43 Years of "Stuff"

43 years of "stuff". This is the sentence that drew my attention when I was scanning the garage sales for this weekend. I was so excited to think of all the "stuff" that one could collect over a 43-year period, I could hardly sleep last night. This morning, I pulled onto her street thinking there would be tables spilling over with lots of great "stuff". I have never been so disappointed in my life! There was scarcely anything. Her daughters were there helping and they kept commenting on all the stuff there was that they needed to get rid of! Now let me just say, that I'm less than half her age and I probably have 10 times the amount of "stuff" (which is really scary to think of how much I'll have after 43 years!) Since we live in a very small community, I just happened to know the sweet little old lady (she's 96 now and going strong!)~she told me she's opted to move out of her home and into an assisted living area while she can still make her own decisions.But, after I thought about it, she lived during the depression and no one bought stuff like we do today. She's lived very simply and very frugally all these years and she seems to be very happy. Sorry, but I just like a lot of "stuff"! :)

I ended up only spending $8.40 but the buy of the day is these wonderful old whiskey bottles with glass toppers. I just happened to glance up and noticed they were sitting in the garage windows with colored water in them. I don't think anyone even noticed that they were there. When I inquired about them, she said she'd sell them for 25 cents each. I took them all of course!

(OKAY, I'M NOT VERY COMPUTER-LITERATE, SO SORRY THAT THIS IMAGE IS SIDEWAYS--I GUESS I SHOULD HAVE CHANGED IT BEFORE IT WAS UPLOADED!)

Last year, a family friend called me and said she had several old whiskey bottles that she had been saving since the early 70s and always thought she'd do something with them. After more than 30 years, she decided they needed a new home. She immediately thought of me and I told her I'd come look at them. She had around 20 of them so I bought them. One look at them and I knew what I was going to do with them~ bubble bath! I filled them with white bubble bath, tied double-faced satin ribbons on them, tied on a sparkly silver chenille stem and attached a sparkly snowflake. Then I added a soft pink tag trimmed in pink glitter that read "Vintage Bottles...bubble baths...perfect for your shabby chic friends". I displayed them on a shabby silver tray (a $1 buy at the flea market) and sold every last one of them. So you can imagine I've been on the look-out for more to sell at this year's Christmas Bazaar. I generally don't fill these bottles with the liquid until closer to the bazaar, so you'll have to wait until mid-November to see the finished products.

I'm also getting ready to do the flowers for a wedding in a few weeks. There is a lot of prep-work that I'm trying to get done ahead of time. On the reception doors, we're putting yellow and white wreaths with lemons (she's using a lot of citrus). Originally she wanted wreaths shaped in the letter "R", but she needs 4 of them and we decided that would be too much. She is also having an ice sculpture in the shape of an "R" (in case you haven't guessed, it's her new last initial) so I had her mom send me the same font that's being used for the sculpture. I enlarged it, used tracing paper, and transferred it onto really heavy paperboard. I used a box cutter to cut them out (that was not an easy thing to do) then sprayed them with adhesive and added the glitter--her bridesmaids dresses are green. I just finished them and they are drying (so pardon the aluminum foil backdrop). As a surprise, the glittery green "R's" will be placed in the center of each wreath. Once I get the wreaths done I'll let you all see them.

It's supposed to rain (AGAIN!) tomorrow so if it's decent weather in the a.m., I'm going to check out a few more garage sales. I'll let you know if I find anything exciting. Have a good weekend!

kelly