Car Problems and Knitting

lately, I've been really involved with my knitting. I bought some round knitting needles and had to give them a try. I made my mom's Christmas present. I had her a cowl since she tends to get easily cold and a cute hat. I'm thinking of making her some mittens but being in Southern California I don't think she'll really need them.
This pattern was pretty easy to follow once I figured out that it was an alternating pattern. It's so much easier to work on round knitting needles instead of on double pointed needles. Stitches don't fall of as easily and it's a lot smoother.



 

Last post I let you know that we were and still are having car problems. Saturday the husband was going to work for some overtime. Well, he never made it. The car never turned over. We checked all the basic parts and then saw that one of the parts was fried. I mean literally. It had melted crusty plastic. I was pretty upset since all we have done lately was put money into the car. Jess loves his car but you come to a point where you have to decided whether the car is worth it or not. I've been having my mom and brother check out cars in California. Used cars are cheaper out there and  better quality.  It's bee a frustrating process not because  of the distance but because of my husband. We found a couple of small SUVs that looked in good condition but the husband was very blah about it. It's like he didn't like them but didn't want to say no. I told him that he needs to make a decision whether he likes it or not and let me know. I don't like indecisiveness. It slows downs processes and makes people waste their time. It's a pet peeve of my. Anyway, after putting more money into the car we finally got it running. Sort of. Now we need to replace some hardware on the battery. le sigh. More money. We're going to check out cars at used car lots this weekend. Since it's Labor Day weekend we may find some decent deals.


Here's some of the awesome clothes that I've found lately. Here's something you didn't know: I love old man sweater. I have since high school. Their comfy and warm.I very rarely buy new sweater. They dont fit well and are kinda pricey.

This sweater i had to dig out of a pile of sweaters. It was a 6' wide round table with a HUGE pile of sweaters on it. It's a wool/alpaca/acrylic blend so I'm betting it'll keep me nice and warm in the winter. 


Have I told you I love Orlon sweaters. I seem to be drawn to them and find them rather easily at thrift stores. I have a collection of five or six Orlon sweaters. I've had one for 12 years and only recently had to fix some minor holes and loose seams. I got both of these at less than a buck a piece.





I've been trying to find more feminine cardigans for my vintage outfits. The first cardigan is very soft and has that awesome beading detail. The second sweater I got at the same thrift store and has a golden sister. My husband said that it looked more like a Christmas sweater. Pfft. Like he knows. Dressing up for him consists of a nice button down shirt, jeans and sandals. Yeah sandals. Then he worries I look better than him.





This baby I've had for quite a while. I'm not really sure how to wear it. I've tried wearing it with leggins but it's not long enough to reach my hips. I've imagined maybe going for a beatnik outfit.



My mom bought me this guanengo. It's totally gorgeous and doesn't fit me.It won't go past my boobs. I have to find some similar fabric so I can add a strip to the side. I love the detail and colors of guanengos. Not to mention the fact that they are comfy and airy.






I found this vintage Vanity Fair nightie. I got it at an estate sale for 50 cents. I had to make the armholes bigger because of my arms but other than that it's in great condition.





I leave you with a pic of my beloved Ridley and his new toy. I knitted this carrot for him and he seems to like it. I found it near our bed this morning.






I hope everyone has a great weekend.

It's Been a While

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I want to start off by apologizing about the lack of posts. I've been wanting to post more but have been having a rather creative streak as of late. I don't mind it but sometimes it seems like I don't have enough time for everything.  I love it when my Muse visits me so I can't really complain. I've made a couple of pieces of clothing and have been working on some knitting. I'll make a separate post about all the goodies I've made.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it but our car is old. And it's dying. The last couple of weeks we've noticed that it's not getting enough gas. We had this problem one year ago. We had to replace the gas tank and straighten out the up-take lines. it cost us over $200. The car is 25 years old. The hubby seems to think that it's okay just needs some work. I think we need a "new-to-us" car. We've be seriously talking about it and my mom is willing to give us a loan. Interest free. What more can we ask for. And on top of that she's willing to wait until we pay off of AmEx to start making payments to her. We've looked at buying from private parties but the used car market out here is ridiculous $7500 for 1990 Honda in okay condition? No thanks pass. Hopefully we'll be going to check out some of the used car lots this weekend.  We actually did the math on renting a car vs owning a car like if we decided to visit family. It's much more cheaper to buy a car and make payments then to rent it. If we rent a car for the weekend it runs us like $350 plus gas. If we buy a car our payment would be $200 a month and it would be ours.  The good thing about Nevada is that insurance is way cheaper. We paid $125 for  6 months. Sure it's liability but my in-laws were paying $300 for the same car.

Anyways, sorry for rambling on. The last month I hit thrift store gold. I had a couple of weeks where I found a ton of great things. That was before the car was having trouble.

This was one of my finds at the annual St. Gall Rummage sale. It was hidden under one of the table in the gym. He's super glittery and totally awesome.  Let me tell you. I thought that the rummage sale was going to be small and very dinky. Boy was I wrong. It was HUGE. I was told by one of the volunteers that people plan their vacations around this rummage sale. It was pretty awesome.  I also bought some silk Christmas ornaments, a few bowls, a vintage Gloria Vanderbilt umbrella, some terry cloth, and a packet of hair combs. It was all under $10.






I've been having really good luck finding Carmen Miranda style jewelry. This set I bought off of eBay. It's a neckalace and earring set from the 1940's. It's got some damage to the earrings but the necklace is in great condition. I really like this set especially since the necklace has jalapenos on it. I  haven't  seen very many sets with jalapenos on them. Now i want to make a floral fascinator with roses and chile peppers. Pair it with an off shoulder blouse, my red leather sandals and a black skirt with colorful ric rac and I've got one colorful outfit.









These beauties I almost passed up. There was a new booth at the local antique store. It's a huge two story building. It's old enough it doesn't have any kind of air conditioning. They have to keep fans running during the summer and that's just barely tolerable. I found these earrings hiding in the top of a dresser under some scarves. I've gotten in the habit of looking under things since sometimes that's where the goodies are hiding. The fruit on these earrings are in great condition. The wiring and beads aren't. I've had to apply some glue to prevent the beads from breaking off. Other than that I love it. The colors are still vibrant and smooth.



I've been lusting after Lucite jewelry however since we're trying to save I can't justify paying $25 for a pair of earrings. I usually have a budget for how much I'm willing to spend on jewelry. So far the most I've spent on any one piece of jewlry was $15 for the necklace and earring set earlier. I've been luck finding vintage earrings for under $5. The first two pairs I got $3.50 each and the shell earrings were .75 cents.




Gold flecked Lucite earrings.



These tested positive for Bakelite with 409. These are also riveted in the back which makes me believe they are Bakelite.


These are cute and small. I like sea shells but never really knew how to work with them besides just gluing them to boxes or frames.



Last but not least is this vintage leather tooled shoulder bag.I bought it at one of the local charity run thrift stores. I like that thrift store a lot. I've found 1960's circular knitting needles in package for $1. Pretty sweet deal. This cost me $8 out the door. It needs to be cleaned up a little and some mending on the side pockets but it's a  Maraf leather bag . I have tried to look into how old it may be but I can't seem to find any info on the company. It's really comfortable and has lots of pockets to organize you things in. I'm super happy with this. I've been wanting a leather bag but didn't want to pay $40 plus for a bag in okay condition.





 And as always, I leave you with a pick of Ridley being cute.  Thanks for reading.

A Little Fright Here and There

Wow so this week flew by yet again. It always amazes me that I can loose track of time and not realize it until it's the end of the week. I hope everyone is doing well. I'm doing much better. Last week I had a bit of a a fright. Last Thursday, I was sitting on the recliner chair playing with my boob. Before you get the wrong idea I was rubbing the top of my boob. I get boob pains sometimes from sleeping on my chest so it's become second nature. I find it soothing and don't realize I do it 90% of the time. So I'm rubbing my boon and suddenly I feel a lump. I freak out go to our bedroom and give myself and exam. Yep definitely something there. By now, I'm almost in tears. Thankfully there is no history of breast cancer in our family but you never now. Luckily I was going to the OB/GYN  the next day to get my BC pill refilled. My mom keeps trying to talk me out of taking them so I can get pregnant. What is it with people hinting at having a baby when you closer to being 30? I'm a few years away but still everyone is pushing us to have kids.
Friday I go to my appointment but they can't see me since there booked solid so I schedule an appointment for early Saturday morning. Thank God all is good. Apparently I've drinking to much coffee. My body is sensitive to how much caffeine I take in. I've had this happen before. I had to kick the caffeine for several months. What was funny was that my boobs when down in size but then bounced back. So I have stopped drinking coffee. It's been one week and I do miss it. I love the smell of coffee and the perkiness it gives me. However, my breast health is much more important to me. I've noticed that it I drink or eat anything with caffeine I get a migraine. It's rapid and lasts until I go to sleep. I'm so glad that nothing bad is going on with my body.

I was going to make a post of all the goodies that I've bought at rummage sales and thrift stores. I haven't found my camera. I don't remember where I put it and haven't really remembered to look for it. I think Jess may buy me a new camera soon. That would be nice. Mine's over 5 years old and it shows it.  I'd also like to get a newer iPhone but we don't know how much that is going to set us back. We've been considering it since we've been going $40 over on text messaging. Yeah, it adds up and we don't need to waste money on texting.

The other day we sat down and finally figured out how and where we were spending our money. Let's just say we were spending WAY too much on eating out. Once you actually write it down and add it up, it's a lot. We decided that if we're going to eat out, we're going to make a nice dinner date out of it. It's more personal and you enjoy the meal more that way. Also, we're going to cut down on things we don't need.

This weekend is Hot August Nights in Reno/Sparks. It's a HUGE annual event that is centered around the 50's and 60's. There will  be hot rods, shows, food, and shopping. We're suppose to go tomorrow. Jess thought it would have been nice to rent a room and hang out in Reno. However, most of the hotels were sold out. That should give you an idea of how big of an event it is.

Well I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Random Burst of Energy

I hadn't really felt like working on my sewing table these last couple of weeks. It's been on the hotter side of the thermometer and the fact I've been working in a garage doesn't help much. Today I was cleaning around the house and suddenly decided to work on sanding the legs. It's weird I get sudden bursts of energy like that sometimes. Not that I mind unless of course it's in the middle of the night. Then it's no fun because hubby needs to sleep. It makes for a restless night.
Anyways, back to woodworking. As I was sanding the legs, I noticed that they were numbered. They were all out of order. They're now back in order and a little bit steadier. I did a lot of sanding. I did a few different grades of grit from a rough to a finer finish. It's really something when you take a rough piece of wood and turn it into something smooth and beautiful. Here are all the legs smoothed and waiting to be sanded. i decided to stain the wood although it's not all solid wood. There are some parts of the table that are wood veneer. It's a good veneer  because it's not just a thin sheet glued to the front of particle board. It's about a 1/4" thick and nice hard wood too. I'm sure it'll look nice once it's stained.


 


This week started out with me wanting to do something different with my hair.  I've always wanted to do different things with my hair but have never really had the courage to do them. I've always been afraid that  I wouldn't be able to pull it off. Lately, I've been thinking that I'm going to try and be the person I was once I graduated from high school. I wasn't afraid of wearing what I wanted to; even if it didn't match or looked odd to other people. I miss being carefree and not worrying about what others think of me. So here it is: my new hair color. Don't mind the weird look on my face. I have a hard time smiling if I'm not laughing. I like the way it turned out. It's definitely different. The hubby liked it too. He actually picked out the color. He's always asking me to try blonde but I can't pull off the color. I look pale in a weird way. I guess sallow would be the best way to describe it. So I stick to colors that flatter me.



I don't know if y'all remember but several months ago I bought a couple of strawberry plants. I got one str5awberry from it and then the weather nearly killed it. Once the weather finally stopped being bat-shit crazy, they started to come back beautifully. Right now there are several little flowers waiting to turn into sweet tangy berries.




Isn't gorgeous? It's amazing how in a few days it went from a pale green to a beautiful red. I love to have hair that bright.

Here's a photo of Ridley-boy being all cute as he sleeps. Until next time, Ta!

Giveaway Alert!!

I just wanted y'all to know that Jessica over at Chronically Vintage Is having an awesome giveaway. Please check out her blog. Here's a link  to the giveaway.
Thanks and I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

The Clash of Thunder

Hope everyone's weekend went well. My was rather hot. It was in the mid-90's. Not good. At least it wasn't humid. We did the usual shopping for groceries and kitty stuffs.  I had a 15% off coupon from Sally's Beauty Supply so I took advantage of it. I bought a ton of hair dye and some bleach I'm thinking of adding a few highlights to my hair. By the way, getting my hair cut in the Middy worked out great. I styled my hair this weekend and it really did help a lot. The ends of my hair aren't frizzy anymore and it was a lot easier to style too. I really like bumper bangs. Their easy and lend themselves to lots of different hairstyles. I didn't get  photos of the back simply because I'm not that good at taking photos of myself. Believe it or not, I'm not wearing a rat in my bangs. The way I curl it keeps it shape really well. I just need to learn to hide the bobby pins better.

 

So this morning around 3 am or so there was a HUGE clash of thunder. It woke me up from an awesome Dr. Who dream (David Tennant). Yeah. I think I've official became a Dr. Who  fan girl. Dreaming about the man and all. Matt Smith is a good Dr. Who there's something about David Tennant that I like better. Okay so the thunder woke me up and then it started to pour rain. Like torrents of it. Bad enough that there was a flash flood warning. We then got woken up again around 7 am by another huge clash of thunder. At that point we decided to get up and take down his antenna. Although it was only 15 minutes earlier than our usual wake up time, I felt really tired and head achey. It hailed around 8:30 and I had to rush to get my strawberry plants out of the back patio.

Yesterday I went into one of my cleaning itches. I cleaned the kitchen and both the bathrooms. Loaded the dishwasher and cleaned the litter box. I figured that if I clean it when I get the itch to do it then I'll have less housework later during the week.Not that I have that much housework but it's nice to have less.

An update on my vintage sewing table. I did a lot of work on it last week. I think a bit much because I was hurting the day after. It was pretty easy to resurface the wood. Some areas were easier than other. Next I need to sand the legs. After that, I need to sand the wood using a finer grit to get rid of the sanding marks. Once that's done I'll have do decided is I want to stain it or paint it. I'm leaning towards staining it. I love the look of natural wood grain.




Last week I made a few things. I haven't gotten around to fixing the dress. I'm trying to figure it out. I really don't want to completely redo the dress.  My mom bought me a pair of sunglasses when she was visiting. I really like the pair and wanted to make a case for them so they wouldn't get scratched.
I made the case out of some cotton and cotton batting. I quilted it too so that It would be more stable. I;m really proud of the wait it turned out. It's super cute and really easy to get in and out of it.



 

 I'll leave you few pictures of  new cigarette case/ wallet and Zippo lighter the hubs got me a few years ago.  I randomly will smoke a clove cigarette when we're out gambling. That's it. I don't smoke in the house or anywhere else besides casinos. We do smoke the hooka every once in a while like four times a year. It's really fun but it takes way too long light.







Well I hope everyone is having a great day. Until next time, Ta!

Busy as a Bee

I hope everyone is having a great beginning of the week. I was pretty busy last week. I made a dress and a couple of small projects. This week I got the cleaning bug in me. On Monday, I cleaned the entire kitchen. I wiped down the counter, scrubbed the stove top and swept/mopped the floor. It always gives me a sense of pride when I see my kitchen all nice and clean. Yesterday, I organized all the draws in both the bathrooms. I got tired of drawers not closing properly and not being able to find anything. I got rid of things that didn't have pairs and make up that hadn't been used in over 5 months. Then I vacuumed our bedroom and finally hung up tiki hut than I found at Salvation Army for $5. I hung it up in the corner near my side of the bed.  It came with a few floral branches. I rearranged them to look like it was covering the roof. Then I added a couple of glittery butterflies. Let's face it glitter makes things better.  I want to get a fake bird and have it sit inside the hut. I think it'll look cute.  Now if I can find a nice hamper to compliment it.




 

Over the last couple of weeks I've been buying a few picture frames here and there at thrift stores. We have a collection of Olivia pin up photos that we've been wanting to hang up. Originally they were going to go in the guest bathroom but I thought they were a little risque. So they're going in our bedroom. I'm hoping we can do a cluster of them as a headboard. I spray painted the frames over the weekend and let they cure for the 24 hours period. They turned out pretty well.  I used the Rust-Oleum brand in Metallic Black. It's textured and has silver flakes that look like glitter. Here's one of the framed pictures.




This is an ad that someone torn out of a magazine back in 1946. It's in great condition. No tears or fold marks. I bought it because it had a nice car ad for a Buick. I thought it would look nice in the hallway. I turn it over and it's and for a yarn brand. It's so freaking cool. This is going in my sewing area.  I love all the foundation garments the lady on the horse is wearing.  Hopefully I get a chance to go Staples to make a few copies of my vintage patterns to decorate my sewing area with.




I did get my hair cut but I haven't had the right opportunity to have the husband take a good photo. I really like the way it turned out. The hairstylist was patient with me explaining what I wanted and she asked a ton of questions to make sure she was doing it right. I don't know if I've mentioned it but I used to have curly hair when I was a baby. I had ringlets. The hairstylist said that if I used a diffuser when I blow dry my hair it would bring out the curl. I don't own a blow drier so yeah it'll have to wait. I have noticed that if I towel dry it and then scrunch it I get some really nice waves going. It looks so pretty. It's not frizzy either. I think I'll keep it layered from now on.

Today I started sanding my sewing table! Well after I cleaned the garage first. I've been in a very clean-y mood this week.  Jess bought me a sanding block (I didn't want a sander) and some sand paper. It's been going pretty good. I took a break to eat lunch and update here.





I have the top completely sanded and have started working on the inside. I realized the front opens up and the mesh thingy is removable. I'm hoping to remove the water marks to the front if not then maybe I'll buy something to replace it. A fabric front would look cute too. I also need to decide if I just want to stain and varnish it or if I want to paint it. I might stain  and varnish it so it keeps it natural grain.

Back to sanding. Til next time, Ta!