30 days of beauty, day 15: little things

Many little beautiful things this weekend:

The first tag sale of the season:


Candlelit coffee and a long chat with a good friend, during "earth hour":


My baby's first pigtails, for a birthday party today:

(Thanks, Tim, for taking this one!)

Time to build an addition on the house...

...to house all the books! Yesterday was my all-time favorite book sale at a nearby library. I've become a "friend of the library" so that I can get in to this one on the first night, because their children's section is amazing. When I got there, I was the only one in that room, despite the hoards elsewhere going around with their dealer's scanners. (How fair is that?) It took me more than an hour to go through all the picture-book boxes. Then I checked out the other areas, finding lots of great stuff in the science and nature section.

Some of my finds:

Many "Golden Guide" identification books: insects, trees, birds, rocks and minerals, insect pests, mammals, flowers, seashore, pond life. We had these when I was a girl, so partly it's sentimental, but I really love them. They're manageable--just enough info, just the right size to fit in your pocket or field bag.

Many books I'd added to my wish list after reading about them on Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves (one of my favorite blogs). Some include:
Fierce the Lion
Tim Tadpole and the Great Bulfrog
Fly High Fly Low
The Sky was Blue
and who knows how many others?

This is one of the best sales I know for finding vintage children's books (lots of library discards). I found so many new-to-me books by favorite authors and illustrators such as Don Freeman, Roger Duvoisin, Leonard Weisgard, Munro Leaf, Brian Wildsmith, Charlotte Zolotow, and on and on. Off to catalog them all on my librarything.

A little treat for me

When I was little, my mother sewed many of our clothes. She once made me something out of this seersucker fabric--a dress? a skirt? I can't remember. What I do remember is that I took a piece of the scraps and used it for my first-ever sewing-machine project: a pincushion. Apparently, the sewing machine was set up with black thread--and I didn't change it, or hand-sew the open side. All the same, I was proud of this pincushion and have used it all these years for sentimental reasons.

But it has its flaws (beyond the aesthetics). The pins poke through to the other side--often my lap--and if a cat knocks it on the floor, they fall right out.

The other day, I saw the perfect solution. Egg-cup pincushions! For some reason, until I saw this tutorial, I never understood the reason behind pincushions-in-a-container, besides being cute. (Mostly, I'd been turned off by some that were too cutesy for my taste.) But I suddenly realized maybe this wouldn't get caught up in the fabric and get dropped off the ironing board or sewing desk all the time! Maybe the cats wouldn't see it as the perfect toy! And, not only that, but for some unknown reason, I was recently compelled to buy a set of turquoise egg cups at a tag sale, despite the fact that I don't eat soft-boiled eggs. Clearly, it was meant to be.

This tiny little project was just right for me this week, as I've been feeling crummy with a cold and lack of sleep. I broke into my gifted vintage fabric, added some vintage buttons, and made these. One for by the sewing machine, one for the floor or the ironing board, or wherever I am. Maybe they'll inspire me to get to some real sewing this week. Lucy's got a new sweater that's begging for a skirt...

Orange biography mystery, solved at last

This weekend was one of our favorite annual book sales. I maneuvered myself, Lucy in the sling, and my two rapidly-filling tote bags through the crowd around the children's book table, and then all around the room, and came away with a lot of treasures! I didn't find as many picture books as usual, but I got a bunch of good books for the future. (I justify my book hoarding because "it's our children's education!)



These were my most exciting find. When I was in elementary school in the 70s, I read every one of a series of biographies in my school library. I remember their orange covers. I remember where they were on the shelves. I remember loving them. But I haven't been able to remember what they were! I finally figured it out when I spotted these and recognized them instantly (under those dust jackets are the orange covers). They're from the "Childhood of Famous Americans" series. Now I remember that what was so engaging about them was that they were about kids, and you got to see what made them into the adults they were to become. I'm excited to get reacquainted with them and see if I still like them as an adult. If so, I'd love to collect more of them for our children.

I also found two other 1970s books that I would have loved had I known of them back then (who am I kidding? I love them now!).

The first is Kids are Natural Cooks, which was written by a parent-coop nursery school. It perfectly suits the way our family cooks now--it's organized by seasons, emphasizes whole foods, and teaches children how to make things (yogurt, sprouts, even gelatin) from scratch. And--how cool is this?--they set up a table of ingredients for the kids, let them choose what they wanted, wrote down the recipe they created that way, and then cooked up their concoctions. Some of the yummier creations ended up as recipes in the book. Awesome. I've got to do that some day.

The other one is Miss Patch's Learn-to-Sew Book. This book makes it look so easy, and yet doesn't talk down to kids. In fact, by the end, she's got them sewing doll clothes and even clothes for themselves from patterns they've drafted! I needed this book long ago!

There's more...lots more. But those were the ones that really thrilled me.

Doo doo, doo doo, doo, doo, doo doo doo doo doo...

I am loving...



...my "new" $1 tag-sale percolator, bought to replace my dead Mr. Coffee. We have made a commitment not to buy new unless absolutely necessary, so I was very lucky to find this shortly after our coffee pot quit.

The coffee's good, it's hot all day long, and this pot's much prettier on my counter; what more could you want? Sometimes, I really wonder why on earth we think newer is better.

(That title? It's the 1970s commercial jingle that runs through my head every time I think about percolators. I don't remember the brand, just the ditty. Do you? It's bugging me that I can't remember.)

Lucy's stool

Several years ago, I picked up a hideous stool at a tag sale. I sure hope it was free, because boy, was it ugly. Here's the sort-of "before:"



The actual "before" included filthy yellow-and-brown shag carpeting used as upholstery. I had to get that off of there fast--too fast for a photo shoot!

It's been sitting around, naked, for quite a while now. And then when spring rolled around and the weather warmed up, I took it outside and spray-painted those legs red to match her room. That's when the stall hit: I never upholstered it, because no fabric I tried was the "perfect" fabric for her room.

But a few weeks ago, Lucy began pulling to a stand on any available handhold. And this week, she discovered the naked stool, tucked under the bedside table in her room. Whenever we're in there (it's "her" room, but she doesn't actually live there yet; just stores her stuff in there), she crawls right over and pulls to a stand. So it was clearly time to get the job done. Last night, I decided "perfect" was never going to happen. I pulled out several choices of fabric, and finally settled on a worn-out piece of chenille bedspread--far from perfect, but lovely in its simplicity. And really, how hard is it to re-upholster a stool? When perfect comes along, I can just change it!

Lucy promptly fell over while testing it out, and was too sad to demonstrate her awesome standing skills for the "after" photo. She was willing to pose atop it, however. I think she likes it.

Independence Days challenge, week 20

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something: No.
2. Harvest something: Eggs. Good King Henry, swiss chard, kale, chives (sounds like a bunch, but we're talking enough to make one meal of "green eggs" for the kids. But hey, it's something grown in my own very shady yard.) Chocolate mint, sweet cicely, bee balm, thyme, False Solomon Seal berries.
3. Preserve something: Elderberry tincture. The blueberries that were dehydrating last time I wrote turned out to be 1 1/2 qts. dried. Froze 5 1/2 lbs. cauliflower, 3 lbs broccoli. Dried red clover. Canned 8-1/2 qts pears, 4 1/2-pints pear butter.
4. Waste not: Made 3 diaper covers from thrifted, holey wool sweaters. Made a dish scrubber from some mesh bags lemons came in (we eat only local produce...with the exception of lemons. I couldn't give them up in my tea! I'm trying to grow a potted lemon tree, but so far, it's produced nothing.) Made the pear butter from the cores and peels left over from canning pears.
5. Preparation and storage: Last week I forgot to mention that I went to a great tag sale where I got a $1 percolator to replace our broken drip coffee maker, a 16-volume children's encyclopedia, and a manual typewriter (for use with the kids in my program now; for homeschooling later). This week, I went to a wonderful sewing-supplies sale, and got some fabrics which will become clothes for Lucy. I also forgot to mention buying 3 rain barrels a few weeks back. This week, I added 3 boxes salt to storage. The shelves are slowly, slowly starting to fill in (see photo above), although we're still far behind where we should be at this time of year.
6. Build community food systems: As we canned this week, my friends kept asking whether the families in my program realize just how much time I put into food preservation for their kids. They don't, really. But thinking about it made me think about the impact of feeding our family plus 8 other kids a week. I love, for example, that when the kids polished off the bowl of blueberries I gave them for lunch this week and I said there were no more, they asked "Why? Did you save them for the winter?" Yeah, I did. And I love that at 4, they know that and think of it as normal. It is their normal.
7. Eat the food: We ate a lot of eggs this week: green eggs with the kids, a great frittata with veggies from our friend's garden. And we've been gorging on the peaches and pears we picked.

Home Sewer's Exchange

Ok, let's ignore the fact that we spent 6 hours in the ER last night and didn't get home until 2 in the morning with our poor, pitiful red and blotchy baby. (Allergic reaction? Virus? It's still unclear. But she's in good spirits, and we're in wait-and-observe mode.) We're going to move on to happier things, stopping every few seconds in the writing of it to watch her play and wonder in awe at her amazing disposition (she was still making friends with everyone in the ER at 1 in the morning...)

So, today, when Lucy seemed to have made it through the night ok and she and Andi were all set to spend the morning in bed, I left briefly to go to the annual "Home Sewer's Exchange" at a church around the corner. Why, oh why, have I never gone before? For some reason, I thought it would be cheesy sewing crafts for sale, or maybe for trade; I couldn't quite figure it out. But this time, they'd added a big new banner to the front of the church, shouting out "fabric! notions! patterns!" Oh, my gosh--2 full rooms; tables and tables; and church-rummage-sale prices! Look what I got:



I grabbed a bundle of sewing magazines, not sure what they were, but for 25 cents a bundle, how could I pass them up? (All the other sewing ones got snatched before I could get to the pile.) And I chose some bits of fabric, trying to be careful not to go wild grabbing everything. Do you see those prices? Some were a dime. Some were a quarter. One was a big "splurge" at $2.

I liked how these two looked together. Maybe a top and bloomers for Lucy? Or maybe two layers of a tiered skirt? 60 cents!



A pile of miscellaneous who-knows-what-for:



This one's heavy, and I envisioned it as pants for Lucy. Then later I thought maybe a jumper would be cute. Maybe I could squeeze out both?



And those embroidery patterns! Oh, what joy when I found those! The woman at that table said, apologetically, "I want a dollar for those; does that seem fair?" Fair? It feels like I'm ripping you off! I'm hoping I'll find some time to do some of these this winter.




I can hardly wait for next year's sale! In the meantime, I'm going to go rock my sick baby to sleep.

Small treasures

I chanced upon an estate sale this weekend. There was a sort of a sewing ottoman that opened to reveal a heap of tangled sewing notions, for $25. Too steep for me, and I didn't have room for it. But I dug through and found a few things I wanted. They let me have just my little pile, enough to make me feel I'd walked away with treasure.

The red-white-and-blue elastic begs to be part of Lucy's next 4th of July outfit. The big button will be perfect for a bag someday. The others? We'll see...

Muumuu to Skirt

Before:


At one of the first tag sales I went to this season, I spotted this muumuu peeking out from a box of ugly old clothes. I've been reading a lot of wardrobe refashions lately, and have been inspired to look at fabrics, rather than whole garments. I knew this could be cute, and for 50 cents, I couldn't pass it up!

At home, I studied it a bit closer, and discovered that it was handmade. Perhaps it was already a refashion--a sheet remade as a dress, maybe? I also discovered that it had pockets; bonus! I cut off the top, added an elastic waistband, and voila! New skirt. I love it. Easy, comfy, cute, big pockets...the perfect preschool-teacher garment.

After:

Another woman's trash...

P1010001
Originally uploaded by mcghol

I went tag-sale-ing yesterday and found sewing treasure. A green linen table runner at one sale--what might it become? And then, at another sale so puny it almost didn't seem worth getting out of the car, I found three cute prints--maybe a quarter to a half yard each--for a grand total of $1. Yay! I love that blue floral print. And it's super cute with the red polka-dot. A dress for Lucy?