Sheer Trash Roadshow and Other Ramblings

Last night I was puttering about in the sewing room (okay, it's really a spare bedroom) and found a half-sewn fabric bag I'd started on sometime last year and then laid aside and forgotten. It was the work of 5 minutes to finish and iron it--one of those nice little jobs it's pleasant to have completed. Then, this morning I signed in to Etsy to discover an order for a jewelry set and realized it would look smashing in the bag I'd just sewn. I love it when stuff like that happens! I couldn't have planned this better if I'd tried. I just wish I had more of this pretty fabric.

My son will be heading back to college in less than two weeks and in the meantime, I've got him helping me get lots of Etsy stuff photographed and edited so I can concentrate on writing up the actual listings. 

I bought one of those cardboard tri-fold poster display things like kids use at school science fairs and, propped on a table with a piece of plain white posterboard beneath it, it makes a semi-permanent photography "studio" where he can position the items and get pictures without distractions in the background. 

Today I gave him some pieces of jewelry to photograph, and he came up with the clever idea of using a magnet on the back of the cardboard background to hold them up for photographing. It didn't work for all of them--it all depends on the metal content and how much the objects weigh--but it was pretty ingenious. I wouldn't have thought of it. It's always good to have fresh input.

Having Wyatt manning the camera is also helpful in that it frees me to repair and clean some vintage toy items I've had sitting about for months so that they can be listed, finally. It's a relief to be getting this done at long last. 

Well, I know I've been shamefully neglecting this blog and I'm only moderately remorseful. I started sewing the little party dress with the vintage flocked fabric I mentioned a post or two ago, and even with a number of mistakes and re-dos, it's been fun and satisfying. I think I may go take a few sewing classes at some point to refresh my skills and learn some new ones. Maybe I'll even tackle buttonholes! 

Yesterday my junking buddy/best pal/sister-in-law Claudia and I went out for a day of husband-free sport, and we had a fine time. We stumbled across a church rummage sale, an estate sale, and numerous garage sales, and capped the day off with some of our favorite charity thrift stores. 

Here are a few of the goodies I picked up: a nifty little pad and pencil in a metal case--and in its original box (25 cents), a beautiful tea canister tin ($1? Maybe $2? I forgot), a kitsch knitted rabbit, the design of which I plan to study and duplicate (50 cents), a mid-century planter from Japan--very cute dog and butterfly on it, no chips or cracks (50 cents), a wonderful vintage prayer/scripture book to add to my collection (50 cents) and, underneath it all, a gorgeous hand-worked rose design needlepoint canvas that has never been framed ($1).

At an otherwise dreary garage sale, I was pleased to obtain a demi-parure (fancy name for a set of two matching jewelry items; a parure would be three pieces, such as a necklace, bracelet, and earrings) of vintage thermoset jewelry which needs only to have two loose stones reglued. I paid 75 cents for the set; go check out the prices for vintage thermoset jewelry on Etsy or Ebay and you'll see what a deal that was! Oh, I'm glad there are folks out there in Yard Sale Land who don't have a clue about the collectibility of vintage jewelry! This is a really unusual deep slate blue gray thermoset, too. It may be especially desirable.

The last thing I want to show you today are the Vera scarves I snared at the estate sale. When I say Vera, I'm referring to the fabulous fabric designs of Vera Neumann, and not the fashions of Vera Wang. I found four scarves and paid $1 apiece for them, which is pretty reasonable. (Claudia found some linen napkins by Vera at the same sale, also for a buck apiece.) 

If you're new to Vera, here's what to look for--her very famous signature:

Notice  how the trademark differs on this Vera scarf:

See the ladybug? She signed lots of her works with the ladybug. The differences in the size of signature, the presence or absence of the ladybug, and the presence or absence of the copyright symbol will help you to date her designs. You can read a very good article about this on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/gds/vintage-vera-signed-table-linens-amp-silk-scarves/10000000000813377/g.html




Okay, well, I need to sign off and get to work around here, but I do thank you for not giving up on me with my sporadic postings. It's always fun to see I've had visitors here! I'll leave you with the reading for today from my just-acquired Daily Light for the Daily Path devotional book.