Thrift Finds, Crafting, and Answers...

Happy Wednesday everyone! I'll warn you, this is going to be a long post...

I'll start with answering some questions from the comments....

About my front door vegetable garden, this is only the 2nd year we have had it. Last year we learned what did and didn't work for us, so this year we are only planting green beans, zucchini, squash, beets, tomatoes, and an assortment of herbs. The boxes in the middle are approximately 5'x5', I wanted to make it so I could easily reach the middle of the boxes on all sides for easy weeding and picking of produce. The long boxes along the fence are about a foot wide and that is where we plant the beans. The boxes are made of the cheapest rough sawn wood at the lumber yard(not pressure treated) and are nail gunned together. We then put weed blocker and mulch on the pathways. This is just a small garden to produce a small supplement to our food bill in the summer. I'm not a gardener by any means, so this is all I can handle right now.

About me and my family, nope, we aren't Mormon. I just like kids and like making things.

And about the ketchup and the tin foil trick. You just rub some ketchup onto the rusty chrome and gently rub with a wad of tin foil. Wipe away the residue and continue until the rust is gone(doesn't take long). If the rust hasn't eaten through the chrome finish, the piece will look like new(as was the case with the bell on the trike). But if the rust has eaten through the chrome, this will only take off the rust and you will see the metal base below, but at least the rust will be gone. This also works with coke and tin foil, but I find the ketchup easier to work w ith. It's something about the acid in the ketchup and I'm not sure why the tin foil, but it does work.

I found out yesterday that my parents will be arriving a day earlier, which is tomorrow!! So I am in major panic mode and am running around trying to get the house in order. So I probably won't post again until the weekend, after yard saling and thrifting with my mom.

Oh, and did I mention my string of household unfortunateness(is that a word?) ? First, I lost one of the diamonds in my wedding ring, which hasn't been found. Then our dishwasher broke this weekend and hubby can't find out what's wrong with it. And my one of my rear tires keeps going flat. So after spending $50 at the auto shop this morning, he couldn't find a hole in it but tells me I need a whole new set of tires soon. He was surprised they passed the state inspection last week. So that is close to $700 !!! UGH! I just hope that hubby can get the dishwasher figured out this weekend and this is the end to this streak.

And Catherine, if you are reading this, I promise I will email back you this weekend!!!

Now for the pics...

Here are my GW finds. A wool blanket...

These old wood skis, I Love the pointy tips on them and they still have their leather bindings...
A whole bolt of quilting fabric(11 yards) and a bag of tin cookie cutters....
Then my yard sale finds. A very old rocker that is so incredibly comfy and totally hand made...
A wood trunk with some history. Written on th inside it says it was bought for Calvin Stone of St. Johnsburg, VT in 1811. Then in another person's hand writing are different dates of when and where it traveled. Plus, it has its original first coat of paint on it. And I did some research online and this person really existed.

Oh, and I found this basket at GW. It was an ugly 70's ratan color, so I spray painted it chocolate brown...
Now for the quick craft I had to do at 10 last night because my 3rd grader needed a going away gift for his intern teacher. I made a tote bag and put the work "inspire" on it. I just stitched the word on and them cut away the fabric and left it fringy...
Lined the bag in red dot and added a pocket.
And I couldn't let another week pass without sharing Mason with you all. Here are two pics from this morning. He was being goofy and smiling at me and making faces. I just love black and white pics lately and love picnick, it makes it so easy to change pics....

Have a great week everyone!!

Tiff