Been Busy Hookin'

That's right!  I've been crocheting my butt off, that kind of hookin'.  I found a great website offering free crochet patterns am working on my first crocheted sweater.

I want to use the funky yarn
as a scalloped trim for this super
square neckline

I've stuck to hats, flowers, scarves and fingerless gloves until now, but I'm feeling brave and going for it.  If it looks horrible, I'll just unravel it and make some more hats.

We took the weekend off from thrifting because we had scheduled a college tour for our high school senior - road trip to Long Island!  We toured SUNY Stony Brook - Tyler is undecided as far as majors go, so we're looking at schools that offer a broad base of majors/minors.  I'm not crazy about the drive into Long Island from Northwestern CT.  It ended up being an all day thing - especially once I used the smartphone after the tour and used a GPS to find us the closest "Guitar Center".  The boys like to go in and try out all different kinds of amps and guitars even though they have PLENTY of their own at home.  I like to go into the acoustic room, but this time I sat in the car crocheting and listening to the horrible Yankees/Red Sox game.  Horrible because I'm a Sox fan. I also did a GPS search for a bead store, but other than an AC Moore, there wasn't anything nearby.

I prefer to go to independent bead shops when I look for beads - I find the most unusual beads that way and I have a Michael's near me, and any Michael's you go to is exactly the same.

I keep hoping I'll run into another Off The Beaded Path.  Off The Beaded Path is a great little store in Great Barrington, MA.  I also like Beadworks in Norwalk, CT and A Bead of Roses in Newtown, CT.

Whenever we strike out to check out a college, I will be looking for local bead stores, thrift stores and Guitar Center/Sam Ashes.

Last weekend I met up with my dear friend Jon and his partner Gib in Niantic, CT.  They are the KINGS of the Flea Market and always find the greatest stuff which they then make even greater.  I am in love with their patio.

Note the vintage metal chairs/tables that they painted in
super bright colors

I could literally live back here, this hammock was a total motivational
suckage unit, I had the hardest time ripping myself out of it so I
could join everyone for dinner, despite the awesomness of dinner!

They have all kinds of magic hanging from their trees

I am hoping to go to a few fleas with Jon before the season ends down in his neck of the woods.

The big news is I've signed up for MY VERY FIRST CRAFT FAIR in November.  I immediately panicked thinking I certainly don't have enough product and need to start making stuff pronto!  The burns on my fingers from the new glue gun notwithstanding.

Neighborhood Tag Sale

My family lives on a cul-de-sac off a main road in our town - it's a busy road, but our street is pretty quiet.  It's also probably one of the safest in town considering we have a policeman living next door and about four volunteer firemen on the street.

One of the ladies on the block decided it would be fun if we all had tag sales the same day, five families participated.

I had done a major purge not too long ago so I didn't have a whole lot to sell -- we did have some weird stuff: a karaoke machine, a banjo, two remote control "hoopty" cars - and some of that went.  I don't know if it was a good idea for me to demonstrate the karaoke machine for hours and hours, but it was sure fun.

I was making so much noise singing along to my iPod,  Randy and the boys decided to get in on the act and since Randy and I have a gig coming up at the end of October, we figured we could kill two birds with one stone and practice our set list and demonstrate the karaoke machine at the same time.

Tyler on bass, Randy on guitar, Ryan on guitar - Laura in the shade trying
to stave off a nasty sunburn (unsuccessfully)

We sold the banjo for less than we originally wanted, but we were okay with it because it was bought by an 18 year old girl who really wanted to learn.  We threw in a bunch of the banjo-finger-picks that we picked up at the Music Teacher Estate Sale a few months ago.

At one point I took out one of the scooters so I could cruise around the street to see what my neighbors were selling.  The folks across the street were selling a ton of tools and a motorcycle lift and other super butch stuff.  One of the families had a ton of little-kid stuff they were selling.  Their daughters set up a cookie/lemonade stand so of COURSE I patronized them.  But then I struck gold:

I had the wrong scooter - the one that DIDN'T have the milk crate strapped to the back and I didn't trust myself to get these home safely, so I left them at my neighbors after she put them aside and before I could go back, she delivered them (and she wanted to see if I had any jadeite, which I don't, but wish I did!)

How cute are these?? These have been in the dishwasher a LOT, but I still think they're cute and am probably going to use them in my craft room rather than cook in them.  Even so, LIDS! I have such a hard time finding Pyrex around here with lids.

I also picked up these:

Snowflake Divided Dish with lid, two Colonial Mist Cinderella
Round Bake Dishes

Snowflake Blue Mixing Bowl

And on the beading front, I went to a gem/mineral/jewelry show and wasn't blown away by the bead offerings (mostly chips or seriously overpriced) but I did fall in love with this Geode pendant.  I am already trying to think of how I want to work this one.

I'm thinking hematite crystals and maybe some purple

I'm linking up with Apron Thrift Girl for Thrift Share Monday.

Finds!

This weekend my partner in crime was Randy.

We went to an "estate sale" which was actually a tag sale.  The ad on Craigslist said just the the kind of stuff that makes my pulse race! "Entire contents of grandparents home" etc.

But he was an ESTATE TEASE because it was...well, as a disgruntled treasure hunter posted on Craigslist about the sale: "This is the same ol', same ol' guy trying to sell his overpriced so-called collectibles. Same pile of junk he had one year ago. Unless you really have time to lose and you want to see expensive garbage, avoid." 
I wish I saw that before I went there.  However, Randy and I were HOWLING all the way home reliving the conversation we had over his dusty overpriced collectibles. I did end up buying an old concert Tshirt for my 17-year-old, and Mr. Tag Sale says, "Are you musicians?" and we said yes and then he told us how we will NEVER SURVIVE around here and that nobody would want to hear us play unless we were in a large band that did classic rock.  OKAY THEN!  He was a loon.


I did, however, manage to get some great stuff.  Some dirty Melmac turquoise teacups I haven't cleaned up yet, and a set of Spring Blossom dishes (also in need of a good cleaning.)

I also picked up:                                                          

A very silky dress that fits me like a dream! The lady who sold
it to me recently lost a bunch of weight "The hard way" she said.

Way too many nutcrackers - but none of these are like any
I already have, so it's OKAY!!! 

Some books - I'm pretty psyched about the Thai cookbook.

The Supremes...on Vinyl!

A lovely faux Tiffany lamp for the top of the piano

.
I'd say that overall it was a pretty good haul!

Music Teacher's Estate Sale

When I'm not making jewelry and hair accessories, when I'm not hitting thrift stores, tag sales and estate sales, when I am not reading, working, or running my household, I am a musician.

In fact, everyone in my family is a musician.  My partner Randy plays acoustic guitar and a little mandolin and banjo. He can pretty much pick up anything and play it well within a few minutes.  Tyler is 17 and plays violin, bass guitar and drums.  Ryan is 15, and he used to play trumpet but now plays electric guitar almost exclusively.  He can sit at the piano and listen to something and figure out how to play it by ear.  I don't have that "ear", I took piano lessons starting at age 4, and I can play okay if I practice but I'm rusty on keys since I've been mostly focusing on acoustic guitar, and I can also play a little mandolin and banjo.  Randy and I are an acoustic duo - we've done some gigs and open mikes in the past and have been practicing lately hoping to get back into that, we really enjoy it.  Tyler and Ryan jam with other guys constantly and call themselves a band, but they fight more than the Kinks and Oasis combined, so they have yet to play out.

I say all this because this past weekend, I hit the MOTHER LODE of AWESOME when I went to an estate sale of a former guitar teacher.  His whole basement (which was a late 60's time capsule house) was his studio.  I wish I took photos of his house - there was molding and woodwork to die for, built in alcove shelving units that were back lit, a long built in bench in the "waiting area" of the studio - just amazing.

What we have here are several "bridges" for various stringed instruments, violins, mandolins and banjos - we happen to have several of each of those instruments in our house and if we ever need to replace or repair the bridge, we're all set.

We also have a VERY large box full of various thumb picks and finger picks for banjo players -- some of these we'll probably sell, we'll probably keep a couple sets for ourselves.

I jumped all over that music holder clip over there on the left also - we have a few music stands but it irritates me when the pages go flying off, so this solves that problem for me, and I never even thought to buy one of these new! The second I saw it, though I grabbed it.

What's not shown - the huge amount of music books that we were able to procure at this estate sale - mostly instruction and "drill" books for the piano since I want to brush up.  We have this amazing Hammond Organ in our basement that the boys' grandmother's boyfriend gave to them - a Hammond Freakin' Organ - and I want to be able to play it without embarrassing myself.

Being that I'm a huge nerd for vintage clocks, I threw my jazz hands up in the air when I saw this beauty for sale -- all it needed was a new battery, it's now gracing my kitchen wall near my Kit Kat Klock.

There was this amazing lamp that I regret not getting despite how horrified Randy was by its gold crushed velvet lampshade.  It was a gorgeous hideous monstrosity. I was telling Randy that he needs to get on the jolie laide bandwagon.

Our big find was this great Polytone Mini-Brutal III Bass Amp for only $50.  We jumped all over that, too - it's a tube amp so it has a nice rich sound and amps like these usually go for $300 retail:

It shakes the whole house.















The whole family is off for Cape Cod this weekend, I look forward to hitting The Antiques Center in Dennis, MA and the various Mid-Cape Thrift Stores.  I also plan on parking my butt on the beach and reading and eating lobstah rolls and playing vicious smack-talkin' Uno with Randy, the guys, my brother and my brother in law until the wee hours like we tend to do.

I'm also leaving you with a video of the boys performing at the National Guitar Workshop last week -- we sent them at the last minute and they called the experience "Life Changing".  I think Randy and I might sign up for it next summer.  I haven't been to a summer camp in over 30 years!

Ryan is playing lead guitar and Tyler is playing bass:   unfortunately their penchant for wearing all black and growing their hair down to their knees means they got to be good-looking cuz they're so hard to see.