...'skill-seeker' or just meant to be?.

Earlier in the month, while out getting my 'fix' at a neighboring town thrift, I was digging through the craft supplies. "WHY?" You may ask, of the girl so lacking in the 'crafting gene'

. Well.... The Thrifts are sorely lacking this time of the year, and as any true junky knows - when you need a 'fix', you'll go to any extreme!! Low and behold, there in the back, of the bottom shelf, in a little basket marked .25¢ each were six new bottle of PLAID Gallery Glass (faux stained glass/glass paint) - new and sealed.

~Explanation: The latest hair-brained idea that I have dreamt up includes a combination of clear vessel (vase, dish, etc...) with applied sea glass and adorned with 'faux stained glass' patterning. No idea if it will work. Rachel / Two Dog Pond - if you're reading this, I apologize in advance - I know 'The Real Thing' (no faux) would be much better!! ~

I looked at the back of the bottles to read the instructions. There were none. The bottles simply referred me to some 'PLAID' book. Figures. Hmph. Oh well, figured I could look it up on-line. I continued to scour through the supplies, the patterns, the mattes, and then what did I spot...

'THE' forementioned book! - .50¢!

For $2.00 I had enough paint supplies to give this a try. I knew I could gather plenty of stray vases at home, and there is never a shortage of sea glass in our house!! I've located a bottle of special glue that I picked up last summer - designed for adhering glass to glass, and it dries clear. All that was left was to pick up a bottle of the liquid leading.

Between snowflakes this week, I fit in a 'fix', and again found myself resorting to the craft section... different thrift... same story - NO GOOD STUFF ...except...

MORE bottles of PLAID Gallery Glass (textured) - New/Sealed AND a GIANT bottle of the LIQUID LEADING!! At this thrift they were 3/$1 though. I purchase $3 more of paints (Now my grand total for supplies for this project is up to a whopping $5.!! ).

THANK GOODNESS there are people out there who ship their extra supplies off to The Thrift the minute they lose interest/complete the project! I probably wouldn't try half of the things that I do if I had to pay retail, knowing darn well that they may only be used for a short time.

I must commend all of you 'HAND-MADE' ETSIANS (is that a word?) out there? To find a niche - something you enjoy, and truly do well, and run with it gets my applause!!

There are SO MANY things that interest me, that I want to try and learn how to do (can we say 'scatter-brain'?!), that I can't just settle down to one media. I'm probably the world's worst 'ETSY customer'... I love looking, browsing, oohing and ahhing, but in the end I come away with ideas, inspiration and say "Hey - I could do that!"

Blame or Credit... I think it all comes down to my Dad. Growing up, he never let us kids get away with thinking there was anything that we couldn't do (still doesn't!). He isn't the 'cheerleader' type, he's the quiet, subtle kind. Didn't matter if I was a girl - I could rake the leaves just as well as my brothers! Same applied when I liked hanging out in his shop - he had no objection when I wanted to learn the basics of welding, or how to use a drill or a jigsaw. Of course Mom did her best to counteract this and made me take dance, instrument, sewing and cooking lessons... (all of which I'm grateful - though I have no desire to use...).

And so it has continued over the years... acrylic painting...reupholstering...meat canning...macrame...herb gardening...candle making...felting...refinishing furniture...mosaics...jam/jelly...embroidery...calligraphy...silk scarf painting/design...wilton cake decorating...soldering...plarn crocheting...scrapbooking... All of which I got decent at (except knitting and grape pie making - we won't even go there, let's just say I truly appreciate a beautifully handknit sweater or delicious homemade grape pie and will gladly pay the price!!), and then it is time for the next challenge.

I don't go into my adventures planning on making any money - they are purely for ME. I enjoy the heck out of them - and usually come away with 'lifetime' skills. Unlike others, my supplies get neatly stored in a 'train case' and labelled for future use - NOT quickly dismissed to the thrifts!! Thanks to The Thrifts, and frugal shopping my investments are minimal.

Anyone else out there still trying to figure out what they want to do when you grow-up?? Am I just a 'skill-seeker' , trying to complete some bizarre unknown-to-me Bucket List or was it 'just meant to be' that I haven't found that niche' yet??

...battle of wills.

We have been working with this WILD ONE since late Fall...
She (?) is EXTREMELY skittish, normally will not let us within 3 yards of her, but now she will F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. come up on the porch while we are out there... if food is involved!!

She only stops by in the evening, after dark...... the last few weeks, in the single digit temperatures, her and I have been having a battle of wills to see how close she is willing to come to me to get the bowl of warmed up table scraps I have prepared for her...

We are within a couple of feet now, and she lets me sit on the floor beside her while she eats - though she eyes me suspiciously and jumps at any sudden move (and is still hissing at DH...)
She is an amazing Mouser though, as we evidenced the other night as she dove off the porch toward our detached garage, and within a few minutes brought us back a 'THANK YOU'...Look at that sweet face... I would love to get her tame enough to be handled and checked out by a vet - maybe by Spring.

DISCLAIMER: Before I start getting bombarded with 'don't feed feral cats!'

DH is allergic to felines - thus I can no longer have indoor cats. Over the years we have been adopted by several outdoor stray felines, and have always been responsible with them (vet visits included!!). There is NOT an overpopulation of strays in our area.

...svelteSTUFFj is LIVE!!!

After about a month of 'behind the scenes' work - our ETSY shop is live again - YIPPEE!! Now, I didn't say it was 'stocked' yet, ...just 'live'.

This time around it is a joint venture with DH - left brain and right brain are uniting ... so to speak 8-) . My sense of 'hunting & gathering' and his sense of 'purging & divesting' should mesh nicely.

One thing is for sure - his photography (banner & avatar) makes mine look REALLY bad... wonder how I can get HIM to do all of the photography... we'll have to work on this one...

USELESS TRIVIA TIDBIT for the day: I just learned that I could put an ETSY tab on my FACEBOOK page - similar to the widget on a blog - cool, huh?!

...sittin' by...

...waiting for things to warm a bit, and the ice to melt

(so that I can safely venture off to work)

~or~

...the plows/salt trucks to decide to come to our end of town...

which ever may happen first.I found myself reconfiguring the aqua Haeger vignette (from Xmas - GASP!) that I had been dragging my feet on dis-membering.

I think this shall hold me over until I can actually get to the seaside!

...and just in time - the salt truck just went by!

...when all else fails

No motivation?

No inspiration?

...decorate a gumdrop tree!

A 'slight' redemption... I did hit a thrift on Friday, and picked up this little treasure. (Wouldn't you love to know 'why' certain things just call to us from across thrift shops?!!)No date that I could find, so I started doing a little research and found this great site on dating globes- REPLOGLE. The closest I can pinpoint my globe is between 1945 - 1949 - KOREA is on the globe (post 1945); FRENCH INDO-CHINA is on the globe (pre 1949); GERMANY is on the globe (pre 1949)... FUN!

...Winter White

The 'hunting & gathering' has basically stalled out here in the cold NorthEast, and those of us going through 'stuff withdrawal' have LOADS of time on our hands to fill... productively?!! Though I haven't had much of interest to Blog about lately, there has been MUCH going on 'behind-the-scenes'. You know that exciting sorting, cleaning, organizing, purging, and yes - even a few projects getting finished up! Here is one that I started last Winter, but it got put on hold when some seeds needed sowing in hopes of Spring... ...this 'Winter White' plarn bag is f-i-n-a-l-l-y complete, and I'm loving it! I've been using my last plarn bag for well over a year on a daily basis, and I can't believe how amazingly well these things hold up (and I pack it FULL of stuff to cart to and from work every day!!). I just decided I was ready for a new color scheme and a few minor modifications (ie: more interior pockets, longer straps to go over bulky sweaters/coats easier, etc...). The more I check out some of the plarn creations people are doing on ETSY though (if you want some REAL eye candy - check out BLUESKYBAGS etsy shop!!), I'm kinda craving one in a Blue/green/aqua color-way (go-figure!) - I've said it before, this plarn stuff IS ADDICTING!!

This isn't to say that I have stayed away from the Thrifts completely... Let me introduce my first Royal Haeger find of 2010 - a great pair of mugs for $1.58.

... cheap thrills!

Or maybe a better title would be 'WHY?!'

Yes.~ They do have an 'inner sparkle'. Yes.~ The colors truly are 'that' bright and tacky in real life - no enhancement necessary! Nothing 'realistic' about these babies.

Never fear, all has not gone completely haywire in my world (though it was up to 40° a few days this week!!!!), I did come home with 2010 Sweater Clip #3, and a glove clip. Both quite simple, but with some subtle charms (much like the grapes - ha, ha!!), and for a quarter a piece...

...the count is on for 2010

Wednesday yielded Sweater Clip (#1), and Friday provided 2010 with Sweater Clip #2 and VERA #1!!!

QUESTION:

What's better than 75% of at Big Box Dept. Stores??

ANSWER:

75% at The local Church Thrift!! (gotta love all this for $1.62 !!)

...pumpkin, and olive, and ..., and ..., and aqua!!

I forsee a mini mid-midwinter makeover in the near future...

IKEA, nwt, $1.

...Winter Dreams

I really just wasn't motivated to dig out the TrailBlazer this morning, so I decided I would work from home today...

Well, we all know that the best laid plans go astray! I could only ignore those last few decorations beckoning my attention for just so long, before I knew that today would be a 'true' snow day, and 'real' work would just have to wait until tomorrow!

After the last bits of Xmas were boxed I bundled up to tackle the journey 'to the attic' (aka: my fair weather haven / studio). Normally the Attic is my paradise - not so this time of the year - a coat and gloves are mandatory attire! I trudged up, armed with my delicate treasures (on this particularly 'balmy' day the thermometer at the top of the stairs wasn't even registering 15°.... that's WRONG - just WRONG!).

I know there are those out there who are truly enjoying the snow, and I hate to be a 'weather whiner', but my thoughts are definitely elsewhere! Heidi did a post which mentioned the colors prediction for 2010. I am seriously dreaming of Turquoise (seas) and Aqua (skies). Even my After Xmas Sale Shopping proved this to be true!

... I might actually attempt an ornament wreath - hot glue gun version (since these boxes of ornaments and garlands only set me back .25¢ each, and it wouldn't be like ruining 'good' Shiny Brites if I mess it up!), and accent with some seashells, maybe some seaglass!

I know. I know.... "Get over it." "It's only just begun!"

...But a girl can dream, can't she?