thrifting thursday plus buttons

First, look look the knitting is all done on my gathered cardi! A few ends to sew in, some blocking and buttons to be sewn on and then a FO photo op.
Yesterday alongside our excursion to the library my daughter and I stopped and got some buttons. Some for my cardi and some for her february baby sweater that's been sitting around waiting for way too long. Daughter wanted to touch everything in the store but was mostly pretty restrained (thank goodness, this is a fancy fabric store that I don't usually dare to enter). The lady there gave my daughter her own bonus button in an envelope too so now I need to find a cute cardigan pattern requiring just one button to feature it.

On the way home from the library we had a quick thrifting stop. I haven't done much thrifting lately, at least that's the way it feels! My favourite find though was this:
I'm very excited, it was only $3.25 (and from the price sticker I think it had actually sat around for a month waiting for me). I go to lots of potlucks and didn't have anything good for carrying cakes and all I've really seen out there has been plastic. This has a handle and two little catches to keep lid and plate together. So now I can start thinking about all the cakes I've contemplated...


I was also really excited to see a big plastic container of sewing patterns for 50c each and picked up a few of those (baby/small child clothes, aprons etc), also some crochet yarn to try making ornaments (when I find my tiny size crochet hooks) and some tins (for gift giving). Very satisfying.

More Bread and some Thrifting

I've continued trying different things from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book. The oatmeal bread worked OK although I think I may have given it too long in the initial rise, it tasted good which is the important thing.

For dinner last weekend, on a night when my husband and I would be out in the evening and need to eat dinner soon after getting home, I made pizza. I mixed up half a batch of olive oil dough (I used whole wheat bread dough for one of the cups of flour) right before we went out which meant that when we arrived home it was time to heat the oven and make the pizza. While the oven heated I cooked up some onion to which I added kale, beet greens and scapes (all from our farmers market) and some balsamic vinegar. That mixture went on one of the pizzas along with mushrooms, tomato paste with oregano and basil and then topped with fresh mozzarella. The other pizza (which I thought my daughter was more likely to eat) had tomato paste and pesto, cheddar cheese and pepperoni.

Today I had a go at making bialys with some of my second batch of bagel dough.
My daughter and I shared one still slightly warm from the oven, she declared it good and did eat some of the onion and poppy seed topping even. I really liked the texture of the bread, and love the onion and poppy seeds (I really want there to be more of it than the recipe suggested so might think about that for next time, there will definitely be a next time).

Do you like the plate the bialys are on? It's one of my latest thrift store acquisitions. I've been trying to go less often but on Wednesday my daughter encouraged me in there as we passed by (she knows where to find all the toys and heads straight in that direction). We actually found a couple of things for her, not in the toy department though. Firstly I spotted a couple of ceramic birds which I guessed she would like as she has always enjoyed watching the sparrows when we're in town. She was very happy to see them and got herself a basket to put them in and carry them around until it was time to pay. (The birds are now perching over one of our doorways where she can, and does, spot them and point them out at regular intervals.)
Then while I was looking at fabric she spotted a little tiny "mug" which she got very excited about it has "humpy dumpy with a bue balloon" on it!

In addition to the plates I came away with two interesting looking books, two sheets and a lovely tablecloth (white with pink embroidery and appliqué). The table cloth is a bit stained but it's the kind of stain that I hope might come out, if not I'm sure I can make good use of the unstained parts in some crafting projects.

Thrift Thursday

I haven't posted any of my thrifting finds for ages. I don't have photos of most of them. I've been mostly getting old bedsheets, some plain to use to try out patterns I'm not sure about and some more interesting ones to sew with too. Also scraps of fabric, books and even a few items of clothing for me and the rest of my household. Here's a picture of some thrift-store finds from mid-July that I didn't manage to actually blog about back then:
Some clothes for my daughter, and some fabric. The books were my favourite part -- I'm sure there's lots of useful info to be found in "How to Make Clothes Fit and Flatter", and "Fun with Scraps" looks as though it could really live up to its name. Hopefully I'll manage to spend some more time looking through them before too much longer.

And now to this week's finds. I went into the thrift store with my mum along which meant she could watch my daughter if I wanted to try on clothes. Consequently I came out with two pairs of trousers, very exciting! Also I've been wanting some shoes for a while: I need some to fill that period between sandal and snow boot weather; something to cover my feet and preferably that I can slip off and on easily for getting down on the floor with my daughter to play (and 'cause I prefer to go unshod whenever I can). I've been looking at Earth shoes online, and in the local shoe store but can't really afford to buy any just at the moment. However, I found these two pairs for just over ten dollars at the thrift store this week. Yay! They both seem barely worn, and seem to fit me nicely. Definitely belong on my 10Things list as the brown pair in particular are making me very happy (and unexpectedly so as I don't like not having a back to my shoes usually, and haven't worn much of any heel in ages).

Thrifting Thursday

I actually went to the thrift store yesterday after visiting the farmers market. I had thought I'd just run down to the market and home because the baby was due for a nap but she was not about to fall asleep (too much to look at I guess) so I also went to the pharmacy (insulin for husband), bakery (a treat for me, and a loaf of honey walnut bread), the thrift store and the co-op.

Daughter seems to have abandoned her usual napping the last couple of days. Don't know whether it's the developmental leaps she's working on, or some new teeth or just perversity of nature (entirely likely looking at her parents) but we're both exhausted by the end of the day. Speaking of which I should make this quick and close down the computer and the kitchen and get to bed so that I can get some sleep!

First though, here are my thrift store finds this week. The top two pieces of fabric are poly/cotton sheets. The bottom piece is some cotton, it's the sort of weight that makes me think of tea towels. I'm wondering whether to make an apron with it. Perhaps I could use some for a panel in a new mai tei. I think my daughter's favourite is the top fabric with the big flowers. She's always had a thing about floral prints come to think of it.

I haven't really looked at the book yet, the front caught my fancy, and it was only a dollar so I thought why not. I'm not really very good at coming up with coherent ideas about design so maybe it'll give me useful things to think about (if I ever have time to read it!).

Also from the thrift store -- a grey silk skirt marked down to $2:25! I think maybe someone washed it and it shrank a little since the lining is longer than the skirt, but that's easy enough to fix and it fits me. No picture though because the room with the full length mirror is where my daughter naps currently, and it's proving hard to get a picture of myself when she's not napping.

I'll leave you with a picture of the pretty chives and mint "fresh from the farmers market." See the icon? It's from A Veggie Venture blog -- the idea is "to encourage all of us to seek out fresh produce from our hometown farmers markets". What a nice idea. Click on the icon to go straight to the post about Blush the Sweet Tomato which I came to via Everybody Likes Sandwiches who designed it.

The lady gave me the chives for free because she was so pleased I wanted them -- apparently not many people had been buying them and they're so pretty even if you don't know how to use them for food! I chopped some up and put them in with the pasta sauce at dinner, but I'm enjoying having them around for decoration and scent too as I catch the mint wafting by me. Now if I could just remember why I was looking for mint at the farmers market... I also got a big bunch of rhubarb (more on rhubarb another time) and some mesclun greens that we had for dinner tonight in another incarnation of that warm salad I made the other day.

More craft stuff, and some thrifting

I haven't really been doing much new crafting since my last post (although the kitty is now attached at the neck) but I have some old news, and a bunch of links to things that have caught my eye. So here goes.

Another soft toy that has been languishing for a year just waiting for a face so it could go to it's intended recipient. This time a WeeBunny (also from a free pattern at the Wee Wonderfuls site). I'm sure I stuffed it full when I made it but it definitely could use more innards now. The question is do I risk doing something that will make it unpresentable for another year, or give it as is and feel unsatisfied with my finished product? I think probably I will add more stuffing -- and if I rip the seam in the right place I can take the opportunity to give the bunny a tail which I neglected to do previously. When these are done and delivered I'm going to finally open up my Big Footed Bunny book for my next soft toy -- maybe I can make one for my daughter's birthday (or mine...).

Yesterday I got my husband to take a picture of me wearing my daughter with the mei tai I made the other week. It's in the sunshine and in focus so all in all a much better shot!

Next thing is that today I tied my daughter on my back (with a different carrier that I also made but don't have a good picture of yet) and went into town without the stroller which meant I could more easily go into some of the stores in town. So I went into one of the used items stores in town and came out with a couple of tops (one to wear as is and one extra large silk shirt that may well get refashioned somehow).

Then after a treat at the bakery and a few errands I went to the less stroller friendly of the thrift stores in town and poked around swiftly (since they were about to close by the time I got there). I came away with two little plates, a package of twill tape, some green fabric, a small piece of floral print material (?summer dress for my girl?), a queen sized bed sheet (not sure what I'll do with this but I thought it was cute) and videos of a British mystery series that I think my husband will enjoy. That all came to just under eleven dollars (and the videos were five dollars). I was looking for thrifting stuff at flickr and discovered that there's actually a Thrift Thursday group. Coincidence? So here's my first Thrift Thursday post. Not sure that I'll manage to do this regularly, I don't make it to the thrift store every week after all, but hopefully that's ok.

And now for the list of links:

I saw and admired this wrap skirt in the NewVintageWardrobe Pool at Flickr. I was excited to see that there are two tutorials available at Sew, Mama, Sew showing how to draft and sew a skirt of one's very own. Yay! I have a wrap skirt that I thrifted a while back which I wore for the first time a few weeks back and love so I was thinking of trying to figure out how to make more so this should help save me some time and brain cells! I don't know whether I'll be able to make one, or any skirt, in time for skirt month though.

Loving this summer dress, lovely fabric that I'd probably never have the courage to make into a dress. I'm surprisingly bad at judging what fabric I'll like in a finished garment, I'm working on it though.

I'm interested in trying out the Sunshine's Creations tutorial for mock cathedral windows sometime. I think I'd do it with batting inside and make a quilt.

Also came across this cute "Disappearing 9 Patch" Doll Quilt at Flickr which links to another tutorial I want to try out sometime.

Oh, so much to do and so very little time! I'm already blogging when I should be sleeping again (last night I went to bed at a relatively reasonable hour for fear of blocked duct threatening mastitis, oh the joys of nursing motherhood!).