A Sneak Peek

Is it really almost Friday?  Where did the week go? 

On my Nifty Thrifty Tuesday post I announced an upcoming giveaway I was going to have to celebrate my 50th birthday.  I'm still having the giveaway.....50 items for my 50 years.....but bear with me for a couple of more days as I organize and photograph all of the items.  I have had a lot of fun uncovering all sorts of wonderful, vintage items to include in the giveaway but I also underestimated the time it would take to get the giveaway organized.  I promise, it will be worth the wait!

Now I want to give you a sneak peek of a few of the items I selected.  I hope you like them!

An altered bottle I created, a pin-cushion I made using a silver sugar bowl and a snowman I created using a vintage silver salt shaker.  The red book is included too.

A Baby Ben alarm clock, silver dish and a small heart that I created from a vintage quilt.

Addition flashcards from 1959 and a glass flower frog.

A beautiful ironstone platter.

Look at the gorgeous bird and bird nest design on the platter (I'm having a hard time giving this one away).

And pink Shiny Brite ornaments (4)

They look great on the ironstone platter.

OK, there's your sneak peek!!  I'll be back with all of the other goodies and the official "rules" in a couple of days.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing, Memorial Day.

Jane

More Organizing!

Ever since I contacted Karen @ My Desert Cottage to join the "Where Blogger's Create II" party on June 19th I have been on a mission to organize my studio space (no small task!). 

I use a lot of lace and ribbon in my projects and I like to have it easily accessible.  A couple of weeks back I showed you how I was organizing some of the vintage lace I have collected (you can see the original post here).

The lace was wrapped around rulers and paint sticks and placed in a vase on my work station so that I could see what I had on hand when I started a project.  This system was working fine but I ran out of room in the vase for all of the lace that I have collected.  While at a thrift store last week I spotted this large wood spool (14" tall).

           

I added 8 cup hooks to the top edge of the spool....

and then hung the lace covered rulers from the cup hooks.  The spool takes very little space on my work station and it's a great way to quickly see all the lace that I might need for a project.

I think this would also be a great way to hang and organize necklaces too.

I'm linking to two wonderful parties....Jan @ Bobbiepins Boardwalk for Boardwalk Bragfest and Marla @ Always Nesting for Woo Hoo Wednesday.  Thanks to both ladies for hosting these wonderful memes.

Jane

Nifty Thrifty....I'll Soon Be Turning Fifty....A Giveaway

Good Morning!

First, my thanks to Linda @ Coastal Charm for hosting her weekly Nifty Thrifty Tuesday party.  This fun event is a place where we get to show off some of our thrifty finds each week.  It also rhymes with my soon-to-be age so I couldn't resist the opportunity to announce my upcoming giveaway linking to Linda's party....plus the items in the giveaway will all be thrifty items I have purchased and/or repurposed using my thrifty finds.

The giveaway hasn't officially started (you'll see why in the pictures below) but here's my plan:  since I am turning 50 I am going to give one winner 50 items from my stash of vintage, thrifty items.  I haven't picked out all of the items yet but I'll post this Friday picturing everything soneone will win.

So why am I not organized enough to start the giveaway today?

In preparation of Karen @ My Desert Cottage second annual "Where Blogger's Create Party" on June 19th, I decided last evening to rearrange my studio.  Little did I realize what a mess I would create.  Here are a few pictures of  my "treasures" that are still in need of organizing.

See the picnic basket with the white handles in the bottom of the picture?  That is one of the giveaway items and it will be filled with all of the other 49 items.

Here's another picture.  Since my vintage clock collection is getting out of control I think one of those will be included too.

There is a lot of vintage lace in one of those containers....you can guess that some of that will be put in the picnic basket too.

So you can see I have a lot of work ahead of me to get my space ready for Karen's party.  If you're not aware of the event and want to show off your creative space, link over to Karen's blog here.

And be sure and come back on Friday to see what else will be included in the giveaway and to sign up to win. 

And now one last picture of something I found yesterday.  A huge bag of rolled thread and string ($1.00).  I love how it looks in a simple vase.

Happy NTT

Jane

Thrifty Thursday

I had some time during my lunch hour today to do a little thrifting.  One of the items I purchased was this galvanized metal piece.

This piece is approximately 9 inches long x 4 inches wide and it has a rounded bottom.  I don't have a clue what the original purpose of this piece was but I saw it's potential as a ribbon holder for some of my larger rolls of ribbon.

This was a simple project that only required some rub-on letters and a couple of buttons. 

I'm linking with Leigh @ Tales from Bloggeritaville for Thrifty Thursday because this "new" ribbon storage container cost a grand total of $1.00.

Have a great Thursday.

Jane

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Hello!  I hope you all are doing well.
Since I last posted I have celebrated Mother's Day, attended my son's graduation from high school, hosted his graduation party in conjunction with my husband's birthday party, and attended a golf tournament to benefit ALS (my husband was the honoree for the tournament and we were privileged to have dinner that evening with Tom Watson).  My MIL flew back to Ohio on Sunday after a week long visit and today my son got all of his wisdom teeth removed.  The last two weeks have been pretty busy.

I haven't had a lot of time to thrift or create these past couple of weeks but I did use some of the vintage lace I posted about recently to make this little memo board to showcase some vintage sewing notions.

The picture on the board is of my Great-Great Grandparents, my Great-Great Aunt Kate and my Great Grandmother Mamie (the young girl seated).  Since my GG Grandfather was a tailor and my Great Grandmother Mamie did a lot of sewing (including teaching my mother how to sew) I thought it was fitting to showcase their family picture with the vintage notions.  The picture was taken circa 1890.

I'm linking up (a little late) with Linda @ Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday and with Jan @ Bobbypins Boardwalk for Boardwalk Bragfest.  I'm also joining Marla @ Always Nesting for my first Woo Hoo Wednesday.  Thanks to all of these ladies for hosting such great parties.

Hope you are having a great week.
Jane

Graduation Preparation

First I want to say a big "Thank You" to all of you for your concerns about my eye.  The ulcer is almost completely healed and I am feeling much better.  The most difficult thing to endure the past couple of weeks was the sensitivity my eyes had to light.  I spent a lot of time in my house either with my eyes closed or with sunglasses on.  As I mentioned in my post a couple of weeks ago, looking at a computer monitor was nearly impossible so I have a lot of blog catching up to do now that things are pretty much back to normal.

With that being said I am going to be a little bit more limited posting on my blog for the next couple of weeks.  My son is graduating from high school on May 12th and the next couple of weeks are going to be pretty hectic.  This week is his last week of school and we have banquets, award ceremonies and one last band concert to attend in the evenings this week.  Family starts coming in next week and we'll wrap everything up with a big party on the 14th!

I hate to post without a picture so here's a couple of photos of my soon-to-be graduate.  The first one is his first day of Kindergarten in the fall of 1997 and the second one was just a couple of weeks ago before he left for Prom.  I had to laugh when I compared the two pictures.....he still likes to stand with his hands in his pockets!

Enjoy your week.

Jane