The Rain is Back

I have good news: Foster has been adopted! Foster has been the recipient of MyPalPeppy's fund-raising efforts for several weeks now, and I'm glad to see this lovely, happy dog has found a new home. Especially since he is a senior dog, and often these older dogs are not as adoptable as younger ones. A special thanks is due to all MyPalPeppy customers--15% of every sale goes to support these rescue efforts. 

Our next little "virtual adoptee" is another senior special needs pom named Nikki:

This is Nikki. Isn't she a beauty?

Someone out there needs this little dog as much as this little dog needs that person! I can attest to the blessing that pets can bring into our lives. God uses them to give comfort, friendship, and healing. I've seen it in my own life, and in the lives of others. 

There was a man with a small business in my community who had a darling little black and tan pomeranian named PJ. This man was a strong Christian, but after a serious car accident, the trauma caused him to fall into a deep depression and have panic attacks. Then his family got PJ for him. He credited that little dog for saving his sanity, and told anyone who asked how the Lord had used that little fur companion in the healing process. Later this good man developed terminal cancer, and once again, PJ was there to help him through to the end, and to comfort the family afterward. 

The love and companionship of a pet has the potential to be a great blessing, which is why I think of Peppy's little Etsy shop as a true Christian ministry. There are many, many ways to show the love of Jesus.

"He prayeth best who loveth best all things both great and small..."

--Coleridge

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Of course, a pressing need right now is disaster relief for the tornado victims in the Oklahoma city area, and we don't want to forget these folks. 20% of the profits from MelmacParadise this month will go to support relief efforts for these families through Samaritan's Purse, so if you've been thinking of purchasing something in the shop, this would be a great time to do so. I've also got a sale on, so there's another incentive. Just type in "BNS2013" at checkout to get your 15% discount. If you're unfamiliar with the work of Samaritan's Purse, you can check out their website here:

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/article/oklahoma-tornado-response/ 

 

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Wet-weather-as-usual is back for us after a remarkably lovely spring season thus far. It's slowing up our woodcutting efforts, but it's also keeping me indoors and making me tackle the gargantuan upheaval I call my sewing room, so it's probably a good thing. I can't work on a single project while my room is piled high with fabric, yarn, patterns, etc. Ghastly job! I can't believe how quickly that room can degenerate into total chaos.

However, I did finish up a couple of tiny projects recently, and I promised to show them to you, so here they are. 

I started with this, originally a vintage letter holder. When I found it, the spring that would have held the envelopes was missing, and since I'd had no success locating another, and since there was a tiny chip in the figurine, I decided to give repurposing a try.

Inspired by the many gorgeous examples on Etsy, I set out to turn this steed into a pincushion. 

 Now I wish I could tell you I did a lot of careful measuring and making of patterns and such, but that would be fantasy. I looked for and found a gold-colored velvet fabric remnant, hacked away at it after eye-balling the cavity on the figurine's back, and hand-stitched a sort of blobby-looking, more-or-less cylindrical cushion, stuffed with a bit of polyfil fiber.

I then wedged it into the cavity, seam-side down, and assessed the fit. You can see the difficulty--there was a decided gap on each end where the spring would have been attached. A little doohickey inside the cavity prevented the cushion from squeezing up tight to the edges. So........

I shelved the project and gave it up as a bad job for a few days. 

It kept gnawing at me, though. Eventually I popped in to the fabric store, saw some nice fat gold braid, and bought a bit to experiment with.

When you use this braid, be sure and tape the cut edges or it frays like mad!

A bit of tweaking and pushing and prodding resulted in what I thought would work. The first piece of braid was cut and attached to the edge with white craft glue. With the velvet cushion wedged in to hold it in place, I let it dry. Then I worked the same magic on the back of the saddle area, put a little more glue in the bottom of the cavity, inserted the cushion, and voila!

 

I now have a fun and presentable little pincushion to keep handy for emergency craft impulses, and to save me from hunting from room to room for my regular old stand-by pincushion, perpetually misplaced.

I had so much fun with this, I decided to try another pincushion. This one was easy; it required merely a small canning jar, a puff of fiberfil, jar lid and ring, and craft glue. 

I put the fiberfil on the lid, covered it with a scrap of cute calico print cloth, pulled it tight and glued down. I trimmed away some of the excess, added the ring, and here is the happy result:

T

This was an idea I'd seen on Pinterest, and it was so simple! It took all of 5 minutes to make. With the fabric glued on, the lid won't screw down as tightly as it originally did, but it still grips and the neat thing about this design is, I can keep other little sewing necessaries in the jar itself.

If I can do this, I know you can! What vintage items have you repurposed? Please share!

I've Declared a Holiday!

It's "Housework Phooey" Day!

Ta-rah-rah-BOOM-de-ay!

I shall go out and play!

It's HOUSEWORK PHOOEY DAY!!

A cool, wet weekend has given way to sunshiny warmth, and I am not going to waste one iota of it doing silly housework. I've been out planting my newly arrived daylilies with great joy and glee, sweet-talking them and heralding great things for their future.

I've got to show you the freebies the different companies sent!

Remember a few posts ago I showed you some of the daylilies I found and purchased from Etsy sellers? You don't? Well, I shall refresh your memory:

http://redletterdaybags.blogspot.com/2013/05/bump-in-road.html 

Anyway, not only did my Phil Reilly (Etsy) daylilies arrive Friday, but also my order from an old favorite firm, Oakes Daylilies. AND, they came with wonderful free daylies as thank-you gifts! I am so jazzed!

First let me tell you about the Phil Reilly order. I had splurged and purchased a newer introduction daylily called Gwendolyn Rose. The fans (as they're called) are huge, very healthy and vigorous and so generously portioned that I actually ended up with a large one to pull away from the main plant to start an extra clump. To my happiness, the seller also included this fabulous and unusual variety as a bonus:

   http://www.philreillydaylilies.com/introductions/2011/category/3-2011

Earlybird Cardinal

Isn't it fabulous? I'm very excited to see this one bloom. I don't have anything else like it. Kudos to Phil Reilly! By the way, I also found out Mr. Reilly has a great video on youtube:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abIFbfHp7m0

I tried to get the link to load up, but couldn't, so you'll have to cut and paste if you want to see it.

All righty! Now for the Oakes Daylilies report. This is a company I've patronized for about three or four years now, and I've had very good experiences with each order. This year I ordered two varieties, Frances Joiner, and Earlybird Cardinal.

Frances Joiner

Frances Joiner I had to have because of its breathtaking pinky-orange glow. These are pricey; I only ordered one. The Earlybird Cardinal I chose for its reported long-bloom period. To quote from the catalog,

 Acclaimed as a breakthrough in reblooming reds, Earlybird Cardinal is among the earliest to bloom, and can rebloom up to 4 times a year, showing 100 days of color or more. Forms an attractive clump covered with plentiful watermelon red flowers. 

Believe me, around here with my short growing season, I need all the workhorse flowers I can get! I bought three of these plants, and each portion had several fans, so I spread them out a bit along my front sidewalk.  

For bonus plants, Oakes sent some real beauties, one of which is fragrant! This is a neat company because they will take into consideration your preferences when sending free plants. Here are the lovelies I received:

"Woodside Romance"
http://www.oakesdaylilies.com/categories/daylilies/products/2487-woodside-romance 

    "Prester John" 
http://www.oakesdaylilies.com/categories/daylilies/products/3175-prester-john

I did report in a previous post that my "Kwanso" daylily order from ArborFieldPlants (Etsy) was also a great success and that company, too, has my enthusiastic endorsement.

http://redletterdaybags.blogspot.com/2013/05/yahoo-back-in-game-again.html

Okay, enough on the computer! I'm back out to do yard work and photograph new Etsy items. Thanks for your interest and your comments! 

Jewelry and Accessory Finds

My latest assault on rummage sales and thrift shops yielded some very pleasing finds, especially in the area of jewelry.

Lately I've been drawn to the enameled floral brooches of the sixties and seventies, and I'm happy to have found these.

Neither is a signed piece, though that doesn't surprise me. I'm not sure many of these types of flowers are signed, though I did acquire a white Sarah Coventry enamel flower brooch recently. Both of these brooches are large, about 3" to 3 1/4" across.

More fun than these were the two little figural brooches I obtained:

My special favorite is the plastic blue deer, and I may decide to keep him. The rabbit is a kick; he has such an annoyed expression! There is no identifying mark on the rabbit, but the deer wears a metal tag which looks like a tiny holy medal on one side, and bears on the back an insignia of a cross atop the letter "M", surrounded by tiny stars. I'm assuming this refers to Mary, the mother of Jesus. I've never run across a pin wearing its own jewelry before!

I was very pleased to find a pretty beaded drawstring bag for $2.00 at a flea market. (I suspect it would have been more if it had been the wife doing the selling instead of the husband!) 

Close-up detail of the beading.

 

 

 
 And now for a bit of presto-chango: The bag is reversible!

Clear and white beads embellish the reverse side.

In my next post, I'll show you the fun vintage plastic items from the sale.

Last night I put together a treasury to promote the BNS ("Buy and Sell") I'm participating in on Etsy. I decided to try my hand at one of those filmy white jobs this time. I'm not overly enamored of them, but they do seem to be all the rage on Etsy. If you want to get a kazillion clicks, you seem to have to make one of these treasuries, though. One of these days I'll have to do a post about these treasuries, and it won't be complimentary! 

Meanwhile, here's my "artsy" effort, such as it is. I couldn't quite bring myself to go whole hog. Check it out if you can, click a few favorites, go to the BNS link, and pass it along...  

   www.etsy.com/treasury/MTUzNDcxMDN8MjcyNDQ3MTEwOA/gentle-thoughts-and-mild

  


 

First, the Toys!

My good Etsy friend Vanessa says that collecting vintage toys lets you relive your childhood, and I believe she's right. Not only that, but there's a kid inside each one of us that never quite left Neverland, so toys have a timeless appeal. Especially, in my opinion, vintage toys!

That's why I'm excited to unveil the first of my happy finds from yesterday's junking jaunt.

Is this a trove or what?!

 

 

The colorful wooden stringing beads and the beautiful blue corduroy doll coat will be staying here to entertain granddaughters, but the other items I will probably be adding to my shops as soon as I can manage to take proper pictures and get them listed.

Now for a closer look at those:

 

This solemn little velvet hand puppet reminds me of the one on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. I think the character's name was Daniel Kitten. (If I'm wrong, my daughter will correct me. She was a great fan of Mr. Rogers. His program was her first experience of television,and she was about five years old, if you can imagine that.) I remember that puppet was cute but the characterization by the puppeteer was particularly sickening. This pretty fellow will, hopefully, not be subjected to the meow-meow-baby talk indignities inflicted upon Daniel Kitten.

 

This is a 1983 Star Wars Ewok character named Wicky. (Interesting coincidence in this house because it's also Wickham's nickname.)
It's in excellent condition and I did some preliminary snooping on eBay's completed listings and see that this toy is one that seems to sell without difficulty. 

Personally I always thought the ewoks were an unfortunate addition to the Star Wars saga. Here were all these galactic battles and bigger-than-life heroes and villains and fabulously-designed spaceships, and in come these talking teddy bears. Yeah, they were kind of cute, just rather out of place. I never could take their roles seriously. I won't miss this guy one jot when he's been sold.

Now THIS is a "Wicky" I can appreciate!

 

I thought I was going to have to get my doll-expert daughter to identify this miniscule miss for me, but I actually managed to track her identity down myself. This is a Uneeda "Tiny Teen" doll from 1967. She's about 5 1/2 inches tall with real eyelashes. She's in fairly good condition apart from her wild, matted hair. It might be fun to make a few tiny outfits for her and then put her up for sale. She's about the size of a Dawn doll, but with a bigger head.

  
Lastly for now, I wanted you to see the detail on this amazing vintage backgammon set. I found it for $1 at a church rummage sale yesterday, and it's in its original box and has all its instructions and other little paper bits. It looks like it's never been used. I'm a big Syroco fan so this fascinates me even though I don't know how to play backgammon. I've no idea of value on this, but it's pretty cool. The manufacturer is the Pacific Game Company. They describe it as a "replica of a rare hand-carved game board that has been molded in a special process that reproduces the finest details of the original". The pieces are very appealing--a glossy, marbled plastic that might be bakelite, though I'm  not sure.

There's lots more to come, and I'll try to share it all over the next few days.

Piled High!

This is just a quick "heads-up" to let you know I have amassed a heap of vintage largesse which I will be sharing with you later today! It was a stellar day of junking yesterday and I have an embarrassment of tacky wonders to show you. Can't wait, but it's going to take a bit of organizing and photographing, so do check back. Meanwhile, enjoy this preview of coming attractions:

 

I Really Should Be Doing Something Productive...

...but a promise is a promise. And I did say I would let you in on one of my most infamous tacky vintage addictions. Plastic flowers.

Yes, it's true. I hang my head in pseudo-shame because I know this is about as low as a vintage junkie can go, but the truth is--I love this fakey stuff! 

I didn't always. I grew up living across the road from a country cemetery, and played there every day with my older siblings and cousins. I was rightly and properly indoctrinated by those whose worldly knowledge was much more informed than my own that plastic flowers were trashy. I sniffed in disdain at the graves which had been so decorated. Bad taste!

Then, as has so often happened in my life journey, one day I suddenly saw these cheap, hokey dimestore horrors in a new light. I decided they were only an embarrassment if I allowed them to be, so I began amassing plastic bouquets and showering them about the house with abandon. I have a big boxful of vintage plastic flowers and from time to time, I trade them out to put on display. Claudia has been a plastic flower fan even longer than I have, and we do a bit polite skirmishing over the ones we find at thrift shops and in free boxes at garage sales. 

Here then, are a few examples.

These roses hang beside my sewing machine and cheer me on gloomy Pacific Northwest days.

(See close-up above.)

 

 

A Syroco wall pocket holds these flowers over my desk. The blue ones are quite unusual.

You've seen these before, but here they are in more detail. These are arranged in an old TV planter lamp.

These sit on the mantle in our kitchen. The bachelor's buttons are another 'hard to find' plastic variety.

In an old California pottery planter on top of the piano I display this tiny spray.

 

 
They also feature frequently in some of my Etsy shop photos, such as these:

 
   www.etsy.com/listing/101624456/i-love-the-flower-child-ceramic-vase

I love that photo. I'd like to have it made into greeting cards, I think. So wonderfully green and bright! 


 www.etsy.com/listing/124219965/vtg-miniature-ballerina-doll

 www.etsy.com/listing/124218220/basketweave-cream-pitcher-in-harvest

Same flowers, different item.

Well, enough True Confessions. Next time I'm going to share something I've actually made. It's been a while since I've completed anything crafty, so I'm looking forward to showing you, even if it is a pretty simple affair.

Oh, the BNS sale is still on. You don't have to be an Etsy shop owner to get in on the sale. You can use my coupon codes at checkout for 15% off in either MyPalPeppy or MelmacParadise.
You can find the codes at the BNS:
www.etsy.com/treasury/MTIwNjI0NjB8MjcyMTg2NzI1NQ/openrefreshed-lnq-bns-total-sales-1237 

or go to my shop pages and look at the announcement on page 1.   

 

A Quick Note

Yeah, right...

No, really! I will be brief, I promise.

Over the weekend I discovered that the new camera sucks the juice out of batteries quicker than Popeye swallows spinach, so today I dashed to town for a battery recharger and a supply of rechargeable batteries. Right now the first pair are still charging (about 6-7 hours per pair is what it takes) so I won't be posting much in the way of photos or adding new items to Etsy until tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a rainy day kept us pretty well tied to the house, so I asked my son to come up with a new shop banner for MelmacParadise. I told him I wanted something that wasn't formal, but rather would let buyers know I gear the shop mostly to the kitsch and the offbeat.

Well, he did. He certainly did. So, for the time being, I have a bizarre new shop banner. Feel free to check it out.

www.etsy.com/shop/melmacparadise