Once in a rare blue moon, hubby goes through his closet and collects a group of old dingy work shirts and neck ties to throw away. I myself need to do the same but I keep missing that blue moon. Oh well maybe on the next blue moon.
I remember when he purchased this particular silvery shirt, because I myself picked it out. It was silky with a slight sheen. I thought it was rather beautiful, oh if only it came in women's size (with darts of course).
The collar was dingy, the elbows were see through, and the cuffs were spotted with ink dots. One could play connect the dots. Sadly this one qualified for dooms day, the shirt met it's final end.
However the pocket was in good shape. Thank God for those nerdy pocket protector. It did its job well. I myself had to save this one from its demises.
The collar was actually not too bad and besides who will ever know. (Unless you are reading this blog).
With a little bit of snip snip, sew sew and darts of course, this shirt will have a new life and a new home, ( my closet).
Drum roll please........
Remove the yoke and added darts
Playing with my fancy stitches on a piece of bias tape.
Made a ruffle cap sleeves from old sleeves.
Removed back yoke and gathered the back.
Not my hubby's shirt.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention. I saved a few more shirts from the dumpster. More to come in the future.
Hubby has caught me checking out his closet. He really has some pretty nice ties. He threaten to put a lock on doors. I'll have to wait for another one of those blue moons.
Slowly but surely I have been converting a spare bedroom into a combined sewing room/guest bedroom.
I was searching for a nice chair for my sewing room, but most of the ones I have seen in the office supplies stores were not appealing to me nor to my caboose. I decided to check online and (shazam), there it was, at Pottery Barn. I immediately fell in love and saw myself sitting on it, but my wallet coughed and choked as if being strangled . (Drama Queen)
Being a domestic house keeper has its quirks but no mula. (Like work a little, rest a little and catch some TV in between and back to the same cycle.) I knew I was leading myself in for a big downfall because I set my heart on this particular chair, but it was out of my budget. So my search begins again. At least now I knew the proper name of the throne I was looking for. (Banker's chair), and a banker I was not!
Pottery Barn swivel chairs' only $429.00. Ouch!!!!
I found many of them on line. Big ones, medium ones, little ones, new ones and used ones, but all too pricey for me. Just when I thought my wallet had keeled over, it let out another cough and rolled over dead. It was too much torture for the poor little coin holder.
One day I got the urge to check out this scary and chilling world called "Craiglist". I prepared for it and covered myself with a blanket and let my eyes peep out. Wallaaa!!!! There is was. I fell over with excitement. This frightening land full of never ending horror stories was not so scary after all.
Yeap, there it was, a lonely picture of a solid wood bankers chair looking so pitiful and affordable. My wallet came back to life. It yawn and two big old nickles rolled out. They looked right up at me like two big eyeballs with the look of lust. "Shame on you!", I said.
Right away I grabbed the phone and with my quick trigger fingers I dialed the number. Disappointing..., I got the answering machine. So I left my name and number. Two seconds later my phone rang. It was the man from Craigslists.
He told me the chair was in pretty good shape with some nicks and scratches and if I was serious he would drop the price by $5.00. I told him I wanted it and asked if he could hold it for me till the following day. Well of course I should have guest. His reply was, "Sorry if another person contacts me this evening I would have to sell it." (Sales ploy, and I fell for it).
Now I had to work some magical spell on hubby. (Ali Baba and Abracadabra). It's six in the evening and about an hours drive to see this banker's chair in the dark. I told the man I would be there in one hour and he reply, "Okay, I"ll have to go dig it out," and he gave me an address. (Was it buried underground somewhere?)
Hubby was not to happy about this adventure but he knew it was better for both of us if I were a happy wife. He entered the address into the GPS and asked me what is the number 60 for? "I believe the man said to look for storage number 60". "Oh boy, this is going to be one of your wild adventures," he said. I bit my lip and said, "Lets roll before it gets too dark".
Upon arrival I thought to myself, "Lets turn around and go home where it is safe". There must have been about 300 storage units. The roads were not paved so it was going to be a bumpy ride.
The place looked like a graveyard for storage containers. Kind of freaked me out. There were no live bodies onsite. Could this be the boogeyman's place? I knew hubby was thinking the same thing, but he was not about to turn around and go home without my chair due to the thing about a happy wife.
We drove slowly up and down a few lanes looking for number 60. Further on down towards the end of one lane we spotted an old pickup truck parked in front of a storage unit and the garage door was open. We approached slowly and all these horror stories from the Chiller TV station started to rewind in my head, and I clearly said, "I'm not getting out of the car". "What!!!!" said hubby. But just as soon as we pulled up, there it sat, in the center of the entrance to his storage unit. Awww, my throne!
The man seemed to be interested in showing us all the junk he had collected through the years. We paid him the $25.00 dollars, loaded the chair and got the heck out of there.
Over the next weekend Hubby painted the chair white and I made a cushion. At the end I was a happy wife with a happy caboose.
I have competed another Sally doll, carrying case and beautiful wardrobe. The cover on this case tells a story of the last free pony. It is all hand applique and one of a kind.
My brother "Papo" has created a story line video for this pony. Please see video and enjoy.
This set would make a wonderful gift for a special little girl. If you are interested, please contact me at: classicshoebag@yahoo.com.
This is my latest doll and carrying case. Sally is a cloth doll and her carry case is one of a kind. The covers tell a story. This one is a Caribbean scene with a beach hut and a surf board leaning on a coconut tree.
The cover is a quilt block with applique handwork. Inside is her quilted bed and soft pillow. The center page is a zippered pocket for Sally's clothes.
My friends and family that know me also know I collect orchids. I have a passion for these elegant flowers with their exquisite fragrance. Some of the fragrance are so hypnotic that inhaling for a few seconds will transfer you into a tranquil world of relaxation. (Could be addicting). You would want to come back for a second and third inhalation. The plant itself is not much to look at. You could even say they are not attractive.
I started out with an orchid which was given to me by a friend at work . It was a cattleya, and it was in bloom (yeah...). The flower was a deep dark purple with a beautiful fragrance. I was so excited with my orchid. I have always dreamed of buying an orchid but too scare of the maintenance.
I remember many years ago the orchid exhibits were hosted in the local malls, and the fragrances were out of this world. I was so intrigued by how many vibrant colors, size's and shapes they came in. Some were growing on drift wood, in wooden baskets, clay pots, on a chunk of stone and some just grew with all their roots exposed in the air and tied to a wire hanger.
I happily took my precious orchid home, shortly after the flower died. How sad... I thought I had killed it, but they do not live forever. A few weeks later the plant turned yellow and died. How depressing.... Now I was really sad and I certainly was not about to mention it to my friend at work. (It was going to be my secret). So I avoided the topics of orchids with him, which was difficult. He is an orchid grower and has over 3,000 orchids in his collection.
A year later I purchased my first phalaenopsis orchid. The flowers lasted for weeks, but then the plant died. I was determined to learn about these intriguing flowers. So I bought a book on orchids and read it from cover to cover. Now I thought I was the expert, but ask me about one scientific name for an orchid. (I flunked, very proudly). Not ashamed, because I can't read them, let alone pronounce them. Weeks later my friend was traveling to an orchid show in Miami. He told me he can bring back an orchid for me from this show. Yes indeed, I wanted a pink cattelya and I gave him a few dollars. He did bring back my pink orchid, but it was not in bloom and it was not about to bloom for a couple of years. You get what you pay for. Cheap.....
My sister in Puerto Rico lives in a mansion on a large property. She collects many varieties of orchids. They are spread all over her gardens. I enjoy sitting on her terrace up high looking down and admiring her gardens with the most colorful orchids. Wow, what a peaceful time. I can spend many hours relaxing there with a good book and a glass of wine and the tropical breeze. Nah, perhaps with some gardening magazines.
Now I really wanted a blooming orchid, so I started to attend all the orchid shows in my area. That is how my collection grew to approximately 40 orchids. Now I needed a place to keep my orchids and I do not get much sun light in my house. We could no longer enjoy eating our meals outside in the screen porch, because the orchids took over the dining table, the plant racks, the floor and some were hanging from the ceiling. I was growing my own little rain forest in my porch.
One day, hubby said, "I can no longer enjoy my screen porch with all those plants in the way. You need to get rid of the plants. I have nightmares of man eating plants." Yipes..... my hairs stood up! I had invested a small fortune and many hours watering and fertilizing my friends. That meant they would have to move out to the naked backyard. We did not have any trees in the back to protect them from the direct sun in Florida. So this is how the pergola came in to play.
This is a picture of my dining table in our screen porch. Kind of hard sitting and eating in front of my orchid friends. ( lol ) Sort of like licking an ice cream in front of a child's face.
This picture actually is pretty cleaned up. What you don't see is the long counter behind the table lined up with more orchids, and what a beautiful display.
Here are some pictures of my orchid house I had built in my backyard. This was about six years ago, (2008).
Thank you hubby for running a water line and a garden sprayer. This made it very easy to water them. No more running around with buckets of water like a mad man putting out a fire. lol
That's me sitting in my haven.
A custom bench I had built.
Most of my orchids were moved into there new home. Except for the ones which were in bloom. I kept those in my porch so I could enjoy them from the sliding glass doors in my family room. I did not move the phalaenopsis out there because they can not handle the bright sun.
The sun was penetrating very strong through the front entrance. So french doors were added a month later. Now this became my little private getaway. Somewhat like my sisters lovely terrace. Nah.... who am I kidding?
