Treasures...

I love this time of year... the weather is starting to get cooler and the leaves are just starting to change color... it just is all around fabulous! This is when the yard sales start to pick up, just ever so slightly. I think it is like one last "get 'er done" before winter that has people hauling things out to their lawns...who knows. I scored a lot of fun pirate things for my backyard.... a bucket, lantern, a vase and a raffia covered bottle...
 
I also scored some more wooden items for the Tiki Store I am creating in my yard. I am trying to fill it with tiki's and wooden masks and wooden carved things...

I always buy sea shells whenever I see them, well that is if the price is right, and by right, I mean cheap~

I picked up these two wooden carved owl plaques for the tiki store...

some wooden boxes....

another vase and a blue bottle... When I get around to making the "pirate bar" I would like to have all kinds of different colored bottles behind it. I'm still in the "thinking stage" of that project...

It has been fun adding these things to the yard. We did some tree cutting in the front yard and I hauled a lot of the cut branches into backyard to use as props. Here you can see one of them tethered to the arch holding a bird cage. Things like this make me so happy.... its fun to play!

I also added some fringe and black fabric/netting to an old bird cage that now houses a parrot. This is one of those parrots that sold at Costco for $50.00-- they talk and move, this one doesn't work anymore, and for only $1.00 I am delighted to have him.

 I am having so much fun in my pirate yarrrrrghd!
big hugs,

50's Themed Birthday Party

My daughter and her family are going to a fifties themed birthday party this weekend. I made my daughter a poodle for her skirt, but for my grand daughter I wanted to do something a little different... so I made her a "hip kitty cat." A few weeks ago I bought a HUGE bag of adhesive backed felt for only $2.00 for the entire heaping bag... after purchasing the huge lot, I thought, "When am I ever going to need sticky backed felt?" Everything I needed to make these little 50's appliques I had on hand. The sticky backed felt, faux fur, rhinestones and pom poms. I wanted to use faceted rhinestones for the eyes and the nose of the kitty, so I had to create small holes in the felt. I used my eyelet punch which created the perfect size hole to hold the faceted stones in place. (with glue of course)

Here is the poodle on my daughters skirt....
and the hip little kitty on my grand daughters skirt...

Next on my to do list is creating a "Jesse" costume for my grand daughter Chloe to wear for Halloween~ Fun times, fun times!
big hugs,

School Spirit

My two little grand kids (aged 4 & 6) are really active in a lot of activities. They love to participate in everything, one of which is school spirit day at their school. So, being the ab-fab Nana that I am, I whipped up two small scarves for my two little love bugs to wear on Friday's for spirit day.

The scarves are identical up to a point...I used the same stitches and colors, but one is shorter in length (for the four year old) and I added some yarn flowers to make it more girlie for my grand daughter.
The stitch I used is called a woven stitch and is normally done horizontally like this....

I thought it would be fun to use the woven stitch vertically to make long stripes. I really like how they turned out. They were super easy to crochet consisting of simple single crochet stitches and chain stitchs... thats it.

 Now, I am needing to find a couple of cute hat patterns!
big hugs,

Happy-Happy

birthday to meeeeeeeeeeeeeee~
What a super fun start to my birthday! Yesterday I found 9 tiki at a yard sale for only $25.00. Say what? Say "mine!" I am so delighted to be adding these beauties to my pirate back~yaarrd! Of course, now I am going to be making a "Tiki Store" to add to my back yard! ....big plans, big plans...

 I also picked up a large pedestal and a lot of wooden boxes as well as two wall sconces with tropical greenery stuck to them. I have big plans for those wall scones! Stay tuned!

 I also found a bunch of doo--dads to add as filler to my yard. My hubby surprised me by buying the large wooden black face mask--- it cracks me up..... its like its sayin'... "what?"... hmmm come to think of it it looks like my husband when I haul something home and he just doesn't see what I see in something~

 I couldn't resist this little fellow below. I am also adding a few oriental things to my yard along with pirate and tiki items. I think this is going to get a coat of gold paint to make it really pop in the yard...

A pirate has got to have his/her rope right? This huge spool of thick white rope I picked up awhile back for only $10.00....*score* I have no clue what I'm going to do with it! yet....  I do have a lot of pulleys, so I may just add the rope to the pulleys and run the rope every which way...

Lastly, another treasure that I found for only $5.00... a Butterscotch Pony. Here is a photo of it on display at a store. The one I bought is in rough shape and is camera shy at the moment. (ok, I didn't want to haul it out of the garage to take its picture!) My Pony is missing both of its ears and the tail fell off on the ride home--- none the less. Its adorable! I can make new ears and I certainly can put the tail back on! I would be over the moon if it worked, but I doubt it does.... Once I add its missing appendages, I was thinking of making it look like a pack mule with some small barrels and maybe a small treasure chest strapped to its back! Caute! I was looking up the pony online to get some information about it, they have a few right now on Amazon if anyone is interested in purchasing one..... They are priced currently at $999.99.... *gasp*

 At that price, it better come with a pink slip! What a fabulous start to my birthday month!
big hugs,

September Art Hop

I participated in our local Art Hop again this month... oh my gosh, I have such a fabulous time-- every time--- *twice now* that I am addicted! It is a perfect venue for me because I love-love to chit chat with people, and all of the people walking the gallery tours are extremely nice.... it is just a really pleasant experience!  I didn't make anything new to sell, I have a LOT of merchandise already made. I did however change up one thing... I added metal bezels to some existing fairy crystals.

 I had originally made these with wire hangers as Christmas tree ornaments...

 I pulled those off and added the bezels creating "fairy necklaces..."

 I was selling these for $3.00 each...
 
I also had made some ruffled scarves. If you have never had a chance to play with the sashay yarn that is being sold currently, I suggest you pick some up and watch some tutorial videos on how to create a ruffled scarf. The one pictured below is doubled up because I like them "fluffy"& "ruffly"~ You can wear them long and ruffly as well...

I am super excited about being a vendor next month too. Even more so since I've decided to have a Halloween theme to my table. Oh yeah baby.... give me a theme and I turn into a crazy person! Its on!
big hugs,

Treasures...

This past weekend was pretty dismal for finding treasures.... I guess everyone was out enjoying the lake or traveling out of town for the Labor day 3-day weekend? I did find a few fun things... for what else? My pirate back yard! I got two two-toned pots for $5 for the pair...
 
I also found some fruit sweat boxes, these ones are super big. I bought three for $17, weird price--- but I talked him down and that was his counter *sold* and home they came! I had to buy some rope to tie them to the van to bring them home...

 When I saw the size of the boxes, I immediately thought they would make a fabulous pirate bar. Now all I'm needing is a really nice counter top for the top of the new bar!

I have been super busy working in my backyard. Here are some pictures to prove it! Looking down into the lagoon...

 I finished laying all the retaining stones and did a lot of planting and arranging of stuff...

I got the faux cobblestone (black painted brick) all laid and the compass rose finished and painted. I am just needing to go back and paint in the North, South, East and West on the compass...

The foundation of everything is done, now I just need to do a LOT of finishing touches. Like.... making faux bricks to fill in spaces where bricks should be, tweaking the pirate displays so that everything is visible but looks like a pirate just carelessly tossed things about.

Here is the one of the new pots I just bought. I added a burlap lid to it...

 I've moved some things from other parts of my yard into the lagoon...

 Some sticks from my neighbors yard stuck in the ground...

 One of my favorite parts of the lagoon is the steps. I've got another set on the other side of the lagoon as well.

 aaarrrrgggghhhh.... rope! The rope I had to buy to tie down the sweat boxes looks just like pirate rope! Who knew?

 I found this old wooden porch post years ago...I love it! I was thinking about adding signs to it saying "lagoon" etc... we'll see... for now I'm enjoying the chippiness of it as it stands.

 One of my girlfriends gave me the little wooden table pictured below. Her husband made it for her years and years ago, and I've had it for years and years, its held up great. The top is metal and came from some engine, I added the metal scroll to it.. another fun treasure!

Well, I think I've made some good progress out in the yard and I am hoping to continue with all the finishing touches that are needing to be done. Today I'm getting two new electrical outlets put in -in my yard. Hooray, no more extension cords for my fountains pump!
big hugs,