Treasure Hunting in Eastmoreland and a Crafty Project

Yesterday, I went to the annual neighborhood garage sale in Eastmoreland, a tony enclave by Reed College, where the homes look like storybook cottages and the greenery is lush:

photos above from the inspired room

The weather was beautiful and sunny, after a cold and rainy early June, and people were out in droves.  My daughter and her friend and I loved the ambience of the neighborhood stroll as much as the thrill of the bargain hunting.  The houses are gorgeous.  The garage sale stuff was varied,  everything from junk to real treasures, and the prices were either crazy cheap or crazy high.  I came home with an odd assortment of trinkets and doo-dads:

 

The thing I put to use right away was the spool of bias binding, seen in the lower right hand corner, above.  It cost me next to nothing and I know I'll use it in a ton of craft projects, like the one I'm currently doing: making a bunch of bird-related tags for the "Bird Song Tag Swap" that Karla Nathan is hosting.  Here they are in progress:

Each tag has an added sewn-on pocket, with a couple of tiny tags tucked in for a little bonus:

 

The tags needed some kind of ribbon or tie, and this champagne-colored bias binding was perfect--nice and neutral, and thin enough to thread through the tiny holes.  The binding isn't like regular seam binding; it's wider (about 1"+) and doesn't have a finished edge.  So the edges on this stuff fray a bit when handled, and look worn and shabby.  I like it.

 

(oops, I just noticed I still haven't added some stamped words I had meant to).   I'll be sending 7 of them off soon, 

and then will receive back a book of 8 of them put together from a random sampling of the 150-or-so participants' submissions. It will be fun to see what I'll get back.

So, that's how I used my garage sale find.  Enough of this....I have to go to work now.  My real job is calling (darn it).