This past Saturday was another Berea College Surplus auction. I know we've mentioned our compulsion to attend this event in the past. Much of the furniture in my house was bought at previous auctions... We got there early to scope it out. At first, I didn't really see anything I wanted:

I was looking for a little table that I could trim the legs of to make a kid sized table for the upcoming year's homeschooling. I thought one of these would be perfect:

I got out bid.

Then I saw a tangle of chairs that made my stomach lurch (in a good way):

Why yes, these are vintage Herman Miller designed by Charles and Ray Eames. They aren't in perfect condition, but totally fixable. Katie and I stayed at the auction till the sweat dripping end, waiting for these. During the afternoon, we realized another woman was also very interested in the chairs. I proposed we have one of us bid on the lot, and then divide up the chairs between us. This is how I was the sole bidder, and the one to call out "one dollar each!" when the auctioneer asked what somebody would give. I also bought a group of 4 of these earlier in the day, so we ended up with 18 chairs for $21. What an incredible deal, it may be our best ever!

When I got home and was looking up replacement parts, I came across a great post at plastolux on how to restore one of these chairs. I'll definitely be referring to it soon.

Friday was my mother in law Teresa's 60th birthday, obviously a party was in order. In preparation Katie and I baked 96 cupcakes-half carrot cake and half chocolate- with cream cheese icing.

Gift wise, I finally finished the little embroidery piece with Carina's lovely pattern, (check out her etsy shop here.)

(I didn't follow the pattern exactly, what fun would that be? I also added the "Take Joy".)

Friends, neighbors and family came with potluck dishes in tow, and the swimming, fishing, eating, birthday partying lasted till the moon was bright. What a fun night!

Back in March, when we went to NYC and visited Purl, I bought some fabric. Just 2 yards of beautiful, sheer and silky, Anna Maria Horner designed goodness.

(Oh, and a purl calendar...)

I washed it as soon as I got home, thinking I'd make something right away. This has not happened, it has sat prettily on my shelf for months. Well, until the other day when I stumbled upon Anna Maria's recent blog post. Using some of the same print I bought, she whipped up a sweet little dress. I only had 1 yard, but figured I could adapt the pattern and make a shirt. It took me a bit more than then the one hour (ahem) she made hers in, but, it was an easy, enjoyable project, and last night I was able to wear it to our weekly stitching group.

(I altered her directions in a minor way-I don't have much elastic sewing experience, so I  made a casing for the 3 rows of elastic, it seemed less scary than sewing on elastic while you are streching it to fit. I never feel totally successful with elastic when doing it that way.)