Cheater ruffles galore!!!!!

What starts out like the padded hanger above, found in every single thrift store in America, and ends up like the image below?
Every single one of these ruffles came off a padded hanger that I got thrifting or estate sales, or were gifted to me by Melanie. I love to embellish the wood hangers underneath, and kept the satin covers to use in my art, but it wasn't working out too well. I just couldn't seem to manipulate them in the right way to get the look I was after.
Yesterday I was home all day with dd who was sick, so I was puttering in my studio in between taking care of her, and quite by mistake came up with this oh so easy idea. Just take a seam ripper to those little pieces after you take them off the hangers, and open them up. 
Voila, instant ruffles! Now I love ruffles but haven't had the patience to sit at my machine and make a bunch, now I don't have to. The fun part is they all come out a little differently, some are super ruffled, some have a flat part on the top (I purposefully left them that way for a little variation), and some are just single ruffles.




Then you get out your ironing board and gently press them out making sure you don't over press them, thus defeating the whole purpose, which is to leave lots of ruffles in and to have a somewhat rumpled look. I can think of about a thousand fun uses for these, bet you can too!
Here they are in their final home on a shelf in my studio, just waiting until I need one for a collage, dolls dress, flower, whatever............hope someone else can use this easy idea.

Don't you just love.....

antique cookbooks? I don't have very many, but find that the one's put out by the old baking powder company's are so beautiful! This little book has a copyright of 1909, the graphics are just phenomenal....


In the back someone has written her favorite old-fashioned recipes, like Tomato Catsup....and pickled onions, yum?
She also put in clippings from a newspaper that she liked such as "Mistletoe Chocolate Cake" and "Mistletoe Frosting". I might even have to try this one :).

This next book I just picked up yesterday at my local thrift store....called "Anyone Can Bake".

It was put out by the Royal Baking Powder Co. in 1929. It sold for $1.50!

I just love this section on "The School Lunch Box"...charming. If you enlarge the pic you should be able to read it a little better..


I love the beautiful illustrations and the presentation of these desserts, look so yummy....
and this page of cakes below is so smudged, I know the cook's favorite page in this book!

Check out these pretty cakes and cupcakes.....I especially love the last two, the heart-shaped cake and the children's Merry-Go-Round Cake.
I hope you enjoy the pictures of these old cookbooks, they're just like a little "slice" of history.

The biggest indoor garage sale in the world? I think not.....

This past Saturday we had an indoor garage sale at our fairgrounds, supposedly the biggest in the world....well, I knew better but couldn't resist going. You never know when you'll find a bargain or even the start of a new collection. The cute little bag above was $5, it was dirty but now it's very clean! I'm somewhat of a clean freak when I buy things at a garage/estate sale, or even on ebay. The first thing I do is clean them! Anyone else have this habit? I actually enjoy doing it, there I said it, now you can all know how wierd I am!
So every once in a while I come across some old player piano music rolls, and sure enough there were some here too, pretty mundane looking except for this one roll, check out the box!

The woman tried to get me to buy all the rolls, there were about 6 more, but the boxes were plain so I wasn't interested....but give me a box with cool graphics like these and I'm all over it!

The music is "Tea for Two" so I thought that was kinda sweet too, I'll get more and display them in some cool fashion, hopefully my dh won't have me committed......
Then I found a sweet lady selling all kinds of very small items, including what's pictured above and below. Love it all, especially the little Sacred Heart find.....it's so sweet.
So that was the extent of my haul from this "huge" garage sale.

I'm pretty happy with what I found.....

Til next time....

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful......

So dd and I went thrifting today, nothing was found so I decided to hit my favorite Antique Mall. It's recently been expanded and has some very reasonable prices and cool things. Walking through the front door, I saw her! She was sitting regally on a chair...very elegant. I ventured over to check out her price tag......was absolutely astounded! $29....couldn't grab her fast enough. A lady came over to ask if she wanted me to hold her at the counter...I said yes, please, but am I reading this price correctly? She said $29....ok.
Look at her beautiful satin gown, pearls, flowers, etc. And check out her painted on shoes....
Sorry the pic above is skewed, I was trying to get a close up of her hat....
her painted on blue eyes are not so painted on anymore, but I like that about her.




The lady who finally rang me up said that maybe she wasn't really old, just a reproduction for that price. There is no way this doll is a reproduction, she's just in great shape for being so old.

I'm totally smitten with her, she's my new favorite possession.

Every once in a while we just get lucky and find a real bargain.......

Hope you find some soon!

Beach and Portland loot....

Grab a cup o' tea or joe, whatever your preference, and check out the "finds" on our trip......

This sewing basket Mel spotted at Monticello and I made her go back and buy it for me....

The dolly below is also from Monticello........$12.....
The beautiful wallpapered box below was from Mel's store "All My Favorite Things", the cutie hangar was from a Lion's sale in Garibaldi......it was 25cents.
Sorry for the next two pictures and their fuzziness, this is a HUGE ledger book that Mel gave me....why would she just give me that you say? Because she had two of them! That's right, my best friend loves to share, and I'm so grateful she does....


She also gave me the sweet doll head above, and the cute initial "G" note cards below.

We went to a thrift store in Portland and she snagged these three jewelry boxes for me, I've already added some wallpaper to the smallest one, it had a really faded top.
Mel also gave me all the old envelopes above, I scored the cool cigar box, that I'll probably cover with old wallpaper, at a thrift store...
I spotted the head form above on Mel's blog, and asked her to hold it for me so I could buy it....

love it to pieces....
The reams of paper above were purchased at the infamous school sale at the coast, there must be thousands of sheets in there, and Mel has just as much if not more than me. We went berserk I tell ya!
Check out the supplies above, I screamed when I opened the box! Old dennison tickets, huge round tickets with silver rims, plastic coated tags with thin wire attached, too many brads to count....
Look at these cool phonics cards, Mel got one box, I got the other :). She also got one with math flash cards that I didn't want (too many bad memories tied to those bad boys).
I scored in the trim department, look at this fantastic french trim with sparkly gold on it....too pretty for words so I'll shut up......
And this might be my favorite find at the coast, yards and yards of this beautiful trim that looks like it has glitter on it, it just sparkles......
The note below pretty much sums up this purchase, doesn't it?
Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing the fruits of our "labor" over the weekend. I tell ya, when Mel and I get together it's just magical, we have the best luck and the best time.......can't wait for our next "buying" trip.