the winding road home.

some of the vintage sewing goods that i got from my granny during my trip

it's been too long (thanks for sticking in there with me)!

i've had a wonderful trip home to michigan, but it is time to head back east and return to my husband, kitties, and work after this lovely little hiatus. i feel full of inspiration and have got pictures to share of my adventures, finds, and even some family heirlooms that i think you are going to pee your pants over! no seriously, grab a bag of depends because they are just that good i promise.

the coolest box ever.

a box you say? not just any box my friends, only the coolest box ever! as you might remember, we had some lovely guests staying with this past weekend and i had my socks just about knocked off when they showed me this incredibly awesome sewing box! and then they told me it was for me to keep!!! my friend found it being unused at her mother's house and decided it had my name written all over it. ha, how awesome is that?!


it's got this glorious floral-folklore inspired woodburned design on the top panels (which open like little doors) and then CHECK THIS OUT:


um, yeah. awesome, i know.

i've always been a knick-knack and box type of girl (i love keeping pretty little things in secret compartments and having everything in order) so you can imagine how much I LOVE THIS BOX! and now my fiance will not have to stumble over my sewing projects which always seem to skip down from my workroom to a cozy spot on the couch in front of the tv. i do so many hand-stitched details on my pieces so this will be not only beautiful, but such a handy way of storing my notions and such so that we can all stop sitting on pins and needles...literally, oops!

ooo, and here is a detail of a new yard of fabric i picked up to use in the shop...the wizard of oz story has always been a favorite of mine since i was a little girl and i couldn't resist! it will be perfect to make compress' out of.

vintage sewing notions cache (and how to identify bakelite)

it's not quite a motherload, but it's pretty close! with all this moving, a few of the things i've been meaning to post in the shop have been hiding on me (um ok, you could just say i haven't unpacked the boxes but let's not start pointing fingers here!). I was rooting around today looking for something else entirely when i stumbled upon my cache of vintage sewing notions. I found these at some neat little junk shops on a crazy roadtrip down to athens, ohio last spring where we crashed at a friend's farm after another friend's wedding in columbus.

(a little bird walk: i'm remembering now that a group of us headed to the reception for this wedding got utterly lost in downtown columbus and so when we saw a wedding party pull in to this place in the vicinity of our directions, we sighed a great sigh of relief, parked the car, went straight to the bar for drinks, looked around...turns out, it was decidedly not our wedding, whoopsie daisy!)


ok back to this cache now...i do believe those two big yellow buttons just might be bakelite! In high school, i worked at an antique shop after school and on weekends. yes, picture a 15 year old who knew all about antiques—you guessed it, i was sooo popular! i used to know all this kind of stuff like the back of my hand thanks to the wonderful couple that owned the store and took me to every estate sale and auction they could to ed-gu-mah-cate me! I can still recognize certain pottery marks, jadite patterns, and furniture styles but i'm going to have to do a little testing on these buttons.

If you are out antiquing or thrifting, here is how you test for bakelite: take the piece and rub fast on a small area of your clothing. at this point someone is probably going to give you a strange look, but keep rubbing for about 30 seconds or until it gets warm. then hold it up and smell it. no seriously, take a good whiff! more strange looks will ensue, but if it is bakelite, it's going to smell a bit odd like the stain you use on furniture or a strong chemical cleanser. you can learn more by going here. someday, this information in my head is going to prove worthwhile, until then, humor me, won't you? :D