Pirate Season

Its full steam ahead on all things piratey.... argh! Our yearly pirate party is fast approaching. (the first weekend of June-- Saturday, Sunday & a potluck dinner on Monday night) This year my two grandchildren will be celebrating their 4th and 2nd birthdays. With that in mind, I thought I would make some games for the little kids to play. I picked up this cute-as-a-button duck motorized matching game for only .50¢ at a yard sale. There is a little pond that the ducks go around and around on, its super caute! I couldn't resist making them all into pirates! One game down... a bazillion more to come up with~I like to give out trophies to the best dressed pirates who attend our parties. I keep an eye out for cheap trophies at yard sales & thrift stores. These ranged in price from .25¢ to $1. I took each one apart and spray painted parts of them black. I then added nutmeg brown, baby blue and lime green to each one to give them the look of aged copper. They look a little "bright" in the photo, but in person they have a beautiful aged patina to them. This is as far as I've gotten... I'll finish these up closer to the party in June, for now, they are going to get crammed into a box and added to the other boxes of pirate stuff out in the garage!

O.W.O.H.

Welcome O.W.O.H. participants! In a nutshell here is a little something about my blog... I like to try my hand at EVERYTHING. Any given day you can find me working on a wide range of things.... Here is a bunch of "key words" to give you an idea of some of the many things you'd find on my blog: soldering, resin, sewing, painting, miniatures, drawing, embroidery, decorating, gardening, sharing thrifted finds... crocheting, tutorials, pennants, paper crafts, tags, altered mixed media pieces, fairy charms, furniture make-overs, and of course, making things for our yearly pirate party.
I've made several slide shows to showcase some of the many things I've done in the past and shared on my blog. The first slide show is of some of the things I've crocheted.....

Other times I like to get out my sewing machine and crank out a few things.....

I also like to paint.....

Don't forget some mixed media stuff....

I also like to show off photos from our yearly pirate party...

Whew...... now, after all of that, if anyone is still here.... Thank you for visiting, as a token of thanks, I'd like to offer up this box of junk fun things. This drawing is open to everyone, foreign and domestic. It weighs in at a hefty 9 lbs! In the box you'll find a bunch of odds and ends of jewelry pieces, watches, beads, a 1949 childrens pop up book, a 1925 diary, some vintage embroidery patterns, a wide strand of pearl beads, 2 vintage ceramic angels, sequins, yards & yards of lace trim.... and an old babies dress. Here is a slide show showing whats in the box....

Please visit Lisa at her blog "A Whimsical Bohemian" to see who else is participating in this event. The drawing will be held February the 17th. Have fun on your world-wide-web-journey.

Cupid, draw back your bow....

and let your arrow gooooooooooooo~
I finished all of my tags for the "tag for tag" swap. I think all together I made 24... I used one of my favorite images, my husbands great-great-great grandfather William. Isn't he a little cherub? The photographer had him sitting bare naked....I guess he thought he looked like a little naked cupid too.Here is a close up of one of the finished tags. He is popped off of the tag a little bit-- holding onto his bow and a quiver full of arrows strapped to his back with a glittered belt. His fluffy white wings just as fluffy as can be for a day of sweet-flight. Of course, lets not forget his "hunting" hat with a bejeweled plume~ I also signed up for a Valentine garland swap. I was needing to make 12 tags for that swap, so I went ahead and used the very same supplies and just continued on making more tags. These ones are heavier in weight, I used foam core as a foundation to build upon. For these tags I used a red & silver tinsel garland around the edges of each heart. I also added a strand of shiny red beads along the hearts edge as well. I had about 1/2 an inch of tinsel garland left over, I am going to hoard buy more of this next time I see if for sale.These were a lot of fun to make, I hope everyone who receives one likes them :-) I'll be mailing them out sometime next week.

Yard Sailing~

It was another gloomy-foggy morning, even that couldn't keep me from yard sailing! I got a huge stack of doll & embroidery patterns. The large envelopes have never cut apart doll patterns-- along with the patterns for the clothing for each doll as well. The little booklet is a catalog which she purchased the dolls from.... she has little check marks next to the ones she purchased, so I'll have a good color photo of each doll along with each pattern. The embroidery iron transfers are all unused as well.I picked up these baby blue strands of beads for $1, the bag of jewelry was $2.....
Lets open up the bag shall we?..... I try to always pick up jewelry when I go to yard sales. I've got two little pirates (grandkids) that have several pirate chests in amongst their toys that they can pull out all of this shiny stuff and play with. I'll pull out anything that has a sharp pin back, or anything of value that I'd like to keep for myself. I'm a pirate as well!
Well, lookie here.... whats this? Gold? Silver?... yep, both. There is a gold ring with a pinkish stone and 3 tiny diamonds on each side of the stone. A 14k gold "I ♥ You Mom" charm. The gold ring with the blue sapphire stones & diamonds is gold plated. The silver ring with the amethyst stone along with the amethyst earrings are both sterling silver.... not to shabby. I'm going to give these to my daughter-- as her daughter was born in February and that is her birthstone.
Here is a close up of my newest favorite ring... I'm wearing it as I type~
It has an old look and feel to it, I really like it :-) The yard sale I went to last Sunday that I hit the mother load on hasn't reopened yet..... I drive by her house often. Her husband waved at me... how embarrassing! You can't be discreet when you drive a '66 Mustang. *sigh* There goes any hope of being a detective huh? I'm hoping next weekend she will have gone through some more of her mothers estate and pulls it out to sell it, cause I'm wanting to buy it!! *woot-woot*
I've been working on my tags for my tag for tag swap. I've got everything cut and ready for assembly..... I'm using an image of my husbands great-great-great grandfather when he was a baby, I'm making him into cupid. Finishing these up will have to wait as I'm going on a 3 day trip to Carson City & Reno. Of course I'll be hitting all the thrift stores while there. I'm pretty sure that is where I'll "hit it big" rather than at the slot machines! Wish me luck!

Baby its cold outside...

Brrrrrrrr.... I whipped up some finger puppets for my grandson's preschool class. This month's puppet is a snowman. Here is my grandson holding the lollipop/puppet... look at that happy-cheesy smile... My daughter tells me he gets quite proud telling all the other 3 & 4 year olds that his "Nana made these." Ahhhhhhhhhh~ Here he is getting ready for bed... he wanted the lollipop, but his Momma said "No" so he got to take the snowman to bed to remind him that he could have the lollipop the next day...Probably for breakfast. Ah to be young~ Next months finger puppet is going to be a lady bug :-)

Found treasures...

I went to a yard sale early this Sunday morning, NEVER turn your nose up at a Sunday yard sale..... okokok, any yard sale-- any day of the week.
I got a HUGE box full of vintage unused greeting cards, all of this for only $5 bucks.
A bag full of celluloid belt buckles for $1...Some old buttons for $1....
The red heart buttons and the cameo buttons are my favorites.
A box of printers blocks $5.
Hmmmmm whats in these two dusty boxes? Lets start with the narrow box on top shall we? Why look at that... tons and tons of dresden embellishments. I'm talking... never pulled apart, packed tightly the way they were sold, dresden pieces. *insert happy dance here* All of this for $3. *insert huge smile here* Now the second box..... Opening the box..... YUCK, dis-a-pointing! But wait, lets dig deeper shall we?..... whats this....... oh pretties! lets lift out some more... ohhhhhhhhhh more dresden pieces! Also, tons and tons of packets of silver and gold doilies... and the very bottom of the box? Yummy~ This entire box was $5, highway robbery... *mumble-mumble*..... :-) I also got a bundle of vintage flowers, some metal tape and a bag of dresden "letters" and a 1885 german book. All of this for $2. Look at the vivid colors on these vintage flowers. Purchased, bagged and stuffed in a box long ago and forgotten no doudt.
The gal is having another yard sale tomorrow-- she promised more "craft stuff" for sale tomorrow. I may camp out in front of her house tonight... I'm just sayin'....I've linked up to Apron Thrift Girls, "Thrift Share Monday" and Her Library Adventures "Flea Market Finds" Also, Coastal Charm's "Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays"

Loot bag...

Now that the holiday season is over, its time for me to start thinking about the upcoming pirate party that I have for my grandkids birthday each year. Every year I make a different party bag that each child can fill with prizes and small gifts to take home. This year, I decided to make some draw string bags using some muslin fabric. Once I worked all the 'cipher-ing out I made one... liked it.... and made a bunch more~ I added a felt skull and cross bones to each bag for good measure. I'll add some definition to each skull and cross bones with a marker at a later date. These bags are not your typical draw string bags... they have a lining. Twice as strong to hold loads of treasures... arrrrrrrrrgh! I like to have the childrens names on their bags... but you never know who is going to be a no-show.... so I created some tags to write each childs name on to attach to their bag as they show up. I was lucky enough to pick up this huge amount of laminate samples from a local thrift store for $3. I used spray adhesive to adhere the maps to the front and back of each one.... cut each one out....and then I distressed the heck out of each one of them. The day of the party as each child arrives all we have to do is write their name on a tag and tie it to their party bag. The party is going to be in May.... you can never start to early making things.