Thursday Thrifting

Haven't posted my thrifting finds lately. I have been trying to be good but I have had a couple of really good days!

Here is the haul from a couple of weeks ago. I collect the pie dishes with the recipes in them, my problem at this point is I don't remember which ones I have! So if it is a good price and I don't KNOW I have it I go ahead and get it. This Raspberry Cream Pie plate was only $2.99. My dream is to someday have them all displayed in my house and any extras or doubles I have can then be gifted.

I also bought the old wooden rolling pin for $1.99. The paint is peeling and the handles are a little wonky but I loved the look of it enough to buy it as a decorative piece. I have seen these types of rolling pins go for way more at antique stores, so I thought for the price it will look awesome in my someday kitchen.

The two cake plates are matching and were $3.99 a piece. Steal! I love cake plates and as I may actually set a date and get to plan a wedding here sometime in the hopefully near future these will be put to good use on a dessert table.

The clear pasta container has been on my radar for awhile. I have a pin saved on pinterest where someone used this type of container to store their cupcakes liners. I am notorious at losing track of cupcake liners, shoving them in strange places and generally either squashing them or not knowing what I have. As I find my stashes around my kitchen and elsewhere I have been adding them to the container and now I know where they all are, what I have, and they aren't getting squished anymore! Huzzah!

Harder to see in the picture is a simple wooden napkin holder. I'll admit right now that I don't buy napkins but hoard them from take out. (Most notably chipotle). We end up eating in the basement in front of the tv a lot and the napkins have just been strewn about on the coffee table. Now at least I have them contained. Baby steps towards classing the place up a bit.

So a good haul all around. Yay for good thrifting days!

Find yourself some treasures lately?

Back to School Cookies

Today is the first day of school here in our district. To celebrate I made some back to school cookies at work.

These were actually 'gift package' cut out cookies. We get our cookies in frozen and bake them off in store. We don't use a traditional royal icing, like I would prefer, but a glossy frosting more used for donuts. It never gets super hard, which makes it delicious, but also harder to decorate. I am taking it upon myself at work to sort of be 'in charge' of the sugar cookies though as we roll into the holiday season. Most times we do 6cts that are simply decorated with icing and maybe sprinkles. I'm hoping to bump it up a notch this year and offer at least some cookie options that really tap into the cute factor. There are some truly amazing cookie artists out there! I am nowhere near as talented as some of them but I vow to continue to try to make cute yummy cookies.

To all my teacher friends: Good Luck with this school year! And a special Shout Out to my fiance who is starting as a Math Corps Tutor!

Shark Blanket

I started my mermaid tail crochet project with a lot of enthusiasm. I was convinced that I would be able to 'wing it' and have it turn out awesome. Well not long after my 'Skein 1' update I was hitting a bit of a roadblock and getting frustrated. That's when my friend Becky posted on my FB wall a picture of a shark blanket from MJ's Off the Hook Designs. Being the crazy person I am I saw it and immediately wanted to make it. I bought the pattern (my first purchased crochet pattern!) and ran off to the craft store to buy gray yarn. I had enough white and red on hand for the teeth and gum details. I had to tweak the pattern just a bit because I did not use a bulky yarn. I used regular yarn and used two strands. It went pretty smoothly but I did end up making the tail 3 times to get the sizing right.

I am super happy with how it turned out. I just took a couple of quick shots before wrapping it up and sending it off to Texas! It got there only a couple days after her birthday. The nice thing about the pattern is that it includes lots of different sizes (baby to adult) and she allows you to sell your finished products as long as you give her pattern credit.

She also has a mermaid tail blanket pattern....I may just break down and buy that as well. Although it is probably very similar to the shark pattern I want to start supporting craftspeople more when I can.

So excited to have finished another LARGE crochet project. Working on more and more and keeping the momentum going. Getting back into hats too now that fall is here (in name if not in temperature). Trying to decide if I can buckle down enough to be part of the Halloween cryptkeepers this year. If nothing else look for a giveaway I am hosting in early October!

Happy Labor Day everyone! And Happy Crafting!