I STAND BEHIND MY THIRD PARTY VOTE!

   I'm going to make this short and simple. It was brought to my attention that apparently my choice to vote for a third party candidate is "self satisfying" and basically a wasted vote. Ok, let's reflect on that. Yes, part of my third party vote is selfish. I can't give MYSELF a good enough educated reason to cast MY vote for Trump or Clinton, so in order for ME to sleep at night, I've chosen to vote for a candidate that I do mostly agree with and honestly believe would make a good President.  My vote is not selfish when I truly believe my candidate and their policies would make our Nation a better place. Anyone who would call me selfish for casting my vote for my candidate of choice probably feels like I'm somehow "stealing" a vote away from their candidate of choice and they're having a hard time accepting that I just don't like their candidate's views, therefore, I don't have to vote for them. I refuse to let the media's force fed fear and twisted tales scare me into voting for a candidate I don't agree with.
   Is my vote wasted? Only because "they" say it is. If every single person who wanted to vote for a third party candidate actually DID vote for a third party candidate, history could be made. Revolutions don't happen when people just settle for something. If you do agree with, and stand behind Clinton or Trump, then by all means vote for them! But, I get so frustrated when I hear people say that they are just voting for the lesser of the two evils because they hate one of the big party candidates enough to vote for the other one, just to try and block the one they hate/fear the most...What have we become? What are we to become if we let people bully us into feeling ashamed for our third party vote. To vote your conscience and vote for what you believe in is exactly what the process and right to vote is all about.
   So, they can call me selfish and tell me my vote is wasted, that's fine, but my morals and integrity will not be compromised by a vote for the "lesser" of any evil.
 

Easy DIY unique vintage retro sewing pin cushion

   So, my old tomato, or strawberry pin cushion, or whatever that was supposed to be...maybe a tomato with a tiny random strawberry dangling from it for no apparent reason...whatever, it's gone now. Totally missing, I can't find it anywhere. Either a desperate, senile old lady broke into my house and stole it, or it feel behind my sewing desk and I just don't feel like moving it out to check. Anyway, I got really tired of life without it and have gone far too long without it. In my own desperation I was actually using a rolled up pair of baby socks because it was the first thing I saw that would suffice. So as awesome as that's been, (not really) I finally decided to fix the situation and come up with some totally creative, blog worthy idea for a new pin cushion. Then I realized that writing an entire blog entry about a pin cushion is very unnecessary and that just by looking at the picture you can pretty much figure out how to create something similar on your own, but I WANTED TO BLOG! I haven't had a chance to sit down and blog in a really long time and you can probably see that my blog is fairly young and doesn't have very many posts but that's only because I don't get too many opportunities like this to focus on anything! (If you have children then you understand.) So, in order for this blog to necessitate the internet air space in which it takes up, here is the tiny tutorial for this not-so-blogworthy-but-blogging-about-it-anyway post...

   This can really work with any small container, I was lucky to have a small old Avon goblet such as this, but it could be done with anything that you can put a stuffed piece of fabric into. Which leads me to the stuffed piece of fabric. Stuff a piece of fabric with poly-fil or something like that and glue, sew or pin it together at the bottom and then place it in the glass, or whatever you choose to use. (I saw an idea with a glass shoe, cute!) I debated about gluing it in, but it really didn't need it so, Voila! Done! 

  Now I want to thank you for taking the time to read my long drawn out blabbery about a pin cushion! :) Thank You!

Vintage White Brand Sewing Machine Model # SZ-230 Found at Goodwill for $20!

My Super Awesome Goodwill Find!

     So, the Bestie and I are really into thrift shopping, A.) Because it's fun, and B.) Because we are poor. None-the-less, sometimes on rare occasions we find something truly super awesome like this vintage sewing machine!! Eeeeee!!!  

      We took a little road trip to San Antonio to hit up the multitude of thrift stores the big city has to offer. We were just checking out at the last stop because we had planned to head home about 3 hours prior and after hours of shopping, rude people, long lines and sub-par Chinese food, we were done. The day had yielded less than I had hoped for....And then there it was...I had just paid the cashier for my small loot of items I don't need and we were walking out the door, when from behind the panes of an unlocked dirty glass case it sat, in all it's abandoned, broken, and old glory. I didn't care. I didn't care that the pedal was long gone, as well as many other crucial components. I didn't care that it was old, dirty and sadly would probably never function again. I needed that glorious, ridiculously heavy, for decorative purposes only sewing machine in my life. 

     Long story short, (because I could go on and on) it had a sticker price of $29.99 so I had the cashier ask her manager if that was the best price. Apparently it had been homeless for a while so she knocked it down to $19.99 for me. (I totally would have paid $29.99.) So I was now on my way home to try and explain to my husband that I just bought another sewing machine (I have 3 others that function) and it was the coolest sewing machine ever, and I will never use it. There are just some things that men will never understand. :)

     Anyway, I wish I could tell you more about it, like what year it was born and all that good stuff, but I haven't had a chance to research it. If and when I do, I will update this post.

TRUE STORY!

Bob Goblin! My daughter is obsessed with BobGoblin!

Bob Goblin!!!

   So, I have a 3 year old daughter who is obsessed with Bob Goblin...when she says his name it comes out sounding more like Butt Garden, but we know who she's referring to. I guess since Wally Kazam is a fairly new show, there is not much merchandise available which forced me to venture forth to my local Hobby Lobby in search of materials to build the greatest Butt Garden...I mean Bob Goblin in the whole world. I failed... it is clearly not the greatest in the whole world, it's actually kinda creepy because really, it's just a floating head. I didn't have enough felt to do his little goblin body, but my daughter loves it, so
WooHoo! Success!

Materials
Felt
Stuffing
Yarn
Marker

   Like all of my other mostly successful projects, I totally winged it. I used hot glue instead of sewing, which worked fine.  I basically just glued the pelt together into a kind of pillow and put poly-fill inside. I actually needed some kind of structure to hold the ears out so I improvised and cut a zip tie in half and glued it to the inside, it worked out perfectly! I was lucky to find this horribly ugly vintage yarn that my mother had and it worked great for the hair, then I used a marker to give him some freckles. Voila! Bob Goblin was born and my daughter sleeps with him every night! :)

DIY Red Hall Tree, Recycled Door, Added Bench Cabinet Hooks and Shelf

   My bright red hall tree! This was actually a fun project...it had it's share of failures and trial & error surprises, but overall fun. We started from scratch with a 6 panel door that I bought for about $40 with every intention of using it on my pantry...clearly never got around to it and later went with a different style of doors in my house. So it sat in the garage, sad and lonely, longing for purpose. Finally one day I came across a similar "door made into hall tree" on pinterest and knew what I must do. 

   I hope that you are not expecting some grandiose tutorial because we totally winged it. If you look closely you can see that the cabinet is crooked and the shelf is about 6 inches lower from the top because it's covering a hole in the door that nobody seems to know how it got there...

   When I started this project I really didn't even know what color I was going to paint it but once I decided on red, the rest just fell together. We went to Home Depot and bought all the wood to make the bench and the shelf, also all the hardware. I found the upholstery  fabric later (on sale!) and knew it must be made into a bench cushion and was so glad to see how well it matched the red. It wasn't until we were trying to build the cabinet that I decided to use some base board trim that I had to frame in a piece of the fabric. I was so proud of myself for having that idea because I am in love with how the whole thing came together and turned out!

   All in all, the project cost me roughly $100. Not too shabby considering what a difference it made to my entry way and the functionality it provides too. :)