Secrets

Inspired by Lisa's post about her secrets, I thought I'd post some of my own. Since I have no need for nipple cream (see Lisa's post), I thought I'd direct this towards my being thrifty/crafty.

• You can find a lot of free patterns and templates for crafts online, I just google what it is I want. I've found some great quilt patterns and baby bootie patterns by doing that.

• If you can't find what you want online, try JoAnn's- but watch the circulars for when they have patterns on sale for a $1 or $1.99. That saves you a good $15! I usually don't need a pattern for a specific deadline, so I make a list of what brands/pattern numbers I want and then buy them cheap when it's on sale. I've got a lot of great patterns this way- skirts, bags, tree skirts, etc.

• If you need a pattern for a deadline, don't buy it at Joann's...go down the street to Wal-Mart. Their patterns are always half off of retail price and they have a pretty good selection.

• I like to pick up pre-measured fat quarters of fabric at JoAnn's when they go on sale for $1- there's lots of great prints available and I use them for projects and on scrapbook pages.

• Sign up for coupons- I use a coupon whenever I go to Michael's or JoAnn's. At BB&B, do your math- are you going to save more with a 20%, a $5 off of $15 purchase or the new $10 off of $30 coupon? I used to have to tell customers all the time that the other coupon in their hand would save them more!

• Go online: Since I don't have access to a lot of stores out here, I can usually find specific scrapbooking products I want on ebay and it's usually not too expensive. I used to buy nifty butterfly plates on ebay too. I go to Amazon for books, they're always cheaper and you can get free shipping for orders over $25. I get most of my photo/art books that way.

• I love to go junking- and out here in rural PA you can find some good deals. Would you believe I got these silver pieces for $1.99 ea? They're in really good condition too. One even says "William Rogers" on the bottom- good stuff. I find treasures for just a couple bucks all the time.

• I am a magazinephile, it's been hard to cut back now that I don't have an income. Our library sells donated magazine for 10 cents ea, I can usually find some good ones. Your library might do something similar. I can also check them out from the library as well.

• I do always buy Martha Stewart Weddings though. I'm not trying to sound pathetic- I really like the photography and I get inspired by the color schemes shown. I've gotten some good party ideas (like for my 25th) too.

• I can usually find great deals at Fashion Bug- every now and then there's something good and cheap on clearance. I recently got a little cover-up jacket for $11.

• One good thing about PA- you don't pay sales tax on certain neccessities, like shoes. I didn't know that til I bought a pair of tennies last month! People come here from neighboring states to shop. PA does ream you in other tax areas, though so I don't know if that's really a bargain.

• I buy my scrapbooking staples, like adhesive and ribbon, etc at Wal-Mart. I love glue dots- they hold anything together! Wal-Mart has stepped up their scrapbook selection- I love the new Martha Stewart products they carry.

• I save all my useable scraps of cardstock- and I use them! I have a drawer full of scraps. By now, I have pretty much any size/color I need. I can make little accents on cards and pages.
• Anything for scrapbooking that I buy has to have multiple functions- like with rubber stamps. They have to be generic enough that I can use them in several different ways on my cards and pages.

• Stressed? Try playing with a kneaded eraser- it's similar to silly putty and helps break boredom and tension in my classes.

That's what I got so far, maybe I can think of more hints later.

Cardboard

Here is my cardboard carousel horse project in the er, flesh. The goal of this sculpture assignment was to take architechtural elements and create a sculpture that was not building-like. I took amusement park pieces to create a carousel horse. It took a LOT of time to make and it turned out HUGE! I made the body too big and from there the other pieces had to be big, too. Maybe I'll make a smaller one. I had to lay down the seat in the Jeep to get it to school! I am pround that it stands on its own. I got pretty nice reviews from my class and teacher during critique. Cardboard and hot glue are way stronger than you might think!

The front:

Body: ticket booth, neck: ferris wheel, head: bench seat on carousel, legs: horse tail, rollercoaster track, log ride and rollercoaster cars, thigh: carousel top framing, tail: wooden roller coaster

Front 3/4 view:

Back view:

Rear 3/4 view:

Detail of ticket booth on back (taken from above)

Detail of rollercoaster tail:
Funnily enough, someone else's sculpture made a fence or "paddock" for my horse!

Now, if I hadn't told you what the sculpture was, would you have recognized what it was? Funny Story: There is this girl in class who is a little dense...I don't know if she pays attention or what during critique. You'll be explaining something in depth and then she'll go and ask about what you just explained as though you had never spoken! It happens all the time during our critiques. So I tried to make it an obvious horse shape and I think I succeeded because everyone who walked into the classroom observed it was a carousel horse (they'd never seen it before critique day) in nanoseconds. During critique, we spent at least 15 minutes talking about my horse, my teacher talked about the ride architecture specifically making a horse, we talked about legs, it's tail, body, etc. We were not vaugue during critique as to what it was. Even if you didn't know what it was before, you should have known by listening to critique.

Then after class she comes up to me and says "You want to know what I see in your piece?" and I was like, uh..sure. She then proceeds to say "If you look at it from this angle, it looks like a horse!" as though she had discovered it was a horse and no one else had! She then asked "Did you see that it was a horse when you were making it?"

I tried real hard not to look too dumbfounded, what do you say? "Uh, yeah, I knew it was a horse." I could have totally made a smart aleck comment but was nice and didn't. I was thinking "Gee, it's a horse? Nooo...couldn't tell it was a horse after spending 25 hours on it!"

Some people crack me up.

Embroidery

Right about the end of August I got back into embroidery...after a hiatus of years. Decades, even. I used to do this stuff when I was a kid, I've enjoyed getting back into it. It's very relaxing to do at the end of the day, and highly addictive!

The above picture is four flour sack dishclothes that I did- in my dream house my kitchen will be aqua and white with red retro accents, so that's the color combo I chose. There's still 3 to do in this set of 7 designs- one for each day of the week. They go pretty fast- just a few evenings of sewing and it's DONE! It's a great feeling to get a project completed!

We have a bunch of these flour sacks sewn by my great grandmothers...doing this kind of work makes me feel connected to them. I think that handiworks such as this are like a sign saying "I was here." What do I treasure more from my ancestors...the things they owned or the things they made? While I enjoy objects or furniture that they owned, I feel a special connection to the things they made. Their handiworks outlasted them, these will probably outlast me. It's partly why I like to make things- to create a history.

I have doilies from my great grandmother that I want to put in frames...always something on the to-do list.

Something tells me I will wind up sewing millions of embroidered flour sack dishclothes for my hope chest! Lol