Trash Trinkets!

The Boyfriend is a dumpster diver. He loves going through dumpsters, recycling bins, the swap shack at the local dump. He'll even stop the truck for something shiny in the middle of the road.  He works in downtown Boston and picks up street trash and flyers as well.  Like a cat who kills a mouse or a bird and brings the presents home to their master, for years he has bestowed his trash trinkets on me. (LOL I didn't mean that they way it sounded!)

I have an entire box of crazy things like flyers, photos of other people, postcards, a giant faux diamond ring, smashed cell phones, lighters, and on and on. I can't bring myself to throw any of it away.  One of my most prized and beloved Trash Trinkets, he mailed to me about 2 years ago, he found Necked Troll in a parking lot.  The Boyfriend had no idea that I have loved Trolls for decades and have about a dozen of them.

Since moving in with The Boyfriend, I know now that he brings home amazing treasures like end tables, furniture, baskets, a working gumball machine, brand new items I have sold on eBay (like a $79 women's western belt, Willow Tree figurines, etc), toys, you name it!

Here's some of the things I've kept:

A wooden hat box in great condition with a carry handle.  It's so adorable!

This brand new 5 piece Craft Storage set! Three of the pieces were still sealed in their original packaging and all had to be assembled but look how amazing they look in our office (second bedroom)!

I can't wait to see what Chas brings home next! I'll let you know if anything amazing.

Happy Columbus Day!
Michele

Mini-Books Galore!

I saw this really beautiful new product made by Scotch Products 3M called Expressions Tape on a blog somewhere where the blogger was stamping on it (which I'm definitely going to try... I put it on my Craft To Do List which is way too long!), so I bought 4 of the 6 available colors; Red, Purple, Green and Pink.

About the same time, I found these mini-composition books and at a discount store.

I covered the spine of each book with 6 layers of the Expressions Tape, which even though it says it's removable (which it is) it held firmly in place. When I used Mod Podge glue to adhere the pattern papers to the front and back covers on the book, there was some overlap onto the Expressions Tape, so there's no chance it will ever come loose now. Here's one of my finished products;

On this Mini-Book, I felt it needed more color on the cover so I added a strip of the same Expressions Tape   on the front along with a green scalloped strip of paper to make the tape look scalloped as well.

Here are Mini-Books I did using the other colors of Expressions Tape; Green and Purple:

I love how these Mini-Books turned out! Creatively, you can use just about anything to decorate these books from your craft supplies. I'm going to use the Red Expressions Tape to make some for Valentine's Day.

All 5 of these Mini-Books are for sale in my Etsy Store:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/GoatGirlMH?ref=si_shop

I hope you are having a wonderful Saturday!
Goat Girl

Our 3 Day Weekend in Philadelphia

Last weekend, The Boyfriend and I went to Valley Forge, PA for a 3 day weekend. We got a great deal from Groupon, $99.00 a night at the Valley Forge Casino Resort plus $50 in free slot play and a $50 restaurant credit.  We bought 2 nights, got $50 in slot play each, and $100 in restaurant credits!

We both love road trips! Here we're going over the Tappen Zee Bridge and the Hudson River in Westchester County, NY:

Next we crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey into Pennsylvania:

They screwed up our reservation so we got a better room in the Radisson Tower of the resort! We had an incredible free dinner in an Italian restaurant in the hotel, gambled away our free $50 in slot play at their small casino which only has 300 slot machines, which I would never play in unless it was free!

We headed south in a pouring thunderstorm to Harrah's Chester casino because we are Total Rewards members from all our travels to Las Vegas and staying the Rio. I forgot my Total Rewards card and went to get a replacement, whereupon I was given $20 in free slot play and a free $20 buffet ticket good for 72 hours! I informed The Boyfriend so he went and said he lost his card and he got $50 in free slot play and a buffet ticket! I immediately headed to the .05 cent video poker machines, played for like 5 hours on $40 and had a blast!

Side Note:
On August 31st, we went down to Mohegen Sun in CT and I hit my first ever Royal Flush for $400! We put aisde that money to play with in Philly! Of course, I took a picture of it!

On Sunday, we slept in and had a leisurely Brunch sitting outside in the beautiful weather at the Cheesecake Factory at King of Prussia mall.

We spent the rest of the day at Valley Forge National Historical Park. I don't ever remember seeing acorns in person and we collected a bunch of them to bring home, along with some Oak leaves and real Holly leaves that I'm going to use to make Thanksgiving and Christmas cards with!

And in our park explorations, we found a Covered Bridge! I've never seen a Covered Bridge in person, I was so excited!

We took a leisurely long drive all the way from Valley Forge into Downtown Philadelphia through all different kinds of neighborhoods. Even though Independence National Historical Park was closed, we stopped to take photos and see the Liberty Bell.

We made our way back to Harrah's for some more gambling and a late dinner at the Buffet. After dinner, I ended up sitting next to a man who taught me some new video poker strategy that actually worked.

Alas, Monday morning came too fast and we headed home to Massachusetts. I would love to come back to Philly and spend more time. Maybe someday.

Have a great weekend!
Michele

A Surprise Gift For My Mom

Every couple of months I mail my mom a box of things I collect for her, and in this last box I included a Mini-Book I made especially for her in one of her favorite colors.

I started with a simple 3-1/4" by 4-1/2" mini composition notebook you can get almost anywhere. 

I picked out washi tape and pattern paper in colors that looked good together and started by covering the book spine in 5 layers of gray polka dot washi tape. 

Then I used strategically cut the pattern paper so the green flower would be prominent, and used Mod Podge to glue the paper to the book cover and back. 

Next I began decorating the inside covers of the book. I used a green lace washi tape and a Basic Grey Journaling piece that looks like a bookplate on the inside front cover. 

I used the same lace washi tape on the back cover along with a glassine envelope and a mini-kraft tag. 

To finish the project, I scallop cut a piece of solid green cardstock and glued it along the left side, added Martha Stewart Note Tabs every 20 pages to create dividers, and adhered a green heart shaped button in the center of the flower. Here's three views of the finished product; the finished back cover and 2 photos of the finished front cover.....

If you like this unique mini-book, head over to my etsy.com store and see the others I made that are for sale.  Here's the link: 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/GoatGirlMH?ref=si_shop 

Or get inspired and make one! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Michele

Welcome to My Blog!

I am going to share recipes, the crafts that I make, and my travels. I have an Etsy.com store where I sell the things that I make and I hope you'll visit my store.  If you haven't been to Etsy.com, you must go there and see the most amazing handmade things all in one place. I won't get political here, or talk about current events or pop culture, you can follow my on Twitter for that!