the garage sale gods where shining on me!

September 27, 2014 | mollyeleen

Hello all! It’s been awhile. We finally moved… we are still unpacking… but we are in our new home and love it. Moving just sucks. Really there is no other way to say it. The last minute push to get everything done… I was crying cleaning the old place. So over it. So done. So exhausted. And then, to make it all better (yes sarcasm) we got to the new place and there was a huge construction trailer in the drive way because we where getting a new roof and “they” decided to start 4 days early. Holy hell was I mad. I don’t get mad very easily, but I was pissed as Kiddo says (okay she should not say this, I know, but she does). Anyway we are in the house now, construction trailer is gone, we are unpacking… I never want to see stuff again. ever. but….

I had the need, yes need, to go garage sale-ing today. Boy howdy am I glad I did. I truly think this was my best ever garage sale day. I am still giddy. Yes giddy.

First garage sale of the morning, a multi family for charity sale, first persons table and score… awesome carved wood mirror. I have wanted an ornate oval mirror for years and this piece of pure awesome was only $20!

Then a fun wool black and white rug and two cute avon bottles… Next a few dud sales… not to worry though I knew there was one more big find out there. A box of valentine making supplies for the daisy scouts (oh yea, did I tell you I am now a girl scout leader- more one day), a neat ball made from drift wood- not sure what I am going to do with it, but I needed it. A free- yes FREE- vintage looking chrome phone. The old school kind that hangs on the wall with a cord… I promise you it looks amazing in our little late 50’s house. (thanks Ash!)

But still there had to be something else. Then, the last sale on my way home, and there it was. An amazing bar cart. A gold-ish smoked glass bar cart with clean lines and all. $15 done. But wait, there was no way it could fit in my car. The people who’s sale it was said, they would help me get it in the car and if it fit they would sell if for $10. Well guess what it fit!

I know, to some, all this might be crazy. But I loved this morning. I spent $50 and got all this awesome. How could you not like that?! Even though I wanted nothing to do with bring anything else into the house to unpack or unload from the car, it was my garage sale day. I have big plans for these items. I will be sharing our new home soon with these finds interspersed through out. My only question for the remaining part of the evening is to paint, to unpack or to have a cocktail…

Sprinklings: creative world

October 10, 2013October 10, 2013 | mollyeleen

This morning I was showing a friend how to use pinterest and etsy and an amazing thought came over me. I am surrounded with amazing friends (you know who you are I hope) and many of my amazing friends are incredibly talented artists.
Case in point Jamie or Miss Jamie as Kiddo says. She not only is a wonderful friend she is a jewelry master. She finds vintage jewerly pieces at estate sales & flea markets and recreates them, renews them.
Renewable Jewels is her company name. How perfect is that since she renews the jewels she finds.

Jamie is very clever in the way she markets her pieces too, something I need to learn how to do. She finds pictures of celebrities wearing similar pieces and groups them together like this…how smart.

Currently Renewable Jewels is having a give away on Facebook, all you need to do is like her page…easy peasy. (I hope I win)

As I’m writing this I am thinking I need to share my amazing friends with you. I am truly so lucky to be surrounded by such talent. Who will be next? I think I know who, but you will need to wait to find out.

Sprinklings of my reality– read them all

Sprinklings- the virgin thrifter

October 5, 2013October 5, 2013 | mollyeleen

Today in town was a big day for rummage sales. There was on at our preschool and one at one of the big churches, plus many others garage sales around town. I love this day…love. My thrifting heart waits for today. But not today.

I’m not sure why, but this morning I was up and ready to go before 8, and I didn’t go. I just sat in the quite house (everyone was still sleeping) and drank a cup of coffee. I enjoyed every sip in complete silence. This morning that was what I needed.

Fast forward a few hours, I got the thrifting itch…the need to go out and find some deals. I have been telling Hubby (the virgin thrifter) about my favorite thrift shop for years, he had wanted to check it out but there was always a reason not to go. Bad neighborhood, he had homework, it’s saturday and my favorite “isn’t it to dirty for the girls?” But today, he said “maybe we can go to that thrift store” DONE!!

Off to Thrifttown we went. This is my favorite thrift store for a few reasons, 1. it’s clean- inside 2. it’s very organized 3. it’s even organized by color after size- love! 4. the deals are amazing and 5. there is always something new. It is true that it is not in the best of neighborhoods, but I have never had an issue there except for some crazy people.

After about an hour for wandering around and one crazy person encounter, we found some great things.

We spent $40 and got- 7 practically new dress shirts and 1 pair of slacks for Hubby, 2 tops for me, 4 shirts and 1 dress up dress for Kiddo, 3 pants, 1 dress and 1 sleep sack for Sneaky B, a fab crystal apothecary jar, 1 vintage tacky but cool Santa head and 1 owl necklace. Happy day!

One of the best moments of the day, Hubby saying “That place was cool. I see why you like to thrift.” Ah my man is not a virgin thrifter anymore.

This is part of the 31 day challenge “Sprinklings of my reality”

“Sneaky B’s” Nursery!

July 24, 2013 | mollyeleen

I know you have been waiting on pins and needles to see our master closet turned into Sneaky B’s nursery so here you go!

So this space was originally our master closet, we will call it a master closet because it is attached to the master bedroom. Each side has a five foot opening to a six foot by two foot space of hanging clothes and behind the pink hanging fabric is a second door to the bathroom. About two years ago, we changed this space to be his and her’s offices, mine was on the left, Hubby’s on the right. When we did that, we added a wall to wall hanging closet system in the master bedroom (thank you ikea!).

Today it’s a super cute (I think) nursery space for our sneaky baby who is due to arrive in less than 20 days! Can you believe it? I sure can’t, most of the time…but then, that’s just a “due date” right? It’s anyones guess when she will decide she is ready to “pop on out of that belly” as Kiddo says.

So here is how it went down. After days of clearing out (a special thanks to my Mama who helped big time with this!) and collecting new and thrifted items, it was time to put everything together.

The starting point was the fabric that is hanging behind the crib, like wallpaper. I loved the colors, not really baby girl but still girly enough without being all pink. Next came the birds, for some reason I wanted birds in the nursery space. Confession time…I hate birds, chickens, feathered friends. I don’t want them close to me, I don’t like that they poop while they fly, I don’t want to touch the feathers Kiddo finds EVERYWHERE, I don’t mind looking at them from far away, but yuck I don’t like them, so why I needed to have birds in the nursery I have no idea. At least they don’t have feathers and these ones are cute.

Okay, so back to the space. I had to find a “mini” sized crib, and thanks to the internet, that was super easy. This one is DaVinci Emily Convertable Mini Crib in white, I found it at diapers.com.

The chair I found at Ikea, it’s not what I was originally thinking, something soft, cozy, white…but I sat in this and loved it. Done. The piece next to the chair and the dresser where thrifted. Happy day!

The dresser was very dark but fantastic quality, so a bit of white paint = super cute dresser! Kiddo helped out too, with painting the space, she is a pro now that she helped paint her room you know.

So there you have it, Sneaky B’s Nursery. And now we wait… we are so excited for the day Sneaky B “pops on out of this tummy!”

The massive, overwhelming to do

June 5, 2013 | mollyeleen

We have been so busy, it’s exhausting! As in I have been reading a book now for two months and I am only on page 50, I just pass out by the time I climb into bed, arrange the crazy amount of pillows around by huge belly, grab my book and zzzzzzz— out cold. With the end of the school year craziness (even for a pre-schooler), a few free-lance design projects in the works, planning for Sneaky baby and being 30 weeks pregnant, it all makes me tired.

And today I’m overwhelmed. Totally and completely. It’s the first day in weeks kiddo and I just stayed home. Being home all day made me realize how much needs to be done before August. I spent most of the morning wandering around our small home, just wandering. Looking at furniture, walls, paintings, the dirty carpet, the dining chairs I can’t stand anymore, the kiddos room, the coo-coo clock still in the box, the mirrors I want to hang, the massive pile of laundry (didn’t I just do the laundry?)…just wandering around thinking “I need to get busy, but where to start?”

By the time Kiddo was ready for lunch, I decided to stop wandering around and just make “THE” to do list. “That’s what needs to happen, write it all down, make a plan, that will be the best thing to do.” Five pages later, it’s all on paper, or it’s at least started. And seeing the list doesn’t make me crazy, it’s almost calming, almost being the key word, it’s still overwhelming – very, but I know what needs to happen.

Among the list are things I will be sharing, like how we are going to change our office closets (which was at one point was our master closets) into Sneaky baby’s nursery. A tutorial or two will be coming too. Many things to sew and create are on my list for the nursery.

How the dining room is going to transform into an office & dining room.

Kiddo’s room will be transformed too. Since she is the big sister, her room will be first, she already picked out the fabric. We have a few projects planned too, thanks to Pinterest and the fact that I have gotten Kiddo addicted to looking at my boards for “something creative to do,” secretly I am very proud of this.

There are many steps to getting ready but it all starts Friday, when my mama is coming up to help me start packing a few things up for storage and Saturday when Hubby will be moving furniture around…

Any-who, I hope you will be along for this 8 week ride into transforming our little 1000 square foot home to welcome Sneaky baby in mid-August. I am sure there will be great successes, quite a few laughs and probably a few tears- albeit hormones or otherwise.

Today brings an entire new….

May 12, 2013 | mollyeleen

meaning & a tutorial of sorts.

Happy Mama’s day to all the mama’s out there. It’s extra special for me. The shock of the wonderful surprise of having a baby in a few months has finally worn off. Don’t get me wrong, I am still very overwhelmed at times, but so giddy it’s ridiculous I can honestly say when I was preggo with Kiddo, I loved feeling her kick, but now with Sneaky-B it’s an entire new level of love. That is to say, I never thought I would feel a baby kicking in my belly again. As the mama’s know it’s an awesome feeling and I am more than ever cherishing every little movement Sneaky-B has.

Today I got to spend the morning at the Antique Flea Market in Sacramento with my good friends and my mama. It’s was so much fun! Why hadn’t I gone to this before? I don’t know, it might have to become my monthly mama outing. Here’s what I scored:

I have been looking for a coo-coo clock for quite some time, don’t really know why, but I have always wanted one. Am very excited about it. The coo-coo clock and the mailbox will both be getting a facelift, you know I will share the outcome with you. For today, I have a simple paper rosette award to show you.

I made this little canvas for my mama for today. I think it turned out cute and she loved it. Happy Day. Here are the steps to make the paper rosette for the award.

Start by cutting out a few strips of paper. The width should be half of the size you want your completed rosette to be. For example, I wanted my finished rosette to be 3 inches across, so each strip is 1 1/2″ wide. The length is really up to you, the longer it is the fuller the rosette will look. Here I used 8″ paper, so over all I had 24″. Accordion fold each strip folding back and forth about a 1/4″ wide folds. Glue the accordion stips together to form one piece. Let that dry for a few minutes then glue into a cylinder (see left photo below).

Now that you have let your accordion cylinder dry for a few minutes, take a scrap of paper, smaller than your final size rosette will be, add some glue to this. Pinch in the top of the cylinder and gently push down… waa-la…you have an paper rosette. Carefully lift this up and set in on top of the paper scrap with glue. Set something a bit heavy on top of rosette to keep it in place while it dries, I use the glue bottle.

When it’s dry, add some cute cut outs, buttons, reinstones, whatever you want…ta da… a super cute paper rosette award.

Thanks for reading this random mama’s day post… it’s a bit all over the place, kind of like me lately.

Glittered Acorns, oh my

November 6, 2012 | mollyeleen

In the park behind our home is a massive oak tree that has the most awesome acorns. I collect them every year for the table during November. This year I thought how about adding some sparkle (aka glitter). For some reason I thought today would be a good thing to do it, probably because I was done cutting (I cut out 4 more jackets and 15 superhero capes), the kiddo has been acting weird all day (super quite and wanted to wear pajamas, if you know my kiddo you know this is weird!) Kiddo also wanted to do a project with Mommy and I want to get the Halloween decorations down and Thanksgiving decorations up. So why not, let’s get our glitter on, shall we?

This is super simple to do, takes about an hour, is messy, fun and somewhat annoying when you realize that this was the wrong day to include the kiddo, but hey the glitter almost matches the carpet!

Here is what I used, thrifted vintage glitter in a coppery-gold color, white glue watered down a bit, paint brush, small plastic container and acorns.

Add some of your glitter into the small container, this is to “help” contain the glitter and “help” little hands keep it somewhat contained.

Brush your acorn with the glue mixture. I started off glittering the seed part, but after a few where done, I switched to glittering the caps, I like them much better.

Place the painted seed into the container of glitter and let the kiddo “gently” roll it around to get glitterized. This is where my “containment” plan failed, I think the container I used was a bit to small, one wobble and it was all over the floor. I needed to vacuum anyway.

A bit of glue in the cap to stick it back in place, and it’s purrdy. Kiddo and I decided to try glittering the cap of the next acorn and after that she said “Okay Mommy, you can continue doing this, I am going to go to London now to visit with the mermaids.” (okay three and half year old, whatever- quite crafting moment for me).

About a half hour later I had finished. Aren’t they cute with the glittered cap? I did end up brushing the seed part with the watered down glue too, it adds a little shine and protects them a bit.

Now I have a bowl of awesome glitterized acorns. Have you ever glittered acorns? Are you going to try it? Maybe pinecones for December? (Now I need to vacuum)

“Let’s go shopping in the barn”

November 3, 2012 | mollyeleen

We are in Sebastopol for the weekend again, it is so relaxing and calm-ish here. Today we, my mom, John, Kennedy, and I, did a trial run of setting up my booth space for the BIG craft show (27 days away!). For those of you who are awesome and followed my 31 days to preparing for my first craft show, you saw my sketches for my booth space, for the rest of you, here is a link to the sketches.

“Let’s go shopping in the shed.” My mom has a collection (yes collection) of shutters. I would guess there were at least thirty shutter options at my beck and call. We found boards for shelves, baskets, frames for signage, so much stuff.

Being patient lounging on the outside sofa

The cute things were a little tricky, not in finding the cute containers, but deciding which ones to use, this was the tricky part. My mom has TONS and TONS of super cute vintage baskets, vintage baby doll cradles, vintage satin handkerchief, jewelry and hose organizers, all things vintage, basically.

The most “difficult” part, was trying to find something to use as the “paying” stand. Some sort of table, bookcase, cabinet that is tall enough to stand at, but small enough to fit into this super tiny booth.

“Let’s go shopping in the van” – laughing so hard I am crying, the van really? – nothing

“Let’s go shopping in the house” – yes! Found it, a small, tall five drawer cabinet, a pink-ish color, perfect. (It’s the piece on the right front, that’s the back side before I painted it- I went shopping in the tool room for paint).

Ta-Da! Here it is, the basics for the “The Vintage Princess by M.E.” booth! Let me tell you, 4 feet by 8 feet is SMALL! Holly cow. The good thing about this, I am feeling way better about my inventory amount, the bad, it’s so freaking small! So small.

close up of the “cute” stuff, vintage handkerchief holder, baby doll cradle and a super cute suitcase with christmas tree. And how fantastic is that chippy pale blue and green!?

Overall, I think the booth turned out exactly like I was hoping, it’s vintage, cute and perfect. It was a fun day of “shopping,” giggling, cursing, working and sweating (who knew it would be 85 degrees in November!). Back to sewing for me or maybe a cocktail. Cheers!

day 14: garage sale finds for projects

October 14, 2012 | mollyeleen

Today I went to the flea market and a few garage sales, and boy howdy did I find some great stuff. Almost everything I got today are materials for “the” craft show. Garage sales and thrifting are the only way for me to find vintage fabrics for Vintage Princess by M.E., plus it’s fun. You never know what you will find and one day you will find exactly what you are looking for.

One place was selling fabric for $2 a pound! I could not believe it, fleece for jackets and satin for super hero capes! Total score!

At the next few stops I found a bag of new embroidery floss, which was on my need to buy it list, this bag broke the bank at a dollar. Three (two green and one pink) of the Midsummer Light designed by Tord Boontje; I was so excited! I have always loved these, a dollar each (felt like I was stealing them) I could not believe it. Also, I found an awesome vintage “towel” of a mermaid. This will be framed and hanging in the bathroom with the other vintage mermaids. Want to guess how much this gem was??? Fifty cents! Woo-Hoo! Love it!

Other items on todays finds list, a puppet theater with four puppets and play clothes for the kiddo, four awesome star shaped paper lanterns, a Hawaiian shirt for John and some bits and pieces for this years Halloween costume.

Grand total for the day $15! Amazing!

molly b

creating, stitching, designing, thrifting

thrifting