OCTOBER'S Winner!!!!

OMG!  October went so quickly that I forgot to do the name drawing for this blog's monthly Giftaway!  (If you hear a thumping sound, it's just my head against the desk...)

THE WINNER IS:  KAT FROM KATCOLLECTS!  

Congratulations, Kat!  Please email me at Miller.sher@yahoo.com with your snail addy info!

Preparing for Santa!

    Our big annual Christmas party is coming up December 6!  By "our" I'm not talking about one we do here at the house - oh no, I'm not quite THAT stupid to undertake something like that right now.  

     I'm talking about the one that Robin holds every year at the shop (meaning the CORNER NEST in Elizabethton, TN).  She holds it the first Saturday of December and has done  this for roughly 15 years now.  It's a lot of fun for everyone, including us vendors.  We have oodles of door prizes, a visit from Santa, lots of free food and TONS of people from several states!  

     If you're in the area, be sure to stop in!  If you're not in the area, make plans to be here!  

     I thought I'd share some of the photos I took today - keep in mind that most of the shop is not yet decorated!  This month will be a really busy one - I'm glad our part is finished!  

Enjoy the photos! Preparing for Santa

(If, for some reason, the link doesn't work, you can view it HERE.)

Friday FLEA MARKET

It's Friday again and yes, I've been MIA for a week.  Sometimes the rest of my life gets in the way of my  blogging life.  I hate it when that happens!  But more of that later!  As for now, take a look at what I have listed for sale but don't forget to skip over to the other FRIDAY FLEA MARKET SHOPS to see what they are offering!  Many thanks to Polly at COUNTING YOUR BLESSINGS for doing such a great job of putting this together for us all!

Email me at Miller.sher@yahoo.com if you are interested in any of the below items.  I accept Paypal, money orders and personal checks.

First up are these four vintage craft books from the early 60's:  

The two WorkBasket magazine pamphlets have a mix of needlework, knitting, sewing and even some trash to treasure items in them!  One lady sent in her method of gluing felt onto the tops of 16 bottlecaps and fastening them all together to serve as a hotpad.

 

Contents of the grey envelope features woodworking and of course, the fourth book has several crochet and knitting patterns included.

All four can be yours for $4.50, including first class postage.

Next up:  A CINNAMON YEAR, a colorful woodworking and painting booklet with specific instructions by Monika Brint.  You'll find lots of snowman and gingerbread patterns in here, along with kitty cats, trees, signs and more.

The original shop price of $8 is still on it but if you're interested, you can have it for $3.00, postage included!  

SEASONS IN TIME includes patterns and instructions for painting on fabric, wood and even glass.  The author, Janice Miller, teaches the step by step process of blending, stippling, layering and more!  Lots of pictures and lots of patterns in this one - you'll love her snowmen and Santas as well as the Spring and Summer designs.

  

This book is $5.50, including the shipping!

OLD-TIMEY EMBROIDERIES gives you transfers as well as embroidery instructions.  If you like country and/or primitive, you'll love the 16 designs included inside!

Shipping is included in the price of this one, too - $3.50 is all you pay!

None of these books have torn pages, marks, etc.  They're all in new condition because they've never been used!!!

Now, about my MIA status:  You've probably guessed that I've been busy with the shop, which is very true.  Our Christmas decorations are all up but I'm still making ornaments and most recently, these:

Do you know what they are?  (Psst - they're not pillows!)  

They're microwave heating pads.  Yep - pop 'em in the microwave for 2 1/2 - 3 minutes and you get a really warm (okay, hot) pad that provides moist heat for 20 minutes or longer.  Not only are they good to sooth muscle aches, arthritis pain, etc., they are really good to soothe the achey belly of a colic baby (watch the heat, though!).  

Small ones are great to push into your coat pockets during cold weather.  They keep your hands nice and toasty!

I'm still finding ways to use up all my fabric stash and people love these!  I took two to a couple of my neighbors this morning.  She's been having major back problems (just had surgery a few weeks ago and has to have another one now to find out what went wrong with the first one).  Another neighbor and close friend is having two hip surgeries so she'll get one later.  I give them to my friends and neighbors but sell them in our shop.  This 12 x 12 size sells for $5.99; I'll be making more of different sizes.

If you want one, let me know!  OR, if you want to make them yourself, all you have to do is sew a square, rectangle, or whatever shape you want (this is one of those great crafts that you really can't mess up) and stuff it with rice, feed corn, flax seed, crushed acorn shells, etc.  Stuff them so they're really plump so they'll hold the heat longer!  Make some for stocking stuffers!  

...and now I'm back to my sewing!

Friday Flea Market, Court and Tattoos

     Are you wondering what these things all have in common?  In a word - nothing.  Well, nothing except for the fact that they are all part of today's post.

     Let's start with today's FLEA MARKET and begin by thanking Polly of COUNTING YOUR BLESSINGS for hosting this weekly event!  Click HERE  or the above logo to see  what others are offering!  

     I decided to part with my sweet little Avon Cotillion girl:  As I've stated before, I'm personally not a collector of vintage Avon bottles.  However, this one was so darned cute and feminine that I decided to hold on to it for awhile.    It's now time to let her move on.  She can be yours for a mere $6.99, which INCLUDES SHIPPING!  

     Also available for purchase is this awesome HANDBOOK TO LITERATURE, in absolutely perfect condition!  

  

Authors are Thrall & Hubbard, published by Odyssey Press.  A previous owners name, Rev Harold Ridge, is handwritten in red pencil on an inside cover page.   Price:  $6.25, including shipping!

If you're interested in either the book or the Cotillion girl, please email me at Miller.sher@yahoo.com

COURT UPDATE:  Remember my 9-11 accident?  I was issued a citation for driving too close (which I wasn't) and for driving without insurance.  Of course, I immediately purchased insurance and was able to show this to the Judge.  Because of my clean driving record (well, clean except for a speeding ticket in 1971), my deputy dropped the driving too close charge (which, I repeat, I wasn't) and because I did purchase insurance immediately thereafter and because I've shown good faith in contacting the other guy's insurance company to reimburse him for damages (*Whew, long sentence breathing break!*), the Judge dismissed all charges.  IMPORTANT - INSERT HAPPY DANCE HERE!  

     No court costs, even.  Thank you, Lord!

AND NOW, ON TO TATTOOS!

     Do you have any?  

     I don't, and for a VERY good reason.  But tattoos are the craze among the younger set.  I snapped a picture of this clerk's tattoo last time I visited Dalton BookStore:

     

I didn't ask her if it hurt to have those engravings done in what I would think is a very sensitive area.  I just figured that yes, it hurt and it hurt a LOT!  I also presumed that no, she was not drunk or otherwise under any other substance influence when she had it done as I do know there are many steps that have to be accomplished in separate visits to accomplish multi-color body art.  (That's what it's called, you know - body art.  Just trying to be PC.)

When I was a young woman in my late 20's, someone who shall remain nameless because I can't remember his name (hey, it was the 70's!) tried to encourage me to get tattoo-ed at the bikini top bra line.  I must admit that I fleetingly considered a liittle rosebud tattoo.  That's when images of my great-grandma came hurdling into my mind.  You see, when I was growing up, she used to come visit us on the weekends.  I shared my bedroom with her and she was never shy about changing into her nightgown in front of me.  I would sit on the edge of my bed and we would chat and although she often repeated the same stories to me, I was most impressed by - well, the way she looked barechested.  

Keep in mind, I was young and very impressionable.  

And THAT, Girlfriends, is why I never got a rosebud tattoo.  I'm glad I didn't.  It would have been too darned depressing for me to watch that sweet little rosebud grow into a long stem beauty.

(Below, the tattoo of my son's BFF Pat.  He's ex-Navy.)

the Bridge

the BRIDGE 

Please click - please watch!  

Tennessee Color and Santa's Coming!

It's definitely fall here in East Tennessee! Regardless of what the temps are , that's what the trees are telling me!

Here's what I get to see when I look outside my home office window:

...and a glance at the last of my back patio blooms:

One task that I'll need to tackle this weekend is covering patio and porch furniture and storing our outdoor pillows, etc.

Meanwhile, here's a peek at what I've been working on this week: I've been designing and sewing Christmas stockings (I don't use patterns and the variety of sizes and shapes reaffirms this).

I'm still working through my self-sanctioned task of using materiels that I've been hoarding for weeks months years. My stash of felt is slowly shrinking. VERY slowly. I still don't know quite how I'll use these little Santa bags but like the way they're turning out.

That group of old Christmas cards I've been saving for Lord-only-knows-how-long is finally getting recycled into new handmade cards. (Those of you who include me on your card mailing lists might recognize some of these.) I started a web album HERE if you want to see them.

Here's one I drew myself - I colored it and cut it out, then mounted it to cardstock for a 3-D effect:

And, of course, I still have rusty old tobacco tins to clean up and re-do.

Oh, yes - furniture that needs cleaning and spiffing up before it goes to the shop. (My Hubby cleaned up this old library table - somebody had actually glued contact paper to the top.)

Dawn dish detergent did a good job of getting the goop off without damaging the surface. This Restor-a-Finish is excellent for helping to remove water rings, etc., too!

Right now, we're off to the shop! See ya later!

Antiques, Redo's and a Possible Surprise Vacation

                      Hubby was off work yesterday so we spent most of the afternoon at the shop (meaning the Corner Nest in Elizabethton, TN).  The really good news is, our furniture and "smalls" have been selling almost as quickly as we set it up.  Of course, this also means more work for us.  I haven't met an antique piece yet that doesn't need something done to it, whether it's a good scrubbing, minor or major repair, etc.  

     Then, there are always the pieces that I really want to keep for myself - but can't.  We need a bigger house or one with elastic walls.  Of course, I took lots of new pictures for you to ooh and ahh over, if oohing and ahhing over primitives, beautiful antiques, cottage items, shabby chic, etc. is your thing.  Click on the picture of this dresser-I-wish-we-had-room-for to go to the album!

 

 I bought this cute little country bench off Craigslist   (click on your state to see what's available in your area).  I thought it would make a cute display for books, dolls, pillows, plants - almost anything that could sit on it.  So, I promptly painted it white (notice I started painting - as usual - and then remembered to take a picture) and took it to the shop where (of course) I forgot to take the "after" picture of it.   It's not for sale (at least, not yet) because I really need it for display right now.  When I got home I noticed that I did take a sideview of it in one of the pictures:Can you see it, over to the left, on top of that wicker chest?  It's right next to the brown wicker chair that Hubby refers to as our "Morticia Chair" because it looks like the one used by the Addams Family.

 This mirror really wanted to be black.  My hubby didn't hear it talking to me and couldn't understand why I wanted to paint this gold mirror another color.  Here's what it looks like now, with a little silver highlighting, thanks to Rub 'n Buff, as introduced to me by Joy, Joys of Home.

Hubby just called me from work.  Apparently a transformer blew this morning and approximately half the plant was left without electricity.  He said he's now hearing rumors that it will cost about $15,000 - AND one week - to replace it and that during that time, the entire plant will be shut down.  (*Shudders down our spines*)  I feel an unscheduled vacation coming up...  Why don't these things happen when we have an abundance of money and not after totalling our van, another vehicle and having to scrap our $600 14-month-old refrigerator?  Oh (a bright light goes off in my dark head)...because we never have an abundance of money, Well, I guess that explains that.

     My eyes are going crossed from staring into this computer screen.  I'll take that as a sign to shut up and sign off.  Later!