To Cali And Back

 We returned from a trip to California on Saturday evening.  I like everything about my Scion XB except the rock hard seats - OUCH!  This is Mt. Shasta, taken through a dirty windshield at 65 MPH.  Thank you little smart phone!

 Yes, I tortured The Husband with a little junking.  There was no shortage of antique shops but most were full-on retail so not much buying but always fun to look!

 The pink salt and pepper shakers, the green and white enamel pan and the yellow Fiesta pitcher will be staying with me.  The pitcher was a gift from the MIL's house.  She said she had no emotional attachment to it.  I said that is a good thing because I was falling in love with it. The rest is in search of it's forever homes.

 We spent the night in Weed CA both ways.  No, this is not one of our vises (we have plenty of others!) but we thought it was pretty funny and clever that the town was capitalizing on their name the way they were.  We contributed to their economy by picking up plenty of souvenirs. The town was actually named after a man called Abner Weed.

On our last night we stopped at The Mt. Shasta Brewery.  Yes, that IS one of our vises!  I asked the waitress if it was okay to take some pictures and she offered to take a picture of us in front of the bar.  I love the little guy photo-bombing us on the left side of the picture.
Two little love birds sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G!

The Beat Goes On...

Some recent finds to satisfy my junk-tooth.  If you click this bigger I'm sure you will wonder why in the world I bought that pile of very old and very filthy laces in the lower left of the picture.  Or maybe you won't.

This was the attraction in the bag.  A long-ago crafter fashioned a crochet corsage.  I just have to press and deconstruct so I can figure out what she was up to.  For a hat maybe??

Yes, the pincushion rocker is wearing a vintage plastic lampshade on her head.  Clearly a party girl!  I am pretty sure I have a little lamp up in the attic that it will fit.  I adore the cutting board and the tin.  The tiny mirror next to it says handmade in Italy on the back.

The pattern in the back is for Barbies.  Oh! I mean 11" fashion dolls.  Excuse me copyright police. I don't often run across old rolling pins.  They bring back fond memories of my "earth mother" period when I baked bread and put up the produce from the garden and rolled out countless pie crusts.  Maybe I will learn to like cooking again after I retire.  I'm sure The Husband would be down with it!

I have now proven, without a doubt, that you can have too many Scrabble tiles.  They aren't even popular for crafting anymore but I still feel compelled to scratch them out of the bottom of a filthy bin. My jar is completely full already so these will be heading to Etsy, pronto, and hopefully someone still has a use for them.  I adore the old Composition Book.

Every page is covered, front to back, with handwritten recipes.  They are not written out like we do today with a list of ingredients followed by instruction.  Each one is just a narrative of how to make something.

Bits and pieces in a beautiful old Fire King dish with it's gold edge still intact. The fabric on the right is a stack of hearts someone cut out and never finished the project.

When I find things like this at The Bins it makes my heart heavy. I can only hope Bettie didn't get them in the mail. 8+(

I think this wire thing is pretty neat but I have no clue what it is.  There is no bottom in the basket and it doesn't look like it ever had one.  Anyone?  Any ideas?

One last picture.  We are Seahawks fans around here and this is a souvenir postcard of the old Seattle Kingdome.  Go Seahawks!!

NOT The Bins!

Believe it or not, I DO junk somewhere besides The Bins from time to time!  I made two estate sale stops this weekend.  One was a hoarder house, but not everything that gets hoarded should be.  At one point I was down in the basement, trying to find something worth hauling out when another shopper said she was "stuck".  I commented that if someone tipped over in a corner down there they might never be found.

Most things were un-priced, which I hate. It is so awkward if they name some ridiculous price and you have to say no thank you.  Well I gathered up an armload of tins and headed over to the man in the lawn chair to ask how much.  "Oh, those old things, you can just have them."  DOH.  I told him I insisted on paying something so he said 10 cents each.

I found 5 pieces of old restaurant china at the same sale and added them to my pile.  When I was ready to leave I asked the price for the pile.  $1.00.  Well, okay sir, how about I give you $2. O probably should have given him $5 but who am I to argue.
The bottles and chippy metal plant stands are from a different sale and they were NOT 10 cents. As they say, one man's junk....
The wire dress form has snaps up the front.  I tried to put it on but it hurt too much - LOL!

Just Playing...

I've just been goofing off the past couple of nights.  The big-girl job has been using me up for the last several weeks but, thankfully, there is the therapy of play time and nearing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Funny how certain quotes speak to you at certain times in your life and a little glue and doodling makes it all feel better.  Click the picture bigger for some "found poetry".
I hope you are all taking some time to find your joy!

No Time for Junk

There was no time for junk this week and sometimes that is a good thing.  I took a time-out to play in my altered book, which I haven't done in far too long.  I heard this quote while watching American Pickers and have to say I agree!
The inspiration for the design was from a couple of different Pinterest posts.  I used Caran D'Ache Neocolor Watersoluble patels and misted them with water.  The colors didn't bleed in to each other quite as much as I thought they would but the whole thing provided exactly the relaxation I needed.
Have a great weekend and do something FUN!

Last Gasp From the Summer Garden

 Fall Crocus are the signal that Autumn is around the corner. It has been an unusually hot and dry Summer here in Portland and the garden reflects it.

 The Rose of Sharon didn't seem to mind the heat but I don't think any of the plants enjoyed having to drink the purified city water any more than we liked paying for it!

 The sun baked the color right out of the Hydrangea but a few blooms persevered. I can't help but wonder why a few blooms stayed fresh and blue.  Maybe they opened later?

 I showed you the new grapes in this post.  They LOVED the hot weather and they grew twice as high as we were expecting.  Once the leaves drop the pruning and training will become.

 We even got one tiny little cluster of grapes!  I think they love their new home.

 The old, reliable 4 o'clocks just wander around wherever they want and don't seem to mind much of anything.

 Sorry for the poor picture.  Rudbekia putting up with Queen Anne's Lace that isn't supposed to be there but sometimes I kind of love it.

And then there are the tomatoes.  They are thriving and producing more than we can use.  The summer squash did well, too.  Everything else succumbed to the heat.  Vine ripened tomatoes make the garden worth the effort.

Enjoy Your Labor Day!

Wishing you all a much-deserved day of relaxation with my favorite patio song.  I wish you could all Stop, slow down and come on over to my yard and let your troubles all disappear!

Happy Labor Day!
(best enjoyed with your eyes closed since this fellow isn't in time with the music!)

Summer Blogging

Blogging seems to take a backseat to Summer as the days race by!  Yes, I am still junking even though days have raced by without any blogging about it.  It has been a VERY long and unusually hot and dry Summer here in Portland.  I'm not loving seeing the days get shorter but I'm enjoying the cooler temps and we are finally having some rain to help out the firefighters and dust things off.

These finds are from the past week.  I have been very busy at the big girl job but still got in a few lunch stops for my junk-tooth. I collect Royal Ruby and Forest Green but these vases are duplicates so they will be headed to the booth for Christmas, along with the book.  The heart pincushion will be added to my collection.  I'm not sure yet about the flower frogs...

These little angels are so sweet!  They need to open their eyes or they are going to miss.

These Fire King saucers have roses on them, not Primroses.  Does anyone know the name of the pattern?

A golden angel for Christmas.  I have been picking up quite a few of these 60s Japan Christmas figurines and I'm starting to look forward to pulling out the Christmas bins and sorting for the booth.  For the most part I avoided holiday decor in my Etsy shop because I don't have space to store it but I have been accumulating like crazy for the booth since there will be an expectation of Christmas decor there.  Fingers crossed!

This dapper fellow will be joining two others I already have.  I kind of wish someone wouldn't have drawn a face on him but he DOES have an attitude! Yo Dude! I looked up the "The Petit Prince" French children's book on line and it might be a find.  It will be headed to Etsy in the next day or two.

There hasn't been much time for crafting around here this Summer but I DID get the seats covered on those chairs I showed you in this post. Now I just have to put them back on - LOL!