tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71695199972967760882010-01-01T11:46:51.347-06:00this is the blog for <b><b><i><i> <a href="http://www.luckyfindgazette.com/">Lucky Find Gazette</a></i></i></b></b>, the renowned junkzine published by Lucky Find Salvage Company. <a href="http://www.luckyfindgazette.com/"><i><i>true stories of real junk™.</i></i></a> all rights reserved. mysterious old artifacts. occasional craftiness. people who make things and the places where they lurk.Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.comBlogger304125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-44374910564448751492010-01-01T02:20:00.007-06:002010-01-01T03:05:20.494-06:00

The New Year may be just another cold day, or maybe this year it will be the beginning of the Tale of Transformation everyone wishes for. "Transformation" always implies a positive change; no one is transformed from a hard-working standup person into a no-good slob — one simply degenerates to that lower state by forgetting to brush teeth or knitting too much. The past year, in retrospect, is one

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-77786780579401083232009-12-26T10:04:00.008-06:002009-12-26T10:25:17.591-06:00

Two women who work with my husband bought this pink hoodie as a Chistmas present for our darling Bridget. She prefers to be naked, since clothes make her feel fat. Because she is? Maybe a little pleasantly plump... Last picture is of the Citron shawlette I cranked out in 2 days for MIL. She looks adorable in it. This is one adorable pattern, in fact. Usually I knit my own patterns, because I like

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-51590938417415571592009-12-21T16:20:00.007-06:002009-12-22T14:25:30.525-06:00

Well, the notebook I thought was a blank canvas actually had a few hidden pages of hieroglyphics on it, but I'm going to go ahead and fill it up anyway. Just because it's not perfectly untouched doesn't mean it's not functional. Here's the first of the daily Solstice to Solstice entries: "Today I jumped out of bed and right into a squishy pile of cat gak. In bare feet." I like the idea of

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-89051365571906703762009-12-13T07:52:00.007-06:002009-12-13T08:48:41.293-06:00

Unbelievably, I just found a notebook in which I have not yet scrawled one single word! This denim gem is from the 70s. I found it at the Salvation Army a few years ago along with its twin, which does have a bunch of scribbling on the first four pages, and some dates from 2004, 2005, and 2006. The last entry is a list of Thrift Store Scores and Prices Paid: Embroidered Czech Pic $1.25, Burled

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-83703399870248025572009-12-10T11:20:00.009-06:002009-12-10T14:25:02.131-06:00

Our office in Alton is looking mighty cosy. How could it not with panelling? I'll post pictures soon, but in the meantime, here's some secretarial images from days gone by. I've been rooting through office supply surplus at home to load the new desk with, and started leafing through old notebooks trying to find some empties. Now there's a good way to waste a few hours. I have a strange habit of

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-27277149998873528072009-12-03T15:59:00.007-06:002009-12-03T16:24:56.500-06:00

My birthday post on November 30th was the 300th post of this blog. A good omen. I like the number 3. As anyone who has knit with double-pointed needles will tell you, 3 is a dynamic number: each end of the triangle's intersections wants to pull away from the other. (With 4 needles, the intersections just stay put. Squares are stable.) What on Earth am I babbling about? Who knows. But starting

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-46468698193441410352009-11-30T12:43:00.009-06:002009-11-30T15:00:25.259-06:00

Today is my birthday, which I share with Mark Twain. He is the best and funniest writer ever, and in keeping with an annual tradition of this blog, I'd like to share with you all my favorite chapters of my favorite of his books: Chapters 31, 32, & 33 of Roughing It. Just type in 213 in the Google Books page box and keep reading until you either reach page 233, or your eyes are blinded with tears

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-66837964383670559742009-11-27T21:28:00.010-06:002009-11-28T10:22:30.450-06:00

Tonight we went out and had a few drinks, then came home, lit a fire, and turned on the music. Who's better, the Doors, or José Feliciano when it comes down to Light My Fire? We vote for José. Señor Feliciano makes the song reveberate with our memories of 1969, a very strange year.

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-47087401029128633312009-11-23T12:53:00.004-06:002009-11-23T16:46:46.656-06:00

My brother found this giant pile of The Workbasket at a book fair recently, and graciously bought the whole lot for me. Now I have the promise of countless hours of happy perusing through hideous 70s craftiness to bolster my spirits. The only thing better than free junk is uncovering a box full of buttons you forgot you even had.

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-2569798376483299352009-11-15T21:09:00.006-06:002009-11-16T19:03:11.881-06:00

It's a rotten, rainy, gloomy day and here are a few of the things I've Googled in between knitting like a fiend, eating potato chips, and watching The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: Lady Jane Grey (The Nine Day Queen), Ariat Storm Stopper Jodhpur Boots, Anthropologie switchplates, & Louis Sullivan. Too lazy to warm up the scanner, so I'm posting this back cover of Romantic Range, which I had stored

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-11095306296212257922009-11-12T08:31:00.006-06:002009-11-12T13:08:00.378-06:00

The self portrait I took with my Mac was the only shot of eleven that didn't show blotchy skin, eye bags, or a myriad of other sags. Note the careful positioning of the hands, and the use of lighting to smooth away wrinkles. Usually I could care less about getting old and dumpy, but that's only because I don't go out in public much anymore! This shot shows me in my workroom thinking about my next

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-43569878494505028042009-11-06T08:44:00.016-06:002009-11-06T11:23:47.223-06:00

Last night my husband Buster and I went to the City Museum for a party sponsored by The Riverfront Times in celebration of their 2009 Best of St. Louis issue. Since I wrote a few blurbs for this, we got to go to the VIP area and taste some marvelous 17th Street Grill Barbeque without waiting in line. The City Museum qualifies as one of the coolest places on earth, and an opportunity to go there

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-14495851982786994222009-11-02T15:50:00.011-06:002009-11-02T17:57:18.626-06:00

I went to Nautilus today to try and get back into some semblance of a shape after weeks and weeks of inactivity. My fingers are super fit from knitting, but those are practically the only muscles in my body I've been using since the summer! It felt great to use other parts of the physique again — I even did 20 minutes on the tread-climber, an exercise in mind-numbing boredom unalleviated by music

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-18260461764586445652009-10-31T16:39:00.006-05:002009-11-02T16:16:39.703-06:00

Went to Alton's world famous Fast Eddie's Bon-Air for a Big Elwood on a Stick this morning. Now that the smoking ban is in effect in Illinois the air really is bon there; no need for a shower after lunch. Then it was time for a browse through local antiquaries. In one shop I saw the most amazing vintage clothing: beautiful silks, satins, crêpes, and laces fashioned into 30s couture gowns. The

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-5410948863495926082009-10-22T10:09:00.005-05:002009-11-02T15:49:41.428-06:00

Here's three cute pictures of three of my cute pets: Bridget the chihuahua, Brother the cat, and Buster the husband. I'm going to blog more often to see if I can get my words back. And if you want to leave a note about how cute Bridget is, please do, she reads all her fan mail. I screwed up the comment section when changing the blog colors but everything's back to normal now.

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-65415493590920699182009-10-30T11:05:00.005-05:002009-10-30T22:52:44.461-05:00

It's very spooky out, almost as wet and miserable as the Pacific Northwest at its worst. Just the sort of Swamp Thing weather to get one in the mood for Halloween. Here are two spooky images in celebration of my favorite holiday: a scared girl, and a stag breathing some weird mist, with bats hovering eerily above the field.

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-36713231066147989652009-10-29T19:14:00.006-05:002009-10-29T19:24:55.523-05:00

I realized today that I could just wander around taking pictures of the things I have lying out on view and have enough to blog about for 365 days without ever leaving the house. So that means, if I cracked open the trunks in the junk dungeon, I could stay inside blogging for thirty years or so, if someone would just bring me enough sausage to live on. I may be turning into something of a recluse

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-54053371211261657002009-10-28T16:46:00.004-05:002009-10-28T16:52:24.631-05:00

Certain years have certain colors in my mind. I was alive in 1969 and it was the metallic green of this box and car. I remember: it had the sunny brightness of an ice cream parlor parking lot, the sweet hiss of a chain-link fence, and permanent pebble marks in its grazed knees.

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-89068840217586621902009-10-21T18:51:00.017-05:002009-10-27T22:36:56.862-05:00

I think the anesthesia must have affected my ability to write. I just can't seem to marshall my thoughts into any coherent order anymore, and when I finally do, the words are all wrong, pompous and arch and full of too many syllables. Maybe that has nothing to do with the anesthesia still congealed in my already overtaxed liver and everything to do with the last 5 weeks spent listening to

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-37066450027900231662009-10-27T08:41:00.008-05:002009-10-27T09:06:08.011-05:00

Shelves are crucial when you have as much junk as I do. My dream place to live, instead of being the standard nice house with a nice view, is a studio apartment on a noisy street with three walls of floor-to-ceiling shelves. Couldn't fit many husbands or other creatures into that set up though. So for now I'll make do with what I have! Here's a grouping arranged by color, starting at the back: a

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-43208838826406099742009-10-26T15:38:00.007-05:002009-10-26T21:06:47.066-05:00

Here we have an illustration of the adjective:"(of silk) having a rippled, lustrous finish. Denoting or showing a pattern of irregular wavy lines like that of such silk, produced by the superposition at a slight angle of two sets of closely spaced lines."I don't know where I found this wonderful scrap of silk, stamped with an image of a Crinoline Lady and her swain. There's another just like

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-77238340385207516442009-10-25T06:53:00.004-05:002009-10-25T07:03:33.513-05:00

After a long drive looking at pretty leaves yesterday, Bridget kept on driving, and had a sleepover in St. Louis with her grandparents last night. The house feels so different without her! I'm glad she's enjoying city life: she likes sidewalks better than gravel roads, and my mom always spoils her with a blue plate chihuahua special of liver no onions. But we miss her dreadfully. She's our baby,

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-5308519846819585682009-10-24T14:46:00.009-05:002009-10-25T06:53:30.404-05:00

Persimmon trees are the first to lose their leaves in the Fall, and their fruit is quickly gobbled up by critters. Can you see the last persimmon in our backyard tree? (Look upper left...) One sunset last year my husband and I noticed the silhouette of a huge raccoon climbing out on one of those skinny branches to grab a goodie, it was an amazing gravity-defying sight. Persimmons may have lost

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-30631804715216515302009-10-23T02:00:00.009-05:002009-10-23T07:27:51.474-05:00

No one, not even I, believed for one second this blog would stop showing off my knitting. I knitted like a fiend while listening to all that Georgette Heyer and here's a gallery of the outcome. This fall is all about capelets! Top to bottom photos: The Woods Out Back (i.e. Fall itself), Elderberry Capelet, Ladies' Swamp Mist Capelet, Lichen Capelet, and Ladies' Gothic Capelet. Here's what I

Suzy Crancerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04279233945568063249luckyfindgazette@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7169519997296776088.post-66003115878548179552009-10-20T13:11:00.017-05:002009-10-20T17:47:47.113-05:00

One day this last July I found out I had both a suspicious mammogram and a soccer ball-sized pelvic mass. As I drove down the River Road for further CT testing, I thought I was a goner, and examined the worthiness of both my life and this blog. I vowed (as those about to meet their Maker are wont to do) to make both more worthy, should I escape imminent death. I would rub my chihuahua Bridget's

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