Thrifty Thursday: Shroomin'

I found a cute needlepoint mushroom recently. 

I think it goes great with these mushroom canisters my mom found for me! 

  Have you found any thrifty goodies lately?

Thrifty Thursday: The Captain and His Sea Monsters

Hey folks!  I'm going to try something new here on the blog called Thrifty Thursday, where I can share some of the neato things I pick up at thrift stores. I don't know about you, but I love a good thrift find! Especially stitchy goodies!  So today I wanted to share a pretty fab cross stitch I found recently.

Check out this amazing piece!  It's quite large as well.  I know it took a long time to stitch this design. The frame is a bit dingy, but the stitching is perfect. 

The poem says, "The captain hangs great bells to keep whales and monsters from his ship".

I love the details of the rope and what I'm assuming is the captain hard at work. 

I don't know what it is about this piece but I just had to have it.  It's so different, definitely not anything I would stitch for myself, but I love the details and sea creatures.  It's just a wonderful piece.  If you have any information about this design, please share. I'd love to find out more about it. 

Have you scored anything at the thrifts lately?  Do share!

A Fuzzy Hooty

I thought I'd share this really cute owl I found at the thrift store.  It's a crewel embroidery piece and I had to have it for the baby's room.  It goes right along with his little woodland critter theme!

Totally cute.  Later gators!

P.S. I'm still thinking over how personal to make this blog.  I started it as a art and craft blog but there have been some non-artsy posts that are more personal.  I want to share the birth of my baby and his development with friends and family that read my blog but still thinking about starting up a more personal blog.  Baby will probably be a year old before I decide! 

Florida thrift finds

Here's a few things I found at the thrift while on vacation in Florida a couple weeks ago.  I found some great stuff!

 

Two curtain panels with awesome lace houses that I can't wait to use in my art work.

This mix of stuff...

Including this vintage crewel kit, never opened!

All this floss, aida cloth and a few small hoops for $4!  I would say it was a successful day in FL. 

Thrift finds...wowza tablecolth!

Look what I found at the good 'ol Hospice Flea Market! This amazingly stitched tablecloth. 

It's a good 4 ft by 4ft or so. It has beautiful Asian (Japanese I would guess) buildings, trees and decorative motifs.

It has the teeny tiniest stitches I've ever seen. 

What a score! 

Flea Market Finds

Well I went to the annual Hospice Flea Market this weekend. It's a gigantic flea market selling everything you can imagine. It takes place in this old factory building that has no air conditioning and is hot hot hot!! I could only stand about two hours there but I found some great stuff! Here's some highlights of my finds!

A great little set of needlepoint work of the seasons. I can only assume there was a fourth season somewhere in the boxes and boxes of framed art. I like the winter one the best.

This absolutely adorable cross stitch of rabbits taking a shower in the rain water from a flower.

A small cross stitch of the classic bathroom phrase; "If you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat" This immediately was hung up in my bathroom.

An awesome little milk glass sugar dish with a great design. This will be put to use!

A cute little crewel piece of a girl with flowers.

All this little bits and bobs of lace and trim and eyelet.

This fabric which has a small pattern of horse jumping girls. Very cute and I can't wait to use it for something. I also scored a ton of muslin for cheap and a pretty pink. I was very disappointed with the fabric section this year. They have always had four to five rows of fabric and this year there was two! I didn't find hardly anything good like I usually do.

One of the best things I found was this set of paintings featuring a bull fighter.

They are hand painted and are dated 1959! I just had to have them.

They immediately went up over my couch.
Finally, this set of crewel pieces depicting famous scenes of Revolutionary America. They are from a stamped set dated 1972 from Paragon No. 0906. Someone worked very hard and long on these. They are quite remarkable and I am going to try to frame them soon.

The classic march

Paul Revere

Betsy Ross

Washington and his troops in the winter at Valley Forge
I paid only a dollar each for these! I couldn't believe it. It seems that whomever priced the needlework did not think they were worth much. All of the other pieces I purchased were either a quarter or fifty cents.

Well those are the highlights. I scored some pretty good stuff this year. Now I just have to wait until next year!

Queen of schtuff

I seriously need to organize my schtuff. I have so much schtuff that I've accumulated it has literally taken over my apartment. Every corner, wall, tabletop even parts of the floor are covered. Granted I live in a small one-bedroom and share the space with my boyfriend and cat, but man! The books alone are overwhelming. However, I fully blame my addiction to schtuff on my mother which she consequently blames on her father. He was a king of junking (or so I'm told--he passed away just months after I was born) and he has a shed to prove it---filled with old bottles, furniture etc that has been sitting there forever.
My mom loves her schtuff too. We would always (and let's face it we still do) go thrifting and to yard sales all the time. We would just buy things that made up happy. We both collect so many things that it's hard to remember what all we have! Most of my "collections" are at her house in boxes because I just don't have anywhere to put it. So I cant enjoy my Pez dispensers, lunch boxes, Happy Meal toys and Disney stuffed toys. Not to mention all the things I had when I was a kid that my mom just couldn't bear to part with. But what am I to do? I love it all so much and I just can't seem to part with it.
I suppose there is no remedy really. I'm doomed to a life of schtuff. My apartment will just have to deal with it. (As will my boyfiend for that matter) So pass the wall of big eyed- 60's girls paintings, hang a right at the mountain of fabric, step over the heap of craft books and patterns, crawl under the Disney stuffies, don't knock over the huge pickle jar full of buttons and you will finally find me probably sewing or reading by my large stack of books that don't fit in the bookcase--surrounded by my lovely stuff.