Sights and Sounds of a State Fair

Ahhh....the State Fair.

I attended the "Great Minnesota Get-Together" last week. Otherwise known as the Minnesota State Fair.

I had to attend for work - but took a little time to search out the tastey-moist-yummy turkey drumstick and ever-gooey caramel apples.

While pausing in the shade, I snapped a few photos of some fellow fair-goers. It's the BEST people-watching spot on the planet!

Sharing the shade with us.

Perhaps a little tired...and impatient.

Sharing cotton-candy with a friend.

Oh honey, please don't eat anything that you find on the ground!

Young love, I presume.

Don't know what this is but I know it was good!

Feeding fruit to daddy.

I do believe these sweeties were moving better than I was!

Corn on the cob. Bet she'd slap me if she knew I snapped this picture...AND posted it on the internet! :-)

More Finds?

Sometimes you can thrift shop for months and just find "good things". Then sometimes you can really hit some major scores.

Don't get me wrong - every time find my wool sweaters, it's goooood shopping - but this week I found two really fun and different things.

One is this mirror. It's very old, very heavy, and very gold. I believe the frame will be heirloom white when I finish with it. I have no idea where I will hang it (somehow my walls seem to be pretty full right now) but you can be sure I will find a spot. It was mine for only $7.00. It only took me about 2.1 seconds to decide to buy it.

My other find is this old, beautifully embroidered (clearly by someone's grandma!), kitchen apron. Only .2 seconds were needed for me to hold on tight to this find. Would you believe that it was marked 29 cents!?! Yup. No lie. Great huh?

Bears, Bears, and More Bears

Several years ago, I had a bear-making period in my life. I used recycled fur, wool, and leather coats to make them. I just dusted the cob-webs off the bears this weekend and thought maybe I'd share photos of "the family" with you.

I really enjoyed making the little one-of-a-kind buggers. For some reason, I guess I got out of my phase - I think mostly because they were quite time-consuming. I made all of them jointed and with leather paws.

All pieces - head, legs, arms and body are all sewn and stuffed separately then jointed together. The reward was great fun - but, as I said, each one did take quite some time to create.

I named each bear and made a leather tag to wear around their neck with their name printed on it.

I probably made about 30-40 of them - and either sold or gave away most of them as gifts. But here are the ones still living with me.

This is one that I made for myself. Her name is Tillie.

Tillie's name tag.

This is Buddy and Petunia. I made Buddy for my dad and Petunia for my mom. Until the day my parents passed away, they sat at the headboard of their bed.

This is Heaven. She was made after my grandma passed away. The sweater is made from what was left of the old tattered-button-up-sweater that my grandma always wore around her house to take the chill away.

This is Thompson, Alfonzo, and Bear. I made all of these for my son. Hmmm...for some reason he didn't take them with him when he went off to college.

Here's the whole family sitting on the back porch. They all called dibs on the rocking chair.  :-)

Gosh - I wonder if I should consider adding to the family tree...

Neighbors Are More Than Just People

Remember when I showed you the photos of my cute little nose-poking-through-the-fence-dog-neighbor?

Well, my same people-neighbor also has two cats. He seems to have just as much trouble keeping them inside as he does the dogs.

Here's my sweet little morning visitor. She seems to think that she should come on in and spend the day. If I didn't think I'd get caught - I'd letter her move in. She's quite the little cuddle-bunny....err...cat. :-)

My lovely friend.

A Wool Sign Is Born

Welcome back to good-garage-sale-revamp!

Here's what I came up with for a small table-top sign for my art/wool shows later this year using the great frame that I found at a garage sale last week.

It's fun because I can use it for this purpose now - and I can put something else in later.

Great metal frame...for $1.00!!

One coat of primer. Two coats of heirloom-white spray paint. Two coats of poly spray.

A little computer work printed out - some scroll rub-on's - and a  little decopauge goes a long way.

I just love the white of the frame.

Even the back is cool - the frame and stand are all connected. What a great find!

Gosh - I love a good garage sale! Last week I found a hum-dinger!

Here's what I nabbed with delight! Are you ready?...you're not going to believe it...

This great wire basket and clay pot were in the FREE area! I'm going to spray paint the basket and use it to display my wool items at my upcoming shows!

What do you suppose is in this old tin?

Buttons! Incredible buttons!

What about this tin?

Yup! More fabulous buttons!

What? Even MORE buttons!?!?

Here's a close up of one of the really cool buttons.

Another close up (sorry - just a little blurry...but look at that detail!).

More fun items. I've already spray painted the tartlet tins and will be making them in to wool-top pin cushions. I'll show them to you when I'm finished.

This is the neatest frame I've seen! It's all metal - and beautiful. Yup - I've already spray painted it as well and I think I'll use it as a place to put my name at upcoming shows. I'll show this to you when it's done too.

Just fun dishes. For use, display, or mosaic??

Peek at the awesome flower details (complete with aged crackling) from one of the dishes.

More fun. The tablecloth was too great to pass up and I can see some decorative papers decopaged on this neat little file-a-way case.

Detailed look at the cute geraniums on the tablecloth.

I'm going to put casters on these drawers and use them to store things under my bed. I'm not sure yet if I'll paint them first or not. Knowing me, I will.

Unbelievable finds, huh? Here's the even MORE unbelievable part...are you sitting down?...I got ALL of it for $12.00! Cool, huh?

For a Good Cause

I had the opportunity this week to donate some wool items to an employee farmer's market where I work. All of the proceeds were to go to patient aid. That means that when there are patients that need help but can't afford it, we can do a little bit to help them get the care they need.

I'm posting this not to brag or make you think I'm such a good person (although - who could argue that!?), but it seems as though - in addition to showing my wool work and talking to you, my blog friends - my blog has also become somewhat of a chronicle of my creative path and I thought it made sense to include this wool activity as well.

So, here's what I donated:

Scarf and mittens (They were sold separately and both buyers have already told me that they were excited to purchase them and are anxious for winter!)

Pins, pins, pins!

And one of my girlfriends/co-workers who LOVES pink has been having a very difficult summer at work - so I thought she needed a Practically Purely Pink Pick-Me-Up Magnet. So I dropped this off for her the same day. I think I cheered her up - even if only for a few minutes.

Flying Lessons

This summer I took an ecourse from Kelly Rae Roberts. The focus was to learn some of the ins and outs of creating a creative business - things that Kelly has learned along the way in her creative business adventure. It was chuck-full of good information - and I haven't even begun to sort through all of it and put new things into practice. But it's on my to-do-as-soon-as-possible list!

Kelly has now taken the ecourse and made it into purchaseable products for others to enjoy. She's also been generous enough to ask others if they wish to post the "dream big" icon on their webpage. I have (see icon in far right column). I am now eligible for a percentage of the profits of anyone who clicks on the button from my webpage and purchases any of the ecourse products! It's a pretty cool idea! Win. Win.

So if you know of anyone who might be interested in this type of adventure - send them my way. They may just be interested in taking some unique and special flying lessons!

Found Freedom

My neighbor has two German Shepard dogs. They keep them inside or let them run in their fenced-in-backyard. They are unbelievably quiet and I wouldn't hardly know they are there except for the fact that fairly often they somehow get out of their backyard and roam the neighborhood.

While clipping some brush next to my neighbors fence yesterday, it became clear how they get free.

He cracked me up! He just laid there for about 15 minutes watching Charlotte and me. "Good boy!"  :-)

Too Much?

I was out on my back steps the other day snapping some shots of another rock I covered with wool. I had brought with me some miscellaneous cut-out pieces to perhaps scatter around the rock in the photos. (You know - kind of like props - pretending that I'm a professional photographer.)

As I sat next to my little birdhouse, I wondered what it would look like with a wool flower doorway.

Tell me the truth, do you think it's too much?  :-)