Flea Market 101

I always shop at the flea market. I had never sold anything at the flea market.
A crowded workroom and garage encouraged me to give it a try. (Well, that and getting a lump sum tuition statement for my boys' schoolyear that made me want to drink bleach).

Here's a little taste of what I took - and, happily, didn't bring home.

Table and 2 chairs with pink birdies.


Random signs.



Memo board.



Stepstool.



Pink distressed frame with 3 openings.

This frame is much bigger than it looks in the picture. I actually did bring this one back home.

8 x 10 frame sitting on a side table I forgot to photograph.

A box and a bowl.

More signs. These suckers sold out quick. Who knew? I'll be making more.

Suggestions for witty phrases are always welcome...

Big memo board.

A teacher bought this for her classroom.

Vintage baby bed. I made some pink toile baby bedding to go with it.

Love my boys...

Robin's egg blue frame with teeny tiny opening.

Random stuff. This humpty dumpty lamp I love. It's from the 60's, and I love it's new color scheme.

One morning, after making the mistake of leaving humpty exposed on my desk, I awoke to find him with only one arm. I interrogated my kids as to where his arm went.

Lilly looked the most guilty.

I asked her very nicely where she put "the arm"?

She said "the big trashcan".

That's not really what I wanted to hear. Knowing the trash had been taken out, Todd and I spent a very romantic 20 minutes going through the garbage.

95 degree heat = super duper stinky garbage.

We didn't find it.

Pressed tin framed mirror, a pink wicker rocker (with pillows to match the cradle).

After sitting outside on the hottest weekend of the year( really), I came away with an education in the different species of flea market shoppers.

Some, like myself, just want some cool, old stuff.

Some want serious antiques.

Some want tube socks and out of date Avon.

Some just want to walk their dogs and shop simultaneously.

Some want to show off their tatoos, and tell you all about them.

And, some just seem like they might want some crack, a strong antibiotic, or maybe a defense attorney.

In the end, I sold pretty much everything. I think I might go back.

I found Humpty's arm. It was no where near the trashcan.

LittlebitsDesigns.com

Kids on leashes

I'm not a huge blog reader - I just don't have time. But, when I do, I want to laugh or learn to make something.

I am a huge fan of Crafterhours. The blog post yesterday on child leashes made me laugh out loud.

If you've ever had a small child bolt from you, giggling all the while, you'll get it.

I don't know much about the women that write the blog, but if I ever met them I'm convinced we would surely be friends.




Littlebits Designs

Tomboy

Early in the summer, I spent hours on end painting our treehouse.



The treehouse sits under a walnut tree that drops something that leaves dark stains all over the wood. Instead of fighting the stains, I chose a paint to match them- a very dark chocolate.

(Just after publishing this post, Todd informed me that what the walnut tree is dropping is actually walnuts - who knew??)



I like that it looks like a "cabin".




Of course, I had to paint a sign to hang over the door. (call me if you want one too :)

Jackson and Baker wanted it to say "No Girls Allowed", but, for obvious reasons, Lilly disagreed.

She whined because I wasn't painting it pink, which actually makes me happy. As hard as I try to make her girly,sweet, ladylike, etc., there is no denying the influence the boys have over her.

I find the signs of it everywhere.

Like.....in her silvery, glitzy purse (that matches her ring).




It's Scooby and the gang.




My sweet baby girl is hoarding matchbox cars in her purse.

She played quietly.

At least she didn't host a pretend demolition derby.

And, yes, her foot is dirty in the picture.

Her sweet little blue playhouse has been invaded by the army.

There's one lone, dead, indian on the lawn, and there was a man to man battle on the balcony.

Looks like the guy with the gun beat the soldier with one hand.

Guess who moved into My Little Pony-ville??

Two Ewoks, Mr. Crabs, and Barbie's dog.

Girl Power!

LittlebitsDesigns.com

Cribs, frames, blah, blah, blah...

I am up to my eyeballs in crap stuff to paint. I've probably sustained brain damage from the paint fumes inhaled over the past week.





My life is so glamorous I can barely stand it.






Nothing makes you feel more like a lady than sweat and an overspray pedicure.







Some random frame pictures found while cleaning up my CF card.





This girly frame was actually a tin frame.

Painted mat...

...with a big monogram...

and a distressed red frame.

Speaking of distressed - that's exactly how I felt yesterday when my Baker , a sweet six year old with a strange sense of humor and enormous vocabulary, made a girl cry.

Evidently, she told him he was a lousy checkers player - so he told her "Well, your mom has a hairy chest."

Where the heck did he come up with that?

He tearfully apologized to her dad, and I scurried away before the mom had a chance to ask what happened.

We had a long talk about being kind to others, and a checkers lesson.

LittlebitsDesigns.com

Nursery Chandelier Before and After

Another ugly, dusty, brass chandelier. They're everywhere.

This light needed to be transformed to hang in a nursery for my friend Melia. A nursery decorated in soft blues and greens, with some bunnies here and there.

I love bunnies, and painted them in my boys' nursery.




My mom thought these were big, gangly, hungry looking bunnies.



I guess she pictured fluffy, fat, soft bunnies.

I love them.

I was sooooo fat when I painted these guys. I had to sit down and rest every five minutes. I guess that's what you get when you wait till you're 8 months pregnant to finish your nursery.I almost hyperventilate when I think of painting over them.

I overhauled a lamp for my bunny room years ago by turning it into a carrot.



I decided to take that idea, and apply it to the chandelier.

It's hanging a little crooked, but I had to hang it from the deck to get a picture.

Her shades match her bedding.

I'm going to be painting some bunnies in her nursery, so I hope to post pictures of the chandelier in place.

LittlebitsDesigns.com

What to do with a busted beach ball.

***** It has come to my attention that this post has somehow been added to a bloglist for adults - if you know what I mean - this is a FAMILY FRIENDLY blog. If you are looking for anything except a craft tutorial you will be very disapponted.*****

Okay, first of all, this tutorial is waaay out there. Even for me.

It was a fly-by- the seat-of-my-pants project. I had two 10 year old girls at my house, and they had played with Lilly all morning. (freeing me up to do other things)

I owed them one.

They wanted to paint something. I've been down that road before, and know that 5 kids+paint=headache.

So we settled for making something for their grandma. (They call her Ma-Mu. I have no idea if that's spelled right).



Here is the busted beach ball that was in my garage waiting for a patch it was probably never going to receive.



I cut 2 sections of the beach ball into strips, then sewed the short ends together.

Next, I ran a basting stitch up the center of each strip (longways), and pulled it to make a ruffle.

Note: Sewing machines do not like beach ball plastic.
I know you could do this with fabric, but I was thinking of the entire finished product being waterproof.

I sewed the ruffle (right sides together) on tothe cuff of a pair of dishwashing gloves.



These gloves were a size small, and surprisingly tight.

I happen to know that Ma-Mu recently lost over 60 pounds, so her new, skinnier arms should slide right in to her new gloves.


Hopefully, this post didn't scare you off, and you will come back again. My next post won't be a prom dress out of a slip-n-slide. (But that could be cute, right?)



LittlebitsDesigns.com