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 :)

Nifty Thrift - new Flickr group

Hi all! I've created a new Flickr group called Nifty Thrift. It's a place to put pictures of all your cool thrift shop, etc. finds and do some swapping if you so desire :D Click here to join and start posting.

Thrifting is A Good Thing

I did a little thrifting over the weekend and got this Ransburg cookie jar that I'm so excited about. It's missing its lid and the paint is a little chippy but now I don't have to worry that it will get injured in our active household.

I loved the color of this Pyrex dish so I picked it up too.

I didn't find too much fabric, just a yard and a half of this fabric and a couple of yellow floral sheets that are already in the laundry.

I'm noticing that these are rather coordinated; hmmm, totally by accident but I find that happens sometime. You know, you go buy fabric and you come home and realize everything is in shades of pink or little florals. Funny how that happens :)

I'm a little slow on the upload but this fabric will go with some others that I've put into the vintage fabric group at Flickr and on my own Flickr page so go check them out. Lots of inspiration there!

Here a Thrift, There a Thrift, Everywhere a Thrift Thrift

I've been doing some thrifting in the past few weeks and have accumulated quite a stash. Here are some pictures of my favorite purchases. First off, this cute pair of kitty measuring cups! The mama is 1 cup and the kitten is 1/4 cup :)

A turquoise planter in a silver holder - can you see the bird design on the side?

Lots of embroidered pillowcase ends that someone else has already cut off, so now I don't have to feel guilty about me doing it!

Some more pretty buttons.

For some reason I found a lot of trays, funny how that happens sometimes. The one with the white background will be hung on the wall with some others I have, as will probably the black one since I have several black ones now too. I thought the circus one was cute and I couldn't resist - I am so weak...

Brownie badges! Not sure what I'll do with these, any suggestions?

Lion and turtle placemats :) I got the pillowcases in the background too. I swear I had these exact same ones when I was little.

Three aprons - I love the gingham, it never fails to make me smile and this one has some great smocking on it. Closer look here.

I got these pillows at an estate sale. I had thought I might cut the floral ones up for the fabric, they're barkcloth, but I think I'll wait awhile, I love that shabby chic look they have.

I've gotten tons of scraps too and I photographed a lot of it for the Vintage Fabric group at Flickr. I'll be posting them over there very soon.

Weekend Thrifting Finds

I had some good luck at the thrift shops over the weekend. I love old tin canisters and use them to hold a variety of my crafting supplies so I was really happy to find this pair in great condition and sporting one of my favorite shades of green. I did good on fabric too; the one on top is an old decorator fabric sample so there's the one big piece and then a couple of squares in different colors. The one in the middle is a red, brown, and yellow print of apples, pears, grapes, cherries, and strawberries - very cute, and the bottom one is all strawberries. Hmm, I'm just realizing that my finds have a bit of a fruity theme to them.

This piece of yardage (3 yards) is a large screenprint on fairly heavy weight fabric. Of course I was first attracted to the pink/brown combination but I like the large size of the pattern too. I also got a handful of zippers - if you ever need zippers be sure to check the thrift shops first! I usually pay 25 cents for them and they are still in their original packaging. I wish I could find some great buttons but maybe that will be the next time out.

Vintage Aprons

I picked up a few more vintage aprons over the past few weeks traveling. This first one has some great embroidered details you can see here. I'm a sucker for pink gingham anyway :)

I loved the color combination on this cute brown ruffled apron. The maker used some fancy stitches which I always love when I see it but forget to do myself.

Full length aprons are always fun and I thought the print in this one was cute. You can see a pocket detail here.

I've been busy with my Back Tack project. It took me a little while to decide on what I wanted to do but now that I have it's moving along faster. I'm hoping to finish it by this weekend because I have some other sewing projects and shop updates I want to get to, including an apron for Tie One On.

Road Trip Goodies

These are fabrics that I got at several different antique malls in Texas and Wyoming. The second from the left is an old feedsack, the rest is yardage.

I really love the first one on the right but I don't have too much of it, just scraps really.

I don't have a very good source for ribbon so I was thrilled to find these pretty colors in various sizes of grosgrain. I got the buttons in Laramie Wyoming, now I'm wishing I had gotten a few more. (Just 3? What was I thinking?)

And look at this little fella :) A sweet crocheted pig with flowers on her back!

More Thrift Shop Finds

I was so excited to find this printed corduroy (middle) covered with Peter Rabbit and his family. The little hanky will make a nice pocket in a future tote.

I love vintage aprons and thought this one was especially cute because it's reversible.

These Golden Book Encyclopedias aren't too hard to find and I love them for their great illustrations. These are from 1960 and it's interesting to read some of the entries too, i.e. "there's much talk of one day going to the moon."

The illustrations go from the beautiful...

to the bizarre!

Thrift Shop Success

I finally had some success at the thrift shop :) I went to a couple of stores that I had never been to before so now I'll be checking them on a regular basis. I love getting yardage and zippers, such great prices! The fabric on the left is a curtain and I'll combine it with the fabric in the middle to make some sort of bag. I'm still designing it in my head.

I thought these silver paper numbers were so cool. I don't have any plans for them yet but I think they'd be great in a collage.

Isn't this a sweet Holly Hobbie calendar towel? It's in almost perfect condition too. I haven't decided if it's meant for eBay or not.

This piece of linen fabric was all rolled up so I couldn't really tell what it was but I'm glad I bought it anyway. It's 2 yards of a dark brown hand-screened image of a road runner in some cactus by Harwood Steiger. I've done a little research and found out he had a studio in Tubac Arizona in the 70's where he hand-screened fabric. You can see another example of his work and some cool old pictures here and just a little info here.

I have a few more goodies to post but I'll wait until tomorrow :)