Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
It's been a while since I've shared my finds. Frankly, I haven't had many lately, but those I have had are pretty amazing. First, this vest that I found on half price day at the Salvation Army:
And you may notice that is not Honoria Glossop. We found this form in a pile of junk at the First Saturday sale a few months back. Paul suggested that since my other dress form is named Honoria Glossop, this should be Madeline Bassett. I'm not sure if this dress form has an opinion one way or the other on whether or not the stars are God's daisy chain, but the name is perfect.
Now I need a name for this:
This is an Art Deco display head. They happened to be putting out at the thrift store down the street just as I was making my way to the register with a hat. You'd better believe I followed that cart back and grabbed this as soon as I could. The sunglasses I found at the next visit.
So it needs a name, and I should follow the theme. Ideas?
And finally, one evening I dropped a donation by the Salvation Army (yes, I DO get rid of stuff) while out running errands, and thought I'd drop in. The store was only open for another 15 or 20 minutes, so how much damage could I do? I spotted this in electrical for $20:
This isn't just any iron, it's a steam generator iron. See that blue container on the left? It holds a LOT of water. I love my Rowenta steam iron, but now that I'm doing a lot of sewing and hat work, I find I am constantly refilling the steam reservoir. Water pumps through that cloth-covered tube on the right and into the iron. The dial on the back is for regulating steam. There's a separate dial on the iron to regulate heat. There's just enough room for it to sit on my dryer. The power cord/tube from the base to the iron is just long enough to reach to my ironing board. I keep a silicone iron pad there.
I plugged it in before I left and saw that the light came on, though I noticed some serious calcification on the soleplate. Hey, for $20 it was worth a shot. We got it cleaned up and a start on decalcification, but it wasn't working. We could hear the pump run, and we could see that water was pumping into the boiler, but it wasn't passing into the iron. Some research showed it could be a loose connection, a switch, a capacitor, or some very expensive part. It was a loose connection! Paul fixed it.
The iron still needed some serious decalcification, but it now works great. The reason it's on the stove is that I had just rinsed out the boiler, which is part of the maintenance cycle. Apparently whoever had this iron before didn't do a good job on that.
I also have an amazing handbag I picked up yesterday, but no pictures yet.
And it's time to go throw a ball at ten sticks of wood. I've really dropped my average this year, but I think it's related to my eye issues. As long as I'm having a good time, that's okay.