Yahoo! Back in the Game Again

I have a camera again! No, I didn't find the one that was lost--I think it's gone for good. But I did find a Nikon camera today that was on a great sale, on top of which I had a $20 off coupon. The upshot is it cost me about half the price it normally would have. Now I just have to (pretend) to read the instruction manual, and see if I can figure out the new pathways and gadgets involved in transferring the photos to the computer. I'm not good at generalizing when it comes to electronic matters, so just because I knew what to do with the old camera doesn't necessarily mean I'll be able to manage the new one without help. But here goes the first attempt...

Hey, not bad! I only had to get help for one part of the operation.

Okay, what I'm showing you is a beautiful vintage Gunne Sax dress I bought at the big community garage sale event I attended a few weeks ago (see post http://redletterdaybags.blogspot.com/2013/04/dogs-and-fabric-finds.html). It's in such good condition! I've only found one faint stain which is one of the belt ties, and I'm fairly certain it will come out without too much difficulty. I'm going to rehem the underskirt as well. Look at the beautiful detail! Sweetheart neckline, the beading, the lace quasi-leg o' mutton sleeves with all those dainty buttons at the cuff...sigh.... So pretty!

I remember when Gunne Sax dresses were the thing. My mom made me one from an authorized pattern for Christmas in 1982, and I wish so much I had kept it. I remember her saying it was one of the most difficult dresses she'd ever made, but it turned out so well! Very feminine. Mine was a prairie-length dress in wine and cream, but much like this one otherwise. I passed it on to my daughter when she was in high school, but eventually she got too tall for it, and I couldn't wear it up anymore, so it was given away. Too bad! These dresses are demanding high prices on Etsy now. I need to get this one ready to list--take measurements, work on that little stain, do the hemming, write up the description. Wouldn't this make a lovely bridesmaid dress? Or even a wedding dress, for that matter. I spent $15 for this dress--far more than I would normally spend for a clothing item at a garage sale--but I should be able to sell it for far more than I paid.

Here's another dress I got at the big sale. This one I paid a whopping 25 cents for. It had some stains, so I decided to splurge and pay for dry cleaning, which certainly removed some of the stains and reduced the rest of them, but didn't altogether eradicate them. It's a neat lace dress with a blue satin slip to wear underneath.

There's no label in this dress; I suspect it was homemade. I need to retake the photos, though. I think it looks too much like some ghostly suicide victim floating among the trees. My plastic display form is pretty beat up and I thought it would look better if I swathed it with lace. Instead I think it looks like some pin-headed member of the Klu Klux Klan on cocktail party night.

Here you can see some of the stains I'm talking about. I may go at them with alcohol, which my chemist daughter and son-in-law recommend. A friend told me she's had good success getting stains out of vintage linens and clothes with rug cleaner. Well, I'll see. I hope I can at least recoup what I paid for dry cleaning. I think this dress could be upcycled into a neat tunic if the stains won't come out.

Well, that's about it for this round. Oh--my "Kwanso" daylilies arrived today from ArborFieldPlants and they were still green and fresh. I was really impressed. They came so fast, too. I just ordered them a few days ago. I had a place ready so was able to plant them right away.

I also made a couple of treasuries today, one to plug the BNS I'm participating in:

www.etsy.com/treasury/MTUzNDcxMDN8MjcyMTg2MzU3MQ/stylin-in-red-accessories-by-the-late 

and one that I made for the pure fun of it:

www.etsy.com/treasury/MTUzNDcxMDN8MjcyNDQyNjU4Ng/is-that-redware-or-red-wear     

It's my favorite so I hope you'll take a look.