MPAY It's easy being Green!

Vic over at Punky and Me has a green My Place and Yours Meme happening this week. That's easy for me! Green is my favourite colour. I love picking up pretty green things.
My camera didn't want to pick the green nicely so I tried to brighten it up a bit to be more true to life but it's a bit dodgy, sorry.

Yesterday i found these beautiful green damask table napkins at an oppy.

I have green on my overlocker and i even put on a green tee to wear today. Purely coincidental.

Most walls in the living areas of the house are painted pale green. I like the peacefulness of it. In a house ful of people, I need the serenity! In the front room green features heavily. I know, it looks like a Nannas house, right? That was the plan!

And while I'm sharing, yesterday I also picked up this little table cloth with a crochet edge, made from two souvenir tea towels stitched together. Made by some clever Nanna. Note even my vinyl sunroom floor is speckled green (the walls that are painted are cream) and my favourite vintage card table top is gorgeous textured speckled green too.

Green, green, green, green green.  It's cool, fresh, spring, vibrant and peaceful. Love it!

My pretties..

 I'm joining in with Flea Market Finds over at Her Library Adventures again this week.
Last weekend after being up early to take DH to work, I took a quick look at the garage sales on Gumtree and saw that the lady from 2 weeks ago was having another sale. Definitely worth a second look! So I called my partner in grime (it's rather dirty in her old garage) and my sister and i headed off there again. Followed by another stop at Cross Road Collectables and a couple of drive-by garage sales, one of which turned out to be a great White Elephant run by the local Irish dancing club!
First, the repeat garage sale pickings. all for $15.  A pretty lustre vase that is perfect with a bit of junk jewellery I picked up.

 The teacup and saucer aren't a pattern match but the same maker and similar colour and style. The tea strainer is sweet too.

 Love this cute little vintage handbag and the lovely old vase. It has some serious damage but can't be seen too much from the front.

 I love the leaf and berry frame on this tapestry and the colours are perfect for my walls.

 Maybe I should start cleaning things before taking pics?

 From the Irish Dancers garage sale in their hall I picked up some clothing items such as a suede jacket, red vintage jacket, wetsuit, shirt, blouse and a tee. All were only .50c each! As well as a few other items such as the turquoise oval pyrex dish. The little bisque praying girl and milk glass candle holder are from Cross Road Collectables and perfect for my little white display.

This tin was one my sis found for me at the first garage sale. The plastic leaf and rose bowl from the Irish Dancers and the buttons from Cross Road Collectables.

 This large still life has a lovely frame and subject matter, quite lovely in real life. Another lady politely mentioned she had wanted it too, admiring our good taste, so I graciously let her have it even though it was in my hot little hands, but she wasn't prepared to pay $5 for it so she graciously gave it back to me! lol!

My Sis spotted this acorn and oakleaf frame at Cross Road Collectables for me and it is the perfect foil for the little squirrel acorn vase I picked up a few weeks ago.

Last week I came across some youtube clips on using buttonholers and automatic zig-zaggers so I thrilled to pick these up at Cross road Collectables for $17 with the box of extra cams, and the old Home Journal comes complete with vintage patterns.

And of course how could I leave this little beauty behind one more time? I think that will have to be it for me and sewing machines for quite a while. I might be able to re-home a few less special models.

 And this gorgeous rose wall plaque from CRC. It needs a little tlc as a petal fell off but I can fix that in no time! The crock pot I was lucky to pick up for $1 as the kids broke a glass lid to mine last year.

I took pics of what my sister bought too. I keep telling her to write her own blog, lol, but here's her haul for the day: The tiger and mother of pearl box from CRC and the rest from the repeat garage sale.

The Pepper book, vintage greeting cards and cottage painted plate from CRC. Tins, saucer, frame and shelf from the garage sale.

And I do believe that is it! Thanks for looking.

Denim upcycled pencil case.

Having left things to the last minute as per usual, last night, the night before my daughter started High School, I finally made her this pencil case. I had to wait for her to get home from school before taking pics so it is fully loaded!  The main structure is from the legs of an old pair of jeans, chopped off, split open and one seam removed. I also cut a piece of the cute  bunny and strawberry fabric for one side over a denim interior.

The outside pocket came from another pair of my daughters cargo capris. Who would bother going to the trouble of making one from scratch when all the hard work is done for you? I chose an old metal tooth zip from my zip basket so it would be nice and sturdy. And of course the whole thing is machine washable.

I stitched up along the old jean seam to make a divided case with two pockets, one for pens and pacers etc, the other for colour pencils and such. The outside pocket is for the math kit and calculator. I didn't sew all the way up the dividing line and that then left enough space by the zip to fit in a ruler if desired. Without the ruler, it can fold over along the dividing line. (Rough as guts along the inside with the unfinished denim, but I was under time constraints and the humidity was killing me! I didn't want to turn on the air conditioning while I did it.)

Again I used my old Singer 201k treadle and again i was very impressed with the ease of sewing over multiple layers of denim. It never missed a beat, whether it was 4 layers or 8 at the seams. I'm definitely keeping this machine out for my bag making.