Indulge Your Shelf

Has one of these creative reuse, recycle, upcycle CRAFT stores popped up near you yet?  Oh my goodness, I visited this one today and it was like heaven! It was as if you were in the sewing/crafting section of your favorite thrift shop and found something amazing for pennies...except, EVERYTHING was amazing and everything costed pennies! I spent a total of $6 and got all of this: Vintage Hallmark embossed wrapping paper - perfect for Valentines! - an unopened vintage tissue roses kit, beautiful old card box, NIP Dept. 56 garland...  a bride and groom cake topper that I've been looking for for a project, pretty old pin box...  3 yards of fabric with finished edges -- perfect to make table runners from...  and a bag of all these finished quilt squares, plus extra pieces... someone worked very hard on these, and most of the fabric is raw silk.  I'm thinking pretty pumpkins! Not shown: a stack lovely blue deckled writing paper, some large ma...

I'm so happy to finally have time to come back for a visit on my blog!  And, I actually have some rather good news: my husband will be starting a temporary job tomorrow.  It is of unknown duration, and right here in town.  It's not a great job, and it doesn't pay much -- but it is the first job he's been offered despite his herculean efforts, so we are happy! We found out on Friday, and that evening we'd been invited to a karaoke night at a nearby venue; I hadn't been to karaoke in 20 years, I think -- it hasn't really changed!   It was fun to be out with friends on a night we really felt like celebrating! We had way too much fun and, gosh, did we need that!  To my left is Rebecca, her husband Conrad, and on my right is Vonnie, her husband Bob, and Dennis.  The sparkly lights on us are coming from the karaoke guy's fancy light set up.  Don't I look like I'm giving Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer a run for his money?!  We closed down the show...