Future Momo Jewelry

Oh my goodness gracious

It is hawt out today!  Not just hot, but HAWT!  The kind of day where you feel too hot to do anything at all but lie around and eat popsicles, which I kind of did. 

Actually, I went to go see Indiana Jones this morning to take advantage of the air conditioning. 

I liked it, but my favorite is still Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  After, I went over to the Goodwill and got some jars for some bath salts I am making for Renegade, then I went out shopping for some more displays for the show.  After, I decided to pop in to an estate sale that was near my house and found some pretty old vintage buttons, ribbon and seam binding.  Apparently the woman who had owned the house was a clothing designer and had a huge stash of notions.  I would have bought more, but the estate sale company employee wanted a ridiculous amount of money for each bag of buttons, so I just bought one.  I really would love to see into the mind of some of these estate sale people because it seems like they always want a ton of money for practically nothing (like the one who tried to charge me $1 each page of sheet music).  But, I still got some cute things, so it worked out. Then I headed home and ate some popsicles and read magazines because it was just too hot to do much else.

Tomorrow I'm hoping it cools down enough to go to yoga because I haven't gone in about 2 months and there's no a/c in the yoga studio and I don't want to faint.  Then lunch with a friend and we'll see what after that.  It all depends on the weather! 

Oopsy daisy!

I just realized that I forgot to post all the pictures of the stuff I've gotten from estate sales in the past couple of weeks, plus the Cath Kidston book and notecard set I just got too.

First, I got this little tray, about the size of a dollar bill, a couple of weeks ago.















All it has on the bottom of "Made in England" and a patent number.  It has these little notches on each side, so I have no idea what it was originally used for, but I thought it would be a nice coin holder or something like that.

I also got this little bowl. I don't know what I'll do with it yet, but it was pretty.
















I also recently got the Cath Kidston In Print book, which looked good but now that I have actually looked at it, it's a little disappointing.  It's supposed to be a how to on decorating your house with vintage fabrics, but there are no patterns aside from very basic instructions in the back.  There's a lot of ideas listed in the table of contents, but each section comprises of only a small paragraph and a picture, with very little info on actually implementing it.  Now, I get if you're crafty, you should be able to think of ideas on your own, but for $24.95, it might be nice if some were supplied also.  And who hasn't thought of turning old linens into pillows?  But, it is a pretty book. I also got the Cath Kidston notecard book, which has 24 different notecards and envelopes and I am really happy with that.  No two cards are the same and they are all great patterns.  If you are a fan of hers, you should definitely pick this up.  There's a notecard set of "loose" cards also which aren't bound in a book.









 








In the picture below, you can see what I mean about one paragraph and then a picture and that's it for an idea.  For the drum lampshades section, there's just a small paragraph about spray gluing fabric to a lampshade and then one example picture. 

Garage sale and shopping

I had my first garage sale yesterday with my parents at their house as part of an annual neighborhood sale.  Unfortunately, the weather was pretty chilly so the turnout was much lower than I expected.  But, I will made enough to do a little shopping at an estate sale after.  I picked up a really pretty silver creamer and some Shiny Brite ornaments.  I was a little mad at the estate sale runners because one guy was about to sell me the creamer for $4 when his coowner/wife/whatever walked by and said to charge me $24.  It wasn't signed so they sold it to me for $12, which isn't bad because I do really like it and it's real silver.















After, we all went and got Korean food, which I haven't had in years.  So, I don't think it was worth all the effort for the garage sale, but at least I cleaned out some clutter, made a little cash and still gave the Goodwill some decent stuff for them to sell. 

Catching up

I had a pretty busy weekend, so I am still catching up with everything that happened.

On Saturday night, I got together with old high school friends to see one friend who is leaving for Texas soon.  It's the first time she's ever moved away from the San Francisco area (the rest of our group have and have come back) and so it's a pretty big deal.  It's not very likely she'll ever move back here since her boyfriend is in the Coast Guard and they'll be getting married pretty soon.  Anyway, we all got together for a bbq and to celebrate our other friend's new baby, Lorelei. Isn't she cute?  She's the first one of our little group to have a kid (and to get married, actually.  The rest of us are pretending to be adults.) so we're all very excited about her arrival. 

I also got one part of a tea swap that I am in and got some yummy sounding things.  The teas were from the Netherlands.  The teas are smooth apple & cinnamon, rich almond taste & orange, refreshing air (what does air taste like?), sweet apricot & honey, ceylon, Brazilian baia, Russian taiga, chai thee, soft & sweet spices and sinaasappel, which I think is orange.  Interesting names and I am sure I will have fun trying them all out.  I'm still waiting for my other swap package from the Czech Republic too.

I also managed to go to an estate sale and picked up a cute little toddler's dress with a fleur de lys pattern in pink and aqua.  I was going to use it for the fabric, but I tried it on and it actually fits me as a tank top, so I'll probably just wear it.  Well, after I lose about 5 pounds it'll fit better! 

And I also got a pretty embroidered tablecloth that is virtually stain free and in good condition, which I'll use for something.  I couldn't get a decent shot of it draped over a table, but it's pretty large and is circular with a scalloped edge.

Belated bday gifts

I accidentally stumbled upon an estate sale near my house on Saturday and picked up some nice things.  Even though the house was practically empty, I managed to find a bunch of things I liked, including an old chest of drawers that is a great future weekend redecorating project (pictures of that later...).

A good sized tin from Brazil, with romantic pictures around it, good for storing craft supplies, since I always seem to have more than I know what to do with

Maps for Barbe for her Wanderlust series

Pretty old (and stained!) napkins for a future sewing project

Another old framed print

I also found out that one of the stores in my neighborhood that I like is closing, so I went in and picked up these great wire baskets.

I also got a little gift from a new acquaintance in France - some postcards of Pau Castle, where Marie Antoinette used to spend her summers, and a little thimble.

I love estate sales

This weekend and last, I made it to two San Francisco estate sales and actually managed to find a few (and affordably priced) things.  Estate sales here are usually pretty cleaned out by dealers and a lot of non-dealers still know their stuff, so getting anything "valuable" is hard but shopping for the occassional piece for myself isn't too bad.

I got....

A petite metal basket ....

...perfect for holding the ornaments I found.  Yes, they're pretty worn, but I like them like that.

If you look, you can see my reflection taking the picture.  Oh well - they're still cute!  I also found some nice ribbon, a cameo buckle and a little rhinestone pin.  Sorry, they're a little hard to see.

These two plates are about the size of small ashtrays.

Lots of buttons in old jars....

I love this vintage Hawaii scarf because my family is originally from the islands (well, at least for the last hundred years or so). I try to collect little bits and pieces of Hawaii nostalgia as I can get it. And I promise to iron it!   

Today, I went to see No Country for Old Men with my friend, Michael, and it was really good, but a little gruesome.  Javier Bardem's character definitely doesn't mind killing people.  Michael and I also discussed a possible new business venture together.  He's a graphic designer and I can barely use Illustrator, but we'll figure something out and make it work.  We're still working out the ideas, but stay tuned for more info.