Treasures - New, Old & Recycled!!

Aaaaarrrrrrr! Me Hearties! Yo Ho! Yo Ho! A pirate's life for me!! :0) Oops! Wrong sort of treasure! Tee! Hee! Hee! It's been a bit of a weekend for appreciating treasures of one sort or another at the Meares' Madhouse this weekend. Would you like to see my treasures? No?? Oh .... OK ... well I'll just go now ... just kidding! :0) If you don't want to see them ... LOOK AWAY NOW! :0)

I know it's out of order ... but I'll tell you about the "Old" treasures I'm loving first off. The HUGE Toowoomba Collectibles Fair and Swap Meet was held at our showgrounds over Friday and Saturday and ... as usual ... I dragged my very patient Beloved Geek Boy out to take a peek. After having to park quite a long way away and having to walk a fair distance, I was beginning to think I should have just skipped it, but we persevered ... and I'm so glad we did! :0) There was every sort of car part, engine part, farm machinery bits and collectible item you can possibly think of, all crammed into the showgrounds ... the WHOLE showgrounds! I have to say, we piked a bit and stuck with the displays that were closer to the car park (about a third of the total!) ... my tootsies would NOT have been happy to walk even further than we did! :0) As always, I couldn't come home empty handed ... though I was pretty controlled, I thought. :0) Here are my old treasures that came home with me ...

A pretty green Depression Glass vase to add to my little collection (the garden's a bit sad at the moment, so a few lavender stalks was the best I could find!), an unusual design pink Depression Glass jug for my bestest-buddy-since-we-were-nine Lynette and some GORGEOUS vintage cotton lace. Hmmm .... it doesn't actually show up very well in the photo ... one day I will own a camera that gives me some lighting options, rather than "Flash" or "No flash". SIGH! Trust me ... it is lovely and I will be looking for a special project to add this to. There was also a timber chest that wanted to follow me home ... I could picture it with a shabby/French makeover ... but apparently GB didn't share my vision! SIGH!! Maybe next time I can convince him. :0)

OK ... onto my "New Treasure". On Friday, we had a gathering of our Quilting Angels and of COURSE I had to take a peek around Marion's GORGEOUS shop to see what fabrics might follow me home this week ... they do, you know ... follow me home! That's MY story anyway, and I'm STICKING to it! Tee! Hee! Hee! I was actually doing pretty well, only had a couple of little bits on the counter that I needed to keep going on a new design. And then ... I spotted something VERY special in a pile of fabrics that another customer had bought lengths from and were now waiting to be put back on the shelves. It was love at first sight!!

Don't you LOVE this fabric!!! I haven't seen anything like this before and even though it is NOT at all "Me" I just had to have some. I think the instant love is because of that 'Grandma's treasures' feel to it. I've decided I'm going to use it as a central panel in a quilt to go on the bottom of the daybed in my sewing room. That way it will show off those big vintage roses. Of course ... I have no idea WHEN this quilt might become a reality, but I have the fabric now, so when I'm ready ... it will be all systems go! :0) Do you ever have "love at first sight" experiences with fabric?? Maybe it's just me! :0)

OK ... lastly ... I'll tell you about my "Recycled Treasure". Some of you who've been popping in for visits for a while now will know there's a bit of a battle in the Meares' Madhouse over the ironing board. I use it as my drawing board, work bench, cutting bench ... and GB actually uses it to ... GASP!! ... iron clothes!!! EEK!! :0) So ... we're always having words over me piling stuff on it and him shifting my 'stuff'. Now ... GB's Dad is a bit of a backyard inventor/innovator and when I mentioned to him that I really needed a work surface that folded away like my ironing board, but was a bit wider and more stable, he said to leave it with him and he'd see what he could come up with.

Last week, he popped in with the solution to our marital arguments. :0) ...

Here's my new workbench ... in use this afternoon. Aaahh ... at last! A stable surface for cutting! Who knows ... this might actually improve my cutting accuracy! Tee! Hee! Hee! And the ironing board can still be accessed ...

I've now got a pretty efficient work station set up ... cutting board, to sewing machine, to ironing board and back to cutting board. :0) This is taken from near the window in my sewing room looking back toward the door ... which would be just to the left of my desk there ... if I had a wide-lens camera! Tee! Hee! Hee! And when I'm finished working or need extra space in my sewing room ...

It folds up and slides behind my cupboard. The best part? It was made on a shoestring budget with a solid ironing board frame and laminate off-cut, both found by my FIL at the local tip shop. Gotta love that! :0)

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS