A Day of Almost Normal and some Thrift Store Finds

      Yesterday mom and I ventured out for a little trip to Hobby Lobby so she could buy some interfacing. Mom is a wonderful seamstress and she spends the whole year creating one beautiful craft for each of her children, their spouses and her grandchildren. I can't say what she is making this year in case one of the above reads this, but she needs interfacing and she's sewing it...there's your first clue! 

     As we were heading to Hobby Lobby, mom asked if we couldn't maybe stop by The American Cancer Society Discovery Shop aka The Discovery Store. We love this place, it's one of our favorite thrift shops. I had to tell her that while I am ok in going into stores selling new items, I wasn't comfortable taking her someplace where we did not know where the items had been and who had touched them. I know it's probably ok, but I'm not taking a chance with my mom!

     The Discovery Store posts enticing photos on Facebook daily and I thought just for fun I would share some to show you what we are missing, and we truly are missing them, mom and I are huge thrift store shoppers!

     First, I know I would have been in love with this beautiful lampshade. The lamp not so much but I bet you anything that lampshade has a hand-drawn design. And my sister Lisa's birthday is in October and I might have purchased the sailboat painting, isn't it dreamy?

     Then there's this wine holder, love it! Of course I'm down to only 3 bottles of wine and 1 of Champagne, so totally not practical, but at least I would have had a chance to drool over it. I also love the black plate hanger behind it. I have no room in my kitchen for it, but a girl can want right? I guess that's why my mom and sister nicknamed me Iwanna! 

     I am not a Milk Glass collector, but I know a lot of people out there are, so look at this pretty little set for just $20! I'm sure someone will scoop that up right away. I do love the white creamer and sugar holder.

     These black shoes are so my mom! She would have loved them and the little red coin purse behind them. So I showed them to her and I saw the shine in her eye when she saw them, she said "Now those I would have loved!"

     I don't know the brand of those shoes, but check out these! Michael Kors and so pretty. But I know that that they are probably a size 9 and I wear a 6 1/2 so they wouldn't have fit anyway. A little sour grapes always helps!

     In telling mom that we didn't want to touch old things, only new things it dawned on me that there was no reason we could not visit another one of our favorite stores, Ross Dress for Less. We had not been since the shelter in place in March. Mom's face lit up when I told her we could make a quick stop there.

     Masks in place, since they are mandated in California, we walk in to the store. It was nice to be almost normal again. This was one of our typical stops on a Saturday morning. We each grabbed a basket and headed our own way. I has already warned mom about talking to people, she's very friendly and forgets about the distancing and wants to show people what she's buying and offer suggestions on what they are looking at. She promised she would talk to no one, how sad that it has comes to that.

     I headed for the shoes and then realized that I don't need and won't need any pretty summer sandals because I'm working from home for sure until the first of next year and maybe beyond and that's how it went, I would find a pretty blouse and tell myself that I didn't need it, there would be no where to wear it too.  That was the "not normal" part of our shopping trip.

     Also not normal was the distancing. So many people forget or don't care. They wear the masks because they won't be allowed in the store without it, but many feel they can do what they want and no one is going to tell them what to do or where to stand!

     I went into the purse aisle, following the arrows on the floor and this woman came up behind me, breathing down my neck, so I move further along and she was right there again and I moved again and same thing, finally I just left that section of the store altogether. I could have said something but so many people want you to say something so they can get in your face and my fighting in public days are over! Not that I ever fought in public, but I sure wasn't going to start now!

     So I went to find mom and sure enough she's talking to a man about four feet away from her and going against the arrows! I reminded her about the arrows and she said, "Oh, I didn't even notice they had arrows." These arrows were at least 12 inches in length made out of blue duct tape! How could she not notice. But she's 82 and she shouldn't have to notice, other people should stay away from her out of simple courtesy. PEOPLE, if you are out there shopping, look out for the senior citizens, elders, whatever you want to call them. They are the most in danger and the most unaware. Please!

     Since I did not need clothes, shoes or purses I purchased all the cool art supplies I could find. I bought some alcohol markers, some metallic crayons, blending stumps and a pretty little sketchbook that had a lovely cover that says "Fill your life with Imagination and Color." Last night I did just that, I ended my day by playing with my new markers and creating this pretty, colorful little drawing. 

     All in all, mom and I had a fun time. It is always a little stressful for me to be out with mom because I'm constantly watching out for her, but the good thing is that she doesn't realize it's a whole new world out there...for her it was just a normal Saturday shopping trip with her daughter, something we've done for years.

     Seriously people...when you are out there in the world, watch out for the elderly.

Thrift Store Art Supplies and The Lisa Mermaid

I am a lover of thrift stores! There's just something about hunting for hidden treasure that I love. I get this from my mother who has always loved thrift stores. She and I can spend hours on a Saturday morning on the hunt for something special. 

About a year ago, I found one of those treasures, canvases for 99 cents each! There were probably 50 of them, I bought 10. The canvas was covered with a piece of faux brown suede. People tell me that they were probably used in a sound studio to muffle noise. It is a 16 x 20 inch canvas which is a nice size.

I took the fake suede cover off  and found that underneath was some thin green foam, about 1/4 inch in thickness. Here's the foam after I removed it. 

Unfortunately they had glued down the foam in certain places and the foam did not want to come off!

I tried everything, a knife, a razor blade, acetone, sanding paper. I was able to get almost all the foam off but that glue must have been made from the stuff they glued the Apollo 13 with, because nothing I did even made a dent. I had several big blobs of glue!

I was taking an acrylic art class at the time, so I took it to class to get some advice from my art teacher, Alex. Alex said, "Well, if you can't remove it, make it part of your painting. Try some mixed media. Paint the glue blobs to be 3-D rocks." Brilliant Alex....just brilliant! Why didn't I think of that.

I happened upon a YouTube video on how to use tissue paper to create art. The video below is from Amy Pearce at Her Art from the Attic. It's amazing and now that I've watched it again I think I am going to try this one today.



I figured that the tissue paper would give the canvas enough texture that you wouldn't notice the lumps where the glue was so I added the tissue paper and again showed it to Alex who said that it looked like waves in the ocean and I should try doing an ocean painting! Brilliant! So I painted it like this to start with. 

If you look closely you can see the lumps where the glue was.

I set this aside for several weeks and one day I happened upon another YouTube video done by Angela Anderson at Angela Anderson Fine Art. It was a tutorial on how to paint an Ocean Coral Reef and lo and behold, I already had the basics of it done!



Following along with Angela, I was able to come up with the painting below. I knew I wanted to add a mermaid but because of the ridges in the texture the tissue paper, I was scared to try it. I usually draw my subject in with white kids chalk and the ridges didn't allow for smooth drawing. By now the art class was over so I didn't even have Alex for ideas!

One night I held a paint night for myself, my sister Lisa and our friend Lupe. We try to get together every few months to paint, de-stress and just spend time together. Lupe had found a picture online that she wanted to try to paint and when she saw the ocean reef painting she insisted that I take the mermaid picture and use it. I loved it, it was perfect. Thank you Lupe!

The great thing is that the mermaid is not facing me, so I didn't have to deal with trying to draw a face with all those ridges. So instead of doing a drawing first I just went for it and painted her in.

So here she is, my finished painting which I am gifting to my sister Lisa because she is a true mermaid, a lover of the sea, the ocean, the beaches and anything oceany!

I give you The Lisa Mermaid!

Here's a close up of the mermaid herself. I used some glitter paint in silver and white for her tail. You can't really see it here but her tail glistens with glitter. I also used a glitter paint that dries clearly on her skin, so her skin glistens. She's absolutely beautiful.

Now I have to figure out what I'm going to do with the other 9 canvases that are covered with suede! Yikes! Any ideas?

Baby J Sunday! Hat and Fall in the Air!

I just finished reading the book Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas. It's one of the September book selections for my online book club, From Left to Write. Without giving anything away I have to say that I really didn't enjoy reading this book. I should be working on a blog post for the book as it's due tomorrow, but unfortunately the book just wasn't my cup of tea and I still feel like I don't have a clue what the book was about.

So I will work on that post later, but for right now I want to share my Baby J Sunday, Sunday, Sunday photos! Let me start by saying that I didn't take too many today. Baby J was super fast today. She's a hard one to pin down. You aim the camera at her and say "Baby J, say cheese!" She says "Cheese" and is off before you even have a chance to snap the photo!

My sister Lisa (Baby J's grandmother) had recently asked us to keep an eye out for hats for Baby J when we're on one of our Thrifting Treasure Hunts. Yesterday mom and I were out running errands and had a chance to stop at one Goodwill Store. We usually hit them all but darn it, we just ran out of time yesterday!

But we were in luck because there were tons of Halloween costumes at Goodwill and we found a beautiful little white hat with a furry trim and a white veil. We knew Baby J would love it and she did!

First photo is Baby J in her white hat, she did love it and wouldn't take it off. It makes my mom so happy to see Baby J enjoying the things she buys for her! Don't you adore that DIMPLE???? As usual we had breakfast and then Baby J dragged us outside to play with the dogs and her sidewalk chalk.

One thing that frightens her are loud noises, like big trucks that go by that have really loud motors! In the bottom left picture she had just come running up to me scared. You can see she looks a little shaken up, but she had beautiful hair going today. Love her curls!

Then it was time for Baby J to head home and you can see her kissing her great grandmother goodbye, wearing her pretty little hat. She has a special bond with her Nana and it brings joy to my heart to see my mom laughing at this little wonder.

That's it for Baby J Sunday this week, I hope next week I'm either a little bit faster or Baby J is a little bit slower. Have a great week!


 

A Great Way to End the Year!

I've had many good trips and fun times in 2012.

Some of them I blogged about, some of them I never got around to blogging about.

About two weeks before Christmas my sister and I took a drive to Santa Clarita to get some Christmas shopping done. Santa Clarita is about two hours south of Bakersfield. When we got there we happened to notice on the way out of town that there was a huge Goodwill Store right there on Lyons Avenue and we both said, "Look, Goodwill! We need to bring mom!"

My mom loves thrift stores and I've learned to love them as well through her. My sister Lisa...not so much. So today, we had nothing to do other than the normal grocery shopping, vacuuming, mopping, dusting, laundry, you know...all the normal stuff that we do on the weekends to get ready for the next week...so we took mom to Santa Clarita instead.

That in itself is not such a big deal, the big deal was driving the Grapevine. The Grapevine is notorious for having bad weather during the winter months and earlier in the week the California Highway Patrol had to escort traffic through the mountainous area.

When we left it was a bit overcast here in Bakersfield, but we convinced my mom that the weather wouldn't be bad and that once we got over the mountain the sun would be shining. I guess maybe we should have checked The Weather Channel before we left.

We hit snow! Not bad snow, but snow none the less! I was driving and I have never driven in snow. Well I've driven in snow after it's on the ground, but not during a snow storm. Well this wasn't really a snow storm, mostly a lightly falling snow. But you can see the snow from earlier on the side of the road.

You know a weird thing that I never knew about snow? That when it falls it doesn't stick to and wet your car's windshield like rain does. I didn't even need my wipers. Now it may be that when it falls heavier that it does, but this one didn't.



Picture taken by my sister from the rear window of the car.

Needless to say...my mom was not a happy camper! She doesn't like to go outside during the winter and doesn't even like to look outside. So to be in the backseat of a car at 5000 elevation with snow falling around her was sheer torture! We tried to tell her it wasn't that bad and this is a great adventure and something we will remember forever, but she wasn't buying it!

A couple of times I contemplated turning around and going back home because many times people get to the other side of the Grapevine and then it snows so much that the CHP closes the pass and you can't get back. You can go around but that adds hours to your trip. But I'm nothing if not stubborn. I figured the driving wasn't so bad. Everyone was going at a decent speed and I wasn't scared, so why not continue on and if we had to get a hotel room and spend the night in Santa Clarita, well then we would. This was an adventure after all!

I'm happy to say that we made it over the Grapevine. And it was sunny, a bit cold but sunny. We had a yummy lunch at Coco's and then took my mom to Goodwill. The Goodwill in Santa Clarita was a tad more expensive than our local Goodwills, but my mom still had a good time. I found an awesome cookbook, 1,000 Classic Recipes from Around the World! The sticker price on the front said $17.89 but I got it for $5.00. This book is like four inches thick and filled with pictures and super heavy! I can't wait to look at it and try some of the recipes!

I've also been collecting Jodi Picoult books, trying to get them all and I found another one today that I didn't have in my collection. Haven't read this one yet, have no idea what it's about, but I love Jodi Picoult books and can't wait to read it! And the sticker on the front says $8.43 but I got it for $1.99!

And my favorite thing I found was a silverware caddy. I had been looking for one for quite a few months now and hadn't found anything I really liked. My cousin Stella has a perfect one that I believe she got a Ikea or Pier 1 Imports, but I haven't been able to find one exactly like hers. This one is great because it has touches of green, my favorite color and the color of my kitchen curtains and it has butterflies, which I love and have several of all over my house.

I already got it all washed up and placed the silverware in it. Not sure this is going to work for me because the utensils tend to slip out of the bottom. I put some cupcake pan liners in there for now but I'm hoping to find some acrylic containers that might fit in there. See the butterflies and the ivy leaves? So cute!

So my sister, mom and I had a great day! I wish I had thought to take a photo, but let me share one of the three of us making Biscochos for Christmas this year.

From L to R...my sister Lisa, my mom Tomasa and me!

Yep...a great way to end the year!

Mosaic Monday - Things Treasured

Many people have questioned my passion for collecting trinkets,
baubles, curios and doodads.

Junk, jewelry, novelties and whatnot's.
Many people have scoffed at the idea of traipsing
through someones home at an estate sale,
or spend a Saturday touring thrift stores.
They wonder how it could possibly bring me pleasure
to go through someones things.

"Doesn't it make you sad?" they ask.
"To rifle, go through, grab, pillage and plunder
someones possessions?
Someone who is now dead and gone?
Someone you never knew?"

My theory is a simple one.
The joy, pleasure and sheer ecstasy I feel when I find a treasure;
I know that someone else upon my death will find that same
joy, pleasure and sheer ecstasy in rifling, pillaging and plundering
through my treasures.
That's it...simple enough.

And someday, when someone goes through my things, perhaps,
perchance; it will be a kindred spirit of mine.
Someone who also will consider my death not as an end
but as an beginning to inherit and cherish the items
I collected
with
J O Y

Please be sure to visit Mary at Little Red House for lots of other beautiful mosaics on this Mosaic Monday!

Thrift Shop Treasures

Whew! I just barely made it.
For what you ask?
Well of course for Rhoda's final "Today's Thrifty Treasures" event!

She's going to be taking a break now that fall is here and yard sale season is almost a distant memory.

I barely made it because I just got off a train and raced like a bat out of "H E, double toothpicks" to my computer to write my post to link up to Rhoda.

I just got back from visiting my daughter in Turlock. My mom and I rode the Amtrak! That was the first time for either of us and I'll post stories and pictures later, but let me tell you...I found lots of treasures. The ones below though are from last weekend.

Hey...Happy Easter! I know, I know...it's almost time for Halloween, not Easter, but I just couldn't pass on this! Isn't it adorable! I can't wait for Easter now!


And I finally found a real cloche. This one is pretty small, you could probably fit a cupcake into it. I still want to find a beautiful, ornate stand for it. But it was a great buy and they are hard to find in our area!

And I found this gorgeous bird cage. Still don't know what I am going to do with it. Any ideas? For now I moved the Russian Nesting Dolls and my daughter Tea Cup from the upside down hurricane/cloche and displayed them in the bird cage so the photo would have more than just an empty cage.

I found another beautiful birdcage today at a Thrift Shop in Modesto, but unfortunately because we were on the Amtrak I couldn't bring it with me as I already had my suitcase full and it wouldn't have fit anyway.

So that's it for today. I found lots of goodies this weekend as well; including many pumpkins and fall display items, but unfortunately I've had no time to clean them up and get them photographed and posted. I'm going to have to find another wonderful hostess like Rhoda to get me through the winter months. Anyone?

Be sure to go see what treasures everyone else found. Just click on the button below.

Iwanna Wednesday

I can't believe I almost forgot about Iwanna Wednesday! It threw me off as Monday was a holiday. Now I feel like today is Tuesday since this is only the second day I've worked this week!

But luckily I remembered just in time. I am your hostess...Iwanna.

Iwanna is a name given to me by my sister because it doesn't matter what store we go into there is always something "I Want" the second we walk in...hence the name Iwanna.

And just because Iwanna things doesn't mean I get them, although I have to admit there have been a few times that I do get them, thanks to my loved ones, especially my daughter. Thank you April.

Ok, so let's get to it shall we?

As you know, Rhoda at Southern Hospitality hosts a Monday Thrifty Treasures party where you can link up to her to show what thrifty treasures you've found. I've participated quite a few times. Now my Iwanna Wednesday would not be necessary if Rhoda just moved out of her house and let me live in it, cause Iwanna everything she has in there! It's gorgeous!

Alas, even Iwanna can't have that, but Rhoda did give me a great shopping idea. She has a special giveaway to Southern Living that she is doing. You just need to go visit Southern Living and post a comment on Rhoda's blog to be entered. Eazy Peazy!

So I went...cause who doesn't love a giveaway right? And I entered...and I fell in love, with Southern Living. Iwanna stuff bad! Just check out their catalog.

I picked out a few of my favorite things. JUST LOOK!

*sigh* Iwanna this lovely little serving bowl. Just in time for fall and the holidays. It's called a Christmas Memories Serving Bowl and it's set into an Ornate Iron Bowl Stand...dreamy no?

Iwanna this lovely trifle bowl. This is called the Devonshire Lidded Trifle, and it has so many uses!

I really Iwanna this one. It's just so perfect. I would love two of them please. One to display on either side of the painting over my couch. This is the Damask Wall Accent with a metal finish.

What Iwanna from this next one is the serving tray. The colors just catch my eye and make me smile. I can imagine placing it on the table filled with home made cookies or muffins (anyone wanna come over and bake them?) The bowl is pretty too...but I'm drooling over the tray. This is from the Gail Pittman Veranda Collection.

This is my next to the last favorite! If I can't have the green wall accent above, then Iwanna this one. The vase is removal from the sleeve. This is called the Juniper Vase with the multi-layer reactive glaze with a removal curling metal sleeve.

And now, the Grand Finale...the Pièce de résistance. This is four Filigree Iron Wall Sconces displayed in a way that makes it look like one whole piece. Of course Iwanna the Cordova Candle Sconces on either side as well. And as long as this is Iwanna Wednesday, just go ahead and throw in the whole display on the mantle as well...and the fall leaf garland. I've been looking for some of that anyway.

Well that's it for Iwanna Wednesday. Now what Iwanna is for you to tell me which one of these lovelies is your favorite?

Trash to Treasures at Along the Way with K & J

I had a very nice visit from Katie with Along the Way with K & J. She asked me to link up to her blog for her Trash to Treasures post and I did, so be sure and visit her blog. She's very proud today to have been featured on The Best of Your Before & Afters for her makeover of desk that looked pretty unsalvageable to me but she turned into a work of ART! I think I'm spending my morning looking at other makeovers that The Best of Your Before & Afters has featured. If you're visiting from Rhoda's be sure to read the previous post for my Thrifty Treasures and please become a follower! Happy Labor Day!

Thrift Shop Treasures

Found some great things this week. Hit quite a few yard sales and 2 Goodwill's. Once you see all my goodies, be sure to head over to Rhoda's "Southern Hospitality", gracious host of Today's Thrifty Treasures blogging party. Like Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ, click your heels together...and hit the Today's Thrifty Treasures button below to be transported to a magical land of thrifty treasures!

So as luck would have it I had a yard sale right across the street from my house. It was about 8:30 by the time I had showered and done my hair and make-up. I asked my mom if she had gone and she said no and now it was probably too late because all the good stuff was gone. But I convinced her to go with me and good thing I did because we found some great things.

My mom found a really nice purse for $1.00 to use to put her church book, missal and water bottle in when she attends daily mass. She also found a stack of dishtowels. There were about 15 and they were $1.25 for the stack! I found a really nice nick-knack shelf. It was pink and I didn't really know where to put it until I remembered my bathroom is pink and blue...it's perfect.



Now I just have to find butterfly items to display.

That yard sale put us in the mood to hit some thrift stores. On our way to Goodwill we hit a few yard sales where my mom scored a pair of PJ's and these handy little condiment/prep cups.

We are a Salsa and chips loving family...but we aren't too thrilled with double dippers into the salsa bowl. So we've gotten into the habit of each person getting their own little individual salsa cup, like these and that way there are no double dippers into the main salsa bowl. I know, how OCD are we?

They look black, but they're actually a really pretty blue.

At Goodwill. I found the LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE signs you see pictured in the shelf above. I debated getting them, but there have been too many times I don't buy something and regret it later. I'm glad I bought these at only 75cents each. They were brand new.





I love the bright happy colors! Not sure where they will finally end up, or if I will paint them, but for now they seem happy where they are.

That was about it for nick-knacks but it was really my day for PJ's which is good as I needed some.

I bought all of the below, plus two gray t-shirts, one blouse for me and 3 books and the LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE signs for $20.00. The fun day and memories I made with my mom were included for FREE!

Love the ruffle detailing on the bottom of this one.

Love Pink!

Kind of a night shirt style.
These I found for my daughter. They have such a cute little sheep pattern, for those nights where you need to count sheep to get to sleep!

Here's a close up...aren't they adorable?

Can't get PJ pants for my daughter and not get some for my son. Not as cute as the little sheep, but very manly don't you think?

Bought a cute little ruffled top for myself.


And that was it for my day. Now I have to go and launder all my goodies! Be sure to head over to Rhoda's to see what else everyone else found. . .and don't forget to add yourself as a follower.

Happy Labor Day!