Dawn Sellers

Full Moon

This was the moon this morning on my drive to work. More beautiful than the picture can show. The sky was filled with stars and the air was crisp and cold, I even had ice on my car!

Such a rainy January day. I've been working on jewelry again. Pictures soon!

Crochet Snowflake Ornaments

These crochet snowflakes are so fun and easy to make. The pattern is free over at attic24.typepad.com be sure to use a nice yarn for them, they do not tale much so scraps would work fine as long as the yarn is all the same weight. I'll be putting these on presents today for a family Christmas celebration. We are headed to the beach with Doug's family. We are suppose to have heavy rain today so should be an interesting drive. Then it is back home to get ready for the road trip,

Recovering from the long weekend

The only laboring I did yesterday was the two loads of laundry I finished last night.  The majority of my day was spent sitting in the salon while my mother was getting a perm for 4 and a half hours!

I think I read every issue of US and People magazine, I am now completely filled in on who is doing what with whom and who is wearing what for fall.

I also had my hair cut, short.  I have very thick and straight hair.  It was mid way down my back and I had lost all motivation for curling it or doing much of anything except putting it in a pony tail or a bun.  I decided the time had come to go back to my favorite short hairstyle.  I didn’t intend to go quite so short but my hair grows fast and I really do like the style.  I also spent the afternoon getting a pedicure and a manicure was also on the schedule but by that time I really needed to get home so I opted to wait on the manicure until later this week. 

The rest of the weekend was spent laboring – a lot.  Saturday I worked at the store, sorting more buttons which is a very fun job.  I am finding all kinds of great antique and vintage buttons and it is enjoyable to get them into jars by color.  I can’t wait to have them displayed and ready for sale.

Sunday was a super early morning.  4:00 am up and out the door to drive to the Polk County Fairgrounds for their monthly flea market.  We are in the major liquidation mode, trying to get rid of as much excess as we can.  Each month we are filling up the big truck and taking it to the flea market to sell stuff super cheap.  Each month we come back with an empty truck, ready to be filled up again.  It is such a great feeling to get rid of that much stuff at once.  It isn’t easy work though.  All day on the asphalt, outside.  I am a little sunburned and the bottom of my feet burned by the end of the day.   I was so happy to get home and put my feet up.  I took a nice hot bubble bath, which is so much more amazing after a long day of hard work. 

I’m now dreaming of a tropical vacation for February.  That isn’t that far off is it?  I always need a break around February from the relentless rains here.  Any ideas?

Time Travelers' Ball info

Sorry, I didn't give info on the event itself. www. TimeTravelersBall.com
Tickets are available now and we have a few vendor spots still available.

Want to join me in making a ball gown? Any time period you want, including the future! It is going to be a great event!

Continuation of last post Time Traveling and Steampunk

Thanks Typepad for not letting me save that last post as a draft . . .

So, I have found some ideas of what I would like in a ball gown and thought instead of starting from scratch with fabric and pattern, I'll do a little upcycle. So, I am on the hunt for an ugly bridesmaid dress that I can give a new life to.

The first the photos are examples of what I would like to find and change into something like the last two photos. I know I am going to need to make a corset, so I'll need a pattern for that, I will also need a sheer shrug to wear so that my arms are covered because I can't possibly bare those!

This is going to be a fun challenge. I am home today with the baby chis since they were both neutered yesterday, poor little guys. I'm trying to keep them quiet and "down" at least for one full day. But tomorrow I'll be scouring some of my favorite thrift haunts to see what I can find.

Time Traveling and Steampunk

I am part of a group that is planning our very first Time Travelers' Marketplace and Ball. I can't believe we only have a few weeks until the event. It will be October 9th, in Downtown Hillsboro. I'll be vending at the Marketplace and attending the Ball. While the event is open to all time periods, I've decided to dress Steampunk. I've been looking at patterns and have a few ideas for costumes. I need TWO. One for day at the Marketplace and a ball gown for evening. I think I need to get serious about this. I don't have much time.

Try, try again

So my first bike/train commute attempt didn't end well. When I got off the train in downtown Hillsboro I had no rear brakes! The cable must have slipped out and although I tried to fix it had no luck. I ended up walking the mile and a half home. Made for a long day.

Doug was able to fix the brake cable and showed me how in case it happens again.

So today I'm trying again. It is a nice commute and I'm hoping that once I do it for awhile I will be able to do less train and more bike. Tonight I'm riding one of the fancy new trains, they are more like the streetcars inside than the other trains.

The really great things are that I'm less stressed than driving in traffic and I have time for knitting on the train.

Trying to get back on track

I guess it has been quite awhile since I've posted. As usual for me, life has been crazy busy. There has been no art completed by me but I have been busy with artists.

Today marks day one of attempting my nearly 20 mile commute each way via a bike and train combo. I think it may take me a few tries to get my timing and route down. This morning went well except for the realization that I am horribly out of shape. Once upon a time I considered myself an athlete, not today.

I do enjoy being back on my bike and I know my muscles will remember what they are suppose to do soon. I especially like not being in the car and not dealing with traffic.

My hope is that I can get myself back into a healthy mode and use the time to blog, like I'm doing now, or knit.

Button Bar - Coming Soon!

The Button Bar is in sight . . . . finally!  In October of 2008, we took on the mother of all estates.  You may remember me writing about it on this blog.  It took us about five months to move the entire contents of a house, truckload by truckload from the house in North Portland to our store in Hillsboro.  It is the reason in fact, that we opened our second store location.  The house was so full from the basement to the second story, there was only a small pathway to navigate through.  Built in the early 1900’s, the house had been occupied by two generations of one family, who all loved to collect.  When I discovered the boxes upon boxes of jars upon jars and ziplock bags and cigar boxes and old cookie tins filled with buttons I was in heaven.  I hauled those buttons up out of the dark, grimy basement by putting the jars into smaller boxes so that I could carry them and then carrying the large jars by themselves.  Who knew buttons were so heavy?  Well, buttons in glass jars are very heavy.  I have no idea how many buttons there are but it is the most I have ever seen in one place.

 

We came up with the idea somewhere along the way to sort out the buttons by color, displaying them in candy jars (buttons really are as good or better than candy to many of us aren’t they?) to create the Button Bar.  Who doesn’t love to run their hands through jars of buttons?  Picking them out one by one, examining their texture, quality and beauty.  The jars and buttons have been waiting in our garage, while hopes of getting them sorted have been pushed aside by all the other work that has had to happen.  We have made great progress on going through boxes from that estate, we still have a long way to go.  Finally though, the space is chosen for the Button Bar, I’ve spent the last couple of days cleaning it out (still have another weekend of work left to do on that), the shelves are ready to go up, the jars are washed and I can picture it in my mind.

Once the shelves are up the clean empty jars will go up and then as the buttons are sorted they will be placed into the jars so the inventory will be constantly changing for quite awhile and it won’t be so overwhelming to look through all of the buttons at once.

 

I have assembled some help with the sorting, put out the word that you need help handling and sorting buttons and people come out of the woodwork.  I could probably charge admission to have people sort through buttons.  Instead, the honor is going to my mother mostly.  She is taking jars home with her to sort during the day.

 

If all goes well the Button Bar could be open by May 1^st.  We will be including both vintage and antique lace, as well as ribbon.   I may have to plan a Grand Opening event soon.  Buttons are a great excuse for a party don’t you think?