thrifty sunday: you are my sunshine

Friday was great: playdate replete with teeny tiny cupcakes and on the way home, a surprise meet-me-for-lunch message from one of our best gals who was breezing through town on her way south. After some rice and beans and a margarita, I stopped into Goodwill to look around, blatantly milking my baby-free afternoon for all it was worth. 

Three treasures came home with me, totaling $9 and some change. Considering I would've paid a lot more for just one of them, I feel like I scored. 

1. Little wooly vest for George, for when he's feeling like a cultural anthropologist: 

The middle section of the vest is not symmetrical; this detail eluded me until just now. Anyway, I feel like he needs a graying pony tail and some hornrims to really complete the sensitive adjunct professor look.

2. Amazing homemade wallhanging that immediately went up in our bedroom:

It's pretty big, like maybe 18 inches by 18 inches, and fits beautifully on the wall that I often wake up facing. I've tried several other pieces of art there, and nothing ever worked. Clearly, the wall was biding its time until I found the perfect piece.

3. The sweetest ever, can-you-believe-someone-got-rid-of-this crewel work wallhanging:

I have my suspicions that the same person is responsible for both this and the above piece, and if that is indeed the case, I would like to call this woman (assumption, sue me) up and thank her from the bottom of my homemade-loving heart. This one is a little smaller -- maybe 9 inches by 14 inches -- and the lines are sort of wonky, but that only adds to its charm. As with a lot of things that I find at thrift stores, I wonder how someone saw fit to give this away. I imagine it being lovingly worked on after bedtimes by a long-haired lady in high waisted jeans, then hanging in a nursery circa 1978. I figured that it would be expensive, considering its awesomeness/similarity to something one might find at Urban Outfitters, but I turned it over to see the price, which said $3.99! Easily one of my all-time favorite thrift purchases.

Happy shopping and happy week, you guys!

nooks and crannies

For Christmas, Nathan's parents got me a bias tape maker. Forever, I've had one of those fiddly ones you use with an iron and I never make any bias tape because I wind up with burned fingers and a wonky finished product. Well, not any more. Sort of. I used my present for the first time last night, to finish a little quilt, and I definitely need some practice but it worked much better than the old method, plus it took about a millionth of the time.

Using this sweet book, Scandinavian Needlecraft, for inspiration (I wasn't up to copying the embroidery pattern and using carbon paper or whatever), I made a little light blanket to fuel my dreams of moving into a house that has nooks and crannies in which to snuggle and sleep. Just look at this picture and see if you can imagine a nicer spot to wake up in the morning:

Of course you cannot.

The green and blue pictured is lovely, but I had some peach gingham in the garage.

And some blue pique shirting, and some dark, sagey green flowers.

See, I told you I needed some practice. But, infinitely better than storebought.

Already used for snuggling.

And abandoned for play.