Gotta Get Out of the House!

This morning Walter went out to play golf. This morning the kids went to Phoenix to see Seth's parents. This morning I was sitting at the computer thinking that I should do the laundry.....Then I said to myself..."Self, you need to get out and do something too." And I did.


I started at Borders Books. Did I mention that I hate shopping on the weekends because of the crowds? I spent about 10 minutes at Borders, listening to a five or six year old kid scream his head off whilst his parents ignored him. When I got tired of my eardrums falling out of my ears, I gave up and went over to the nice, quiet 22nd St. antique mall. This is my #1 favorite place to shop. There were quite a few people, but not one of them was screeching!


As usual, I headed for a booth that I know has good used linens. I found a bag with the four top pieces on the pile in a bag for 1.25! The next piece was a handkerchief with a minute crochet edge for a dollar. Tessie wants a new apron from that one.


The greatest piece in the bunch is something that I have never seen before. Poke the picture to look at something incredible.The thing is pure white and I am not sure why part of it looks pink in the photo. See all of the tiny lines of holes and the tiny squares in the corner? That is all pulled thread embroidery! It is a process where the person carefully pulls out horizontal threads and then does stitches over them to hold the remaining threads in place. Each one of those little holes, represents someone carefully(with excellent eyesight)doing a stitch at the top and bottom of each line of spaces. Then at the corner doing it in two directions at once! This one will stay as it is. I can't imagine how many hours it took to do this whole thing. It is on linen and a real treasure.


Enough of that. Next treasures... Er.... Junque....It was a pint jar full pf bits an pieces of old jewelry. Lots of good stuff for minis. The bunch of grapes on the left side are probably from the 50s or earlier. They are dark green glass and actually grape shaped with a wire embedded in the glass to fasten them to the stem. I am thinking that Tessie and Zar will both have new green bottles from those. I won't list all of the rest of the pieces. Out of all of it, Tessie grabbed the piece that I bought the whole thing for.

Yes. It is a working miniature abacus. The beads actually slide from side to side on the bars. Pretty cool.


The only trouble is, Zar thinks so too. Never mind that Tessie has no idea how it works. She just keeps saying, "No more counting on my toes when I figure this thing out."


Maybe they can learn to share...Who am I kidding?

The last thing I got was the white Italian pot that you see behind them. I was forced to purchase that so that I could put everything else in it....and besides, I love woven Italian pottery. It will be put to good use.


I am going back now and count all of the little holes in the handkerchief....Just kidding. That would take almost as long as the stitchery itself did. I thought that I was doing good when I did a couple of lines of that on some miniature curtains I made....Those took me hours and hours.


I have to go see what I can make from all of the treasures now. I feel so much better after spending $10.oo on shopping therapy. It works well and is cheaper than the other kind.


See you tomorrow.