Sunday, September 27, 2015

More Pinteresting ideas.....

As I was doing my usual weekend around the house chores yesterday, sprinkling cinnamon on my rug to vacuum up so the house smells like fall, and mixing up peppermint oil and water and spraying all the window sills and screens to keep the spiders out I thought, Oh! I should do another Pinterest post, but I have not really done any Pinterest projects lately.
 
Ah...duh, is it sad that Pinterest ideas have become such a normal part of my daily life that I almost forget where the idea came from?
 
Yes, it is a little sad.
 
So here it goes, some of my recent Pinterest " projects". First off, let me address the whole cinnamon in your vacuum to make your house smell like fall. Um...maybe it depends on what kind of vacuum cleaner you have but....Pinterest fail and a waste of even cheap cinnamon. Won't bother again. Although, my daughter is now reporting as she rolls around on the floor that the rug itself smells wonderful and the dog smells like cinnamon...I may rethink this.  And peppermint oil mixed with water to keep the spiders away. I am going to give this a mixed review, first, the orb weavers that I was trying to discourage from making their web near my front door, were not in the least bit bothered by the peppermint, even when sprayed directly on their web, but, after spraying all of the screens and window sills in the house, every time the wind blew, the divine scent of peppermint came with it, so...I may do it again, but I am not convinced the spiders cared one little bit. But it sure smelled good!
 
And since I had my oils out, and cold season will be upon us soon, although with my allergies I use this year round. Vapor sticks.
 
My favorite oils.
 
 
I picked up the vapor sticks and blanks off Amazon, very reasonable price. Seven drops of Eucalyptus, Rosemary, Lavender and three drops of peppermint and away you go. Is it as strong as the ones you can buy for 3.50 a pop? Maybe not, but they do the job and boy do they smell wonderful. Pinterest win!
 
 
Now this does work. Lemon, Rosemary and vanilla slowing simmering on your stove top. Yum! It smells just lovely! Pinterest win!


 
 
Burger and Fry seasoning, or in my house it is known as "Awesome Salt"
It has like 15 different spices, salts and sugar, is really fun to whip up and makes everything taste, well, awesome. We use it a lot! Huge Pinterest win!
 
 
I love mixing it up, so pretty!

 
Into the jar it goes!

 
And last, but not least, Candy corn crack. The most simple thing ever really. It is candy corn, salted cocktail peanuts and salted caramel peanuts mixed up and popped into a pretty jar. We call this stuff crack in our house because once you try it, you are addicted!
 

 
Still warm here in Middle TN, too warm to really feel like fall, but that is not stopping my fall food cravings like French Onion Soup with French bread and Honey Crisp apples. Perfect Sunday afternoon snack!
 
 
And I cannot help but start leaning toward the fall colors in my flower choices, Love these gorgeous blooms I pick up at Trader Joes this weekend! So pretty!


 
Still not going to feel like fall this week, but, that is ok. Before long I will be missing these soft warm breezes and shivering in the biting cold! So I will just enjoy it all while it lasts!
 
Hope you have a great week!


Sunday, September 20, 2015

Found it!!!

What I lack in organization skills I make up for in tenacity.
 
At least that is my story, and I am sticking to it.
 

The eggplant blossom. I did get a picture of it! How I missed it when I was looking for it earlier this week I will never understand.

Farmisan Market was last night, a total snooze, which I expected. Too many Church craft shows and Fall events to compete with. Not to mention college football. No one can compete with that. There was almost no foot traffic I did not even make my booth fee back. Even my Art drop was a flop. Although, I did get a lot of interest AFTER we shut down, So, I will drop it sometime this week and will do another at the market next month.

But its all good, I still got to visit with friends and meet new people, I had a great time! Next month we decided to be the food vendor since we have no luck getting with our food trucks. Nothing too exciting. Hot dogs, chips and a bottle of water for 5.00 and brownies for a buck. My son is going to run it. We figured a cute football player slinging dogs would at least get some girls up there~ lol
 
Fun weekend, but way too short!
 
Hope you are had a great weekend!
 
 


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Wednesday, September 16, 2015

The misadventures of a lazy gardener.

I am an enthusiastic gardener, really I am!
 
I love to spend hours looking through garden catalogs and Southern Living, gathering tips and writing down plans and ideas.
 
I am even good about making a lot of those plans a reality. But...upkeep? I may be a bit lax in that area. I blame it my short attention span. If I were a child now, I have no doubt I would be diagnosed with ADD.
 
Typically by August, sometimes even late July I am getting tired of the upkeep. The watering, the weeding, and the bugs just tick me off so  I just get...well...lazy. And I have to admit the last couple seasons have been my laziest!
 
Which is part of why I planted so many flowers, They require very little attention other than a nice squirt from the hose a couple times I week. I can handle that. So, earlier this summer, my son came home from his job one afternoon carrying two eggplants. He is, well, I guess you could call him a gardener/handy man/caretaker/driver for an elderly gentleman that lives in our neighborhood, and this gentleman loves to garden and had several eggplant "orphans" so my son decided a couple could come live with us. I told him sure, and we threw them in amongst the dill and wild cherry tomatoes.
 
I noticed some pretty blossoms on them earlier this summer, but did  get a good shot of one? No, I guess I am a lazy photographer as well.
 
Then last week when cutting Zinnia's I spotted this.
 
 
Will ya look at that. What a pretty eggplant!
 
According to my son, Mr. Bob has not had any luck with his eggplants. Maybe ignoring them is the key?
 
Well, regardless, I see an eggplant parmesan in my very near future!
 
Busy hammering away and getting ready for the Farmisan market this weekend! I am excited to see how it goes, I have a few different things to offer in my booth this week and I am interested to see how they sell!
 
Hope you are having a great week!
 
 
 

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Vintage goodness

I have been an "Ebayer" for a long, long time. Over the years I have gotten some really good deals, some, not so good. Overall, I think I have done pretty well. But I am pretty picky and because I am not willing to over pay, I can wait a long, long......long time before I get something on my list.
 
This Fire King Jadeite Milk pitcher is a perfect example.
 
 
Isn't she a beauty? This dang thing has been on my "wish list" for, oh, I don't know, 13 years? I have never seen one at a flea market, and the rare one I stumble across in an antique store is usually priced between 75.00 to 100.00. Sorry, beyond my thrifter budget. But, 27.00 including shipping? Yup, I will pay that. I have NO idea how I managed to get it for that cheap. I think I was the only bidder. The seller did have "Fire King" hyphenated, maybe that messed with a search. I don't care...it's finally MINE!
 
I also managed to score a set of milkglass tulip salt and pepper shakers on Ebay.  Only one of the tops survived so I found replacements and yes, I would rather have the Jadeite, they are still on my list, eventually I will score a pair, but until then, the milkglass will do. Plus it matches the grease jar I scored at the flea market this past summer. All three for a little over 20.00? Yup, I love it
 
 
And this thing? I don't even know when this Fire King canister made it onto my wish list.  But I know I will find something to use it for. I love that Fire King red. It reminds me of Le Creuset flame. I have no idea what I am going to use it for, but I will find a use. This was another 10.00 including shipping score. All in all I have had a very successful Ebay run lately. I can't complain!
 
 
And the last bit of vintage goodness I have to report on? My Farm table.
 
A friend of mine bought it years ago at an estate sale for 75.00, she is currently in the process of selling off a lot of stuff in anticipation of putting her house on the market and sold it to me for what she paid for it. I have had my eye on it since she bought it and I was more than happy to give it a new home.
 

I love it, I think it fits perfectly into the house.


Love the legs.
 

I love the wood, this table collapses down into a very small card table size. Perfect! I will always be able to make this work wherever I live!
 
 
Does that Jadeite pitcher not look right at home?

 
One last bit of vintage goodness. My daughter and I stopped into our favorite indoor flea market yesterday and scored some Fire king, I have been looking for a cup like this for awhile, 3.00 and it was mine. I really enjoyed drinking my coffee out of it this beautiful early fall morning.
 
 
Nothing like a warm cup of coffee in a beautiful vintage cup on a gorgeous crisp fall morning!
 
Hope you are enjoying some of this amazing fall weather!

Thursday, September 10, 2015

The pallet living room

I feel like we finally finished our outside living room pallet furniture! And I love it!
 
 
My husband was finally able to get around to modifying the second couch into kind of bleachers, they worked out pretty well!
 

It is a spot that we spend a lot of time in. Reading, watching the birds, playing on the computer talking or eating dinner. It really is an outdoor "room" for us.
 

I love the coffee table, and my husband found a way to make the one time plant stands into tiny end tables. Works out exactly the way I wanted it to! I love the way it worked out!
 
 
Bruno and I spend so much time together out here that he automatically runs to our couch as soon as we walk outside and waits for me to join him.
 
How do you like those Hydrangeas? Not the way I planned to unveil my Creative Village project, but I am still working on it, tweaking it, trying to get it to look just the way I want it to. I like the direction it is going in, just needs a bit of refinement! I am getting there!



I think it is funny that I ended up getting exactly the lawn furniture I wanted, and it cost us about, oh I don't know, maybe 20.00 in materials?
 
 
I was really thrilled at how these tiny end tables turned out! They are perfect!


It has been so dry the last couple months our little spot is not quite as lush as I am used to, but it is still so pretty! I love my little spot, shows that you don't have to spend a fortune to get what you want!
 
I am so messed up this week, I always am after a Holiday, I cannot believe tomorrow is already Friday, Feels like a treat to already be heading into another weekend! But a busy weekend it will be, Football game tomorrow night, then getting ready for the Farmisan market next week and back to hammering and getting my stock up at Creative Village.
 
 I guess the lazy, hazy days of my summer are coming to an end, time to get back to it!
 
I hope you are having a great week!

Sunday, September 6, 2015

For a moment in time....

My plan for Labor Day weekend was, I thought simple, errands early on Friday morning followed by lunch with my husband at a restaurant I was excited to try then getting the house all clean so we could enjoy a clean house all weekend. The plan for Saturday was to spend a couple hours out running some fun errands and then home to my clean house to spend the rest of the weekend cooking, swimming and doing some crafting.
 
Did not go quite according to plan. Not that anything bad happened, a mundane errand that should have taken an hour on Friday morning took four and a half hours, enough to screw up our restaurant plans and, well, we just ended up doing a lot more than originally planned, like buying an old antique farm table from a friend for the kitchen. I should mention that I have loved this table since she found it at an estate sale years ago and I am THRILLED that it is now mine. And, I did a "Free Art Movement Nashville" art drop of one on my spoons. But more on both the Art drop and the Antique farm table in another blog post!
 
So, my house is not quite clean yet, but I am getting there. And I have not done the cooking that I wanted to, but...I am getting there. Although we are busy, this is still turning out to be a fun weekend and I have enjoyed every minute of it so far!
 
But for a moment this morning,
 
 
I just wanted to enjoy a quiet moment in time.
 
German pancakes, coffee and some of my favorite vintage pyrex. A few quiet minutes before we start our day.
 
Now, off to finish some chores before we spend the rest of the day swimming, grilling steaks then spending the evening under the stars watching movies and eating caramel corn and apple pie.
 
90 degrees outside, but we are going to pretend it is fall!
 
Hope you are enjoying your Labor Day weekend so far!
 
 

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Nashville Flea Market in August....

August is a toss up for me and the Nashville Flea market. When it is flesh melting hot outside, strolling the flea market is not necessarily on top of my list. But this month we were in the middle of some unseasonal gorgeous weather so my daughter and  I decided to head out there. And it turned out to be a really nice trip.
 
There were not quite as many vendors there as we usually see in spring and fall but more than I remember the last time I hit the flea in August.  But it was well worth the trip. I don't think I could even pick my favorite find!
 
A little beat up, but I thought these Hazel Atlas Salt and Pepper shakers were too cute to pass up, especially for the price.
 

A couple new spoons to hammer out, I really need to get some made to bring to Creative Village, it has been a couple months since I brought in new stock.
 

Sour cream glasses! I snatched these up when I saw them! And for a buck each? I was THRILLED! These have been on my wish list for a long time, but I have never seen them in my travels, and certainly not for that price. Score!!!


I love vintage kitchen items and this is another one that has been on my wish list for a long time. I see them around, but I am not usually willing to drop 22.00 on one in an antique store, but 7.00? Yup, it came home with me!
 

And another Fire King bowl! I was not going to buy this because I really don't need yet another bowl, but the vendor immediately offered to come down on the price and my daughter loved it, so, it came home with us!
 

And another cute metal bowl, It is a size smaller than the one I  use for my zinnias, so I thought how great the two would look grouped together and filled with Zinnias!
 
 
So, I think my thrifting dry spell is finally over with (Thank goodness!) not only did I score a couple items off my long term wish list at the flea market, but I also won a couple freak Ebay auctions this weekend for way less then I should have won them for...oh I cannot wait for the mail!
 
Oh, and the Zinnias are in full swing!
 
 
Love these beautiful blooms!
 
Almost half way through the week and looking forward to an extra long holiday weekend! Hope your week is going great!