That thing I found....

 So,  it seems lately I've been posting more about things I've thrifted than things I've made. But hopefully that will change soon.

In fact this weekend I'll be getting into the art room to work on a project from an craft book I'm reviewing for their e-book tour!  Watch for the review next week on May 29th!

In the mean time, here is another thrifted item.  Found last Saturday while I was out jogging. On the last stretch home I happened upon a garage sale, and silly me knowing it's garage sale season, and yet I didn't have a penny on me.  But I took a peek anyways and what a find!

This cute little play kitchen, sans accessories, FOR ONLY $1.00!!!!! 

ONE DOLLAR!!!!!!

I mean... really? I had to blink a few times and ask just to make sure. And look inside the oven and cupboard!  

 

I know Little badger is too little to really appreciate this just yet, but he does love spinning the little stove knobs. ^_^

I told them I lived near by but hadn't any money on me since I was out running and they offered to set it aside for me trusting that sweaty, out of breath me would be back.  And oh did I come back, soon as I got home I grabbed my wallet, jumped in the car, and sped right back as fast as I could (following the speed limit of course).

Originally I had told myself that when it came time to have a play kitchen I was going to make it myself from up-cycling an old nightstand or TV stand but the project for sure would have cost at least $40 or so once you figure in garage sales (or craigslist/kijiji)  to find the perfect piece, cost of paint and bits to make nobs and faucets and things.  So, maybe someday when I have more kids and need a bigger play kitchen sure, but for now,  for one dollar, this. . . is gold.

And another?!

And because I'm that crazy, I'm doing a second giveaway!  A few sewing/crafting supplies with a white theme.

WHITE!

A bit of lace,  a ball of very strange yarn, and a little white cat button.

Cat Button!

The scallop edge salvaged from a lace curtain.

Click me to see the detail better!

Little badger showing you just how much fabric.

 























And a lovely white embroidered white fabric I used to make tab curtain for the living room and my sons room (and my awesome mother-in-law made a pair to match with what I had left over for the guest room when she was hear for Little Badger's birth!)  This is the last left over from that. Didn't measure it but it seems a decent little amount.

*********************************************************************************

Giveaway is open until May 25th 5pm pacific time.   I'll post the winning on Saturday!

And yes, I will ship internationally. 

I'm not fancy, I don't need to be tweeted, or facebooked.  I won't ask you to follow me just to enter. I only want people to follow me because they enjoy what they see.  So to enter just leave me any ol' comment below.

Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you in case you win!

If you really want to leave a meaningful comment and you've taken a quick look at the handful of posts I've made since I started thatthingimade, I'm open to critiques and suggestions on my blogging so far.  :) 

To see my other give away go here:  My First Giveaway!
To see great blogs and enter more amazing giveaways check out http://sewmamasew.com/blog!!!!

My first giveaway!

Ok,  so, for a newbie blogger who vowed no promises on regular posts, or any interesting content other than sharing things I made, here I am being over ambitious and offering up a giveaway.   Why? I dunno, Sounded like fun. ;)  I've won a few giveaways myself in the past and I figured it's about time I give back.

So in participation with Sew Mama Sew's Great Giveaway Day I'm offering up this striped baby cardigan I made when I was pregnant.

I ended up not using it and have decided to pass it on to someone who will promise to love it.  It's crocheted in baby cottons with a vintage button. I prefer to give credit where due and I'd share the patten I made it from but I can't seem to find my print out of it. 

Here you can see my Little Badger modeling it for size reference. He's almost 9 months old and roughly 18-19 lbs.

And yes, I will ship internationally. 

I'm not fancy, I don't need to be tweeted, or facebooked.  I won't ask you to follow me just to enter. I only want people to follow me because they enjoy what they see.  So to enter just leave me any ol' comment below.

Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you in case you win!

If you really want to leave a meaningful comment and you've taken a quick look at the handful of posts I've made since I started thatthingimade, I'm open to critiques and suggestions on my blogging so far.  :) 

To see my other give away go here:  My Second Giveaway!
To see great blogs and enter more amazing giveaways check out http://sewmamasew.com/blog!!!!

Mail from the UK!

 *Note: This was supposed to post on Thursday but apparently I failed to set the scheduler proper.  Please forgive a newbie*

 
A couple weeks ago I entered a giveaway over on Polkadot Pretties and lo and behold, I actaully won!  I was so excited since one of the items was a book I've heard my friend Sew Tara talk about.  Zakka Style is an easy to read book full of cute, earthy, patchwork and linen projects.

Here was my little prize package all bundles up in, true to her name, pretty little polkadots!. ^_^










And as if winning the book wasn't enough, part of the prize was also a little wind of ribbon, a little piece of lace, and a lovely bit of hand crocheted lace! Along with a stack of really neat fabrics. Lovely orange and pink roses, neat little tan with blue and red grid lines, and a couple others I can't wait to try!!!

I mean, how ADORABLE is this fabric!?! 

Thank you so much Claire!  I love it an can't wait to dive into the book!

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

So this May saw me celebrating my very first Mother's Day! What did I get you may ask? We celebrated it by having my hubby put in a new kitchen faucet (the old one was gross as all get out moldy and corroded from not being sealed properly by whoever put it in before we bought the house). It's pretty now.

And later that evening we all went out for sushi! A great little place called Kyoto House in Whitby.  One of the waitresses there is the sweetest lady ever and she even brought Little Badge his only special plate of a couple of slices of avocado!) This is the same place went after our wedding. (It was a small thing with just our parents and two witnesses). So it seemed fitting.

They have these awesome little private booths!!

But between these two events, something awesome happened!  My hubby, being the cheeky man he is, asked me if the neighbors were planning a mother's day picnic under the tree by the curb.  After a few "huh?! wha!? 's" thrown in his direction he told me to look outside.  I took a peek and my immediate response was OMGOMGOMG I'll be right back!  

Sure enough, I got out there and there was a FREE sign. My neighbor was still outside and said sure! Help yourself! And in fact she even got her guy to help me. So, as an added bonus. . .

 

	Happy junk picked         Mother's Day to me!
I finally gots me        some patio furniture!

And not a moment too soon!  With the chairs moved, we went back for the table just as a scrap metal truck drove up. Whew! Now just to figure out if I'm going give it a new coat of paint or not. I'm a bit backlogged with projects so at least it's in really good condition and isn't dying for fresh paint.   But I do keep trying to picture it in bright yellow.

But over all it was a beautiful first Mother's Day.  The weather was gorgeous, the garden was lovely, the food was great, and the junk picking was just the icing on the cake. ^_^ I had a wonderful time spending the day with my amazing hubby and sweet little boy.  I hope all other mother's out there had equally if not even more wonderful Mother's Days. :)  I'd love to hear about yours!


Mother's day aside,  it's been a quiet week.  Spent some time at Value Village on Monday which I'll post about next week.  And Tuesday night I finally finished my Secret Sister's gift!  Can't talk much about it right now but I can give you a little peek at it. . .

Till next time, craft on. :)

A Felt Board For LIttle Badger

When I was little the local library where I lived had a felt board in the kids area. And every time I went there with my mom or after school I would skip past the books, past the computers (the big ol clunky 5 1/4" floppy disk using kind), past all the other toys, and straight to the back corner and stay glued to the felt board till my mom came to drag me away.

So when I started planning my future family I knew one thing was for sure, my little one(s) would have a felt board.

And even though my Little Badge is only 8 1/2 months old now and won't understand the concept of it for a while,  I still went ahead and made one for his play room. This way some of the mom's I invite over can bring their older kids and they won't be entirely board surrounded by baby toys. :) 

So, the materials, if you don't have the felt and batting on hand, can rack up pretty quick but it was worth it to me.  Then again it also depends on how big you make your board. I wanted to filled a fairly big spot of wall so I made mine 2' x 4'. 

To begin you'll need:

• One 1/2" thick board in your size choice  (Again I went it 2' x 4')
• 1 solid piece of felt large roughly the size of your board + 8" to length and width. 
• 1 solid piece of upholstery batting size of board + 6" to length and width.
• A staple gun (make sure you have enough staples for your gun as you'll be putting a staple in roughly every couple inches)
• Scissors
 

Lay down felt, and batting and trim to size around board.	First pull in and staple down corners. Work in opposites.
Next pull one side tight and staple. Then do the opposite side.	Repeat with the other two sides. Then trim off excess felt.

And easy as that!

For the shapes just go crazy. Free hand some specific fun shapes (like clouds, grass, circles, cars, people, animals). For the straight edged shapes I just zipped them all out with a rotary cutter but and exacto knife and a ruler will work lovely as well.

Mount where you want it and have fun! (Or let the little ones have fun.)

In the end I up spending about $60-$70 on the large piece of felt for covering the board,  the batting for making it soft, and the small squares of felt for cutting out shapes.  I could have probably gone of bit cheaper by just getting a 1/4 meter of 2 or 3 colours for cutting shapes but I'm a sucker for variety so I got about 15 craft sized sheets of all different colours.

Linked Up!

      

My not so Secret Sister!

Ok, I was going to post about something I made but I'm just too floored and excited about this so you'll have to wait for another day. . . 


So, I'm laying on the couch with Little Badger trying to get him to sleep and my door bell rings. After contemplating ignoring it in hopes it was just someone with a clipboard, I decide, just in case it's a friend, I better get and check.  Instead of a person, I open to door to find a basket of goodies on my front porch!

I walk out and look around to see who could have dropped it off, looking left and right. A few houses down I see the lovely Susan of The Food Allergy Chronicles carrying some bundles up her driveway. I smile and wave and carry my mystery package back in.

Upon opening it . . .

As soon as I saw the Cup of Tea* package, the pure vanilla bottle, and the Secret Sister card I put 4 and 9 together and laughed out loud.

And then I started unpacking and my jaw hit the floor.  What an amazing package to receive! So full of things I love!  Packed in my favorite kind of jars!  And as I'm writing this I'm snacking on some lovely homemade shortbread.

Take a look at all the amazing goodies I got!

1. Amazing homemade shortbread cookies.

2. Oh so yummy home made caramel sauce

3.  Amazing homemade shortbread cookies drizzled in oh so yummy homemade caramel sauce.

4. Recipe for previously mentioned shortbread cookies.

5. Sugar free Werther's Original Toffees

6. Homemade pure vanilla in a GORGEOUS glass bottle. 

7. Creme Au Caramel Rooibos tea from Cup of Tea

8. A beautiful bone china tea cup and matching saucer with violets on it. (One of my fav flowers and colors!)

9. Burt's Bees Lip Balm with SPF 8 in it.

10.  St Dalfur strawberry preserves with no sugar added (sweetened with grape juice. Sooooo good! Had some right away!)

11.  Stevia plant!

12. I've already used gorgeous but I can't think of anything else to describe just how beautiful this scarf is!  

All of this, just for me!!!! I almost cried it was so amazing. And all bundled up in purple tissue (again my favorite color) and packed up in a cute little basket.

Thank you so much Susan!  You are amazing!  And thanks to Carla over at My 1/2 Dozen Daily for organizing the swap! I better get back into my art room ASAP and get crackin' on my Secret Sisters gift!

*Cup of Tea is a local place just down the street from here that has amazing teas and my favorite place to go for rooibos.