Tuesday's Treasures

I had such a great day on Tuesday. I met up with Mr. Crafty World for coffee in the morning, before we had a bank appointment. For once the appointment didn't make my head spin with investment jargon and lingo. Now I actually know what we're doing with our savings, and finally feel in control of it. I decided to head to the bookstore and spent a most delightful hour looking at sewing and craft books and magazines. It's hard to do that when spouses and kids are around. I got some great ideas, mostly from Betz White's new book, Sewing Green, and figured I might as well head on over to the thrift store. It is just across the street you know...

I really had some good luck that day.

I broke my lucite cookbook holder years ago, and have since wanted something a little bit prettier. Prettier usually comes with a price, but luckily for me someone had outgrown theirs:

It's perfect for my kitchen! I don't even have to repaint it.

One of my plants got a much needed new home:

I'm quite sure it perked up after being plunked in here. See my metal plant stand underneath? My dad made it in high school shop class. I can't tell you how many paint jobs it's undergone. Soon it will be time for another one.

I didn't mean to start collecting these, but it just kind of happened. I just love these vintage aprons, and they are practical too. For some reason it seems easier and more casual to tie one of these on than to put the full-covering kind on. I love the purple and green one on the left; it really seems like a first sewing project someone did, using a tea towel and rick rack and piping. I will probably convert it back into a tea towel, because the sewing isn't the greatest.

Lately I have been in love with cheap, pressed glass. Once they're washed up they're so sparkly looking. I bought these two pieces for a couple of dollars; you can see I will be using one of them for practical purposes!

The vintage ornaments came in a bag of mixed stuff. They actually came from the same woman who owned all the cross stitch charts I bought weeks ago, and the tapestry wool and embroidery floss. I know this because there was an ornament with her last name on it in the bag as well. I also know that she passed away at 80 years old before Christmas in a town just north of here. Google can tell you a lot.

I learned the hard way that you shouldn't wash these kind of ornaments with modern day dish soap; it takes the paint off.

My last aquisition, which I almost didn't buy, was this shelf. At first I thought it was for vinyl records, but they don't fit. I need to put a shelf on the top, and most likely paint it. I thought white, but then thought why not duck egg blue? Or soft pinky peach?

What will I use it for? I'm not entirely sure yet. Right now it's housing too many shoes in our front hall. Why did I buy it? I liked the scrolly bits on it. I also didn't want to put it down because a man was following me around the store once I had it. Not in a creepy way, but in that, "If she puts it down I want to be there to look/get it" kind of way. I know because I've done it myself!

What do you think? Plant stand? Cookbook shelf? White? Green? Pink?

On Thursday Mr. Crafty World had the day off. Both kids were in school and it was such a beautiful day. We did a few chores in the morning and played hooky for the rest of the day. We went to our favorite Japanese restaurant for lunch and I convinced him to go to Goodwill, because they were having a 50% off sale. That's another post in itself, and I'm very excited about it. We looked at loungers for outside and had free iced coffee's from Macdonalds. We sat outside and talked about our new purchase, and how we should have picked up the 1960's cabinet when we saw it. We walked to school to collect our Favorite Boy and watched the kids play outside until dinner. We all ate grilled chicken caesar salad for supper and we grown ups enjoyed some lovely cold beer that has been hanging around in our fridge since my birthday. It was just about a perfect day.

Today it's not very warm and quite gloomy. Our Favorite Girl wasn't excited for school and Mr. C.W. had to go back to work. I have a ton of errands to run with My Favorite Boy, so it will be a lot of getting in and out of the car all day long. I think I'll take him out for lunch and then to the library for a book and video, and that will make the day feel a lot more fun.