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A recent trip to the thrift store yielded a few very nice finds!
I was in a black & white mood, apparently! I found a little pitcher for my collection, 3 of the soup bowls & a feather pillow insert for a future project. Never pass up a nice feather pillow insert, especially for $1.50!
I played with my finds as well as some other items from my stash & came up with this:
I knew that I'd find a use for the ironstone tureen without a lid!
Love my Hobby Lobby finds!
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In honor of my new Etsy Store design, done so beautifully by Char at Delight Design, I am having a sale! There are wonderful vintage items on sale, some 50% off!
Here are a few examples:
Beautiful tole painted wastebasket, was $26, now $20.
Fun musical AND revolving cake plate (it plays 'Happy Birthday'), was $24, now $20.
Adorable kitchen linens, now $4 each.
Set of miniature canape/cookie cutters, now $5.
Stop on by to see what a wonderful job Char did on the design & maybe pick up a present for yourself!
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If you read my previous post, you'll know that I got back into the treasure hunting groove last Friday. I was among the first in line for the first sale & what treasures I found!
I nearly passed by the typewriter, as it was closed up in it's case & was in a dark corner of the basement. I happened to look down & had a surge of happiness when I realized what I was seeing.
This house also had a huge amount of vintage Christmas, most of it not to my taste (ie, plastic), but there was a stack of old lights, in their original packaging, including these two from the 1920s...one of them has the original lights that STILL WORK. I don't know about you, but the lights that I get from Target can't make it one year without failing, let alone 80 years!!!
The plaid box is super cute, so I couldn't pass it up, BUT, I'm not sure what it's for. It was with the sewing supplies so I thought that it might be for knitting needles, but it's only about 10 inches tall, which is shorter than most knitting needles. Any ideas as to what it might be???
I have a soft spot for vintage children's items & the mother's prayer is so sweet, especially with Mother's Day coming up. And, the art deco trim on the print is GORGEOUS.
Those jars were made to be used in Hoosier cabinets & I got them for a STEAL. One has "coffee" embossed on the front & the others have blank areas, ready to be labeled. I love them so much, so I think that I'll keep one of the plain ones for myself.
Also for myself are the tiny Santa mugs, only 1.5 inches tall. I've never seen little ones before & I'm in love. And, I'm keeping those wonderful old Christmas balls for myself. I love the soft colors.
Last, but certainly not least, are these luscious trims. The pink & bottle green are obviously old & have an amazing sheen & softness. The red isn't old, but nice. The dark green & navy trim is old seam binding, which makes lovely bows. Yeah, I'm going to keep all of these for myself as well :)
The ones that I'm not keeping will be showing up in my Etsy shop this week.
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I had the most fabulous day on Friday. It started out with hitting 2 estate sales, one of which was *great*. It was so much fun to be back at the treasure hunt, finding vintage wonderfulness. I can't wait to show you everything I found. I'll post everything in the next few days.
After such success at the estate sales, I decided to extend my wonderful morning by browsing Tyson's Galleria. The Galleria is the poshest mall in the DC area & is just an explosion of eye candy. I started in Neiman Marcus
where I browsed the home accessories
I then went to the Jo Malone counter & tried a million scents. Before I could decide which was my favorite, a woman in a large fur coat pushed in front of me (seriously) & I was on my way into the mall....
Diamonds anyone?
In case you need a little something for the upcoming Oscars...
Down the hall I passed more diamonds....
My favorite stop for cheesecake....
Enough of all of that fantasizing...now to the really good stores! First Anthropologie!
The cutest measuring spoons that you've ever seen....
Excuse the quality of a few of these photos...they were taken quickly with my phone!
I purchased a bar of my favorite soap from Mistral & a few goodies for YOU...yes, YOU! A small little give-away that I'm still gathering, but soon to come.
Next, foodie heaven! Sur La Table...
I think that they may have had to mop up my drool after I left this section.
I have a thing for pretty dish towels....look at this cutie. I think that I could replicate this, don't you?
This sign featuring a wonderful quote of Julia Child:
These containers of spatulas look like bouquets of flowers in a market.
For cupcake, cookie & cake decorating fanatics....
I had such a wonderful time & even bumped into Sue at Barnes & Noble. She's always such a great person to connect with over vintage sales and the demise of decent shelter magazines.
It's amazing what some good estate saling & window shopping will do for a girl!
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I hope that you had a wonderful Valentine's Day! We celebrated simply this year, with just cards & a little pink frosted cake. I had such fun making cards for Glenn & Hope.
The one above is, obviously, Hope's. Lots of old fashioned doilies, gathered crepe paper & glitter. I'm re-living my elementary school crafting dreams! I was inspired by old fashioned candy boxes, loaded down with ruffles & lace. Seven layers of hearts -- is my version loaded down sufficiently??
Glenn's is slightly more masculine, but he is still prey to my love of ribbons & glitter. :) With the clock stamp & "forever" embellishment, I was playing off the saying of "I'll love you until the end of time".
My next art project is to embellish a paper mache 'H' for Hope's collection.
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I'm sure you recall that I LOVED this movie & would see it a million times. And, that it inspired me to start cooking for REAL. I have had a great time in the past few weeks, trying out new things, moving towards fresh, real ingredients & away from packaged & processed goods. (Don't get me wrong -- my Diet Coke is still by my side as a type) I've made my own salad dressings and I will never go back. I've made homemade ice cream twice & am still fiddling with the ingredients & method. We now actually have other vegetables than steamed broccoli every night!
I also read Julia Child's My Life in France, which was an inspiring and eye opening look at Julia's incredible dedication to the art of cooking, especially the crafting of Mastering the Art of French Cooking .
So, with all of this in mind, I plunged into my first Julia Child recipe, Boeuf Bourguignon, this week, while being snowbound (you might have somehow missed it, so I'll let you know -- here in the DC region we've received over 40 inches of snow in the past 2 1/2 weeks). I was really nervous, as Julia makes so clear that she crafted every recipe with incredible attention to the exact way to proceed so as to get the perfect result. I felt that if I deviated, I would be disrespecting her work!
Here goes....
Patting the meat dry -- if you don't pat it dry, it won't brown -- who knew?
The browned beef.
Adding the wine to the beef, onion, carrot & bacon mixture. Did I mention the bacon? It makes the recipe to die for.
Sauteing the mushrooms in a little bit of butter.
The finished result. Do you see that rich glaze over the meat & vegetables? Mmmmm...it's making me hungry, just looking at it. I served it over noodles, with peas on the side, as per the recommendation.
The great news? Even though it was time consuming (put aside an afternoon if you decide to make it), it wasn't hard at all. And, very worth it.
If you are interested in making this, the recipe can be found here. I also found a helpful blog post at The Old Hen Blog which shows a real person making the dish, with photos.
Bon Appetit!
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I was fortunate enough to come across a box of old greeting cards in an antique store several years ago. It looks like the woman who owned them was a teacher & kept the cards that she received through her life. Included in the box was a large number of children's school Valentines, dating from the 1950s & 1960s. I thought that I'd share some of my favorites with you.
The kitty one is Hope's favorite.
I think that this salad one is my favorite. It makes me smile.
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I didn't do too much in the way of decorating for Valentine's day this year, but put out a few things here & there. On the dining room sideboard, I filled an apothecary jar with my collection of vintage children's valentines and also spelled out "Love" in scrabble letters.
I whipped up two little felt hearts, inspired by Christmas decorations that I saw in a British magazine.
My sister gave me that *adorable* antique Valentine's postcard for Christmas -- I love it!
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Thanks for all of the great comments on my last post! I actually wrote it as a bit of a joke (well, kind of) & didn't expect to get any responses. But, I see that many of you have experienced the same issues! AND, I didn't get any spammed comments!!
We finally, for the first time since we moved here in 2003, have something on the wall above the living room sofa! Seeing this photo makes me realize that we really need some colorful throw pillows as well...I digress. I have been searching for the right thing for all of these years & nothing struck me so far. Then, I saw this brilliant idea in Country Living, sometime this fall:
(photo from Country Living)
Framed gift wrap, in an IKEA frame! I've always loved this kind of wrap & have thought that it was far too nice to be ripped off a package. When I found that they were making them in the images of old European maps, I was on a quest! I found a map of Rome, which is a perfect reminder of our amazing trip to Italy.
We can even see the location of our hotel on the map! I next went on a mission to find complementing, smaller images for each side of the large map/giftwrap. I went over to the generous & amazing Graphic Fairy's blog & of course, found exactly what I was looking for. AND, they are of London, a city so near to my heart AND the site of the first European trip that Glenn & I shared.
Costs: Giftwrap $4
Large Frame $30
London Images FREE
Small Frames $9 x 2=$18
Entire Wall of Art: $52!
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OK, you spammers, you keep leaving "comments" on my blog that are advertisements for your "products". Quit it, OK? We don't want your term papers, we don't want your Australian hotel offers, we don't want anything that you have to offer. My blog is not your free advertising space. 'Nuff said?
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