Thrift Store Shenanigans
As usual, my sis Beans and I can’t resist finding ridiculous things at the thrift store. Since she LOVES TIGERS!!! we notice lots of things in that category.
Beans was visibly excited about this find, but fortunately, so decided to leave it behind.
This is Wetherbee. He’s missing both legs, and sadly we couldn’t recover them. Beans started speaking for Wetherbee, using a Scottish accent, and it was hilarious. She even wrote a story about how he lost his legs! Look for it in and upcoming post.
Thrift stores provide hours of entertainment for us.
More Thrift Store Treasures
I admit, I like weird things. For instance, when I saw this neon yellow, blue and pink T-Rex at the thrift store, I had to have it.
As well as a bunch of his friends. They also needed a place of honor in my home, where you couldn’t fail to marvel at them.
So now they are on a little black shelf (also from a thrift store) above the TV. I think the lighting from the lamp next to them makes them look truly terrifying. If I could have a human-sized version of this T-Rex in my living room I would be ecstatic. I am completely enamored of my new collection, and I can’t wait to add to it!
Pants to Scarf Transformation
Yes! Some crafts, finally! I was wandering around the thrift store the other day, despairing of finding anything cool, when I saw this fabric poking out from under a pile of clothes. Hubby and I have both been working on pirate costumes for Halloween/Renaissance Festival/random costume parties our friends have, and we need many more scarves.
Someone had split the whole booty area open, in what had to be a brutally embarrassing moment, but I still saw the potential. The fabric and pattern are also pretty close to historically accurate for the time period, which is always a plus.
First, I used my seam ripper to get the pants down to their basic components.
I then trimmed down the sides to make rectangles. I also trimmed off the torn booty area. Keep in mind, this is for a costume, and a pirate at that, so I just basically eyeballed everything.
I wanted it to be a bit longer, so I took some of the other scraps, cut them to size, and pinned everything together. I hand-sewed everything together. The fairly busy pattern of this fabric hides the fact that several bits of fabric form the whole scarf. I wouldn’t necessarily try this same method with a quieter pattern, unless it’s for a gypsy or pirate costume. Gypsies and pirates are supposed to look patched up, so it adds to the authenticity.
Once the bits were assembled, I laid it out, and rolled the sides over to be hemmed. The edges were not straight, so I just folded the extra cloth under to even it out. I pinned the edges down, and hand-sewed everything again.
Here’s the finished product! The ends were already machine-hemmed, since they were the ankles of the pants, so that saved me some work. In the picture, it looks like that end flairs out terribly, but that’s just the way I laid it down to take the picture. The scarf is now complete, and either Hubby or I can wear it for our costumes. I also have some extra fabric from this project, so it may reappear someday. Overall, it only took me a few days, even hand-sewing everything. With a sewing machine, it could have been done in an hour, easily.
Yes, even more skulls!!
I guess you guys have figured out by this point, that I’m a little obsessed with skulls (as you can see here, and here, and here, oh and here, here, and here). I could wear a different skull t-shirt everyday for a week, and now, I can also accessorize with skulls! When Beans and I went to the thrift store, we found a tangled pile of mardi gras beads with skull and crossbones on them. Of COURSE I brought them home.
I simply cut the skulls loose from the rest of the beads, and threw those away. Yes, they are shiny silver, but that’s nothing some matte white spray paint can’t fix! A few of them, like those in the picture, were missing a bone or two. Hubby snapped the extras off for me, and sanded down the sides.
I decided Day of the Dead was the way to go with these (especially appropriate for Cinco de Mayo). I pulled out my paints and tiny brushes and went nuts! Here’s a mid-way through work picture:
And a couple of finished ones:
I used a fine point sharpee to do the detail work. The one with blood pouring out of its eye sockets is my favorite!
I just mixed small amounts of the colors I wanted, and went from skull to skull adding flowers, leaves, hearts, and other details. I just googled images of Day of the Dead to get inspiration. I can’t wait to do more stuff like this!
Several of these will be for sale at the Rockin’ Mama’s Day Celebration this Saturday, May 7, to benefit SafePlace. I hope to see you there!
More Fun with Blocks
This is the second session of me wandering around the house playing with blocks. Lots of people seemed to find the first one pretty funny, so I hope ya’ll like these too!
Tinkerbell was sleeping upstairs, so she avoided torment the last time. I love how Flapjack photobombed the background!
Sadly, it’s true.
Random thrift store things:
After this, I made the pink octopus, which is just a plastic kid’s toy, into a necklace (like in this previous post). I was then promptly complimented on it at Home Depot. I am so amazing, I hardly know what to do with myself sometimes! Then I almost set my house on fire, and my swelled head goes back to normal proportions.
And this one is just for my sis, Beans, who is almost a celebrity now, thanks to my blog!
cause SHE LOVES TIGERS!!!
Thrifty Fun
Beans and I had too much fun thrifting the other day. This whole post is just me bragging about what we found.
If only I could fit into size 5!
Beans and I freaking loved this. We named him Steve. He’s a funny guy, and my new night light. YEAR ROUND.
It’s DEATH NUN!! You may recognize her from such posts as Thrift Store Treasures. At the Goodwill I found this nativity that looked like Death Nun was part of it, even though she’s not. I just thought they looked super cool together. I love finding bizarre things, and contemplating who originally created this, who then thought it was a good enough idea to mass produce, and who would then subsequently purchase these things? That’s why thrifting with friends, and Beans in particular is fun. We laugh our asses off the entire time.
Thrift Store Treasure
The other day when my sis Beans was in town, we went thrifting. I don’t mean stop-in-at-a-goodwill thrifting, I mean hardcore, forget-to-eat-all-day thrifting. We stumbled across this plastic candle holder that I instantly loved. I was painted a spatter blue, which was okay, but not ideal. It was also starting to chip. I got Hubby to spray paint it with white primer for me, but I forgot to take a “before” picture. Once I whined and moaned enough to get him to do it for me, I didn’t want to interrupt him for the pic.
So this is after the white primer is on there. I’m hoping that will allow my glorious paint to stick much better than the previous. I actually washed it before he painted it also. I had some gorgeous blue paint around from when we redid our coffee table and a small shelf, so I decided to use that. I know it will match, plus having small amounts of the same color around the room makes it look like I actually PLANNED the design. Try not to laugh too hard, it’s possible. I could plan stuff.
I did one coat of paint, let dry completely, and then did another coat of paint. I let it dry overnight, then had Hubby spray it with a clear coat:
You probably can’t read it there, but the important part to me is that it says “Non-Yellowing”. Many of the other products I’ve found say on the label that they cause things to yellow, and I hate that. I went through all the work of painting this a specific color, not a slightly yellower shade. So Hubby did one coat, then let it dry overnight, then I braved the can and did a second coat today, and let it dry completely.
Now it’s hung up with another thrift store find:
I’m calling her Death Nun. I was so excited when I found her, I snatched her off the shelf and looked around to make sure I wasn’t going to have to fight for her. I know she looks like just regular Death, but when you see the back it looks much more like a nun’s habit, or whatever Virgin Mary is always wearing. Plus Death Nun sounds cooler.
You can see a tiny bit of the ticky tac I used to secure her on there. Meh, I’ll get Hubby to fix it when he gets home. I just love the shapes of the candle holder, and I think Death Nun has a lot more visual impact than a boring candle would have. Oh yeah, and Death Nun was a dollar. The candle holder probably about the same (it was from the $1.39 per pound thrift store).
I LOVE THIS THING!!
