Out of the drawer and onto the wall

A couple of weekends ago, I found myself on a Sunday afternoon, sans husband and child, at my local Value Village.  I snatched up a fantastic hinged display box with a fabric backing, originally from Pottery Barn.  It looked like it had never been used, except for the dried corsage that was displayed in it.  I knew what I was going to use it for right away.

I've been collecting these colourful patches for quite some time.  One was from a hat we found hiding in the wall while we were doing a repair job on our house, one belonged to my late father-in-law, and one from my dad's old uniform.  Some are used, and some are new. They are all beautiful. They've been stuffed in a drawer in a zip-lock bag for many years, and are undeniably Canadian.

My favourite is the "wear a moustache" patch. 

Tea Towel Find

My mum called the other day to ask if I had found any good thrifty finds lately.  As a matter of fact, I had.  Earlier that day, I had been in Value Village with a friend looking for wool sweaters that she re-purposes into mittens. See her lovely stuff here

I was not having a good thrifting day, and nothing was inspiring me to re-purpose, or calling my name to purchase.  Then I found them!  Two unwashed, never used, stuffed in a drawer for years, tea-towels.  These will add to my collection of 50+ vintage, much loved tea-towels. 

I love the quality of the cotton/linen used in these types of tea-towels.  They wash and dry beautifully, and truth be told, they are the only items that I actually enjoy ironing.  Weird.

What is really weird is that these 2 thrifty finds represent the two sides of my family.

The side (my side) from ENGLAND...

And my husband's side from SCOTLAND!

It was like these two items were waiting for me to come and spend my $2 on them.

Seven Inch Fry

When I was a young girl, my family had a weekly Wednesday tradition of going roller skating at a local roller rink and then eating at Burger King for dinner.

We would have friendly competitions at dinner with finding the longest french-fry.  My dad always seemed to win with enormous lengths of potatoes.  It wasn't until I was a little older, and perhaps a little less gullible, that I realized that he deceived us by holding two fries together, so that it appeared to be one enormous french-fry.

Now that I have my own family, we have continued the tradition of finding the largest fry.

This photo has not been doctored, and there is no trickery.  Seven inches of pure salty, warm, potatoy deliciousness!

Planking Trio

During last summer, I kept hearing a lot about a new FAD called planking.  The media was crazed about it, as some deaths had occurred due to the competitiveness in the sport, not to mention lack of brain cells.  I was surprised how little I had heard about it lately, and thought wow, that was a short-lived fad.

In early October, I came downstairs early one morning to make some coffee, and sitting on my windowsill, was this lovely display of planking zombie, ghoul and mummy.  Their abs must be strong, as they have been planking long enough to collect the cobwebs.  (yes, they are real)


To learn the definition of planking, see the Urban Dictionary here

Pumpkin Parade

I am a big fan of jack-o-lanterns.  I love the process of making them, and the finished products. Beautiful warm glowing lanterns that light the path for the many trick or treaters on Halloween.

I find it quite sad that they have a limited lifespan.  Between the frost, and the squirrels, and the occasional teenager, they barely make it until the next compost pick-up.

This year, a neighbour told me that I should bring my lanterns the day after Halloween to Sorauren Park.  A night in the park to show off your creations, and wind through the paths completely lined with loads and loads of lit jack-o-lanterns.  The parks team takes all the used lanterns the next morning, and composts them.  

We hauled our pumpkins to the park, and found a space along the path to display and light them. We spent the next hour or so wandering around the park along with hundreds of families admiring the lanterns.  Photos and movies were being filmed, and people were posing with their favourites,  gathering ideas for next year's jack-o-lanterns.

We went back to our 5 jack-o-lantern contributions, to say goodbye, and there was a lady posing beside one of ours saying "I made it".  While I was secretly giggling in the background, my son yells out loud, "you didn't make that one, my mum did!"

Businessman Zombie

Gone are the days of sweet halloween costumes at our house.  No more kitty-cats, and windmills, or cars.  This year he had to be a zombie.  A dead, decaying, filthy, bloody ZOMBIE.  He had decided this costume on the day after Halloween of 2010.  I *sigh* agreed to make it.

We made a sketch, and decided all the things that we wanted this costume to include.  He was going to be a Businessman Zombie. We didn't get into the details of how this businessman died.
We found an old recycled cell phone, and this is how the costume began.
Next we made a trip to the Value Village.  We found a blazer, collar shirt, and a tie.  We also picked up some makeup colours that we were missing, (green and grey) some spray-on grey hair colour, and a tube of gel blood (of course) Total spend $21.
A pair of his own chinos from the "to be repaired pile" completed the look.

Next we got to the distressing.  We slashed, and tore, and splattered with red acrylic paint.  We dragged the clothing behind the wagon, and drove over it with the car.  It was tossed into the middle of the street and we persuaded reluctant and confused drivers to please drive over it.  All the while, my son was squealing with delight.  We smudged it with moss, and smeared it with leaves.
Finally, I sewed on some rubber cockroaches and worms.







Success!

He wore it to Beavers for the annual Halloween Party, and all day and all night of Halloween.

He really loved it, and I had fun making it.

Next door, our neighbours spend an enormous amount of time and effort setting up a haunted house and yard.  It is a neighbour destination on Halloween night.  My son hangs out and "helps" them set it up, the whole weekend before Halloween.  He has seen it being built, and knows fully what to expect, but he still cannot bring himself to go in and trick or treat on the big night.


Perhaps there still might be a little kitty-kat inside him.

Catching Up

So it's been a while.

I will place part of the blame on life, and the other part of the blame on my inability to remember my password, and user name for one million different applications in my computer, including this blog.
I've got a system now, and hopefully it will help me to remember.
In the meanwhile, I have a lot of catching up to do.  Get ready for a flurry of posts.