Back to Nature

I finally returned to the vacation spot that I loved as a child. I hadn't been back in 24 years but it felt like home again although there were a lot of changes.

My parents used to take us camping and fishing almost every Summer near the small town of Bridgeport, California. Just off Highway 395 and into the Eastern Sierra Nevada range are the Twin Lakes that I love. My father taught me how to fish and my mother taught me how to clean them. This is a little bit of paradise to me so I was thrilled when Dear Handyman suggested that we spend a week fishing and camping.

My first surprise was how dry the mountains were. When we arrived there was no snow pack on the peaks and the water level was low. The locals told us that it had been two years of almost no snowfall. While we were there they had the first two storms of the season.

My second surprise was how tame the deer were around the campgrounds. They would come up to the campsites and eat out of your hands if you offered them food.

Most of the time we saw females with their young but once there was a group of three bucks feeding in the next campsite. They all seemed so cute and friendly at the time.

The weather was unpredictable with days of blustery winds, heavy rain and surprising storms dropping snow on both the higher peaks and around our campsite. It was all just so awesome.

We only had one day of great fishing and Dear Handyman did really well.

The most surprising story of this entire trip happened on our last day there. We had walked out to the grassy peninsula situated between two docks to enjoy the sunshine.

While we sat and enjoyed the sunshine a group of people came out to the peninsula to have a picnic. The food attracted the deer and soon a small herd was standing between us and the only way off of the peninsula.

My dog Carly was fascinated by the deer but we were told that the deer can be very dangerous to dogs if they felt threatened. The doe must have felt threatened because she came walking over to protect her young. Dear Handyman had control of the leash so he was trying to get Carly off of the peninsula and away from the deer. I stood between them to try and scare off the mother but she came closer until we were about five feet apart. I was basically eye-to-eye with a mother deer trying to protect her young. Luckily we were able to get Carly off of the peninsula and nothing happened but I'm not sure what I would have done if the doe attacked. Now I can say that I've stared down a coyote AND a protective doe.

What an amazing vacation with all kinds of wild weather and wild animals. It is great to be home although I am mentally still on vacation. Even the local weather feels like Autumn since we've returned.

A Little Thrifting Therapy

Work has been extremely crazy lately and I've been putting in some overtime so I asked if I could take a little "thrifting therapy" time off. Happily I went to an estate sale on Friday morning! I was in line  two and a half hours before the sale opened. Luckily some friends pulled up right behind me so we sat and chatted which made the wait time fly by.

I can't say that these are my favorite finds this week but they are the most colorful. I researched a little about the Dream Pets by B.Dakin. The red reindeer on the left appears to be a Dream Pet but it looks older than anything I've seen online. It has glitter on the antlers, two yellow nostrils and just a small sewn-in label marked "Made in Japan". I can't find any information on the Mod wooden girl figure in the center. She is definitely from the 60s but I haven't found any manufacturer's information. Anyone know any information about these types of wooden figures? The item on the right is a vintage Walco Indian Bead Loom.

I found a lot of treasures buried in the garage at this sale. I found this old reversible, folding sleeve ironing board in a red and cream fabric carrying bag.

Also found this instant collection of natural bristle brushes. I think they are all horse hair.

And tucked away between two tall cabinets in the garage, I found an old painted set of shutters. Since it was only one set, there were other shoppers off hunting for the matching set once they say this one. The enamelware bin in front came from another estate sale today. I like the heavy feel of old enamelware plus they are a great storage solution.

We found a box of old Christmas ornaments including several odd spun cotton head figures. On the plastic deer in back there are two delicate butterflies with net wings.

The last sale today also had several nice glass and ceramic pieces. The milk glass hands in front are Westmoreland Glass. I learned a little more about this company today. In back is another small Pyrex refrigerator dish and a pretty ceramic hat pin stand with several nice hat pins.

I had a lot of fun at these sales. But my biggest bragging rights is that this was the first time that I drove my big, big truck on the freeway. Nothing and no one was going to stop me from getting a little well-deserved thrifting therapy time. Fearless!

Hope everyone had a great day of thrifting. As always, I will try to get most of these items into my Stuff to Treasure store as soon as possible.

Designers Craft Connection Blog Hop September - Vacation Memories

Welcome to the Designers Craft Connection Blog Hop for the month of September. The theme this month is to display vacation memories and often these include souvenirs that are too bulky to fit inside a  scrapbook. I created a solution to hold all of the little things that make up vacation memories.

I love little drawers and I especially love when they are bright and colorful. I made these drawers using the Sizzix Box, Candy Drawer die by Eileen Hull. This works best using board stock but I wanted to use lots of my two-sided card stock in my stash. It worked well because I attached all of the boxes to each other so they have added stability. Plus I love the Summery colors of the papers.

I began by digging through all of my stash then die cutting and folding all of the pieces needed to make nine drawers. Once I decided how I liked the order of the boxes to appear I glued the adjacent sides and tops to form a stack of three boxes across by three boxes high. I used a 1/2" circle punch to create the finger hole on each drawer front.

I filled the drawers with little items that I've collected from various vacations over the years. I have squished pennies from lots of tourist locations, tiny sea shells from different beaches and stamps from around the world {mostly dream vacation spots}. I also included some items that I've collected while thrifting on vacations.

I used some small items as drawer pulls to highlight what is inside the drawers. A tiny sea shell and button add interest to the front of the drawers.

You can create a set of these drawers or keep adding to this group of drawers every season. This is such a fun way to organize little items. They hold fond memories of Summer vacations.

Please use the DCC blog hop button on the right to continue to get inspired by the many creative designers of the Designers Craft Connection blog hop.

This is linked to:
Lamberts Lately