Blue June

Gym-Dandy Surrey - Recommended by Art Linkletter

2012-01-15T15:48:00.000-06:00

Roger found this Gym-Dandy Surrey on Craigslist last fall and couldn't resist it. It was made in the 1960s by the Gym-Dandy company, who also made jungle gyms! This particular surrey was owned by the same woman since it was new and was played with by her children, too. Unfortunately, the family were the victims of a house fire. The surrey suffered some fire damage, and they decided to sell it.

The entire things was taken apart and repainted. Roger replaced the tires, pedals and handgrips, then put it all back together. He cleaned and repainted the seats, as well. He was even able to find a source for the original style graphics!

Sally and Connor took it for a test drive through our living room! Not super easy to pedal (I tried it myself), but Connor did a great job!

Sally, on the other hand, is going to need longer legs before she's ready to be the driver!

We're still working out the logistics of the canopy, but we certainly have the perfect fabric.

Don't you wish everything were?

Head over to Her Library Adventures for more great vintage finds!

New Wheels

2012-01-10T15:43:00.005-06:00

Roger had the last couple of weeks off at work, so he used the time to finish up and start and continue several projects in his workshop. This is my favorite completed project! Another rusty car turned into a treasure! Love the red and almost aqua color combo.

And, there's a place in the back for Minnie to ride! Sally and I are still working to convince him that a pink car would be just the thing!

See more great vintage finds at Apron Thrift Girl!

Giant Masher

2012-01-01T20:33:00.001-06:00

We went to a white elephant exchange party at the Redenbaughs' last night. All kinds of goofy gifts, but I think I came home with the best one! This giant potato masher! I've never seen such a thing, but it seems to have a little bit of age to it. I had to take a picture of it with Sally, so you can truly appreciate the size and scope of this thing!

I'm not sure what size of potato this is meant for, but I'm pretty sure we don't grow them in Kansas.

Rusty Cars

2011-10-24T08:38:00.002-05:00

Roger and I both managed to do a little picking last week, but Roger is the only one who managed to get his act together to take pictures, so you get to see some more mantiques! This is the front end of a 30s-something truck. He dug it out of a pasture down by Beaumont, Kansas on Friday. Now, he gets to figure out what to do with it! I suggested a chair, but that kind of freaked him out. He's not really an upholsterer. Might end up as a desk! For now, it's sitting in the driveway that we don't park our cars in. In front of the garage that we don't park our cars in.... (I will become more bitter about this as the weather gets colder, and I have to start scraping my windshield every morning.)

This is also a piece of an old truck. Just a smaller piece. The sellers of the first one threw this in for free, since Roger drove all the way south of nowhere to pick up the other one. I'm sure he'll come up with spectacular new lives for both of them!

Linking up with Her Library Adventures and Apron Thrift Girl!

Team Effort

2011-10-17T14:58:00.000-05:00

Blue June's Retro Deco is truly a team effort. Roger and I (Becky) do this vintage thing together. In fact, I think that's why it works. We keep each other motivated, and it's nice to have something special to share with your significant other. You know, other than the kids...

I handle the online stuff, the marketing stuff, the girly glassware stuff. Roger deals with the graphic design, the fixing stuff and the restorations. In fact, get ready to be blown away by the restoration stuff! I'm so stinkin' proud of him!

This is a 1964 AMF 508 Hook & Ladder fire truck before Roger worked his magic. (Actually, I think this was after he blasted all the rust off it.)

And this is the same truck after. He made those ladders and put the nice oak panels in the back. He couldn't find a supplier for the decals, so he used his graphic design skills to recreate them from a vintage ad.

A 1973 AMF 501 before.

And after!

A 1950s Murray Sad Face - before

Roger thought it would be neat to create an old farm truck out of this one.

Mission accomplished.

This is my favorite one of the three.

These are impressive results in my book, but I can't say I'm ever going to be too thrilled when he brings another rusty car home! Just like he's going to roll his eyes at some of my finds!

Barn Sale Finds

2011-10-02T18:02:00.002-05:00

Roger and I spent Saturday at a fabulous outdoor craft/vintage/antique show. I'll tell you more about it later in the week. But, while I was there, I certainly couldn't resist checking out the other vendors! And I got some great things!

This chicken immediately caught my eye! I believe that it's a candy dispenser. I need to find some gumballs or marbles to try it out. It's marked 1964 Ideal Toy Corp.

I also picked up this great hand-embroidered Christmas tablecloth. The details are amazing. There is also a pair of plastic purse handles, a metal water pitcher, enamalware saucepan and cup and some soda bottle stoppers. I expect these will all be headed for my Etsy Shop soon!

Find more vintage goodies at Her Library Adventures!

Last Week's Finds

2011-09-26T10:26:00.003-05:00

Not a lot to share this week. I think auction season is winding down, and even if it isn't, our bank account is! I still managed to get out to the thrift store last week where I found this cute little tray. I love that it has a those six depressions to hold drink glasses and each one is decorated with a different botanical motif.

Found both of these puzzles at a yard sale on Saturday morning. Of course, I love vintage toys and the graphics on these are just great. I'd love to see these framed and hanging on a wall.

All of these items (and more) are listed in our Etsy Shop!

Oh yeah!! We finally have a logo! Meet June!

Roger (my own personal graphic designer) made it for the shop. Can't wait to show her off at the Barn Sale this Saturday!

Linking up with Her Library Adventures.

Rusty Gold

2011-09-06T08:35:00.000-05:00

This week's auction was interesting. Not nearly as many household items as we usually see, but plenty of rust and steel. I did manage to pick up a couple pieces of green Fire King glassware and a carnival glass candy dish, but most of the items were a bit less, well, girly.

Roger was practically drooling over this train. It was originally a ride on toy. In fact, there were even train cars that could be attached to it.

We often pass by sleds, because it's hard to tell if they are actually old. After being left out in the snow, all sleds look a bit worn! But, this one was the right price, so we didn't mind taking a chance.

This desktop is a bit, um, "rough", shall we say? But I couldn't resist the little cubby holes and the way the top lifts up to reveal a couple of hidden compartments.

For some reason, I was completely drawn to all these old rusty steel wheels and cranks. They just look amazing and manly and geometric. I had to have them. Basically, there was a big pile of rusty stuff, and the bidding was for "your choice". I let the men duke it out for the "prime" stuff. (Mostly stuff I wouldn't have known the technical term for if my life depended on it.) Towards the end, I was able to come in and get a few of my wheels for a few bucks each.

More steel wheels! One of the other attendees got a good chuckle out of hearing me ask Roger if I thought they would fit in a flat rate priority mail box. "Hey!" I told him. "If it fits, it ships! Up to 70 pounds."

I also love these old ammunition boxes. There were some other good ones, but those slipped away. Probably because they were filled with a bunch of rusty wrenches...

More cool stuff at:

Her Library Adventures

I have NOT abandoned this project!!

2011-09-01T13:58:00.004-05:00

Remember a few months ago when I got all excited about granny squares? And I said I was going to do the Granny a Day project? And I posted my pretty little squares? And then I stopped?

I did not abandon ship! I did not give up! I just had to put it on the backburner for a bit. I've started again. And, while I'm not getting quite one a day done, I am getting some done. And I'm pretty darn happy with them. I'm up to 29 squares and have another in the works.

I like to work on them over my lunch hour in my van. Or in the evenings while I'm watching TV with Roger. I've decided to enjoy the project and not the let the project become an object of guilt or obligation. It's supposed to be fun, for goodness' sake! And it is!

BIG Auction

2011-08-22T09:05:00.005-05:00

We had two or three auction options this past Saturday, but we wanted to stay on a pretty small budget, so we chose the farm auction close to home. When we first arrived, we were pretty sure we weren't going to stay. Although the ad had said there would be some household items, there really wasn't much. However, we did find a handful of items that looked pretty good and we figured the entire auction wouldn't take more than three hours, so we decided to stick it out. I'm glad we did, because we walked away with some bargains! BIG bargains.

We ended up with this pair of steel wagon wheels for only $25. That was a steal! We're still regretting the fact that we didn't pick up another pair for the same price. These are going to stay with us to decorate our garage. It would be nice to have a second pair to sell for a tidy profit, but we just weren't thinking at the time.

This wardrobe is GINORMOUS! It stands nearly seven feet tall, and it's very deep, too. Our house has minimal storage, so we're always looking for nice looking ways to tuck away all our junk. I think the contact papered panels really threw off a lot of folks, because we walked away with this baby for $25.

And check out the "after" pic! Fastest before and after pictures ever! We were fully expecting to have to do some kind of repair to those panels, but the contact paper pulled off with minimal damage and voila! Gorgeous old wardrobe! We're thinking that we will add some kind of hardware to the front - knobs or handles.

The very last thing we bought was this little table. I'm a sucker for these chrome and laminate tables. This one is super cool, because it has a drawer and leafs that pull out from the sides. It needs some clean up and maybe a little repair, but I don't think it will be hard to find a home for it.

Our poor van didn't have room for all these large pieces, so we had to recruit my brother to drive out to the auction site to pick up the wardrobe and table. That's what little brothers are for, right?

See more great finds from last week at Her Library Adventures and Apron Thrift Girl.

925 Milk Caps

2011-08-18T09:22:00.004-05:00

I counted my milk caps the other night. It was kind of funny, because I was grouping them in stacks of 10. After the first 100, I said to Roger, "Oh my gosh! There's got to be at least 200 of these things!"

After the next 100, I was laughing. Maybe more like a thousand!

This is what 925 cardboard milk caps look like when neatly stacked in groups and rows of ten. I had to wonder what kind of person collects nearly a thousand milk caps, but Roger pointed out it was more likely that the person was a milk man and these were just left over and thrown in a box. He's probably right, because they certainly don't look as though they've been used. And they're all exactly the same.

I plan to sell them in packs of ten. I think they'll be fun for crafters. Magnets, papercrafting, scrapbooking...

Estate Sale Finds

2011-08-14T13:22:00.010-05:00

Anyone who really knows me, knows that I am NOT a morning person. I would much rather sleep in. However, given enough motivation, I am capable of getting up early. I got up a bit earlier on Friday morning so I could attend a couple of sales before I had to be at work.

The first sale was a true estate sale, and most of the prices were a bit high for my nature, but I still walked away with a couple armloads. The second sale was a garage sale advertising "antiques". Oh my word! We're talking antiques at garage sale prices!!

Roger has been buying old school desks and restoring them. They look great when he's done, partly because he still leaves the old marks and scars in the wood. The ones he has been working with are wood desks and seats with metal legs and bases. When I saw this old school desk, I knew it was special. I have never seen one completely made out of wood. I practically wrapped my arms around it and said, "MINE!" As the seller was loading it into my van, he told me that it had come out of a Black school house down in Mississippi.

I'm not much of a vintage jewelry expert, but I saw these two pins and bought them for their subject matter. So cute!

A dancing lady in a yellow skirt. Another thing that just caught my fancy!

An entire army of legs. Roger doesn't think I'll be able to sell these.

Thanks to some vintage savvy friends, I've identified these as the caps that were put on top of milk bottles back in the day when it was delivered fresh to your door. I now own an entire shoebox full of them! About a million of them!

What else did I find? Old rubber squeak toys, Betty Crocker kids cookbook, old brown bottles, Pyrex caraffe, Haeger pots, a wooden bowl painted with cherries and an old filing box. Great, great weekend!

See more great finds here!

Blue June at Newton Antique Mall

2011-08-10T10:57:00.004-05:00

We opened our booth at Newton Antique Mall at the beginning of July. After a few weeks, we knew we really need a larger booth! So, as of August 1, we have expanded! Lots more room for lots more stuff!

Here's what the booth looked like before:

That actually kind of embarrasses me, a little! It looks SO much better now! Here's hoping for lots of sales in August to justify the new space!

Trench Art

2011-08-09T08:42:00.003-05:00

Roger is a World War I history buff and likes to collect militaria from that era, particularly helmets. He had been looking for some pieces of trench art to add to his collection, and this year he struck gold.

Trench art can be a pretty broad category, but Roger was specifically looking for items that were made from shell casings or the other detritus of war.

The lamp on the right came up at an auction earlier this summer. It is marked "Verdun" and is really a gorgeous piece. It did not have a shade when Roger bought it, so he added a period helmet from his collection to complete the piece. I have to chuckle, because the auction card showing what we paid has it described as "art deco lamp".

The vase on the left is new to his collection. We attended an auction a couple weeks ago that had three of these vases. Roger was positively dying to have at least one of them.

After a few hours of sitting, Roger needed to visit the restroom. Wouldn't you know? That's when they decided to bring the trench art pieces up to the block! My heart was in my throat. I knew I couldn't let them get away! I immediately started bidding with no idea what my maximum should be, let alone which of the three items I should choose if I won! Fortunately, Roger arrived part way through and took over. I asked him later why he chose the vase that he did. "I picked the one that looked the best." Well, shoot! I could have done that!

This piece is marked Reims and also has a floral design. It is also made from a shell casing. I can't really complain about either piece. They're both very attractive. (The flowers in the vase were Roger's doing. And, I have to giggle at the idea of him in Michael's trying to find poppies, when he wasn't really sure what poppies looked like, anyway!)

Prized Object

2011-08-08T09:59:00.003-05:00

Quite often at an auction, I will come across one particular item that just seizes my attention and won't let go. I was able to preview the last auction we attended the day before it actually occurred and came across this interesting milk glass plate. It was lumped in with a bunch of other handpainted plates. Upon close inspection of it, my imagination was sparked, and I couldn't stop thinking about it! I must have it!

At the auction the next day, I had a moment of panic when I couldn't find the box holding my precious treasure. I was afraid that it had been pulled to be sold alone, and I had missed it! After a bit further searching, though, I located the box and breathed a sigh of relief. I was eventually able to buy my box of plates and take them home. Now, I don't collect plates or milk glass, so I am putting this in our Etsy shop, but sometimes there are items that won't hurt my feelings if they decide to live with me indefinitely...

The plate depicts three gentleman in old-fashioned attire. One of the men is a bear and the other two are wolves! They appear to be enjoying an evening of storytelling, as the wolf in the middle has a large book open in front of him. It's almost like a depiction of a fairy tale or perhaps, this is what it looks like when the characters from our stories share their own tales!

See more vintage finds at Her Library Adventures.

Comments

2011-08-02T14:39:00.003-05:00

I want you all to know that I read a lot of vintage and thrift blogs, and so often I want to comment on them. Unfortunately, I am having a heck of a time with Blogger letting me leave comments on some blogs. I try to log in with my Google account, and it just throws me into the endless loop of log-ins and captchas!!

So, please know that I am reading your blogs, too! I just can't always comment! Even when I really, really want to!

Huge Haul

2011-08-01T20:17:00.003-05:00

This week's auction haul reminds me of one of those hidden object puzzles! Here's a sampling of what we brought home with us. See if you can find them in the picture!

Frankoma honey pot
red Pyrex covered dish
3 lanterns
Frankoma teapot
2 cherry pitter/stoners
2 glass washboards
2 duck decoys
blue Pyrex refrigerator dish
Limoges seashell dish
printing plates
scale
5 rolling pins
3 sifters
owl cookie jar

And various other odds and ends!! I'll try to post some individual pictures of the good stuff later this week, if I get a chance to take some photos.

See more great finds at Her Library Adventures!

"Estate" Sale

2011-07-26T09:29:00.005-05:00

There needs to be a law about what can be called an Estate Sale and what is just a yard/garage sale. I got up at 6:00 AM on Saturday to drive about 30 miles to an "Estate Sale" that I found on Craigslist. The photos looked promising, so I thought I'd take a chance. It started at 7:00, and Roger wanted to work outside before it got too hot, so I left the house at 6:30, so I could be home no later than 8:30.

What a disappointment! A lot of overpriced stuff drug out on the front lawn. In my opinion, an estate sale is when everything in the house is for sale. This was a yard sale. Perhaps a yard sale with some antiques, but a yard sale, nonetheless.

I found nothing. I drove down the road a bit, so I could turn around to head home and saw a sign for a garage sale just down the block and in a nice looking neighborhood. I figured it couldn't hurt to look, and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't earthshattering, but I found a handful of nice things.

I love the shape and color of this Haeger vase. The cookbook binder is one you can use to collect and organize your own recipes. There were a few recipes tucked into some of the envelopes inside, but overall, it looks unused. My favorite find was definitely this two yard cut of knit fabric. How cute are those little guys? For some reason, they remind me of Russian acrobats.

I was home shortly after 8:00. After that little taste of treasure hunting, I was in the mood for more, so we rounded up the kids and headed out for some more garage saling. Total waste of time. We spent 10 cents on a book for the kids, and that was it.

Thank goodness I have an auction to attend this Saturday! Assuming I can find a babysitter...

View others' finds at Thrift Share Monday!

Estate Sale Thursday

2011-07-25T08:16:00.004-05:00

Normally, I don't get the chance to attend many estate sales, simply because I'm usually working during the week. Sure, I could go on Saturdays, but by Saturday, I figure most of the good stuff is gone, plus, Saturday is auction day. Last week, I took a few days off, because I had friends coming down from Canada for a visit, and I kind of thought we might try to squeeze a quick little mini-vacation in over the weekend. The vacation didn't happen, but that's okay. It's been a nice little break from work anyway.

So, Thursday, my plan was to clean my craft area! HA! Instead, I went over to Craigslist and found a couple estate sales down in Wichita that looked interesting. Driving down to Wichita is always a little scary for me. I don't have the best sense of direction, and I'm a nervous driver. But, I poured over the Google map and got it all sorted out in my brain.

The first stop was okay. Nothing that really got me excited but I picked up three salt dips and headed on to the next sale. The second sale was advertised as being the estate of a woman who used to own an antique store! Now, we're talking! There was so much stuff! It was overwhelming! I probably went through the house five or six times!

It was a little scary, because nothing was priced. There were price tags on some of the items, but they assured me that those were old store tags and everything was much lower. (Some of the price tags were downright terrifying, so I tended to steer clear of some of those items, because I was afraid that "much lower" would still be "too much".) So, I gathered up some things, took them to the front, and we discussed prices. I was pleasantly surprised! We seemed to be on the same page pricewise, and I didn't have to put anything back!

Roger and I have been wanting some colorful things for our booth, and this teapot was just perfect! The bright color is so fun. I am also completely in love with the picture frame, chippy paint and all! Roger thinks we should strip it. No, dear, it's perfect just the way it is!

The tray was the first item I picked up. I didn't even realize it was a Pepsi tray until I turned it over and read its old tag. I just liked the cute beach scene. When I looked at it closer, I realized that nearly every person is holding a Pepsi bottle!

The sunbonnet sue table set was too adorable to pass up. (Plus, it's red!) Now, I'm trying to get it cleaned up and silenting swearing at the person who thought it was a good idea to tape the napkins together...

That thing in the tube is a soap thermometer. That's all I know about it. I don't know why you need a special thermometer for soap.

These sewing cards were right up my alley! They're so bright and fun! And, they're flocked, so they're fuzzy, too!

I found these three sets of embroidered pillowcases. I'm pretty sure they are brand new, and the lace on them is probably handmade, too.

I found this birdcage in, um, questionable condition. It was a little hard to see what was underneath all the holly, ribbon and, well, birds. I am happy to say that once it was de-birded, it was quite the little cutie!

See more great vintage and thrift finds at Her Library Adventures!

2011-07-19T08:38:00.002-05:00

Last week, I found a nearby estate sale that I was able to attend over my lunch hour. (I am loving this estate sale concept!) It was a little out in the country, only accepted cash and I had $19.65 in my wallet.

I eyeballed this tray for a while before I finally decided to snag it. It's HUGE! And red. It's one of my new favorites. I hope I'll be able to find a buyer that likes it as much as I do.

I'm always drawn to stuff with peacocks on it and this tray was just lovely! The frame and handles are quite sturdy. It is backed with velvet which is quite worn, but I can definitely see this hanging on someone's wall.

The last three little things I found were this cute ceramic scissors holder, a cake cutter with a green bakelite handle and a flower frog. When I got it home, I realized the scissors holder had quite a few chips on the back, so I don't feel comfortable selling it. Fortunately, I have a dear friend who is willing to give it a good home, so it will be moving to Wisconsin soon.

I had never even seen a cake cutter (or didn't know what I was looking at) until a couple weeks ago at an auction where they had about 50 of them for sale! I saw this one with its pretty handle and couldn't resist for the price.

So, five nice finds! Not bad work for one lunch hour!

Why I Like Auctions

2011-07-18T09:11:00.005-05:00

Roger and I headed up north to a couple of auctions on Saturday. We weren't sure which one we wanted to actually attend, so we arrived in town early so we could preview both of them. The first one was in a motel conference room. It was COLD and a little dark. It was full of all the vintage kitschy stuff that I like - stationery, kitchen stuff, Christmas decorations, that sort of thing. We were tempted, but decided we better check out the other one first.

We drove across town to the second auction. It was held indoors, too, and wasn't as cold! :) It was set up very nicely and there really wasn't any "junk". Everything was neat and clean and tidy. We decided to stay.

Within the first 15 minutes, I was pretty sure we were out of our league. Everything was going for big money and this one dude kept buying ALL the glassware. It was so weird, because he was paying at least retail, so we weren't sure if he was a collector or a dealer who would be happy if he was able to make a dollar profit on each item! After a little bit, it got downright annoying! All morning, we managed to buy about three things, and I felt like I'd overpaid for all of it.

Shortly after noon, I was feeling itchy, so I left Roger there and went back to the motel auction. Most of the good stuff had already been sold. I picked up a few good items and only spent $9.50. Unfortunately, one of my $2 purchases was a clean-up, and I managed to fill the back of the van with a bunch of CRAP! Seriously. I wanted one thing, and got a van load. (That's NOT what I love about auctions!)

I was bored and decided it would be more fun to hang out with Roger. When I got back, the auction was getting better. Crazy dude was still buying a ton of stuff, but other bidders were finally getting in on the action and winning a few things. We came away with a few more bargains. Probably my favorite purchase of the day was the Little Red Spinning Wheel. Cute, huh? (Sorry I don't have more pictures this week. We have company coming this week, so we had to get everything packed away, fast!)

And, this is what I love about auctions. When you go every weekend, you start to see the same people over and over again. You know what they bid on, you chat with them, you joke with them. Next thing you know, you have auction friends! I don't know their names, but I know their faces, and they're a fun group! Our little group on Saturday had a pretty good time watching in shock and bemusement as that guy bought all that glassware. I'm still wondering if his check will clear the bank this morning! One of my buddies said, "That's what you call 'stupid money'."

Oh yeah! And I got hit on. Twice. Once directly and once indirectly. A guy at the motel auction asked me if I'd ever been on tv. No. "Are you a movie star?" No. "Well, you look like one!"

A guy at the second auction told Roger that I have a great smile and that he has a beautiful wife. Okay, so both of these guys were probably in their 60s. So what? I can survive on compliments like those for a week!

I'm linking up with Her Library Adventures.

Family Support

2011-07-14T08:27:00.003-05:00

Our 8 year old son is not nearly as enamored with the world of vintage and antiques as we are. He considers garage saling a unique form of child torture and grudgingly attends auctions where he likes to suddenly need attention when we are in the heat of bidding.

He does think it's kind of cool that we have a booth at an antique store, and he likes to help me come up with prices for items, although his criteria are a little questionable. "How old is it? Well, it is really shiny!"

Currently, our house looks like we're the ones trying to get ready for an auction. There is stuff everywhere. Last night I told our son that we needed to get the house cleaned up because we have company coming for the night next week. I was specifically talking about his bedroom and play area.

"It's embarrassing!" I said.

He replied, "What's embarrassing is 5 million antiques."

Supportive little punk, ain't he?

First Estate Sale

2011-07-12T08:37:00.005-05:00

I've attended a lot of auctions and gone to plenty of garage/yard sales, but I had never gone to an estate sale. I mean, the kind where you actually go into someone's house and everything is for sale. I found one advertised last week here in town, and decided to go check it out over my lunch hour.

At first, I was a little disappointed, because the dining room table was covered in all kinds of pretty glassware, but it was all more than I wanted to spend. Let's face it. I'm cheap. But then I thought, "Hey! I should go check out the kitchen!" And that's where the fun started! I just started gathering stuff up and taking it to the front table to wait for me!

I got a couple sapphire blue Fire King dishes, a salt and pepper shaker set (I realized later it had been repaired - a lot), a pretty china tray, an old red letter Pyrex liquid measuring cup, four vintage tablecloths, a cute travel alarm clock, a pretty blue plastic jewelry box, an aqua and cream pitcher and tumblers, and I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff! It sounds a little creepy, but I found it pretty stinkin' awesome to walk through someone's house and know that it was all for sale!

I spent a lot of the weekend trying to get some old stains out of the vintage tablecloths, but I think I did a pretty good job! One was already perfect, one will be staying with me, because I discovered a lot of tiny holes in it, and the other two are in fine vintage shape, so I feel comfortable selling them. I can certainly see how easy it would be to get addicted to vintage linens! If I entertained more, I'd probably start collecting them myself!

(Just so you know, the two items pictured above are available in our Etsy shop! :)

I'm linking up with Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday!

One Saturday - Two Auctions

2011-07-05T11:24:00.007-05:00

This weekend, Roger and I each took a kid and set out to separate auctions. They were both indoors, but mine was air-conditioned! :) I took Sally with me. I made sure to dress her cute, so if she decided to act monstrous, maybe her cuteness would balance it out. In the end, she was pretty darn good and made lots of new friends! She was the belle of the auction, I would say!

Here's what I came home with:

There were about 30 lady's head vases at this auction. I fell in love with the white and red one, because red is my favorite color. I'll probably be keeping her. The blue one will be going into the shop very soon. She is not only a vase, but can actually hang on the wall, as her back is flat.

There were also a ton of cookie jars. Most of them were in this style but in different colors and patterns. I just loved the bright colors on these two. One may stay with me. Maybe.

The highchair was one of those things that was selling for so cheap, I just snatched it up. It wasn't until much later that I really noticed the decal was of a bear with a sewing machine!

I also bought another Singer treadle machine. I had no intention of bidding on that machine when I got to the auction. It wasn't until I realized it was going to sell for nothing that I knew it needed to come home with me. Roger keeps asking what we're going to do with it. Storage, for now. It's a nice clean machine. It just needs to age for a bit.

Roger's auction was much pricier and not as much fun. The auctioneer was terrible. Just a note to any auctioneers out there who are listening. Don't be a jerk. Don't be rude to your buyers. And don't use your employees to run up the bids. Now, I don't have a problem with auction employees bidding on items when it's now and then and something they truly want to buy. It's when they're bidding on every. single. thing. that it gets annoying. Roger said he managed to drop a few items on them, but wasn't even sure they cared. We'll be avoiding this guy's autions in the future.

So, what did he manage to buy?

These playing card tiles. We're not at all sure how they were used, but he knew I would like them. They might be ivory backed with bamboo, but we're not at all sure. Maybe bone? They don't seem to be bake-lite. I couldn't get any kind of scent when I rubbed them. I'd love to hear from anyone with an idea on these!

He bought a flat of salt dips, because the owner of our antique store had told us that he has a collector who comes in regularly looking for these.

And, these little miniatures. Most of them are about 1 - 1 1/2 inches tall. They're made of brass, and adorable! I've always liked miniatures.

He also brought home a few other treasures, and three gold rings that I need to take to the jeweler to sell for scrap today. He better hope those rings make up for going over budget! And, for a couple of things I like to call "Roger's Follies". That'll be a special feature later on this week!

Today, I'm linking up with Her Library Adventures! Check out the other great finds from last week!

Salt & Peppers

2011-07-01T14:54:00.008-05:00

I'm not usually a salt and pepper kind of girl. I just don't get the appeal. They're cute and all, but why in the world would you need hundreds of sets? Then I saw the salt and peppers at this auction! There were a lot of the regular ones you see all the time, but then there were some that were so clever, that I just couldn't resist! I may have gone a little overboard with a few of these. Now, remember, these photos were taken immediately after the auction, so they were still a bit grungy.

How cute is the toaster? You push down the lever and the little slices of toast pop up! White toast for the salt and brown toast for the pepper!

And, why wouldn't you want this on your picnic table?

A mixer salt and pepper shaker! And the beaters are the actual shakers! You just pull them off and add some salt and pepper to your food! (Not a lot of salt and pepper, obviously, but hey! we should all be watching our sodium intake, right?)

This fruit basket was pretty much my favorite. I love that the pineapple and lemon (apple?) are the shakers and the entire top comes off to reveal the sugar bowl underneath!

This one is to use with your tv dinner! (har har) When you turn the knob to "on" the shakers pop up from the top.

This one has a story to go with it. The first night of the auction we bought a flat of miscellaneous and mismatched shakers. We found the little tiny white salt shaker in the box, but no matching pepper. When we went back to the auction the next day, we found this little wringer washer shaker set missing its salt shaker! I immediately realized that I had the missing salt at home. I made sure to keep an eye on this box, so I could bid on it or at least offer to mail the salt shaker to the winning bidder. I won the box for almost nothing and was able to reunite the salt and pepper. I think this one is going to stay with me. It's red, you know, and I love red things.

Curbside Pickin's

2011-06-30T10:52:00.003-05:00

I work in the real estate industry, and yesterday, a realtor gave me a tip! She said she'd just left a property that had closed that morning and there was a bunch of stuff marked "free" sitting at the curb! So, after work, I took a little detour to check it out!

I managed to pull a handful of treasures out the pile - The green and brown pot has a Haeger sticker on it. It appears to have been used to hold pens and pencils, because there are a couple hard blobs of ink on the inside. There were the two milk glass pieces. (How do you tell if it's "real" milk glass?)

The pie plate is Pyrex, but when I got home I realized it has the word "microwave" on it, so it's not really vintage. Still, it's a nice pie plate, so I'll either add it to my own kitchen or pass it on to someone who actually makes pie.

There was a matching sugar bowl to go with the creamer, but it was chipped. I snagged the creamer because of the cute pink flower on it. It's marked "Pink-a-Dilly" and Franciscan.

The pinkish soup mug is Frankoma. I'm in love with its color. The white dishes are marked "Calif USA 259". They're part of a chip and dip set, it seems, but I'm missing the middle bowl. I may have to track down the bowl. From what I've seen on-line it comes in different colors.

What I'm not showing you is the stack of vintage fabric I dug out of the 3 or 4 HUGE boxes of fabrics sitting at the curb. I've got about half of them washed.

While I was "picking", the new owner of the property showed up. He's a regular customer of ours, so I sheepishly said, "Hello!" and told him the realtor had sent me. He laughed, "I caught you red-handed, didn't I?" He invited me into the house and showed me a couple desks he wants to get rid of, but I wasn't interested in taking home anything so big!

Anyway, this was a fun little surprise haul, and the price was definitely right!

Blue June's Retro Deco

2011-06-28T15:03:00.003-05:00

We did it! (Actually, I did it.) Roger and I opened our Etsy store last night. I've got just a couple listings up at the moment, but more in my queue. I'll be putting up a few things every evening.

After weeks of debating and discussing and agonizing, we chose the name "Blue June's Retro Deco". Roger is working on the logo, but I wanted to start selling, so I decided not to wait for him! :)

We also have a Facebook page here. So, go "like" it!

BUSY!!

2011-06-27T11:22:00.005-05:00

The weekend before this past one, Roger and I went to the biggest auction of the summer. Part of it was held on Friday evening and the second part on Saturday. The seller was a gentlemen who had planned to open an antique store with his wife a number of years ago. Unfortunately, she passed away unexpectedly, and he lost his interest in the business. So, this sale was pretty much all antique and vintage items. No random household junk. Just the good stuff!

We bought LOTS! This will give me enough blogging material for all week! (I was too busy last week to tell you about this, but that's okay, because we took this past weekend off and went to the zoo with the kids, instead!)

I've been trying to figure out what to show you and when! How to categorize it all! Today, I'm showing the stuff we're keeping. The stuff we bought for our own collections.

I saw this pretty little fairy in a box of stuff and fell in love! Look at her cute bobbed hair and colorful wings! The bottom is marked Germany. I was pretty sure I was going to have to fight for it, but it went for $5. I realized later why. The front has a big chip, but that's okay! I love her anyway!

The toy sewing machine on the right was my big purchase for the weekend. Roger was doing the bidding for me. I told him to go up to $50. He won the bid for $55. I love the art deco decals on this one! It will be a great addition to my collection. The beat up one on the left needs some TLC, but it will have a good home with us, anyway!

This will probably be the most expensive lamp I ever own. Roger saw it on Friday night and could hardly contain himself. He has been wanting a piece of trench art for his World War I collection, and this one surpassed his wildest dreams, I think. It is made out of a shell and carved with the word "Verdun". (Remember the Battle of Verdun? That was a big one, right?) It's really a nice piece! It didn't have a shade of any sort, but Roger added an authentic helmet to it when he got it home. It was pretty funny to watch him bid. He said his heart was about to jump out of his chest! And, I'm supposed to be the "emotional" bidder!

Roger's bachelor's degree is in Art, so our house is full of art. We always check out the pictures at auctions. Roger assures me that this pretty little picture is actually quite seductive and downright naughty! See the way she's lifting her dress and part of her breast is exposed? Those crazy Victorians! Roger says he'll hang it up high so the children won't be corrupted.

This is a very nice etching (so I'm told) of a fox hunt. Can you find the hiding fox?

So, that's it for today! I've got plenty more to show you though! And we've chosen a name for our new vintage business! More on that later!

I'll be linking this up to Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl!

How Does This Happen?

2011-06-13T21:40:00.013-05:00

Never in my life have I spent $100 at a garage sale. Except in the last two weeks. We were actually planning on taking the weekend off. We had too many other things going on. But, we ended up in Newton on Saturday morning, and Roger said, "We should check out some garage sales!" We didn't even have the classifieds to go by; we just followed the signs.

I found the two biggest of these spools at one of our first stops. Roger picked up the other three at another sale a few weeks ago. I love these things! I always admire them at antique stores, but haven't been willing to shell out the money for them, because you can't have just one! These were a steal! (They probably won't be going up for sale. Well, maybe one or two of them will.)

I also found this little teapot. It's marked "Made in Italy for Creative Playthings Inc." I haven't done any research yet, but for a buck, I figured I'd take a chance!

These two boxes were marked at $5 each. I was admiring them, but Roger was running out of cash, so I was going to pass on them. The seller offered to give them to me for a buck - for both! SOLD!

Our final stop of the day was the big $100 sale! There were lots of great items. I was admiring the things on the table, while Roger was looking at bikes. We came home with three bikes.

I'm partial to the one with the banana seat and baskets.

This Hotpoint iron doesn't have it's cord, but I figure it will be used for display and not ironing, so that's okay!

I saw this adorable, completely unused baby book and had to grab it! The copyright is 1951, and the illustrations are fantastic!

I found Ken in a shoe box. He's dated 1968 and has a speaker on his back, so I think he used to talk, probably by a pull string which is also gone. I got home and found out that his head isn't very firmly attached either. BUT, he's got a great wardrobe! Some of the clothes have tears, but many of them are perfect. I'm going to try to clean them up. I especially love the ski poles and flippers.

We also picked up a few other things - wooden antique billy club, a candy/small toy Toys N Joy vending machine and a fun postcard.

This coming weekend we're heading to a HUGE antique auction. We've been looking forward to this for a while. We'll see if we can afford anything!

I'm linking this up with Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday!

13 years and counting

2011-06-09T15:37:00.006-05:00

Monday was our 13th wedding anniversary, and we celebrated in a way that couldn't have been more perfect! (Well, okay, a cruise might have been a little better, but I'll take what I can get!)

Roger and I dropped the kids off at Grandma and Poppy's house and drove up to McPherson for an auction! Talk about romance!! We even had hotdogs, chips, brownies and soda all for $5. And, we came home with a van load of treasures.

Ceramic poodle! Seriously, can you have a mid-century modern house without a poodle?

Nice large milk glass basket

Cute little Tom Thumb typewriter! It's nice and light weight. It took my 8 year old son to help me find the numbers on this thing, though!

And, the best find of all (in my opinion!) They were auctioning stuff off outside and inside at the same time. Roger went out side and bought this as a surprise for me! I've been wanting one. Granted, I was hoping for red or maybe yellow, but I'll certainly take avocado!

This is, by no means, everything we bought! Roger also bought (another) trunk and a couple of pictures. I got a set of three Fire King white swirl mixing bowls and a Hamilton Beach mixer with a couple of Pyrex mixing bowls.

Not a bad way to spend an anniversary!

Adventures in Antiques

2011-06-06T09:38:00.011-05:00

Roger and I have always had a mutual love for old stuff. We both enjoy scouring antique stores for our favorite things - tin toys and WWI stuff for him and toy and full sized sewing machines for me. We love finding interesting things at auctions and have bought more than our share of odd stuff for a buck!

Recently, Roger started buying pedal cars to restore. Then, he restored a couple antique school desks for my sister and I and the results were fabulous, so he bought some more school desks. Then he bought some trunks to restore...

It's come to our attention that we cannot and do not want to keep all of these things. Plus, I've bought a number of random things, too, that caught my eye, but I don't have a good way to display. The next obvious step for a pair of collectors is to start selling. So, that's where we are at. We plan to spend the summer collecting, and then open a booth in one of our local antique stores this fall.

We have definitely been collecting this summer, and we have barely entered the auction and garage sale season! Just a few of our favorite finds, thus far!

Slide puzzles! These were at the bottom of a box of board games I bought at an auction. I love little surprises like this!

This clock is 30 inches in diameter. I saw it and loved it, so Roger brought it home. It will probably be up for sale, though, since I don't have room.

Roger bought this covered with dirt and filled with a broken ceramic planter. I was so proud!

The fire truck is a Midge Toy and the other two are Tootsie Toys. They'll probably stay in Roger's collection.

Needlebooks! Do people collect these? If not, they should! These are a just 3 of the ones I found in a box of miscellaneous sewing stuff from this past weekend. The Atomic and Shakespeare ones were my favorites.

Check out more awesome finds at Thrift Share Monday!

Finished Project

2011-05-17T14:32:00.004-05:00

This is the project that I put my Granny A Day project on hold for. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! The pattern is called Colorado Stripes and is from The Great Afghan Book by American School of Needlework. It's a super easy pattern and would be awesome if you are just learning to crochet!

I made this as a wedding gift for my friend Alysha who married the love of her life, Cliff this past Saturday in a gorgeous outdoor ceremony in Oklahoma. This is a picture of Alysha and me. Alysha is the one in white. :)

I'm assuming she has either opened this by now or doesn't read my blog. If neither of those is true, then, "Hey, Alysha!! Guess which box has the afghan in it!"

My Crop-A-Dile Died...

2011-04-13T10:41:00.003-05:00

Originally, I bought this pretty little tool for scrapbooking. It will punch a hole in almost anything - paper, fabric, leather, metal, chipboard! And it sets eyelets, grommets and snaps, too. When I started making the book corsets, I realized it was the perfect tool for that. Unfortunately, in the middle of making some corsets last week, it suddenly stopped working. I can bare squeeze it and have to pry it open once it's closed. Even Mr. Kay couldn't fix it. I can't even tell what's broken on it! It just won't work.

Fortunately, I had its big brother in the cupboard, brand new and unopened. (I got a good deal on it at Walmart, but hadn't needed it yet.) So, now I'm back in business! Seriously, though, if you are a seamster, but not a scrapbooker, you should wander over to the scrapbooking department and pick up one of these guys. Either the original Crop-a-Dile or the Big Bite. Totally worth it!

Down & Dirty, Why Did I Buy This Fabric, Reusable Bags!

2011-04-11T09:47:00.008-05:00

I have a lot of fabric. LOTS! Okay, not as much as some people, but it's still a lot. I was going through it this weekend and trying to assign jobs to each piece. And some of it made me stop and think, "What? What was I thinking when I bought that? And why did I buy so much of it?" It's not that it's really ugly fabric, just not really my style.

So then I started trying to think of ways to get rid of it fast. Trying to sell it off is a pain and could take a while. Reuseable shopping bags! Everyone needs those, right?

I found this tutorial which I really like, because it's EASY! And it looks pretty good, dontcha think?

I'm going to give these away with purchase at my crafts shows this year. Assuming, I can get enough made!

More Grannies!

2011-04-04T16:32:00.003-05:00

I'm behind. Totally to be expected and actually planned. Yeah. Planned. That's what I'm going with.... Actually, I'm putting all my crocheting energies into another project at the moment. It's a gift, so I can't say more than that. But, these are the last 12 blocks that I did, and I think they're really pretty! The one with the purple flower is my favorite! I'm very happy with how that turned out.

This square turned out a bit bigger than I had hoped, so it won't work with my other squares, but I still love the pattern. I was experimenting to see if I could get the 8" block pattern down to 6 - 6 1/2 inches by using an E hook. Um, no. But I did find that the 7" block patterns work well with the E hook.

I tell you what! Using that E hook on this yarn is hard work! It makes my hand hurt a little, but it's getting me the size I want, so I'll keep using it. I should be getting back to my granny squares in a few weeks. I better be, otherwise it means my gift will be late!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T10:40:00.004-05:00

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I made some green velvet cupcakes last night. I love the way they turned out. Not especially pretty, mind you, but they are GREEN! I sent one with Lil' Kay in his lunch box this morning and half a dozen to day care with Sally. The kids are both wearing their green t-shirts today, and I'm sporting my green sweater. When you've got an Irish last name, you've gotta represent!

Granny a Day Project

2011-03-16T11:08:00.004-05:00

I came across this idea on a couple of other blogs (Adaiha and CraftyMinx) and I couldn't resist giving it a shot. My plan is to crochet a granny square everyday for the next year. Chances are it will eventually turn into a granny square every two or three days, but at least I'll be making them. And, there's a good chance that I'll actually make enough to complete an entire blanket.

Every one of my squares is going to be different. I have zero attention span for making the same thing over and over again. Even in my shop, you'll rarely see more than two or three items made from the exact same fabric. I've got to mix it up or I lose interest pretty quickly. The nice thing about the granny squares is that they are small projects, so it doesn't take long to finish each one and feel like I've accomplished something. I'm all about the instant gratification!

When I'm finished, I'll have to attach them all together, and I'm not really looking foward to that, but I'm picturing this fabulous patchwork style blanket where each square is unique and fun to look at on its own. Kind of like my grandma's patchwork quilts. I always loved looking at each individual piece of those to see the varieties of fabric used.

So, wish my luck! These are my first four squares. I have more to show you over the next few days (hopefully, the next year!). I'm on day 10, and still on track!

Times are Changing

2011-03-12T09:07:00.010-06:00

For the past three or four years, I have been a proud supporter and promoter of buying and selling handmade on Etsy. Etsy gave me the motivation and means to sell my own creations to the world at large, and I loved it! Unfortunately, the Etsy that I started with is not the same Etsy as it exists today. I no longer feel that Etsy’s goal is to provide a means for small artists and crafters to market their work to a larger marketplace.

Etsy has been making some changes over the past few months that many sellers do not feel are in our best interests. We came to Etsy so that we would have a way of selling our handmade products. We were more than happy to pay our 20 cent listing fees and give Etsy a cut of the final sales price, because we believed in the vision and integrity of the site. We believed that they were truly interested in furthering the cause of handmade and the individual artisan and craftsperson.

Etsy appears to be intent on transforming itself to a social networking site, rather than focusing on ecommerce. I didn’t come to Etsy to join “teams” and create “circles”. I came to Etsy to sell my products. For years, I have watched sellers clamber for tools that will help us grow our businesses. I have seen them beg Etsy to spend money on outside advertising to entice new buyers to our shops. Over and over I have watched as Etsy spent time and resources adding “fluff” to the site, but never really providing sellers with truly useful upgrades. The recent changes do not help me promote my business on Etsy or reach new customers. If anything, they lead people OUT of my shop. I don’t think it’s out of line to suggest that some of the changes border upon the invasion of customers’ privacy.

In light of this, I will be moving the vast majority of my goods to my new shop at ArtFire. I have been won over by the professionalism that I have seen from the owners/founders of ArtFire and the way they respond to their sellers’ questions and suggestions. I am impressed by the seller tools they provide and the effort they make to help sellers sell!

ArtFire isn’t the only handmade venue out there, and I really encourage you to go out and explore the other options! You may find a new place to sell and a new place to buy. Coasting Along, another former Etsian, has taken the time to create a fabulous chart that compares the various handmade venue options that are out there. Look it over and see what works for you. And come visit me over on ArtFire!

A New Stash

2011-01-09T20:42:00.004-06:00

I've discovered a new little passion - pre-1980s craft books! One of my favorite places to find them is a shop called Book ReViews in the city where I work. It's a used bookstore whose proceeds all go to local charities. They've got a nice little section of craft related books that I stop in to browse now and then. I mostly look for sewing and crochet books, but now and then something a little funkier might catch my eye!

My most recent trip turned up the three books you see above. The first two were published in 1980 and 1978, respectively, and are full of sewing projects. I love these types of books because although the projects seem kitschy at first glance, some modern fabric and few little tweaks bring them right up to date. Besides, retro is in, right? The third book was published in 1972. It's full of art projects for kids. I love the layout of this book. It's spiral bound and each page is a card with a different project on it. I figure they will make good rainy day projects someday!

I think the main reason I love these books so much is because they remind me of my childhood. My mom had a collection of craft books that I would pore over as a girl. I found so many projects I wanted to create, but of course, didn't have the supplies or skills necessary. As an adult, I can come up with the materials for those projects and give them a try! (It's one of my favorite parts of being a grown-up!)

Now that I have this new little hobby, I can hardly wait for garage sale and auction season to come. I've got new prey!

Something for me!

2011-01-06T12:21:00.002-06:00

scarf 005, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

My crochet skills are definitely improving and that makes me very happy! I am currently working on this scarf for myself. I love the yarn; I love the pattern; I love the way it's turning out!

It's a fairly dense stitch so it's making a nice thick scarf that I think is going to be snuggly warm to wear. I bought the yarn on clearance at Hobby Lobby months ago and decided to break it out for this project. Love the way it is making its own stripes!

Here's the pattern if you want to make one of your own!

Back in the game

2010-10-23T11:10:00.003-05:00

I took the last year off from crafting for profit. Sally was born last September, sales were down, and I was TIRED! Then my sister who is my craft show partner announced that she is having a baby in November. So, it made sense for us to sit out this fall's craft show season.

But, after attending a handful of craft shows this fall, I am starting to feel the bug again! And I've started creating. My latest is the Book Corset that you see above. It's a fabric book cover that can be adjusted to fit books of various thicknesses. I've always been hesitant to buy book covers, because I didn't understand how they could possibly fit a number of different books. After some measuring, I discovered that most trade paper books have a pretty standard size for height and width. It's the thickness that varies.

It was actually my very smart husband who suggested using lacing to tighten and loosen the spine of the cover. We worked together on the prototype which had to be stitched and ripped and re-stitched several times, but finally got it right! I'm very excited about this, and plan to also make corsets for mass market paperbacks.

So, come visit my shop! I'm starting to fill it back up with goodness!

The Famous Schmidt Cookbook

2010-08-11T10:34:00.005-05:00

My dad comes from a family of nine kids. I have lots and lots of aunts, uncles and cousins! I have first cousins who are closer in age to my parents than to me. I have first cousins once removed that are closer to my age than my kids' age. (And, yes, I'm using that first cousin once removed thing correctly. I looked it up.)

Back in 1986, my aunt collected recipes from all our family members and combined them all into a cookbook. The original Schmidt Cookbook is full of all our favorites. There are little remembrances and quotes interspersed amongst the recipes, and handrawn artwork on the section dividers. This book was so popular, that even people who aren't Schmidts have copies of it.

However, after 20 plus years of constant use, those yellow cookbooks were starting to look a little ratty, and an original family of nine kids can do a heck of a lot of multiplying over 20 years! There began to be dreams of a new cookbook.

Putting together a cookbook is a big task! Or at least it was back in 1986. Fortunately, I found a company that does all the designing and layout for you. You just check the happy little boxes on the order form! So, for the new Schmidt Cookbook I used Morris Press Cookbooks. It completely simplified the entire process and they are very nice people to work with!

All I had to do was collect the new recipes and type them into their system. It was time consuming, but not hard. And, since everyone's old keepsake books were falling apart, I agreed to put all the recipes from the first book into the new one, so we could preserve our first book.

And, this is what we ended up with! Such a pretty book, although not as unique as the version a couple of my cousins and I first envisioned. We wanted it to have an outhouse on the cover. My husband wanted me to call it various versions of "Tastes Like Schmidt", but I lost my nerve.

The most important thing is that all of our family recipes are again preserved. There are 409 of them (recipes, not books). I know, because I typed each of them myself!

We "unveiled" the new book at the Schmidt Reunion in July. Everyone was thrilled with it, although a few were disappointed that I didn't go with Roger's more colorful title.

There are still copies left over, so let me know if you want your own! They're $6.50 a piece. That's only 2 cents per recipe!

Yarn People & Bears

2010-08-03T11:50:00.002-05:00

I have been a crafting dervish the past couple of days!! I've been in a crocheting mood, so I finished this bear for Sally:

And, I made this doll for my husband's co-worker Lydia who collects "ugly dolls".

I'm most proud of the curly hair on the doll, because I used the instructions from another pattern and did some project specific tweaking to make it work. And it did! My crochet skills aren't perfect yet, but hey! Look at me go!

Last night, I sat down and worked on a fabric pennant banner for a baby shower I'm hosting on Thursday evening. It's looking pretty good! I was very glad that I went ahead and purchased that equilateral triangle quilting ruler last year. Made cutting out the triangles for the banner much, much easier! I'll try to post pics of the finished banner later.

Or, I may just disappear for a couple months like last time!

Robot Battle

2010-06-08T15:17:00.002-05:00

I've been doing quite a bit of amigurumi crocheting lately. (Not much blogging, though, obviously!) Everytime I make something, Mr. Kay says, "Can I take it to work?" Apparently, his co-workers don't quite understand what I do. This "making stuff" thing just doesn't make sense to them! I'm pretty sure they think I wear long skirts, no shoes and quilt all day, possibly while wearing a bonnet.

I finally decided that I should make something that he could take to work, so I crocheted him a robot for his birthday. The robot was a sweet little thing, unfortunately, after being at my husband's office for a couple weeks, something bad happened...

Latest Addition

2010-04-29T16:43:00.002-05:00

I've recently discovered that I am totally in love with vintage sewing machines. Unfortunately, sewing machines are kind of a large item to collect! So, I've begun a collection of vintage toy machines. Mr. Kay collects tin toys, so these little machines fit in quite nicely with that collection, too. I have my machine from when I was a girl, and I've been keeping my eye out for others to add to my home.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Kay and I were browsing in a local antique store, and I ran across this little cutie. I ended up paying about $10 for her. She's missing her hand crank, and I haven't tried putting batteries in, but it doesn't matter if she works or not! I love her!

Give a Hoot!!

2010-04-07T12:09:00.002-05:00

These chubby little cuties were another couple of swap projects. The pattern comes from Lollychops, and they were super-easy and fun to make! If you've never checked out the Lollychops blog, you absolutely MUST! It's fun and funny and full of clever little projects!

I received this little owl from a swap partner! He's got cute little feet and the prettiest sparkling eyes! I adore him!

Amigurumi

2010-04-06T11:02:00.004-05:00

I haven't been blogging much lately, partly because I've been kind of busy and partly because I'm overwhelmed by the number of things I want to blog about. I start to worry that stuff will be old or out-of-date by the time I get to it, but frankly, you all don't know when I did stuff, so it doesn't matter if I blog about something that happened yesterday or six weeks ago! (That was a really long sentence!) So, I'm going to start just throwing stuff out there!

One of the main reasons I wanted to learn to crochet was so that I could make all the cute amigurumi figures I've seen out there. I was constantly seeing them on Etsy, only to find out it was a listing for a PATTERN and not the actual toy. I figured I better learn how to use those patterns! And, oh my goodness!, it is so fun and relatively easy!

I made this little guy in a couple of evenings for a swap. The pattern came from the book Amigurumi Two! by Ana Paula Rimoli. I was so pleased with how quickly he came together. And look how he can even come out of his egg shell! The cuteness is positively overwhelming!

It's Spring Time!

2010-03-22T10:20:00.003-05:00

Well, it's supposed to be spring time. Saturday was the first day of Spring. We had snow in Kansas. Not that we're not used to bizarro weather in Kansas, but really? Snow? I'm over the snow. I'm ready for daffodils and tulips. I have seen a few ladybugs lately, though! This one came in my mailbox as part of a swap. Isn't she adorable? And her maker has an Etsy shop here. I'm finding Swap-Bot to be a fabulous way to expand my softie collection!

As I said in an earlier post, I hosted my very first swap - a pincushion swap. This is the little cutie that I sent to my partner. I made it using this tutorial. I made mine a little bigger than the one in the tutorial. Very, very easy little thing to make. Somehow, it took me four tries to get it right. I was ready to throw ladybugs across the room! Seriously, this in no way reflects on the creator of the tutorial. This was just me and my sewing mojo!

Anyhoo! Enjoy your Spring, wherever you are! We have sunshine today, and I hope you do, too!

St Patrick's Day Treasure Hunt

2010-03-19T16:31:00.003-05:00

When I got Lil' Kay up on Wednesday, we were discussing St. Patrick's Day. He told me that he wished I would make cookies so that he could go on a treasure hunt for them. Well, I knew I couldn't make cookies, because I would be at work all day, but I'm a total sucker for those big brown eyes and innocent requests! So, I came up with some clues and a bucket with quarters in it and rushed home from work to hide the clues while Mr. Kay picked up the kids from daycare.

Upon arriving home, Lil' Kay found a big green folder sticking out of the mail slot on our house. Inside was a letter from "A Leprechaun" and the first clue. He had a great time figuring out each clue and finding the next one. When he found the treasure, he put each coin into his piggy bank, but he still "wished there would have been cookies!"

Fishies!

2010-03-08T15:33:00.002-06:00

Stuffie, plushie, softie, whatever you call them, I have become a total junkie! If it's soft and handmade, I love it! I'm currently in a Stuffies Galore swap, so I'm making these little guys for my part. I get to send out five stuffies and get five back. I've already received a ladybug and a trio of strawberries.

These little fish are made using a pattern from Funky Friends Factory. I love the way that repositioning the eyes gives them a completely different personality!

I'm finding the process of stuffie making frustrating, rewarding and magical! It's amazing to me that when I follow the directions, no matter how weird, I end up with a little creature! I've been trolling the internet for patterns and tutorials so I can join more swaps! LOL! Not sure when I'll take time to make new stuff for my own shop. Right now, I'm having fun doing stuff for me!

I'm getting it!

2010-02-26T16:18:00.002-06:00

All the little pieces are falling into place in my brain with this crochet thing! I'm really proud to say that I made that pretty red scarf up there! I used Caron Simply Soft yarn (I think the color is Autumn Red) and a pattern from the Feburary issue of Crochet World. It only took a me a few days. I love how fast crochet goes. That's just the kind of thing I need, because my project attention span is quite short.

I'm working on another scarf at the moment, but I'm hoping to make several of them as gifts. (Again, this is assuming the short project attention span doesn't win out.) So, I don't want to give away too many details just yet.

Just Swappin'!

2010-02-17T11:05:00.003-06:00

It seems that at this time every year, I kind of go into a sewing slump. I don't add anything to my shop, I just sort of coast. Pretty much the same thing is happening this year, except that I AM sewing, just not for my shop. I've been doing a few swaps and making gifts. I'm also working on my crocheting, too. My afghan is almost done!

I have not been making very many bags. In fact, I haven't a made a new bag for the shop in over a year!! However, I joined a bag swap over on Swap-Bot, and so dug out my trusty Bronte Bag pattern and went to work. I pulled this adorable teapot fabric out of my stash, and since my swap partner likes to wear her bags with the strap across her chest, I lengthened the strap. It was really relaxing to sew this bag again. Kind of like chatting with an old friend! I even made it on my "new" old Singer 401a. (I am loving that machine!)

For a little extra fun, I added some fabric yo-yos and buttons to the bag. I like the way these turned out. I'd like to make some bigger yo-yos, too. (I use a yo-yo making tool. I don't think I have the patience for actually cutting and hemming my own circles.)

So, that's what I've been up to! I'm also spending a bit of time watching the Olympics! My kid thinks his non-athletic-no-sports-watching parents have gone a bit nuts, but hey, it's the Olympics!

Pincushion Swap

2010-02-04T16:34:00.005-06:00

Lovebird Pincushion by feltmates
Red Zinnia by TheDailyPincushion

Red, Yellow and Teal Bottle Cap Pincushion by upthecreek

I've been collecting pincushions since I bought my very first one back when I discovered Etsy over three years ago. So far, I've only collected handmade ones, and frankly, it'll probably stay that way! I love the way that these essentially utilitarian objects are adorned and decorated so beautifully. There are such a variety of styles and looks. I could keep collecting them for years and not get bored!

To help grow my collection and, hopefully, add some variety to it, I'm hosting my very first Pretty, Pretty Pincushion swap over on Swap-Bot! I'll make a pincushion and send it off to my partner, and I'll be the lucky recipient of a handmade pincushion from my partner! If you're a pincushion lover, you're welcome to join us!

Winners!

2010-02-03T15:35:00.005-06:00

It was a big weekend for my boys! Lil' Kay got to participate in his very first Cub Scout pinewood derby race on Saturday, and he totally rocked it! His shark car came in first place in the Tiger Cubs division AND it won Best of Show out of all of the Cub Scouts' cars!

Mr. Kay entered a car in the Outlaw Division which just means that anyone who isn't a Cub Scout can race. His car came in first place in HIS division! Mr. Kay felt a little guilty that we came home with three trophies, but I say, WHATEVER! Everyone got a chance to bring a car and race it, and it isn't like there were only three trophies! Other kids got trophies, too!

Lil' Kay was so pleased to get two trophies so that he could give one to his baby sister! Isn't that sweet? Sally now has a pinewood derby trophy in her bedroom.

Here are the winning cars:

Note: That is not a real $100 bill. It's a giant fake one that Lil' Kay got for the 100th day of school!

Next year, I want a really fast pink Hello Kitty car that I can race!

Crafty Materials

2010-01-27T10:14:00.005-06:00

I'm a sucker for old board games. I love to see the little bits and pieces that come with them, and I'm always trying to think of fun ways to use them. I don't usually get around to actually doing anything with them, but I like to dream! If I had the space, I think it would be fun to cover an entire wall with the playing boards from vintage games.

When I was a kid, my sister and I "inherited" a bunch of old games and magazines and whatnot from one of our cousins. Most of the stuff was from the 70s, and most of it has not survived. However, we do still have The Bride Game! The idea is to collect all the "necessary" items to plan the perfect wedding. You know, bride, groom, attendants, cake, flowers, rings, something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. All of those components are printed on these little chipboard cards.

My mom dug this game out of the closet for me a few weeks back. The images on the cards are kind of charming, so I'm trying to come up with a good use for them. The gameboard was pretty beat up, but all but about three of the cards are still there.

So, what to do with these little cards? The small ones are about 2 1/2 inches square. The large ones are about 3 inches by 5 inches. They're all about 1/8 inch thick. They're quite sturdy, and I thought about using them for scrapbooking embellishments, but frankly, I don't have a lot of wedding pages to do these days!

I turned to my fellow Etsians for ideas, because, obviously, they're a creative bunch! Agentjane suggested incorporating them into table markers or centerpieces for weddings, and UpsideDownsideDark suggested making them into little boxes. I

love both of those ideas, but I'd like to hear more!

So, my dear, dear blog readers, what should I do with them? What should I make? You know, in between the umpteen other projects that I have floating around in my brain.

Label It!

2010-01-25T08:50:00.003-06:00

I'm a wannabe organization nut. I love the idea of neatly labeled jars and boxes and what not all neatly lined up on a shelf. The fact is that I'm very good at organizing stuff. I'm very bad at maintaining that organization. But, yesterday I bought myself a handy dandy little Dymo LetraTag label maker. It's the cutest little printer and it makes all kinds of fancy tags in different fonts, and you can even put borders around your labels. I made one for Lil Kay that had a crocodile around his name! I spent a good chunk of last night labeling my ribbons, buttons, scrapbook supplies, cats. (I'm kidding about the cats. I ran out of time.)

A New Sickness

2010-01-21T15:14:00.003-06:00

Yes, I bought this yarn with no particular project in mind. It's beginning. A new obsession. But, it was on CLEARANCE! And it's PRETTY! And I'm sure I can do SOMETHING with it!

Actually, I do have a plan. I want to make this scarf with it. I just didn't know that when I bought the yarn. (On sale. $1.79 a skein!) It's from the book Interweave Presents Crocheted Gifts: Irresistible Projects to Make & Give. Isn't it gorgeous!? Unfortunately, I don't think I have enough of the solid color for the border. So, if anyone has or comes across a spare skein of Sinfonia yarn in that pretty rust color, tell me! I'll buy it from you! And I'll be eternally grateful!

Reader Paradise

2010-01-14T16:43:00.004-06:00

It arrived today, and I am totally in love! I ordered the Nook back in December from Barnes & Noble. It was scheduled to ship on January 15, but it shipped Monday and arrived today - the 14th! There were instructions on how to unpack it, for heaven's sack! And they were totally necessary, too! Getting it out of the package was really the hardest part. Everything else about it has been easy peasy, so far! In fact, I just bought a couple ebooks online, touched the screen where it said "check for new B&N content", and the books were there! Just had to touch "download", and I was able to start reading. Nothing to plug in, nothing to connect. How amazing is that? It's like magic! (Okay, I know there is a simple explanation involving WiFi and all that, but it's magic in my mind!)

Now, I can take my happy little Nook with me wherever I go and look totally hip and cool while I read. And it's much lighter than carrying around a full-fledged book. Now, I admit that I went into this purchase rather blindly, so I am still finding out all the details about this little gadget. Turns out I can put pictures and music on it, too! And pdf files. So, if I have a crochet pattern that's a pdf, I can load it on the Nook and carry it with me, too!

My next plan is to design a comfy little cozy for my new friend! Just gotta pick the perfect fabric!

Why Mess with Perfection???

2010-01-08T12:57:00.003-06:00

Why, oh, why do they DO this to me? Over and over again they're taking my precious childhood memories and vamping them up! First it was Strawberry Shortcake, and now, it's Rainbow Brite! What's next?? Holly Hobby in a tube top?

Project Wreck

2010-01-05T21:50:00.001-06:00

365/5, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

This book has been around for a while, and I've been intrigued by it, but never picked it up. Today I was out looking for a new datebook and ran across a copy. I decided to purchase it. You know, new year, new projects, new inspiration, all that. Every page gives you instructions on a unique way to mark, destroy, maul and generally wreck this journal! The instructions are quite simple and yet actually stimulate creativity.

I figure when I'm all done with the book, I'll want to keep it forever. And, you know, if I'm going to keep it, I want anyone who finds it to be amused by the clever ways in which I've wrecked it! (Yes, that would be the egomaniac in me. We all have one.) But, I think that drive to be interesting will stretch my creativity and encourage me to think outside the box.

Lil' Kay was fascinated by this photo of my new book and wanted to know all about it. I sat down with him and read all the instructions. I could tell he was intrigued by the ideas that were presented. He giggled and puzzled and questioned. I asked him if he'd like his own copy. Definitely! I'm glad, because I kind of want someone to accompany me on this creative journey.

Crochet Progress

2010-01-05T11:00:00.001-06:00

365/4, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

So, I've been teaching myself to crochet and it's going pretty well! I think I've got the hang of it.

I'm currently working on an afghan. The pattern is one of those freebies that you pull off the pad at the store. This one is from Lion Brand. Basically, it's a giant granny square. I started it back at Thanksgiving. I'm still working on it, but I don't work on it every day. Mostly, it's what I do to kill my lunch hour since I don't drive all the way home for lunch. It's getting pretty big, and I think I'll actually finish it!

The next project I want to do is another scarf. I have my eye on several potential patterns.

As I'm learning, I've found that there really isn't a wrong way to crochet. Everyone has their own style. My sister in law was watching me crochet and commented to my mom, "Hey, she holds her hook the right way, like a pencil. I hold mine like a pitchfork!" And guess what? Even though she holds her hook "like a pitchfork", she still makes lovely things! So, I'm not going to feel bad about the fact that I use my left hand to pull the yarn over my hook.

Project 365

2010-01-04T09:29:00.003-06:00

I've decided to try this crazy Project 365 photo thing that all the kids are doing these days. I'm going to take and upload a photo for everyday of the year. These are my first three. And, guess what! I've already cheated! That second photo of the clock was taken by Mr Kay. But it was on MY camera!

If you're interested in seeing how my project goes, here's a link to My 365 Set. I've also joined this flickr group. They seem pretty laid back without all the scary rules and what not. You know, if I fail, I won't be kicked out or whatever!

I don't really have any big reason or master overall plan to why or how I am going to do this. No theme, just whatever catches my attention. I'm more curious to see how the project evolves on its own. Will my photography improve? Will a theme appear? Will I get past this week? I'm not very good at doing the same thing every single day. Heck, Brushing my teeth daily is a challenge. I kid. I kid.

I've been busy!

2009-12-30T11:17:00.002-06:00

Even though I haven't been blogging much, I have been busy! I was scrambling a couple weeks ago to finish all my well-intentioned Christmas gifts. And, let me say, I got the essential ones done! Hurray! This dinosaur was one of my most favorite projects and was made for a friend's daughter.

I'm just starting to try my hand at making some stuffed animals. When I'm learning a new craft, I find it beneficial to learn by making projects from patterns that have already been created by others. No sense in trying to reinvent the wheel, right? Once I've learned basics and become comfortable with a form, I can branch out from there.

This dinosaur pattern is from Morrissey Dolls. It was a very fun project to put together and the instructions were quite easy to follow. It didn't take me nearly as long to complete him as I was afraid it would! And, of course, Lil' Kay is convinced that he needs one, too. He wants his to be green. And, he thinks Sally needs a purple one!

Cute Kids

2009-12-23T10:15:00.001-06:00

I know I haven't blogged in weeks, and the fact is I have lots of stuff to show you, but I'm terribly behind 0n my photo taking. I've been busy sewing for Christmas and going to Christmas programs and all the other things we do at this time of year.

This is Lil Kay and Sally this morning before work. They're wearing their matching Godzilla tees. Can you tell that Spongebob was on while I was snapping this photo? Neither of them is paying attention to me.

ONLY 2 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

Happy Cyber Monday!

2009-11-30T09:48:00.002-06:00

All of the bags in my shop are currently 1/2 price! I've got them all marked down, so there is no need to wait for a revised invoice! Just head on over and shop to your heart's content!

I convinced my dear sister Jessica to venture out with me on Black Friday. We only wanted to go to Target and WalMart, both of which opened at 5 AM. We also agreed that we didn't REALLY need to be there when they opened. That's just for crazy people! **snort** We agreed to leave my house at 6 AM.

I set my alarm for 5:00. At 6:00 I heard a knocking on my front door. Yeah. Alarm did not go off. But, hey, I was ready to leave the house at 6:10!

Overall, it wasn't as bad as we expected. Target was our first stop. It was busy, but the staff was helpful and the customers were friendly. We snagged a couple of the bargains we went for and then waited in line. The line looked more imposing than it was. We got out of there in fairly decent time.

With fear and trepidation, we drove down to WalMart. We were shocked! Where were all the cars? We parked in the front row!! We went in, got our items and checked out at the Christmas department with no waiting! The employee back there said, "You should have been here at 4:30. It all died off at 6:00."

Really, the only things I didn't get were the $29 digital photo frame and a copy of Elf for $3.99. I was pretty pleased with my purchases, and it was a low stress experience. Except the over-sleeping part. Thank God Jessica went with me. I'd have been pretty annoyed if I woke up at 8:00 and realized I'd missed it!

Tooth Brush Needle Rug

2009-11-23T16:42:00.002-06:00

This weekend, I attended a very small craft show in my hometown. I didn't buy much, but I did purchase this beautiful handmade tooth brush needle rug. I had never heard of such a thing, so, of course, I googled it when I got home.

Turns out, these rugs were orginally made using a needle made from a tooth brush! Back in the day when tooth brushes came with a hole in the handle. Have you noticed they don't come that way any more?

The Mennonite woman who made this rug, told me it was made from strips of sheets. It's very nice and squishy under my feet. I have it laying in front of my kitchen sink. I do think I need to put some kind of rubber gripper thing underneath it though. It slides quite easily at the moment.

Want to make your own tooth brush needle rug? (Apparently, you can now buy tooth brush needles, so you won't have to find an "antique" tooth brush to make one from.) Here is a pretty good set of instructions. Personally, I'm going to leave this art to the rugmaking experts, but it is an interesting idea!

New Obsession

2009-11-18T14:12:00.003-06:00

I've been wanting to learn to crochet for a long time. I'm constantly finding the cutest little amigurumi animals and figures on Etsy, only to find out that it's a pattern for sale, not the actual item. So, if I can't buy the figures, I'm gonna have to learn to make them myself.

I mentioned that I wanted to learn to crochet, and my mom said she could teach me, but somehow, that didn't seem like such a good idea. I picked up a learn to crochet kit at Hobby Lobby and took it with me when Sally had to be in the hospital for jaundice. I learned a little, but when I got past single crochet, I felt like the instructions were a bit lacking. Stuff wasn't making sense, so I put it all away. It wasn't like I didn't want to learn anymore, it just wasn't coming all that easily, and quite frankly, I'm a little lazy.

Over my lunch hour yesterday, I happened to pass buy the local bead and yarn store and decided to stop in and see what kind of crochet books they had. The owner showed me two or three that she said were very good. When I asked which one would be most helpful for both learning and reading patterns, she recommended The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller.

Last night, while I was watching tv with Mr Kay, I broke out the yarn and hook and went to work. The instructions in this book are amazing! All the things that I just didn't "get" with the other book were fully explained in language I could understand. The diagrams made sense. It addressed common mistakes with phrases like "here" and "not here". It kind of feels like you're learning with an actual person sitting there teaching you. I am loving the way the hook and yarn feel in my hand, and it's so exciting to see the actual progress. And it actually looks good!

Today over my lunch hour, I learned the double crochet stitch. Tonight, I'm going to tackle the triple. I can hardly wait to get to the end of the book which is full of simply adorable patterns! There are at least two scarves, two sweaters, a couple hats, a bag and a blanket that I want to make. It should keep me busy all winter long!

Make sure you get the most recent edition of the book. Apparently, the original book had a number of errors in the patterns, but those have been corrected in the latest edition. (I nearly panicked when I started reading some of the reviews, but was relieved to find out about the corrections.)

I'm sure there will be future posts about my foray into this new hobby. Maybe I'll get brave enough to post a picture of my swatch!

Work in Progress

2009-11-17T09:13:00.001-06:00

Owl - work in progress, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

I've had this little design sketched up for some time now, but had been focusing on my fruit pillows. Over the past few days, I've been bringing my owl to life.

After I had the front stitched together, I held it up for Mr Kay. He just stared at it. "It's an owl," I said.

"Oh. I see it now. I thought it was a cup."

Seriously?? A cup?? Granted, I didn't have the eyes on it, but still, a cup??

So far, I have the front, back and sides done. Now, it's just a matter of sewing the three components together and attaching the eyes. I found the perfect buttons to use as eyes. I think they're supposed to be a flower design, but they make awesome owl eyes!

I'm hoping this little cutie will be in the shop very soon! If I can get decent pictures. Winter has arrived in Kansas, and it's wet and cold!

Art by Lil' Kay

2009-11-16T10:59:00.001-06:00

Layton as an octopus, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

My son is a prolific artistic. Our house is a veritable tinderbox of paper. That child can go through a ream of paper in a week! I am constantly picking up papers and sneaking them into the trash can. I have to bury them under other stuff, because he knows my trick and checks on me.

But, every now and then, I run across a drawing that is so funny or so accurate, that I simply must not throw it away. This year, my nephew was an octopus for Halloween, and this is Lil' Kay's depiction of Layton in his costume.

Lost in Translation

2009-11-14T20:01:00.002-06:00

Lost in Translation, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

Lil' Kay brought this little airplane home from school. It was a prize he received for selling a certain number of items (all bought by me!) in a fundraiser.

Mr. Kay and I just scratched our heads.

2009 Christmas Ornament Exchange

2009-11-04T11:06:00.002-06:00

Last year, I participated in the Christmas Ornament Exchange organized by Beki of PamperingBeki. It was lots of fun to create a special ornament to send to my partner and receive one in return. When I heard that Beki was doing it again, I jumped at the chance to join! I suggest you do, too!

Go to Beki's blog to sign up and get more details!

Sally's Quilt

2009-11-03T10:49:00.005-06:00

My grandma is a quilter. She's been quilting for longer than I can remember, and it's always very special to receive one of the quilts that she has worked on. In recent years, my mom has also begun to do some quilting, and she wants to make sure that each of her grandchildren receives a quilt that she has made for them.

When we found out that we were having a baby girl, Mom immediately started to think about what kind of quilt she should make for Sally. I found this pattern in a quilting magazine and helped her to pick out the fabrics. Let me tell you, there are a lot of different fabrics in this pattern! It took quite some time at the quilt store to find the necessary number of coordinating prints!

My mom did all the cutting and piecing for the quilt and Grandma did the quilting. So, it's been worked on by both Sally's grandma and her great grandma. Talk about an heirloom!

Mom presented us with the completed quilt this past Saturday, and isn't it gorgeous? Very feminine without being too pink. Just the way I wanted it. It's also huge! Definitely not a baby blanket, but that's perfect, too. Now, Sally will be able to enjoy this blanket for a long, long time.

Halloween Highlights

2009-11-02T11:16:00.003-06:00

Phew! The past few days have flown by in a flurry of pumpkin guts and duct tape!

Thursday night was our annual pumpkin carving party. We had ten people over to eat chili and carve jack-o-lanterns. Lil Kay and I decided to take a cue from Family Fun Magazine and carve a shark eating smaller fish. Mr. Kay carved his pale green pumpkin with a bit of a scary face. We were so surprised and delighted to see that the green pumpkin actually still had vivid orange innards! Our white pumpkin, on the other hand, was white all the way through! I have to admit that we didn't get all six of these pumpkins carved on Thursday night. Three of them were finished on Saturday morning!

Here in Kansas, we had beautiful weather for trick-or-treating on Halloween day! Lil Kay's scuba diver costume was a big hit, and everyone was gushing over how cute Sally looked in her goldfish suit. Mr. Kay and I both agreed that it looked a bit like she'd been eaten by a giant goldfish.

Lil Kay's diver costume was so much fun to put together. I have to give credit to Mr. Kay for making the tank and flippers. The flippers were created out of duct tape and tubing and finished just a couple hours before we left for the big Halloween event downtown. Unfortunately, they were a bit hard to walk in and were taken off shortly after we arrived downtown!

After trick-or-treating downtown, we drove over to my parents' house, and Lil Kay got to do more trick-or-treating with his cousins who were dressed as a mermaid and an octopus. Anyone detect a theme here?

2009-10-27T10:29:00.005-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about new items that I've been wanting to add to my Etsy shop, particularly items in the $10 to $15 price category.

This past weekend I worked on a fun little wristlet that forced me to conquer my fear of zippers! It also encouraged me to think about trimmings. Unfortunately, I misread instructions and didn't think things through. My first attempt was going along brilliantly! (I thought.) Then when I finished everthing and turned the wristlet right side out, I discovered that I had a raw seam in the lining. All right. So, it was a learning experience. Typically, my first attempt at any project doesn't turn out perfectly. That's how I work out the bugs. I knew what I had done wrong, so I wouldn't make the same mistake on the next one.

So, I started on the second wristlet. Same fabric, same trim. This time I sewed my label into the lining, because I was confident that this would be the first one I would list in the shop. And, it would have been, too, if it wasn't for poor pin placement. As in, I placed the pin directly into the palm of my hand and bled on the wristlet. It's just a small dot on the lining, but I certainly don't sell products that I've bled on! So, my sister and I will be sporting matching wristlets this fall. I'm going to let her decide if she wants the one with the raw seam or the one I put so blood, sweat and tears into. Okay, well, blood, at least.

Pumpkin Time

2009-10-21T13:01:00.003-05:00

Every October, my side of the family all gets together at the pumpkin patch for an afternoon of fun and pumpkin gathering. This year, we chose to go to the Smoky Hill Bison Pumpkin Patch. Of course, it was Sally's first trip to the patch. Unfortunately, she spent most of the afternoon under her carrier cover thanks to the brisk Kansas wind. We snuck her out a couple times for photos, but that's about it! I was pretty thankful for her cute little pumpkin hat to protect her tiny ears.

There were plenty of activities to keep the kids busy. We conquered the corn maze, raced rubber ducks, nailed wooden chickens with bean bags and climbed on a giant spider web. My sister and four year old niece even braved the zip line!

Obviously, our main goal was to gather the perfect pumpkins. We came home with four small to medium sized pumpkins, including two orange ones, a blueish-green one and a white one. Well, I say "we came home with", but actually we forgot them at my parents' house. I'll be making a trip over there to pick them up before our pumpkin carving party next week!

Sally's First Craft Show

2009-10-19T13:03:00.002-05:00

Mom, Sally and I spent Saturday in our booth at the Central Christian's Market Square craft show in Wichita. Business was a little slow, but we had a good time showing off Sally in her cute little "Future Crafter" onesie from MuthaCrafter. She was quite the popular little lady and extremely well behaved. (Let me assure you that I only bring my kids with me to these kinds of things for the first year of their lives. You know, while I can still shove them in a carrier and stick a bottle in their mouth!)

This is pretty much how the weekend went:

Passerby: How old is your baby?
Me: One month.
Passerby: Look at all that hair!

If I had a dollar for everytime I had that exact conversation, the craft show would have been a HUGE success!

As it was, we didn't sell a lot, but it was a very nice show! Well-organized and wonderful quality exhibitors! I would definitely consider doing the show again. I even met a fellow Etsian - LindsayLouCreations!

I'm all done with craft shows for this year, so my new patchwork fruit pillows are starting to show up in my Etsy shop. Stop by and take a peek!

Halloween Decor 2009

2009-10-11T19:03:00.003-05:00

Friday evening, Lil' Kay called a family meeting. He sat us down on the couch and informed us that it was time to put up the Halloween decorations. Over the course of the weekend, we finally got everything put up. Here's a peek at our Halloween decor for this year! We printed these jack-o-lanterns off of the Playhouse Disney website. Then we colored them, cut them out and taped them to our bookcase for a cute pumpkin patch border!

It's Not Easy Being Yellow!

2009-09-28T12:16:00.002-05:00

It's been quite the adventure this week. I really thought that when we took our perfect healty baby girl home from the hospital, that we'd be done with the hospital for a while! Last Tuesday, we took her to the doctor for just a quick check up and ended up at the lab to have her bilirubin levels tested, because her skin was looking a bit yellow. When the results came back, her levels were well over the 15 the doctor wanted.

So, they sent out a bili-blanket for us to use at home. Unfortunately, we got pretty poor instructions, so we didn't use it correctly the first night. The next day, her levels were over 20. The doctor wanted us to bring her in to the hospital so they could put her under the larger lights. We were not at all excited about that, so we asked for more time so we could use the blanket more effectively. Her levels went down by one point, but the next day they were back up to 22, the highest they had been so far.

At that point, the doctor was insistent that we bring her in to the hospital, and I agreed. I just wanted to get it fixed as soon as possible. So, we spent this weekend in the hospital with Sally. She got to spend most of her time in a box under the "smurf light". She hated it and especially hated the little mask she had to wear to protect her eyes.

Fortunately, on Sunday morning her bili level was down to 10, and the doctor sent us straight home. Unfortunately, Lil Kay, who had been staying with Grandma and Grandpa has been running a fever all weekend and complaining of a sore throat. The doctor thought we should keep him away from Sally, so he's still there, but is seeing the doctor. Hopefully, he'll be home soon!

Seriously. I thought I'd bring my baby home, and we'd settle right down to being a family of four! This is harder than I expected!

Introducing Sally Rebecca

2009-09-24T19:39:00.002-05:00

Our family officially grew by one whole person last Thursday at 3:55 PM. Miss Sally Rebecca has made her grand entrance into the world, and we are all completely in love with her! She weighed in at 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20 inches long.

Counting down the hours!

2009-09-16T08:20:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow is Baby Day! Unless she should decide to make her appearance earlier, I am being induced tomorrow morning. I'm very excited and very nervous! It will be quite strange for our family of three to turn into a family of four.

Yesterday was my last day of work, so I'm at home today trying to figure out what I absolutely must get done before I go into the hospital tomorrow. So far, I've put our sheets into the washing machine, so we'll all have nice crisp clean beds to sleep in tonight. I need to pack Lil' Kay's bag for Grandma and Grandpa's house, and I'd really like to finish this last strawberry pillow that I have started.

One project I did manage to finish in time was a special hospital gown, so I can look all "purty" in those post-delivery photos! I had seen these pretty gowns on Etsy, but I just couldn't justify the expense. So, when mypinkytoes posted a listing for her pattern, I jumped on it! I love how it turned out. I did make a couple alterations due to my own sewing errors and preferences, but really a very easy pattern for anyone who has done some sewing. And coming from someone who does not sew clothes, that is saying something!

So, the next time I blog, I'll be a new mommy - again! And, yes, there will be pictures. Probably more than you'll ever want to see!

More Produce

2009-09-08T10:05:00.003-05:00

Well, we are getting down to the wire with this whole pregnancy thing and the craft show thing. So, I've been busily sewing and sewing to prepare for both! This weekend, I finished up two more pillows - a pumpkin and a pear!

The Home Stretch

2009-09-02T10:51:00.002-05:00

I am now officially 37 weeks pregnant and definitely feeling it. You know those pictures they show of the itty bitty baby all curled up in the fetal position? That's a load of crap, I say! This baby is friggin' kick boxing in side me. I'm pretty sure she spends most of her time head down spread eagle inside me. As I'm typing this, I can see my belly moving. It's sort of creepy, but it's also my favorite part of being pregnant.

Last week, I had a complete break down and was insistent that there was no way I could way four more weeks to have this baby. Then I made a list of things I want to accomplish before the Hillsboro Arts & Crafts Fair on the 19th and said, "Whoa, Baby! You better just stay put for a few more weeks!"

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good this week. I had my last baby shower last night and got lots of cute teeny tiny pink things, and I had a pedicure over my lunch hour yesterday. The house is reasonably tidy and the baby's bed is all made. However, I still haven't packed a bag for the hospital. I'm a teensy bit silly like that. I figure if I pack a bag ahead of time, I'll probably have to be induced. If I don't pack a bag, maybe I'll go into labor and be rushing around at the last minute to do it! Yep, I make my husband crazy!

Screature Day!

2009-08-31T11:54:00.007-05:00

For months, Lil' Kay has been saving up his money to buy Screature, a battery-operated dinosaur with motion sensor technology that makes him snap, growl, purr, laugh and even shoot water depending on the situation. Everytime we went to Walmart, we would visit Screature and play with him, but at $35 I wasn't going to give in and just buy it for him. Instead, we encouraged him to save. My son spent all summer searching, asking, bribing and pandering to gather enough funds. Okay, we tried to encourage him to EARN the money and he did a little, but he's a little lazy. "If you'll clean up this area, I'll give you a dollar for your Screature box." HUGE SIGH, "I wish I had a metal detector so I could go look for money."

Anyway, Saturday night we discovered that he was only $5 away from having enough to buy Screature. So, after a fairly well-behaved morning in church where I had instituted some new behavior rules suitable for a first grader, I agreed to make up the difference so he could go buy his new pet.

Without a doubt, it was the "best day of his life"! (Granted, this is coming from a kid who has been known to have the best and worst day of his life within the same 24 hour period, but he was pretty happy.) In no time flat, Screature had his own bed with a pillow and blanket, and Mr Kay and I were being told to turn down the t.v. so we wouldn't wake him. Screature has been terrorizing the cats, and I swear, if that thing snaps at my nose one more time, I'm removing his batteries.

Sunglasses

2009-08-22T08:04:00.001-05:00

Sunglasses, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

"Do I look hot? And sweet"

Seriously. Where does he come up with this stuff? I love this kid!

Winner!

2009-08-11T08:53:00.002-05:00

That is a picture of the second prize winner in the "other" category at the 2009 Old Settlers Pet Show! Well, I guess, it was actually the hermit crabs that won second prize, not Lil' Kay, but he was pretty darn excited! Okay, there were only three entries in his category, but he lost to a fainting goat, so that's pretty good. I mean, it's hard to beat a fainting goat!

Hot off the sewing machine!

2009-08-03T20:37:00.002-05:00

My fruity patchwork pillow line is coming along quite nicely. This strawberry is probably my most favorite yet. I'm particularly fond of strawberries, anyway, and this just makes me happy! It's going to be hard to part with, so I'll probably have to make another right away.

I'm a little tempted to embroider a cute little face on this and make it a bit more kawaii. What do you think?

Dotee Dolls

2009-08-01T21:02:00.003-05:00

Shortly after joining Swap-Bot, I started hearing about Dotee Dolls, and of course, had to know what the fuss was about. Turns out, they are are cute little handmade dolls made for swapping and gifting. No selling them! The dolls generally measure about 4-6 inches and have a hanger and a tail. The rest is totally up to the artist! I love the folk art feel of these dolls and am anxious to make more.

The original creator of the Dotee Doll is Dot Christian, an Australian doll designer. She even has a shop on Etsy where you can purchase Dotee kits to help you get started. Or you can do a search and find all sorts of instructions and variations.

After doing a search for Dotee on flickr, I was totally blown away by the variety and uniqueness of each of these dolls. There are simple Dotees, extravagant Dotees and everything in between.

I decided to try my hand at making a Dotee and found a swap for color themed Dotees. The theme for this swap was black. I gathered some supplies and went to work this afternoon. I was so excited with how it turned out. I just kept adding to it as ideas came. You can see my final version on the left and the back view on the right. The "wings" were a last minute addition. I also added a bit of blush to her cheeks after I'd already taken her photo. (She seemed a little pale.) I hope that my swap partner will be as pleased as I am!

Times When I Question my Parenting Skills

2009-07-30T12:58:00.001-05:00

Sometimes, I think I may be raising the weirdest kid on the planet, but he is funny. Lil' Kay was invited to a birthday party this weekend for his friends Brandon and Heather. They're twins. I asked him what he wanted to get Brandon as a gift.

"Ummmm..... maybe a picture of me?"
"A picture of you? Why?"
"Well, so he could put it in a frame."
"That's weird. Would you want a picture of Brandon for your birthday?"
"No!" (Said like I was totally out of my mind.)

So, I'm taking him shopping tonight for gifts. I worry that maybe he's a bit selfish, but I think that's a little normal for a six year old, especially an only child. I'm just not quite sure how to get him to think of others before himself.

New Addiction

2009-07-27T11:00:00.006-05:00

I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who are already familiar with Swap-Bot, but I'm a newbie. And when I say "newbie", I mean really new! I just signed up last Friday. I've already signed up for my maximum number of swaps as a newbie (5). I've even got one all packaged up and ready to mail!

Getting mail is very high on my list of things that I love, right after, God, family and country, probably! I'm also a big fan of making and buying stuff for other people, so swapping is right up my alley.

I just finished a swap called $1 Store Scavenger Hunt. Yesterday, Lil Kay and I took a trip to our local Dollar Tree to find five things: Something you would display; something you would find in a drawer; something you would find in the bathroom; something you might find outdoors and something you would buy for yourself. I'm not telling you what I bought, because I don't want to accidentally ruin any surprises. So, I'm sending off five items and someone else is sending me five items. Can't wait to see what I get and find out if my partner likes what I sent!

Now I'm working on a swap involving stationery. Notecards and letter sets and pens and stickers, oh my! Maybe this will inspire me to catch up with my pen pals!

More Fruit for Your Basket

2009-07-24T16:25:00.002-05:00

I finished up the watermelon pillow last night, and I'm excited with it. It was easy and it's cute! I'm thinking I'll work on the pumpkin next. Or maybe the strawberry.

New Stuff!

2009-07-22T16:44:00.002-05:00

You know, since I'm not really busy getting ready for the baby that will be here in two months (insert eye roll), I've been working on some new stuff! It's a line of patchwork fruit pillows, and I'm pretty happy with how the first one has turned out!

So, in case you couldn't tell, this is an apple. I've also got sketches drawn up for a pear, a pumpkin (which I know isn't really a fruit), a slice of watermelon and a strawberry. I think I'm going to go with the watermelon next.

Tell me what you think!

She Made It

2009-07-17T09:50:00.002-05:00

Mermaid, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

I am so stinking proud of this that you would think I'd made it myself! My sister Jessica showed me this beauty last night, and it was love at first sight.

This pretty little mermaid is at least two feet tall. (I haven't measured her yet.) She's made from fleece, so she's soft and cuddly, and I'm thrilled with how the fleece hair turned out. What little girl wouldn't want to snuggle up with this friendly beauty?

She will be debuting at the Hillsboro Arts & Crafts Fair in Hillsboro, KS in September. If there are any left, we'll add them to the She Made It store after that!

Transformation

2009-07-15T14:34:00.002-05:00

Earlier this summer, I picked up this cute little sewing box at an auction for about $12. I've been wanting one of these for ages, but have never actually won the bid. This was my lucky day, I guess! It was one of several items up for grabs in a "your choice" kind of deal. I waited as the bigger pricier items were snatched up, and then managed to get this for a song.

I brought it home, slapped on some primer and paint and voila! Total cuteness!

I have to admit that I meant to go for a deeper redder red, but I'm a total nincompoop when it comes to choosing paint color by those silly little swatches at the paint store. I need a 12x12 swatch to really get the feel for how a particular color will look. But I'm still happy with the results. My favorite part is the vinyl decal I purchased from Single Stone Studios! It is actually a 23" long decal that I cut in half so I could have birds on both sides of my sewing box. The directions that came with the decal were super-easy to follow, and the quality of the decal is excellent! I'd highly recommend them!

I've always wanted to be one of those people who can take a flea market find and turn it into something lovely!

If you'd like to see a play by play of how this project went down, you can check it out here!

The King of Pillows

2009-07-09T19:38:00.006-05:00

I have today and tomorrow off work, so this morning, Lil' Kay and I met my mom to choose fabric for Sally's baby quilt. While Mom and I were choosing fabrics (and let me tell you, that is a time-consuming task) Lil' Kay found a dinosaur fabric panel that he absolutely loved! Now, fabric panels are typically used to make a wall hanging or small blanket, but we decided to turn this one into a giant body pillow!

I did the cutting and sewing and then turned Lil' Kay loose with a bag of polyfil! He did a fabulous job of stuffing his pillow, but it took a lot of "fluffy" to fill it! He kept telling me, "It's almost done!" and I kept say, "No, it's not!" He was quite the trooper. I really expected him to get bored when it didn't fill up as quickly as he wanted, but he just kept stuffing.

Lots of "fluffy" later, Lil' Kay had a huge body pillow covered in his favorite dinosaurs. Lately, he's been trying to determine the "king" of everything -- king of dinosaurs, king of animals, king of candy (which, by the way, is chocolate). He was very quick to dub this project the King of Pillows!

Stay Tuned

2009-07-08T16:50:00.001-05:00

Tiki Mon, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

I know I haven't blogged for a while. It's because I'm working on lots of projects that I want to share with you, but not until they're finished!

My new craft area is in the works. I have my cute little sewing box almost done. My belly is getting bigger by the minute. And, I've got a fun little project for the nursery that I just ordered supplies for yesterday.

That little guy up there is my most favorite firework that we blew up this year! How could I resist that face?? And when we ignited him, his eyes and mouth lit up! So that's what I'm up to! Working on projects and blowing things up!

Check out my interview

2009-06-30T09:51:00.002-05:00

I'm featured today over at Pixie's Purpose! Check it out and learn everything you wanted to know about me!

Lil' Kay Creations

2009-06-18T21:09:00.001-05:00

Space Godzilla & Godzilla, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

I am always blown away by the creatures that Lil' Kay draws and colors, but keeping the reams and reams of drawings he makes just isn't practical. I was really excited to come up with an cute and fun way to make his drawings a bit more permanent.

I started out by iron a piece of muslin fabric onto a sheet of freezer paper. This creates a nice crisp "canvas" for Lil' Kay to draw on. I gave him a black fabric pen and let him draw on of his creatures on each piece of muslin. He's a big Godzilla fan, so that's Space Godzilla on the left and plain old Godzilla on the right.

After he drew the outlines, he colored them in with ordinary crayons. I encouraged him to color fairly dark so the colors would show up. When he was finished coloring, I placed a paper towel over the image and ironed the paper towel until I was no longer getting any colored wax on the paper towel.

I then peeled the freezer paper away from the muslin and placed the muslin image down on a piece of colored cotton fabric. I pinned the two pieces together and used the sewing machine to stitch around the image leaving a bit of a margin around the actual drawing and leaving an opening at the bottom of the image for turning and stuffing. I cut around the stitching leaving about a 1/4" seam allowance. Next, I turned the creatures right side out, filled them with stuffing and hand stitched the opening closed.

Super easy and fun. Lil' Kay was thrilled with the results. The only problem? He drew both of the creatures facing the same direction, so they can't fight! I told him he'd have to work on that design flaw for next time!

Giant Squid Attack!!

2009-06-11T11:33:00.002-05:00

I made this for Lil' Kay. It is the one and only that I will ever make, so don't ask me. He's a cute little fella, isn't he? Last night he attacked a pirate ship, so he may look all cute and flowery, but he's deadly!

Actually, if you want your own squid, you can get the pattern for FREE at Bit of Whimsy Dolls! And while you're there, look at all the other patterns you can purchase. They're fantastic! I'm really tempted by Lenny the Guinea Pig and the B-Movie Monsters.

The squid pattern is actually a very simple project. The only problem I had was attaching the legs to the body. I'm not a patient person, so it was frustrating for me, but I got it done! And look how adorable! He's supposed to have a little smile, but my resident squid expert informed me that his squid should not have a mouth, because squids don't have mouths. They have beaks hidden up under their bodies. It was all I could do to convince him that I should make it in multi-colors rather than just orange.

2nd Annual YART SALE on Etsy!

2009-06-09T14:19:00.002-05:00

Head on over to Etsy, June 10-14 for some great deals! Do a search for "YART" and you'll come up with pages of mark downs, free shipping and special promotions! Every participating store is doing something a little bit different, and you don't want to miss out!

BeckyKay Designs will have everything marked down 10-25%. If I get my act together, I may even have a handful of items that are even bigger bargains!

O-Matic is Always Better!

2009-06-08T14:50:00.003-05:00

Whenever, I have the opportunity to go to an auction, especially if it's right in town, I have to go. Thursday night, there was one within about three blocks of my house. You can bet I hauled myself over there as soon as I got home from work!

I bought a few other things, but you are looking at my big score of the evening. It's a heavy-duty Singer Slant-O-Matic 401A sewing machine in its own cabinet! I had no idea what I was buying. I just knew it was a cool looking old machine, and I only paid $15. It took two men to load it upside down into my trunk, and I had to drive home with my trunk open, but once I got to looking at it, totally worth it!

This machine has more bells and whistles than you can shake a stick at! It came with about 5 extra feet, none of which I could recognize immediately. And there was the one that looked like some kind of torture device! Fortunately, I know people who are more sewing machine savvy than I! My friend Bren was able to identify the really scary one as a ruffler! The other one is for sewing on binding. There were also feet for hemming and sewing

on buttons. Only one remains unidentified.

It also has four cams that can be interchanged to create all sorts of decorative and special purpose stitches. You put in the cam and move the levers and dials to choose the appropriate stitch. It's absolutely fascinating! I need to sit down and read the manual to find out absolutely everything this old girl can do!

The biggest mystery about this machine was the foot pedal. Mr Kay and I could see the pedal fastened inside the cabinet, but could not figure out how to release it. After much peering and wondering and yanking, we finally realized it wasn't a foot pedal at all! It has a lever that you operate with your knee! That will certainly take some getting used to!

The good news is that I can find all sorts of attachments and gadgets for it over on Ebay, including a foot pedal if I don't get the hang of using my knee. Not only that, but I realized I got a heck of a deal. Slant-O-Matic 401As are listed on Ebay for hundreds of dollars! I saw an auction on one without a cabinet that was kind of dirty that was up to $93.

I do have to admit that I haven't plugged the machine in yet, but I'm very confident that it works. If it doesn't I may just take it down to my sewing machine repairman and see what he can do with her. For 15 bucks, I can afford to have some repairs done!