What will $10 buy today?

The cool books I bought at the fall Friends of the Library sale
Originally uploaded by sassycrafter

For me, $10 bought some pretty cool books at my local Friends of the Library book sale. A friend suggested I start posting some of my cool thrift-store finds, so here's the first post in this vein.

I stopped at the book sale on my way home, ignoring my co-workers' advice that I should go home and rest my sprained ankle. What? And miss good loot? Not on your life. Besides, my ankle's only as big as a baseball. It's not like it's anything serious.

The risk to my personal health paid off because I scored a number of books, including these standouts that I plan to use parts of in crafty collages:

+ "Walt Disney's Annette: Sierra Summer" by Doris Schroeder (1960)
+ "Menaboni's Birds" by Athos and Sara Menaboni (1950)
+ "Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States" by Edward Howe Forbush (1929) -- three-volume set

I bought the "Annette" book because I couldn't resist the charming aqua and pink color scheme. I mean, look at how the pink in the illustrations pops against the turquoise on the edges of the pages!



And it's hard for me to resist bird books. For one, my Grandma Gerry had a thing for birds. I remember how the guest room my sister and I stayed in had an Audubon print over each of the neatly made twin beds. My friend and fellow blogger, Heidi, also loves bird books, so I'm always on the lookout for goodies I can share with her.

The "Menaboni's Birds" book has large and beautiful full-color plates. Check out this beautiful boat-tailed grackle:



And the three-volume "Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States" set is just amazing. Not only is it a complete set that dates back to 1929, it's also chock full of beautiful black-and-white illustrations and color plates. Seems almost a shame to cut it up for collage. I could always photocopy the images I want to use, but like most artists, I'll probably never get around to it.

But anyhow, here are a few of the cool images from the book:







And for the record, I also scored a pair of crutches for $3 from the thrift store next door to the book sale. My co-workers insist that I should "rest my ankle." I checked WebMD once I got home. Apparently if I can walk on it without pain, then that's a good sign and I don't need crutches. But hey, now I have them in case I ever need them.

Summer shrug

Summer shrug (front)
Originally uploaded by sassycrafter

This fun summer shrug will be featured in the July issue of The Satellite and is a great way to chase away the chills when you're strolling through the frozen section of the grocery store or heading to the movies. It's made from an oversized, open-weave sweater that I scored at a thrift store.

If you'd like to make your own shrug, here's what to do.

1. Start by cutting the sleeves off of an old sweater. The trick is to cut outside the seamline so that the sleeves won't unravel.
2. Then take a contrasting yarn and whipstitch around the raw edge of each sleeve. I also added a gathered section of yarn that runs from my elbow to the cuff, because I wanted to have a three-quarter sleeve.
3. Finally, use a piece of yarn to lace the two sleeves together. You may have to put on the shrug a few times and adjust the tightness or looseness of the lacing in order to get it so that everything feels okay.

In this picture, you can tell that the lacing is still a little loose. In retrospect, I guess you could use elasticized cord for a more forgiving fit.

The shrug was inspired by two different projects from Stefanie Girard's new book Sweater Surgery. It's a fun book filled with great repurposing projects, including several by me. (Yes, that was a shameless plug. Sorry--I'm still so excited to be in a book!)