My Middle Name Is Danger...

I'll take Things That Are Painful For Five Hundred, Alex...

These fellows were out frolicking in the chives.  It's the end of summer.  Last week was cool.  Yesterday was lovely.

 Today is hot and humid. 

It'll continue with this on again 

off again weather until it's cold.  

Then...the cold will stay.  

For

A

Very

Long 

Time

But, let's forget about all of that, shall we?

A few solid solder tips for you.

From me.

I'm new to this so I don't know how helpful

it will actually be for you.

The above "helping hand" gizmo is great!

It was very cheap at the 

weird science store down the street.

Cost me five bucks.
I also purchased a large piece of 
oven glass to solder on from
the same science store.

Here we go:

Besides the soldering gun/iron

you'll need

flux,

a flux brush 

and something

to put it in.

Copper tape,

and glass squares.

I bought these from Michaels.

I also found 

1" x 1" mirror squares

at JoAnne's.

Sandwich your picture between

the two pieces of glass,

or 1 glass and 1 mirror square.

Cover the edges with the copper tape.

Burnish well!

Coat copper tape with flux.
Try not to let it seep
under the copper tape.
Seeping flux
can be a bad thing.
Or a contagious
disease...

No.  This is not bird droppings.

The solder looks white.

Sorry about that.

Touch your soldering tool to the solder

it will melt almost instantly.

Touch the solder to the copper tape and

VIOLA!

It spreads like buttah!!

Just remember that

solder is your friend.

Here we are!

I made five.

Aren't they pretty?

One problem.

You can't actually

touch them.

Why?

The sharp edges of the solder

will

SHRED YOUR FINGER TIPS!

This one turned out nice.

There are sharp edges
which you can't see.

I still need to smooth it out more.

Otherwise,

they'll be referring 

to me

as

Thumbs McGee.

Cute name if your home

happens to be in the 

penitentiary.

This is the back side.  

It looks better.

This is the first one I did.

If the Mad Hatter had friends

they'd call him

"Lumpy."

This is the flip side.

The A side

Side B.

Flying monkeys.

Oh yeah!

And the flip side.

All in all, soldering is quite enjoyable.

A word of advice:

Be sure that you have your

health insurance premiums

paid up.

Also, just for the record,

the staff at the E.R.

likes cookies.

Kidding.

I wasn't really injured,

but I seriously need

to take care of

those rough edges.

Our Town

There's a 3 day festival that takes place in our town every year at this time. It's much like a tiny county fair.  It involves a parade, Bingo games in the park, pork chop sandwiches and homemade pies served at the church tent.  There's a carnival with colorful, brightly lit  rides for the kids.  It's a pleasant little weekend in a pleasant little town.  BUT - the best part is the sales.  Garage sales up and down the street.  Church sales, and sidewalk sales.  Here's what I found today!

Stir sticks for my daughter's bar.  I love old stir sticks.

Cool old earrings.

Tiny pink lantern charms. 

Pretty pink rose.

A Betsy McCall bag with surprises inside.

It was full of old, very old baby clothes.

A tiny beautiful baby bonnet.

And beautiful, handkerchief soft tiny baby dresses.

I'm not sure what I'll do with these.

But then,

I never am!

I also bought this game.

A game that is fun for the entire family.

I don't know about the title.

Somehow Probing the family seems wrong.

So very wrong.

On SO many levels.

I bought it because it's basically a box full of letter cards.

It also has these cards:

"IF YOU HAVE A BLANK

EXPOSE IT"

I haven't read the rules yet.

I'm not sure what this means.

I'm pretty sure that it's illegal

in 49 of our 50 states.

I also like

"QUINTUPLE THE VALUE

OF YOUR

FIRST GUESS"

I haven't quintupled the value 

of anything

in years.

Let alone a guess.

And my first guess no less.

How lucky can you be

on a first guess?

I love this card.

I may enlarge it 

and have it framed.

"Take Your Normal Turn"

Some days 

when life is dealing you anything BUT normalcy

wouldn't it be nice

to have a card 

that says,

"Take your normal turn"

So go ahead and take your normal turn.

But, seriously, I wouldn't expose anything.

Just to be on the safe side.

How The Heck Are Ya?

Say there.  How are you?  I'm doing well.  I've been........

mostly doing nothing.

And a whole lot

of

some things.

I've been busy with the soldering gun.

This horrible - ur...ummm...rustic looking thing

is one of my first tries.

"Do ya feel LUCKY, punk?  Well DO YA?!"

Yeah.  I feel like that.

Not necessarily while looking at this piece.  

It was a valiant attempt for a first time.

I was lucky at the Goodwill on these feather birds.

I just love old feather birds.

They have such character.

Here's a feather pin I found at a garage sale. 

The bird that this used to belong to 

apparently didn't own any 4-leaf clovers.

I'm guessing he wasn't so lucky.

This is some really cool tissue paper I bought.

I felt pretty lucky finding this.

The luckiest thing to happen this week?

Clear skies so that I was able to sit outside

and watch these.

The August Perseid meteor showers.

The astronomers say that the peak viewing has past 

but the meteors don't know that.

You'll see them off and on all month.

Late at night.

Just remember

to 

always

look 

up!

Soldier On With A Solder Gun

Susan went to St. Louis.  

Because I was pretty sure that she'd take crochet with her
and not her solder gun, 

I asked to borrow it. 

It's nice when you know a friend so well that:

#1.  You know she doesn't travel with her solder gun.

#2   You know that she DOES travel with crochet.

#3.   You are fairly confident that she will let you borrow her solder gun.

#4    You know you can call her at 7:00 a.m.

You might not know her as well as you thought when:

#5.  She shows up at your front door, dripping wet, in a robe and slippers 

at 7:05 a.m. with said solder gun in her wet hand
 immediately following your phone call.

I got busy and busted a plate to bits.  Only to discover that I was supposed to have a wet sander.

I didn't.  I went ahead, soldiered on  and soldered away.

Then I made this:

I soldered the broken plate piece.

Then I soldered everything together on this bottle.

Recognize that butterfly earring?

There's another earring piece at the top.

I used a button for the stopper.

I found this plate at the flea market.

I've been searching for plates with blue birds on them.

I want to smash this and make a necklace out of the little blue bird.

That calls for precise smashing.

I'm not sure how exacting my smashing is.

Luckily this is primarily a craft blog.

Lucky for me most of you readers are crafters.

Otherwise, that sentence above - - it would make no sense!

Here's a closeup of the little blue birds.

As you can see, there's really no room for error.

yeah.

It should be a piece of cake.

Hopefully,

(are you ready for this?)

It

should 

be

a

smashing success!!

hahahahaha!

A couple of more things from the flea market.

I loved these earrings!  I know I could make them, but

I bought them for $5.00!  

For $5.00 someone else can make them!

You will need to click on the picture of the pot holder
to read it.
Apparently, these were given out by an automobile service garage.
It looks like the 1950's or early 1960's to me.
Tell me this.
 How many women even owned their own cars back then?
How many women took their cars to the mechanic themselves?
If the "little woman" of the house didn't take the auto in for service
(and I'm guessing that she didn't) how many menfolk would have
been delighted with this pot holder?!
"Honey, I got an oil change,a tune-up,  the tires aired and rotated and
SAY - they gave us this swell hot pad holder!"
It makes me giggle.  So does my cooking sometimes.
Between the cooking and this pot holder,
 my kitchen ought to be a real laugh fest.
That is until the smoke alarm goes off...

My favorite thing.

This sheet music.

When You Wish Upon A Star

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do

Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing

Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true

I hope your smoke alarm has batteries and 
that all of your dreams come true.

Believe It Or Not

Saturday morning I went to an estate sale.  

To quote Doctor Seuss, "This mess is so big and so deep and so tall"

that they had to hold the sale over two weekends.  

TWO SEPARATE WEEKENDS!!  

The first weekend was a few weeks back when I bought a few hats,

 an old briefcase...and so on.  

Saturday, I went back to the house where I found the Christmas goodies 

I showed you earlier and I dug out a box
This box was full of this stuff and more.
A veritable plethora o'fun!

Old crepe paper.  New crepe paper really doesn't compare.  

This stuff is thicker, sturdier, 

and has a better consistency. 

Yeah, I know.  A little A.D.D. on the crepe paper.

Tons of old ribbon, pipe cleaners, nut cups, more glitter and rickrack!
I didn't even photograph everything that was in the box I found.

Take a look at the jar in the right hand corner.

It's an old Donald Duck bank.  It has a slot in the top for your money.

Banks used to give these out for children to start savings accounts with.

That was back when the banks cared if we liked them or not.

Now, not only don't they care

they don't give us Donald Duck banks anymore.
I think I could like them a lot more
if they gave me a Donald Duck bank.

That was back in the day when we used a LOT of doilies.  

Apparently.

Judging by the boatload of doilies that were available

 for purchase at this estate sale

the lady of the house used tons of them.

I bought scads of these doilies.  

They were all marked 50 cents each.  

But I didn't pay that.

Oh, no I didn't.

Here's more:

I liked what this one says on the package.

"Makes Food More Appetizing"

Really?  Really.

Ever seen the photos from 1950's cookbooks?

Do you think doilies could possibly help

this dish to appear more appetizing?

Seriously.  WHAT is THIS mess?????

Want to serve this bad boy up for a tasty dinner to the family?

Only if you are dressed up in gloves and pearls.

Be sure to add the doilies.  It's supposed to help.

If you need some, call me.  I have lots.

I LOVE old 50's cookbooks.  Especially the photos.

They are just gosh awful!

This website is full of these photos as well as other fun nostalgia.

Onward to more estate sale treasures.  Ahem...

I love the tiny pink box and the sweet little lady standing on top.

She'd never make anything as vile as that "tasty" beef dish I just showed you.

There's also a spiffy little jar, and glass knob and a hose nozzle.

Yes, it is a hose nozzle, there in the back.

AND - I have a plan for it.

I DO!!!!

This darling children's song book.  I just adore the pictures!

There are marvelous silhouettes to accompany every song.

This is such a charming little book.

If you knew how many charming little books, old books, picture books,

foreign language books, fairy tale books, etc. that I had -

You'd think maybe I'm little overboard on the book collection.

I can't help it.

I work at a library.

Books are my passion.

And,

my obsession.

eeps...

Last but not least are these.

They look like Chiclets gum.

They aren't.

I got an entire baggy full of them.

They are wood.

They are 1/2 inch square.

I have no idea what in the world these things are!

Do you?

What do I do with them?

I'm open for ideas.

And those of you whose ideas involve 

a therapist?

You may keep those ideas 

to yourself.

I'm fine.

Really.

I'm getting help...

Now for the good part.

All of this stuff, including all of the Christmas stuff

 from the previous post-

All of it (and there's more little junk I didn't even post)

I got 

for

$8.00.

I

had

a

VERY  GOOD DAY!

Believe it - or not.