Estate Sale Good Times

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Betty

I haven’t been hitting up too many estate sales lately, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten how fun they are! So this weekend we decided to go full monty on one that looked good, held by my good buddies at Amber Ostrich Estate Sales. We got up SUPER early to make sure we’d have a good chance at some of the goodies we saw in the pictures. We didn’t end up using any of the snacks or entertainment we brought to pass the time though because I ended up gabbing away with the great peeps who were also waiting. Who says estate sales are cutthroat? Honestly, I haven’t had too many of those experiences. After one of the gals told me what she was there for (she got there even earlier than we did!) I told her I’d grab it for her if I found it before she did. Another guy was there for one of the things we were there for, but we talked it out and decided that if it was under a certain amount he would get it and if it was over that we would get it. See? There’s no reason to be nasty at these sales, folks. You’re likely going to keep seeing these people at other sales, so be nice!

Now for the scores! And oh yes, there were scores.

Here is the thing that went over the predetermined price limit with our line friend:

The gentleman who lived in the house was a boat manufacturer and he made this couch out of fiberglass. The back and bottom bubbles out as you can kind of see. The legs are nothing short of totally amazing. This one is three pieces and can be arranged as a loveseat and chair, couch, or 3 chairs. The turquoise upholstery is in great shape except for one stain that I’m going to try to steam out.

He also made this one. Seriously, how great are these things??? It’s going to be SO hard not to keep them. This one has some minor rips in the seat that I’m going to try to mend. Aren’t they just the epitome of 1950s atomic cool?

We are crazy in love with this caricature. It’s dated 1956. The guy featured was a prominent Austin lawyer and theater dude.

Ok. THIS CHAIR. Holy balls! I want to keep it SO bad but I’m going to be a good little reseller and resist. But that aqua color is just perfect, and these Eisenhower chairs are so desirable and hard to find!

I’m super excited about these unused craft kits! The lady of the home was a member of a craft of the month club that sent her a craft kit every month. How exciting are these?? The one with birds is an adorable apron and the other is a framed wall hanging with yarn flowers. I can’t wait to do them. Keep an eye on my column This IS Your Granny’s Crafting on Tuesdays over at No Pattern Required to see how they turn out when I make them!

I paid a pretty penny for this pyrex, but it was unused straight out of the box and none of us had ever seen this pattern before! And it’s such a great size for leftovers. Speaking of leftovers, I can never have enough of these tupperware containers, so I snagged them right away.

I was going to sell all of these things, but when I got home I noticed the deer planter had been repaired, so I guess he’s staying with me!

I often buy things just for the packaging, and these camping supplies are a great example of that. Love them.

Kitschmas!! I paid way too much for that tiny knee hugging elf but I’ve never been known to leave one behind.

I’m also a known sucker for any vintage zodiak stuff and big eyed wall art.

This amazing vintage sign is a present for someone. We could not have found a more perfect present. Although I really want to keep it – it’s awesome!!

Not a bad haul for one sale, huh? Now that my estate sale bug has been reignited I can’t stop looking at the listings online! I’m already thinking about going back to this sale for the rest of the craft kits - unbelievably I left a ton behind. Maybe on the half price day I’ll go get the rest…

Happy Easter Y’all!

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Betty

I hope the Easter Bunny brought everyone lots and lots of candy! Besides the usual candy and stuff, Little Betty got this sweet little felt doll in her basket. It was way too much fun to make. I want to make a ton more! It was all hand sewn which is a lovely way to make dolls in my opinion. The pattern came from Noia Land who just has the most adorable doll patterns on the planet.

Now go hunt for some eggs!

Happiness Is Homemade

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Betty

Sorry for the long absence, but I’ve been busy stitching away on my first original crewel design! I’m super happy with it and anxious to share it with you!

I wanted to design something that would fit right in with all my 1960s and 70s crewel pieces and I think I’ve done it! I also finally got motivated to rehang them all so they looked a little more purposeful.

I framed it with a simple gallery frame for stretched canvas I got at the art supply store.

This project was so fun to do! And I designed it in a way that should make it easy enough for a beginner to do. I am busily working on designing packaging and should be able to accept orders for kits in the next couple of weeks!

Crewel Stitch-A-Long: Let’s get started!

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Betty

All right, y’all – the time has come to liberate this beauty from the depths of my stash and give it the shining glory it deserves in my collection! If you don’t have a vintage Try A Little Kindness kit, don’t worry! Use any crewel kit you have laying around. Or, if you dare, search “vintage crewel kit” on ebay and get yourself one!

Today, we’re just setting up. First of all, obviously, open the bag and remove all the contents. Iron the fabric to get it as smooth as possible, and put the needle in a safe place. Don’t put it in the fabric as a storage solution quite yet – we have some work to do first!

There are several ways you can do this. First, you can opt for the traditional method and use an embroidery hoop. You will want to use this method if you’re making a pillow. Second, you can mount it right in the frame you’re going to use. Or, the method I’m using and will demonstrate here today, is using artist stretcher bars. You can get these at any artist supply store. I’m choosing this method because it will already be pulled taught – no wrinkled fabric from moving the hoop around countless times, and no need for blocking at the end. Plus, it will enable me to hang the piece right on my wall as is while I look for the perfect vintage frame.

This project calls for 2 18 inch stretcher bars and 2 24 inch. 18×24 is the size of the finished piece, so if you’re using another kit, you’ll want stretcher bars that match the size of the finished product, not the size of the fabric. Just fit the corners together and use a rubber mallet to make sure they’re snug if necessary. I found I didn’t need one.

Next, start attaching your fabric to the stretcher bars with your trusty old staple gun. It’s basically just like upholstering furniture. Start by stapling the center of each side and slowly work your way out to the sides, rotating sides so everything is done evenly. Space your staples about one inch apart. Pull taut, but not too tightly – you don’t want to distort your image!

You’ll find that any wrinkles that remained in your fabric will be pulled out. Yay! No wet blocking!

When you get to the corners, fold the fabric in whatever way makes it look smoothest from the front. I’ve never found a sure-fire way to do this, but what usually works is folding the corner piece back across the bars and then bring the sides up. Make sure to check from the front before you staple anything to ensure you like the way it looks! Also, after finishing one corner, then do the one opposite.

After getting the corner folded and stapled you’ll probably want a bunch more staples on either side of the corner to get everything nice and smooth.

And voila! Your piece is ready to stitch! And hang on the wall, as you can see! I’ve seen a lot of vintage crewel pieces unframed, hanging just on the stretcher bars. Who knows – that may be the destiny of this one as well. We shall see.

So get stitching friends, and we’ll meet back and check our progress! If you are stitching along, send me photos of your progress and I’ll feature them here on the blog!

A cautionary knitting tale, and a sad Christmas story.

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Betty

Ok knitters – who out there has fallen victim to the dreaded “Second Sock Syndrome?” For those not in the know, this occurs after knitting one sock (or mitten) and then finding that you can’t bring yourself to knit the other one. Well next time you find yourself guilt-stricken and motivation-less over that sock or mitten you can’t seem to start, read this post. It may just get you over the hump.

Two years ago I decided to knit the gorgeous Deep In The Forest mittens for my mom. And about a month later I had this one. Isn’t it nice? Well let me tell you about this pattern. While lovely, it is a bit of a chore because there is no pattern to the chart. You have to look at the chart for every stitch! So I was totally dreading going through all that again, even though I made the mistake of showing the finished mitten to my mom, who was SO excited about them.

This year I decided my poor mother should finally have her mittens. So I dusted off my old project and began. And this is what I ended up with :

Go ahead. Snicker. Laugh at my pain. Never mind the fact that no matter WHAT I did I couldn’t get the braid to work on the second mitten. That early irritation was totally forgotten when I realized I was going to have one tiny, pre-teen mitten and one huge oven mitt. I used the same yarn, the same needles – how could this happen? Why??? No problem – I thought. I am now a full believer in the power of felting after the smashing success of my Snowbird mittens. Felting will save me! I will simply shrink the oven mitt to a pre-teen size and mom can have two tiny mittens. After 5 rounds through the washing machine it became clear that this crazy mitten was not going to felt. ( I have read that it is difficult or impossible to felt light colored yarn)

In the end, I gave my mom her circus freak mittens and she swears she loves them and that you can hardly tell when they’re on. But I will never be able to look her in the eye while she’s wearing them.

So, dear friends, next time you suffer from Second Sock (or mitten) Syndrome, remember my sad Christmas tale of gauge or tension or something gone wrong and do not wait 2 years to knit the other! A lot can change in 2 years apparently.

An advent treasure hunt

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Betty

I’ve been squirreling this vintage Bucilla kit away for quite some time with the intention to make it for Little Betty for Christmas. I finally decided to bust into it and even though it took about 10 hours to complete, I really love the finished product!

Aren’t they adorbs?? Love em. Anyhoo, I decided to use them as the prize in a treasure hunt that would originate in Little Betty’s advent calendar.

This morning when she woke up it took her no time to get into it!

She ran around the house excitedly, from one clue to the next…

and was thrilled to discover the culmination of a secret Christmas tea party with her elf, Princess Jack, and her new family of gingerbread dolls!

In no time they were cuddled up on the couch with her. I think they have found a loving home! Having kids is pretty fun. I’m so glad I got to do it.

I’ve been up to no good.

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Betty

No good at all, friends.

It’s Kitschmas, after all, so you know I couldn’t resist a little bit of this:

But I could not be content with simple ornament wreath making! All those empty ornament boxes put me in mind of what Georgia Peachez does with hers. So then there was a little of this:

and this:

I even took Little Betty down with me:

I actually really like the one she made! She is her mother’s daughter for sure. That girl loves to craft.

It doesn’t stop with Christmas crafting around here, of course. There are some “new” vintage Christmas decor bits around Casa Crafter this year.

I’m on a bit of a Santa kick. I’m loving this creepy Santa.

But I might love these silly Santas even more:

I’ve also been picking up Santa head mugs all year:

And of course there’s a few new pinecone elves about:

Mr. Crafter made that tree when he was a kid. On the bottom he carved in his name, the year, and “A-Team.” Awesome.

How are your Christmas crafts/decorating coming along?

A new sweater for Little Betty

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Betty

As soon as I saw Tanis Gray’s Scherenschnitte Cardigan in the 2011 Holiday Issue of Intervewave Knits I just knew Little Betty needed one. I loved it so much I decided to use the exact yarn and colorway the pattern called for, which I never do. My girl is totally insane for the color purple – almost everything has to be purple – so this was perfect for her.

It took almost no time at all to knit! She was wearing it 3 weeks after I started it, which is totally unheard of for your pal Betty, AKA The World’s Slowest Knitter. When I found these vintage bakelite buttons I couldn’t believe my luck. They were meant to be on this sweater.

We both love it!

In other news, my child is getting so grown up! It breaks and fills my heart all at the same time. Someone stop this time machine. It’s going too fast.

A Christmas Terrarium

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Betty

In a flash of inspiration I decided to marry my two loves, Christmas and all things woodland, in a Christmas themed terrarium!

The first order of business was clearly a gingerbread house, so I set to work sculpting one out of polymer clay. Mr. Crafter teased me mercilessly during this phase, telling me my transformation to a full-on grandma was complete. Well excuse me Mr. Crafter, I think you meant my transformation to full-on AWESOME cause look at this thing!

I had way too much fun making this. I really like working with polymer clay. After baking all it needed was some glitter Snow-Tex and some Diamond Dust and it was ready for my terrarium!

Terrariums are super easy to assemble – all you need is some pea gravel at the bottom, a layer of potting soil, then a layer of moss. You can get a package in the floral isle at the craft store.

The mushrooms I also made from polymer clay (left over from the terrarium-making station at Little Betty’s woodland themed 2nd birthday party) and the spun cotton snowman, tiny Santa, and ceramic reindeer are from my considerably large and growing stash of Christmas and woodland themed miniatures for just such an occasion.

Even Little Betty got in on the action! I made the shapes for the gingerbread house for her and she assembled and decorated it and applied the snow and glitter.

Little Betty and I are definitely looking forward to digging in the next month and churning out lots of Christmas crafts!

New issue of Kids Crafts 1-2-3 is in stores now!

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Betty

If you have a little one around and like to craft do yourself a favor and head to Wal Mart for the latest issue of Kids Crafts 1-2-3! There’s lots of great holiday projects in this issue (including of course my Reindeer Romp felt playmat on page 57!)

Not every Wal Mart carries it but if yours does it could either be in the craft department or in the magazine department so try both. If your Wal Mart doesn’t carry it never fear! You can subscribe or buy single issues online here.

Betty Crafter

Category Archives: Crafting