Thrifty Thursday

The tease of a photo my Mom texted me while in the store.

In a far away land called Amish Country (Berlin, Ohio), there's a place called Zinck's. It's a family-owned fabric and textile wholesale heaven, that I'm not sure I should even be sharing! My mom and I would travel the hour and half to this craft mecca to score some awesome deals. When I explained the Better Block project to my Mom, we both agreed I needed a Zinck's to help supply by pop-up.

Being the awesome Mom she is, her and my stepdad took a trip down to Amish Country one Saturday and perused the 17,000 sf warehouse for items for Fairview Place. From the photos she sent and pictures I saw on their website, it's definitely changed so much since the last time I was there. The duo spent an hour gathering up random items from my wanted: craft items list.

I was lucky enough to get a care package full of crafty goodness in the mail just a few days later! Everything from lace to buttons, pom poms to interfacing. I've already put most of the stuff to a good home in my Fairview Place pop-up pile....and what makes this so thrifty is that it was a "donation to the cause." Gotta love that :)

In a side note, I was explaining Amish Country to Mike - the buggys and homemade cheese, meats and awesome restaurants and shops. He's totally agreed to go with me the next time we're home, so I see a visit to Zinck's in my future! Woot woot!

Monday Musebles

Art books full of how-to diagrams, $2.

I took Estate Shopping to a new level this weekend. I spent more than hour on Friday diagraming out my sale route, with driving directions and a map to boot. My friend Susie and I left around 8:30 and hit up about five or six sales.

Box of more than 120 spools of thread for $10. I needed that.

I managed to enter a family's house, that was not in fact an estate sale (in my defense, the signs were very confusing)...still not sure who was more surprised - me or the 8-year-old boy. I almost ran over a man who was stupidly close to a moving car and gave me the dirty look. We smelled odors on humans we should never (ever) smell. I discovered some super nice (and not so nice) neighborhoods to potentially consider for our eventual house hunt. But best of all, I got  great friend time adventuring around curious scenes for a morning.

Children's and Chanukah books, Boy Scout manuals, Esquire Bartending Guide, $4.

Oh, and we got some decent deals too! I also managed to get my name on two more Estate Sale Company's mailing list, so I'll be able to keep up my weekend sales attack :)

Box full of paint pallettes, clothes pins, tags, bags and cards, $2.50.

Monday Musebles

Newest addition for the craft shop section at Better Block...Paper Parcels.
Packs of new, vintage papers including scrapbooking, doilies, envelopes, sheet music, flash
cards, stickers, button cards, graph paper and more.

Lately I feel like I've been running a race and I just can't keep up (i.e. this post coming to you today - instead of Monday)! My daily to-do list has been more like a novel and at the end of the day I'm struggling to cross anything off - and you know how bad that irritates me!

Left, display case/china cabinet for $70. Top right, hanging white shelf was only $14! Needed some work, but what a steal!
Bottom right, baby crib that hangs from the ceiling. I am dying to buy this for my mini bolts of fabric!

This past weekend I felt like I did a lot of nothing. A few projects got worked on, but none completely finished. I cleaned messes to make more, of a different variety. I went and saw some really lovely display pieces for the Better Block project, but didn't actually purchase anything. 

We're only naughty when it comes to running marathons ;)

But, by the time Sunday rolled around, I wasn't actually feeling too overwhelmed. A few of us girls went to cheer on a friend running the Shamrock Marathon.We didn't end up lasting too long...the weather was definitely not on our side. I'm still in awe about how someone could run for FIVE hours in those conditions. Or any conditions for that matter! Kudos to you Susie!

Fawn Street Studios. Loved this space...that spiral staircase with the skylights and disco ball?
Sounds like my kind of place to have a wedding!

Mike and I checked out the new Art Design Craft Norfolk show at the Fawn Street Studios. Then we headed over to Belmont for a beer and some BBQ (seriously delicious food here).

Passed on the green Bud Light for a new Third Shift. Pretty tasty.

No lies, I would drink this stuff if it were socially acceptable!

I spent the rest of the night with some Dexter (yeah, back on this train again) and measuring fabric for my mini bolts for the Better Block. As you can see, a lot of nonstop randomness going on around our house. I guess it's not a terrible thing...for now.

Left, mini bolts of fabric. Right, "spools" of lace for sale.

Thrifty Thursday

Last time I was home I went to visit my Buni. We spent a lot of time catching up and chatting about our current craft projects. I had taken one of my quiet books to work on (which, consequently, no work actually got done) and explained to her my newest felt food creations. I could see her eyes lighting up as we talked, only to find out she had some supplies she was dying to give away.

Lucky for me, it was everything I use (well, except the large glass jar of seashells). Embroidery floss from her sister (which is more than 25 years old), fabric, beads, glue sticks, a random Christmas ornament and more. She tells me she has heaps more in her garage, so maybe we'll go exploring that when the Spring comes around.