Made

My mom and I bought two huge bunches of corn stalks and made these this weekend! I love them - cost $5 for one wreath. We followed Chickens in the Road's instructions.

Tips? I think I would use floral wire next time as you really had to keep the string/twin taught. You can see that my wreath, above, is a little lopsided on the right. Next time, I would intersperse the corn husks with the dried corn leaves to create a more even texture. Still, I love how it looks. Maybe, I'll do a little more "fluffing."

Bought!

There were so many things I wanted to buy at the antique/flea market - but this is what came home with me!

• Vintage, 1970s retro AM/FM radio that works!
• Lovely crocheted edged, sunny yellow pillowcases
• linen table runner
• black curio cabinet (going to my sister)
• pottery vase, autumnal yellow
• one very large wooden candlestick (not pictured)

What did I want to buy? Well, I was looking for a library table and did find two. The first one was too much $$$$ for my pocketbook; I debated for a half hour or so and did go back. Luckily for me, someone else purchased it in the meantime. No biggie - I'll just keep looking.

Lost...

Antique/Flea Market (long post)

Today was the last weekend of the season for the Elkhorn antique & flea market. It runs three times during the summer and fall and it is, in my opinion, one of the best markets. Not only do you have antiques and vintage goodies, but you also have vegetable stalls, and arts & crafts as well. It was pretty cold this morning - I neglected to take my gloves but the vendors were in high spirits and I had a great time!

I love these dishes.

What was my goal? I was actually looking for a table for the living room. This one looked interesting.

This serger makes mine look like a youngster.

This is the lovely stall of Tattered Tiques - a jazzy pair of ladies with a wonderful designer's touch. I absolutely swooned for these chairs with flour sack upholstery.

I loved these tags with the chocolate ribbon...

This staller had the most interesting collection of vintage kitchen ware - she had a lovely cake carrier that I was dying to purchase. She ran out of business cards but her store is: The Cottage in Coal Valley, IL. 309-799-3025. She said a road trip is totally worth the trip as she has an entire room dedicated to this type of retro-ware! Maybe I can talk my sister in going?

This lovely artist was at Kane County but I wasn't able to capture her artwork. She has amazing talent; here's her link.

My mother loves barn quilts - took this picture for her.

This is one item that I hauled home for my sister (who was in St. Louis for the weekend.) The women were wonderful at "Good Finds" they kept this purchase and all my others since I mistakenly did not bring my cart! What was I thinking? The Good Finds stall has an abundance of toile bulletin boards, black and white painted furniture and other beautiful things.

Two lovely gentlemen selling reclaimed, gorgeously made cabinets, check here for their shop. I love the dental molding on this one.

Halloween arts & crafts were sprinkled amongst the antiques - isn't he a witty, dapper man?

I wanted to scoop up a few of these tender little shoes.

Stay tuned for what did come home with me....

Good Morning

We're off to the apple orchard today; I shopped for craft supplies yesterday - more paperclay and black tissue paper for Halloween display. I'm also percolating like mad about this paint technique! I love Freckled Laundry's website - her ideas are just wonderful.

We're hitting the Elkhorn Flea Market tomorrow, I am so excited - the possibilities!

The man is smoking today too! Turkey, yummy. More to follow!

What do you think?

Okay, I was SO giddy when I finished the final bits of my snowmen! In all, I've made four (one had an unfortunate demise - eaten by the Golden Retriever.) I was so excited, I had to take pictures and send them to my sister, and two friends. (That's what I get for crafting alone.)

For my first try, I think they really came out super cute. I wasn't able to find antiquing spray - I'm still searching for that, so they were able to keep their fresh, bright colors.

You might ask, "now what?" Well, I have ideas as to where to get the antiquing spray and then I want to try a full figured snowman, a blue and red theme, and maybe ... an angel!

Heads Up

I've been slowly making progress with the snowmen, previously mentioned here. The heads have been patiently waiting for some cosmetics and glue. J went to a friends house for most of the day and I was able to focus. The entire process has been done in fits and starts as I've waited for various stages to dry.

Moe, Larry and Curly.

In the red

One of the things I wanted to do with this blog is share real-life stories, crafting in the trenches per se. I read many blogs - what an addict I am, but everyone's projects always turn out perfectly. My red toile quilt was an example of misadventure. First, my reds didn't quite jive with the pattern I was going to make. So, the fabric languished for a few months. Then, when I had inspiration, I didn't have enough yardage so I decided to make the quilt scrappy, playing with the layout of the squares for added visual impact.

Once the quilt was all done, my friend Jo had a great idea for "framing" the blocks which worked beautifully - thanks Jo.

After all the sewing, I proudly took the quilt outside to hand on the line for a celebrity quilt photo event. Ah, this is where the story turns.

A poor, unfortunate, sick bird managed to do some very nasty business on my quilt - it happened so fast! Also unfortunate, my stain removing agent by choice, did not take out the stain. So, I had to rip out the offending square - luckily, it was just one, and then cut and sew a new one in.

Here is the rescued quilt, not to be placed outside any time soon.

Has anyone else had such misadventures?

Adventures with zippers

Remember the cardigan that I've been working on? It's only been a year that I've toted this sweater around in my knitting bag mentioned here. Not to mention, since it was my first zipper experience, I custom ordered two zippers before I managed to find the correct length. I'm not sure why I had such a hard time getting the correct measurement. I had blocked the cardigan before I took the measurement but I think next time I will sew everything together first. It is very important not to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the knitting when measuring.

For guidance, I used this blog entry and this one too - both were extremely helpful!

So, after blocking and sewing together, I basted the opening of the cardigan.

Then, I basted the zipper into the cardigan and had to make a quick trip my local fabric store to get the right color thread. Trust me, it matters that you pick a thread that matches as closely as possible.

Here's the finished cardigan! Now, to get a picture of my niece in it - I'm only 2 weeks late since this was "supposed" to be a birthday present! Stay tuned.

Kane County Fair

The wonderfully long Labor Day weekend bloomed ahead of us, so we decided to take a meandering journey to the Kane County Fair.

We hadn't been for quite a while, maybe since J was four? It had changed quite a bit from what I remembered. There were many wonderful craft elements amongst the antiques and flea market finds!

a delightfully frothy concoction in maueve ...

My sister didn't come with me but I had to take pictures of the metal art. The bright corn made me smile.

But, this goat, oh how I wanted to bring the bashful guy home! Maybe next time....

I love corningware, don't you?

The shabby elements were sometimes too wonderful to pass up.

These guys were a hoot and I really liked the smokey BBQ sauce.

This gal had a wonderfully creative side to her displays, I thought this was a great idea. I "will" improve and get shop names next time.

After walking around for several hours, I managed to find one item on my list. I bought this impressionist bouquet for the where? the sewing room of course!