Easter Craft 2012

Yes. I know Easter is over. I'm aware. You don't have to be snobbish about it.

But, the thing is...I didn't finish my Easter craft until after Easter. I know. That is some bad planning on my part. It's very un-Sarah of me. I like to do things in a timely fashion. Not complete a task two weeks late like some shiftless roust about.

I mean, here it is nearly a week after Easter and I'm just finishing getting these little babies out. But, at least they are so awesome that they'll still look great next year. And, everyone likes a fresh, new bauble to put out, don't they? I blame this whole thing on Martha Stewart, anyway.

So, here they are. My Easter Craft, 2012.

Papier mache eggs. Decorated with crepe paper flowers, made by me. The slightly larger, green egg in the middle is mine. I made it for me. It doesn't have anything special inside. It is also the only one that doesn't have crepe paper flowers. Because I couldn't figure out how to make teeny tiny lily of the valley like this, here. So, I just cut out the leafy bits and stuck on some vintage floral sprigs. The bases are made from checker pieces wrapped in crepe paper.

Lilah loves tulips. I'm not going to show you how I made these. That's not what this blog is about.

Pompom bunnies! I purchased the papier mache egg boxes online after a long search.

HB loves orange and aqua. The eggs were less available and more expensive than I thought they'd be.

Pompom chicks! But, I had a fever and the only cure was a papier mache Easter egg craft.

Sarah Mae got the only rhinestone. Can you believe I restrained myself? I HAD rhinestones and I DIDN'T use them ALL. I have to admit, I think I love the daffodils the best.

Sarah Mae has creepy-ass taste.


This last egg travelled all the way to Philadelphia! This will look killer with LuLu's decor.


You have to look at it on an angle to really appreciate the beauty.


Big ol' pompom bunny man!

Well, that was fun.

Last Friday the husband and I had the day off. It was amazing. We went to lunch at Orange Glory Cafe. Dear anyone in the Rochester area, this place is only open during the week for lunch. Do yourself a huge favor and take a day off (come on, you deserve a day off) and GO THERE, GO THERE NOW. Seriously mind blowingly delicious. We also hit up a few Estate Sales. Now, Estate Sales are vastly different from yard, garage, tag or church sales. Estate Sales is where the antiques dealers go for their booty. Prices and stakes are higher. They razz each other and gloat quite a bit. They scoff, stick up their noses and act like crazed animals the entire time. It was a good reminder of why I stay as far away from Estate Sales as I can. I did end up getting some good stuff for the Etsy page, but I only got a few things for myself.

Can I get a witness?


25 cents each. Red felt deer head on a holly pick with bells and a ...snow...tuft. With glitter.

Also this vintage Goose-Grease mug which will be a prize at the Seersucker Social this year! Come on out, folks!

Also, as a word of warning: Sometimes a trip to the toy store for your niece's birthday turns into a trip to the toy store for yourself.

So, in summary:

Give Someone The Gift Of Glitter This Season
Oh, Please With Your-Antique-Dealer-Self
Plastic!
Seersucker Sounds Dirty But Isn't
These Are Aunt Sarah's Toys

In Your Easter Bonnet With All The Brightly Colored Plastic Upon It

It's a well established fact that my taste in Easter/spring decor is a bit unrefined. Garish even. When you love plastic as much as I do you have to get used to that. Embrace the bright. Center yourself in the screamingly colored flocked goodness.

I feel like I've hit a new low when I can't throw away the Peeps box. It's jadeite colored with polka dots for cripes sake! And it has an adorable drawing of a Peep on it! Are you convinced that it's cool yet? All the cool kids are saving theirs. I also love imagining the people who thought up an Easter craft centering around ping-pong balls and disturbingly colored ladies hosiery.

The very famous cake plate. I bought that little bunny on the right from a local crafter. She also does ninjas and cupcakes and all manner of adorable handmade whatsits.

On the lower right you will see Duster D. Duckling. He's an Avon product. I know you get sick of hearing it but, is there anything better than vintage Avon or Hallmark? I mean, really?

Those cards at the top are flocked. Fuzzy Easter birthday cards. I was clearly born in the wrong era. This year I stuck some vintage paper flowers in the candy holders. I love those tiny paper flowers. I have quite a few bundles of them. Hoard? No, silly! Save.

Bits and baubles.

It's hard to imagine that it ever felt like spring around here before this year. Before the giant pink yarn chick.

Some day I'm going to find out what these little flower cups are all about.


It's a lot to process all at once.


Easter Peep lights, I love you.


More than last year. Much more.


Easter Mantel.




Zoot is in the mood for an spring fiesta!

As I look over this year's spread I don't feel quite as satisfied as in years past. I need tall sticks in the mantel vases. I need hankies instead of platters on the cabinet and more careful placement on it's shelves. Note to self for next year.

Also, I found this shop on Etsy. Clearly this person has a lot of things that belong to me. And, ok, ok, possession is 9/10ths of the law, but...! All the plastic-y goodness!! It's ridiculous, amazing and just about the most gorgeous sight I've yet seen.

So, in summary:

Really Bright
Move Over Maru, I Need Boxhab Too
Will I Ever Shut Up About Avon?
Flocked, Felt, Yarn, Glittered and Plastic
Note To Self
Gimmee All Your Stuff

Ronald McDonald House Sale 2011

Now kids, before we jump right into the RMD sale, let me show you a few things I got at a sale a few weeks ago. It was a church sale that I'd never been to before (!!). I believe it was "Our Lady of Mercy" which is a lot better than "Our Lady of Eternal Sorrows and Sad Orphan Kids Out In The Snow" which I'm sure is a very happening parish around here somewhere. It was a rather sizable sale and I ended up getting a lot of good things for my Etsy shop. I only bought two things just for me, though.

Now, just in case you are looking at this chick and thinking that you could use a little Pepto Bismol to accompany the stomach ache that comes with staring at this shade of pink for too long, let me just enumerate the ways in which this pink easter chick rocks. 1- Pink, 2-Yarn, 3-Chick, 4-Wearing a hat, 5-The hat has flowers, 6-craft, 7-felt, 8-price (50 cents!!) 9-Yarn (yes, it counts twice!) and finally 10-Pink Yarn Easter Chick Craft Wearing a Hat with Flowers in it and having Felt Wings which are so adorable and the whole thing makes me want to cry with joy. I'm glad you see it my way.


See? I told you that you'd find pieces of silver (these for 25 cents each!) if you kept your eyes open! It seems like I find silver spoons the most. (Ooh! Silver Spoons!) Which is kind of ironic if you think about it since, you know, not everyone is born with one in their mouth, supposedly.

I'm currently knee deep in stalking this blog. Her paper flowers are swoon worthy, I'm telling you. I got all kinds of inspired and did a craft project! That hasn't happen in ages and I'm loving the result. Looka this! Wowzers. Can you believe these were originally coffee filters? Yeah, I know, right??

OK, I'm done with the catch up stuff. Now it's time for the main event. The Ronald McDonald House Sale. It only comes once a year and it's like Christmas, a marathon and a really great one night stand all rolled into one. Let me start by saying: Holy Crap. The line this year was worse than I've ever seen. Stretching on into oblivion. Everyone and their mother's dog donated this year, must be. Honestly. And it was raining. It took us 25 minutes to get in the door from where we were in line. It "stretched all the way to Terre Haute!" Wish I would have gotten a picture for ya, but you know how I get. The husband texted me just as I was entering the building, admonishing me to please "not buy anything back that you just donated". Smarty pants.

As I'm sure you surmised from the name of this post, all the money from this sale goes to the Ronald McDonald House Charities. It's amazing. People donate all of the items and then come back and buy other people's items and it must be a huge sum of money because it goes on for four days. Everyone knows it's best to donate and get your golden ticket to the pre-sale. Wednesday night. 4-8 pm. I learned my lesson well. Bring a snack and wear a tank top. It's so hot in there, no matter what it's doing outside. Hundreds and hundreds of panicked people trying to get the good stuff before other people get the good stuff. We all assume we have the same idea of good stuff. Obviously all the people are headed straight to the holiday decor made out of yarn, plastic and glitter!

I started in the Christmas section even though I really wanted to start in purses. The sale was in a different location this year and wasn't set up in it's normal pattern. So, I just had to go with the flow. I'm awesome at that, so it added another layer of stress/sweat. All told we were there for three and a half hours. I had rope burn on the inside of one of my hands from carrying a heavy bag with raffia handles. I didn't get to see everything/area. Then we gathered just down the road from the sale site at Rohrbach's for dinner. It was amazing. I came away with less than $30 worth of items in two giant bags. Let me show you:


Adorable Santa head mug with tiny candle: 25 cents, white ceramic teapot $3, vintage pepper shaker $4. I've been looking for just the right teapot all summer long. Turns out basic white is the perfect one for me.


Shazam! I must have been the first person in the Easter section! Because otherwise, obviously, these guys would have been snapped up. Look at that cute little couple of bunnies in the yarn basket. I mean! Come on now. It's been proven time and again that I can't resist yarn nor felt. If I was a super hero they would be my Kryptonite. Along with glitter. And plastic. 50 cents. The ceramic bunny pulling the egg cart (which is actually a legitimate antique stamped "Germany" and doesn't have yarn, glitter OR plastic) was 50 cents. Tiny plastic flocked chick, 50 cents. The corn handles are for the husband. A quarter for the whole set!


OK, now. Firstly I'd like to say that the little nudie angel isn't for me. It's to add to Sarah Mae's disturbing herd of freak babies. $1.50, which is too much to spend on a nude angel baby, but you do these kinds of things for your friends. The tall red one is for...I'm not sure yet. I sort of want to keep her, maybe? She's just so original and adorable. I can't find a maker tag on her anywhere. Her shoes and socks are molded plastic. $1.50 Now, the Christmas-ish mouse and baby I vaguely remember holding in my hand and being all kinds of distracted by the amount of things I still had to look at and the amount of things I already had ready to purchase. It was in this existential crisis that I must have put the mouse in my bag to purchase. I was totally surprised to find her in there today when I finally unpacked. 25 cents.


Goblet for a friend, $1. Set of 7 gold drink glasses for a newly married couple, 50 cents each. Plastic deer for a friend, 75 cents.

The first piece of my Boushh outfit! $1.50

And for all you fans of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia...AN ACTUAL KITTEN MITTEN! $1.50

It's In The Air

Fall, that is. I whined and complained so much and so loudly this year about summer never starting and the rain and the cold and the cloudy sky that I hardly feel that I should be allowed to get excited about fall. My friend who is in love with summer says that fall is great, but it's sort of a like a book you've read a bunch of times that you know has a sad ending. Namely: winter. I can't get the slightest bit excited about winter yet. Maybe ever again. But never say never. Just think it.

But, I do love fall. And fall decorating time is nigh upon us. September 1st. But as for me, I'm going to try to drain the last little bit of enjoyment out of summer that I can. Watermelon, sundresses, flipflops and the like. Because, I also know that with fall comes the end of yard sale season. That breeds desperation and depression. We don't want to think about that right now.

This weekend Sarah Mae, Andrew, Alicia, the husband and I went to a sale in Chili. We almost always go to this sale, never on purpose, really. We just end up going. And we've gotten great stuff every time.

Sarah Mae wins the award for most and biggest this time. (every time??) OK, to be fair I think I actually win the award for most this time, but the items are so tiny it hardly seems to count. You'll see.


One thing Sarah Mae is queen of for sure: The $1 furniture. My mother used to be Queen of the Free Bin. She'd find amazing things in the boxes marked "Free" every stinking time. Sarah Mae, on the other hand can find an awesome piece of furniture and have it be $1 way more than is healthy. Just ask her husband. ;) Look at this cute thing! One dollar! Bow in reverence to her majesty!


Large LasVegas rainbow tote from the 80's. Vintage Raggedy Ann and Andy clock. The metal world flip calendar is Andrew's. It was like 10 cents.

Andrew got this hat. It was like a quarter. It has a pocket in the front. He also got some records.

Alicia got a set of neon screwdrivers for her new apartment ($2), a FREE vintage toaster cover for HB to maybe sell on her Etsy page and the big eyed sailor girl picture for fifty cents.


Here are my tiny treasures. I got the tin for a friend (25 cents). The tiny pink wooden hanger is for me (Free) It looks great against my sage bedroom wall. The chick couple and the bunny couple that match along with the small bag of flocked bats were a find, indeed! (50 cents) and I got the two gray bunnies (20 cents), Sylvanian families for my own doll house. After all these years I've decided to oust all those weird looking humans that never quite look like they aren't aliens and let the animals have it. It ups the cute factor of a doll house by at least 100% in case you've been thinking of making the switch.


Sarah Mae also bought us each a friendship bracelet. This seems harmless enough in theory. Although, she didn't know that I had just seen a picture of pre-teen Sarah Elaine and thought, "Wow, look at all those friendship bracelets. I'd wear those. I'd like to get some of those!" I mean, how could she know? So, having the one gave me an intense desire to not only have more, but to make them. (No smart remarks about how having one of something always gives me the intense desire to start a collection.) I used to sit for hours on end and pump these babies out. So, that's just what I did on Sunday. I got out all my embroidery floss and chose colors (pink and black for me) found a hook (the lock on our trunk that serves as our coffee table) and sat on the floor, weaving. While watching episodes of Dark Wing Duck. Just like the old days. In case any of you think that watching this show sounds like a great idea, let me dissuade you. It won't be as funny as you remember. I mean, it's not Thunder Cats bad, but it's not great. Watch Tale Spin instead. That show had some great writers and is still very much worth while. Just, don't watch it if it's that time of the month. It gets a bit sentimental, and then Kit Cloudkicker loses his cloud kicking board and it's all over.

This weekend coming up I'm in a wedding. I'm going to try to sneak some sale-ing in on Saturday but I'm not sure how it's going to work yet. I'm taking Friday off to go to one of my favorite sales, ever. I also am starting a mental list of things that I should show you all which do not have to do with yard sales. Imagine!

Until next time, fair reader.

Do The Right Thing

It's finally happened. It's hot. I mean, hot. Like, cook an egg on the sidewalk hot. That could happen outside right now. For sure. Don't try it though, because that's just gross.

Even though we're spending most of our time powdering our sweaty crevices and considering cryogenics because freezing sort of sounds great right about now, we still hit the pavement and went yard sale-ing. Because we laugh in the face of pain. Or because we're delirious from heat.

Present: Sarah, Nick, Andrew, Sarah Mae

We only ventured to one church sale and a two street neighborhood sale, but got plenty of great things! Sarah Mae's finds:


Sarah Mae has a penchant for denim. This is her third denim purse. Not enough for a full collection, but it's getting close! The deer is cross stitched onto a vintage Levi's coat. I think the jacket was $2 and know that the purse was less than that.


She also loves elf style booties. And vintage insulated cups/mugs with raffia weave in them. $1.50 for the boots and cups. The genuine leather wallet is Andrew's. He bought two identical wallets. Just in case. $1 each.


She's also starting up a real nice collection of vintage elf dudes. Check out the planter. Some sweet paint by number pictures including what has to be my personal favorite. A 1950's street scene from the point of view of a church bell tower? Yep. Favorite. Then a little travel bag for toiletries. Everything you see here was under $5 including the thing in the next picture.


There are two of these. They came with clips on the ends. We speculated that they were for displaying pictures or maybe drying pictures in a dark room. Either way, they are magnificent and totally retro. I cannot wait to see what she does with them!


Who knew that the husband liked Fleetwood Mac? News to me. (25 cents) I'm all about these white enamel frames. (25 cents) And I have quite a collection going of mini headstones for the fall Halloween decor. (25 cents) The only thing that could be better was if they were replicas of the ones at the Haunted Mansion in Disney World. Don't get me started on Disney World. We don't have time for that right now.

I got this for myself for a quarter! It's a little boys shirt. So what of it? I think my inner geek is starting to show.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks dvd for $3. I love that movie. "Bobbing along, singing a song, on the bottom of the beautiful briny sea!" I'm pretty excited to watch it. The yellow bird is a vintage Avon bottle that a friend of mine will adore. (25 cents) The vintage Strawberry Shortcake doll is Apricot, I think. She's not in her right clothes. But, time will remedy that I'm sure. She also currently has a gum wrapper as a hair band. She's pretty creative and has her finger on the pulse of artistic innovative fashion. (25 cents) Now don't get all excited about my box of pink chicks. You get your own. (25 cents) If you remember correctly you already know I have a small box of yellow ones. Wahoo! These little pink tufts will be right at home with my spring/Easter decor!

We've also started watching our collection of hot weather movies. This includes Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing", one of my favorites "Fried Green Tomatoes" and Woody Allen's "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy".

It's too hot to keep writing. I'm going to go either stick my head in a bucket of ice or crawl into the freezer. Either way, stay tuned because next week we are going to the Renaissance Festival and you are not going to want to miss out on that report.