Thrifting

Happy New Year…plus 2 weeks!

~ Patty Radish ~ 5 Comments

 

Ahhhh…the best laid plans!

This was how it was supposed to go: Drive over to the eastside, get the house decorated for the Holidays, shop, catch up, celebrate, go home…that was the plan. Now, I knew that the weather might be a little tricky, but I didn’t expect to be snowbound for going on 3 weeks!

Luckily I brought my Advent journal along with a decent variety of embellishments. But, in my infinite wisdom, I packed most of my art supplies to the westside last fall, and now I have next to nothing but Christmas themed embellishments to work with.

I pulled all non-Christmas themed pieces out and have slowly added some new items to the mix. I’ve been toying with the idea of only working in one junk journal at a time and finishing it up before moving on to a new one for a while now, looks like that’s a go!

And since it is still winter, most of the pages in this journal are relevant.

The craft supply shopping in this little town we’re retiring to is extremely limited, so I’ve been sneaking in into craft stores to plump up my stash a bit when out looking for wedding dresses with my daughter. (that’s a whole other story!)

The other side of this story is trying to keep from accumulating more stuff right now. We’re going to have to fit our other house into this much smaller one in a couple of years, and I’m supposed to be downsizing!

Although I’ve managed to be very strategic with my purchases, the problem with organization reared it’s inconvenient head. These are some filing boxes I picked up at the local thrift store I thought might work.

I made little file folders out of cardstock. The larger files hold vintage ephemera and the smaller ones hold store bought ephemera. I haven’t committed to labling them yet, I’m not sure I’ll need to…I just really needed to clean off my desk!Some examples of what I’ve been able to accumilate.

Clockwise from the top: Tim Holtz ephemera from Amazon, mics. paper pad ephemera “Shake It Chic” from Michael’s, stickers from Hobby Lobby, vintage magazine images, and various book images.

So, the plan from here, as soon as the passes clear, is to divide up as much of my stash as possible between both houses. Then put some yummy de-stash packs in my shoppe at a reduced price and share the love!

Also, I will be hosting some giveaways throughout the year to help this plan along, so stay tuned for that and tell your friends!

As always, thank you for stopping by,

Thank you so much for hanging in there with me,

Talk to you soon,

~Patty

Summer Bucket List Documenting

~ Patty Radish ~ 2 Comments

Living in Eastern Washington over the summer has had many advantages. Spending time with my daughter and grandson is the most precious part, but the abundance of farm fresh produce is another. So, one of the things on my summer bucket list was to get some canning done…

…little did I know I would be canning for two weeks! I admit, not as exciting as most bucket lists, but I’m a homebody to the extreme!

My daughter has grape vines in her backyard, so while I’m making grape jelly, she’s making fruit roll-ups in her dehydrator. I didn’t have my tried and true pickle recipe with me, we’ll have to see how these turn out.

Because I wanted to have a small place to document my whirlwind of activity over the last month, I enlisted a project I have had in the back of my mind for quite some time, collaging and journaling on vintage recipe cards. I thought that having little cards decorated and ready to pop a memory or thought onto might be fun…and now I’m obsessed!

This is a perfect project to use up some of those tiny embellishments you might have laying around, these cards are 3″x5″

I made that little “file folder” with the paperclip to keep images that coincide with some of the memories I want to document, it fits perfectly into my little recipe tin. Memories going clockwise are: the gorgeous tomatoes I used for my salsa and marinara, the afghan I started back up, babysitting my grandson overnight, the flowers my daughter brought me on my wedding anniversary, and the macrame project I finally started.

Because I was playing catch-up as per usual, I jotted down all the memories onto some plain old index cards with the date for easy reference, they also fit perfectly into the recipe tin. Hopefully I’ll get caught up and have a pile of cards to journal on soon.

This is the other side of the above cards along with a few things I gathered to decorate with.

I have to admit to you that I have let art journaling and my shoppe consume my life over the years, something that is easy to do. But, I promised myself that I would try to balance my life out a bit more, and get back some of my old interests, like canning, crochet, and sewing. And I’m hoping that downsizing my collage projects might help somewhat, they’re like little postcards to myself.

I’m having too much fun gathering and organizing for this little project, so I’ll have lots to share soon.

Until next time,

Thank you so much for stopping by,

Have a great rest of your week,

~Patty

My “Reset Girl Collections” Organization

~ Patty Radish ~ 6 Comments

I think that organizing has become my hobby. Truth be told, I find certain items irresistible when out “a-thriftin’. And one of them is vintage suitcases.

I found this white Samsonite beauty at the Goodwill for …are you ready?…$3.99! Luckily for me, they don’t consider the “60”s vintage, or this would have ended up in their online store. Score!

(And the fact that I am not considered “Vintage” having been born in the “60”s makes me pretty happy too!)

I think it was Cori’s “Paper Punch Buffet” idea that gave me the inspiration that this would be the ideal organizer for each month’s collection. This little tray is the perfect organizer for all my fussy cuts and punchables. All my girls fit beautifully in that front area, Love!

This month’s Collection is titled “Homemade”, and I absolutely LOVE it! The colors are perfect, a few fall colors excellently combined with pastels. A wonderful rest for the eye with all the earthy tones surrounding us this season!

A few of the items I keep in there at all times: paper pieces, washi tape, sticker paper, Reset Girl tissue paper (when Cori sent her orders in boxes), and my sweet little TRG Camp Reset pouch with a selection of doilies.

Everything fits in there just beautifully! I’m careful with what I put in the pockets because the elastic is a bit old.

There’s even enough room for journals!

Since my husband and I have purchased a little vacation/retirement home, we travel back and forth quite a bit, so I am definitely getting a lot of use from my vintage train cases.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little peek into this month’s collection! Visit TheResetGirl.com for the latest collection!

As always,

Thank You so much for stopping by,

Have a great week,

~Patty

Thrifting, Wilhold Love, with Organization

~ Patty Radish ~ 3 Comments

It has been a long time since I’ve gone a-thriftin’, and boy were the thrifting angels on my shoulder this week!

I found three Wilhold sewing boxes, but only two came home with me. One of them was a repeat, and I only have so much room in my house.

The one in the background is olive green with a clear lid. I will be posting more about it when I find just the right use for it. The clear one at the front is already in use! More on that in a minute.

On to the rest of my finds…

Vintage office supplies. Another super cool, faux wood metal file box, I now own five. I have big plans for these and will be sharing that soon.

Dennison gummy things, various journaling spots, faux wood book ends, and an awesome vintage book on filing, swoon!

Stacks of sweet books for art journal makings, except for the green one, “The Good Earth”. That one will go into my classic movie collection, a great movie with Paul Muni, LOVE!

GAMES! What do you think of those round playing cards! I’m hoping to put together a “Games” ephemera pack sometime soon, I think I’m ready!

I’m always on the lookout for these retro flatware trays, they make great drawer organizers for the bathroom and office. That box with the red lid is a picnic container. A good friend of mine gave me some of those a few years ago and I love them.

Now to the real organization…

I had recently found a good use for the many wooden spools I have collected, organizing my jute and bakers twine. I had all this in about three or four different places. So, I was super tickled to have come up with this…but it gets better!

My new tag making kit!

This is probably the most excited I have been about organizing in a long time!

I make, and use, a lot of tags in my shoppe and art journals. Having everything in one place is amazing. I took what was in about 8 different places, and put them into one! Seriously, they were everywhere.

I may have a few more tags hiding somewhere around the house, but I still have room in there.

Now you know why I love these Wilholds so much, think of all the possibilities. So, if you ever run across one of these in the thrift store, I hope you won’t pass it up. Even if it is missing the trays, they make really cute storage boxes.

I’m still working on my olive green Wilhold, I’ll share as soon as it’s up and running.

Until then,

Thanks for stopping in,

Have a great week,

~Patty

 

 

Thrifty Thursday…with Wilhold Love!

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

Okey Dokey, it looks like the Wilhold angels smiled upon me again! Cue angels singing!

…and once again there was some poor soul standing between me and my treasure. Heart pounding, I squeezed passed her and tried to look casual. She smiled sweetly at me knowing we were both in our “Happy Place”, while she contentedly perused the fabric selection. My tribe!

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A root beer colored Wilhold! I hear music…do you hear music!?

She’s smaller than average, but that makes her even more precious. A few cracks and some wear and tear, but I’ll take good care of her!

When I showed her to my husband, he actually had the nerve to ask me how many Wilholds I have. I started to count…he lost interest. Do I ask him how many fishing poles he has? He wishes I was that interested! Now if these were tackle boxes…but I digress.

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I decided that this would be perfect for organizing my Stitched Journal makings. I had been keeping all this in a vintage suitcase for years, I’m really not sure why this didn’t occur to me sooner.

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A perfect fit! A lot of the embellishments are in neutrals for this journal, I went a little haywire on the fabric color choices, and felt it needed some toning down.

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How fun is that!  This has worked out so well, I was inspired to get a couple of pages done.

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A blinged up window box…with one flower…don’t judge…it was fun.

IMG_2870Very much like my art journals, I like to rummage around to see what inspires me. Having things organized, and being able to see what I have to work with, really makes things flow a lot better!

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These little stitched journals are great to have on hand in the evening when you just want to be creative, but don’t want to get out a bunch of supplies and create a mess. You can put your own stitched journal kit together with an inexpensive sewing box, a plastic crafting container, or even a tool box.

Having your embellishments an tools organized is the best way to go, I highly recommend it!

Once again,

Thank you for the visit,

Have a great rest of your week,

~Patty