Vintage Goodies: What Shall I Be? The Exciting Game of Career Girls Boardgame
What Shall I Be? Vintage 1976 Boardgame
"What Shall I Be?" vintage board game by Selchow & Righter Company. Complete and in good vintage condition.
$30.00
What shall I be? The Exciting Game of Career Girls 1976 Boardgame
This gem is an effort by Selchow & Righter Company to correct their original “What Shall I Be?” career girls game from 1966. In the original, girls could choose to be a teacher, airline hostess, actress, nurse, model,or ballet dancer. BUT if you pick the “personality card” that said YOU ARE OVERWEIGHT…oh,dear… you can’t be half of those jobs.
The version for boys released at the same time offered careers like surgeon, lawyer,astronaut,horse jockey, film director, and news anchor. I don’t know if that version also eliminated jobs based on the personality flaw of being overweight.
In 1976 Selchow & Righter tried to appease those darn feminists who wanted girls to play board games that imagined girls could be surgeons and lawyers and horse jockeys, among other thing and released the game again with all the jobs for boys being the same for girls.
Some things with this game still aren’t great. Some personality traits that eliminate jobs are being a low thinker and being too excitable. But hey, at least these are equal traits for both boys and girls?
[Also, I would just like to add my own 2 cents here and say that I think being a ballerina and a nurse and all those other “girl” jobs are still valuable and wonderful things to be and hello, boys can be those,too.]
Still, the 1976 in all it’s imperfections is a great symbol of progress for equality. The illustrations may even be considered forward thinking give our current dialogue about opportunities for women of color in the film industry.
T-shirt+canvas= wall art
This was an impromptu project that took me about 10 minutes to do. I was taking photos of things to list in 
my shop and noticed some flaws in this Harry Potter tee. There was a weird spot near the hem and a hole under the arm.
Instead of throwing it into my “To Be Recycled” pile as I usually do, I decided to deal with it right that second. This is ADHD in a nutshell.
But also honestly that “To Be Recycled” pile wouldn’t be nearly as huge if I just took the short time required to deal with it right then and there.
I decided this t-shirt would be a good candidate for wall art. That’s where my stockpile of thrifted canvases come in.
Thrifty Art Tip: Look at thrift stores, yard sales, and free piles for art on canvas. Even if the art isn’t anything you’d hang, bring that canvas home. You can paint over it, cover it in nice fabric,collage on it, or whatever your artsy heart desires.
This is a painted on one I scored at the Thrifty Shopper
for an odd number of cents. It’s a standard 11×14 wood frame canvas like you can buy at craft stores like Michael’s and was probably someone’s Studio Art project. If it makes you feel sad or guilty to work over someone’s art, this kind of project is great because you’re not ruining the art on the canvas at all.
(Although if you’re using a light colored fabric, the paint might show through. If you’re not feeling emotional about working over what’s on the canvas, you can cover the canvas with gesso before using it)
I cut the entire front of the t-shirt at the seams and positioned it on the canvas how I wanted it, making sure there was enough fabric to stretch over the back of the canvas. I flipped them over, holding the fabric in place so that the back was facing up. I trimmed excess fabric before using a staple gun to affix the fabric to the back.
When beginning to staple, I started at the top and 
then worked my way around the frame, checking periodically to make sure the front was straight and even so that the words wouldn’t be stretched in wonky directions and distorted.
I did kind of roll the edges a little so that the fabric was thicker and more stable.
I think in the future I’ll use something like cardboard strips to wrap the edges of fabric around before stapling to get a bit of a neater finish just because I’m picky like that. It really doesn’t matter at all unless you have people who come over and check the back of the art on your walls to critique how awesome that looks.
So, that’s it. Quickie art for your walls made from a neato t-shirt. You can do the same with pretty fabric .
This one is going on my boys’ bedroom wall. The sentiment is truly fitting.
new in the shop: “feminism is for everbody”- bell hooks tee
Well, there’s a bunch of other new stuff in the shop but this is my favorite right now.
“feminism is for everybody” bell hooks t-shirt SMALL
pattern: Lego Star Wars quilt blocks
Kristy at Quiet Play made this fantastic paper pieced Lego Start Wars quilt and you can ,too. The patterns are available for FREE in her Craftsy pattern store (along with so many other great patterns! )
Knot a Problem- angels to all knitters with cats and toddlers
Twice in my life I have Freecycled impossibly tangled yarn. Once, the culprit was my toddler who unwound two skeins of yarn and not only that, carried one end in each hand and walked through the house with them. This happened in the span of maybe 2 minutes while I ran to them bathroom. Those toddlers are lightning quick little buggers. The other time was kitten related. Kittens are going to kitten. After that I made sure there was never yarn in open baskets or left unattended on the couch.
I remember wondering when the yarn was rapidly snatched up on Freecycle , “WHO in the world would want to deal with that mess?!” And not begrudgingly. Gleefully!
It’s these people: The Detanglers
Daphne Basnet, from Melbourne, once spent $50 on eBay for a 25-pound box of hopelessly twisted string, just for something fun to do. That was before she even knew of the existence of the Knot a Problem. It took her five long weeks to ‘detangle’ the 120 balls of yarn-worth of knotted mess, a time that she looks back on fondly. “I was so happy, I can’t tell you,” she recalled.
Later, Basnet found out about a whole community of knot-lovers like herself formed within an online group of knitters and crocheters called Ravelry. Frustrated knitters post messages calling for help with their messed up and often expensive yarn, and Knot a Problem always comes to the rescue. They willingly offer to untangle the mess for free, just so long as shipping costs are covered. Sometimes the competition for tangled yarn projects gets so crazy that detanglers check for posts multiple times a day. “People will jump in and say, ‘Send it to me!’” said Mary Enright, a 56-year-old detangler and Knot a Problem member.
Photo: Daphne Basnet
See?! GLEE.
It also sounds like it’s incredibly cathartic. Maybe I should try it.
Photo: mk_carroll/Instagram
Miracle workers.
Crochet gifts are not cheap gifts!
Knitted gifts,too.
I went to a craft bazaar last weekend and the one thing I know for sure: people who crochet and knit are not being paid for their time at all! Maybe the sale price covers materials but that’s about it.
So, if you’re lucky enough to get an awesome crochet gift, say ” thanks!” and give that giver a hug!
Kid’s T-Shirt + Old Jeans = Upcycled Tote Bag
I can be a little sentimental about the clothes my kids have outgrown. We are moving this summer and my husband has challenged me to turn all those clothes I’ve saved into something crafty. When I realized last week that my littlest needed a new bag to carry back and forth to pre-school, I headed for the To Be Upcycled pile and the kids’ clothes stash for some supplies.
Supplies: One size 2 Batman shirt and 2 pairs of jeans my teenage girls wore to death.
The bag he had been using was just your basic reusable grocery bag, the kind they sell you at the checkout for 99 cents (there’s a reason they’re only 99 cents usually. Those seams do not hold up with everyday use). It was the perfect size for his blanket, snowpants,sneakers, and what have you .So, I just copied the bag exactly for my pattern.
The bottom part of the pantlegs from one pair of jeans became the front & back panels for the bag.I spit the seams on one side to open it up larger, then cut each cut pantleg into about 12 x 13 pieces. I cut the Batman design from the t-shirt and appliqued it to one of those panels.
I used the back side of one pair , cutting from the pocket down the pant leg. I stitched to two leg/pockets together to get my total length for the side width of the bag ,creating a pocket on each side at the top.(About 7″ wide by 36″ total length)
There was more than enough material from one pair of jeans for the straps and after all that jean-cutting, I ended up with a pair of perfectly good jorts! Although I doubt anyone in our house will wear them as jorts , so I’ll just add them back to my recycling pile.
I went with sewing the seams on the outside for that frayed denim look but I’m honestly not sure how I feel about it. Household opinion was 50/50 on it. But the little guy loves it, so that’s what matters.
I noticed that the Batman applique isn’t centered but I’m ok with that. I find that when I’m sewing for myself or kids, I’m a lot more forgiving and a bit messy. If that was something I made to be sold, I’d probably pronounce it ruined and want to set fire to it.
Teaching Kids To Knit
Imagination Soup has a really great tutorial and tips for teaching kids how to knit.
Teaching Kids to Knit
Beginning a Braided Rug
The weather guy says if you go outside,you’ll die in 15 minutes or something like that. (It’s really cold here)
It’s a good day to start piecing the braids together I made from t-shirt yarn.
It’s my first braided rug. I have no idea what I’m doing but so far, it’s looking ok.
I added the burnt orangey color in because I was afraid I was going to end up with something that looked like hunter’s camouflage. I was trying to a color scheme to match the cushion I made for this gigantic papasan-style couch (seriously, this thing is huge. It’s bigger than the double papasans made now) we scored at a rummage sale for $5 …. browns & greens,mostly.
Incidentally, my cat matches the papasan cushion. Sooo…. maybe I’m really crafting cat-camo?
