Friday, December 17, 2010

Rosie Holiday Blog


A quick rendition of a holiday classic with a little Rosie flair....... Be safe, be happy, be joyful, and be blessed.
12 days of Christmas ..according to the Secondhand Rosies
On the first day of Christmas, the Rosies gave to me a bag sale at the Salvation Army
On the second day of Christmas, the Rosies gave to me 2 crocheted rugs and a bag sale at the Salvation Army
On the third day of Christmas, the Rosies gave to me 3 vintage pins, 2 crocheted rugs, and a bag sale at the Salvation Army,
On the fourth day of Christmas, the Rosies gave to me 4 velvet elvises 3 vintage pins, 2 crocheted rugs, and a bag sale at the Salvation Army,
On the fifth day of Christmas, the Rosies gave to me 5 gypsy rings , 4 velvet elvises, 3 vintage pins, 2 crocheted rugs, and a bag sale at the Salvation Army,
On the sixth day of Christmas, the Rosies gave to me 6 rubber stamps, 5 gypsy rings, 4 velvet elvises, 3 vintage pins, 2 crocheted rugs, and a bag sale at the Salvation Army,
On the seventh day of Christmas, the Rosies gave to me 7 cookie cutters, 6 rubber stamps, 5 gypsy rings, 4 velvet elvises, 3 vintage pins, 2 crocheted rugs, and a bag sale at the Salvation Army,
On the eighth day of Christmas, the Rosies gave to me 8 vinyl albums, 7 cookie cutters, 6 rubber stamps, 5 gypsy rings, 4 velvet elvises, 3 vintage pins, 2 crocheted rugs, and a bag sale at the Salvation Army,
On the ninth day of Christmas, the Rosies gave to me 9 beanie babies , 8 vinyl albums, 7 cookie cutters, 6 rubber stamps, 5 gypsy rings, 4 velvet elvises, 3 vintage pins, 2 crocheted rugs, and a bag sale at the Salvation Army,
On the tenth day of Christmas , the Rosies gave to me 10 silver spoons , 9 beanie babies, 8 vinyl albums, 7 cookie cutters, 6 rubber stamps, 5 gypsy rings, 4 velvet elvises, 3 vintage pins, 2 crocheted rugs, and a bag sale at the Salvation Army,
On the eleventh day of Christmas, the Rosies gave to me 11 mismatched plates, 10 silver spoons, 9 beanie babies, 8 vinyl albums, 7 cookie cutters, 6 rubber stamps, 5 gypsy rings, 4 velvet elvises, 3 vintage pins, 2 crocheted rugs, and a bag sale at Salvation Army,
On the twelveth day of Christmas, the Rosies gave to me 12 linen napkins,11 mismatched plates, 10 silver spoons, 9 beanie babies, 8vinyl albums, 7 cookie cutters, 6 rubber stamps, 5 gypsy rings, 4 velvet elvises, 3 vintage pins, 2 crocheted rugs, and a bag sale at Salvation Army.



From: “Yard Sale Santa” reads the tag on close to half the gifts I have ready to pack for Christmas. These gifts are all second hand, but top shape, and they were expensive when new.
This is a tradition, created by me (“RosieW.), to add to the fun of our family Christmas.
This year I am especially excited about my stash of second hand gifts, but I dare not give anything away about these treasures until “The Day”, but I do promise some pictures. I have too many family members reading this blog.
Of course, the red, 8 pound item, found last week at Goodwill will be one of the main features (that one for grandson).
I’d encourage everyone to give this idea a spin. What relative will diss’ you when they receive something Patagonia, FLAX, LLBean, or Grammaci? And if they do, then they are total “Thorns”….you can tell them the Rosies said so!

Stay warm, be safe, and blessings to all.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

South African Scraps

See what I mean by overwhelming. This is my new fave shop. It’s huge and the people are nice and it’s a total mess. It kind of looks organised in this pic, but trust me, it’s not. I love it.

Editorial Note: Rosie P. here, I wanted to take a minute and introduce our first guest rosebud columnist corresponding from South Africa, my dear friend, Rosebud Joanna. Jo and I met 9 years ago at the Blue Springs Cafe over a piece of foot high meringue pie--their signature roadside dish. Blue Springs Cafe is located in Highland,IL right off of I-70 halfway between Effingham, IL and St. Louis, MO. Joanna can be described as a woman with a deep affection for hot cinnamon rolls, live music, funky clothing, kitty cats, and thrift stores. Joanna is one of my fabulous women friends that I have been honored to meet through my husband and his gang of childhood buddies. Back in the day, we shopped the Tri-fecta of thrifts in St. Louis--a Goodwill, St. Vincent De Paul, and a mega Salvation Army store all within 3 blocks of each other in downtown right off of the St. Louis U campus. Those winter days of almost a decade ago, we donned our secondhand wool coats and hand knit scarves to hunt some of the local and largest faves in the area. Those were the days. When Jo left for the Peace Corps she entrusted me with her collection of books called "The Family Creative Workshop" published in 1975, volumes of handmade craft ideas and "hippie" art projects that were "back to the earth". She also gave me some of her houseplants to sit--I am glad to say they are still alive. Thank you Joanna for taking the time to provide us with your distant and exotic tales of "repurposing" fabric scraps in South Africa. Happy Hunting Jo!



SOUTH AFRICAN SCRAPS
Ok, here goes. My love for thrifting was born in Effingham, IL and started at the mother of all thrift stores, Second Hand Rose. That place was a treasure trove of all things polyester, funky and old. I loved the organised chaos, the old ladies manning the money box and even the smell of old dirt.After college I moved to St. Louis, MO, which was a gold mine for thrift stores, running the gamut from super organised Goodwill to random run-down buildings in the shadier parts of downtown and south St. Louis. Of course the shadier stores were my fave, not only for the haphazard way of “displaying” the goods (because this make it more like a treasure hunt!), but also for the oh-so colourful people who frequented these places. Visiting the old standards and hunting for new promising stores was my favorite pastime.Fast forward to present day. I now live in South Africa with my South African husband and two little boys, in a little, rural northern town called Polokwane. I was placed here in 2004 as a US Peace Corps volunteer and here I am now six years, a husband and two little boys later. Life is good…except for the complete lack of thrift stores. Ok, there are second-hand shops full of awesome old furniture, knick-knacks, records and books in Afrikaans. However, there isn’t the traditional thrift store; the one with all that stuff plus linens, sets of dishes and most importantly, clothing. Ok, to be fair, there is one thrift store in town but it isn’t even worth trying to parallel park my truck for. So I’ve gotten my fix in other places, such as so-called China shops (shops owned by Chinese people selling cheap stuff imported from China), second-hand shops (this could be another blog) and most recently, fabric scraps.Yes, fabric scraps. South African culture is rich in traditional fabrics with which they make traditional clothing. There is a place in my town called Indian Centre - so named because most of the businesses owned by Indian immigrants. This is a shopping plaza used solely by rural-dwelling South Africans, and an occasional Peace Corps volunteer. It has a taxi rank in the middle (public transport hub) and around the perimeter are shops. The shops are home to crap made in China, bulk tasteless snacks (for repackaging and selling at schools) and fabric shops. Lots of fabric shops. And I know every one and can write a book about the service and selection of each one. I have trawled these shops many times, often with a baby strapped to me. Because I think I may very well be the only white person to frequent this place and thanks to the cute babies I bring along, I know most of the owners and workers in the shops.Fabric scraps. So with the seemingly mass production of traditional clothing by women working from tiny little chipboard enclosed rooms located above the fabric shops, there are then, of course, lots of discarded scraps of fabric. I’ve been dying to do something creative with the traditional fabric and fabric from other parts of Africa, however, two little boys and a full-time job made it neigh impossible to dig my heels in and get started. However, a seed was planted and it had time to germinate and grow while I waited patiently for my little ones to become more independent. And now the time has come to pick that fruit, so to speak.My craft of choice (for now) is quilting. My mom is an avid quilter and I made my first tie quilt from my farmer Dad’s old blue jeans. Now, a few years later, I again will be salvaging discarded yet reusable material to make something new and awesome. I believe the term for it is “repurposing”.All I had to do was ask a seamster (male seamstress?) I know for his scraps. He came out with a wonderful bag of goodies. I was addicted. Awesome stuff for free! The process that follows is a little like the nesting women do before a new baby arrives: Sorting (yes, Mom, I’m sorting!), washing, untangling – which, thanks to the agitator, involves much time, patience and a pair of scissors. Then I hang them to dry (thanks to the South African sun we don’t need a clothes dryer) and iron them. This is truly a labor of love because these aren’t nice large, square pieces of material, some are quite small or misshapen (I’ve found full sleeves, bottoms of pants), so ironing and folding are time consuming jobs. Don’t even get me started on the cutting process. Eish.With the assistance of my mother in law, we sorted the material into four potential quilts. It was really cool to see the different patterns and colors come together. Going into a regular fabric store is overwhelming, there are so many possibilities and combinations. However, with the random assortment of off cuts from wedding party attire, traditional dresses, aprons, etc., I had but a few choices, which made it almost effortless. Like they were calling to me to be on a certain team.So now I’m in the throws of a Team Traditional Brown single-sized Rail Fence quilt and Team Colorful Purples waiting in the wings, with Team Blue Red Yellow to follow. And yesterday I got another wonderful bag of goodies from my old friend Diana, which is waiting patiently on my ironing board what I mean by overwhelming.

Pictures of my most recent trip to Indian Centre follow:



This is me going back into the shop at Indian Centre from where I was given a large bag of goodies. I forgot to take pics for you all, so we went back. Note that I’m parked far back from the actual parking spot. I’ve been parked in too many times, so I’ve learned to create some havoc of my own by making sure to avoid that situation.



Inside A1 Curtains and Fabric - going up the stairs to see my friend Diana. As you can see, the place is a bit of a mess. There’s a new owner, though, an Indian Lady, to whom I felt like I needed to pay an entrance fee. The previous owner, an Indian guy, was always nice and welcoming, never stared too hard at my parcels from other stores, unlike this new lady. Maybe it’ll be a clue to her to get better stock. Anyway, Diana works above her shop.



Hopefully she’ll use the rent increase money to get a better variety of fabrics : ) So these ladies upstairs pay (as of January 2011) R450/month (that’s about $70) for rent. It’s really not too expensive considering an outfit like the one she has on below (standing) could cost anywhere from R600 ($90) and she seems to be pretty busy.




This is her cube. There is space for about six cubes in this upstairs area. And almost every upstairs and downstairs within Indian Centre is like this. All with women and men churning out clothes.





This is Diana rocking an awesome new twist on traditional attire. She’s got the typical head wrap and she’s using the trad fabric, but she’s mixed it up by piecing together different patterns and adding the oh-so-cute jacket with ruffles. Her friend is seated. Looking at her outfit makes me wonder if she wasn’t going to create another such masterpiece with the bag of scraps she gave me. I asked for something, therefore she wanted to give it to me. As a thank you I will have to commission her to make me that traditional skirt I’ve been meaning to have made.






And here’s the bag of fabric from Diana hanging out to dry. The little legs in the background belong to our youngest, Jesse.







And here we have my quilt top made from my first batch of scraps.
Let me take this opportunity to thank my fabulous husband for putting up with me taking over a corner of his music room and for not getting exasperated when I’ve forgotten that we have children who need looking after. Also to two Peace Corps volunteers, Beth and Paula, for assistance with dumpster diving, picture taking and general crafting togetherness.