Bella Dia

Cloud 9 is a Thrift Shop

We had to be in Boise two weekends ago so the kids could visit their father (he lives in L.A. and comes up to visit them a couple of times a year) so I took the opportunity to do some thrifting and I am so glad I did! I couldn't wait to share it with you all so here goes :)

I found this Fire King dishware at two different thrift shops - the exact same pattern, who'd a thunk?! It's called Primrose and I can't believe how well it goes with this vintage fabric that I already had in my stash.

This tin and sewing basket I found at an antique mall. The sewing basket is in great shape and lined with matching red satin and was only $4.

Sweet, sweet picture of a ballerina -
these remind me of pictures that were popular when I was growing up. It is signed "Maio" in the corner - will have to do some research.

Ah, more cannisters for
my growing cannister collection.

Buttons - nothing thrilling, but cute all the same.

A bright orange vintage apron -
how could you not be happy wearing this?

Yardage! I love the colors in this.
Sorry about the wrinkles, just didn't want to take the time...

I literally gasped when I saw this!
I have had this on my wish list for a long time - a vintage Royal portable typewriter for only $6. It's in almost perfect condition and even has the cover and a ribbon that works. The kids are totally fascinated by it :)

A bag of little wooden blocks,
three wood buckets ready to be painted and decoupaged, and The Golden Book of Science for Boys and Girls from 1956.

Another purchase at the antique mall -
the small one was $8 and the large one $12, but I kind of collect these so I had to get them.

More yardage in a sweet floral print on a soft limey green background.

Some pretty vintage pillowcases -
I can't stop buying these.

One of my favorite purchases -
this set of dishes, 32 pieces, in perfect condition. The pattern is Royal Crown by Lifetime China from Homer Laughlin. They looked brand new, I couldn't believe it. I think I'm going to add on to this and use it for our new dishes.

A pretty carafe that matches my new dishes.

A bolt of fabric - yes, a bolt of fabric! I haven't counted the yards yet but there's a lot.

Another pillowcase, except this one is a heavier, canvas-like fabric made in Japan.

I got this cutie at the antique mall.
It matches one that I already have (it's also made in Japan) so if I get one more then I'll have a collection. (You do know that
three's a collection, right?)

Well, thanks for reading this photo-heavy
post. Now that I've taken pictures of everything and blogged about it I can start using it!

It feels a little awkward blogging since I haven't done it in awhile so I'm just trying to jump back into it. To make a longish story short, I had to get a new computer. I lost my other computer to a power surge we had after a black- out, even with a surge bar and all. (The only thing that I lost were emails that I had received about that time so if you emailed me about something and I haven't gotten back to you would you mind emailing me again?) My new computer (a gift from my father - he's the best!) is a 20" iMac and I am completely in love with it. I can't say enough about how clear and bright the screen is and the computer itself has the beautiful styling you expect from Apple.

I had one of my best thrifting days ever last week and I can't wait to show you everything but I still have to take the pictures so I'm hoping to get to that tomorrow. The cups pictured above are from a previous excursion. Aren't they cute? I love the colors - the blue and green one was made in Japan. I'm using them as pen and pencil holders.

Vintage Cards

I was digging through a box of unused vintage greeting cards at the thrift and after finding a few that I liked I decided to ask how much for the whole box (about 150 cards). I've usually gotten good deals this way since the seller would prefer to get rid of all of them rather than just a few. The price? Four dollars for the whole box! I'm sharing pictures of some of my favorites. Click here to see the inside of this card - such a cute sentiment :)

Snoozin' kitty with a fishing pole
- click here for the inside.

This baby congratulations card was folded in kind of an unusual way but look at it all opened up - so sweet and great graphics.

Here's a couple of close-ups of the baby congrats card: some roly-poly toys.

More pretties :)

I was thinking of starting a Vintage
Greeting Card Flickr group, what do you think?

Weekend Thrifting

Well, I feel like I got a little lucky thrifting this weekend. Not a lot of stuff, but things I really like which is just as well since I don't have much room to store anything. This is a Smokey the Bear twin sheet that I'm in love with; it's in great shape and very clean too. Aren't the images cute? And the colors? I can't wait to do something with it. I'm thinking a large tote to take to the lake.

Just look at that deer with the flowers in his mouth and the baby bluebirds in the nest, so cute!

Vintage pillowcases - I love finding these too.

This pretty fabric has been made into a rather unattractive smock so I'll be picking it apart and using it for something else.

I thought this piece had a real Japanese
feel to it. The fabric is more subtle in real life.

A few dishes - a sweet little pitcher that has a hairline crack in it so it can only be used for dry stuff and a Pyrex refrigerator dish that's in perfect condition and a nice small size too.

And bark cloth! A rare find for me so it was exciting to slowly pull these from the shelf whilst looking around making sure no one saw the treasure I just found. Not really a problem - the only other people were the shopkeepers and they're children playing in the toys and an old man trying out dustbusters.

And lastly, a small size apron in
an adorable print. I'm not sure if I'll be able to resist cutting this up for something else.

A close-up of the apron fabric;
I love the little horses.

Recent Purchases

Here are some of my latest purchases from thrift shops, flea market, and eBay. I love this feedsack - it reminds me so much of some of the sweet little Japanese prints I've seen.

I got these buttons at the flea market. I'm not thrilled with them but sometimes you've just got to take what you can get. My favorite is the brown flower.

I bought a big bag of scraps at the thrift shop and was surprised to find this cutie in the middle of it all. I'm thinking maybe it was part of a group of fabrics representing the whole alphabet. I wish I had better luck finding vintage fabric; all that I usually come across is polyester knit and I haven't been able to work up a love for that yet.

And another vintage pillowcase - love the colors. I'll put these and the other fabrics I found in the vintage fabric Flickr group.

And here are some buttons I bought off of eBay - my favorites are in the front. I was expecting these to be larger so I was a little disappointed but it was a good deal anyway.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend and was able to keep somewhat cool. I finished my projects for Plush You and got them in on time but it was a late night for sure. I'm still working on my studio but I should have some pictures up later this week. My father found this wonderful workbench for me so I've had to move things around a bit and work on organizing everything. It is already so nice to have all my stuff in one place - my heart skips a bit every time I enter the room :)

Collecting: Vintage Cannisters

I've picked up several new sets of cute vintage cannisters lately. As I've said before (I have, haven't I?), I use them to store all kinds of bits and bobs of the crafty kind. I am in love with this woodgrain set.

This bright and sunny set goes well in my new studio. My palette for the studio is a pale robin's egg bluish green, turquoise, yellow and brown.

I don't remember if I shared a picture of this set before, I've had it several years now - I love pussy willow and paired with this bluey green I couldn't resist. I'm sharing it with you now because look what I found at the flea market this year:

This set is in much better condition - so shiny! It makes me feel lucky when I come across things that match with others that I already have, like finding a penny on the sidewalk.

Tag Sale Tales

I found these buttons on my most recent thrift outing. I never find good buttons so I was really thrilled with these. More pictures of what I brought home and a new post over at Tag Sale Tales - go check it out!

P.S. Here's a close-up of the detail on the apron I found; I really want to try this weaving stitch.

You say shrunk, I say felted

Look at all these beautiful sweaters I got thrifting the other day! They are all wool and cashmere or blends of the two. Most of them have already been "felted" by accident which kind of brought a smile to my face knowing how many people this has happened to. The first time I ever "felted" a sweater was when I was in high school. I had one of my boyfriend's sweaters, a beautiful oatmeal colored v-neck cashmere that I just loved and I oh so ignorantly decided to run it through the wash. When I pulled it out of the dryer I'm sure my eyes were bugged out like a cartoon character - I truly couldn't believe what I saw! An infant sized version of that beautiful sweater that was mine but one hour ago. Even then I thought, well, maybe I can stretch it back out; uh, right, I couldn't even get my arm through the sleeve much less give it a good tug. Now I see all these beauties as victims of a fortuitous accident and dream of the crafty goodness that they will become.