Valerean

Thanks to Writer's Block book shop in Winter Garden I got hooked on Blind Date with a Book self-gifts a few years back, but lately I'm seeing the concept expand to include things other than books. It's especially nice when the items you're blind dating are used or thrifted, as that gives them a second chance to be appreciated (and saves money, too.) My recent find of a Blind Date with a Cookbook was a lovely surprise -- I may steal this idea to make a blind date holiday gift for a neighbor who like me enjoys reading cookbooks. How about a blind date with a puzzle? If you have a puzzle lover in the family, you can pick up sealed/unused puzzles at thrift stores very cheap. This would also make a fun kid's gift as well as something a senior might enjoy. A blind date with a movie could be a cozy alternative to going out. You could also build a whole treat basket around this gift with popcorn and candy you'd usually get at the theater. For your cra...

This brand-new stuffed dog that I thrifted had Valentine's Day tags on it and smelled of chocolate (a nice change from the usual thrift-store smell.) From Dollar Tree I bought two skeins of chenille yarn in orange and green to make a little pumpkin costume for him. I didn't follow a pattern but made up my own, fitting the pieces to the toy as I worked. I also stuffed the pumpkin body with a little fiberfill to plump it out. The pumpkin puppy turned out better than I expected. Again the pieces are removable, so he doesn't have to be a pumpkin forever. I'm quite pleased.

Now that they've had a bath and dried, it's time to start altering these thrifted stuffed animals into Halloween decor. For the pig I thrifted a butterfly stuffy, from which I took the wings (the rest I'll recycle in another project. Chenille stems bent in half and sewn into the wings allowed me to bend them a little. I covered the wings' raw edges with scrap black binding and sewed them together. I also made a little mask to hide Mr. Pig's true identity. Here he is, all ready to trick-or-treat. All the elements are removable, so Mr. Pig can fly around to get treats on the big night and then go back to his regular life.

Six dollars and change won't get you a lot unless you opt to thrift. Then you can find a used hardcover cookbook ($1.99) and a paperback (.99) like I did last week. How about an adorable, gently-used baby quilt? This is a gift for my nephew's dog when they move in at the end of the month (she likes to sit and sleep on quilts.) It was made by a local quilting group, too, so I'm happy to give it a second life. Here's my receipt.

My ten dollar bag of vintage scraps needed to be hand-washed and picked through before I could use them, so I spent an afternoon last weekend working on that. This is one of the recycling chores I do that I really enjoy, as it's a little mindless and gives me time to think about other things. I've worked with a lot of vintage textiles over the years, and I knew some of the scraps were so old they would have disintegrated in the washer even if I put them in a lingerie bag. I don't mind hand-washing them, or drying them on towels on the back porch table. It's weirdly soothing for me. Once the scraps were clean and dry I needed to pick out all the snipped thread pieces left in the old hems to make them usable again. This is my favorite part of the process. To illustrate what I mean, here's a green scrap with those threads snips from the original stitching still stuck in the folds. I pick them out using the tip of my seam ripper, or use a piece of ...

My gigantic lot of Vera Bradley bags arrived, so let's dive in and see what I got. Thirty-five different bags came in the lot, so more than I counted from the auction listing pics. I will have to look up patterns and prices, but vintage Vera Bradley bags in good condition average about $25.00 each resale on sites like Poshmark and eBay. A few that came still have their original price tags attached (this jewelry organizer cost more new than I paid for the entire lot plus shipping.) Some of the bags do need a bath, and a few will need some repairs. Remarkably most do not have any significant damage other than soiling. Abut two-thirds of the lot are in unused or brand-new condition and will just need to be laundered to get rid of the storage smell. I thought this was a child's hat. Nope, a little drawstring purse. So how much did my major Vera lot cost me? I paid $50.00 for the lot, which comes out to $1.47 per bag. I do have my work cut out for me, ...

This is another "be careful what you thrift for" cautionary tale. After having so much fun repairing and upcycling the Vera Bradley lot back in June I decided just for fun to bid on another, much larger lot. The pics in this post show all the bags included, which appear to be twenty-five to thirty, and the auction listing noted that they all have wear and are being sold as a craft lot. Wishing but knowing based on past experience that I wouldn't win it, I put in a reasonable bid. Like all the very large lots I've bid on, I was expecting to lose it to someone willing to pay more. And then? I won it -- no challengers. This will be sixteen pounds of worn, damaged Vera Bradley bags. As you can see from the pics that's alot (I do see a pricetag on one of them, and not much wear in the pics, so I think I may find some gems, too.) Yet I bid believing firmly that I wouldn't win, so I kind of deserve to get it dropped in my lap. It's unexpe...

Real time Valerean here. I'm almost fully recovered from the flu, with just a bit of residual congestion and a lot of weariness from lack of sleep. I'm also back to work at the day job after losing 2/3 of my vacation to illness. At the moment I'm finishing work on this crochet throw I started while I was sick. I did not really start my summer art quilt; the flu + stiff fingers derailed that project just as I was beginning it. I shifted to crochet because it's mindless and I needed to do something while I was recovering. Some of my favorite projects are those that I've done when I've been ill. I have a beautiful but slightly wonky tote that I stitched while I was waiting for cataract surgery. I love that silly bag so much; working on it helped me get through a terrible time in my life. Now every time I look at this throw I'll think about my summer vacation with the flu. Not giving into sickness but creating in spite of it is one of the ha...

These faux pearl-encrusted straps were the reason I bid on a scrap lot of jewelry, as I wanted a large quantity of fake pearls to try out an idea (but, as always, didn't want to buy new.) When I began harvesting the pearls from the straps I also discovered some crystal montees scattered among them. I love montees so it was like a bonus. I ended up with a decent amount of faux pearls, plus the bonus of sixteen montees, for my winter project. :)

I've never tried to thrift toys before I went looking for some stuffies to alter, and for $10.67 I got four that were new or in new condition and a wee Halloween bow. The penguin and puppy still had their tags, and the butterfly and pig were in very clean shape. The puppy was a Valentine stuffy and still smelled of the chocolate scent added to it. I handwashed everything just to be on the safe side, and hung them to air-dry. Some words of caution about laundering thrifted stuffies: be sure the stuffing is of a washable variety (you can split a seam to have a look, and then sew it back up.) Remove all paper or tied-on tags and loose elements before laundering. Anything with wiring or electronics should not be immersed in water but instead spot cleaned. Hand wash the stuffies individually in the event the fabric dye bleeds. If you want to put them in your washing machine (I don't recommend this) you should put them in a pillowcase and pin it shut in the even...

I bid on and won a 4.2 lb. lot of scrap costume jewelry for some projects I'm planning for fall and winter; I get these so I can harvest beads and findings rather than buy new. Here's everything as it came out of the bag. I'm really pleased with the variety of beads, findings and even some wearable jewelry. My primary reason for bidding on this lot in particular were these pearl-encrusted straps. I was hoping the pearls would be easy to remove, and they are! To see more of the lot, go to my album here .

After all the repairs and upcycles I did, my lot of Vera Bradley bags had two left, a big shoulder bag (Indigo Pop, 2012) and a duffel (still searching for the pattern name and release date), but these are in near-mint condition without any flaws. Since I think they're valuable I'll hang onto these until I can find good homes for them. I learned a lot working on this project. One: I love repairing and upcycling these bags. It's a new creative challenge every single time, and I often surprise myself with my solutions. I'm also astounded by how much these bags retail for new. This one purse was $70.00 when it came out in 2019, and the pattern is now retired, so in a few years it will probably be worth twice that. My favorite bag from the lot was the first one I worked on, and I'll tell you why: the previous owner really loved this bag, and repaired it at least once to keep using it. They taught me something new (use knit fabric for strap repair...

Being sick with the flu really limits my ability to work on projects; the most I can manage at the moment is a bit of crochet. So I started a new throw in the free Ocean Tranquility pattern from Anastacia Zittel, which is just interesting enough to keep me engaged without having to overthink everything or deal with complicated stitch counts. It works up really pretty, and I'm making it in random blocks of thrifted yarn in colors that appeal to me. I pulled these from my stash this morning, although I may change my mind on the off-white. Stay tuned to the blog see how it turns out.

In my thrifted Vera Bradley lot were two small bags that had no issues at all. I'm using the smaller wristlet bag as is as a first aid kit for my purse. The larger pink velvet bag is the perfect size to hold my crochet hooks, but it needed a little more color. I used a quilted tag made by 14carrot to embellish the bag of the bag, and then added some buttons. These small bags are very easy to sew and upcycle. I think the buttons add a little fun. And here's the back. :)