The Perfect Sunday

After a perfectly icky rainy Saturday, Sunday dawned dry and warmer. A group of co-workers met at my place around 10am for a day of shopping and crafting. (My two favorite pastimes that don’t include my husband…!)

First we went to the Rose Bowl Flea market. Let me tell you – if you want bargains, go to the flea market the day after a blinding rain storm, with the risk of rain the day of the sale. I can only assume that is what kept people away. It was deadsville. The paid parking lots were empty. Or maybe it is just the time of year – most people were at the mall or toys r us. Vendors were begging for sales. Right off the bat they would say everything is 50% off. You would have been SO much better off at the flea market.

I picked up a bunch of hand written letters and envelopes from the 30’s for $2 bucks.

And some modern postcards with vintage images - 3 for a buck. This guy was giving stuff away. I could have bought so much more.

Another booth had piles of ephemera for a buck. I got these old contact sheets of family photos.

I just love this sentiment - apparently Ruth will "stir up memories of bygone days"!

The autograph book, plus this 1935 yearbook from a LA association filled with cool old photos and advertising – all for $10.

I picked up two packs of interesting buttons for a dollar.

This heavenly 3" ballet pink satin ribbon was only $4.

And finally a vintage silver Christmas tree stand like this one, but not shiny. I just love the design, it was $10.

– all for $28. So what am I missing? Oh yeah – I picked up a mahjong tile for a dollar. That adds up to $28.

After exhausting ourselves at the market, we had a nice pot luck lunch of empanadas, orzo salad, broccoli quiche and a green salad with cranberries and almonds. I made cookies with a recipe that uses a cake mix and leftover Halloween candy. I used Butterfingers. So sweet – but good.

The group I had over is very creative and not intimidated to dive into my supplies and get started. We did mostly collage gift tags that could be used as ornaments, which we dipped in melted beeswax.

For these tags I used bird patterned napkins over script printed paper. The beeswax makes the napkin translucent, adding depth.

Here are the backs - just wrapping paper.

Here is a promotional CD folder that i covered with striped paper and coated with beeswax. I just gesso'd the CD. Once i decide what to do with it - i'll decorate the CD. It could make a cute card.

Here's the front.

Then I started these larger collages on sheet music as a base. I used female models from a fashion brochure. I plan to add more stuff to these – especially to make them more interesting clothes – maybe in fabric, or decorative papers or fibers. But I only had out all my Christmas themed stuff to work with.

It was a fun day and my first craft gathering here in So-cal. I hope to have many more. My white wall to wall carpeting survived thanks to heavy duty plastic drop cloths. See here to read why that is significant. Who puts white carpeting in a dining room?