Freebie

I got this little vintage anniversary card at a local shop for a quarter. It's only 3 1/2" square. Isn't it sweet?

Postcard Friendship Friday

I had such fun last week that I decided to join in again. The hardest part for me is deciding what postcard to use.

This week it's a comical one by artist Rudi Hurzlmeier. I came across the postcards at the coast a few years ago and bought several designs. His work definitely makes me smile.


See what other participants have posted up at PFF.

PB&J

Assuming you like them, when was the last time you had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? It's been a fairly long time for me. This isn't a typical pb&j because it uses Adam's peanut butter and Lingonberry jam from IKEA (great stuff). It's also on locally made whole grain bread, soft, but not too soft. Yum.

I had a few errands to run today, and while at JoAnn's I found out something really irritating. Maybe it's because I'm an artist/crafter, but it's also because I hate to see a waste of materials. Especially a blatant waste of materials.

While I was having some fabric cut, the clerk and I were talking about the scissors she was using. She reached in to the garbage and pulled out a small piece of fabric and told me to try them. After I did, I asked her if the fabric was going back in the garbage, and she looked at me and said 'don't even ask me, I can't give it to you'. She told me that any small pieces of fabric that they decide can't be sold are thrown away. I told her that's such a waste and that they should give it to SCRAP (school and community reuse action project), and she told me that worse, they throw unopened patterns away. They have to mark them as unsalable and toss them.

I told her I was going to write a letter, but honestly, I have no idea who'd I write the letter to.

Not only does all of that stuff end up in the landfill, which just irritates me, but perfectly good patterns and scrap fabric (and sometimes more than scrap fabric) are being wasted! Someone could actually use that stuff!

Who on earth decides these things? And why can't they give it to charity and take a tax write-off? I just don't understand.

I am just appalled (can you tell? lol).

TMTA - Fly

Paper towel is used for the background, then I stamped over top with text, added bits and pieces of scrapbooking paper, and a bird I cut out.

See more ATC's at TMTA.

Oregon Lavender Festival

This past weekend was the Oregon Lavender Festival. I had heard of the event before, but always found out about it long after it was over. Thanks to an article in a recent issue of Country Gardens magazine I managed to find out in advance.


I knew that lavender was grown here, but had no idea that there were so many farms. We visited the three closest to home, and that's just a fraction. Honestly, pretty as lavender is, three farms is enough for one outing. Perhaps next year we'll visit some of the other areas to see what they have to offer.

If you live here, and you've never had the chance, definitely check out the festival. Some of the farms are open only for the festival duration, which is one weekend in July. Others have longer hours that go through the summer months. No matter where you live in Oregon, chances are there's a lavender farm near you. ;-)


Of course during our drive we passed several garage sales. I twitched, but haven't stopped at a garage sale seriously in years. I finally had to ask hubby (who was driving) to turn around and go back to a couple of them. I don't stop unless they're relatively large sales, which both of these were. I found a few goodies, with the first one already selling for half price at 3 pm on Saturday. Yay for me! I got a few linens, a couple of sewing patterns, and some junk jewelry to repurpose. And I saw, but did not buy, a vintage hair dryer that was the exact one I used to sit under as a little girl. I've never seen another one, and there it was, staring me in the face. Seeing it brought back such a flood of memories....The woman selling it tried really hard to get me to buy it, and it would have been $2.50, but what on earth would I do with it? lol

At the second sale I got a box of billiard balls. Yes, you read that right, billiard balls. An entire set, in the box, made in Belgium. What am I doing to do with them you ask? Alter them of course. lol Stay tuned for future developments......


And this house....It was just down the block from the second sale...I love old houses, and when I saw this I started to drool. lol Hubby took one of the real estate fact sheets out of the box and promptly told me to 'fall out of love'. This is what half a million dollars looks like in a small town in Oregon folks...And this isn't even an old house, it's a 'reproduction' built in 2005. Pretty, but not the real deal. If I pay that kind of money it had better be a historic house!

Prices are high all across the state, but this kind of shocked us. A nice enough yard, but no serious property, and for the price, actually a pretty small house, though I've never felt that 2000 sq ft was small (I live in smaller).

InchybyInch - Text

See other pieces at InchybyInch.

Sunday Postcard Art - Fabric

Time constraints are starting to wear on me. I'm always so far behind where the challenges go (either in days or numbers of participants) and it's becoming a stress. I just don't have the time to sit down and make a piece quickly, plus I don't really work that way. I never have. The challenges are fun, but I need to cut back. I can't do challenges and keep up with my day to day life. And since I've found myself scrounging for time to visit other artists blogs, cutting back is my only option. Hopefully doing fewer will make things easier.

I apologize to any of you who have left comments on my blog that I haven't managed to visit.

That said....

This weeks theme at SPA is to use fabric in a postcard, either making the entire thing fabric, or simply using fabric on it in some way. I had fun playing around with this.

I adhered fabric to cardstock, sewed around the edge, then used rubber stamps, embossing powder, and a gold leafing pen.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I'm not happy with my hand printed 'D', but that's the way it goes. Makes for an individual piece, right?

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