Silk purse out of a sow's ear ... I hope I hope I hope

What do you do when you come home from attending an auction with a box of garbage?  
Well, first you'd mourn the loss of your hard earned cash. 

 You might be justified in shedding a tear or two when you realize you've blown

 a whole week's grocery budget.

On garbage.

Then you try very hard to explain to your hubby how you thought that the beautiful yarn on the top of the box represented the rest of the lot because you would never dream of a fellow weaver tucking complete garbage underneath the 4 perfectly lovely and usable spools on top. 

Not in a million years.

Then you'd admire the beauty of the completely rotten spools of

silk, linen, wool and cotton - in all their organic loveliness. 

You know you have junk, completely unusable for it's intended purpose but 

still somehow so pretty. 

You might just throw that junk out

or ...
 re-box it carefully and put under your sewing table.
You might even move those two boxes of decaying natural fiber just
because you can't quite part with it.  
Twice. Over international boarders. Twice. 

Then you might just tuck those boxes into the front hall closet and
forget them there for say ... seven years?
 Give or take. 

Well, that's what you would do if you were me!

Flash forward to The Colossal Spring House Cleaning of 2012. 

Slowly but surely I am thinning every room, closet and cupboard.
Oh, and getting rid of some garbage. 

Because we are NOT moving. 

And I have a case of the Seven Year Itch.

Funny thing is that even after all these years, I just could not throw out my rotten
spools of weaver's linen, cotton, silk {sigh} and wool. 

So ...

This is what I did.

With scraps from a thrifted linen shirt - even the button placket, some felted wool scraps, 

and bits and pieces of vintage laces and trim tucked here and there.

And my trusty hot glue gun, of course.

I ripped, twisted, tied, glued and giggled as our sweet Dreamer declared each creation ...
adorable!

Tomorrow I am headed to a wonderful downtown shop called Expressions of the Home 

to see what the owner thinks of my silk purse out of a sows ear idea.

Let's hope she thinks they are adorable too!

If for some reason she doesn't, look for these at Goodwill 

because I am NOT bringing them home.

I told you I was serious about Spring House Cleaning!

UPDATE: The owner of Expressions of the Home liked my creations so they at in her lovely shop!
She bought all 19 of the Weaver's Spools!
Yeah!

Fall arrived with a blessing!

All the windows are open and we are loving the fresh cool breezes sliding through the dust motes dancing on late afternoon sunbeams! You would not believe how much better I feel  when the heat and humidity relax their hold and fall finally arrives.  I am sure we will enjoy a few more  warm days, but I would be quite content if the coolness stayed around. This morning I sat in a comfortable chair with a thick soft blanket wrapped about my legs and a yummy hot chocolate in my hand watching our children practice and play soccer while I enjoyed visiting with other homeschooling moms and dads.  Most of these folks we see only during fall soccer season since we travel each Saturday to enjoy the blessings of this soccer experience, so we chat and catch up and enjoy the soccer season.

I'm not sure you'll believe what I've been up to even with picture evidence, but I'll try to catch you up on our week.  It was a week of 'start ups' for our Dreamer as she resumed both ballet and piano after a summer hiatus.  We had a pretty successful trip to the thrift store Wednesday morning  which was a blessing.  Dreamer wears jeans once in a while and we found two pair that were modest and like new for less then $2 each - she is set for a  while. Story teller was THRILLED to find youth football pads - like new for $10.  I looked them up and they are $80 new, so we were really pleased.  He is not playing organized football, but loves to put on a thrifted Browns jersey and toss the ball  with Daddy in the back yard! 

On Friday we attended an excellent event at The Fair at New Boston, near Springfield, OH for their education day.  It was amazing!  We learned so much in such a fun and memorable way.  We started off the day with hot breezes catching our hair and whipping it in our faces.  The leaves rained down on us like a true fall day, but since they were crisp and brown they simply reminded us of the hot humid rainless days we have had for the last few weeks.  Suddenly we were caught in a downpour and even running quickly for our umbrellas, we became quite saturated!  It was nice when the rain stopped, but than the wind whipped up again with renewed vigor and we were soon shivering!  Eventually the clouds were chased away and the hot sun dried us up nicely.  After a while we were hot and thirsty and ready to finish!

We enjoyed  a visit to the Shawnee village and met a squaw rendering fat from bear flesh, a medicine woman and the brain tanner making leather with the brains of the deer brought in by the hunter. It was quite eye opening and very educational.  We put our camera in the van when the rains began and so we have no pictures of the rest of the day, but we met a Pewterer, the Soap Maker, a Basket Weaver, and a slave girl who wrote poetry named Phyllis Wheatly,  We met the militia men, a Goodwife, a weaver and many serving girls. It was an exciting day and I felt very blessed to have the strength to stay for the whole event. We came home refreshed ourselves with icy drinks and got ready for our next adventure!

We spent the evening digging up buried grave markers!  I told you you'd never guess what we've been up to!  The Historian found records of an undocumented 1820's cemetery on the site of an old one room school house, which was abandoned in 1912 or so.  It is now the site of a private residence, and thankfully the home owner enjoys historical research and is eager to solve some of the mysteries of the old cemetery.  Apparently, a previous home owner got tired of mowing around  head and foot stones and about 50 years ago he and his son buried the beautiful grave markers.  Sadly, they buried them en mass and in the process the already old and weathered stones suffered  much damage.  Tree roots and shifting soil took their toll as well, but those that didn't get broken are surprisingly well preserved from further weathering and graveyard vandals.

This week the Historian had an opportunity to watch  technology uncover history.  The family of a Revolutionary War Veteran buried in this re-discovered cemetery paid to have a ground radar specialist come and examine the area and plot potential sites for the buried headstones. On Friday night he took us to the site and we got to try our hand at amateur archaeology!  Some of the stones are quite large and beautiful - and some and small and exquisitely hand carved.  This one brings to mind so many questions - we wonder how poor Jane Dinsmoore died at the tender age of 15 years 1 month and 12 days. So sad. Dreamer wondered if Jane liked roses - her marker is quite beautifully carved with one flower and a bud carefully set in a deep crest shape.

I have a feeling this will be an ongoing project since it looks like there could have been as many at 200 graves at the cemetery and it will require much careful  digging to find all of the headstones. Thankfully, the home owner is eager and not opposed to a few holes in her yard  - she was out digging and  unearthing stones all  day  yesterday.  She is an avid gardener and plans to just fill them in with trees and gardens, and find a way to display and preserve the grave markers. They have not found the Revolutionary war veteran's stone yet, but hopefully it is one that was better preserved! The stones are only about two feet under, so there is little risk of disturbing the contents of the graves.  It is a shame that this site was not properly cared for, the remains exhumed and re-interred and the stones set up to mark the passing.  I guess the community decided to just look the other way when the previous home owner committed this dishonoring act.  All for a tidy yard and easier mowing.

It's been an exciting week, and I look forward to starting the day in the Lord's house tomorrow - attending church is always a blessing, and quite family days are a  joy.  We are so blessed - after a trip to the fruit farm and grocery store our fridge and pantry are loaded with good things to eat and we are planning a quiet  couple of days of  homemade fun, a few home maintenance chores, and some quiet rest. Perfect.

Possibilities

We had such a fun time thrifting yesterday - half price day at the SallyAnn is always an adventure - and always crowded! We went in search of boys pants, which if you know boys, you know I was looking for a miracle!  Generally the 'experienced' pants we find in Storyteller's size are in pretty rough shape - or they are brand new never worn because some other boy really hated them.  I found a pair of black Polo jeans new with tags on for $2.19 at Goodwill on Tuesday and yesterday I found a pair of khaki Polo chinos new with tags on (and the price $68) at SallyAnn yesterday for $1.50!  I'd say I saw an answer to prayer, wouldn't you?  I am still on the hunt for two pairs of everyday pants or jeans for him, and he needs a Sunday dress shirt or two, but all in all, his fall/winter wardrobe is shaping up.

I also found a 100% linen blouse to make a pillow with, a navy blue cotton knit dress for Dreamer - Ralph Lauren, a (tag still on) gray and black Polo casual shirt for the Historian, a fun summer blouse for Dreamer, 8 camp style blue enamel bowls and this wooden pedestal bowl for $.50!  My total was $11!

I'm always on the lookout for things on a pedestal - they just catch my eye and if you add in scallops, well, my heart may just go pit-a-pat!  Usually I find that combination in glassware and I have a few cute compotes that we use for fruit quite often that were thrifted treasures.  This little wooden number seriously made me smile - in fact, I was looking around and wishing there were two or even three of them!  I have so many ideas - the possibilities abound! 

While I like it as is, I think I'll add some paint.  I can see it in shabby white filled with pretty sea shells or colorful fake fruit.  I can see it in black filled with sparkly ornaments at Christmas, or in brown, filled with orange leaves, sweet gum tree ball and acorns, and I can see it in Blue Ocean Breeze on Dreamers dresser, a perfect repository for her jewelery!

I found 4 or 5 similar bowls on Etsy and E-Bay for $45-$79, so I guess I'll just have to keep my eyes open when thrifting for more!

Have you been thrifting lately?  What do you look for in your treasure hunting?