LOTS of PRETTY FLOUR SACKS

I went to a great estate sale yesterday and got a lot of great old flour sacks. Some of the prettiest patterns I've seen in a while. LOVE the floral ones.

Make sure to check out my eBay store for them.

FRIDAY FLOWERS

I'M SORRY

I feel so bad! I can't believe it's been well over a month since I did my last post. I'm so ashamed. As much as I'm on the computer it's hard for me to take the time to post. I "think" about it all the time, but then when I finally have the time, I'm out of energy.

I've been enjoying spring. My handy-man hubby built me a beautiful big deck and pergola in the back yard and I'm so proud of it! I've wanted one for years but it always seemed like other home improvement projects were more important...BUT finally after all these years I have one!!!! And it's wonderful. It's like having a big outdoor room. I know we're going to be spending alot of time out there.

It connects right to my little "Linen Studio" and it's all in a big fenced in back yard so my son Will can still play outside and I can keep an eye on him and still enjoy it.... He has his swing set, trampoline and all that good stuff out there. Now we're all happy!!!!!

I've been posting alot of new things on Etsy the last few days...make sure to check it out and I'm always adding stuff to eBay .

TRYING TO SPRING CLEAN...AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK!

Spring is in the air and that makes me want to start cleaning and straightening and organizing but it's hard to do or next to impossible for me. I wish I was a more "together" person to start with..that would help. My mother was the "queen" of organization. How many times I've heard her say "everything has a place and everything in it's place" and that's how her house was. Infact, that was her life. You could ask her for something... anything and no matter what it was and if she had it (and she knew if she did or not) she go right to it. Me, I remember seeing it at one time can't remember when either...where it went? Gosh, I have no idea.

I really do try to be organized..I buy all the "things" (totes organzizers...you name it) that is supposed to make it EASY for you to be that "together" person but they never seem to work for me. But I have decided that "living" in your home PLUS running a business out of it and sometimes it seems like every room has "business dealings" in it, it's nearly impossible to keep things tidy and neat. Plus put a three year old in the mix who has more toys than I think I have linens it makes it that much harder.

I sell mostly "rags" as I lovingly refer to them (vintage quilts, feather pillows, linens and anything "material-fabric") and they take up ALOT of room!!! I have them piled in my sunroom (sometimes to the ceiling)....the ironing board is in the dining room FULL of linens to be ironed (the light is better in there that's why the ironing board is in there and my laundry room is too small) The bedroom floor around my desk is full of stuff I've made pictures of and trying to get listed on eBay and Etsy (my laptop is in here next to my son's room) and my 1000 square foot upstairs what I refer to as "eBay Central" where all my inventory I have listed is "somewhat" stored is running over. It's also where all my boxes, bubble wrap, packing peanuts and whatnot are. PLUS I have a dormer room with over 200 feather pillows in it. (I wish I was joking but I'm not) And even my laundry room has a big basket full of linens that need to be washed and another one that needs to be ironed!!! Everywhere I go, everywhere I look, there they are!!! There are linens in totes in closets, attic spaces, under the beds, in wardrobes. Sometimes I feel like I have an addiction instead of a business.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the fact that I work at home....I have in my opinion the perfect job. I get to make a living doing what I love to do and get to do it where I love to be the most and the best part is I get to here with my 3 year old. But having been in "the biss" for nearly 20 years now and LOVING junk and collecting it too not just selling it, you really do accumulate alot of stuff. When I'm trying to clean and put away I swear I'm gonna quit buying til I get some of this stuff sold and gone but come Thursday afternoon when the paper comes out I can't wait to see how many garage and estate sales are listed for the weekend. I tell my husband I got to have my "junk fix". And when I'm on the yard sale trail I never think about my house of rags and how junked and cluttered and full it is and how I really DON'T need to be buying ANYTHING.....But there I am just out there looking for LOTS more treasures. Got to have MORE MORE MORE!!! I'm not happy to my van is full!!!! It's a sickness...or it is for me. But I still love it.

CHECK OUT MY VINTAGE FINDS ON EBAY

MY CONSTIPATED GOLDFISH

Okay, the first time I passed by the aquarium I thought my big fancy golfish Max was dead. He was floating upside down....but it wasn't upside down dead....those of you who have had an aquarium and had a dead fish know what I mean. He was just upside down. I tapped on the side of the tank and he starting swimming just fine. Thank goodness he wasn't dead was all I could think! We've had this aquarium now for several years and haven't lost a fish in a while. The fish I have now have really gotten big from the time I purchased them because we bought the small "cheap" goldfish because we figured they would die (the first few we had in there did) so we wouldn't have a lot of money invested in them. But they have thrived and we really do enjoy watching them now. We bought the aquarium for our son Will. He has autism and LOVES fish. Loves to go to Petsmart and Wal Mart and "see fish".....but at home he doesn't show alot of interest in ours. Guess it's just not the same atmosphere.

Anyway, I decided to feed the fish and when I saw Max upside down he turned himself around and he swam up with the rest of them and was eating like normal. So..I went on with the days work. I was just thankful he wasn't dead and if he was eating that meant he wasn't sick. Didn't it? I came back through a little later on and the same thing. Upside down. This time I noticed he was having trouble staying toward the bottom of the tank. He tried to swim down but he just couldn't do it and stay there. When "hubby" got home I showed him the fish. He said "maybe he's constipated". Yeah right.......so then he tells me to go "google" it. So I did...and guess what HE WAS RIGHT!!! He was constipated. Swim bladder something or other...but from what I could read it wasn't fatal. The "fix" was to not to feed him for a few days and give him two thawed green peas minus the shells. We put him into a small aquarium and I gave him a couple of peas and no fish food and the next morning he was swimming fine again and no floating upside down.

We got a big laugh about it...and I was really happy things seem to be back to normal with Max but now I can tell everyone I had a constipated goldfish!

The Story of Blue Willow

I inherited my mother's Blue Willow china. She collected it for years (along with lots of other things) and we were always on the hunt at flea markets, estate sales, auctions and tag sales trying to find another "piece" to add to her ever growing collection. I didn't realize til I started packing it up to bring home how many pieces she had.

I never considered myself a "blue" person but Mama loved it so much and I couldn't bear to sell it so I ended doing my dining room in blue and to be honest I love it now. And it brings back so many happy memories of me and Mama "junking" together.

There is a really neat story to the pattern on the china....here it is:

"Long ago, in the days when China was ruled by emperors, a Chinese manderin, Tso Ling, lived in the magnificent pagoda under the branches of the apple tree on the right of the bridge, over which droops the famous willow tree, and in front of which is seen the graceful lines of the fence. Tso Ling was the father of a beautiful girl, Kwang-se, who was the promised bride of an old but wealthy merchant. The girl, however, fell in love with Chang, her father’s clerk. The lovers eloped across the sea to the cottage on the island. The mandarin pursued and caught the lovers and was about to have them killed when the gods transformed them into a pair of turtle doves. These are seen gazing into each other’s eyes at the top of the design."

FABULOUS FEEDSACK DRESSES

FEEDSACK DRESSES

A couple of months ago I bought a big box of handmade vintage feedsack dresses! I hadn't had the chance to "really" look at them so I got them out today to "air" them and let them get some sunshine and they were just beautiful!!!! To me they were a work of art hanging on the clothesline.

I never knew my grandmother but my mother always told me about her making her dresses out of old print feedsacks and from the pictures I've seen of her this was the "style" that she wore. All the pictures were in black and white so I couldn't see the "color" but I remember the style.

This lady of yesteryear had a nice and colorful wardrobe!!!!

I just LOVE all the different prints!!!

LOVE THE COLORS

LOOK AT THE POLKA DOTS

Ahhhh..the simpler times..........

NOTHING LIKE AN OLD FEATHER PILLOW

All my life I have slept on a feather pillow. That's the ONLY kind of pillow that my mother had in our house (EXCEPT for the ones she kept in her pillow shams and we were NEVER allowed to sleep on the shams. They were for "looks" only and got put in a chair at night along with the bedspread being folded down and NEVER used to cover up with) My mother took great pride in making her beds and they always looked as good as a picture in a catalog. She used to joke that you could bounce a quarter off of any bed she made. I never tried it, but they were always "perfect". I don't know how she did it because no matter hard I try my beds never look like hers did.

Every bed at our house always had a matched pair of feather pillows or a bolster pillow on them. Every summer Mama would empty the pillows (into an old pillowcase) and wash the ticking and then put the feathers back sometimes adding more feathers from other pillows that she had culled or I remember her even taking apart an old feather bed to get the feathers out and then "re-using" the ticking to make more pillows out of. She swore that the new ticking you bought was not like the old kind.

Even today if we go somewhere overnight I still take my trusty feather pillow with me.

I guess that's why I buy and sell so many feather pillows today...because they were a must in my house as a child and I can't imagine not sleeping on one. It's amazing how many different patterns and colors of ticking were used and how varied the pillow is in weight. I've had some so light and soft and then I've had some that were so heavy that you thought they might have stuffed in with bricks.

If you need any pillows make sure to check out my eBay store cause I always try to keep a big selection in there of all different weights and fabrics. I even have a few bolsters (though they are hard to find) and a feather bed or two! If you don't see what you like, drop me a line because I have a HUGE "pillow stash".

HERE COMES PETER COTTON TAIL....

HOPPING DOWN THE BUNNY TRAIL........

Easter will be here before we know it. aPRIL 12th.

My "bunnies" are out year around. I've collected old rabbits for over 15 years now. I especially love the paper mache and the Chein metal ones.

Here are some pictures of a few of mine.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

This old rug that I have framed and lighted hanging in my back hall is one of my favorite things.

This rug belonged to my father....or he claimed it because I threw it in the trash MANY years ago.

When I first got into "junk" I went to an auction at an old log cabin. You were there to buy the cabin BUT first they sold out each room's contents. I bought the entire kitchen for 5.00 dollars!! OMG!!!! I was so excited because there was a Hoosier cabinet in there and that's what I was really wanted (I used to be obessed with old kitchen cabinets)...the rest was just a bonus. I brought home a HUGE truck load of stuff..including this old rug.

When I got the stuff back to my parent's house and was digging through the treasures and discarding what I didn't want, I came to this rug. It was frayed around the edges and pretty dirty and to me at that time it was just JUNK and I didn't want to mess with cleaning it! I pitched it and my father latched on it.

When no one was looking he took some old roofing nails and attached it to the inside of the garage wall. My father claimed "his dog rug" was worth a fortune. For years and years he bragged out the now famous dog rug. It grew on my over the years and the fraying and dirt didn't seem that noticeable anymore but my father wouldn't give up his rug. It hung there for nearly 20 years.

He passed away a couple of years ago and we had to get the house cleaned out and sold. When I went into the garage I knew it was time for me to take "the dog rug" home. My husband built a simple frame for it and I cut most of the fraying away (which wasn't much at all) and now it hangs proudly over my desk with a light above it. Everytime I look at it, I smile and it reminds me of my father. I can still hear him laughing and bragging about his dog rug.

SOME NEW RAGS

I bought a bunch of "rags" Wednesday. Lots of quilts, quilt blocks, hankies, feedsack dresses, chenilles, pillows, patterns and I'm not sure what all. Needless to say I was in "Rag Heaven". I'm going to try to get a lot of it listed next week so make sure to keep checking Ebay.

I will putting some things on Etsy too.

I haven't had a chance to go through it all but here is a small sampling of part of it. I wanted to get more pictures made but the wind was so strong it was nearly impossible to get done what I did.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. They are saying SNOW for us!!! UGH. I'm really tired of winter and ready for spring!!!!

Oh yeah, I will be having another sale in March in my store "My Bag of Rags" I'll be slashing some prices to get ready for all the new inventory I have to list.

LOTS OF NEW GOODIES ON ETSY AND EBAY

I have been listing lots of things on Etsy and eBay so make sure to check them out. It's mainly a 'hodge podge' of embroidery, fabric, quilt blocks, cutter quilts and whatever I come across in my sunroom. I'm trying to get it cleaned out before spring. LOL!!! I've been trying to do that for years now and it still hasn't happened. Lots of my eBay listings are store items so you can "BUY IT NOW" and of course all Etsy items are that way.

BLACK HAT PARADE

I collected these a long time. One of my first collections. I've had then stored now for years. Somewhere I know there is at least another box or two of them. After Will was born, I started boxing up collections. Taking care of a newborn, working and trying to keep all the "extra" stuff clean was just too much. I found this box in the closet a few weeks ago and I knew I wasn't going to display them anymore and there was no sense in keeping them so I thought I would list them. Maybe you will see something you like. I had them hanging in my foyer on an old hall tree.

RAINY COLD DAY IN CERULEAN

It's just a miserable cold day out there today. Windy, rainy and cold. The rain is on the verge of snow. A good day to be in! I'm trying to get some stuff listed on Etsy & eBay so make sure to check out my new items when you get the chance. I'm getting more on Etsy because the program I use to list on eBay is having problems. I needed to devote some time to Etsy anyway so it all worked out. I can't get outside to take pictures but I have a lot of stuff "rat-holed" back that I took pictures of months ago. Now I just got to find it all.

Next week I have to go pick up a HUGE load of linens and quilts so I should have some really great "new old stuff" to list in March. Just in time for spring. And spring can't get here soon enough for me. I've had enough of winter this year. I think the older I get the worse I hate it. I'm a summer time kind of gal and spend most of my time outdoors when I can. And this winter we haven't had that many "warmer" days where you could go out.

Better get back to work. Hope everyone is having a happy Saturday.

PRETTY CHENILLE

FABULOUS CHENILLE FINDS

I bought this wonderful vintage chenille bedspread and rug at an estate sale last week. They are so pretty!!! I've got them on eBay right now so make sure to check them out.

ICE STORM PICS

Here are some of the pictures of the horrible ice storm we had here a few weeks ago. We're still re-couping from it. It was pretty but it did alot of damage. We lost several trees. The clean-up continues!