The Sunday Junk, a Buried Treasure and Some Catching Up

 A little more junking last Sunday and this is the LAST post where you have to endure the sepia photos since I finally figured out the white balance problem with my camera - WooHoo!!  Lots of lace plus a few other treasures from the VOA.

 I don't think this high chair is especially old but old enough to be neat.  That will go in to the stash for the imaginary antique mall space.  The yellow pot in the seat is Frankoma and headed to Etsy as soon as I get around to it.  I have been doing pretty good on listing things this week so we'll see if I can stay on task.  This is a holiday weekend so that will help - no estate sales to distract me and Division Street Antiques is closed for their annual picking trip east.  I will still hit the VOA since one of the clerks keeps telling me she is going to bring in her mother's button tin for me.  The aqua pot is marked Over Serve Ware and I remember my mother having some of them.  I think they were premiums in oatmeal or something like that.

 I collect Forest Green and Royal Ruby and don't often find a piece with the original paper label.  The modern metal candlesticks in the background have been languishing on the shelf at VOA for a while.  I have been eyeing them because I think they would be great stands for the Styrofoam heads I made in this project but didn't want to pay the price they wanted.  They were 75% off on Sunday so home they came.

 Down in the bottom of the poke sack of lace I found a button treasure!  You just never know what you might find in a poke sack.  If I see a few things I'm interested in then I swoop it up.

 Marked Austria on the back and not something I have ever seen before.  An unexpected buried treasure!

 I promised I would show my favorite buttons from this post and I didn't forget this time. You can click the picture bigger.  The ones on the left side are glass and the ones on the right are plastics.

 I haven't worked in my altered quote book in quite a while so I took a time-out for that last week, as well.  I saw these words on Pinterest and don't know who to attribute them to but loved the thought!

This summer has been SO unusually hot for Portland that I haven't been spending the time in the garden that I would like to so things are looking a little rough.  I did grab an opportunity the other day to do a little pruning and open up this path.  I read somewhere that every garden should have a "woods walk".  It isn't very long but this is mine.
Whew, all caught up!  Where is this Summer going??

Junky Saturday and Some R&R

 I am happy to report that we had the "go-live" last weekend for the office project that has been taking so much of my time and I lived to tell about it.  This weekend I am enjoying three days of much-needed R&R.
My only junk stop today was Nina and Joe's where I had a good visit and gathered up this little pile.  The pink chester drawers 8+) will get a make-over and might get to stay in my bathroom if it works out.

 The sweet detachable lace collar is headed to Etsy when I get caught up with that.  Today I caught up a few things around the house, including spending an obscene amount of money at the grocery store but the cobwebs in my cupboards have been replaced with food.

 A new tea ball is missing from the pictures above because I already hung it up in my little collection.  Yes, I have a little collection of tea balls and I have that fancy new teapot in my last post and I don't even drink tea.  Nobody has ever accused me of making sense.

 Friday morning I dashed out before work and took a couple of garden photos.  The Poppies are past their prime but really put on a show this year. I am fighting wild Morning Glory in the Yarrow.  Anyone have a good remedy for that??

 The Foxglove continue to delight.  I was able to get out in the yard tonight and clean up the Dahlia bed and put in Preen so it stays DONE for a while.  There are three things I can do that totally relax my thinker.  One is reading, one is junking and one is gardening.  When I think back on those three things I can't remember a single thing I thought about while I was doing them.

Even though I was working last weekend, Memorial Day wasn't totally lost on me.  This was the gorgeous view out the window of my office. No way can you look at that and not feel gratitude for those who let freedom ring!
I hope you are all having a relaxing weekend.

A Little Piece Of Pretty

 I have been feeling a little frustrated lately about making a living eating in to my time to make a life.  I like to garden and take a lot of pride in my yard.  It is big and it is a mature garden so it takes some work to keep it all under control.  We had beautiful weather on Sunday so I spent the day in the front yard, you know, the one people driving by can see.  I ran out of steam before I finished, but I made a good dent in it.
I walked in the back yard and stood on my patio and all I could see was all the work needing to be done.  Not very gratifying or relaxing!

So last night I came home and cleaned out one small bed that is front and center to my eyes when I am on the patio.  I think I dug out at least 8 of those pesky ferns that invade EVERYWHERE in my yard.  Those stinkers will inherit the earth!  Tonight I stopped at the green grocer on my way home and treated myself to 10 zonal geraniums.  I don't typically buy many annuals but I need a little piece of pretty to rest my eyes on.
Big sigh.  So pretty!

Random Ramblings...

 When I was doing the wash-rinse-repeat dance with my latest haul from The Bins, my spray bottle gave up. I have a couple (not 3) of those old fashioned sprinkle tops so I rigged up a new water bottle for the ironing. My mother's was a pop bottle and she called it "the sprinkle bottle".  Maybe there is a real name.  I don't know.  I used a vintage bottle that I also had on hand and decorated it with a couple of floral stickers.  I really don't mind ironing but so much nicer with this pretty bottle!

 I also moved the herbs and the Farm Fresh sign to the wagon, er, Farm Wagon.

 A close up of the pretty bloom that wanted to sneak in to the picture.  Now that The Farm is done it is time to give the roses that are left some attention.  I think a couple of them are going to need some major pruning back so they can just start over for this year.

 I won a lace auction on eBay almost two weeks ago and it was finally delivered yesterday.  Lots of neat pieces for the inspiration kits.  I think that ruffled piece with the roses down the center is going to inspire an altered bottle kit.  I haven't made one of those in a while.

 I don't usually post about recipes since I don't like to cook but The Husband made this last night and it is SO good that I had to share.  White Bean and Radish Salad.  You can find the recipe here.  We used fresh white and red radishes from the garden.  Add a few crackers and a boiled egg or some cheese to your plate and you've got a whole meal.  Delicious!!

A treat for me!  I ordered these earrings from Luna Jewelry on Etsy.   My photo does not do them justice.  They are the most delightful little bees hovering near their big droplets of golden honey.  Beautiful!
There are buttons in my future [like that's news - har har!]so stay tuned.

Planted Birdbath

Earlier this week I mentioned on FB that I planted my mother's birdbath with hens and chicks so I decided to post about it and show you a picture.
This birdbath was a housewarming gift from her father (my grandfather) for a new house my parents built in about 1967. It has resided in my backyard since she passed away in 2002. The year before last we had a really hard winter by Portland standards and the birdbath didn't fare too well. It didn't break but it doesn't hold water very long. It sat that way all last summer and the husband suggested he could probably fix it with a layer of fiberglass. I wasn't really digging how that would look so just let it sit until I got a "vision" about what to do with it.
In early spring we had our apple tree pruned. It was long overdue so there was quite a bit of damage when the limbs came down. The gutter on the roof of one of our garden sheds was planted with hens and chicks climbing up the roof. It was in harms way and a limb tore off the entire gutter and sent all the hens and chicks tumbling to the ground in a heap. The husband repaired the shed and I replanted as best I could but couldn't make them all fit back where they came from so parked many in individual pots to wait for a new home.
The husband does fine woodturning (check out the link on the left or click here) and occasionally a bowl warps during the drying process and he is not able to use it. Sometimes they become garden art in mine or someone else's garden and other times he just burns them for firewood.
So now I have three things waiting for a vision - can you see where this is going?? One, two, three, a planted birdbath.
I sure hope they "take". I saw something similar when we were at the Hulda Klager Lilac Garden for the Lilac Festival in April. They put rocks around the edges to help hold in the soil but I'm going with this for now and see what happens.

Rain be GONE

Two months of record breaking rain up here in Portland. We had a brief respite last weekend that coaxed some of the soggy flora into bloom so I dashed out Tuesday night and snapped a few pictures before the next round of rain moved in.
One perfect oriental poppy. So beautiful it doesn't look real! Tall, leggy peonies reaching for the sun. So sad to see the rain make them hang their heads - kind of like most of Portland after this relentless string of storms.

They are predicting we will achieve our first 80 degree day this weekend so we're all hoping the tide (!) is turning at last. I, for one, will be spending my day outdoors.

Dirt Maker

Yep, you heard me right. I spent Sunday afternoon building this fancy device for sifting dirt. A dirt maker. Our soil is really rocky here so every time I dig a hole to plant something I have to pick out the rocks by hand before I deposit the "old" dirt in the compost. My son built something similar so I pirated his design and made one for myself. I think I can make some mighty fine dirt with this - don't you think?