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my creative space

In my creative space today I’m untangling this beautiful mess of yarn. It’s not as bad as it looks, at least I hope it’s not. There are three hanks that are loosely tied. If I can get them on the swift properly, it should be smooth sailing.

thrifted yarn

Where did I get such interesting yarn? I got a phone call yesterday while I was shopping for groceries.

kelly: I’m at the thrift store and there are huge tubs of beautiful yarn that are only 99 cents each.
me: Thanks for thinking of me, but I have so much yarn.
kelly: Yes, but some of this stuff looks hand dyed. It’s really beautiful.
me: Can you send a picture?

thrifted yarn

I think she sent four pictures, actually. One of those “tubs” was a large bin on wheels. I felt weak. A little defeated by my desire for pretty yarn that I really don’t need. I drove up to the store.

thrifted yarn

I exercised tremendous restraint and bought only six skeins. The pink/purple/blue skein is for my daughter. I let her pick out one because she was so patient while I dug through that big bin. I also bought her some stickers.

I’m a little early posting my creative space today. Make sure you check out Kirsty’s blog later today for more spaces.

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thrifty finds: advent calendar

I’ve also been kicking it into high gear for the holidays. Unfortunately, that means it’s hard to show you work-in-progress pictures. I’ve knitted quite a few gifts over the past year and spent yesterday weaving in ends, soaking them in wool wash and blocking.

I’m also trying to play catch-up for Advent. Two summers ago I found this wooden L.L. Bean Advent calendar at Goodwill. I couldn’t help noticing how cute it was—especially for $4.99. Then the Goodwill lady told me everything in housewares was 50% off, so I bought it.

wooden advent calendar ll bean

It’s pretty much in mint condition except for a bit of double-sticky foam tape in a few boxes that needs to be removed. Here’s what it looks like when you open the little door.

wooden advent calendar l.l. bean

It came with a little bag of holiday trinkets. Most of them are ornaments with the strings removed. I guess they stuck them in the boxes with the sticky tape.

wooden advent calendar l.l. bean

I’m going to re-glue the thread loops and turn them back into ornaments. My daughter has a little tree in the kitchen and each day we’ll take an ornament out to decorate her tree. We even have a Joseph, Mary and little baby Jesus for December 25th!

wooden advent calendar l.l. bean

I know I am late getting started, so I’d really like to get it finished this weekend. It will be my second project using hot glue. Wish me luck!

thrifting: Sometimes I can’t believe the little gems I find at the thrift store. I think I even like it better than the one they sell now.

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two dollar deals!

The past few days I’ve been cleaning and straightening the house because my parents arrived last night for a nice, long visit. I am looking forward to some serious sewing time while they are here!

I did manage to get out a little bit and score some serious thrifty deals. Thursday, my daughter and I went to a garage sale looking for kid stuff. Instead we found a London Fog wool coat for my husband. I swear it is brand new. It was even his size, so no alterations needed. It was a mere $2. Can you believe it? I had to pinch myself. And he likes it!

london fog coat

Saturday afternoon I went out with an actual mission. I’m tired of having a door knob in all of my photos and decided I need some kind of wall shelf with pegs to hang my totes and refashion projects. I found this on sale for $2 at the first store I visited. I’m going to paint it white. Yay!

shelf

I still had some time to myself, so I went to a few more stores just to browse around. I’ve been looking for some pretty sheets to make some pajama bottoms and happened to stumble upon these bright and cheery flowers. These were also on sale for $2.

flower sheets

thrifting: Some days it feels like I never find anything at the thrift stores and I wonder why I even bother. Then I have jackpot days like this and it reminds me that the extra effort is worth it!