Bolt!

Last week I told you all about the flannel I bought at Fabric Depot in this post. I still have other fabrics I bought there but I need to tell you about my experience at Bolt Fabrics. Oh my goodness, I was so excited to go to Bolt, it was like going to where the superstars go. The day was really beautiful and hot out too, and after this winter it was a bit surreal to have sunlight. Bolt is located on a street with lots of restaurants, boutiques and homes. It's so very cute. I found a parking space right in front and it was all I could do to not run into the store. The store is small and filled with fabric, but not cluttered and overwhelmed. It was lovely. The employees were super helpful, I was trying so hard not to gush. When I finally got to the counter to have the fabric cut I couldn't help it though and told them I loved their blog and they really got me into reading more blogs about sewing and how much I loved it and how wonderful they are and gush, gush, gush, gush. There was no stopping me really. The ladies were so nice, they just said "thanks it's so good to hear that people like the blog." Dang they were so much cooler then me, seriously. But I did hear them say the best thing to another customer. She was looking for fabric to line a fairy house so not very much fabric and when she said thanks they were so helpful and she loved the fabric they helped her choose, one of them said "Thanks, we want you to leave Bolt cheering fabric!" How cute is that? I wrote it down as soon as I heard them say it because I knew I wanted to tell you all about it.

I know what you want to see, what did I buy???

Marbled Magic by Fabric Freedom
Photo from: www.fabricfreedom.co.uk

Marbled Magic by Fabric Freedom
Photo from: www.fabricfreedom.co.uk

Michael Miller Wheel Dot Charcoal
Photo: Fabric.com

Jay MacCarroll's Habitat in Peach
Photo from: www.freespiritfabric.com

Ann Kelle's Urban Zoologie Whales in Aqua
Photo from: Fabric.com

Aqua Appleville by Suzy Ultman
Photo from: www.robertkaufman.com

Summersault by Erin McMorris
Photo from: www.freespiritfabric.com

Marcia Derse Third In Line Collection Tourquoise Birch Bark
Photo from: http://www.marciaderse.com/

Victoria & Albert Bottles Turquoise/Multi
Photo from: Fabric.com

Spring by Manaluna by Sew Happy
Photo from: www.robertkaufman.com 

Opal Owls by Tina Givens
Photo from: www.freespiritfabric.com

Geeks Gone Wild Space Invaders Green/Black
Photo from: Fabric.com

I also bought a small rotary cutter there and that's it. I wanted to post the fabric before I cut into them, but then I was talking to my Chiropractor telling her about the fabics I bought on my trip and she asked if I could make something for her daughter using the space invader fabric. I of course said sure and made her this:

The lining is from the garage sale I went to a few weeks ago and I blogged about here.

I have to say I had so much fun at Bolt and the whole time I was fabric shopping. I really love all the fabrics I got at Bolt, they really inspire me to sew and create. Thank you so much to the ladies at Bolt for being there!

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Flannel Flannel Flannel!

This past weekend was my birthday and for my birthday we went to Portland. We stayed at the lovely Inn @ Northup Station. It was such a nice all suite hotel. I picked this hotel because it was in the neighborhood we wanted to stay in, it had a full kitchen and the decor was vibrant and young, and I thought my daughter, Tesla, would like it more than someplace with more sophisticated decor. The last time we stayed in a hotel it was a bit of a disaster and this time it was perfect! We brought Ben's Pack and Play for Tesla to sleep in and then Ben slept in the hotel's Pack and Play. The room was large and we had a lovely little patio that we could sit on and watch the trolley/literail thing go by. Tesla really liked that. The hotel had a nice continental breakfast in the morning and our room was close to the dining room which meant that when Ben woke up at 5ish, I could take him out there so that everyone else could sleep. I thought I did not bring my camera SD card so I didn't take any pictures of the hotel room but please go visit their site and check it out, the interior colors are stunning. In fact I was talking to a woman in the breakfast area about it and she said that after staying there the first time she repainted her sewing room in the same colors. Which of course I asked her about her sewing and about her sewing machine and it turns out she has the same machine as me! Crazy right?

On Saturday I dropped everyone off at the Oregon Zoo and headed on to Fabric Depot. Where I preceded to spend 4 hours shopping for fabric. It was so luxurious. I'm going to break up the pictures of the fabric I bought since I bought lots of flannel and then lots of everything else! So here it goes!

All Star 2 Main Stars Green Flannel
Riley Blake Designs

 

 The next one was bought for my friend Marisa.

All Star 2 - Blue All Star 2 Mini Dot
Riley Blake Designs

Wheels by My Mind's Eye
Riley Blake Designs

Zoo Friends by Kelly Tanner
Blue Hill Fabrics

Dino Dudes for Michael Miller

Bliss 26 Circles Ocean
Westminster Fibers

Della Flannel by Valori Wells for Free Spirit
Westminster Fibers

Summer Song was bought for a particular friend in mind.

Summer Song Pink
Riley Blake Designs

 The next one was bought for my friend Marisa.

Jungle Friends by Kelly Tanner
Blue Hill Fabrics

Sprinkles on Top
Michael Miller

Dumb Dot
Michael Miller
This image is not exactly correct, the dots are actually a light pink. I'm working on finding a better image.

Well that's all the flannel I bought. It's all so pretty. I bought a lot more fabric though so I'll be posting some more about that another time!


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Portland Bound!

We're heading to Portland here soon for the purpose of fabric shopping! I read the blog by the store Bolt and have been wanting to go there, also there is Fabric Depot. But where else should I go for fabric and other sewing items? Any suggestions???

TGTM

What? Don't get it the title? It stands for Thank Goodness for Thriftshare Monday! YEAH! Because I wanted to participate in Apron Thrift Girls, weekly Thrift Share Monday again, I actually did some research on what garage sales I would go to instead of just seeing one on the way home from my weekly Saturday morning break errand. There were three that I had chosen. Two started at 9:00am and one at 10:00am. One of the 9:00am ones promised Little Pet Shop items and I had my eye on a Blythe doll for Tesla so I definitely wanted to stop there. The other 9:00am one seemed close by so it would also be good but nothing spectacular listed. The third one at 10:00am was a fabric sale. Specifically. Crazy. My friend Amy actually told me about that one. Thanks Amy!

Okay so the loot.
First garage sale I spent $5.10. (Note to parents, I know your daughters are super super cute and they act like adults but please make sure they can do math before letting them be the bank at your garage sale. They had to recount everything several times and gave me to much money back after I gave them a $20 and 10cents. Of course I corrected them. ) The Littlest Pet Shop items were a no go but I did find some other very cool things, well cool to my lovely 2 year old.

Here we see, two Chelsea dolls, you only see one here, the other immediately lost her tennis outfit and left to explore the rest of the house. Their names are Genny and Ava... I'm starting to run out of names and those are names of two little girls that Tesla plays with. Two little people, one Jesse figurine and a wooden bead necklace. All for 25 cents each. But along with this loot was the best find ever and has not left Tesla's side since Saturday morning.

See the horse? Her name is Beauty. She's the best. Tesla is just getting down from her chair in this picture to get Barbara (a Barbie, clever name right?) so that she could ride Beauty. That's my husband playing with another find, but more on that in a bit.

Besides a book that I managed to not get a picture of, the last thing I bought at this garage sale was this MAC chair. It was only $3.00 and came with the bag to carry it. The seat snaps into place and is much lower than a lot of the child size chairs. I took this picture next to Ben so you could see the relative size.

Okay so on to the next garage sale. First I saw this Bead kit that I thought of getting for my niece she's big into beading  but I believe she's getting some Ithing for her birthday and I figured she'd need itunes or some sort. I find the whole itunes and ithing gift terribly boring, but I'm pretty sure the icompany is marketing to me. Well I passed on the bead thing and saw this instead.

Snap Circuits Jr. A friends son has this or the non junior version and we thought it was pretty cool. My husband is an electrical engineer and even though he could technically put together something that did more then this that needed to be soddered together I thought that at $5.00 he could use this with kids to get them excited about science. When I got home I showed him the box. Not even 30 seconds later he had it open and was putting it together.

Check out that smile on his face while Tesla pushes the button.

Next and last, I went to a fabric sale out of a garage. This woman apparently does this sale all the time once or twice a year. She used to work at a quilt shop and is a pattern designer. Everything was priced at $4.00 a yard with smaller cuts available. I spent $17.00 on fabric and here is what I got.

I want to make something for my step dad and nephew with these music notes.

Auntie Bubbles is going to get a pouch or three lined with these owls!

I actually have some larger red tomatoes that I think will be made into a pouch with this as the lining.

Not sure what to do with this, but I thought it was sweet.

Definitely a pouch.

Day of the dead by Alexander Henry! YEAH!!! I can't believe I finally got some!

Other pretty fabric!

So that's everything I got! I think I did pretty well. I spent $27.10 total. A bit much to be spending unplanned but the fabric really was a great deal. Did you go thrifting this weekend? What did you find? Don't forget to see what others found this weekend at Apron Thrift Girls link ups!


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Thrift Share Monday - Always Say Yes

Once again I'm able to participate in Thrift Share Monday hosted by Apron Thrift Girl. This past weekend I was not able to go garage sale shopping. After the week we had getting everyone healthy again after the crud hit our house, causing my 4 month old to be hospitalized, my 2 year old to get two ear infections and run a fever for what felt like forever, and my poor husband to be incapacitated by nausea, headaches and fevers I needed to run some serious errands. We didn't leave the house pretty much for one week, and although I don't really mind being a home body, I needed time away from my lovely family.

Despite everything that happened last week we did manage some crazy great thriftiness. First I got an email from a woman on Craigslist who had listed a playhouse and slide but hadn't listed a price. She said she was going to relist it but for some reason again didn't give any details and waited two more days to get back to me about what the price was. However she inspired me to look on Craigslist again for a playhouse, and managed to find one for $35.00 within 5 miles of our home that had just been listed. So we got it!

 My daughter loves the house. We set it up at a really perfect time. We'd been inside for what felt like forever. We have American flags near our front door and she decided that she needed one on the house. Not in front of her front door, but on the roof. I asked if it was so that everyone knew she was American, and she said "NO, no American." Hmmm must work on that patriotism.
 
Another thrifty thing we did was say yes. My MIL called a few weeks back and said that a friend of hers had some clothes for our son that are handme downs from her grandson. So I said sure if she wants to mail them to us, we'll take them. I learned awhile back to just take any handme downs people want to give us. We  have a lot of storage space and if there's something I don't like I'll just give it away, or if it's kooky and not my style keep it anyway for a laugh! Not a problem. Then another friend, Tracey, asked on facebook if anyone wanted hand me downs for girls size 4-8. I jumped on it immediately. Tesla may be 2 but she's wearing size 4 and we can store clothes that are to big for her, so why not? We sorted through all these clothes this weekend, and I can tell you with the exception of underwear and perhaps a few other essential items, we're not going to need to buy clothes for our kids for few years. Seriously. That's a pretty cool feeling to know you're set for clothes for awhile. So here are some pics of my cuties in clothes that were handed down to us and cost us nothing!

 Ben in a flannel/hoodie.

In his concert clothes... Wait I wasn't even alive. Do you think this may be Beattle related?

 Tesla lounging in a very cute red knit dress.

 Ben in some jammies.

 Okay this picture wasn't from this weekend's hand me downs but from some we got 2 years ago from a friend who said "here you want more kids, take these, you'll probably have a boy."

Nap time is apparently over.... Check out the other links on Apron Thrift Girls blog to see what other people have been thrifting this weekend.

Thrift Share Monday

Hi Everyone! I am participating in my first Thrift Share Monday hosted by the lovely Apron Thrift Girl. My thrifty finds lately have been really good. When I go to garage sales or estate sales I'm usually going Saturday morning after I take care of a couple of errands, which means they really need to be close by. I'm uninterested in leaving my husband at home with two kiddos for to long. He can handle it but he works hard all week, and deserves some me time too. Anyway, the sales need to be close by, I need to see the signs on my way home. Well the weekend before last I totally scored. You can read all about that at my previous posting Garage Sales.

So what am I really looking for? Outdoor toys. We have a large yard and our neighbors can't see us (read: we can junk it up) so I would like toys that can keep my kids and my friends kids entertained. I think I'm doing pretty good so far. Well on my way home from the grocery store I saw a sign for an estate sale. Since they had a fancy sign for it I decided to go for it. As soon as I drove up I got excited. I saw a playhouse and a picnic table. Now I only had $20 so I didn't bother to look at either of them but I figured where there is some kids stuff, there might be more! When I walked in the door the woman said "Everything is half off!" I was really hoping for some good finds.

I found these three books. The two sticker activity books haven't been used and look kind of fun. The third book is a Little Critter book, and I love those.

In the garage I found this Step 2 bench for our deck. It'll store some of the kids stuff, and be good to sit on or the dolls can walk on it. I got it for $7.50. Not bad.

When I was paying for these items I asked how much the picnic table was outside. We already have one for Tesla but I figured a second one would be nice to have if we have a big group of kids over doing an outdoor craft. The woman said it was $15.00, normally but half off today!

How stinking cool is that? So for $15.75, I got three books, a bench and a picnic table. YEAH! I'm still looking for a t-ball set and some other activity items like that for outside.

I've been reading Apron Thrift Girl for awhile now and I have to credit her for these great finds. If it wasn't for her I probably would rush straight home rather than hit these sales. But she finds some really great stuff and she inspired me! Thanks! Go check out her blog, and see what she found this weekend!

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