Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Flea Market Finds…Friends…Fun

Sunday we headed to our favorite Flea Market and are always on the lookout for Pewter…I normally can find one piece at least.

Well this time there was a table full – 18 pieces actually but I only bought 4…now that might have been a mistake because all 18 pieces WERE ONLY $10.00 total.

I took 4 – I just didn’t need the rest (well, I didn’t need these either, but it was a have to have kind of thing) and thought I’d only have to find someone to buy them…so I left them. Sorry afterwards!!!   But the girls said they have more packed away and that their mother collected it and they’d find it and send me pictures…I’m waiting anxiously.

So here’s my little 4 piece stash – A domed Butter Dish, Creamer, 2 Wine Goblets all for a dollar each.
And the gorgeous  Crock for only $8.00
Pewter and crock

I love the dark coloring on the crock and will put some Fall things in it and that will make the colors pop even more.  Later in the season I’ll change it out and use it for kitchen utensils.
Stoneware crock

And the butter dish up close
Butter Dish 

And the goblets on the Pewter table
Pewter Wine Goblets

And some nice Pineapple napkins for .25 cents!

 Pineapple Napkins

I don’t think I mentioned that the week before we went to another flea market and I found this antique crock bowl with wire bail handle – never seen one in this good of a condition and I paid just $5.00 for it

Bowl 1 

Using it for our fresh Tomatoes right nowTomatoes in blue blow 

pcdividergcg
  So last week Thursday we met our friends from Arizona for breakfast – we meet them every year while they’re back in Wisconsin visiting their children and on their way home – this year it was at the Cracker Barrel.
Emily and Joe are with us on Thursdays in the Summer so this is the 2nd year they went with us.

Joe had quite a plate full of Apple French Toast and Bacon – Emily had Oatmeal and a muffin and Apples.
Em and Joe before
Guess he was pretty hungry because there was only one slice left plus a few apples!
Joe finished

Then it was photo shoot time…Mare never gets together that she doesn’t take pictures. She wanted pictures of the kids with us to see the growth – and there was a huge spurt from last year to this.
Here’s last August
Us and kids
And this August
Us with em and joe 2

And Mare and Me.
Karen and Mare

4 of us
The 4 of us

Group
All of us 2 

Didn’t realize I had this many pictures for this post – but sometimes words just get lost…so I guess that’s okay.

Mare had a special order for me on my Pansy/Watering Can design…she wanted Burgundy thrown in and also in an oblong so this is what I ended up doing.

Mares Pansy Runner 
I really like how the Burgundy made the other colors pop – it’s on the small Penny as well.
Mares Pansy Runner closeup

pcdividergcg

Almost forgot – I am doing the LITITZ CRAFT SHOW next August…I’m very excited but skeptical at the same time…this is a big show and I got rid of all my ‘show’ things – no displays left – NOTHING…so now I have to plan.  And buy a pop up canopy. I saw one at Sam’s Club…PERFECT with screen sides and an front awning – great for winds or rain but I think they are for a limited time – all the other ones I have seen are just the awning tent and you buy the extras separate. Not sure what to do there. If only I could rent one!
So that has my brain reeling – figuring out what to make and how much of it to make.pcdividergcg

I’m in the process of making dried Green Bean/dried Cranberry garlands – because you know I don’t have enough to do!!!!  I bought 2 lbs at the flea market last week and now it doesn’t look like enough to make several….and the farm stands around here well, they aren’t cheap. These were so I was spoiled!
I’m also going to experiment with maybe dried Green Bean/Sweet Potato garlands too. See which I like the best.  If they turn out I may sell them at the show.

pcdividergcg

Fall is in the air – I’m so happy!  I’m a cool weather person and Tuesday (right after Labor Day) we are heading up north to camp with some friends. They maintain the camp ground all summer and then stay one for a couple weeks past Labor Day so we should have a good time with pretty much the camp ground to ourselves.  They have a large motor home but they don’t hook up to electricity so the mornings and evenings will be a tad cool but hopefully we’ll take enough warm clothing and by 10 or 11 the sun has warmed up the air considerably.

pcdividergcg

Be happy and safe whatever it is you are doing this week…for me it’s sewing!  Thanks to all my wonderful followers and website followers I have had a huge sale on my Fall Mr. Jack and the Triple Pumpkin Penny Rugs…looking at all of them sitting here it looks like my pumpkin patch is becoming overgrown! 

ENJOY,
Karen

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Hello dear friends…

I think Fall is finally looking to come around soon!
The morning and evening air is wonderful with 50+ temps
so nice for sleep and then getting the day started.
Hope you are having great weather too – it was certainly
a hot and stormy Spring and Summer that’s for sure.

I’ve been trying to stitch orders and design
some new Fall designs but it’s slow going.

I did make a Whimsical Mr. Jack Penny Mat
And to my surprise they are selling fast…I put them on my
site on Friday and I can’t keep up!!!
You can click on the sidebar picture to the left
and it will take you to the page.
Jack Mat 1

And then there’s one of my favorites…
Roly Poly Snowman…again you can
find this on my website

Snowman runner website
Better look of design
Snowman runner closeup website

Last week I saw the most incredible Dragon Fly – never seen one like this before have you…I’ve seen them with plain or solid wings but never ones like this.

I took the first one and the wings didn’t show up enough so Doug held up a piece of paper on the inside of the screen – anyone seen one like this???
- view from his underside-

 dragonfly 2

dragonfly 1
Front
DSC04144

I meant to say a huge Thank You back in July to a good friend from PA,
Linda and I met a few years back…long story but we have
been friends since even though we only see each other probably
once  a year – well she had sent me some beautiful gifts for
Christmas and for my birthday in July…

This is a darling casserole dish and when I first met her
she brought along a beautiful set of chafing dishes.
All of these are the Temp-Tations line from QVC.

I love the cheerful Sunflower designCasserole dish 2

Casserole dish 1

At Christmas she sent these darling snack sets – which I use often.

Snack Set

We used them on Christmas morning with our
‘traditional’ Cinnamon Rolls and milk
Plate closeup

I have been remiss in posting these pictures so I just want to again say
Thank You Linda…you are the best.

 

Last week I ordered some raw wool from a ‘forum’ friend, Pam from http://www.shadetreeprimitives.blogspot.com/ and http://www.picturetrail.com/shadetreeprimitives – it’s just beautiful,
the nicest color a mixture of dark Brown and Black.

Bag of wool

New Wool 
I would like to wash it and then try ‘felting’ it into a sheep design,
not sure if I know how but it’s worth a try otherwise
I’ll display it in a bowl to just be pretty!

So that is my post for this week – seems when
not much is happening it’s difficult to find things to post about.

 

Goodness I almost forgot – today we went
to my husbands ‘All Class Reunion’.

It was held at a historic restaurant
Lake House Inn
This place dates back to 1835
Lake house Inn 1 
Lake house Inn 5

This is behind the Inn – part of the house
the owners live in
Lake house Inn 4

Lake house Inn 3 
 
Doug came from a small school/town so a few years back
some of the older classes got this going – this is our first year
to attend and I just had to giggle when we got there,
I do think we were just a few of the ‘youngest ones there’.
The gentleman sitting next to me graduated in the class
of 1944 – I WAS BORN IN 1944!!!!
Lake house Inn 6
So that tells you the ages of the guests – the earliest graduates
started in 1934 on up to my husbands class of 1960 but
there were only 6 of us for that class….but a very enjoyable
time regardless – in a small class they all seemed to
know or know of each other to some point.

Enjoy,
Karen

Friday, August 12, 2011

Itsy Bitsy Spider – Changes - Hiding

I tried to find a title for my post this week but I have so many odds and ends to post about that nothing would come to mind – so I thought of naming it for the first picture I’m posting – not one of my favorite topics – in fact I’m deathly afraid of these creatures.

For the life of me I don’t know why I allowed these to get this big – guilt  about destroying it maybe ? Nope – just a HUSBAND who refused to destroy the web. And me who wouldn’t go near it to get rid of it.  So it grew and grew and grew.  Until this morning when I finally won out…no more spider webs and now I can clean off the porch!  See the little creature crawling up to the left corner there….ICK!!!!

CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE…THERE ARE TWO WEBS HERE!
 Spiders closeup

lilpennies- for dividerOn to better things….

I designed a new Pumpkin Penny Rug yesterday – I left a free space at the top so a lamp, basket, candle or whatever can sit and not cover up the design…and the size is perfect – 13-1/2 x 14-1/2 inches.
If interested, click on photo to be taken to my website page.Triple Pumpkin Penny Rug

lilpennies- for dividerLast week we stopped in a shop that was a temporary one – she had it open for Maxwell Street Days and we were on our way to get groceries so  decided to stop in. Very glad because I found this wonderful 1800’s Glass and Pewter Syrup Pitcher – and the lid is hinged.  I really didn’t know there were syrup pitchers but after doing research on them I found there are quite a few styles out there. I paid just $12.00 for this one and saw that some were selling for $50 - $150. Mine probably isn’t rare enough to in that category but it’s still lovely to me.
Syrup pitcher 1
Syrup pitcher closeup 

lilpennies- for dividerWe have a Farmer’s Market downtown on Thursday afternoon/evening and the produce there is wonderful. There’s one who sells the best Sweet Corn…nice light yellow-white kernels, sweet, juicy and they snap when you bite into them.  We have had corn the last 3 Thursday nights – I think I’m about done in with that menu now – time to move on but when you find something that’s really good it’s hard to give it up knowing you won’t get it again until the next growing season.
Sweet Corn
And as tradition since our boys were wee ones (grown and gone now) – we always set a picnic table of plastic ware when we ate Sweet Corn. I guess it came from them being small, corn being messy and a bit greasy with the butter so the tradition continues with just the two of us.
We have just grilled hamburger patties and normally sliced tomatoes – but last night I forgot to slice them up! And all on plastic…not very pretty but it is easy to clean up.

We did get some super wonderful Pinwheel pastries at market too – these are Cheesecake Raspberry.
So it’s just a very simple supper when we have corn.
Plastic Summer Supper

lilpennies- for divider A blog friend, Margie, from Hungry Hook Primitives had a wool sale last week and I lucked out on getting two bundles of very nice dark Primitive colors and a bunch of cut strips of wool for my rug hooking. I’m anxious for her next sale…hope my fingers are fast enough on the keyboard to lay claim to more before it’s all gone.  http://hungryhookprimitives.blogspot.com/

Wool bundles
Wool Strips

lilpennies- for dividerSo now that we have had some wonderful cool weather it has put me in the mood to go through my craft/office room upstairs – when working with fabrics you find many, many dust bunnies hiding in places you can’t see…so it was a day to pull everything out of the room, clean and also clean the carpet.

The closet got an overhaul as well. I put a stainless steel shelf unit in there and put all my supplies I don’t use often and kept the other shelves in the room for all the things I use daily – and it freed up space as well so now my chair fits in the corner better too on days I want to sit up there and sew.
It’s not the fanciest of work spaces but it is fine for what I need.
Craft Room 2
Craft Room 3  Craft Room 1

All my Wool Felt I work with for my Penny Rugs
Craft Room 4
And now I also have a place for my Rug Hooking Wool and patterns that before were in plastic bins on the floor under the tables. I like being able to see my Wool so I know what to choose from
Craft Room  5

Are you bored yet???

lilpennies- for dividerLast Sunday or son/dil took us out on the judging boat for the Yacht Club – both are judges and they have to set up the course before hand – it was a horribly hot day but there was a nice strong wind – which actually was great for sailing but horrible for trying to find the wind direction to set up the course. But it did get done and they only got one race in (normally 2) because it started to get stormy looking and then thunder and it’s the judges call to cancel if they feel it’s too bad…so it was cancelled. But a fun time for the first race.

The sailboats are so graceful looking out there but it’s such hard work!
Well, it’s not hard work for me…just sit and back and relax!!!!
Sailing 1

This is one of the homes on an island on the lake – it’s one of my favorite things. Isn’t she a beauty!
Island house 1 

Dan and Jamie getting ready to start the race
Jamie Dan   
Doug and Jamie

Lined up and ready
Sailing 3 

On their way!
Sailing 6 
Sailing 2
Sailing 5
Sailing 4

Hope you enjoyed your sail!!!

lilpennies- for dividerAnd now one last thing…you know the game ‘Where’s Waldo’?
Well, where’s ‘Baby’?
Honest to goodness I head something I couldn’t make out the sound one day last week when I was sewing…kept hearing this kind of scratching noise, not very loud and so I got up and started checking on things and this is what I found –  she was laying on a shelf behind the Geraniums. isn’t she a hoot?
Baby in flowers 

Thanks for visiting me today.
Blessings to all

Karen