PAINTING

I spent yesterday morning running around looking for paint samples and buying the small samples of paint colors. I ended up with 2 for our bathroom and when painted I knew I did not want the one but the other would do. Great idea to sell these small samples. Just tell them what color and they mix it just like they would a gallon. I wanted a smoky very light green but the one turned out more turquoise then I wanted but the other was a smokey gray/blue. That will do. I have to go back tody and buy the paint. Sherwin Williams have 30% off on all their paints until Sunday.

When we first bought our house we had it all painted one color called chenille. A very light beige and I have always liked it. I am going to repeat it in all the main part of the house including den, bedroom and other bathroom. Our bedroom I am doing one shade darker called china doll. Still very light but just a bit more color to go with the new fabric I bought a couple of weeks ago. Went out with one clor in mind and came home with 25 yards of something totally different. When I get it all finished I will take some pics. I have to buy a sample jar of the China doll and try it also today. We are only doing our bedroom and bathroom this year and will work on the rest next year. It has been 11 years but still looks good.

The gals on our street have a once a month lunch somewhere and we have done this for a few years. eEther the 3rd or 4th Thurs. of the month. Yesterday was it and the gal doing it this month picked lunch at our own club here at the golf course. they have a sunroom and they set up tables for us in there and it was very nice. Didn't have to worry about how much noise we made. There were just 12 of us because there are always a few that are away, dr. appts. or friends visiting. Next month is my turn to plan it and I know where it will be. A new restarant opened in Eustis the next town over. March 21 before Easter weekend. A few gals are leaving for up north mid april so may be a smaller crowd even yet. One has already gone and one just moved. If you are in the Mt. Dora area and want to visit just let me know. You would be welcome. We are leaving the weekend of May 7-8 for home in Chicago.

At the antique market last week I walked up to a table and he had a carton of the small Christmas houses - old and originals made in Japan. I have a collection of these and know I paid a pretty price for them. I haggled with him and he was selling them all in the box not just one or two. I ended up buying the whole box and next fall I will become a seller. If interested come back early Nov. I will do a giveaway of a few of them around that time. The rest I will do on ebay in groups of 4 or 5. Will see if I make any money or just break even. I just couldn't resist them.

This weekend is the Antique Fair in downtown Mt. Dora. They close off the downtown streets and people set up booths all over the street. It is always fun. I usualy try and get there around 9 when it opens and get finished before the crowds come. It is good we are leaving in May. I will be running out of money at this rate. Once home though it is the end for 6 months so I might as well enjoy it when I can.
Once home different things take over like family parties, etc.

PAINTING

PICS

MORE FLEA MARKET FINDS

It seems like all I do is go to flea markets but only 2 really and sometimes I miss either one or the other. The main one is Renningers on Sat. or Sun. morning and the other is the Eustis flea market that is held in the Lake County Fairgrounds every Thurs. morning 8-1. They have a whole covered area of produce and that is where we go to mainly buy all our fruits and vegetables. Much cheaper then the supermarkets around here. Can you believe 1.00 or 1.25 for 1 grapefruit at the supermarket in Florida where they are falling off the trees. This includes the Super Wal-Mart. Not so super on some things - especially produce. I will say ours still has material and some sewing items but did discontinue embroidery thread.



I did post a pic of the other item from Cape Cod. It is similar to the runner but is square for posibly a small table and has beatiful fringe all the way around. I can't get on my knees these days so had a hard time positioning the fringe so draped it over a chair and took a pic of just the fringe.



Back tomorrow with more. I am still working on my panels. 1 completed and the other 2 sewn to the backing and pinned with one hand sewn partly down one side. I find it very hard to sew on black at night so will not do anymore until I can just sit in the sunroom where the light is wonderful. Will show you all 3 when completed.

BUSY DAY

Harv. is doing taxes today at the library and tomorrow so I try and get my housework, washing, etc. done when he is gone. I also managed to get another of my panels put together and just need to hand sew down the binding and I then only have 1 more to go. I am liking this idea better every day.

I have another buy from the flea market to show you. I bought two pieces from this lady and she said they came from an estate sale on Cape Cod and she had the accent to go with it. They are old and beautiful. Don't know what I will do with them but couldn't let them go. This one is about 8 ft. long and maybe 20" wide. I assume it was for a long hall table or dresser. It is made of silk and has a beautiful fringe on it. There are embroidered areas all over it. It was hard to take pics and I am not the best photographer as you probably all know by now.

The last piece is a piece of red and cream ticking type 100% linen. there was a yard and a half in the piece and it is 54" wide. Would recover a cushion type chair but I have no need of any. It was only 5.00.

I actually bought it to use playing around with journals, etc. I am getting the itch to get into the paper and cloth items. Will be a nice change from the cq. I have taken one on line class and have received some good ideas. After the Great Adventure maybe I will have time to start on this. Otherwise the summer is looming and on a very hot Chicago day it will be good to play inside with it.

ANTIQUE WEEKEND AT RENNINGER'S FLEA MARKET

This being the 3rd. weekend of the month it was antique fair time. Every 3rd. weekend they have additional dealers at the Antique end of Renningers and extra people show up for the flea market end also.

I went Sat. am and only made it to the antique end and spent about 3 hrs. there. I did enough damage in 3 hrs. to help the economy. Actually by this time of the year a lot of the dealers are heading north and are trying to get rid of a lot of their stuff so I saw a lot of 50% of signs.

I did get a great deal on old lace pieces from a gal who I see there on the 3rd. weekends. She has a lot of really nice things but is usually very expensive. This time she had a table full of old linens from doilys to tablecloths and everything in between. 6 pcs. for 5.00. She saw I had quite a handful so when we counted them there were 13 so she called it a baker's dozen 10.00. I have taken a pic today after I had soaked them and washed them. A few pieces like the old black and the 2 identical white collars that look brand new I did not wash. Also a very pretty little tan lace piece. Also there is a tan collar, crocheted with the Irish crochet roses on it. I bought that from another gal for 2.00.

Also I found a very unusual shaped tole painted tray that is hand signed. Apparently people used to hand paint these for mfgrs. to sell. It will go on my wall tomorow. I needed to get another plate hanger large enough to fit it. It was 10.00 and I have paid a lot more for them in such good condition.

I finally had to take down my beautiful pink orchid that survived from Nov. until about 2 weeks ago. It had multiple stems on it and was lovely. I was lucky enough to find another one with multiple stems on it in white. I think there are 6 different stems with lots of bloom yet to open.

Hopefully this one will last until we return home in May. I put little silver balls around the plant in the bowl at Christmas and liked it so much I have left them in the bowl.

I have more to show you but have to figure out how best to photograph them to their best advantage. Some very beautiful old silk pieces and a large lace piece. See you later.

RE-DESIGNING QUILT

I have been trying to work on my large quilt and one of the drawbacks for me is because I have no idea where I will put it when finished. I kept looking at it and took it out - put down the black fabric - and laid all the blocks the way they are shown on the calender. I just could not get excited about it. I thought maybe I should make them into seperate panels and use them wherever they would fit that way. Today our sewing group met and it was at my house. I was showing them the finished squares and the middle and voiced my doubts. 2 gals who quilt very well tradionally both said why don't you make them into panels. That did it. I finally trimmed all 12 blocks and laid them out in 3 rows of 4 blocks and started to pin them together. I am not going to put any black between them just around the edge and am not sure yet how much border to put around. Should I just bind them with say a 1/2" binding and nothing else? or should I do a 1" - 1 1/2" border around each and then bind? I would appeciate your ideas on this. I would end up with 3 panels and the approx. 24" middle square. the 3 panels could be hung side by side with the square above them or 1 panel on each side of the square and 1 panel going sideways across the top. The way the blocks are this would not be a prob lem as they can be viewed from any side. I believe about now you all are as sick of this as I am.

A little family fun here. The fist pic is of my Sweet Sixteen (in feb.) grandaughter going to a dance at her school. She is a sophamore. She is shown with her little brother Tommy who is 8.

I love her dress.

The next pic is of my two little 8 year old grandsons. The one on the left is my daughter's boy Luke and the guy on the right is my son's boy Tommy. They belong to an Indian guides program thru the YMCA which is for fathers and sons. It was Pinewood Derby on Sun. and Luke came in 2nd. and Tommy 3rd. so both won little trophys. They are great little friends who live right near each other, go to the same school and were in kindergarden and grade 1 together but in grade 2 they are now in different classrooms. They are all growing up too fast.

HEART HANGER

I mentioned the great idea that Dorthe had when she made a cording of buttons. Well I did the same and it looks good. I am going to hang this heart and use it to put some of my pins on that others have sent me. Thank you Dorthe for the good idea.

Also I am showing 2 more pieces I picked up at the flea mrket for 1.00 each. They are old silk ribbon about 4" wide and have names on them. I would think they would have been worn in a club or somewhere. The one has a painted tree and flowers on it and the name Gordon on the back side and the other has a saying on it and the gentleman's name on the other side. The one is faded pink and the other cream. the cream one is in pretty bad shape but the pink one is still pretty good. They were left to fringe on the ends.

SURPRISE PACKAGE

On sat. I received a package in the mail from Rebecca Ernseld of Illinois.

She had a giveaway and picked three winners and I was one of the lucky three. I know that I should always take a pic before but I never think of it until I have ripped open the package and oohed and awed over the contents then it is too late to wrap it back up. This package consisted of a beautiful heart edged in old lace, a vintage packet of buttons, a spool of pink grosgrain ribbon and an old silk flower that cold be worn as a pin and it was wrapped in some lovely wire edged ribbon that I can use.

I took the rose and pinned it into the center of the lace I had just sewn onto the 2 sofa pillows and it looked so pretty but would not be very practical for company trying to sit down near it. It will be used elsewhere or used as a pin on a summer outfit.

You must go to rebecca's blog like I did yesterday. She has done some remodelling of her office/workroom and she has some great ideas. Note the books and pictures on the walls held by wire. Also on her blog she showed a very pretty heart pillow she had received from Dorthe and Dorthe had made a hanging cord out of old pearl buttons. Well last night I grabbed a tube of old buttons and sat and made a hanging cord for mine. I will take a pic tomorrow and show you how cute it looks. I will get a little crystal knob from somewhere and hang it upon that.

Her blog is shown on the postcard that she enclosed with the gift and I have taken a pic with it. Please go visit her - you will be glad you did.

Also I have shown a piece of lace picked up at the market yesterday and 1 glove probably from a wedding. It is a longwrist length glove made out of a beautiful fabric. The other piece can be used for a Christmas stocking, cone, etc. I have more to show tomorrow.

BELLISIMA 42

After I showed the dress form I bought at the flea market I had an email about a week ago and the gal asked me if I would share the directions that I had found on an auction site when they were selling one of the Acme forms.

I would be very happy to send her an attachment copy but when I tried to send it she had the "no reply to blogger" on there. I have no way to reach her unless she sees this. No web site shown either. So if you do see this please contact me with your email and I will be happy to give you what I found. It is not a lot but might help.

I do not think that I mentioned before that I am going to the CQ Great Adventure being put on in Ct. early April by Maureen Greeson assisted by Susan Elliott and I am sure many more of her friends.

Carol Kramer who lives about an hour away from me in Florida is going with me and we will be flying together and rooming together. We have roomed together in Omaha and we are both still here to tell the tale.

I have met Allie before but not Maureen, Susan and of course Sharon coming all the way from Australia. Betty Pillsbury will also be teaching and I have had classes with her before. She is an excellent teacher and if you ever get a chance to take her classes do.

We are leaving Thurs. and returning Sun. night so will just be away 3 nights.

I am also looking forward to meeting some old friends like Kathy K. and

she is coming with Gerry Krueger from Older Rose and I can't wait to meet Gerry. I just read that Helen Thorkelson will be there also. That is wonderful. I met Helen at my first Omaha retreat and she is a great gal.

Diane M. from Ontario I met in Colorado last year so it will be nice to see all these people again plus meeting new friends.