I attended the first annual South Florida Swap O Rama Rama. It was held over the weekend. I could not make it to Saturdays date. So I ran over there Sunday. It was held here at Trash to Treasures Creative Re-use center. If your local and not sure where it is. It is behind the Fort. Lauderdale airport on Commercial Blvd. The small private one. Right behind the park where the NY Yankees and other team sports would (use to) do their spring training. (oh ps. that park is being torn down and they are going to build a water park, FINALLY) I found out about it via facebook. They are on facebook so if you are too and want to know about future events, check them out. I decided to go last min. I just went through everyone's clothing causes we are moving soon and they are sitting in bags waiting to be donated. I usually send my donated clothing to Dominican Republic. We have family over there and they use or sell our unwanted items. So I dipped my hand into everyone's bags grabbed some clothing and off I went to the swap. You had to bring in at least one bag of clothing and $5 dollars to enter. If you had no clothing to donate you then had to pay $10.00 for entry. But once you are in you can fill your bag with as many clothing as you can shove in there. AND you are allowed to go to the car, dump out your bag and come back in for more. Awesome!

The lady with the baby. She is carrying a (that red and white one) dress I donated. I handmade that dress. I went and told her. She smiled and was like OH my really??!! I said ENJOY! I donated a few hand mades. Hey I am tired of wearing them. Let someone else rock it.

There were volunteers on hand to sew/alter or glam up your new found clothing. They worked on tips. I must say, it was really hot in this place. Hot as in sweaty hot. So if you don't see smiling faces. LOL trust me they were giving them but when your melting, who is smiling all day? I myself could only take small amounts of the heat. This weekend was horrid hot. VERY VERY hot. The humidity also takes you down. Combo of them is horrid. I feel for those gals in there. They were kicking some butt and taking names and putting up with the heat. Bravo ladies!

They had screen printing! That Yudo machine is huge. I got to check it out for the first time. I always wondered how that worked. From the samples I saw. Pretty good.

This is where I spent most of the time. I did look through the clothing but I was way more interested in the fabric scraps! And let me tell you. THERE was some good stuff in there. For me a doll maker. Oh my gosh. There was more than enough fabric in those binders to make barbie clothing, prim doll clothing and even purses. Maybe even some scarfs. They had oodles of samples and I was more than happy to help them get rid of MOST of them. I did make a dent in there. So if you went through it after me. Sorry. I did not hold back. I took everything I wanted. I scored samples of lace, trim, eyelet, silk oh gosh I could go on and on. Some pieces are so big some were so small. The doll maker in me was just so happy and smiling. SMILING all the way home. I usually go into Joann fabrics and spend way more than $5 dollars on their unwanted/unusual/left over scraps. The tubs below had donated fabric, I scored some goodies from there too!

Everything was color coordinated.

Some of my loot.

Good Stuff. You have to attend the next one. You have no idea what you will find unless you go! This is an awesome event. What a way to recycle, reuse and repurpose clothing. I was way to hot to stick around for the fashion show. I hope I see photos in facebook!

Top photo (front) Bottom photo (back)

I have been playing with plastic. We purchased some new bedding over the weekend and it comes in that plastic bag. Usually I could use the bag for storing things. I have vintage suitcases for this now. What to do with this plastic........Oh I know! Make stuff from them. I like those glass necklaces with the silver or gold border trims and you put things inside of them. I tried my own version using 2 pieces of plastic and binding. I used photos from a 1940's vintage magazine. I used vintage bed sheets. There is endless amounts of items you can use in these. You don't need just flat items either. You can use buttons, charms anything. I am going to make a few more of these for my indie craft shows. I plan to make them into necklaces, key chains, purse tags, brooches and book markers. I am eventually going to list a few of these items I have been making in my Etsy shop. I just became aware of all the lovely things I show you and never give you a chance to get one.

Thank you for all your emails, posts and words of encouragement. THANK YOU! Its been tough these last few days. It's never easy to loose someone. XOXO I have not forgot about the contest I talked about in previous posts. I am still having it. Just need some time to get back into the swing of things. ITS COMING VERY SOON!