Saturday, January 28, 2017

The death of a legend....

Considering all the celebrities we have lost lately, maybe I am being a bit melodramatic. Maybe not....
 
When I was around four years old I vaguely remember going into a pawn/junk shop on Wilson Street in Madison WI called "The Pantry" it was one of my Dads favorite junk/antique/pawn shop (yes, I got the junker bug honestly)  It was a neat little shop and I remember they had a large selection of Lefton figural dogs. My favorite at the tender age of 4 was the Poodle. I loved it. And I remember throwing the mother of all temper tantrums because I really wanted it and my Mom said absolutely not, I was four and would break it. And I remember being REALLY pissed off when she said that and when my Dad caved in and went back in to go buy the 4.00 Lefton poodle (4.00 in 1974 was a bit of a splurge) my mom was disgusted, but I was thrilled and dead set on proving her wrong. I would NOT break it dammit.
 
Well...she was right. I broke it.
 
43 years later.
 
But it still pisses me off that I broke it.
 
 
To be fair, its little tail broke off when I was 21. I fixed it and it has been fine since then. But this time, a freak accident with these big Mikasa picture frames I had on my bedroom dresser upper tier, the biggest frame slid and fell, pushing two smaller heavy glass Mikasa frames down, wiping the Poodle and a Lefton bunny out.
 
As it happens, a few days later the smaller frame fell AGAIN landing on my cell phone of all things! I NEVE put my cell phone on the dresser, just happened to sit it down there while I grabbed my Converse. Needless to say it shattered the screen and I will be going to get a new cell phone. Glad I got the insurance.
 
Did I mention that my bad luck streak has not really let up?
 
I hope the person that purchases those three heavy glass Mikasa frames at Goodwill enjoys them. I was literally so pissed, I immediately threw all three in the Goodwill box.
 
Good riddance. DAMMIT!!!
 
I don't actually like Poodles anymore, but geez...look at that sweet face.

 
I STILL cannot find the damn tail. It must have gone under the dresser, the big, very heavy dresser. Dammit.
 
 
My daughter wants me to fix it, so I probably will, just because I am too damn stubborn to throw it away. We have been together for a long time ya know.
 
I may even put it in my will to have the damn thing cremated with me.
 
Stubborn to the very end.
 
Hope you are not breaking anything this weekend!
 
 

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Thrifting Therapy....

With all the craziness that we have had going on the last couple weeks, I decided I wanted/needed just an hour or so to step away, unplug and enjoy some peace and quiet.
 
Where do I go to unplug and enjoy the peace and quiet?
 
My favorite indoor flea market!
 
I have gotten it down to where I can easily get through the entire place in just under an hour. It is amazing how relaxed I feel after wandering around in that cavernous, quiet warehouse for an hour. That slight scent of mildew and "vintage" all around you and some tinny radio plugged in somewhere playing country music.
 
A thrifter's spa.
 
My blood pressure is dropping just thinking about it, although, I could live without the country music.
 
As usual, I walked out with a few treasures, although not the type of treasure I have been finding lately. I ended up adding to my Bavarian and Limoges rose china collection. None of my Bavarian or Limoges china really match, but they all have the pretty, delicate pink rose pattern that blend together very well. Oh and I had one special Pyrex find!
 
But first, the French Limoges.
 
I love French Limoges, so delicate, so beautiful. These were such a steal!
 
Two of these beautiful delicate bread/salad plates $5.00.
 

And this lovely platter. I have very few blue rose pieces although I love blue roses. I think this pattern is just beautiful! $6.00, really? A steal.


 
And the Pyrex surprise! Covered divided dish, very good condition. 
Not super cheap at $12.00, but so cool!!
 
 
 Much cheaper than you find on Ebay, that is for sure!

 
And no dirt cheap Pyrex fridgies left behind right? At .99 cannot pass it up, plus, I grab Pyrex fridgie tops anytime I see them at the Goodwill. They come in handy for the ones I find that are missing their lids like this one was.
 
 
It has been along time since I have added anything to my brass menagerie, these two darling little deer just had to come home with me. And for 3.00? Yes, they were meant to be mine.
 
 
Still trying to figure out how I will manage to squeeze a trip to the Nashville Flea market in this weekend. We have a pretty busy weekend ahead with errands and going to watch my son's beautiful girlfriend dance at her school and stock to drop off at Creative Village...but I am a master of scheduling and by gosh I am determined to figure out a way to squeeze it ALL in!
 
Hope you are having a wonderful week!
 
 

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Instead of flowers....

The last week and a half has been a bit on the crazy side. 
 
 First, we lost my mother in law after a long illness. This was not unexpected,  but as much as you can mentally prepare for what is to come,  it is still a sad shock when it finally happens. She was blessed with a long, full and happy life and will be missed. Then the next day, after almost two months, the insurance company decided to total my car after the wreck I had the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. So we were running to East TN and back, and buying a car at the last minute, and also running my son to three different colleges that are looking at him to play football. Oh, then on Friday, our heat went out...thankfully we are in the middle of a mid winter warm "snap" and also thankfully, the repair was minor, and we have heat again before the next cold snap. 
 
 Maybe saying things have been crazy is a bit of an understatement. But we made it through, and hopefully, things are settling down again.
 
So getting caught up this week, my daughter and I were out and about running errands this morning. While we were in the grocery store, I went to pick out some flowers, as I usually do. But, as I was on my way over to the floral dept. I walked past a display of fresh herbs. Oh, they smelled so wonderful! So wonderful in fact that I decided maybe I did not need flowers...maybe I needed herbs instead!  
 
 
I filled this box with mini Poinsettia plants in December and loved the look. Now filled with Sage Rosemary and Basil, it makes me feel like Spring is coming, and I really love how they look! 
 
 
I think I am going to enjoy the herbs on my kitchen table, just as much as I would have enjoyed some lovely cut flowers.
 
Although, these pretty herbs will also be finding their way into soup, roast chicken, and homemade ricotta over the next couple weekends, that is for sure!
 
I had great sales at Creative Village in December, so I will need to bring more stock in soon, especially for Valentines day, so now that things are calming down a bit, I should be able to get some work done and work on new projects!
 
And maybe even squeeze in a trip to the Nashville Flea Market next weekend!
 
Lets hope our mid winter warm snap hangs around for a little while longer!
 
Hope you have a quiet, peaceful weekend!
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

I am a Jadeite snob....

I love Jadeite, have for years. Yes I am one of "those" people introduced to Jadeite by Martha Stewart and I have been an avid collector for close to 20 years.
 
Many of my pieces I have found "in the wild" some from Ebay and a large amount I inherited from my husbands Grandmother. Love all of my pieces, especially the ones I got from Adeline.
 
But I am a snob, I don't like the knockoffs. Target carried a line of reproduction Jadeite for a little while, never touched it. Even now I check before I buy and will put it down if I cannot guarantee it is original. Not to say that I don't have a couple reproductions. I do, but they are not the pieces I am most proud of.
 
So when The Pioneer Woman (one of my favorite bloggers) came out with a reproduction Jadeite Cake stand, I, being the snob I am, turned my nose up at it. Sorry, Ree, love ya, but it is not vintage.
 
Well, then last weekend. Wandering through Walmart waiting for my husband and son, I walked past a display, and in a post Christmas moment of weakness, I grabbed one.
 
And.....I like it.
 
 
Only a true Jadeite lover like Ree, could make another true Jadeite lover snob love a reproduction. Ree obviously loves her Jadeite and put out a decent reproduction.
 
My daughter baked cupcakes and immediately loaded them up, I wish I had gotten a picture of them, they looked so pretty.
 
I am thankful that my daughter loves Jadeite as well, she knows that my collection will someday be hers, and I figure by that time...my reproductions will be getting near vintage and the current vintage will be antiques, so, win, win.
 
So, I guess I have turned over a new leaf, I am a Jadeite snob no more.
 
LOL~ No, just kidding. I will forever be, a Jadeite snob.
 
Hope you are having a great week!
 
 

Saturday, January 7, 2017

My last thrift run of 2016

 
Guess what? We got some snow yesterday!
 

Not a lot, but enough to force me to turn around before I could get to the office because of the ice, and head back for home. Did not get to craft like I had hope and ended up working, but, it was sure nice to work from my couch.
 
In my excitement over my latest glass projects, I almost forgot to tell you about my last thrift run of 2016!
 
I had taken an extra day off work before the New Years Holiday to run general errands, pick up supplies for my glass pendant project and do a quick thrift shop run. Turned out to be a very successful day!
 
I had to go it alone this time as my thrifting partners refused to get out of bed for an early morning adventure, so off I went to hit my usual favorite thrifts and indoor flea market. It was pretty quiet, not a lot to be found at my favorite Goodwill stores, but the indoor flea market seldom fails to provide at least one treasure.
 
I was pretty happy with my finds!
 
The only scores from the Thrift shops. A Hazel Atlas saucer and dessert cup. I think they were each .99. Can't complain.
 

My daughter loved the dessert cup.

 
But more fun was to be had at my little flea market.
 
First off, more Hazel Atlas. It was marked 18.00, which is right in line what how much I was seeing them for on Ebay (minus the shipping) but the booth was having a 75% off sale, so home it came with me!
 
 
And it was a jar day for me. I love this milkglass jar, not sure how I forgot to include the cute lid. It now holds the sugar cubes that my daughter likes to use in her tea.
 

Another green jar, next size down from the one I bought months ago.....again, I forgot the lid. What was I doing?
 

Now this is cool, it is basically a 1930's  protein shaker, it even still had the recipe slip inside of it. We all got a good laugh out of this. Fun!
 


The latest craze, a health habit that's sweeping the nation! it cracks me up!

 
And another milk jug, Clover Farms, it is so sweet! Currently filled with beautiful orange red carnations, I love it!
 
 
 But the strangest thing I grabbed? Puppies.
 
 
Just one of those things...I never find pugs, so I have to go with the bulldogs!
 
But that face!

 
And one last thing, an Ebay buy. Love these Hazel Atlas spice jars.
 

 
But my bad luck continues to plague me.
 
 
Dammit, another victim to bad packing.
 
Hope to get back to working on glass again tomorrow, a bit too cold out in the garage to be working with glass, but thankfully a warm up is in the forecast this week! I am excited to make another one!
 
Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

A lesson in working with glass...

That sounds so formal, but it's better than "Watch youtube tutorials and you too can grind glass" but I digress.....
 
I watched video tutorial's on youtube and got down to cutting and grinding.
 
And it was FUN!
 
Typically I am pretty accident prone. I easily trip over my own feet (and constantly over my beloved Pug), walk into door frames, walls, smack myself in the face, burn, cut and generally maul myself, oh, and I fall down fairly often, but I am so good at it by this stage in my life, I pretty much bounce right back up, what can I say, It is a gift...I cannot teach this stuff. So needless to say, power tools and soldering irons make me a little nervous. But, I put my fears aside and gave it a try, and I am glad I did.
 
First things first, I ran to Harbor Freight, picked up a mini dremel tool and another soldering iron, a little smaller and easier to handle than my big gun, oh, and heavy gloves. Then home I went and just jumped right into it.
 
First, a quick test run...not bad for a first try.
 

Then go for it. Took my time, cut out my design instead of trying to break it...trust me...breaking it to make it smaller to work with....does....not....work. Just take the time and grind away. I found drilling holes around the design I wanted until it snaps along the line works best. Constantly spraying it with water out of a handy dandy spray bottle worked great! And it made sure I was not taking any glass chips to the face...ya...don't ask me how I know about that. See the white liquid around the pendant? That is all the glass powder I was not breathing in. Although, I was wearing a mask.....with a few drops of essential oils of course LOL.
 

 
About an hour to cut this smaller pendant out of a larger piece of glass, rough around the edges, but the larger bench grinder smoothed that out in no time flat. Again, keep that water spray bottle handy, and for goodness sake, wear gloves and safety glasses!

 
Of course I forgot to get a shot of the pendant once it was smoothed out. When I get rolling, I get focused and always forget pictures. I got so excited, I cleaned the pendant, got the copper tape wrapped and started soldering away.
 

I have decided that I love soldering, it is like painting with metal. Very forgiving painting, you can go back and smooth it out over and over again until you are happy with it. This can be dangerous if you are very anal retentive, if you let yourself, you can spend hours going over and over smoothing it just one more time.
 
 Don't ask me how I know that.
 
And the semi finished pendant. I think I will smooth it over once more before putting the loop on it for the chain. Then off to Creative Village it goes next week! Hopefully I will have another one or two to go with it.
 
 
I am having fun with this, can you tell?
 
I will be back to grinding away this weekend! With the possibility of a WHOLE INCH of snow tomorrow night, I may get an extra day to grind away :) Oh I love the South, one inch can shut us down. And I am not complaining.
 
Hope you are having a great week!
 

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Happy 2017!

Happy New Year!
 
I hope you had a wonderful holiday. We sure did! It was quiet and relaxing, which in my book is perfect!
 
I always look forward to January as a "re-charge" month, but this year will be just a little different. I do still plan to relax and recharge after a busy fall and Holiday season, but I also plan to do some major house purging and reorganizing along with tackling some projects for Creative village in time for  Valentines day, so I will be a bit busier than my usual "re-charge" January, but that is ok. I think it sounds like a good idea to kick 2017 off with some action!
 
The first thing I did once the Christmas decorations were down was look for some flowers to tuck into my vintage lunch box. I am going to have a lot of fun with this lunchbox. I really love it!
 
 
I really love the pink with the black, but I was originally looking for begonias. Sadly, this close to Christmas, there was not a lot of flowers to choose from, and no fresh herbs at all, I think herbs will look fantastic in it for spring, so as soon as these fade I will be heading to Trader Joes to pick up a couple of their kitchen herb gardens!
 
It won't be long before I am starting my tomato seeds for this spring! And yes, I am going to plant tomatoes this year, I really have missed them!
 
Hope you have a great week an awesome start to the new year!