Monday, February 18, 2013

Crafty Peacock Project

I have an embroidery machine. It is really awesome. I was very blessed and got one for a good price from a lady on Craigslist. It is a Babylock Sophia 2 and it is amazing. I usually get most of my designs that I use for free. Some of the great sites for designs that aren't free are at http://lynniepinnie.com/shop/index.php and at http://www.designsbyjuju.com/. They're great places to get you started.

I think that the best feature on both of these websites are the wishlist feature. Otherwise, I probably living in a cardboard box in City Park. Seriously, it's so easy to get carried away at these shops. I even have trouble at the Twin Falls Sewing Center. I am a craft addict so I would know. ;)

Anyway, back to my story. I love my embriodery machine, it is just that I have quite a back log of projects. My mother had asked me before Thanksgiving last year to embroider a design on her jacket. Well, being the deadline driven person that I am I put it off for a long time beacause it wasn't something that needed done right away. So there the jacket sat, alone and wrinkled in a basket on my sewing desk. I had asked mom if there was a certain thing that she wanted but she said that she didn't care, to "just make it look good".  Okayyyyyy...I thought, well.......hmmm... As you can tell, I knew immediatly what I was going to do and got it done shortly. Nope.

So the the last couple of weekends I have been slowly working on this project. I used the peacock design from Lynnie Pennie and then I added some hot-fix crystals. And finally I got it done.

My mother really loved it and I hope you like it as well.


The complete outfit
 
 
 A litte bling for the front two pockets
 
 
 A hair clip she owns that matches the jacket

A close up view of the finished project


Nutshell Pictures

All of these pictures are for the post below.

The nutshell candy dish. (Ha-ha-ha, now that I think about it, it reminds me of one of those huge nuts from Chip and Dale Chipmunks-So Cute)

 
This is the inside
 
 
SHROOMS
 
So awesomely vintage!
 
 
Here is the top of one
 
 
Original stickers!! Yay!
 
 
 
SEWING STUFF
 
Board and rotary cutter
 
 
Awesome vintage flower fabric-hmmm...what should I make with it?
 
 
OTHER STUFF
 
Homer Price Hard-bound book, Sweet!
 
Illustration in the book. (Sorry, its sideways)
 
Glass hangy-thingy of Garfield. "I need more lasagna"
 
Brand-new shoes. The soles look like they've never been worn. I was needing some more grey shoes.
 
 
So there is the loot that I got today. Are you jealous? No, I'm just kidding. But take a look at your local thrift shops. You'll never know what will be hiding.

In a nutshell...

Pictures are in the post above. Please refer to them while reading this post. ;)


Happy President's Day Everybody! I hope that you all had a nice day off or that work was pleasant. As you know I am a thrift shopper. Okay...addict really, and since I had the day off I decided that it was high time that I went thrift shopping. My two sisters had the day off as well so I convinced them to go shopping with me. I was surprised that it did 't take very long to convince them to go with me. Usually it is like trying to pull teeth. I am what you could call a long-distance shopper. In other words, I would be ecstatic if I could shop all day or for several hours at a time. My sisters on the other hand don't enjoy shopping to the extent that I do. Usually when ever we go shopping together Emily is ready to call it quits when I'm just getting warmed up. But today was different and they both decided to go with me.

I had a couple of shops that I really wanted to stop at and I also needed to give a present to one of my Sunday school kids since today is his birthday. So about 11:30 we went and got some gas at the station by Smith's because we have a rewards card that once filled up gives you a dollar off gas. Usually we accrue enough points to get a dollar off then we all take our cars and go fill them up together. So we went and did that then we came back home to get my littlest sister and go shopping. I was planning on getting big cupcake as a present but I completely forgot about it.

After we picked up Grace we all piled into my car to go shopping. Our first stop was the D.I. I haven't been there in a while so I thought that it would be a good place to start. I usually look at the clothes first since they are closest to the door; I didn't start there today, though, since my closet is really full at the moment and I really don't need any more. So I headed to the glass case for "collectible" items first. I saw a few items that I wanted to take a closer look at. There was a fur hat that looked interesting, a cutting board with a rotary cutter, and some Charlie Brown books. I did like the hat but it looked a bit small, the Charlie Brown books were in good condition but they wanted way too much for them (fifty dollars, GOOD GRIEF), but I did decide to take the cutting board and rotary cutter. They only wanted $7 for them, and later Mom told me that the cutting board alone is worth $17 and the rotary cutter is worth about $10. So all in all it wasn't a bad buy and they are in great shape, they barely look used. I did forget to pick up the board and rotary cutters when I checked out so I did have to make a return trip to pick them up. Also at the D.I. I found a brand new pair of shoes and some Archie comic books which we love to read. A really exciting item that I found was a nut candy-type bowl. I thought that it was really cute and that I just had to have it. So I bought it. I also found a vintage copy of HOMER PRICE. Seriously great book. If you have never read this I recommend that you do.

Our next stop was the Youth Ranch. Right now the Youth Ranch has a program going on we're you can free books (if you are under 18). They a bookmark and you can pick out a free book. You read it then you come back for another one. It is a great program. As we were browsing we noticed that they had almost the whole series of THE SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS. Emily and Grace both went up to get a bookmark so that they could get at least one of the books for free and I could buy the rest. The price of the books were $2 a piece and so I thought that it would be great if they could get at least two of the books for free. Emily and I got talking to the lady about the books and we were telling her how great they were and she gave Emily and Grace practically the whole set. She said that it was annoying when you started reading a series and couldn't find the next book. So she told my sisters that they could just go ahead and get their five books so that they could get the set. She was a very nice lady and we thanked her profusely.

Another really neat item that I found at the Youth Ranch was some really awesome vintage mushroom salt and pepper shakers. They still have the stickers on them, plus they will match the spoon holder that I got earlier (see previous post).

I visit the Youth Ranch quit a bit since it is only about two blocks away from where I work. The last time I was in there I found several sets of cloth napkins. Today I found another set of the same color as some of the ones that I bought last time. So now I will end up with a huge set of about 16 of the orange ones. I was so excited to find them because I am going to embroider on the. And make them look really nice. I will definitely blog about them when I am finished so keep checking back every so often.

After we got finished at the Youth Ranch we walked down a couple of stores to St. Vincent. I hardly ever go to St. Vincent since I usually don't find much. Today was really different because I found a vintage sheet that I am going to sew with, some embroidery patterns and a glass picture of Garfield. It was a lot of fun but by that point I think everyone was a little tuckered out.

I had told my sisters that we could stop at McDonald's and eat lunch, but first I wanted to stop at the Sewing Center and see if they had any new patterns on sale. They had some really cute hippo patterns but I decided not to buy anything. I think I may go back tomorrow and get them. I was looking at the cutting boards and suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to pick up the cutting board and rotary cutter at the D.I. So I rushed back and picked it up. Thankfully it was still there. Then we stopped at McDonald's and got some lunch and went home.

So all in all I think I got some pretty great deals.