I’ve been busy with my real job, which is a good thing, but it hasn’t left much time for other types of creating. The most crafty thing I’ve had to blog for the past week was this little needlepoint rainbow house that I found at Goodwill for 99 cents. It had a dingy frame, but I just spray-painted it with some paint I had around for another project and now I love it. The year 1981 is written in marker on the back.

We finished the bookshelves and I spent some glorious hours sorting through my long lost paperfriends retrieved from storage.

It may not look like it, but I actually did manage to do some serious purging. We took several boxes of books to Twice Sold Tales, where they were joyfully received and earned us $90 in credit. Also, one of their roving kitties delighted DandelionBoy by nibbling a steady stream of treats from his hand.

But even with all that free credit, I was forced to go to Elliott Bay Books and purchase Patti Smith’s Just Kids on Monday. I just couldn’t wait another day for the paperback to come out after listening to the two-part Bookworm interview. And as of page 113, Patti has not let me down. This book is wonderful – honest, eloquent, fascinating, empathetic, and inspiring. It’s been a torment to put it down every time I’ve had to, and I think this may end up being the first time in a very long time that I’ll finish a book in under a week. There are plenty of other more practically urgent things for me to do, but ever since the bookshelf project I have been powerless over the drive to glue my face to a printed page as often as possible.

DandelionBoy and I go to Goodwill about once a week to scout for vintage bed linens, clothing for recrafting, and whatever else is awesome and super-cheap. This week I was thrilled to happen upon this sewing machine craft book. Published in 1980, it has more of a 60′s and 70′s feel and it’s amazing! Full of great techniques and kooky projects. I wouldn’t do most of the projects exactly as they are, but it’s given me SO many ideas already. And there are a few freehand sewing machine embroidery alphabets that I’m sure I can use for future Vocabulary shop items. Score!!

I also found a child-sized guitar for DB for $3! And some bad-ass red heels for $5. But I was proud of myself for resisting a set of small glass dishes that was gorgeous but not practical. Because the shoes, of course, are practical. At the very least, they guarantee me a “free” dinner from my husband. :)