I think I am in love…

… with this little chair.

You might recognise it from my latest Flea Market Finds and I particularly love it now because it has a gorgeous little cushion to cover the hole in its seat. The cushion is made from an old thrifted scrap from the fabric stash,and backed with a doily from this huge doily haul. I didn’t think I would ever find a use for this orange doily.
But doesn’t it look like it’s made for this cushion and this cushion made for the chair?

I’m also starting to fall for this lamp.

The lamp was owned by my grandparents and a few days ago it looked like this:

Since the lamp is used in Maya’s room, I’d been thinking of redoing the lampshade for a while and, as Sean would say, “pretty it up”.

After removing the old plastic ribbon from the shade, I then recovered it with an old lacey tablecloth that had been hanging around for years.

Since I can’t crochet, I used the edging of a doily from the huge doily haul to edge the lampshade.

I have also lowered the lampshade and now I’m thinking the base might need a lick of paint. But what colour should I paint it? What do you think? I would love to hear your suggestions.

Oh and this is how the other new project I started last week is looking.

I’m still stuffing it.

How’s your creative space this week? I’m heading over to Kootoyoo now to check it out now.

Flea Market Finds

My find of the week is this cute little kids chair. It only cost $1 from a garage sale.

It took over an hour to clean with a toothbrush.

It has come up nicely now.

And most importantly Khye loves it!

Other finds this week include this gorgeous green tablecloth to add to the collection of tablecloths.

Some more sheets and pillowcases to add to the collection of sheets and pillowcases.

Some more doilies to add to the collection of doilies.

A lovely peachy chenille bedspread I plan to use as a quilt backing.

And a basket to store it all in.

But I think the basket may have become Igglepiggle's boat!

Check out Sophie's for more great finds.

Shadow Shot Sunday

We had another gorgeous autumn sunrise this week.

But rather than post more ... of the .. same early morning shadow shots, I thought I would share some fun clothesline shadows.

Pop over to Hey Harriet's for your weekly fix of great shadow shots.

My Creative Space

This week I've been sorting,

matching,

resorting,

and rematching,

my collection of upholstery fabrics. Some are small pieces from sample books and some I have a few metres of. Most are floral. All have been acquired from op shops over the past 15 years.

I finally decided on this combination for my new project - yes another project to add to the long list of unfinished projects.

They're not my favourite pieces of fabric, but I still love them - they're green! I find it difficult to use my favourite fabrics, particularly if I don't have much of it.

I hate cutting into them.

It's a fear of making a mistake and wasting them.

It's a feeling of wanting to save my favourites for something special. I never find that special project and they end up being put away in the cupboard. The only enjoyment I get from them is when I pull them out for some more sorting and matching. I need to overcome this problem. My cupboards are overflowing with favourites.

I did also promise to show pics of my finished pincushion.

I hope my swap partner has received this by now,

'cos she knows who she is!

Head over to Kootoyoo for lots of inspiring creative spaces.

Flea Market Finds

I didn't think I was going to play along with Flea Market Finds this week. My great run of oppy finds over the past ... few ... weeks finally came to an end. Nothing jumped out me saying "buy me, buy me" this week. All I found were a couple of pieces of clothing for Khye and Maya, and this pair of too short jeans in My Creative Space.

Yesterday I had both kids with me so I wasn't planning on going garage sailing, but something told me to drop by just this one garage sale nearby. Boy am I glad I did!

- 6 large pieces of fabric with about 4m in each piece,

- about 15 - 20 crocheted, knitted and embroidered doilies,

- a large embroidered tablecloth,

- and a stack of embroidered, cross stitched and appliqued napkins.

All this for only $5! Bargain!

Oh and they gave Khye this cute yellow teddy who he has named "George the teddy".

Don't you dare call him just "George". No, no, no he is "George the teddy".

What bargains have you found this week? I'm looking forward to checking out the finds over at Sophie's place.

Shadow Shot Sunday

I thought I would be going to the archives for Shadow Shot this week. But in the fading light yesterday arvo, I found these.






Pop over to Hey Harriet's for more shadow shots.

My Creative Space

I need some advice. Yesterday I found some Levi's Red Tab jeans my size and they fit perfectly, except they were too short! TOO SHORT?!?! How can they possibly be too short?!?! I have never ever had this problem before. In fact I have always had to take my pants up! I hate taking pants up which is why I usually buy and wear skirts. Anyway, like I said these jeans were a perfect fit and the price was pretty good too. "Ladies slacks half price" the sign said. That included jeans. So I bought them for all of $2, thinking that I could find some way of lengthening them or if that didn't work I could make shorts for next summer. After rummaging through my fabric stash, I found some paisley corduroy that I sewed as a cuff to the bottom of the jeans.

What do you think?
Do they look okay? Or are they a bit daggy? Sean says I have prettied them up but he doesn't really care. When I tried them on I kinda thought they looked a bit pyjamary. I'm not sure. Would you wear them in public?

What else do I have in my creative space this week? I should have been sewing new spunkee stuff and preparing for the Sugar & Spice Cildren's Market in Woodend in June, but I haven't been doing that.

I did finish an old Work-In-Progress for my grandmother though.

This bird is made from reclaimed wool fabric and I used the pattern I designed for these love birds.

As you can see by the photos, I finished sewing the wings in the car on our long drive up to see my grandmother. Last minute as always!

What else? Oh yes, I packaged up and sent my retro swap parcel - thanks for your very encouraging comments last week,

and yesterday I received my swap goodies,

with a pretty card from Little Wise Owl.

A handy calico market bag and a cute little fabric covered notebook. Thanks Beckie!

Oh and of course my pincushion is finished and will be packaged up and posted today. I'll show the pics next week.

Check out more creative spaces over at Kootoyoo.

A most opportune find!

For the last couple of months I've been thinking about how I would love to get a carpet sweeper, just to pick up obvious bits of mess without the arduous task of dragging out the vaccuum cleaner. I had decided that it was highly unlikely I would find a carpet sweeper at the oppy and that ebay was probably going to be my best bet. I haven't even checked ebay yet, but just look at what I stumbled across at my local oppy this week ...
... a gorgeous red Sabco "Whisk Away" complete with white wooden handle!

Other finds this week are these two beautiful crochet blankets.

I found these for only $3 each in the dog blanket box. I never understand why they put perfectly good blankets in the dog blankets box.

Actually these aren't "perfectly good". They both need a really, really good wash and a bit of TLC. One has blobs of melted wax all over it.
Hopefully I can get it out. Shannon Lush tells me I should be able to. And the other blanket has a dirty great hole in it.

So all you crocheters out there, tell me, is this hole repairable? I'm assuming all 3 rows of grey will need to be pulled out and replaced??? I can't crochet, but I'm hoping I'll learn one day ... or maybe I can get Mum to help me fix it!

Kiera is pretty happy with my finds this week!

I also picked up some great fabric (read pillowcases, tablecloths, and an apron) from a couple of op shops in Violet Town and Beechworth over the weekend.

I also found this beautiful cotton tea towel.

And this very cute linen pot holder with a 1977 calendar printed on it.

Pop over to Sophie's for more great finds!