Totes

Large reversible vintage sheet totes are officially available in my shop!

Show and Tell

Watch out for this guy!!



I found an awesome set of Ghostbusters circa 1985 bed sheets at the Hospice Care thrift store's 50% off day.



I know it's all wrinkly, but I just had to share.



This top/tunic/very short dress (?) was one of my barn full of vintage clothes scores. I still need to tell ya'll about that, but I wanted to get a few more of the pieces photographed first. Anyway, it's gorgeous. The orange didn't photograph quite right, but it's good. It also has really pretty seam details on the bust.



Bowie (as in Double Raindavidbowie) has taken over my black felt hat. Cutest thing ever.



A quick shot of my work in progress craft fair booth. I called my stepmom Kris to ask her for ideas, and she had infinity of them in the front of her mind just waiting to escape! I can't wait for my next fair. I'm going to be a fancy big girl creator with a nice looking booth.

Thank you for tuning in to this show and tell. Behind the scenes I've been working like crazy making an odd combination of baby gifts and pouches for a mmj dispensary. Hey, might as well stencil everything at once, right?

Traveling Puppet Theater

I am currently participating in Rachel and Elsie's Small Craft class and have completed my first project, the traveling puppet theater.



I think it turned out super cute!



I made him a few Halloween inspired puppets as he requested a skeleton specifically.





The Dracula is my favorite. He looks like one of the creatures from this video.

Thrift Scores

I rarely buy shoes that don't fit me personally, but these Nina boots were way too pretty to leave at the thrift store.



I hope to find a new home for them soon. I still need to figure out what size they are.





I also couldn't just leave this at the thrift store for obvious reasons. I had to relocate a painting in my dining room so I could hang it up stat. The Chainsaw apparently likes clean, mostly naked walls, and I apparently like my walls to have as much majesty as possible. I really need a sewing room to deck out. Too bad my basement doesn't even have real walls.



Also, I'm in the process of adding a few more wristlets to my shop. I actually made them a while ago, but I just got around to photographing them. Then etsy decided it wasn't my friend last night and wouldn't let me list anything. I'll be trying again soon!

Creature Feature

We met this glorious cat at our friends' Adam and Heidi's wedding last month.



I named him Jeffrey and wanted to take him home. We actually seriously discussed bringing him home as he was thought to not have an official owner. Luckily we decided not to take him. I say luckily because he ended up having owners, and I'm glad I'm no guilty of animal theft. He was so sweet and fun that I decided it was about dang time to let my snuggly cat dreams come true. Jezebel Lincoln is only a little snuggly and only when she feels like it.



Enter Double Rainbow Lincoln, the cutest four month old calico kitten that currently resides in my bedroom. Of course, she had to go and have a respiratory infection that we noticed within hours of bringing her home. It's super contagious, so she's been quarantined to our room since then.



She was actually rescued from Casper, Wyoming. Apparently Pet Smart (I think that's what they said) pays to save animals from kill shelters and move them to no kill shelters. Pretty cool!

She is indeed sweet and seems to have some kind of double motor. She has her regular purr, but when she's REALLY happy, another purr seems to come in simultaneously, resulting in what I like to refer to as her double motor.

Anyway, I can't wait for the quarantine to be lifted. Nana wants to hang out with her (but she's scared of Nana) and DR wants to hang out with Jezebel (who is scared of DR). Ahhh, the circle of fear.

Things I love

Laura took this glorious photo of me after I did a quick change on account of evening breezes, and I would like to point out some things I love here.

1. I already said this, but my turquoise cowboy boots. They look cool with everything and are super comfortable. Thanks lady in South Dakota who broke them in and only wanted 50 cents in trade. I just spent several times that on turquoise shoe polish and am excited to pretty them up.

2. Fanny packs. Laura told me how sold she was on full time fanny pack use, and I have to agree. The hands free bag action is luxurious. Perfect for thrifting for sure. I think I'm going to make myself a more perfect fanny pack.

3. Plaid shirt/jacket I found at the park. It was there for three consecutive days and soaking with rain. I decided that after three days it was fair game. If someone wanted it back, they would have reclaimed it by then. It's super soft and matches my boots.

4. Favorite vintage necklace, courtesy of Kris, courtesy of Grandma Mary. I never met Kris's Grandma Mary, but I'm pretty sure we would have been best friends. Kris is in possession of her jewel treasures, and we love to go through them every couple visits.

5. The more cups on my table the better.

6. My son owns a camouflage jacket.

7. New bag for my lappy, which I pretty much never take anywhere anyway.

The end!

I didn't even realize how many of my favorite things were packed into this picture. Thanks to Laura for capturing it. What's your favorite thing today?

Excuse me, did you drop these turkey flats?

Laura and I went on a hot date that included a trip to the fly fishing store. We got a little crazy making feathered hair majesties, and then we got a little crazier and decided to photograph them on my porch owl Diabeetus, Beetus for short.



Beetus needed hair, so the obvious choice here was Beverly, my beloved mullet wig.



Never mind the dog hair all over my body. Just pretend it's not there and don't mind it one little bit.



Then of course we decided Nana would look absolutely fabulous wearing Beverly. I was a little mad at myself for not thinking of it before.







It has been so awesome being reunited with Laura. In addition to our feather projects, I have also started a couple others, including new small wallets and large and in charge vintage sheet totes. I also created a new yellow corduroy guitar strap for Laura. We found the best stuff on our thrifting adventures while she was here.

Hope you had a great weekend!!

How to eat an ice cream sandwich by Felix and Kiley

Laura and I made ice cream sandwiches for our friends' Labor Day fiesta. The kids ate them the best. We made home made chocolate chip cookies, strawberry ice cream, and vanilla with Reese's peanut butter cups in it. So good!!

Chicago!

Our first stop on our epic journey was Chicago, which was a beautiful city filled with very nice people. We spent a day wandering around, and I highly recommend renting one of these babies for cruising around the lake.



Of course, Chainsaw got to drive. The wheel on my side was for looks, although I did try to help Chainsaw around some corners by using it.



Accidental shots are the best sometimes!





I met this giant penguin outside of a candy store, and we hit it off right away. We were like peas and carrots. We were like penguins, Ashley, and ice creams.



We found no one offering speed humps ahead.



Eyeball!



The giant mirror bean thing was cooler than I expected. I was surprised at the amount of people getting TO'd about other people ending up in their shot. Hello? There are a brazillion people trying to take pictures of their reflections people. Deal with it, ok?



We stayed with Chainsaw's friend Carlos and his wonderful fambly. He took us to his favorite restaurant, The Kitsch'n.



This is the bathroom. I don't make a habit out of photographing myself in public bathrooms, but I kind of just wanted to hang out in this bathroom forever. It's somewhat next to a giant thrift store outlet, a magical place where I spent $10 on 3 vintage dresses, 1 not vintage dress, and a tank top. There's also a vintage clothes store that is awesome. I got a couple adorable dresses, one of which was brand new vintage. She called it dead stock.

Ok, special thanks to Carlos once again. We had a glorious time in Chicago!!

Snappy Lappy Bag

I made this lap top bag from the dress I dissected this week. It has its faults, but it's my first try.



This is also my first try at putting in a pocket with a zipper. It was both easier and trickier than I expected, if you can imagine that. My stitching is a little ugly, and I can see why invisible thread is recommended for such a project. Anyway, I love it!

I interlined it with a layer of fusible fleece and lined it with a piece of chenille I've had for forever to make it a soft, luxurious ride for my lap top. The pocket is to put my charging equipment in, and the pockets are from leather furniture samples my friend Eliza gave me.

In other news, I added some love bullets pouches and pocket clutches to my shop. :D Happy Friday night!

I did a bad thing to a good dress

with fantastic results!

I didn't take any before pictures unfortunately, but I found this gorgeous floor length 60's dress at a vintage store on clearance for $8. Of course I couldn't zip it, but I triple double loved the fabric.

I cut the bottom of the dress off to utilize the hem, made a casing, and inserted some elastic. Voila!



I love it so much. I also loved being able to wear knee socks yesterday. September hasn't been messing around with the cool breezes.

I also made a lap top case for myself out of the fabric and have a couple pieces left. I'll be back soon with pictures of that and some fun new pouches.

Here's Felix on his first day of school.



I like how he HAS to criss cross the velcro on his shoes now. It looks cooler, right? This is what he wanted to wear to school:

2 Hour Sunset, brought to you by the great plains of South Dakota

I used to drive almost all the way across the state of South Dakota fairly regularly, mostly while I was in college, and watching the sunset across the plains has always been one of my favorite sights. Technically, driving across South Dakota is mostly boring, but it sure knows how to host a fantastic sunset.



This is well after the start.





It started fading out like this, and I thought for sure it was almost over.





Then the horizon started burning.



My camera couldn't capture it, but the sky was painted in rainbow stripes.



This is the last picture I took, but the horizon continued to glow for a long time. I timed it from start to finish at two whole hours. Thank you so much for the pretty show, South Dakota!