Suitcase Thongs, A Wedding Dress in a Jar, and Satan's Minions

I usually post my daily projects to Facebook but I've been busy recently and let it slide. Not the daily projects, just the posting. I figured I'd just catch up here while I have a few minutes to spare...and a headache that makes me not want to do anything else. Except eat. Some people go by that old adage "feed a cold, starve a fever". At my house it's "feed a cold, feed a fever, feed a headache, feed a hangnail...".

I'll start with a good idea gone bad. Remember when I made a towel holder out of a vintage suitcase? I wanted something to hold the hand towels inside the lid and a friend suggested using a pair of suspenders...children's suspenders to be exact. Those aren't easy to find at a thrift store but I did find some adult suspenders and decided to give it a try.

Is it just me or does it look like my suitcase is wearing a thong?? I'm gonna have to rethink this one. If I can't find suspenders small enough I'll just cut these down and arrange them to look more suspender-like.

I recently picked up this thrift store wedding dress with the intention of taking it a part and using the fabric, lace, beads and appliques for different projects. Let me tell you, I have a new respect for wedding dress makers and the cost of these dresses. Anything that difficult to take apart had to be a beast to put together.

Now that it's all done, I have a wedding dress in a jar! Or pieces of a wedding dress in a couple of jars. The fabric is all folded up in my fabric stash, this is just the fun doo dads I get to play with.

I went to Goodwill a few days ago and found a couple of treasures.  One is this lamp that looks perfect in the guest bedroom. I expected I would be rewiring again but I didn't have to do anything to it except clean it up a little. And it was only $9.

I also picked up this Russian-English Chemical and Polytechnical Dictionary. I know you're jealous. Obviously I bought it for the pages which have an unusual glossy finish and those funky Russian words.

When we moved from Lafayette to Houston it took quite a while for me to find everything since our movers were pretty creative with their packing techniques. The one item I still haven't found is my sugar spoon. It was a plain brass spoon with a round bowl and it belonged to my great grandmother. I'm sure it's here somewhere, I just haven't found where they cleverly packed it.

In the mean time I decided to get another sugar spoon. Before you ask, no I can't just use a regular spoon from the drawer. I even have sugar spoons that go to my sets of silverware but that's not what I want either. I like different. I found this little cutie at Goodwill for $1.99. I'd never seen a spoon shaped like this before so I had to Google it to find out what it was. Fortunately I could read the Reed and Barton stamp on the back so that narrowed it down. I found that it's part of their Harlequin pattern and it's a jelly spoon. Of course! I should have known. I don't know how I've served jelly all these years without it. I also found that it costs $49.99 at Replacements.com so I got a pretty good deal.













I've been making paper flowers from a book that has some pretty pastel colored pages. I love the flowers and decided to put them on the ledge of my staircase along with some wedding dress lace. It doesn't look so great right now because all my little knick knacks are still living on that ledge but hopefully they won't be there forever. I'm still searching for just the right (almost free) curio cabinet.

I also worked on my book page garland that no one but me likes. It's a little peculiar and probably not hanging in the best place but it's growing on me. I wrapped the top of the banister with muslin and added the little tassel things at each end which I think helped a lot. It may not live there permanently but it's fine for now.

Recently someone asked how I dust all my knick knacks and stuff. I don't. It's not that I ignore them until they're buried in dust and dog hair (okay fine, sometimes I do), it's just that I usually don't leave stuff alone long enough for it to accumulate too much dust. I'm constantly rearranging and moving stuff, not because I'm dissatisfied with they way they are but because I enjoy experimenting with new looks. It's probably the only exception to my life rule that change is bad.

One recent change is that I took all my jewelry off this thrift store rack and moved it downstairs. I'm still looking for platters to use as shelves then it might make a nice display for some of my unbreakable curios.  Right now it's just sitting where I can stare at it until I'm inspired. I hung a silk scarf on it that I got at a thrift store for $1.50. The beads and tassels just scream 1983 and I love it!

I think this little porcelain bisque doll belonged to my mother and I'm not quite sure why I have her. Dolls are the evil minions of Satan and I don't like them in my house. Unfortunately this one sort of goes with my decor so I'm trying to make peace with her. I gave her a bath and washed her clothes and I think she actually looks happier now. Which is creepy.

Did you know that you can take the guts out of a light bulb and use it for stuff? I've seen them made into ornaments, shrines, mini terrariums, vases, snow globes, even filled with cement. I really have no need for an empty light bulb but I found instructions for how to do it and since it's something I've never done before I had to try. It actually worked. And I didn't even cut myself! You do have to break some of the internal glass pieces but if you do it carefully no one gets hurt.

Some friends are coming to stay with us for the weekend so I've got to run to the store for more junk food. The last friend who stayed with us said that I eat like a college student. I'm not really sure what she meant by that but I'm going to pretend it was a compliment.