though i love my old iron, which has been with me for almost two decades, i have been searching for a non-steam iron, which was proving really hard to find. apparently it's all about steam these days. but not back when this beauty was made:








i found it at the salvation army when i was doing a supply run the other day, and i am smitten.

look at that skirt. you want that skirt. i want that skirt. kayte terry shows us all how to make that skirt in her fabulous new book, complete embellishing. and you can enter to win a copy over at the {newnew}'s blog. (you may have to scroll down if it's not the top post anymore.)

don't wear skirts? okay, how about a lamp?

we're back from our yearly pilgrimage to the maine summer...

and now it's back to work.

i bought this black tea soap from kopah at the brooklyn flea back in june.





isn't it pretty? it also smells like heaven—spicy and warm, just like good black tea—and doesn't make my skin dry. and it's made with all natural ingredients, nothing scary. so of course, i had to stock up.





i love the recycled-magazine packaging, too. thank you, candice!

my stomach is all cramped up, i can barely see through the tears in my eyes, and i drooled a little on my keyboard.

and it's all the fault of cakewrecks.

here's a little sneak peek:



make sure you have a little time to kill before you click...

new custom tablecloth in progress...

also, just wanted to pass along this fantastic foodie site that a friend just showed me.

try not to drool on your keyboard.

i have been taking that whole "lazy days of summer" thing way too seriously and neglecting my poor little blog. so to get back on the horse, and in honor of the sunshine-state-esque humid and stormy weather that we're having this week, allow me to present my wonderful thrift finds from my springtime trip to florida. big ups all the little old ladies who cleaned out their houses and made this possible...

i'll start with all of the great linens, some of which have already been put into production:

floral sheets galore...














one amazing children's sheet that i have no idea what i'm going to do with, but had to purchase...


kitty!


can you tell what's going on here? i couldn't, until i looked more closely...


it's crazy mod geometric-patterned kitchen decor pattern fabric! love it. will not be making any blender covers out of it, but love it nonetheless.


wacky pucci knock-off polyester...


and a dress...


...and shirt that will make great coasters.


and another dress that will make a great dress, once i take it in a little bit.


look at those pleats!


i couldn't resist the neon blue 80s organizer




i scored a whole sack full of trim for 50¢








i'm going to have to really force myself to use these, not just keep them in my drawer and look at them once a year...i think i'll have to keep one


so pretty and loooong


and the piece de resistance...


...a handmade quilt, for $12. in my favorite colors. and it's not at all fluffy, it's that wonderful dense cotton weight, like a horse blanket or a moving blanket. love. it.

yes, the weather was kinda nuts. but in spite of it, i had a really fantastic weekend at renegade. you can see the insanity for yourself here, in this video taken by the lovely lisa of fubabee.



and that wasn't the worst of it, by far.

the red tent weathering the storm in the video belongs to my new friends from mr. poncho, who make one of the smartest products i have ever seen.

here are a couple of pics of me and my assistant trainee in drier times, one also from lisa, the second from ms. marilyn of pulp sushi:





you can see more of my booth, plus some other great sellers, on poppytalk today, right here. big thanks to katherine of kg + ab for the mention!

so, about a month ago, a bunch of us from the {newnew} got together a bunch of our goods and sent them off to the sampler so that they could be part of the goody bags that get handed out to the attendees of the MTV movie awards, where they would hopefully end up in the hot little hands of some starlet or producer...or production assistant or reality tv cast member....

today, thanks to some links that kimm found, i located some incriminating photos:



if you look very closely, you will see ody's little ears and butt sticking out from behind some other goods on the table, to the right of....that girl...from...7th heaven? possibly?

oh, but wait:



you guys, ody is hanging out with a member of the cast of melrose place! dude. i expect michael or kimberly are lurking behind her, plotting some sort of evil. run, ody, run!

freecycle has hooked me up yet again....

this morning stephen and i drove over to the office and workroom of brooklyn guild and took about 50 cubic feet of foam off their hands. i would have taken more, but there wasn't enough room in the car.

it is now residing in the back room.

the cats have mostly ignored it so far, but i've got my eye on trucky, i know he's dreaming of toppling the whole lot....

i'm really excited about this haul. i wasn't sure what i was going to do about pillow inserts—i was looking into all sorts of natural/recycled stuffing options and not finding anything that made me very happy. but now i have my foam! oh and it's not just any foam: it was originally used in a window display in the stella mccartney store. i'm sure she'd be very happy to hear that it is being reused....


p.s. i forgot my camera this past weekend at art star—plus it was raining too hard all day saturday to take good pictures—but i do have this one shot of my goose guarding my tent and tables as we closed down saturday night....

despite the rain, art star was a total blast, and i hope to do it again next year. i met some awesome vendors....more about that soon.....