Want To See My Collection?

I come from a long line of collectors...and please hear me when I say collectors and not hoarders.  Great-grandma Farrie is a collector of stuffed white cats (I'm not talking taxidermy, by the way).  Uncle Lenny was a collector of beer cans and coins.  I was a collector of crystals (shiny rocks I found at my house OR manmade crystals bought from places like the Science Center).  My brother Adam was a collector of Beanie Babies.  Youngest brother Luke: bouncy balls.  And little sis Karli "collects" coffee beans from the containers at Walmart (shhhh.....).  

And Grandma Alice.  In addition to collecting various State refrigerator magnets from her travels, she has decades worth of fabric.  Grandma Alice has sewn amazing things my whole life, and I often reaped the benefits.  From dresses to doll clothes to an entire sunflower-themed bedroom to simple mending, she spoiled me with her talents.  When she recently decided to downsize her enormous fabric collection, I was, once again, spoiled by Grandma.  She sent me home with LOADS of amazing fabric (some of which I remember from outfits she made when I was little). 

The stacks of fabric stared at me for a long time before I took the plunge and organized it all.  I was pretty frustrated with the whole process and had to take a few breaks to unwind (a.k.a. watch gameshow bloopers on youtube).  But, hey, now I have a system to all these fabrics and don't have to go digging through scraps to find what I need.  Hurray!  Check out "mah stash":

Get it?  "Mah (My) Stash"?  Mustache?  ehhhh...   Here's my real stash:

Boom,

boom,

and boom.

Also, I got this wall-mounted thread organizer, which has simplified my sewing life SO much.

And thank you, once again, Grandma Alice.  My new fabric collection is way cooler than my crystal collection (although that collection really rocks...  Anyone?)  But enough of all this talk of hoarding and organizing.  It's time for a break!  You know what that means...  And please pay special attention to the very last clip (from Family Feud).   I was embarrassingly close to hyperventilating from that one.

Trash to Treasure (or How Badly I Wish I Was On American Pickers)

My brother Adam recently flew home to Illinois from California.  This is always a real treat because  A) I love my brother and B) we enjoy doing a lot of the same things together.   This trip, Adam and I headed to the next farm town over to go thrift store shopping (and to make a quick stop at Rural King...that place always smells the same).  There is something so wonderful about rummaging through piles of junk and finding things that are a real treasure to you, usually for mere pocket change.

Sadly, I was off to a bit of a rough start at the big thrift store.  I was about to own up to the fact that I would go home empty-handed when I struck gold.  Guess what was for sale in between rows of sheets, dish towels and nasty old comforters....FABRIC!  I don't know why I never thought of looking for fabric at thrift stores before, but it's there.  Woo!  What's really great about thrift store fabric is that it's vintage...REAL vintage.  So tonight, after dropping Adam off at the airport, I got right to work on a sewing project using my new fabric.  I found this thick, mustard yellow damask fabric from the 60s or 70s (a good yard-and-a-half for fifty cents!), and I had a pattern for a bag that would be the perfect match.  Here's the end result...

The cute floral fabric on the inside is from Grandma Alice's collection...thanks, Grandma!

I love my new bag!  I can't wait to tote various things around in it, or possibly just use it as my everyday purse.  Here are some potential candidates for "items to be toted"...

Candy (of course), my current reading material, and a fun/challenging card game

Or there's always Slam.

One other really cool thing I found was this wooden candy bowl from the 1950s (very "space age", isn't it?).

All in all, it was a great trip.  Adam made it home with a few new-to-him shirts to remind him of the midwest and a retro puffy vest.  As an added bonus, Adam also found some copper wire in the inside pockets of the vest when we got home.  Hmmm....

Probably one of my favorite moments from this trip, though, was getting dressed up in costumes and going trick-or-treating on Halloween with all of my siblings for the first time ever.  Thank you, choice residents of Hillsboro, who gave me candy instead of weird looks when I rang your doorbell with my wand.  I'm 27, I'm in a costume, and I want your candy.  Thank you.

Luke (15) as Mail/Male Model, Karli (9) as Fat Elvis, Me (27) as Professor Umbridge, Adam (26) as Vampire Clown