Vanilla, the final report.

Remember my home made vanilla extract project?

 

I was starting to think it was a bust. Supposed to let it sit for 90 days right? Well, after 90 days...the color was good, but it still just smelled like booze to me. So I tucked it back into the back of the pantry and did not pay much attention to it other than to move it around once in awhile.

 

But after six months? Then the magic happened!

 

Even the vodka base tastes pretty good, but the bourbon? Oh...my...gosh. Why waste it with cooking? Heck I will drink that! YUM!

 

 

Deep dark color, wonderful Vanilla flavor!  I will definitely do this again, but plan on adding more vanilla beans and letting it sit longer than the 90 days.

 

I think I will have to make some bourbon balls or pralines with the bourbon vanilla.

 

Has me looking forward to baking Christmas cookies!!

 

Busy hammering and revamping another Hydrangea box this week, fun stuff, but very busy!

 

Hope you are having a great week!

 

November Flea Market

 

I love the Flea Market the day after Thanksgiving. Lovely cool weather and lots of stuff to look at. But believe it or not, I did not find much to bring home. Not much pulled me in.

 

But I loved everything that did come home with me!

 

Like these vintage Melmac Plates. I have a fair sized Melmac collection now, most are from the Normandy Rose collection. I love using them outside. This set of four is so kitchy, such a fun 50's style. Loved them!

 

Loved this old pitcher. Unmarked, but hand painted.  So pretty. I think it looks great with my aluminum hydrangea's tucked inside.

 

 

And two Jadeite restaurant ware chili bowls! I passed on the restaurant ware dinner plates, went back to buy them and....... too late. You snooze, you lose. But, no worries, I cannot say I am heartbroken about passing them up. Another time I guess. But the bowls, those I have wanted for awhile. Love, love!

 

 

And last but not least. Another vintage insulator. This one caught my eye because of the odd shape. I just love it. I have been lighting up my insulators most nights. They look so lovely with the flickering candle. This insulator is marked NY and has the coolest bubble caught in the glass. I especially love the bubbles caught in the glass.

 

 

I grabbed a handful of bigger spoons to hammer out for Creative Village, we had a great small business Saturday, I sold a hydrangea box and some ornaments so I wanted another hydrangea box and a couple more of the wall hangings out there before the Christmas shopping really kicks into high gear!

 

I dragged my kids out to take pictures for our Christmas card this year. They are not the most cooperative models, but I did get a couple of successful shots. 

 

I think this one is my favorite from our little trip out.

 

 

 Look at those beautiful ducks! I love ducks!

 

Wrapping up a lovely four day Thanksgiving weekend. Ready to jump right into Christmas. LOL, no, not really, I am sooooo not prepared.

 

Hope you have a wonderful week!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

I hope you had a lovely day with family, friends and good food!

 

I was very happy arranging flowers in pallet boxes and breaking a bit with our usual tradition and using our pretty Jadeite dishes instead of Grandmother Adeline's beautiful yellow rose dishes.

 

 

The table turned out so pretty, and the food was so good, and the day so nice and relaxing.

 

So many things to be thankful for!

 

Tomorrow...off to the November Flea Market!

 

 

 

 

New idea's!

Last week at the Home for the Holidays craft show, one of the other vendors purchased three of my sentiment spoons and made a comment about hanging them on the wall. I bet I stood there slack jawed for a moment. Hanging...them...on...the...wall...omg, what the heck is wrong with me?? Why didn't I think of that?? Not everyone wants to stick them in a plant! Signs are so popular right now! Time to appeal to a broader audience!

 

Face palm forehead smack, I am disgusted with myself for not thinking of this on my own.

 

And with that, I was obsessed with putting a couple together and seeing how they came out.

 

This is about as close as I ever come to a step by step tutorial.

 

Here we go.

 

First off you need to remember that you still have a couple pallets to tear up, and cut.

 Still brainstorming what I want to use the fantastic plank with the big knot in it. LOVE that one.

 

 

Sand and stain them a lovely pecan color. I love how the stain highlights some of the "flaws" in the wood. The "flaws" are my favorite parts. So beautiful.

 

 

Stain some pretty decorative wood pieces. To use as an accent.

 

 

Play around with your placement.

 

 

Make sure you can actually HANG them once you finish your design.

 

 

Hammer a couple spoons and assemble.

 

 

I have been wanting to make a ladle candle holder for a long time. I am very happy with how it turned out. I may need to make one for myself!

 

I have three more design ideas that I cannot wait to make! But they will have to wait until after Thanksgiving. But I will definitely get to them in time to get them to the shop for Christmas!

 

Looking forward to Turkey day this week! Hope you are as well!

 

 

The Random Thrifter....

The Random Thrifter....that really should have been my blog name.

 

Random thrifting, yup that is me. Between browsing Ebay and wandering the thrift shops, it sure describes some of my buys, you never know what is going to strike my fancy.

 

Monday was a Dr. Appt day, of course, I schedule my Dr. Appts so that I have time to hit my favorite thrifts in between appointments, I did not walk away with a lot, but the one score that I did get, made my morning!

 

Pyrex bowls! I love the Pyrex Woodland pattern. this set is missing the medium size dark brown bowl, but that is ok, gives me something to look for! Three bowls, excellent condition 10.99. Not bad!

 

 

The rest of my random thrifting is Ebay. I like to try and get myself a new chenille blanket each fall. I got very lucky and scored one in excellent condition for under my 30.00 budget limit. Sorry these pictures suck. Fall back, by the time I get home. it's dark.

 

I grabbed one for Bruno as well! 5.99 baby blanket. He loves to curl up in his chenille at night when he goes to sleep. Ok, that is what I tell myself. Truth be told, as long as he is curling up next to me, probably does not matter what our blankets look like. Love my Pug boy.

 

Small shots of my blanket.

 

Great condition, thick chenille, so comfy cozy! I am really happy with it.

 

 And Swanky swigs! I love this size juice glass. They have the prettiest ripple in the glass as well. Just adds to their charm.

 

I got the set of 4, but I was after the violets. Wood Violets are one of my favorite wildflowers. They match nothing that I currently have, but they are so pretty! I love these juice glasses.

 

And a real random buy, Victorian butter pat plates. Why? I don't know, it is close to the holidays and my mind is on beautiful table settings? They are cute? Little? They almost match some of my dish sets? I don't know, I just know they spoke to me and I love them. They will be perfect for having tea lunches with my daughter this winter. Gives us an excuse to mold some pretty butter pats for our tea's.

So pretty!

 

One thing I did not get a picture of, A Hobbit picture book and record from the early 70's. The Rankin and Bass Cartoon Hobbit. I am a total Lord of the Rings and Hobbit nerd, I got so excited walking into Goodwill on Monday morning and finding a 1970's set of the Lord of the rings trilogy paper back set, way, WAY over priced, killed me to walk out without it. But I found the exact set on Ebay for half the price including shipping...I may get it for myself yet!

 

Oh and look I found one picture of my tomato cage/ornament tree. It is now at Creative Village, it really is perfect for displaying ornaments!

 

 

Ok that is a terrible picture, just trust me. It worked.

 

Well this weekend is a cooking and project weekend! Getting ready for Thanksgiving and I have a couple spoon craft ideas that I am excited about. I hope to finish them up and have them to Creative Village in time for Small Business Saturday on the 26th. Hopefully I will have them ready to show you on Saturday!

 

Hope you are having a great week!

 

 

Home for the Holidays Craft Fair

The fourth annual Home for the Holidays craft fair was a huge success!

 

Only the second time I participated and really only at the last minute, I have been hammering and organizing at top speed for the last month. Turns out it was worth my while! I made a really good profit. Of course it helps that the event is very well organized and run, and had a strong Facebook presence. When the doors opened we had a flood of people that only eased up around  the lunch hour, then for the last half hour.

 

I did not get many pictures, as I was half brain dead most of the day after a late football night (a heartbreaking loss in the second round of playoffs). Nothing worse than seeing your favorite boys heartbroken and sobbing out on the field after playing their hearts out only to lose by 3 points.

 

 I still did not get a good shot of the tomato cage Christmas tree, maybe I can get a better one tomorrow before the remainder of the ornaments go to Creative Village. I really like it and it was the PERFECT way to display (and transport) the ornaments

 

Got to use my sign again!

 

 

Some new flower arrangements to sell, They get so much attention, but only one went, even the single stem flowers. Again, lots of attention, no sale.

 

But that is ok, the herb markers and spoons made up for it.

 

 

Several necklaces and key rings sold as well. Not as many necklaces as I had hoped. As happy as I was with putting them on the playing cards...they did not display well that way, next year I have a better idea to display them.

 

Well you can see the bottom of the tomato cage Christmas tree, this really was the best way to display the ornaments. They got lots of attention, and a few sold, but not nearly as many as I expected to sell. I really thought these would sell quickly. No worries, off to Creative Village they go where I think they will sell very well!

 

I hammered up a few more butter knives, a few of these sold as well!

 

I am also going to be watching for handles to make more cheese markers like the Brie below, love love how that turned out.

 

 

I still think this needs a ribbon around it to look more "Christmassy"

 

 

Overall, a very successful show, AND after having a few conversations with some customers and a couple other vendors. I have a couple really great new ideas that I am super excited to get going on! Tired or not, tomorrow I rip a pallet apart and find a really great poem to hammer out!

 

But tonight, I am taking a hot shower, popping "Lord of the Rings" into the DVD player then climbing into bed with my fat Pug dog to mindlessly flip through Pinterest until I fall asleep. I suspect that will not take long.

 

Hope you are having a fantastic weekend.

Getting in gear!

Next weekend, November 12th, I am participating in the 4th annual Holiday craft show in our little community center located in Charlie Daniels Park. I only had a month to prepare, so I made sure to hammer and work on something for the show almost every night.

 

Life is busy enough without having to prepare for a big craft show. So I have been in high gear , making to do list after to do list, brainstorming display ideas (tomato cage made into a Christmas tree for the ornaments...omg, looks great) and getting as much stock as I can manage ready.

 

I tore two hydrangea boxes that had never sold apart and revamped them, made more than a dozen single stem "sunflowers" three new single stem hydrangea flowers and I don't even know how many ornaments, necklaces and key rings. Still have a few herb markers to make to round out my usual stock, but I have a bunch of sentiment spoons at Creative Village so I will pull some of those and see if they sell at the show, but, I have also hammered a few more of  those as well.

 

Here is my shot at a Christmas vibe flower arrangement, I think it needs a bow around the box, but otherwise I am happy with how it turned out. The green ribbon "leaves" help fill out the box, and if I add a pretty white bow, I think it will give it a nice Christmas vibe.

 

 

 

 

One week...I think I can make it, but next Sunday? I pretty much guarantee that I will crash :) More pictures of the displays and new stock next week! I am especially excited to get the tomato cage Christmas tree display loaded with ornaments!

 

I better get working on necklace display's next!

 

Hope you have a great week!