Things I Didn’t Buy 48

I thought these old slides were really interesting. They looked to be religious in nature—lots of buildings of churches.

I thought this round cutting board was awesome. Okay, I just like the packaging…but you can’t use the cutting board with the packaging still on it.

Cute Kellogg’s breakfast bowl. It looks more retro than it really is—it’s from 1995.

A Suzy Homemaker oven.

A Polaroid bag—cute but in poor condition.

And a wooden box with leather straps. This I considered buying. I love wood and I love boxes, and here it is—all in one! But I resisted…good for me! [Pat on back.]

Singer Sewing Machine

My uncle and aunt generously gifted me this portable vintage Singer sewing machine that appears to be in really good condition. They know I sew and would appreciate this lovely machine.

The machine itself is gorgeous. It looks to be a later model—from the 1950s. I love the lines of the machine, the simple and classic coloring, and the ornate scrolling design. [Pause.] Good design makes me smile.

And I love the wood case it comes with—it doesn’t make it lightweight, but it is sturdy. And it’s sooooo pretty.

It also has a lot of pieces with it. Different feet and bobbins. It looks quite complete. I have yet to try it out; I need to do some reading and watch some online videos to feel comfortable before I start sewing. But I look forward to testing it. I have a pair of jeans that I’ve been wanting to hem for quite some time now; I’ve avoided it since I didn’t think my current sewing machine could take the thick fabric. But I think this Singer machine is strong enough to do it. This was a very nice (and useful) gift.

Syringe Wooden Box

My coworker gave me this cool wooden box because he knows I love old things. It’s quite nondescript from the outside—just a plain wooden box (with the latch missing).

But once it’s opened, it has information about Alpha Fountain Syringe and a nice illustration. The only downside to this box is that it has a strange smell that’s slightly medicinal.

Vintage Cigar Boxes

Recently while at a thrift shop, I bought three vintage cigar boxes that were each 99 cents. While I didn’t need them, I thought they were interesting so I bought them. I rationalized this purchase by telling myself that I would use two of them as packaging for gifts (which is both less expensive and more intriguing to look at than the new gift wrap found in stores…at least to me).

Letterpress Letters

Recently I went to an estate sale that had a lot of paper goods (e.g. old books, magazines, posters and other paper paraphernalia), as well as old designer items. I’m sure it was pretty picked over by the time I got there, but I did get some wooden letterpress letters that I thought were cute.

There letterpress letters were in boxes that were pretty grimy; there was a layer of dust and ink residue on the letters (so my hands were rather black by the time I was through handling them). There were different sizes of letters, some fairly small (around an inch high), while others were larger (around four inches high). So it was difficult to find letters in the same height, and there was definitely a surplus of certain letters, while others were practically non-existent.

My main plan was to have the letters “X” and “O”, but somewhere along the way (after I’d paid for them), I lost my “O.” [Pause.] Super lame. Oh well. [Sigh.]

In addition, I picked up a metal letterpress piece. There were boxes of these too, likely for advertisement (I saw logos and vintage clip art). I picked out a discount stamp that I thought was pretty cute. Once again, I don’t need any of this stuff, but I do think they’re interesting.

An Excuse to Shop

I’m used to overcast skies, sporadic (and yet still constant) rain and cool temperatures, so when summer officially begins with its heat, it tends to be a bit of a shock to me. Late last week summer finally began in full force, jumping from temperatures in the 70’s to the 90’s, which was hard for me to get adjusted to (because anything above 85 degrees melts any appreciation I might have for summer).

Knit Mode

Last year when I impulsively bought a pair of knitting needles and a ball of yarn, I wasn’t sure if I would like knitting. While I was curious about knitting, I had never done it before so I didn’t know if it was a hobby that would last. I didn’t want to invest a lot of money on supplies that I wasn’t sure I would ever use, so I wanted to start out slow. Thus, every time I needed a different pair of needles to match the thickness of the yarn I had, I would buy my needles individually (which is fine in the short term, but not so great in the long term).

I finally decided that I just needed to get a set of knitting needles because it would be cheaper overall and would give me more sizes to work with. Working with just a couple of needle sizes is very limiting; I like to look over knitting books and find cute projects that I want to try, but as I didn’t have many of the needles sizes it sort of put a damper on things. Now that I have a knitting needle set, I feel more motivated to try different projects and use different types of yarn.

The individual needles I had been using were aluminum but my new set of knitting needles are wood, and I have to say I think I prefer the wood. It’s really not surprising since I love wood items in general, so naturally I would like the look and feel of my new wooden needles; they feel light and have a warmth and softness about them that I appreciate. My new set has needles from sizes 0-15; I’m not sure that I’ll use all of the sizes, but it’s nice to have them just in case I need them.

Lately I’ve been in knit mode, mostly doing so in the evenings when I can half-watch semi-interesting television shows, and I’ve broken in one pair of new wooden needles working on my first non-scarf project. It’s time consuming for me to knit anything, but one of the things I appreciate about knitting is that you can knit for an extended period of time or just for a few minutes—every row counts. And it’s pretty satisfying to see the knitted piece you’re working on get longer and longer as you get closer to finishing.

Animals Gone 7 Deadly Sins Calendar

Spring 2010. Although it was early, I thought that I should get started on my “Make Something Present”. I like making calendars, so I wanted to make another and came up with the format first. I wanted to create something with layers, so I decided on using different sized sheets that would go from the smallest size in the front to the largest size in the back.

Once I figured out how the calendar would be put together, I thought about what the calendar should be about. Suddenly it came to me: 7 Deadly Sins. With seven sins, I could divide the months up to two a sheet plus a cover sheet. But I didn’t want it to be a straight up “sins” calendar; I wanted to do something that would amuse me.

DIY: Button Jewelry Holder

While I haven’t actually used buttons in any sewing projects (thus far) that doesn’t stop me from buying them—especially if they’re on sale. It’s hard to resist the pull of a cute button, since there are just too many adorable buttons to choose from. [Sigh.] (I know. I just totally tried to rationalize my unnecessary need to buy buttons…I’m sorry.)

So I had a variety of buttons that I thought were pretty and I wanted to display them in a project in some way. I decided that I could use buttons as a design accent in a (much needed) jewelry holder (since I have an abundance of jewelry and no way to organize it). I wanted an easy and power-tool-free way to create a wall jewelry holder and after spending some time staring at various items at a craft store, this is what I came up with.

Darn it

I have never darned a sock. I think of socks as fairly disposable pieces of clothing; if it has a hole in it, then you throw it away. I suppose if it was an expensive or novelty sock then there would be an incentive to save it [pause] maybe.