Dishtowel Addiction

So my mom collects these dishtowels. She loves the botanical ones. I recently got her a Brussles one and she rejected it. So I used it and LOVE it. Then today I found this Cornish Pasties one.

Now there is a story about Cornish Pasties. My husband Brian served a mission for our church in England and Cornwall was part of his region. He LOVED Cornwall. Tons, I think he wants to visit there more than anywhere. He brought home all sorts of Cornwall turns of phrase and such. I have it in my mind as the most darling and charming spot of land in all of the British Isles. His favorite food from there are Cornish Pasties. He brought home a recipe. I tried to follow it but it was impossible. I don't know why but I got super heavy bland blobs.

So I saw this and had to get it: So I offically collect these. My unifying theme is "Place" As in I want them about places, cities, countries, states and so on. This one is really about a food, but the picture looks like Cornwall to me and it's a food deeply associated with a place for us.

Kim, heads up, these rock and we expect you to start collecting them too. I assign you "Birds". So to review, Mom = "Botanical" Erin = "Places" Kim = "Birds"

Welcome to the addiction.

Lots of Thrift Gifts

Good friend Pat just came back to FLA from her second home in ALA. She thrifted a good deal while there and came home loaded with thrift gifts for everyone! She found Florida My Eden up there for me to give my nephew who recently moved here to FLA. She found the perfect hot air balloon beer glass for Jack, a Yankees book for Jeffrey, ornaments for me, and remember the teacups Erin got me? She located this sweet little covered pot in the exact same pattern! She says, "I see the beginning of a collection...". And the big banker's box? Filled with fabrics, zippers, ricrack etc, all for Erin! What a great friend!

And the other photo is of four Corelle Spring Blossom patterned dessert plates I located for Erin. She loved this set growing up, so I'm collecting her a few from my thrift travels. We all love what we had when we were kids.

Military Maps

I went back to Marianne's garage sale today. She knew she had some military maps but could not get her hands on them yesterday. Today she had them. $1 each and they are so very cool. Three different ones. Here are pics:

What's extra cool, besides just what they are, is that they are some cool material. You can't tear them and they can get wet and stuff. They are super wrinkly. I'm not sure if that's part of just how they are because they still read just fine. They are HUGE too. Almost as long as I am tall. Maybe they'd just bunch them up and stuff them in their bags? I don't really know too much about these, so if anyone does please share in the comments. :)

I have no idea what I'll do with them. Mom, Kim, do you guys think you want one? What would do you with it? They are HUGE. I wonder if my grandfater who is a military buff would like them for Christmas?

Kim, I did think about sewing them into the coolest pouches EVER you could totally sew this material. But I'm afraid it would be offensive to sew a tool that may have kept someone alive into a cute tote. Right?

Oh and Marianne had a KITCHEN AID MIXER. I didn't even ask because I already have one and I don't want to know how much I could have saved. Nope, don't want to know. It was white. She said she had a really fancy atlas (I love a good atlas) but she couldn't get her hands on it. She's one who buys stuff all the time just to sell it in garage sales. I'm not sure how that makes money, but whatever, I love her for it!

Super Thrifting

Well it's Friday. Yard sales start on Friday. I don't know if there is a schedule, but it generally goes here that everyone is having one, or no one is. Today everyone is. Some of this stuff I got at yard sales, some at thrift shops. I can't keep it straight.

New (original tags) bike helmet for Stephen. Note that it's YELLOW, his favorite. Now if he falls the 30 inches from his tricycle he won't die. This box of toys. Marianne has a garage sale every few weeks. I can only assume she's some sort of garage sale shop-a-holic. We love her sales because she's CHEAP and super friendly. Today she insisted the boys take this entire box of toys for a dollar. It's a TON of toys. I wasn't sure I WANTED this many toys...
She also had this 1968 sears catalog. LOVE that sort of thing. The box with the glare is 500 tounge depressor sticks (for crafts) 25 cents for each of those. The Jags thing I'm saving for Brian for Christmas, 25 cents. The puzzle books were in the giant box. Oh that's like a MILE of twill tape, 25 cents.
A huge nice atlas, this was $3 at one of the thrift shops. The sewing book I can't remember, must have been about a dollar.
Inside of the beautiful atlas.
Let's see here, a pillow form, looks brand new, I need one to accompany a quilt I'm making. Odds and ends of fabric. The green think in the back is a puzzle roll for a puzzle lover I know. A kids game, the whole toy box. That box of paper is actually pattern transfer paper. (I'll send you some Kim) The afgans were $3 for the colorful one and 90 CENTS for the black and white. Ethan loves them, I've never seen a kid love an afgan so much. They are pretty large too.

Hmm, another atlas, another kid's game, better view of afgans, the tube of paint thing you use them on glass or plastic then pull them off. Not totally sure how it works, it was 25 cents though and will occupy us for a few hours so I got it.
This crabby lady book is by the same indie publisher who wrote my MUCH loved Oozy Octopus book I got for like $8 at a museum gift shop. So YEAH! The other book is a science book for kids. A text book. Very basic though I think I can use it now some with the boys.
Here is one of the games, the dog runs around and gets the cats some how. We are game loving FOOLS around here.
Inside of second atlas.
And that's it.

I somehow lost a HUGE bag of fabric scraps for a dollar! :( I"m gonna go find it tomorrow I swear it! And also the Marianne lady HAS but could not put her hands on actual COMBAT MAPS of Iraq. I MUST have them, She thinks she has 3 and she will charge me a dollar each.