Crewel Embroideries: Greatest Hits Volume 1

I decided I want to keep a record of my fabulous finds of yarn art. It occurred to me that I could have a colorful, kitschy gallery of gorgeous had I kept my crewels instead of selling them for money.
As of lately, these are my current "thing." You know, the thing I'm obsessed with at the moment. I've been very lucky! Here is a little retrospective from my first six years as a vintage seller.
Thing is, a lot of these are older pictures that I just saved from my Etsy account. I recently switched computers and haven't transferred many files over. I probably should have because some of these pics are potato quality.

I kept this big beautiful willow tree. ($5!) It's still hanging in that same spot.
I think I'll try and separate up this mass of pics into themes. I guess I'll start with larger sized ones. Here are some other big crewel wall hangings.

So awesome! The sun with a face really sold this one for me. One of my favorites and it was sold along with some other stuff as a prop for a Netflix show.

It's not exactly huge, but seem to remember it being...not small.

I found this biggie at my local thrift, OutFITers and after listing it sold immediately. Then I regretted it. I really should've kept this one.

This beautiful forest was actually found at the bins! The Goodwill Outlet, where people throw and grab aggressively. I just looked over and saw this standing up among other items in a bin that no one was looking at. I quickly ran to it, assuming the worst but much to my surprise it had no damage! A god damn miracle!

This one wasn't exactly huge either, but I remember it hung around for a good while. I feel like I usually sell southwestern themed stuff pretty well, so I was annoyed that I had to mark it down.

This is one from the string of autumn color crewels I had for a while. When I go into my local Savers the first thing I look at is the wall hanging wall. I soon found this one and noticed its cool 3D flowers. It was found along side this little one:

This next one is a favorite.

A short time later, I was looking in the exact same spot at Savers when I spotted this. For real, my jaw dropped. This big pink masterpiece was incredible! It sold within 24 hours of listing.

Here's a closeup.

I had a similar experience with this one. I was in OutFITers when I glanced over and saw this leaning against a bookshelf with a shopper precariously close by. I made a dash for this thing before someone had the chance to knock it over or put it in their cart.

This one is like the Cadillac of crewel art. It's big, unique, and expertly done. The frame is professionally done, heavy and high quality!
I mentioned earlier that I had a run of good luck with Autumn flowers. Let's transition to embroideries made of brown, orange, rust, avocado, and harvest gold...
But first this one:

Here's the story. Over the summer, I thrift like maniac. I was on my way back from a trip to a Savers and Goodwill a few cities over. Apparently, I hadn't had enough because I stopped into OutFITers on my way home.
One of the employees approached, "Hey, you look at wall art a lot, right?" Once confirming, I was led into the backroom and shown a large canvas cart of wall hangings. They had just come in and hadn't even been priced yet. I excitedly looked through the treasures, where I immediately spotted that one with all the plants and the wood stand.
Score! A framed crewel! "Definitely want it!" I said, greedily. Then I found this:

Like the first one it was made by "A.J. Stanley." Then I found this one:

Thanks, A.J.! I told the woman I would take all three and thanked her for sharing these treasures with me. She pulled out a price gun and said she would ticket them. $3 each. Three professionally framed, hand embroidered artworks for a total of $9.
At some point afterwards, I actually found another one just like the blue/orange/brown flowers in a basket.
Also, this one.

 This one fits both themes; it's seasonal and it's large. I believe that was a Goodwill find where a week later I also found...

Fishing supplies. I don't love the subject, but great execution!

Oof. Not a great picture, but I can assure you these owls on a branch with an orange background was great quality! I can say that about this next picture too!

They're pillows!

Look at that little cutie. I don't know whether the quote is suggesting that the chipmunk listen for the earth's music, or that the chipmunk is going to sing for us. I'm not a huge fan of their music; their voices are way too high pitched. (Get it?)
This charming cottage looks autumn-y.

All right, let's wrap this up with some sunsets.

This style is called "long stitch." Man, I love a good '70s landscape. This one has a matching orange frame!

 Awesome shades of orange on harvest gold.

This one is somewhat similar. Isn't it kinda creepy? I love that.
Join me next time for some more yarn art!

Big Time

Hi there!

After typing in title of this post, I started singing the actual song in my head. 

The 1986 hit "Big Time" by Peter Gabriel starts with the singer cheerfully greeting "Hi there!" before the song about what a big time hot shot he is. 

The subject of this little post here is big thrift scores. Not big in quantity, big in size. I'm specifically talking about large wall decor! Since I'm not the dedicated blogger I was when I started, I'd like to take the opportunity to share some of the big-ass pieces I've loved.

Long ago, I posted about one of my most excellent finds; this ginormous '70s, silk screen canvas.

I just love big wall hangings! I can't put my figure on why, and no I'm not going to make any more Freud jokes. I guess I like a big statement piece, the more old fashioned the better. For instance, the great unicorn art that greeted readers who clicked this post is bigly. I was very excited to have found it at the Goodwill one night for $6. It was a three-fer: It was oversized, had unicorns, and it was a painting on black velvet! I sold it though. Gotta pay rent.

It was a lot like this one from years ago that I purchased for a whopping $3 at a yard sale. Of course, when selling items like this, their size does pose a challenge. You pretty much have to build your own flat box using cardboard, a box cutter, and a shit ton of shipping tape. I don't care I just want to share my love of fine art from decades past with others. In exchange for a little money for which to buy food.

 There's another biggie that I found while searching through the archives. That one was cool.

The coolest one of all  might have to be the map. A great roll-up wall map like those that once hung in classrooms can be quite rare. So I couldn't believe my luck when I found this:

Wow. I get a wistful sense of longing when I look at this picture. This was taken in last year's kindergarten classroom which was the best school year ever! It took me a week or two, but I finally noticed that the only way to really hang this up so I can photograph it would be to use the little clips, like they have in schools like the one I work in. When I shot some of these, my precious little AB (read posts from last summer) was looking on and in a few pictures. Miss her and that class so much! As I can tell from that 5 on the whiteboard, I found this in May at Savers for a very fair price of $19.99. It has such great colors and in such good condition. I gave it a nice little price and it was quickly purchased.

That brings us to the piece that I still currently have in my apartment. It's a little hard to describe, but I know I've seen something like this before. It's a tree and sun scene made with carpet and attached to a big piece of wood.

Earlier this winter, I was leaving school when I got a text from Greyson, a buddy of Chris and I. He asked if I wanted this thing; his parents were just going to curb it!

It's such a cool '70s piece. It's made out of carpet! It was free! 

I have to remind myself to share my story of selling stuff to the set of a Netflix show. I'm gonna do something else now, bye.

The Thrifts

It's been a while since I've shared any recent acquisitions and since I want to refer to myself as a blogger, here are some things.
On a recent trip to the Goodwill Outlet store (you know..."the bins") I made a nice little haul, and found some good shit. Colorful stuff like this:

It wasn't until some of the last bin searches that I found that kick-awesome patchwork quilt. Already sold it. I love handmade vintage, because it's often one of a kind and usually quite well made. Also this tiny one was with it.

As you may be aware of; I've got baggage.

That little blue one. Wait--I don't remember if I actually dragged that out of the bins on this trip. Actually, I think I've just been blowing it off since I brought it home from the trip before this one. Glad we cleared that up.

That gray tweed one is great, it looks very old time-y. The interior was discolored, so check out what I did:

Mod Podged with wrapping paper. Easy fix, let's see if someone wants it.

That's a picture of the plaid piece of luggage when I brought it it. It was filthy. So, I cleaned it and soon realized the straps were breaking off. It's in that vintage merchandise purgatory now, where I can't decide what to do with it.
And finally, I also took a picture of the incredible red boots that were worn AF. (Do we capitalize AF? I'm not so hip to what the kids are saying.) I cannot find this picture. I say that a lot, but I swear I snapped a pic before I gently washed the dirt off. Fine, it's dark but I took a new "before" pic because I'm really psyched about these sweet kicks.

Bad picture of some roughed up boots. Don't worry though, the red shoe polish I ordered on Amazon just came in, I'm gonna try and make these work.
Other finds include the following:

Cute, little crewel embroideries that were each marked $1; half off. That's $0.50 each, braniacs. Like the above mentioned quilt, these sold soon after I listed them.
I've got furniture.

Mid century metal stand/rack/shelf/side table! I live for these things. Also...

It's a little foot rest! Looks a little small to be called an ottoman. The green vinyl seat thing swivels, which seems a bit unnecessary.
I'm done for the night. Here's a preview of a refashion I finished about a week back.

Blinded by the Light

This is a post about lamps. You love lamp? I got mad lamps, right here.
By the way, I hope you all sang the blog's title as it's a pretty famous hit from the 70s. I also hope you're giggling on the line that sounds like, "revved up like a douche."
How long has it been since I've shown off some great thrift finds? Forever? Let's catch up.

Look at that mid century beauty. It's brown, so not the most fun color, but still retro fabulous. It's kind of a small-medium size and was found in a Goodwill. One of those things that I grab and cart as soon as it's in my field of vision. I'm like, "Don't even try and check out my mod lamp, suckers. I found it and I got it. $4. In your face, Goodwill-ers."
I don't always get so mean over my thrifts, I swear. Let's look at something that doesn't make me sound like a freak.

Aww, look at that one. It's a lamb lamp. It was in that same Goodwill for $2. It's one of those plaster mold dealies and someone made that. I stuck a shade on it and gave it a reasonable price. No need for ewe to overpay. I would feel baaaad about ripping someone off for a baby lamp. Good god, I'm sorry.
Also for your children's room, I present these things:

Oooh, wishing well lamps! In brown. Why. This isn't the best picture, either. Also, they cost me a fortune of 5 bucks each at Savers. I just really like things in pairs. Hey, did I ever share these beautiful Art Deco jade green partners?

Oh wow, I staged them exactly the same way with the same books. Here's their story: this one day I saw a jade green lamp with an Art Deco style for a mere $3 at the G dubs. (Does that work? G dubs=Goodwill?) I was surprised, because it looked just like a lamp that I already bought and listed it in my shop. "A pair!" I cried with joy as I brought it home to unite the two. I went to look up the listing for the single lamp only to find that there wasn't one. I searched in confusion for a while before concluding that I just never got around to listing lamp number one. They have been sold as a team and hope they are living a good life.
Hey, fancypants, take a load of this big-ass piece of lighting:

Gaze upon its mid c mod glory with its unusual shape and large size. This baby was in the entrance way at a Goodwill that one of the gals that works there always uses for such nice displays. Yup, I grabbed up this thing. I think it had a nice low price, too.
Not as low as this next piece! Although, at the condition this poor lamp was in they should've have been giving me the dollar to haul it away. You know how you go to the flea market and there's always at least one dealer's lot that basically looks like they just sped onto the grounds in a pick-up before slamming on the breaks thus dumping the truck bed's content onto the ground so they end up with a big pile of junk and boxes?
Well, if you know about that, than you know that since they put about zero effort into presentation, they practically give the stuff away. It was a warm summer day at the Londonderry flea where my eyes scanned the large pile of old stuff. There, I found this;

What was once probably a glorious piece of big, mod lamp stood this beat down, faded piece of plaster. "I can rebuild it," I thought as I handed over a dolla bill. See where this is going? It's a DIY!
Oh, never mind. I guess I didn't bother taking photos of the "process." Not that I really needed to. I put paint on it. I covered it in turquoise, off-white, and chocolate paint. Here's your step by step...
Step 1- paint an old lamp.
Step 2- ????
Step 3- profit
Here is what my crappy lamp looks like now!

I'm trying to sell it with the question, "Do you want a large, mid century lamp, but don't want to spend a lot of money? Buy this one; the chipped part is in the back!"
Here's another:

Grrr...that's not its original gold. When I brought it home from Outfitters ($4 I think?) the first thing I did was use soapy water and a towel to clean years of grime off--and the gold color! Seriously, the rings of gold around this lamp mostly rubbed off. I got something called gold leaf paint and dabbed some on there.  
Stay tuned for my next lamp do-overs, where I hopefully show off the finished results from these damn things:

LOL. It has a doll attached. Cool plastic lamp shade and a nice blue base.
Oh, and these guys. I forgot to get a picture of them as a team, and I'm certainly not about to get up and do it now. Just imagine that I have two of these:

So, there's a shot of one laying on a blanket at my parents' house. Guess I didn't want to get off the couch that day either. You see, when I found these cute little lamps they had this layer of dull gold paint. I used water and a little sand paper to remove most of it and repainted one of them with my gold leaf paint. I brought both home one Sunday to get my sister's opinion. Her response was something like,  "A: the gold painted one sucks, leave them shabby. And B: what is moving around inside the unpainted one?"
As you see, the felt and cardboard bottom had been removed before I took that pic. Here's what was found inside:

A baggy of powder wrapped inside some aluminum foil. "Is it drugs!?" my mom exclaimed. "If it's drugs, we can sell it for...how much do drugs cost?' continued my mom with her joke about drugs.
Nope just a bag of beach sand wrapped in foil.

As usual, most lamps seen here are available for purchase in my Etsy shop. Ahem...Sweet Scores on Etsy.
The end.