Show and Tell Sunday: Flea Market Finds!

Favorite Flea Market Find is the Trash to Treasure topic for this week.

It's between my $1.29 Goodwill starfish in glass and my $35 quilt.

The starfish came about this weekend with a stop at Goodwill up north. Nothing fancy, but I love starfish and this was a good "lake thing."

The quilt came from a shop in Michigan years ago. It's not terribly old, judging from the thread, but probably 1960s. Tons of piecing. Machine stitching but very nice and even, unstained (or relatively so) and in good shape!
I collect old quilts. This one is on the cottage guest room bed, waiting for a visitor!

For more flea market finds, visit Heidi's blog and check out the complete list of links!

Show and Tell Monday for Me!

To those visiting for Show and Tell Sunday, I'll be posting flea market finds on Monday night. I'm away on a borrowed 'puter and don't have access to my graphics or photos!

Plus, I'm insanely frustrated that a post I wrote at home to click "publish" today isn't publishing, even though blogger says it is. Argh. Mercury Retrograde.

Maybe I'll skip out and flea a bit today, if I can find anything up here in the north!

Show and Tell Sunday: Trash to Treasure

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have far more trash than treasure -- or at least, trash that I've turned into treasure! (I rather like most of my treasures!)

I suspect as I visit other blogs today, I will discover tons of ideas to keep me occupied this summer (not the least of which will be wildly decorating furniture while I'm at the lake!) (Check out the list at Sugar Sugar!)

These two pieces are actually very nice pieces with a great personal provenance for me, but they were pretty ugly.

This little table was my grandparents, and one of the few things I have from their home. It sits in my hallway with (mostly) old books, including a rather old History of England set.

It had originally been a very dark wood. Then during my "Yellow Period" it was about the color of the brightest, sunniest yellow you could find! It was in the bedroom of my first apartment (also sunny yellow, from the headboard to the yellow gingham spread!).

In the 1990s, my friend Richard -- who had redone more than a few pieces -- helped me with my first refinishing job. And I love it.

(This medallion on the side was less than fun, but isn't it pretty?)

This piece came from our family cottage, which was purchased in 1919 and is now where my cousins come and down the road from mine. I think of it as a special gift from my uncle Martin, who died almost two years ago. I'd asked him if I could have it, and he said yes -- I'm so very grateful, for whenever I see it, I think of him and the rest of my family -- and that's every day!

When stripped, it revealed a few colors -- a Kelly green, a pale gray. It holds my microwave in the kitchen.

I love the door detail!

And the lock is the original.

Well, again, visit Sugar Sugar (Analise) for a list of others with much trash gloriously transformed into lovely pieces!)

The Marmelade Gypsy Helps Mummy Knit -- and other things

I often come home to this.


But sometimes, I see it in action...

This is why I love my orange boy!

"I'm so innocent -- if she didn't want me to play with it, why does she leave it hanging around?"

Looking forward to a weekend of high school open houses, a "Reading Rainbow" contest awards presentation, and playing in a bit of yarn and glue!

Last night I up-potted some plants that I put in far-too small pots, just to get them out of the starter plugs. I knew if I didn't move them up soon, they'd not really work to their potential. (In pots, I'm not sure they ever do, but it works for me.

My herb garden. Very good oregano, sage, thyme, lemon balm and some brand new parsley -- with a rose or two, just for fun.This is the front of the house -- I have basil, fennel, flowers and peppers here.

I have bad clay dirt (and not enough motivation to put in new dirt) so all the annuals go in pots. These are my tomatoes, many of which I up-potted last night.

This will look tidier when the tulip and daff leaves go, but I'm told they shouldn't be cut back. I'll probably put in some geraniums or something in front, just so it doesn't look quite so overgrown, because really, it's not!

I used to have bushes in the wall in front of the house. Last year, big hunky football player Kevin tore them out (I paid him, but I'm not sure I could have ever paid him enough for that -- getting the roots out was awful!). I mulched it over, but put in a few patio stones, so I could have a sitting spot!

I finished "Groucho and Me," a collection of life vignettes from Groucho Marx's life. It's a witty, funny book, especially if you are a fan of vaudeville, old movies and the Marx Brothers.

Now it's on to "The Sisters," which is a saga of the six Mitford sisters. I love just about anything set in England and they had such wildly diverse and controversial lives. It's a thick one -- I'm reading this along with my reading buddy (and old friend) Suzanne in Ontario. She's far ahead of me and I must catch up!

Show and Tell Sunday's theme this week is "Trash to Treasure." I realized I have far more trash than treasure. Well, not quite true -- lots of lovely treasures, but I've had little hand in making them so! Pop by and I'll send you to the link for other sites sharing their creations!

Show and Tell Sunday!

This is the first time I’ve participated on Show and Tell Sunday, which features all sorts of bloggers showing and telling about a specific topic.

For more great sites featuring today’s topic, storage, you can go Little Pink Studio.

For me, storage is a big deal because I have a lot of stuff. In the basement are tons and tons of those big plastic bins everyone has filled with Christmas, Easter and Halloween stuff. Nothing glamorous, but when the sewer backed up, I didn’t lose a lot of stuff.

I thought I’d show how I use some of my other storage strategies…

We’ll start in the kitchen. I love having sets of silverware with bright handles and I only have two drawers, so they go into colorful flowerpots!

My grandma’s old Depression glass jar is great for tea.

In the art space, I use an overabundance of mugs and mason jars for brushes, pens, pencils, scissors, skewers – you name it. Here are a couple of them, along with a painted tin can I like! Behind, you'll tea tins -- I use those for buttons and repurposed jewelry.
(The rest of those pesky pens and brushes are on a lazysusan wedged behind the bulletin board.)

I put small leftover yarn balls in a clear plastic jug from the dollar store. It’s easy to dig in and grab what I want for tag embellishments.

A smaller apothecary jar from the dollar store works for end-of-the-spool ribbons.

The container on the left of the shelf is a metal carrier, which was my favorite purchase at the Artiscape silent auction. It has about eight compartments and I stack ephemera in there, along with other items that don’t really work anywhere else. I love it. (The theme is Casablanca, and the artist did a terrific job!)

And everyone probably has these for embellishments and small supplies.

I put my “currently in use” embellishments in muffin trays.

I have envied Pam Garrison’s closet. Mine isn’t nearly so tidy, and doesn’t merit photographing, but there are a couple of things to see here.

I love the eight-slot hanging sweater dividers for storing smaller papers, booklets, thematic items. The danger is if you overload. I found the Martha Stewart line (K-Mart) to be particularly strong. It’s easy to categorize your items. (Trust me -- this is more organized than it looks, but posting all this reminds me it really is time to revamp it a bit!)

My other favorite storage trick is for paper. I do lots of collage and often buy very oversized sheets, or have odd lengths. I use a pant/skirt hanger and just clip the papers together, then hang them up. They stay pretty fresh that way, and it’s easy to get to them. I’m going in to redo this closet this summer and will probably change to divide the hangers by color.

One of my favorite ways to store tall rolls of paper is in tall wastebaskets and baskets. Some of the tall colorful metal outdoor vases (Target) work, too.

Then there are the ever-popular clear shoe boxes. They're everywhere (some labeled, some not -- but I did buy a labelmaker this week, so by Sunday, who knows?)

Do check out others Show and Tell Sunday ideas! I know I will!