Salvage, fleas and various other goodies...

The last day spent in the Saluda/Tryon area of North Carolina last week my mom and I headed into Tryon to go to a place that advertised itself as a warehouse of salvage and other such goodies. Neither my mom nor I have ever met a termite-eaten, flaky-paint-covered piece of anything that we didn't like, so we thought it sounded like a great place to spend a little money and a lot of time.

Turns out, the salvage end of things required quite a hefty bit of money, so all we did there was browse. The owners obviously travel to Europe and South America quite often, and bring home some fabulous pieces of buildings and furniture items to share with Wealthy Vacationing Americans. That term doesn't describe anyone that was on the trip last week, so we just admired. I was really wishing I could spring for the antique French bottle racks they had - those A-frame shaped ones that are hinged at the top - but they were over $400 each if I remember correctly. Maybe it was $200... in any case, they were more than my limit of $25 so they stayed put.

We did, however, do very nicely in the flea market that was adjacent to the salvage place! The actual flea market was pretty much like every other flea market... some dishes, some linens, some crap, some old books, lots of record albums... But then my mom needed to find a bathroom, and we found the mother-lode.

In the back of the building, beyond the booths and organized stuff, were piles and piles of stuff that had been picked up, it seemed, at estate sales and office liquidations, and whatever other kind of sales that would garner a person a dozen or so filing cabinets of different vintages, some professional dishwasher parts, and stacks of child-sized school desks. There was a whole lot of stuff we didn't even bother to try to look through (or couldn't reach) but I came away with a roll of vintage upholstery trim, a dozen or more wire frames to some sconce shades, half-a-dozen little brass keys, three small shutters, a couple of wooden turned posts to make candle sticks out of, small antique bottles - 4 for a dollar - and I'm sure there is something I'm forgetting. It was a great haul. I didn't get the sheets I found, but they were just overpriced - I'm used to paying pennies for sheets and pillowcases at local thrift stores, so paying $5 for a pair of cases would have been against my nature.

Now I have to get busy. I have two craft fairs to attend this fall, and need to decide what, exactly, I'm going to sell. I'm thinking that the Snowfolk are a no-brainer - especially at the October fair in Bella Vista. But I'm also going to make stacks and stacks of fabric drink coasters and some smaller hip bags. I have too much fabric not to make it pay off now. No more buying, lots more selling!!!

Mama's got a brand new bag!

A friend of mine just had a sweet little baby girl, after having two boys. As you can imagine, she chucked all ideas of buying gender-neutral clothes and went for the pink!

When I found out a few months ago she was having a girl, I told her I'd put together a diaper bag made from some of the lovely vintage fabrics I've got in my piles. She picked out some fabrics, and I put them aside to work on... Miriam was born two weeks ago, and I finished the bag today. I never guaranteed her a delivery date, thank goodness.

The main part of the bag is made from a Tommy Hilfiger sheet, the bottom part is a vintage curtain and they have a little trim of white in between. The "flowers" are cut from a felted wool sweater, the leaves are bits of linen tablecloth and vintage fabric samples, and the strap is another sheet. Vintage buttons finish it out, and it's lined with a vintage pillowcase.

I also made a matching changing pad out of a pink hand towel I picked up at a thrift store. The beauty is that all of this can be machine washed. The sheets and towel have been washed before, of course, and I washed the curtains and sweater as well. Easy!!

I really like the way it turned out. I would love to do more things like this, using different combinations of fabrics. I think I'll post pics of this one in my Etsy shop and advertise that I'll let people pick their fabrics for a truly custom bag.

Weird Sale - Great Goodies!

The other day I ran across a yard sale where a guy was selling quite a bit of old furniture and yard items. I got a metal glider and a couple of metal chairs for my mom to go on her patio. When I went back to pick them up with Hubby, the guy invited us to go through his house to see if there was anything else we might be interested in. Oh my god, was that interesting.

This guy is a hoarder. He had boxes and boxes and piles and piles of stuff in every room of his house. I mean EVERY ROOM. There were 78 rpm records from the 40's (Tex Ritter!), collections of brass instruments, assorted "see no evil" monkey figurines... And a whole lot of junk to go with the cool stuff. We quickly decided we couldn't do the monumental task of actually looking at everything justice (plus, Hubby doesn't like digging through people's stuff, even when asked to do so), so we left. But I vowed to return!

The next day my mom and I went back prepared to scrounge. After two-and-a-half hours of going through every box that looked interesting (and that we were capable of getting to), and surveying all the furniture in the house, we came away with a few things. I ended up with a little box of sewing notions, some costume jewelry, a few vintage ties, a nice Haeger pottery bowl, a ton of vintage buttons, an old crocheted doily, a milk glass jar, and some old cabinet door handles. I also have two large cabinet doors and two small ones in the garage waiting to be repurposed. I tell you I don't know how that guy has managed it, but he doesn't have any place to sit in that house. Really - now that I'm thinking about it... there are no empty chairs. Weird.

There was quite a bit more stuff I would have taken, but just don't need right now. But, I know where he lives...

ME!?? Unimportant!!!???

One of my blogging and crafting heroes, Casserole, has tagged me with the challenge of sharing 6 unimportant things about myself. This could be difficult, since I'm such a narcissist I probably will believe anything I think of to be of HUGE importance. But I'll give it a shot. (Yes, that's my tongue in my cheek)

1. I wear a size 8.5 or 9 shoe, and they grew from a size 8 after I had my first child. I would have preferred that my boobs stayed bigger, but no one asked me...

2. I have a thing for men with dark hair and goatees. I just realized this after seeing Iron Man and drooling all over myself for Robert Downey, Jr. I already had a thing for the jello-knee-inducing Johnny Depp. Thankfully, Hubby meets my requirements for desireability.

3. There are some things I just have to pay brand-name prices for: Jif peanut butter, Kraft mac and cheese, Coca-Cola products, and Cottonelle t.p. Perfection just can't be duplicated.

4. I was named after a street in a southern California town where a great aunt lived. (Laurie Lane), and the gypsy woman sharing a room in the maternity ward with my mom (Michaela).

5. I hate licorice and cream corn. Seperately, not together - although that would be nasty too... I'll eat just about anything else, though. Unfortunately.

6. The first car I bought myself was a 1987 Toyota Tercel. Steel blue metallic. I guess if I still had it, it would be vintage and I could sell it on Etsy.com. Not in the handmade area, of course - I'm sure someone would report me to the admins.

I'm going to tag my brothers, Brian and David, and a couple of my favorite bloggers - Marcy and Fria.

Vintage lamps!

I'm in love with vintage lamps, and I feel an obsession blossoming in my gut like a craving for chocolate covered almonds or an infatuation with - who else!? - Johnny Depp. (although R.D. Jr. is running a close second for my crush right now...)

I picked up a couple of fantastic wooden lamps quite a while back, and promptly stuck them out in my garage because I have no idea what to do with them. They have bamboo trim, and a criss-cross pattern of thatch. VERY tiki room!! I would love to use them in the house, but I've already resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to find a lot of fabulous things in my hunts and rummaging, but some of it will have to be treasures found for others. Hence the business, right??

Last week I broke down and bought a couple of incredible turquoise lamps from the 1960's at my favorite thrift store, Samaritan Shop, in Springdale. They were a steal, and apart from needing a little new wiring (for safety's sake) they are pristine. One is going to go to work with me for my desk, the other one may be held onto for retail use later. I found a little shade to go on the one I'll keep and need to get it re-vamped. It's got a hand-sewn silk cover, but some hideous trim. The trim will come off, and I'm thinking of painting the silk, or dying it somehow.

Oh, it's fun to have a new object of my affection.

Blah...

It's been a few weeks now since the craft fair my sister and mother and I participated in, and I haven't even touched my sewing machine since that weekend. It's not that I've been too busy, really. I have had plenty of evenings available, I just haven't wanted to make anything.

Maybe it's because I only sold one bag at the fair. I was pretty discouraged, and frustrated - I thought that they were great (I know they are great) but am not sure why no one else feels that way enough to pay for one.

Or maybe I'm just so busy learning my new job and getting all that part of my brain up and running again, that I don't have any synapses left for creativity. Probably, it's a combination of the two. My lack of space on my inner hard drive feeds my feeling of frustration and I shrug my shoulders and say to hell with it. Admitting I have a problem is the first step to recovery, right?

Hopefully it will pass. I can't just let those stacks and stacks of fabric sit there forever...

Craft Fair vs. Swap Meet

When I was growing up my grandparents had a booth at the War Eagle Mill craft fair here in NW Arkansas. Grandpa was a cabinet maker and sold beautiful cedar chests, quilt racks, spice cabinets, rocking horses... to name a few. Grandma painted many of the things he made with her incredible tole painting. Both of them were primarily self-taught artists, but their talent was such that they shipped their items all over the world to people who bought them at the fair.

Lately, I've watched a trend that I'm not happy with at the craft shows I've attended. There are booths full of items that are NOT handmade, and sometimes, not even crafts or art of any kind. This was the case last weekend at the Spanker Creek Farms show that my sister, mom and I participated in as vendors.

I could probably count on one hand - MAYBE two - the number of vendors who actually made the items they were selling themselves. Now, granted, the application for this show did not require that the items be handmade. But they did say they didn't want the booths to look like flea market booths. So, that specification makes me wonder why there were vendors at the fair selling SUNGLASSES!!?? Or - my personal favorite - 400 count "Egyptian Cotton" sheet sets. In plastic zipper bags. What the....???

I mean, I've come to terms with the people who sell relishes and soup mixes, and the ones who buy canvas bags and tee shirts and use their pricey machines to sew monograms and cute little sayings on them... but sheets and sunglasses were pushing my buttons. There was a woman across from us who was hand-lettering wooden signs to be hung over your tiki bar or on the outhouse door, but at least she was putting paint on something, even if she didn't make the signs herself!

Needless to say, the crowd was horrible, and our sales followed... we won't go back there next year, even to shop. Am I wrong to fantasize about arts and crafts fairs that ARE what they SAY they are??? Come on! We have to get back to honoring the roots of our craft... pass these swap meets up and seek out the legitimate handmade fairs - it will be worth it.