from sewing, quilting and texile art projects so I can reuse them. Often I do as patchwork for crazy quilt projects or stitch practice pieces. This is the bag in my sewing room that holds them. Here's a sample of what's in the bag: the trimmed legs from a pair of thrifted capris I altered into shorts, some fabric trimmed from some backing, a piece of cross stitch fabric leftover from framing the thrifted Santa piece, and a short length of ribbon, also from Christmas. Once my scrap bag is full I empty it into my scraps bin here. If you think having an entire bin of scraps is a bit much, keep in mind that I gave away two other bins of scrap fabric I had saved last year to the local quilting guild. :) Here's my problem: the scraps bin is full now, and I either have to start another bin, or devote more time to using up my scraps. Since I'm still trying not to hoard fabric, I'm going to take one night a week to ...

If you don't mind walking 33K square feet in retail space, The Mercantile may be the vintage/arts store you'd enjoy visiting if you're ever in Orlando. I certainly did. Because it was busy I didn't take any photos in the store, but it's absolutely amazing and chock full of antiques and artisan creations, most of which were pretty reasonably priced. For $21.00 I invested in a picture of sailboats for the guest bathroom I'm redoing, and a fairy mystery jar of cool stuff. The jaw was hand-painted and decorated, and utterly charming. I think I wanted the jar more than the contents. As you can see the contents were both generous and pretty cool, too. I finally have some vintage gloves to use for my art quilter bingo challenge!

I watched Bettlejuice Beetlejuice , the sequel to the original film from the 80's, because I had literally nothing else to watch that evening (not really a fan of slapstick horror.) It's as campy as the original, and while seeing Winona Ryder in her fifties is always mildly distressing to me (she's eternally young in my brain) it's okay. The premise: Now the host of a paranormal ghost show, Lydia Deetz begins seeing Beetlejuice, the demon from her past, and must battle a smarmy leech of a romantic parter, her narcissistic mother, a life-snatching killer ghost and make a hellish trip through the afterlife way station to save her estranged daughter who is still mourning the loss of her father. Problems: not really a lot. It's basically a sequel that relies heavily on the first film, and all the jokes from it are pretty much repeats. Keaton is as offensive as the first time around. Winona Ryder looks bored (and sounds like she has laryngitis) most of the time...

Now that I've cleaned this first group of five bags and wallets from my big thrifted Vera Bradley lot, let's see what shape they're in. This matching wallet and bag in the retired Blanco Bouquet pattern have no damage and thus need no repairs. Although I've heard the pattern is rare I found a similar set on Poshmark selling for $30.00. They're in like-new condition, and since I wear a lot of black in the winter I'm going to keep them for me. This small purse and wallet are in good condition; they're going in the donation bag for our local church thrift store. This purse is one I'll be upcycling before I donate or gift it. The edge of the front pocket is completely frayed. There are a couple of wear spots on the bottom left and right. The strap is also heavily frayed. I'm going to think about how I want to remake this purse, and then I'll bring you along in another post as I do.

Writing poems with a free concrete poem generator is fun. :)

On Independence Day my guy and I went downtown to watch the parade, and I noticed this adorable baby stroller across the street from us. It costs something like $700.00 or more. I used to push my babies around in a holding umbrella type stroller that cost me $12.00. That's how much more expensive the world has gotten, I guess. A little before July 4th we took a drive out in the country and in a pasture stood this wonderful hay bale sculpture of the State of Libery (the artist may work for or own an Ace hardware store.) I love how people in the country do things like this for holidays. Miniature ponies (and one very resistant llama) at the parade. Also a common feature at our rural town's celebrations. I got a lot of good ideas for stories while we were out and about, something I've neglected to do lately. I've got to keep a better eye on the world for inspiration. It's wonderful out there.