Visit to The Knittn' Kitten Vintage Craft Supply Store

Yesterday I visited one of my favorite places, The Knittn' Kitten: Portland's Vintage Fabric and Craft Store. Whenever I go there, I come home loaded with vintage fabric, buttons, beads, embroidery floss, and yarn--and I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for it either--yay!

Ethel and Rome, mother and daughter, are the proprietors of The Kitten. If they don't have what I'm looking for in the shop, often they can get it for me. The best is when they go into their storage room and dig a little. Usually they return with craft supply treasures! ;-)

Ethel greeting me at the door

Yesterday I bought beads and felt. Last time I was there I bought gingham fabric, lace, and ribbon. It's just a fantastic way to recycle, get the craft supplies I need, and save money over buying from the big box-type craft stores. Maybe that's why my fabric and craft supply stash is so big! :-)

Let me give you a little tour of the place:

Ribbons and lace, Rome in the background helping a customer

Vintage notions and fabrics

Vintage buttons and beads

Miniature bear rug for your dollhouse, anyone?

If you're in the Portland area, The Knittn' Kitten is a no-brainer--definitely stop in for a visit. They're located at 7530 NE Glisan Street. The phone number is (503) 255-3022. If you can't make it to Portland, Ethel and Rome have an Etsy shop too--woohoo! I hope you enjoyed my little tour of one of my favorite places. Until next time.... xoxo Jennifer

Cute Things #1

I'm starting a new series here at Plushpussycat. You saw the title: it's called Cute Things. Each time I write a Cute Things post, I'll feature something cute that I own, or that someone made, or that I saw somewhere. You get the idea! It may be a miniature, a plushy, something vintage, or whatever.

For my first post today, I want to share this cute thing I found at a thrift store. I paid at most 25 cents for it. And it's super-cute! :-) It's a 78 rpm phonograph record from 1948, designed for a child. It measures 6 3/4 inches (17 cm) across. On one side of the record is the song "Three Little Kittens":

The second side has the song "Wash Your Hands, Brush Your Teeth":

I adore the vintage-style illustrations and the cute critters! I wish I could listen to it, but I don't have the kind of equipment needed. By the way, the blue gingham fabric in the background of these photos came from The Knittn' Kitten: Portland's Vintage Fabric and Craft Store. I find all kinds of vintage fabrics, ribbons, buttons, beads, and more there. They also have an online shop on Etsy.

So what do you think? Is the record cute? If so, what do you like about it? Did you ever have one (or something like it)? Does it remind you of anything? I want to know! :-) Until next time.... xoxo Jennifer

What to Do When Your Stash Gets Too Big

My fabric stash, that is! I used to regularly search for vintage and recycled fabric to add to my stash for making plushies. Used to, because finally my stash got too big. My craft room was overflowing with felted sweaters, used clothing, and vintage linens. As you can see, my stash got WAY too big!

Another problem: I was storing a lot of fabric in boxes, because my craft closet didn't have enough shelves. With so much in the boxes, I couldn't keep track of what I had, which caused me to think I needed MORE! Aiya! It was a vicious circle. By the way, the legal size file cabinet in the photo just below was also cram-packed with fabric.

Finally, with my birthday looming, I asked my darling husband if he could add another shelf to my closet as a special "gift" for my birthday. What a sweetheart! He put the shelf in Friday night after work. He also removed the closet doors, at my request. Saturday morning bright and early the two of us re-organized my craft closet, and it looks great:

I can see most everything, and it's organized by type of fabric and color. :-)

Here's the only downside: I still couldn't fit everything in there! Man! But I finally found a good solution, suggested by my hubby: I moved anything that still needed processing by me (cleaning, felting, and so on) into the laundry area of my home (should have kept it there in the first place--just didn't, because I didn't want to alarm my hubby at the amount of stuff I had, so I "hid" it in my craft room!).

OK, now you know my secret: I had a huge "hidden" fabric stash! Yikes! But now things are back in order, it is under control, my secret is out, and I feel much better! Have any of you had this kind of trouble with your stashes of crafty or art supplies? If so, I'd love to hear about it! Until next time.... xoxo Jennifer