Happily Ever After

New Winner!

2012-02-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

I had to re-draw for a winner in the Valentine's Day Giveaway...........

congratulations, Elisa from Herb Of Grace!

Thanks again to everyone who participated.

Kiss Pies.

2012-02-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

I saw this on Pinterest and had to try it.

Pie crust + Hershey Kisses

Except I didn't have Hershey Kisses; I had Dove chocolates. So I used those, and it turned out just as good. I made my own pie crust, but you could use refrigerated just as well. I used a 3 inch biscuit cutter to cut out my rounds. Also, make sure you wet the edges before you pinch them together. Bake for maybe 10 min. at 350.

Also: I never heard from the original winner of the Valentine's Day giveaway of this necklace (Melody), so I will be drawing another winner on Saturday Feb. 4! If you'd like a last minute entry, please add your name in today. (I never knew "giveaways" could be so complicated!)

Shop Update: Browns

2012-02-09T13:05:00.000-05:00

I know brown is not exactly a Valentine's season color, but I added some new cute stuff to the shop in brown recently and wanted to share.

Plus, due to another work emergency, I have not had time to do any of the romantic cutesy stuff I had planned on blogging about for the week leading up to Valentine's day, so......

I bought this a year ago from Dandelion Vintage. I replaced the zipper, and then planned on selling it; but every time I get ready to list it I can't .... a 60s textured wool wiggle dress that probably had a matching jacket with it at one time, now missing. Very Joan Holloway.

This hat is NOS - new old stock. It still has the original tags on it! Brown and black tulle woven around turban style, with a veil. Available here.

This dress is really cute, but not for me. Click here for info

Cute brown vinyl Mary Janes. Click here for info

60s linen scooter dress. I love this dress, but it's straight up and down design doesn't jive with my curves. So much to my dismay I am offering it for sale. *cries* Click here for info

50s Lucite "Dorset Rex" basket weave purse. Not really brown but I figured I'd include it. Click here for info

Happy February!

2012-02-02T12:09:00.000-05:00

I've stated before that I am not a fan of Valentine's day; in the "traditional gift" aspect. That is, I don't like the typical dozen long stemmed red roses, cheesy box of cheap candy, stuffed animals, tacky lingerie, and the like. In fact, my husband and I usually ignore the day entirely. I prefer spontaneous romantic gestures, gifts, dinners out, cards, flowers, etc. - any old day of the year, and truthfully, my man was glad to be "off the hook" form rushing out and buying me something on Valentines Day, that usually doesn't require much personal thought, because the stores have it all set out for the grabbing.
(That's just us! I have nothing against people who do love it, and get into the spirit on Valentine's Day. That's great.)

That does not mean, however, that I am not a fan of romance, and celebrating love and romantic attachments! I just don't like the obligatory, run-of-the-mill way of celebrating and gift giving.

So to prove that I DO love romance, and the idea of Valentine's Day, I am going to highlight some cute Valentine's themed things - and food - this month.

Starting with these burlap banners I made. (Have I mentioned that burlap is my new favorite textile for decor and crafts?)

To buy:

Mini hearts burlap bunting

"Love" burlap bunting

Random Moments Of Abundant Joy

2012-01-31T17:29:00.001-05:00

Do you ever see or hear something that just fills your heart with so much joy you think you're going to burst?

I confess I have more moments of irritation, stress and even anger that make me think I am going to burst. Ha.

The other day I was driving home from someplace and I got behind a slow moving school bus.

Instant vexation.

I followed behind for several stops, irritated.

Then it stopped in front of a picturesque house on the 2-lane road deep in the rural farming community; and an adorable little girl jumped off, in her pink coat and princess backpack.
Her older brother followed, with his blue coat and some super hero backpack.

As they approached their driveway, a black lab puppy, maybe three months old, came from behind their house and bounded towards them with all the energy and enthusiastic affection of a puppy and the little girl ran to meet her puppy and then there was this priceless moment of puppy hugs and little girl kisses...

And I practically burst into tears right then and there as my heart joined in their Moment Of Abundant Joy. It was like I was watching a scene from some Hallmark movie or something.

In the dreary winter time, and the nasty political climate weighing on American's minds right now; plus the pathetic economy and turmoil elsewhere in the world, occasional bright moments of pure joy and carefree, childlike love and affection really mean a lot.

If you keep your eyes and your heart open you never know when you will be blessed with a Random Moment Of Abundant Joy!

(The photo above is from last Spring with my puppy Dodge and nice Alana.)

Don't forget to enter the Cameo Necklace Giveaway; it ends Friday.

Giveaway Extension.....And Other Things

2012-01-30T00:08:00.000-05:00

-I am extending the Cameo Necklace giveaway through the end of this week (To Friday Feb. 3). I think I need some more entries to make it evenly "fair"..... so please drop in to this post and add your comment to enter. One way or the other I will post the winner on Sat. Feb 4. I was going to do a second giveaway of some other equally as awesome items but it's not going as well as I had hoped, so I'll hold off on giveaways #2 and #3 until later .......

- Visit my friend Mary's "Fashionably Yours" blog; she has some great tutorials on there and cleverly put together outfits as well.

- Check out the new website for L*PIDA. The Project Leader is my sister Noelle, and they're raising money to support The Nepali Rescue Project; who then use the money to rescue and restore women and girls who are victims of human (sex) trafficking. Read more about it here.

- I have been (finally) reading the "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" trilogy by Stieg Larsson and loving it. Highly recommend. (But not if you are squeamish, or easily offended by crime/violence/sex/etc.) They're some of the most brilliantly written novels I have read in a while; I find it hard to put them down.

- I have been drinking hot cocoa made like this ; and I will never drink it any other way again.

- Downton Abbey Season 2 is airing on PBS in the States right now; are you watching? Downton is my new favorite in TV viewing; I have watched the first season about six or eight times through; no kidding. Then I figured out ways to see season 2 before it was released here in the US. However, if you have not seen the first season; don't try jumping into season 2. Too many details you won't understand. (Season 1 is on Netflix.) Also, They'll be doing a 3d season! I am thrilled!

Covered Button Earrings - Cute!

2012-01-27T19:31:00.004-05:00

Who says buttons are only for clothing?

All of these are being offered in my Etsy shop, totally handmade by me - and come gift boxed. Remember, a portion of ALL sales from Carolina Roses goes to support L*PIDA/The Nepali Rescue Project in their efforts to rescue and restore women and girls victimized by human trafficking in Nepal and India.

Top: blue gingham earrings
Middle:blue and white calico earrings
Bottom: purple calico earrings

Don't forget to enter the giveaway in the post below to win a cameo necklace and yummy dark chocolate bar shipped to the winner FREE anywhere in the world!!

Valentines Day Giveaway

2012-01-26T10:56:00.000-05:00

I was going to try to do this at Christmas but never got around to it. But Valentine's day seems just as good an excuse to give away stuff! This will be the first of several giveaways I am planning for the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

This is a fun combo to treat yourself, or give away.

This giveaway includes a cameo necklace (ruby red plastic with creamy white cameo, measuring 2 inches long an 1 1/2 inches wide, on a silver tone chain) and a dark chocolate bar with a vintage inspired wrapper.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post. For two entries, become a NEW "follower" of this blog (let me know you've "followed" in your comment, please!) The giveaway will be over on Jan. 28 and I will announce the winner on Jan. 29. Please feel free to invite your friends and blog readers to enter as well.
The prize will be shipped free of charge to the winner, no matter where you live in the world. :)

In case you're wondering what the necklace looks like on an actual person (me):

Thanks for your participation!

Shop Update in Black

2012-01-25T20:56:00.000-05:00

My usual haunts for scoring great vintage for my shop have been really disappointing lately. I've been having to go to cities up to and over an hour away to find inventory - that, and antiques shops. So I have a whole bunch of new stuff to list over the next few weeks - including a whole slew of dresses I have started piling up and just haven't photographed yet. But more on those later.

60s black patent leather (?) kitten heels

50s era glass beaded choker necklace

Black rose print 80s Victorian revival blouse with ascot

Black vinyl patent "leather" 60s handbag

Inspired by Skeeter

2012-01-17T16:02:00.002-05:00

Last summer, I saw "The Help" and was smitten. I immediately bought and read the book, and then this Christmas I received the DVD as a gift from my sister. I fell in love with the (early)60s dresses, and their full skirts and feminine details that work great for people like me with...... curves. Of course, I then devoured every season of "Mad Men" on Netflix, where I just died over almost every single one of Betty Draper's outfits.

And when I saw this dress at a thrift shop today, I knew I had to have it; because it looked just like something the character "Skeeter" in "The Help" would wear! I snagged it for $5.00

(Me, with zero hair done, and only a tinted lip balm for "make up" - sorry for my frumpyness)

The dress is not vintage; but might as well be, for it's classic 60s styling, bright green plaid cotton, button front, full, lined skirt, and tie belt. I'm wearing it here (I put it on as soon as I got home with it) with a 50s cashmere cardigan, since it is January, and a bit chilly out. (The dress is actually sleeveless. It is also about 5 sizes too big for me, but thanks to the tie belt, it cinched right up.) I am going to wear this dress out this Spring and Summer!

I also picked up this awesome tapestry handbag:

Bag for sale here.

Getting - and staying - organized.

2012-01-11T11:39:00.000-05:00

Getting organized is probably one of the top ten New Year's resolutions in this country, right up there with loosing weight and eating healthy and all that.

Getting organized is not my problem; it's staying that way I have an issue with.

I know just how to get organized, and I do it. But then as the days and weeks go by, the stuff takes over again, and I have the piles of mail, magazines and mess on my desk. I have the freezer burned steak shoved in the back of the freezer behind the bag of frozen broccoli and ice cream. The clothes start piling up on chairs and shoved into drawers. My crafts stuff just stays in a jumble on my dining room table where I do in and dig around till I find what I need for whatever project. If Kevin smashes a digit and needs a bandage, I have to dig through three or four baskets of stuff in the bathroom just to find the box of band aids.

The problem extends even to my barn, where my feed room is piled with dirty horse blankets and empty Purina feed sacks and those annoying plastic bags the stall shavings come in; with baling twine strung everywhere; saddles and pads all jumbled together in the tack room with bridles a tangled mess and peppermint candy wrappers on the floor crunching everywhere I step on the floor in there.

I have come to the conclusion that staying organized does not come naturally to me; so I am going to have to make a special effort to do so.

Which is really hard right now with my complicated work schedule. I am not as home as much so when I get home at night, all I have time to do is make dinner for us, tend to the pets and livestock, and crash in an exhausted, frumpy, irritated heap on the couch for a few hours with Kevin, then go to bed, and get up in the morning and rush right back out the door.
My few hours of time away from work during the week are taken up with family responsibilities, farm responsibilities, errands, shopping for groceries and such, and taking care of business things like getting orders from my website shipped out in a timely manner.

So staying organized is going to be a huge chore for me this year. But I am determined to do it.

Here is what I decided to do so far:

For one thing, I am bringing less stuff into the house. I am simply buying less. I have gotten strict with myself about what I can buy as shop inventory, too - so less storage space is being used.

I went through each room in my house and tossed everything that could be tossed. Even in the fridge and freezers; pantry, and bathroom. If I can keep the stuff down to a manageable amount of things I use and need, then I won't feel buried and overwhelmed by it so much.

I am also trying to de-clutter and put things away daily or at least every other day when I can - when I am at home to do it.

I've realized that it is less about what you do to organize, or how you do it; it is more about taking the time to do it; making the time to do it. That is where my difficulty lies. I can't even make the time; because I don't have the time. It is frustrating but I am trying.

What do you do to get organized and stay that way? I need inspiration.

Pink Shop Update

2012-01-05T20:28:00.001-05:00

I am not a huge fan of Valentine's Day but some of my recent Etsy listings seem to be Valentine's Day inspired. And pink. (Click link below each item for sale info.)

Pink Veil Fascinator

Pink Rhinestone Necklace

Pink 1950s Deadstock PJs

Pink sheer babydoll top with matching shorts

Pink 50s coin bank

Ballerinas coaster set

Pink Teacup

Pink angora cardigan

Thoughts on Proper Handling of Vintage Items .....

2012-01-05T12:52:00.000-05:00

I bought this cutie at a local antiques shop. It is made from antique quilt pieces. Love it; so cute.

At the same time I had purchased a late 30s - 40s faux pearl necklace with a fancy rhinestone clasp.

When the cashier at the shop was bagging my purchases, she grabbed the paper sticker tag and literally ripped it off the necklace, while I stood there and cringed. She then stuffed it down inside this little bag and I went on my way.

When I got home and lifted the necklace out, it fell apart all over the floor. I spent a long time on my hands and knees hunting down every little bead and the rhinestone clasp; inwardly grumbling at the shop owner's carelessness.

I have encountered mishandling of old, vintage, antique items before at yard sales and thrift shops and the like, but was stunned to find a antique shop owner handling items so roughly. Even if she is new at the business - and perhaps inexperienced.

It happened again this week, at a large, well-known antiques mall in a nearby town run by very experienced antiques dealers that have several mall locations all over the state, with years of experience under their belt.

I purchased some hats in a paper hat box, a delicate embroidered cotton dress from the 1930s, and two pieces of vintage costume jewelry.

One of the owners of the mall checked me out, and as she started to (very sloppily) fold the dress - a very delicate, almost sheer cotton - over the hanger it was on, I must have made a face because she stopped and asked me if I wanted the hanger left on it.

I abruptly said NO - because the dress, flopped over the wire hanger, could get holes and rips from the edges and wire parts of the hanger. Inwardly I thought "DUH" but I didn't say it out loud.

Next the woman stuffed - and I do mean stuffed - the necklaces into tiny ziplock baggies. One is a glass beaded choker; one is a rhinestone necklace. Each could easily be broken when crammed into any space. I was really blown away by all of this and left the place in disbelief.

If I had a shop, delicate vintage jewelery, especially beaded necklaces and chains and the like - would be boxed. Period. The only thing I might stick in a plastic baggie would be earrings or pendants.

And fragile antique dresses and textiles would also be carefully folded and boxed. Period. Or, I might have plastic garment bags.

This just makes sense to me. This is how I ship things all around the world; so far so good.

Has anyone else encountered mishandling of purchases at antiques shops where sellers should know better?

The Last Awesome Find of 2011

2012-01-02T10:32:00.000-05:00

I found - and bought - a lot of great stuff in 2011. I also sold a LOT of great stuff, to my wonderful customers.

But on the last day of the year, I really found a doosey.

I loaded up some trash and a bag of give-away items and headed for our "Green Boxes" down the road.

Some of you may remember the "Green Box"..... it is our county's recycling and trash collection site; and it is a very well kept place. Neat, tidy, organized, and there is this lovely little building where you can leave items for giving away, or take items. That way, they don't all end up in the landfills. I have found super cool stuff at the Green Boxes.

So when I took my recycling and my give-away bag on Saturday, I peeped into the give-away building and nearly had a heart attack.

Because there, on the bench inside, was a large cardboard box - overflowing with VINTAGE HATS.

That little chorus of angels in my head that sings when I find awesomeness for next to nothing - or, in this case, nothing at all - started singing not just the Hallelujah chorus, but a rousing Southern Gospel version of it, and the little angels were shouting and dancing and beating on tambourines in a joyous frenzy!

The hats came home with me. There were 15 hats in the box. Felts, velvet, silk flowers, tulle, satin ribbons, intricate straw, feathers, beads...... even my husband's jaw dropped when I took the box out of the car. He loves what I do.

It was the best way to end the year. It kind of made up for the fact that I worked over 24 hours straight into the new year, and rang it in at work instead of partying with my honey bun somewhere.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Christmas Post Script

2011-12-29T21:00:00.000-05:00

Here is some more of my farmhouse Christmas decor this year.

The (real) tree. We got s short one; about 6 feet.

Burlap was my thing this year... I cut it into strips and used it as ribbon on some of my gifts. I even made bows with it.

I went with a all white (and no red) theme in my dining room mantle decor this year. I also used bird-y things.

I think I am going to stick with this white theme in there... it's clean, fresh, and perfectly wintery.

See you next year, Christmas!

After Christmas

2011-12-27T10:40:00.000-05:00

- I did not take one photo over the Christmas weekend. Not one. Wow.

- I always have to mess up at least one recipe for every holiday, so in keeping this this tradition, I made a chocolate Kahlua bundt cake - turns out, you really canNOT trust PAM. From now on I will always take a minute to butter and flour my bundt pan.

- I got all three of the first Star Wars flims on DVD from my sister; and from my other sister, "Th Help" DVD. Yay!

- My momma bought me a steam cleaner so I can clean my vintage coats and gowns at home. Awesome!

- I did not bake a single sugar cookie this Christmas. Not one. On the other hand, I did make about 10 pounds of fudge, butter toffee, peppermint bark, and peanut butter buckeyes. Mmmmm

- I've been working on my resolutions for 2012. The list looks something like this: Waste less. Stay organized. Manage time better. Save more money. Eat out less. Do some strength training......... more to come probably.

- I had my first International blog feature - on this Spanish blog, featuring red lingerie! Wearing red lingerie for the New Year is good luck in Spain - I never knew that.

I have an unexpected 2 additional days off - yesterday I rode with my husband for his job, today I've been catching up on laundry, dishes, kitchen cleaning, refrigerator cleaning and organizing, pantry sorting, list making, and putting away of all the stuff that piles up everywhere.... later, I am off to town to buy some plastic totes for my Christmas decorations. I think it is time they had a plastic tote home, instead of a cruddy old cardboard box home. Plus I want to stock up on Holiday decor clearance sales - woot, woot!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday and I want to thank you all for reading my ramblings on this blog this last year.

onwards to 2012!

Crochet Lace Snowflakes

2011-12-23T20:45:00.001-05:00

This year, I made rag ball ornaments, burlap ornaments, and crochet snowflakes to my "homespun", old-fashioned themed Christmas tree.

I showed how to make the rag ball ornaments in this post. The ones I made for the tree, however, I made with the 3 inch styrofoam balls instead of the 4 inch size. Plus I did them in a dark red and tan small check fabric.

The crochet lace snowflakes look like this:

(Cruddy photo; sorry.)

I cut approx. 5 inch lengths of 2 inch wide ecru colored crochet lace trim....

.... and sewed the ends together using a whip stitch to secure all the little ends. Then I made loose, wide stitches (about 1/2 inch) all around the bottom part of the lace, and gave it a gentle pull to gather it up into a round shape, knotting off the thread to hold it in place. I added a vintage shell shank button and a loop of cotton thread for hanging. They take less than 5 minutes each. And they look great on my tree; I love them!

I haven't gotten any pics of the burlap ornaments and how I made those yet; sorry.

I love the way the textiles look on the tree - burlap, lace, and rag strips alongside my rustic, nature-themed ornaments.

Christmastime At My House

2011-12-22T15:12:00.000-05:00

I am one of those people that put away all my regular decor at Christmas time and re-do everything in the house Christmas-ey.

The hutch in my "back porch"

I decided to forgo the traditional wreath in favor of a simple fur branch with a burlap bow. I am irritated, though, because the wreath hanger rubbed the paint off my door.... grrrrr

In the kitchen

Pics of my tree, mantle decor, gift wrap, and this year's home made ornaments. Hint: I'm into burlap this year. :)

Recent Buys I Love

2011-12-21T13:05:00.001-05:00

Looks vintage, but it's not. I don't know when it was made; but it was sometime within the last few years. It's got very clear 60s styling; made from black cotton "embroidered-lace effect" fabric. In this photo I am wearing a little crinoline slip to give it some 60s fullness.

Dress: Goodwill
Shoes(From this post): Goodwill
Glass beaded bracelet: Etsy
Belt on dress: Thrifted from somewhere - I can't remember.

I also picked up this cute red petticoat last week. Vintage of course. I think it was for a dancing outfit, because of it's shorter length. It has piles and piles of ruffles.
I have no idea where I will ever wear it - besides a Halloween costume party - but it is so much fun!

Shabby Chic Rag Ball Ornaments

2011-12-18T21:27:00.000-05:00

I've been busy making little home decor accessories in my spare time; which is abundant of late.

The white ones are made from a vintage infant gown that was too tattered to save.
All may be purchased at my Etsy Shop; and as usual, a portion of all sales from my Etsy shop go to help save young women and girls in Napal and India from human trafficking via L*PIDA and the Napali Rescue Project.

Shop My Vintage - Inspired Stash

2011-12-15T15:01:00.001-05:00

I've been going through my stuff and tossing. I buy stuff and then I just never wear it; or I buy it without thinking about fit - and then get it home and it doesn't fit. These things are not vintage; but vintage-inspired; and therefore I cannot and will not sell it on Etsy. But as with all my items, vintage or not, a portion of the sale goes to help stop human (sex) trafficking via L*PIDA and the Nepali Rescue Project.

50s - 60s style red plaid cotton/spandex blend jacket, with cap sleeves, peter pan collar, two big button closure, in brand-new condition. Tag: "At Last" size Medium. (US 8-10) Price: $13.50 (Includes shipping to US)

I love this top. Alas, I have too much.... um.... chest.... for it. I thought it had a cute "Jane Austen" vibe. It is 100% linen with a pink and green plaid print. It is fully lined. Scoop neck, buttons up, short sleeves also have buttons on them, full hips. Size Small; though the tag inside says Medium. Bust: 32-34 inches Waist: 30 inches. 12 inches from the waist to hem. 12 1/2 inches across the shoulder seams in back. In Brand new Condition. Price: $19.00, includes shipping to the USA

(If you're outside the US I can still ship to you, because I always ship all over the world. I can send you a Pay Pal invoice for extra $ for shipping to you. Or you can contact me and I can get a quote from the USPS first)

Encounters at the Thrift Shop

2011-12-15T11:33:00.002-05:00

As you probably know by now, I frequently - very frequently, like three or four days out of the week - shop at my favorite area thrift/charity shops; one or two per day, depending on where I am and my work schedule.

Because of my frequent visits, I have had some interesting encounters at these shops; with the employees who have kind of gotten to know me, and with some interesting fellow customers.

There are several categories of folks I have "met" at Thrift Shops;Unwanted Shopping Buddies, Shopping Moms, Stalkers and Braggers.

First of all let me just say that I like to shop alone. I do not shop to be social, unless I am out with friends, or my Mom, or my sisters. I do not go to shops to make new friends; although I have made buddies of some shop employees. Which can help me out sometimes. (Wink, wink.) I prefer to just be alone in my own little vintage treasure hunting world as I shop in the thrift.

The Unwanted Shopping Buddy is most common thrift shop encounter, for me. It's other people - ladies, mostly - who just start talking to me as we shop near each other. And I mean talking to me like they're my sister or something; and I have never seen them before in my life. "What's the 'tag color' of the day?" one lady asked me this week. (This shop has different colored tags on everything and on any given day, they pick a color, and everything tagged in that color is only one dollar.) "I have no idea," I said to her, keeping my eyes fixed on the rack of skirts in front of me. "I will go find out, okay?" she offered. Off she goes. Then she comes back. "It's yellow. So everything with a yellow tag is a dollar! Look at this. This is gorgeous. But it's a blue tag; darn it...." and on and on and on.... I politely smiled and nodded and drifted off to the housewares dept. I have people ask me "What is that?" when I have an unusual item in my cart; especially the older stuff people don't see anymore. And I even had a woman "rent" my shopping bag for $2. One store has special fabric shopping bags printed with their logo. You buy the bag for $3 and on the special sale day, you can cram anything you want in the bag and get it all for $5. So there was this woman who was staring at the sale sign when my Mom and I walked in. "Pardon me, what is this all a bout? What red bag do I have to buy?" she asked. So we explained the concept of the "bag sale" to her. But the store was out of the red fabric bags; so she came over to Mom and me and asked to "rent" my bag. Which I let her do. her daughter filled it up, they took their stuff to their car, and then she brought my bag back to me, with $2. So with her $2 and only $3 of my own cash, I got a whopper of a bag full that day.

I've also had people admire items in my cart, and advise me as to how I can use certain items; or what would look good with this or that. That is more what I call a Shopping Mom. They're the advice givers, and seem to want to take younger shoppers under their wing and give them fashion advice.
Just yesterday I was at the Goodwill "superstore" in the city and I scored an awesome, full, wonderfully ruffled, RED, vintage petticoat. I dropped it in my cart and headed to the rack of skirts when a older lady walked right up to the front of my cart as I was pushing it along - I had to stop before I ran over her. She started fingering my petticoat and admiring it; how pretty it was. Then she advised me to get a certain kind of white blouse to wear with it; it would be gorgeous; she said. I didn't bother to try and explain that it was meant for wearing under skirts, not as a skirt. I just smiled and nodded and high-tailed it to another rack, before this Shopping Mom became my Unwanted Shopping Buddy.

Employees of the stores get used to seeing me on a regular basis now; and we greet each other like friends. Some of them have figured out my agenda. One time I was checking out with a pile of stuff... all vintage.
"This is old," the girl said, holding up a vintage, fur collared coat. She handed it to the other girl who was bagging.
"Yep, that is old, my Grandma had one like that," the other girl said, stuffing it into a plastic bad as I cringed.
"This is old," the first girl said, holding up a hat. Into the bag it went with the coat.
"And this is old!" she laughed, holding up a china platter with a floral pattern on it.
"Aaaaand these are old, too," she said as she rang up some screw-back earrings. "All them screw back things is old."
Then she looks at me and says "You like old stuff, don't you? You bought some old stuff last time you was in here."
I never tell anyone what I do with it. I feel guilty telling about how I may buy it for $10 and sell it for $50.... so when I find myself in these kinds of conversations, I just smile and say "Yes, I do love old stuff. I collect it."

I encountered a Bragger last week; in a Goodwill in a neighboring city. I was buying some hats and things. The woman in front of me was wearing a full length fur coat and fur hat. As the cashier rang up her items, she announced to the girl:
"I paid $5,000 for this coat."
The cashier made some admiring remark, with raised eyebrows of disbelief. The woman in the fur opened the coat and pointed to the inner lapel and said:
"See? That's my name right there, I had it stamped in gold right there; in case it ever got stolen."
Then it was my turn; but the fur lady just stood there, looking at all the items I pulled from my cart: black velvet flats, two vintage hats, a circle skirt, and a couple glass housewares.
"Do you wear hats?" She asked me, suspiciously. Like she didn't believe I was going to wear them.
"Yes, I wear them sometimes," I said. "But mostly, I just look at them."
"You look at them?"
"Yes - I put them around on hat stands, and hand them on the wall in my bedroom, and look at them." (Which is true.)
She thought about that for a second as I swiped my debit card. Then she rubbed her hand over her fur hat.
"I paid so much for this hat, I left the price tag in it," she said to everyone in the line.
Then she went out ahead of me. I thought to myself, "If all this is true, she has got to be driving a Jaguar; or at least a BMW...."
But she drove out of the parking lot in a 90's model van with "Val's Medical Transport" hand lettered on the side. (It didn't really say Val's; I just said that to protect their privacy.)
Hmmmmmmm. That was one of the strangest things ever.

And Stalkers - yep, the stalkers. They creep me out. Last week a guy walked by me and then turned around and said:
"I saw you here last week, didn't I? I did. And I saw you at the Goodwill, too. Yep, I see you at these places all the time. Isn't that funny?"
Well he thought it was funny but I did not. I did not remember seeing him but he remembered me and that totally gave me the heebee jeebees.
I was in a junk shop back in the summer and it was one of these dark, murky eerie places; they had a fish bait farm in the same building and so everything smelled like worms and fish and nasty slimy things.
I was being trailed by a guy who kept whistling some tune under his breath, and making lame comments to try and make conversation.
I picked up a blue glass insulator.
"A-HA!" He said. "You must be an antique insulator collector!"
"Not really," I said.
"Oh, all the little cluttery things..... all the junk you just can't live without...." and he kept going on and on.
Then I was looking at a tool box.
"Oh, look at that," he said. "You can't have too many of those, can you. You can put all kinds of goodies in there."
I decided I needed to insert the fact that I had a husband into this conversation.
"My husband likes these," I said.
"Oh, the hubbs. Does the hubbs collect too?"
"Yes, he collects things," I said. "But he collects things like guns, and tractors and things like that," I said.
"John Deere Tractors?"
"Nope, International Harvester and Farmall tractors," I said.
Then he started going on about a collectible International Harvester truck he owned.
"If your husband wants a International truck to haul around his International tractors, you tell him to give me a call," he boasted. I paid for my antique insulator and got out of there as fast as I could.

I have a category for myself, too: I call it the "Smile and Nod" shopper. Cause that's what I do; just smile and nod. Then get out as fast as you can before somebody figures out that you're buying things to sell on line. Ha, ha!

My Dream Bathroom

2011-12-13T17:15:00.000-05:00

I want this bathroom in my farmhouse. It is so perfectly rustic and romantic. And shabby. I love shabby.

I love the chippy white painted punched-tin ceiling.

I love the shabby old clawfoot bathtub (We almost bought one just like it on our last trip to Michigan but the re-porcelain job would have cost a fortune so we're holding out for one in better condition, closer by...)

I love the large, un-curtained window (I despise thick and busy window treatments. Bleh. Windows are for light and for seeing out of! Why cover them up?!)

I love the vintage pendant light fixture. Perfect for reading in the tub - one of my favorite things to do.

I love the wide board walls and the stencil on them.

I love the painted floor.

I love the shelf under the window/over the tub.

I just want to go in there and have a soak right now!

Ideally, this would be attached to an equally as dreamy bedroom; and it would be like living in a quaint country bed and breakfast every single day of my life.

*Blissful sigh*

Little Black Dress - Vintage Edition

2011-12-12T21:41:00.000-05:00

This black velvet dress was passed down to me from my mom who got it from some family member whose mother was the original owner. It is a late 40s - 50s black velvet number. I wore it for my parent's 25th wedding anniversary party this past weekend.

My sister is wearing a vintage-inspired dress with a great 60's Mad Men vibe. It is stunning on her.

Me with my sisters Noelle and Naomi.

Dress: Vintage family hand-me-down
Necklace: Rhinestone choker (50s), estate sale
Earrings: Rhinestone (50s), estate sale
Bracelet: 30s; thrifted
Shoes: Gold satin covered in black lace with velvet bows; Pay Less. :)

Antique Jelly Mold Votive Holders

2011-12-08T13:20:00.000-05:00

I love to use stuff I collect in my Christmas decor. Using these old Jell-O molds as votive holders is perfectly "shabby chic" and most certainly farm-housey. I only have two, but will be on the lookout for more.

Vintage Sewing Basket

2011-12-05T10:31:00.000-05:00

I picked this up recently at some thrift shop. Judging from the fabric, I am assuming it is from the 60s. It is in really great condition; except for it was covered in thick dust and I had to scrub it all off with a damp tooth brush.

I guess I collect them now, as this makes about four or five of these for me. They're one of those things that I can't not buy. Funny thing is I actually use them... I will stash embroidery projects in them; one embroidery project per basket...

New Shoes.

2011-12-02T11:37:00.001-05:00

Every time I find shoes like this, that fit me, it's like a little miracle; and this little chorus of angels in my head sings the Hallelujah Chorus. Especially when I get them at the thrift shop, leather, and not in ratty condition, for less than five bucks.

Shoes: Damita K.
Thrifted from Goodwill.

Praise the Lord.

(Dang. Look at the scars on my ankles...geez)

Exciting Announcement

2011-12-01T20:13:00.001-05:00

Nope. I am not pregnant.

Starting last month, my Etsy shop Carolina Roses became a financial sponsor of L*PIDA, which is an organization devoted to equipping women in Nepal who have been the victim of human (sex) trafficking with the means to support themselves through sewing and crafting. Starting in November, a portion of every purchase from my shop will go to help stop human trafficking in Nepal.

I woke up at about 4:30 on Thanksgiving morning with this strong feeling that this was what I was supposed to do. I was wide awake with this thought so I got out of bed and wrote down some questions for my sister Noelle, who is very involved in the project, as well as other fund raising ideas as the inspiration flowed. (More on those other ideas later.)

I had heard about the project through my sister Noelle; but it wasn't till that morning that I thought of sponsoring them. I had such a strong feeling about it, I got out of bed and wrote down some things down as the ideas and inspiration flowed.

This is a very serious issue and I have caught a vision to help and be involved in helping these poor girls and women. If you care about the plight of sex trafficked girls and women, please.... please....please give this a read.

The following is a "blogger-view" I did with my sister, Noelle.

Tell about yourself.

I’m a senior at Regent University I am majoring in government with a concentration in international relations and foreign policy. I’m very interested in issues of poverty and injustice. I am involved in several campus organizations that deal with human trafficking and homelessness. I have also gone on two urban outreach trips to New York City and L.A. I love to read novels and non-fiction — probably my favorite pass-time.

Tell us more about L*PIDA.

L*PIDA (L*PIDA is a wordplay on "elpida", the Greek phonetic pronunciation of “hope”)is an organization that was started by Kim Denerstein—a fellow student—as a marketing project for one of her classes. It grew into a project under the Regent University chapter of Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE). Our mission: “L*PIDA is a global endeavor striving to bring hope to the poor by enabling international artisans to gain access to new markets thereby encouraging economic growth”. Our first project is working in partnership with the Nepali Rescue Project.

Explain how the money raised by L*PIDA will be utilized by the women.

L*PIDA raises money to disperse micro-loans to women that have been rescued from human trafficking. The organization we work with, K.I.N. rescues women who are about to be taken across the border into India—mostly to be sold into brothels. K.I.N takes these women through a transition program that includes a skills training segment. Some of the women are trained as seamstresses. At this point, we use much of our funds to help some of these women set up sewing shops. We are also
moving into another phase where we are providing an online market for the products that these women create.

How did you become involved with L*PIDA?

When I was in L.A. for an urban outreach program this past spring break, I met Hannah Mathew. We started talking about the issue of human trafficking and she told me about L*PIDA and the Nepali Rescue Project. I practically begged her to set me up with Kim for a meeting.

How much of a problem is human/sex trafficking on an international level?

Human trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the world; it is currently the third largest organized crime ($32 billion per year)—behind drugs and firearms. Approximately 27 million men, women, and children are modern day slaves. Of these 27 million, 2 million children are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. In other words, there are more slaves in the world today than ever before. Human trafficking is one of the biggest injustices we face today.

Is there human (sex) trafficking in the U.S. also?

Of those who are aware of human trafficking, many see it as a problem in “other countries”. However, there is a great deal of human trafficking right here is America. Anywhere from 100,000 to 300,000 underage girls are being sold for sex in America. 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the U.S. every year, and of these, the vast majority is sold into the sex industry.

What ways can I follow/support L*PIDA?

You can “like” us on Facebook and follow us on twitter. Also, check out our blog.We will also have a website and products coming very soon! As always, you can support us financially. You can send us a check to the following address:

Regent University

1000 Regent University Drive

Virginia Beach VA, 23464

Write the check out to Regent University and attach a note that says “Nepali Rescue Project”.

And of course, a purchase from Carolina Roses on Etsy supports us as well.

____________________________________________________

This video by the Nepali Rescue Project sheds a lot of light into the human trafficking situation in Nepal and India.

If this information has touched your heart, please share it among your friends on Facebook, blogs, Twitter, Church and civic groups, etc.

Also, please stay tuned for a fun giveaway to help kick off the effort, just in time for Christmas!

Mini Snowglobes

2011-12-01T09:56:00.000-05:00

Happy December!

You readers are going to be subject to a barrage of Christmas crafting and decor posts this month, as well as other randomness....

My job has changed a bit recently and my schedule has changed a lot also, so I am working from home much less. For a little while, anyway. It's not permanent. This means I am looking for things to amuse myself (sitting with the elderly does not afford a lot of mental stimulation) while I'm at work. Which means crafts and randomness and more time for blogging about crafts and randomness. Haha!

So I read this post on Casey's blog
showing snow globes.

Of course I had to try it. The author mentioned that the snow globes were inspired by a Martha Stewart book and I have that book.... but I had never tried this project before now.

After I got done with work in the afternoon yesterday, I took myself thrifting (more on that later) and unwound from a beast of a day at the craft super store. Where I picked up the items for making snow globes.

I didn't have time to harvest little pine cones or tree branches at home, so I settled for these adorable mini snow-tipped Christmas trees. So cute. I love little bitty stuff.

I had a few empty old baby food jars in my jar stash; ones I found in boxes in the barns here. I usually store spices in them. So one snow globe totally smells like cloves right now.

Fake snow, baby! It's awesome!

I didn't put water in mine. Too risky. They look neat anyway, I think. Martha Stewart suggests putting glycerine in the water and using glitter for the "snow". I like the idea but think I prefer this way.

Of course I add bows and ribbons to everything, so for these I used some vintage basting tape (I think that's what it's called) from a tin of vintage sewing supplies I bought at a yard sale a few weeks ago. I knew I would figure out ways to use that stuff.

This would be a great thing to do with older kids, and get fun stuff to put in the jars. I will probably do some larger ones with different natural stuff, or I may scavenge the ornament department at the craft store for neat little minis to put in them as well. The possibilities are endless.....

Ruche TV.

2011-11-30T07:17:00.002-05:00

Winter Lookbook 2011 - so romantic. At the end I bet you'll say "awwwwwwwww" like I did. :)

Thanksgiving Reflections - And The "Flaming Cheesecake" Episode

2011-11-28T12:09:00.000-05:00

I really. really! despise how our Thanksgiving holiday has been overshadowed by "Black Friday" and even by Christmas itself. It seems like poor Thanksgiving just kind of gets shoved into the shadow of great deals on flat screen TVs, laptops for $200, and the like.

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday; and it's a holiday specifically designated for reflecting on the blessings in our lives and for giving thanks for all the good things we enjoy.

Instead, many people just thing of it as a shopping holiday. And this makes me very sad.

I really do reflect on our blessing at Thanksgiving (and other days of the year too of course). I really treasure my husband, families, home, provision, freedom, and the peace and satisfaction I have with my life.

Plan A for Kevin and I this year was going to his hometown in Michigan to help his mom move into her newly renovated home; but the plan was nixed when she didn't get her occupancy permit in time for us to make the trip up. Ironically enough, she got it the Wednesday before.

Plan B was Thanksgiving with my Mom and Dad, who live locally. My sister Noelle was in from University for the weekend, and we got together on Wednesday to bake.

For me, Thanksgiving baking seems to always entail some disaster, accident, and general failure for some reason. I can bake successfully any other day or Holiday in the year with ease and success, but Thanksgiving has really started to be an issue for me. (You can read about my Pumpkin Pie failures here.)

This year was no different.

My sister came over for the baking: two pumpkin pies, a chocolate pecan pie, and a pumpkin cheesecake.

I made my pie crusts (I always make my own; they taste better) and filled my pies; and the darned pumpkin pies came out with black spots on the top. Drat.
So then we whipped up the pumpkin cheesecake, and that went in last. 10 minutes into the baking time, I went in to the kitchen to get some tea, when I noticed smoke billowing out of the burners on the stove. I opened the oven door and saw more smoke and FLAMES!

I yelled to Noelle that the oven was on fire, while I grabbed my oven mitts to rescue my cheesecake from the fire. I suppose I didn't even think about the fact that the flames could have caught the mitts on fire and burned me when I reached into the oven inferno to grab that pumpkin cheesecake. I snatched it out and plopped it on the counter.

Noelle had run out into the yard to get some dirt - but there was no shovel or bucket within reach so that wasn't going to work. Meanwhile somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered reading that you can use baking soda to put out grease fires so I grabbed the baking soda from the pantry and started tossing it into the oven. The flames went right out; and Noelle and I were standing there coughing and sputtering in disbelief.

She took the cheesecake home and finished baking it in Mom's oven, while I cleaned up the mess in mine.

Kevin got home and took one look at the whole mess, and me in it, and immediately said we were going to dinner and oven shopping. Which was really nice.

The cheesecake turned out fine, despite the filling slopping out all over the box I had sent it home in with Noelle. She and Mom scooped the slopped filling back into the crust to finish baking it. It certainly didn't look like Paula Deen's version on the Food Network. But it tasted heavenly - a new favorite!

Despite the fact that I hate the way Black Friday gobbles up Thanksgiving's attention, I was bored and lonely the day after Thanksgiving (Kevin had to work) so Noelle and I decided to go to town mid afternoon and see the damage....and believe it or not, it was like any other day of the week.
There was no heavy traffic; and there was no debris in the stores from the fighting masses of shoppers thundering through to get x-boxes and Wiis; there were no angry throngs of people shoving and pushing their way through the isles. We went to Sam's club and looked at books, and didn't buy anything. All we did was buy ice cream in the snack bar.
Then we went to The Gingerbread House (a favorite of mine - a small local shop full of floral decor, gifts, gourmet food, and general loveliness)and sniffed the Yankee candles, and ogled over their new accessories department, and I was greatly inspired by the Christmas decor! I fell in love with some cable knit sweater Christmas stockings.... so we went to the Goodwill nearby where I bought a couple of funky old sweaters to try my hand at making some myself. I did leave there with a few Yankee votives to try, and a few other little things from their cooking and baking gadget section. Maybe if I buy more cooking and baking gadgets, my Thanksgiving baking failures will stop. Heh heh. Not likely...

We rented a movie from the Red Box, and we went right back home to Mom and Dad's for leftover turkey dinners. And that was the extent of my participation in "Black Friday".

Rag Balls

2011-11-23T11:39:00.000-05:00

I saw rag balls on Etsy, and I knew I could do that, too. (No offense to sellers of rag balls on Etsy; it's just that some things I like the satisfaction of making myself. Jewelry? Nope. But rag balls, I can handle.)

This is the time of year where I get into crafting things. Mostly Christmas things. I think I get it from my Grandmother and from my Mom; they engrained crafting and cooking into me from the time I was quite young. Now, every Nov. - Dec, the kid in me wants to make cool stuff, and bake 100s of dozens of cookies.

So I had a good idea of how to do it, but I checked on line for a tutorial and found one at The Feathered Nest. If you want to do this too, I suggest checking out the tutorial.

I used an old raggedy shirt of my husband's. I didn't want to donate a threadbare rag to Goodwill, nor did I want to throw it out; so I re-purposed it into home decor.

I did these with a metal loop for hanging. You don't have to; if you just want rag balls sitting in a basket or bowl someplace.
They'd be cute in Christmas-y colors, hanging on the tree, too.
I also have ideas for other colors - actually, non-colored: I plan on doing some in tea dyed linen with lace trims and pretty ribbons.

Well, I am off to do my Thanksgiving baking now! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and be safe on Black Friday (if you go out into the fracas).

Pickup Truck Adventures Part 3

2011-11-17T20:10:00.000-05:00

As I said, I got a lot of interest in my truck. And when the truck was at the shop, the mechanic that worked on it fell in love with it. So when I got it back it came with an offer: he wanted to trade my truck for his truck, straight up.
His was a Ford F 150, newer, higher up off the ground, and more efficient on gas.
Dad and Mom said I could decide; so I had Kevin (we were engaged at that point) look at it before I committed.

I ended up with the newer truck, and I really did love that truck - my first Ford.
Nothing awful happened to me in the Green truck. (It was a lovely forest green.) By this point I was becoming a more seasoned, experienced driver. In fact, one cold winter morning I slid across an icy bridge on my way to feed horses, and remembered how to stay in control when sliding on ice. I made it across the bridge - and stayed calm the whole time.

When I got married, I left the green truck with my parents, and started driving Kevin's bigger Ford F-250. It is now more my truck than it ever was his. I love that truck. I feel safe in it. It has never let me down; it has never broken down; it is just a great all around truck. I rely on it. It's a 3/4 ton truck, with 4 wheel drive, so I can go pretty much anywhere in it, on the road or off. Thick mud, driving rain, slick ice, deep snow.... none of it fazes me when I am driving my Ford.

The green Ford was passed to my brother, and he drove it to it's death. It then sat in my parent's driveway for a few months, while Dad contemplated fixing it. Then one day this past summer, I was at their house during a thunderstorm, when I huge gust of wind blew over a huge tree in their yard; and as I stood there watching, before I could even yell "Uh, HEY! Daaaaad........" the tree fell right across the bed of the truck with a thunderous crash.

"Well, I guess I'm not going to fix it," Dad said when he came out to the yard with me.

My current truck is not without it's own little adventure tales. For one thing, I had to learn how to drive a 20-ft. flatbed gooseneck trailer, loaded down with 350 bales of hay, in that truck. And I have done it many times, without taking out a single mailbox or signpost. I will never forget my husband proudly bragging to someone that I had "loaded the hay, strapped it down, and brought it on home" all by myself. He was impressed. And I was happy to have impressed him with my hay stacking and strapping, and trailer driving skills. He is hard to impress.

In the second summer after our marriage, I was in the process of cleaning out some small barns and outbuildings on the farm. One barn was chock full of glass jars that took me over a week to sort out. I had several boxes of gallon size jars in boxes in the back of the truck, and I was going to back up to another building nearby and deposit all of the boxes in there for storage.
Parked all around the entrance to the bigger barn were various pieces of tillage equipment and other tractor accessories. There was a clear path to the door, so I eased the truck towards it.
My sister Noelle was riding in the passenger seat and just as she said "Uhhhhh...you're getting awfully close to...." There was a sccccrraaaaape at the door followed by a huge explosion. We both screamed and jumped. I leaped out of the truck and ran around the side to find I had gouged the paint on the door for about 6 inches, and I had backed into the blade of a plow I had not seen because it was covered with tall grass. The blade had sliced right into the thick 10-ply tire wall. On the brand new tire we had just had put on. And tires on this truck cost about $200 apice.
Kevin was standing in the driveway shaking his head in disbelief. I was terrified he'd be very angry with me; but all he said was, "It's nothing but a thing." (What is that supposed to mean, anyway? Nothing but a "thing"?)
I personally took the truck back to the tire company and had another one installed, and endured the jokes and jabs of the owner and the other employees, when I confessed that I had run over a plow blade with it.

Then last year, we were hauling two of our horses in the trailer on a one-lane road in the middle of nowhere when we topped a hill and the first thing we saw was another pickup truck headed straight for us. Kevin dove for the ditch and the other truck crashed into the front left quarter panel. Kevin said some not nice words as he threw open the door and thundered down the road to confront the other driver, while I checked the horses. The horse in the back was ok; but the horse in the front of the trailer had a cut over his eye. Just superficial, though.
It was one of the most scary things I have ever lived through. Watching as another vehicle heads straight for you and then crashes into you seconds later... and hauling horses just made the whole thing more terrifying. Horse trailering accidents are ..... bad. We were spared.
We got everything fixed as good as new, though; and so far there have been no more incidents in the truck.

I can tell you one thing: trucks are fun. And I look forward to many more years of having truck adventures.

Pickup Truck Adventures, Part 2.

2011-11-14T21:54:00.000-05:00

So after the demise of my silver Mitsubishi truck because I was foolish and never checked the oil in it, I had to drive my parent's vehicles around for a while, until they bought me yet another truck.

This time, we bought our friend/farrier's (farrier = blacksmith. Horse-shoer.He trims our horse's feet and puts shoes on them...) old truck. This truck was a classic. It was one of those older model Chevy trucks, and they had tricked it out. Candy apple red paint job; the shiny metallic candy apple red. All kinds of little bells and whistles. Lowered down a few inches. His daughter Mandy had driven it in high school and they were selling it because she was working in town and needed something better on gas. So I ended up with it.
I used to get so much (unwanted) attention in that truck.... gas pumps, bank line, parking lots at stores... truck lovers would ask me all kinds of questions about it; including if it was for sale. And it wasn't. I think my Dad loved the truck more than me, in fact. He loves classic vehicles.

Once, I drove through a gateway at the farm and scraped the door. Dad was so upset... not mad, just upset. So he took it to a body shop and had them buff the scrape out and wax it that same week.

One day, I jumped in the truck and headed off to the feed store in town. Leaving town, there is a long, gradually inclining hill. I was driving up that hill when suddenly there was a loud clanging and thudding noise and the truck just quit right there in the middle of four lanes of traffic. I got as far over to the side of the road as I could, and put it in park so I could find my phone and call home for rescue. But when I took my foot off the brake.... the truck started rolling backwards down the hill into oncoming traffic. I stomped on the brake as hard as I could and scrambled for my phone. I called up and Dad was there!
"Dad!" I said. "Something happened and the truck just quit and it's rolling down the hill even in park!"
My parent's house is about 25 minutes from town, and the whole time I was waiting I was pressing my foot as hard as I could on the brake. After a little while my leg stated getting tired, and I was switching feet on the brake pedal, hoping I didn't loose all my strength, sending me rolling backwards down the hill into all that traffic.
Before Dad got there, some other guys stopped, because they thought I was ill or something. I explained that If I took my foot off the brake pedal at all the truck rolled back, so one guy took a look underneath my truck, and made several loud exclamations. He said my drive shaft had broken at the universal joint and was wrapped around my new exhaust system I had just paid to have installed. Which explained the rolling .... even in park. It was an older truck, after all. None of today's high tech safety stuff.
A policeman showed up; for which I was grateful. I was beginning to wonder if someone was going to run over me, sitting in the middle of traffic like that. With Popo there maybe I wouldn't get run over after all.
Dad and mom came, and Dad called for a roll back tow truck. Then I very carefully slid out of the driver's seat while Dad slid in, so there was no rolling backwards. The policeman and the other guys that had stopped pushed the truck the rest of the way up the hill. The truck got towed to a shop and eventually they found a part (apparently it can be hard to find parts for classic trucks).

When I finally got the truck back, it came with an offer.........

Pickup Truck Adventures, Part 1

2011-11-14T08:21:00.000-05:00

We recently bought a new (used) car, for gas-saving purposes. For me, it was my first car.

Yep. All my vehicles, previously, were trucks.

I started driving late; I think I was in my very early 20s when I got my driver's license. I was terrified of driving; and was convinced I was going to end up a statistic in a Reader's Digest article about young people and traffic deaths. And I was bad at driving. It took me three or four tries to get my license, because I would get nervous when taking my driving test and mess up.

I have wonderful and generous parents who gave me my first vehicle to drive: a late 80s model Mitsubishi truck; one of those tiny little things. At the time I was teaching riding on our farm full-time, and working on another horse farm as well; so a truck was the most practical choice for me. It was silver, and it has no power steering. I got a great upper arm workout driving that truck.
It wasn't expensive, cute, or flashy; but it became apparent that my parents had made a wise choice in giving me this old truck, because even in my early 20s, I had the typical first-time driver / vehicle owner scrapes.

The first heart-pounding scrape of my driving career was with this truck. I had been watching a neighbor's cats, and one evening, I took my 18 year old brother with me to her house to feed them. The neighbor lived on top of a sloping hill, and I parked my truck on the quiet, one lane street that sloped downhill from there. At the bottom of the hill, the street ended abruptly next to some trees and a creek with steep banks.

You can tell where this is going, right? Heeheeheeee............

I parked, we got out, and started heading up the beck steps, when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the truck start rolling. We both took off running as the truck rolled down the street, headed straight for my neighbor's new SUV! Apparently I had not put the truck in park; or I had not done it all the way and it slipped out of park. My athletic, soccer champion brother took a huge risk to his safety and jumped in between the vehicles just as they were about to collide, stuck his hand in the window, grabbed the wheel and steered my truck away from the SUV with inches between them. The truck instead scraped by a utility trailer that was parked behind the SUV, and ripped off the trailer light.

But the truck kept rolling as the hill got steeper, and my brother was running after it with everything he could muster, me not far behind. the truck went about a block and just as it went to crash into a wooden fence containing some goats and a mare and foal, my brother wrenched open the door, jumped into the driver's seat and stomped on the emergency brake.

The driver's side door was gouged; but the side of my brother's face was cut and bleeding all over the place from his close scrape between the vehicles, and his arm was bruised and sore as well. He had been somewhat crushed as the two vehicles had brushed by each other. We drove home (just down the street a few blocks) and confessed to my parents. I remember my Mom scolding my brother for risking his life jumping between the vehicles. She stressed that "it could have been much worse than just a cut and scraped head; he could have been run over and crushed; we should have just let the truck go and crash into the creek; the truck was replaceable; think of how close that was...!" And of course she was right. I felt really guilty as she drove off with him to the ER. (He was bruised, scraped, and cut, but was ok.)

I drove the truck for several months after that, and up until I killed it. Yep, I killed it. I was driving to a student's house one day to give her a riding lesson on her horse, and as I was headed up a tall hill on the highway that went through a huge game preserve in the county, it chugged, sputtered, clanked, and then..... stopped. I got it parked next to the road. No signal on my cell. Stranded on a barren 2-lane in the middle of a game preserve. Yay. I hopped out and walked up the road a little ways until I got some signal on my phone; and got Mom on her cell. She was pretty far from me, picking up my sister and brother from their high school debate club. I'd simply have to wait. And wait I did, for an hour. Mom showed up, followed by a tow truck. The tow truck driver looked under the hood and said "Yep. Motor's froze up". Mom looked at me and said, "Have you been checking your oil?" Of course I had not. I had never opened the hood. I assumed my Dad was doing it for me. The truck was destroyed; we sold it to the scrap people; and I had to borrow my parent's vehicles for a while.

My truck adventures were just getting started, however..........

Vintage Kitchen Utensil Stash.

2011-11-10T13:13:00.001-05:00

I popped in a local charity's thrift shop and they had a box of jumbled up old kitchen stuff; it looked like someone just dumped out all their kitchen drawers into a box and donated it. I LOVE that! It's not the first time I have encountered boxes of dumped out kitchen drawer contents.

So I found these old 40s - 50s wooden handled utensils.

I think this thingy (above) is some kind of noodle, or pastry cutter. But I am not real sure.

I got each of them for $1!

Tea Dyed Lace

2011-11-09T15:32:00.000-05:00

I love the "tea dyed" look of certain fabrics; especially laces and linens. Tea dying is a way of artificially aging textiles, and I have done it on several occasions.
Of course, some items are just naturally aged, and have the tea-dyed look. It is basically a brown-ish hue; or kind of a real life "sepia". Ecru. Off white. Ivory.

I just call it all tea-dyed.

You can age a white garment or linen - or any textile - by brewing a good pot or two of black tea and dipping and soaking the item in the tea; then drying it. Instant "age".

A hat box of my great Grandmother's lace scraps from the turn of the century - 20s. One of my most treasured possessions.

More laces from my Great Grandmother; except I organized these into bundles, and display them in a wooden tray.

Blouses in my closet:

100% Silk. I love this blouse. It's my "Downton Abbey Blouse".

This Gunne Sax Blouse is for sale here.

I salvaged these old ruffled cuffs from the hat box of linens and lace from my Great Grandmother, and sewed them into a new, but vintage styled, Levi's jacket. It gives a little vintage femininity to an otherwise masculine-inspired garment. I wear it all the time.

This vintage lace bustier/corset is for sale here.

This vintage wedding dress is for sale here.

To me, nothing says vintage romance like tea dyed lace.

Ruche Holiday Guide Feature!!

2011-11-07T18:57:00.000-05:00

I am so thrilled and excited that my recipe and photo were chosen to be featured in the Ruche Homemade Holiday Guide. You can see the recipe (and photo) HERE. There is a lot of cool stuff in there!

I am so excited and thrilled! Thank you, Ruche!!

Autumn Views From Our Farm

2011-11-03T11:58:00.000-04:00

We finally got Fall here. One day it was 70 degrees out and I was picking green beans and canning tomatoes. The next day it was 40 degrees and we cut firewood.

Most of the leaves are finally changing but there are still green ones too. And not many have come down yet.

Our pond from the top of the hill

Our pond from the bottom of the hill

Corn Dog. Heehee..........

The pumpkins are finally ripe and just in time, as the frost got the leaves. Next year we're planning a large pumpkin patch for selling to the public (hay rides, mums, the whole nine yards) so we planted these to get a better idea of exactly how long they take to mature.

Bears discovered the pumpkin patch also; and dug their claws into these, then decided they weren't as tasty as they originally imagined.

(Yep, that's a gun in the photo; when we started getting bear activity on the farm Kevin said I had to carry one when I walked on the place, just in case a bear came after me or Dodge. No one is hunting bears here....)

Antique Jam Cabinet, Jr. Edition

2011-10-31T14:11:00.000-04:00

I also found this mini version of a jam cabinet in a different barn:

I actually think it is meant to be a box with a hinged lid, since there are handles carved on the "top" and "bottom" (being on either side of the lid). Maybe it was some kind of tool, or ammunition box; since there is also half of a hasp on it for locking it with a padlock. But I turned it up on end as, as you can see.

That is the original shabby paint. It takes care of that big, empty, useless corner of the kitchen cabinets very nicely, with the addition of various kitchen items like jars and such.

Whatever it's original use, it's found a new life now!

Antique Jam Cabinet

2011-10-28T17:01:00.000-04:00

I like Shabby Chic decor. I like cottage decor. I like flea market, French, country, traditional, and Victorian decors as well.

So when it comes to decor in my (still being remodeled) kitchen, I have developed a style of decor I like to call "Shabby French flea market country farmhouse cottage" style decor. I know what I like, and what I want, and instead of settling on one boring style, I just decided I wanted it all. To some extent. Tee hee.

Anyway.

One of the many treasures I discovered in the barns on the farm that I cleaned out when we moved here was a mysterious "box" with a shelf in it. I left it in the barn for awhile, not sure what I was going to do with it; as it was pretty shabby, and squirrels had been living in it. It stayed in the corner of the hay loft in that barn next to piles of antique tobacco sticks.

("Tobacco sticks" are not cigarettes... they're wooden sticks they used in the old days for hanging the tobacco in the tobacco barns for curing and drying. They're considered antique now; and I've seen them auctioned for a pretty tidy sum.)

Then one day I was moving some things around downstairs in the barn when I found a piece of wood that looked similar to the box upstairs; with the same shabby paint. But it was just a corner piece with a henge.

I kept rummaging around, when I found a second piece; and what do you know..... the two pieces formed a door. Then I had a revelation: the door was for the cabinet upstairs in the hay loft! It was a old "jam cabinet"!

I dragged it back to the house. And of course the door fit perfectly and all I had to do was screw it back on with some new screws.

I put it in the pantry while I thought about what to do with it. I thought about taking all the paint off; I thought about painting over it; but in the end, after two years, I decided this week to leave it in it's present condition, shabby chipping paint and all, and just "shellac" it in place.

It is a perfect "farmhouse" piece; or a "Shabby French flea market country farmhouse cottage" piece, if you will.

It's in the pantry - a very appropriate place for a jam cabinet, I thought.
You can see some green paint underneath the chippy white paint:

The door, I noticed, is carved with a kind of Scandinavian design, that you can sort of see, if you look real hard:

Looks like this:

I have no idea how old it is exactly, but it is.......... old. For sure. And I love it! How perfectly "Shabby French flea market country farmhouse cottage"!!

The Poultry Saga: Continued.

2011-10-26T19:34:00.000-04:00

As much as I railed about how I was done with poultry earlier in the summer, when I suggested to my husband that we "just buy eggs and chicken meat at a farmer's market or something", he was highly offended.

"You can quit the chickens if you want," he said, with a air of noble loyalty;
"But I will always have chickens. It just wouldn't be the same around here without Roo (as we affectionately call our rooster) and The Girls (as we affectionately call our pesky hens)running around and ...stuff."

So I feel as if I have been raising, babysitting, and otherwise supervising fowl all.year.

First, it was my two batches of feed store chickens in the spring, most of whom met a morbid end. (Read all my railings about our chicken situation here.)

Then, when we got into hay cutting in the summer, I did a really illegal thing. Which I have not mentioned before now because I was scared of getting in big trouble for it.

One afternoon while cutting hay, my brother ran over a nest of wild turkeys in the middle of the field, by accident. The hen ran off and didn't return for a couple of hours. My brother, who kind of makes it his business to know all things wildlife, said he didn't expect she would ever return to the nest, since the cover was totally destroyed. He felt really bad about it.

So, I - knowing the risks - collected the 12 or so eggs from the nest, and popped them into my chicken incubator at home. No one expected them to hatch; it is very rare that wild turkeys are successfully raised in a "domestic" environment. But we felt like we owed it to Nature to try to make things right after ruining everything for that hen.

I counted out the days for turkeys to incubate. I turned the eggs twice a day - by hand. I carefully monitored the temperature.

And on the last day, I said to Kevin: "Can you take those turkey eggs and dump them somewhere where Dodge cannot eat them? I don't think they're going to hatch."

And that evening while cooking dinner I kept hearing peeping outside my kitchen window and I wondered why my hens were hanging out there so I walk over to check it out, when I happen to notice there is a wet, newly hatched infant wild turkey peering at me through the window of the incubator. I was dumbfounded. I had defied nature and hatched out wild turkeys in my kitchen! So THERE, wildlife experts!!

We hatched seven.

We told no one.

I never even took photos.

There is a steep fine for keeping wild animals without a proper license and training.

We raised them in a tank in the dining room, just like the chickens; and I did it without touching them or interfering very much as all; because we intended to set them lose once they were grown.

But when they got too big for the tank, and it came time to move them to bigger quarters, they flipped out and one died from the shock.

In fact, one baby turkey died from shock/fright each time we had to re-locate them as they grew. I started to understand why they don't want lay persons, without a license and training, raising wild turkeys and other wildlife. It is a pain in the neck to do it properly, if you're not making pets of them. I told my husband that he and my brother had better not make a habit of ruining turkey nests in the fields anymore; because I never want to raise wild turkey babies ever again.

We finally ended up with three, and we put them in the chicken run and put a roof on the chicken yard to keep them safe. The evil skunk got one; and I finally got rid of the other two, just a couple of weeks ago. When I opened the doors on the official release day, I expected them to fly away into the woods, leaving me standing there feeling all warm and fuzzy about my rare accomplishment and noble efforts to rescue wildlife. Like in one of those Disney, "family" movies. (I still have all these convoluted, idealistic, hopeful fantasies about living on a farm, but it never works out like Disney tries to make you believe.)

But instead they just ran around all frantically; and never went near the open door. For a entire week I opened the doors and finally, one day, one was gone. Then the next day or two passed, the the second one was gone, too. My babies "done growed up", and went to live with the big turkeys! And good riddance. Turkeys are kind of...... dumb. Poor things.

Well all was great, until about three weeks ago when one of my remaining chickens from the Spring batch got broody and started sitting on a nest full of eggs... in the hay baler. Nothing could get her off. So we left her. Most of these attempts do not end well; leaving me with a pile of rotten eggs to dispose of.

But then last week, I came home from work after dark, and walked by the baler on my way to look at something else, and heard that peeping I recognize all too well....
Lo and behold, that Spring Chicken hatched out 8 chicks all by herself. Apparently no one told her that you usually sit on eggs in the springtime. Not right before cold weather.

I did have to move them out of the baler, as the babies kept falling out and complaining loudly. They're safely stowed in a large cage in the yard till they get some size on them. But I am letting the mother raise them, because I am done with raising poultry for 2011!

They really are stinking cute, though. I can't help but gush at them in baby talk when I go out into the yard and see them scurrying around.

Hopefully, this is it for the year for me; and, depending on how many we loose over the winter, I may beg and plead with Kevin to NOT get more chicks in the spring.

*crossing fingers*

Today's Plunder...

2011-10-22T14:18:00.000-04:00

We had made a plan to go over to the Blue Ridge Parkway today, and view the leaves, hike underground at Dixie Caverns, shop in the antique malls, and have a barbeque supper someplace.

Then Kevin's boss decided to make him work instead.

So I was sad, disappointed, a little annoyed, and generally grumpy this morning. Plus I woke up with a headache.

So to cheer myself up I took Dodge and headed to Yanceyville, NC (near my childhood home down the road) where they have a community yard sale most weekends during nice weather. I got myself a smoked sausage biscuit and a hash browns, and went shopping at the yard sale vendors.

Then I went to the Junk Shop next door, and I was starting to feel better so I went to the local charity shop, where I found the mother lode.

Here's a few of my findings:

For me -

A tin of old sewing notions. I also found four or five necklaces mingled in with the sewing things. I got it for $2. I don't sew, so I don't know what I am going to do with it; except stash it and tell myself I will eventually sew something.

From the junk shop, a blue insulator. My favorite color.

A very old strand of faux pearls with a nifty clasp. From the same yard sale as the sewing notions.

From the charity shop, a 40s black velvet hat for my collection. So cute.

A lovely tam, which I will probably wear a lot this winter.

And, for the shop:

Two really cool 50s - 60s bags: white wicker and a very.very.very. cool tapestry handbag.

A dead stock apron, in sweet blue and white.

When the lady at the charity shop saw I was buying a bunch of old stuff, she said she had, in "the back", two sets of old pjs with the tags still on them. I asked to see them, and so she brought them out: 2 sets of cotton 1950s pjs, tags still attached, and in perfect dead stock condition. I had to pay a little more than I wanted, but I could NOT leave those there! So adorable!!

Several sets of frilly, lacy and romantic, and very old, gowns and robes.*swoon*

I am still annoyed that my mountain plan was wrecked, but I am somewhat comforted by my excellent finds.
And the delicious sausage biscuit. Mmmmmm.

Ruche Fall "Lookbook" Wishlist.

2011-10-20T11:53:00.000-04:00

My favorite indie fashion website is Ruche, and fall fashion is my favorite; and the two combined just made my heart go pitter patter....

(Click the link below the photos to buy.)

These shoes are to die for. Look at that cute velvet flower on the toe!

I am a sucker for velvet. Love this bag in mauve.

This print trench coat is so unusual! I have a coat similar to this but it's a shorter coat, and in a brown print instead.

This pleated coat has 1910's vibes. Love the dusty lilac color...

Be still my beating heart... (Click here to buy)

Love this whole look.

The sweater coat is so cozy looking!

There are so many other gorgeous things at Ruche right now; I suggest you take a look at the Fall "Wanderlust" Look Book and see for yourself!

The Last Sundress Of The Season....

2011-10-18T16:26:00.000-04:00

I bought this dress when I was visiting my sister who is attending Regent University in Virginia Beach. It's a classic Laura Ashley cotton sundress, done in a 50s style. I love it. My sister, on the other hand, said it looked like something she would have dressed her American Girl dolls in, when she was a kid. She said it was too "cutesy". I agree; it is kind of "cutsey"; but I need something cutesy for when I am in a cutsey mood. So there, Noelle.

Anyway, today it was warm - in the upper 80s - so I figured I'd enjoy wearing it on what will probably be the last really warm day of the year; since we'll be getting chilly here at the end of the week. I took my camera, and Dodge, walking in the fields here on our farm.

Dress: Laura Ashely; thrifted
Shoes: American Eagle; thrifted
Hat: Liz Claiborne; thrifted
Locket: Vintage silver plate locket, thrifted

Etsy Shop Update and SALE

2011-10-15T17:20:00.000-04:00

A little shameless self promotion here..... hey It's my blog so I can promote a little bit, right? Hee hee

It's closet cleaning and wardrobe switching around time of the year; I've been doing it in my own closets and drawers and I am doing it in my Etsy inventory as well.

You know how they say you should toss anything you haven't worn in a year? Well, I have stuff that has been listed in my Etsy shop since DAY ONE and I guess nobody is interested in it, so I won't be renewing those listings.

Plus, I am kind of trying to give my shop a face lift and a certain "vibe", which entails ridding it of certain eras - like the 70s. And the 80s. I am just not going to do the 70s and 80s anymore, unless it is the 70s Victorian revival stuff, like Gunne Sax, Jessica McClintock, and Sarah Coventry, etc. Polyester = buh-bye. A lot of this stuff has already been pitched (dumped on eBay/stashed in storage for a later vintage fair or something).

As a result, I am having a "purge sale" in the shop. Many dresses are on sale, and I am offering free shipping on some, as well.

Plus some items are on sale at a "final reduction" price. Because once they're gone, they're.... well, totally gone. Not even coming back for next year. Buh-bye.

I am shooting for a really girly-girl, Victorian inspired, sweet and pretty, sappy kinds of items only shop. A shop for the hopeless romantics. Not the hip and modern, funky and bold ladies. (Nothing against it, because I love that too!) I just need to focus. I am also trying to free up some space (and time) for adding more Shabby Cottage decor and housewares after Christmas. Cutting back on my clothing is a start.

I have been working like mad to try and improve my photos (not always successful but I am trying).

There is no sale going on in shop #2, however. It's still too young and getting going. I still have piles of stuff for listing there; I just need to get motivated in the photography department. I've been really discouraged about my cruddy pics but I have only the one puny camera for the moment.

So anyways if you want to check out the free shipping items (free shipping is only to the USA; I can't afford to offer free shipping internationally, sadly.) the sale items, and the final reduction items, click over to my shop Carolina Roses.

And as a special treat to you readers: Convo me if you're buying AND a follower of this blog and receive a FREE GIFT with your purchase. :)

Thanks for listening to my little commercial/blurb and do have a great rest of your weekend! :D

Preparing For Winter

2011-10-14T20:34:00.000-04:00

"Preparing for Winter".

It sounds so old fashioned, like something Laura Ingalls would do in the Big Woods, or something.

I find myself "preparing for Winter", even on this 75 degree, sunny, beautiful day. I just left the garden with a five gallon bucket of tomatoes and green peppers and I have to go back for more green beans.

But a few days ago the walnut trees dropped all their leaves, and the mornings are chilly..... so I know these warm days and fresh veggies are numbered.

I love it when the last of the hydrangeas turns that lovely dusty rose color....

It's time.....

......time to start cutting and stacking firewood, and collect kindling for the wood stoves; plus clean out chimneys and replace the fire bricks inside the stoves.

Time to get out the horse's blankets and clean and repair them; plus order new ones for the new horses.

Time to "put the garden to bed" by plowing it under and bringing in loads of compost to spread on top; to get out blankets for the bed and cozy afghans for the sofa.

Time to put away all the summer clothes and bring out the sweaters and jackets and Carhart, to have my suede and wool vintage coats dry cleaned, and find my fuzzy slippers and cuddly bathrobe.

Time to plant bulbs, mulch flower beds, put away porch furniture in the barns, stash air conditioning units, and replace screens on the storm doors with glass.

Time to park all the tractors and farm equipment we won't be using till next season in barns.

Time to start stashing Christmas gifts.

Oh yeah; and it is definitely time for hot cocoa and pumpkin recipes. I want to make Paula Deen's pumpkin cheesecake real soon.

What do you do to "get ready for winter"?

I've canned more than I ever have this summer. I ran out of space on my large pantry shelves and now I have jars stacked on the floor in the pantry, three and four thick... I don't have an exact count but it is a bunch; probably over 50 quarts of green beans, at least....

An Apple Pie Kind Of Day

2011-10-07T14:31:00.000-04:00

The trees are still green, the flowers are still blooming, the garden is still producing, and the weather is gorgeous and warm.... a typical "Indian Summer" day here in Virginia.

I was canning green beans and saucing tomatoes to can; prepping green peppers for freezing, and making apple sauce, when I thought I'd also bake up a quick apple pie.

Just to make it seem more like fall.

It was tasty.

A Very Cute, Shabby Chic, No Sewing Required, Vintage Hanky Project

2011-09-29T12:33:00.000-04:00

I caught a glimpse of an antique booth on a blog I was reading the other day (don't remember which one) and I saw a great idea for my stash of vintage hankies.

I had bought a box lot of vintage and antique hankys at an auction last year; hundreds of them. I didn't know what I was going to do with them but I figured ideas would present themselves and I could not pass up the bargain at $5.

This one - in my office/den - I made from blue, green and turquoise (and some pink) themed prints and solid colored hankys.
I also did one in my dining room with white linen embroidered and cut worked hankys that is smaller, for the single window.

You don't need a box lot of 100s of hankys to do this. I used 10 for the double window and 7 for the single window. I also buy hankys at yard sales,thrift shops, or estate sales for a dime or as much as a quarter. Or you can buy larger lot of them on Etsy or eBay.

Fold each hanky in half, cross ways. (You might also want to press them.)

Tie the corners of each hanky together; using however many hankys you will need for whatever you'll be making this for.

Like so:

I personally used the ones I made as window valances; but I originally saw them draped on a shelf. You could also use these as wedding decor, or drape them on a stair rail at Christmas; or anywhere you need a little vintage hanky "flag bunting" fun.

Vintage Time Capsule

2011-09-26T19:46:00.000-04:00

Today I bought a pair of vintage infant shoes, and upon closer inspection, I saw there was a folded piece of note paper inside. I pulled it out and sure enough, there was a hand written letter.

The letter, dated May 2, 1977, reads:

Dear Steve
Well you didn't say goodbye, and I guess I didn't expect you to. Well anyway I hope you have a good summer. And I also hope that we can still be friends and maybe next year I'll see you around. Did you have fun on discovery? I know you did! Be good!!!!
Well about the shoes - these are to help remind you that if ever or whenever you become great and famous or look at great people you would like to be like, Christ said that we are to become as a little child. Try to fill these shoes.
It was hard to write this and it will be even harder to send it.
Take it with the right spirit or if you didn't, throw the shoes away! If you have the desire you can write me. Do take care of yourself. Love, Shirley

I thought it was pretty neat. The shoes and the letter will be listed in my Julia's Child Etsy shop tomorrow.

A Sunday Afternoon Stroll Part 1

2011-09-25T22:54:00.000-04:00

It was a gorgeous early fall day out; so we took our pup and headed for the woods.

Then my camera batteries died, before I got to the waterfall. So I'll have to share that a little bit later.

Late Summer Flowers and Sweet Potato Biscuits.

2011-09-20T18:44:00.000-04:00

This time of the year is kind of depressing to me... Summer, drawing to a close, gets kind of worn-out looking. "Like butter, scraped over too much bread", as Bilbo said. (In the Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien.)

I do love fall but I despise winter... and winter is so close on the heels of fall. I miss the growing things and dread the brown dreariness.

My zinnias are still going strong. And some kind of yellow flower is popping up all over the place.

A neighbor brought over some apples from his tree, and some sweet potatoes. I generally don't like sweet potatoes; but I like things made with them; like pie. Or sweet potato biscuits.... not as light as a regular Southern style biscuit. Being made with sweet potatoes, they're a bit dense. Like little pillows of tastyness. Great spread with some lovely butter and cinnamon. Or even with a little home made apple butter.....mmmmm.

I am enjoying my last few days of summer while I can; and pushing thoughts of wood stoves, unpacking the warm clothes, and finding my scarves and gloves to the back of my mind for now.

I guess you may have noticed I kind of re-vamped my blog.... right now, I am working on a header. It is a rather daunting task for me; but I will prevail and get it done so lovely readers are greeted more fittingly when popping in for a visit here. :)

Enjoy your last days of summer, all!

A Place At The Table

2011-09-16T15:47:00.000-04:00

(So, back before I started blogging, I used to write random "essays". I have a whole portfolio of them. I used to also write opinion "letters"/articles for the local paper, but that is another subject. The following is one of my "essays" I dug out the other day and figured I'd share.)

October 10, 2008

My family had the same kitchen table since before I was born. It was large enough to seat everyone; at one time being nine people all together. Through the years, the numbers have dwindled down as family members got married or moved away.

It was a heavy brown thing, and mom collected various vintage ladder back kitchen chairs to place around it, with cushions Grandma sewed for them. When the varnish started to soften and peel, mom just bought table cloths for it.

It was very important to my parents, who were trying to blend two families together, that meals be eaten all together. So, just about every day for breakfast and supper, we all sat around the table and truly did come together and bonded as a family.

The table was more than just a place to eat meals. It was, perhaps, the most important fixture in our home. Each person had an assigned "place" at the table, where we sat day after day. When Mom folded the laundry, she placed each person's stack of clothing at their "place", along with other items she found lying around that needed putting away; or little things she had bought for that person.

Before we had our schoolroom (we were homes schooled) complete with desks, dry erase board, bookshelves, and filing cabinets, we did our assignments at the table.

When Mom sewed clothing, she spread her fabrics and patterns out on the table; and we did numerous crafts projects there as well. I watched Mom create wonders around the table... play costumes, ball gowns, bridesmaid's dresses, or curtains, mom made them on that table.

My brothers spread newspapers over it, and cleaned their guns and other hunting gear. It was also a medical center, from time to time, when someone had a splinter, a cut, sores, or other maladies. Mom would get out her EMT gear and go to work under the bright light of the chandelier.

At Christmas, it was a decorating and present wrapping station, a cookie baking center, and Christmas card writing desk, as well as everyone's favorite place on Christmas day when mom served home made doughnuts for breakfast, and succulent turkey for dinner.

It was Dad's desk when he went back to college, where he paid bills, and where he did a lot of his writing.

Everyone celebrated their birthday around the table; the ceiling above the table festooned with crepe paper and balloons, Mom's home made Birthday Banners, and colorful table cloths. Mom made the birthday person's favorite cake, and bought their favorite ice cream. The family gathered around to sing, enjoy cake, and watch the gift opening. It was the place where countless important family pow-wows took place; decisions were made, tears were shed, opinions voiced, and politics passionately discussed.

As the years went by, there were less people around it for daily meals; but for the Holidays, once again, the family gathered around it. With the addition of spouses, it got tighter and tighter. After the Holiday dinners, its still the family "catching up" spot, where, just like in the beginning, the family bond is preserved.

Some want to hear the stories walls would tell if they could speak; but I'd want to listen to my family's table.

PS - Please take a moment to enter the giveaway. Thank you!

Grand Opening Of My Second Etsy Shop

2011-09-14T11:05:00.000-04:00

So this is the surprise I mentioned in my post yesterday. But its less of a surprise for those of you who follow my Etsy shop on Facebook or who follow me on Facebook. (To follow the shop on Facebook, click the link in the sidebar to you right.)

I used to have a kids "section" in my Carolina Roses Etsy shop; but about a year ago I decided to stop listing the kid's items I buy and save them up to create a second shop with only the kid's stuff in it.

For a while I thought I was going to set my Mom up with the shop; but we decided since I already know how to manage and navigate the Etsy website I'd just do it myself.

I have been behind the camera and in front of the computer for days and days to get everything posted and identified and I am still working on items for the shop.

The shop is Julia's Child Vintage. Julia being my Mom, and me being her child.

I especially love the old fashioned frilly girls dresses, velvet dresses, cute accessories and, of course, cute nursery decor and adorable toys and things.

Later this week I will reveal the other surprise I mentioned that is kind of part of the Grand Opening of the Julia's Child shop.

Have a great day everyone!

A Wedding On A Summer Evening......

2011-09-13T22:54:00.000-04:00

So this past weekend I had the honor and pleasure of heading up decorating for my friends wedding - Congratulations, Nancy and Jake! Nancy contacted me and said she'd been "stalking" this blog and my style vibe was what she was after for her wedding. Since I am always up for a challenge I offered to help out in any way I could.
That, and because we've been friends forever, and our parents and older siblings were friends before we were born, I was honored to be a part of her big day!

And, if you're still stalking me on this blog...Hi, Nancy! *waves at Nancy*

Penn House in Reidsville, NC

Nancy started growing the terrariums weeks in advance.

And, in case you were wondering what I wore for the wedding:

This is a navy blue cotton (some kind of textured kind of cotton fabric; kind of a rustic, coarsely woven kind of thing...?) strapless dress with rows of buttons at the waist and down onto the skirt. Kind of like the way they did skirts in the "nineteens"...
Anyway, I love that dress. I have a 3/4 sleeve white sweater I was planning on wearing with it but it was just so dang hot! Thus, my (failed) Quiff bangs and pony tail hair-do that you totally can't see in the photo because it just looks like I plastered my hair down on my head, all tacky and stuff.... oh well.
Anyways, with the dress I wore those Madden Girl T-strap candy apple red peep toe stilettos I bought awhile back.

I think my ankles and legs will be permanently deformed after wearing those shoes. I had people comment about the shoes all night, and how "hot" they were - but I.Don't.Care. I don't think I will ever wear them again, if it means having to walk in them.

My back still hurts.

I kept them on and endured until dark and all the tipsy people hit the dance floor and then I took them off and wore flip flops for the clean-up. I figured nobody would see me being all tacky in flip flops, in the darkness.

So that's what I did with my weekend!

And tomorrow, I have a surprise planned.

In fact, a couple of surprises for this week.

'Nite, Y'all.

Treasure from Afar

2011-09-07T15:17:00.000-04:00

I just returned from a trip to visit my Husband's family in Michigan... and I have treasure to show.

Kevin's mom bought the most amazing "farmette" and we went to help do a bunch of clearing and work in the house - which is going through a top to bottom, down to the studs remodel. More on all that later....

While I was there, my niece (in law) Aloh and I stopped in to a "Barn" sale and an estate sale where I picked up several neat items.

Like this amazing Victorian style afternoon wedding gown:

(Up later today in my Etsy shop)

This hat was given to me by my Mother in law, and it belonged to my husband's Grandmother. This one will stay in the family for sure and gets a place of honor in my hat collection!

I also got several pieces of embroidered linen, a small hand painted Nippon dish, shoes, handbag, and other odds and ends at the estate sale.

Today was my first day back and I had to dash to the bank so of course I stopped in my favorite Goodwill store and spent too much money..... but got some great items for the house! I get great vintage clothes there all the time but not so much house wares. This morning I seriously lucked out in that department:

Awesome old cherry veneer trinket shelf. I haven't figured out where I am going to use it yet but I am sure I will eventually! I only paid four dollars for it. I've seen them in antiques shops for $30 - $40, depending on condition and age.

Old floral needlepoint in a oval frame.... oval frames are my favorite.

Neat old wire doll high chair

I did find some good vintage clothing items; including these two dead stock Pendleton wool pencil skirts from the 60s. (Will be listed in my Etsy later)

It's so good to be home!! :)

Furniture Re-Fashion Before and After

2011-08-29T12:49:00.000-04:00

When it comes to decorating my home, I have difficulty looking at an empty space and figuring out the best way to fill/decorate it.
I am much better at looking at a piece of furniture, painting, or other item and figuring out how to use it.

So in my "den/living room" I have a wall with a fire place which helps me, and a wall with a large window that helped me, and a wall with our sofa and end tables, which helped me.
But the other wall was just a Big Empty.

I had a shelf of my Gramma's, but to me it was just empty, wasted space. And I was unhappy with the arrangement.
So after a lot of dithering about shelves, etc. I decided I wanted a low chest in that spot. So I started looking around at shops and yard sales and thrifts for a chest to re-do.

I never found one - I think people hang on to low chests of drawers and never donate/sell them!

Then, I recalled that there was another of my Gramma's pieces of furniture in storage in our 2nd "back house" (that is only used for storage because it's unlivable).

It is part of a set my mom had for years, and then my Grandmother kept in the house in Florida. Then she moved it back to NC and used it for a while; then it went back to storage......it's mate, a china cabinet, is painted white, and I use it in my dining room.

Mom had painted it purple in the 60s and avocado green in the 70s, and it remained avocado green in Grandma's house in Florida for years, until my Aunt Eileen started painting it pink, and then quit halfway through.

I decided to paint it barn red. I actually went to Tractor Supply Co. and bought barn paint. It is made by Valspar, and it is actually called "Farm Coat" or "Ranch Paint" or something like that. I like plain walls, but I like furniture that pops. :)
My husband painted it using our new paint sprayer - which I highly recommend! It gave such a smooth finish, and took a fraction of the time that it takes to brush a piece.

Here's the final result:

The prints are two nicely framed prints of American artists from the 1800s; that I purchased at a Goodwill store for $8.00.The shelf is an oak piece I got for a couple of dollars. The wood bowl on the top of the dresser was found in a barn on the property when we moved in; and the hand made, signed basket was another Goodwill purchase for a dollar.
It ties right in with the rest of the room, which is rich, warm blues and reds, decorated in a Americana/hunting lodge style. When one is married to an avid outdoorsman, one must have at least one room in one's house decorated to suit his tastes. I even allow his deer head on the wall. He is very happy with the results and it is such a cozy room for relaxing next to a toasty fire in the winter time. :)

The only thing I still need to do is replace the handles on it. I picked some out at Hobby Lobby that are cloudy glass antique looking knobs; but I am waiting for them to go on sale.

Earthquake Report

2011-08-24T14:38:00.000-04:00

So I am sure you've all heard that there was a 5.8 earthquake on the East Coast of the US yesterday afternoon.

In fact, the earthquake was in my state of Virginia, 100 miles or so away.

I, myself, was standing in my kitchen preparing a bucket of tomatoes to can, when it hit.

Rest assured: everything is ok. I am ok. My family and friends here are ok, too.

Here's a little tour of the damage:

(Bottles came crashing down in the tub...)

(The whole china cabinet was rattling and I was terrified for my Blue Willow collection. Luckily, all that happened was this cup and saucer were a little dis placed.)

(This tree branch, several inches in diameter, just missed our new storage shed in the side yard.)

(Wrought iron birdbath in the garden, toppled right over)

We will get through this; because Virginians are strong and brave people.

Tee hee.............

(It was pretty awesome. I confess, however, that I didn't really realize what was going on till after it was all over. It lasted about 1 minute, and the whole time I was thinking something was getting ready to blow up under the house. My foremost thought was: "What have I done? Kevin is going to be so mad......" LOL)

(Also, all these photos were staged. I am just being.... goofy.)

My "Where The Red Fern Grows" Moment.

2011-08-23T12:38:00.000-04:00

Have you ever read "Where The Red Fern Grows"? I read it when I was about 14 and I think I cried through the whole book. And I was a blubbering, emotional mess at the end of it. If you've ever read the book or seen the movie, you know what I am talking about.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about - I'll tell you this: The main character has 2 dogs that he loves dearly. Towards the end of the story, one dog sadly dies. The remaining dog pines away for the dead one, and eventually dies herself. The boy buries them side by side. Later, the family has to move. He makes one last visit to the grave of his dogs and growing between the buried bodies is a rare red fern. (I am tearing up thinking about the story now as I type.... *sniff*)

Anyway. I said all that so that this post makes sense to everyone reading it.

As you may recall, earlier this spring, my sweet kitty "Spook" passed away in a tragic accident. We were heartbroken because we love and adore our cats (and our dog).

You can read about how I rescued Spook here
You can also read about Spook here.

We buried her between two walnut trees, that border our vegetable garden next to the house.
A few days afterwords, I had a bag of zinnia seed heads from my friend that I had planted in my flower/herb garden. The bag had gotten wet in a rain and was all soggy and the seeds, I thought, were rotten and worthless.

On a whim, I dumped the soggy, "rotten" seeds out all over the fresh dirt of Spook's grave, and forgot about it.

Soon, though, the seed sprouted, and began to grow! I had a lush bed of zinnias and merrigolds growing right on top of her grave, next to my veggies.

My other cats like to go and sit down there; and beautiful butterflies are always fluttering around the bright pink flowers. I even put up a little wire fence around it, to protect the flowers and give it some "structure".

The other day, however, I noticed that there was one, single white flower blooming among all the pink ones..... just one.

Chance? Maybe. But to me personally, that single white flower was like a message straight to my heart; a message of comfort, and knowing that my Heavenly Father knows and cares. Yes, he even cares about a little white kitty that broke my heart when she went away.

I just thought I'd share; especially for all you pet lovers out there.

Have a blessed day!

Cat Photo Of The Day

2011-08-19T13:36:00.001-04:00

Actually I was thinking that if my flowers were brightening my day they'd brighten others' days also. Then Brutus showed up. He has taken to napping on mantle pieces and tall shelves and anyplace "lofty".

Have a wonderful day, everyone! :)

Coming Soon To An Etsy Near You....

2011-08-17T15:04:00.000-04:00

I am so excited about the stuff I have collected for this fall!

Who doesn't love vintage coats? Wool, brushed wool, textured wool, fur, fur collared wool, velvet..... and I have a stash of them! I love them, but I simply can't wear them all. Unless I wore a different coat for each day of the week. But I figure it's better to spread the vintage awesomeness around. :)

I am doing little button repairs and dry cleanings and will start listing them in the nest couple of weeks.

(I confess, I am looking forward to fall a teeny tiny bit......)

The Help

2011-08-13T16:00:00.000-04:00

I see a LOT of movies but don't always "review" them here.

But I have to say something about "The Help".

My sister and I saw it last evening and we both adored it! I have not read the book yet; that's on my books to buy and read list for very soon.

I highly; highly recommend seeing this movie; and seeing it now and not waiting for the DVD, if at all possible. It's just that epic.

I was expecting to enjoy it; but I was not expecting to be so moved by it. I laughed so hard my sides hurt, I cried, I was angry, ashamed, I identified, I laughed a lot more, I was shocked, surprised, annoyed, I wanted to punch some of the characters in the face a few times, I laughed some more, cried some more, and when it was over I just wanted it to start all over again....

It is not often that every emotion and feeling are stirred by a movie; but this movie completely touched every corner of my heart and mind.

Yes, the costumes are amazing. The sets were perfect. Sissy Spacek was incredible. Bryce Dallas Howard blows me away every time I see her in a movie (even though she needed a good spanking in this one).

If you can, spring for a babysitter, take an afternoon off from work, or whatever you have to do and go see this movie with someone you love.

I promise you won't regret it.

(I plan on taking my parents and husband to go see it again soon.)

My 1940s "Katherine Hepburn" Attempt.

2011-08-09T13:41:00.001-04:00

I have always been fascinated by Katherine Hepburn. Though certainly not the most stunningly gorgeous of the 1940s era Hollywood actresses, she always struck me as being very elegant and extremely talented.

Her style was never over-done or blindingly glamorous; without the gobs of make up or tons of jewelry. She was basic; plain; and as I said above: elegant.

I recently got interested in the history of women and pants wearing in this country; and I've noted that is kind of got started in the 20s and the 30s; with the occasional wearing of pants outfits that were more like harem pants or split skirts than actual "trousers".

But it seems that in the 40s, with women entering the workforce in great numbers as the men marches off to war in Europe, pants became more commonplace.

I found this photo of Katherine Hepburn rocking a great pants outfit in the late 30s - 40s in a stage role:

Image by Brettmann/CORBIS

The pants women wore most often were "trouser" type, with wide legs and high waists; often cuffed at the bottom; as Katherine is wearing in this photo.

I knew I had a pair of slacks like this so I dug around and found them to put together my own 1930s - 40s pants outfit.

My pants are NOT vintage. They're GAP and I got them years ago in a bag of clothing someone from my church was tossing out that I got a hold of. I was probably 19 at the time. (I must say, I am pretty dang proud that I can still wear clothes I wore at 19.... 10 years ago.) They might as well have been made from a 1930 - 40s pattern, they look so vintage. They're chocolate brown.

I have no clue where the blouse came from. I do not recall ever buying it. It's a tan-colored rayon with full sleeves and shoulder pads. I think it is from the 50s but it has a clear 40s vibe.

I came close to tossing these pants so many times but I am so glad I didn't - they're keepers!

And to conclude - here's a great photo of my Grandmother wearing pants in the 40s; somewhere in Michigan, I believe. Maybe Lake Michigan? Note the wide leg style.

"The War Bride" Movie

2011-08-05T11:25:00.000-04:00

Last week I discovered a new "favorite movie"; the Canadian film "The War Bride".

I love everything about it. The story, the characters; the period sets, and the costumes - which are perfect.

As you know I love the WW2 era; I have a special attachment to this period, because of my special attachment to my Grandparents, who lived during this time.

I have a fascination with women in the War Era and all they endured and how they lived while the world around them was in chaos.
I love the fashions, the hair, the hats, the cars, the music, the dancing, the home decor, the Victory Gardens, the crafts projects, the objects, the movies, the magazines - everything. And I have made it a little hobby of mine to research and sometimes emulate the ladies of this time. It makes me think of my beloved Grandma and Grandpa. (Grandpa was in the Army and fought in Europe; Grandma was a WAVE and tracked weather.)

Anyhoo, back to the movie:

It is a story of a young English woman, Lily, who meets, falls in love with, and marries a Canadian soldier in London during the height of WW2. They get married in a hurry, and soon enough he is rushed off to fight on the front; leaving her alone.... and pregnant.

The Canadian Government sends for many of the wives of the Canadian soldiers and brings them to Canada to be looked after by the soldier's families. I suppose it was some kind of patriotic, "boost the morale on the home front" kind of political scheme. So she, her young baby, and her BFF decide to travel to Canada and get away from war torn London.

Lily's bff "lucks out" and finds out her hubby's family is wealthy and welcomes her with open arms; but poor Lily and her baby are met with cold indifference by her husband's mother and sister - who are poor and live on a farm in the wilderness.

Instead of welcoming Lily and her baby with warmth and affection, they resent her and her strange English ways; leaving Lily feeling alone and miserable.

As the months drag on, Lily learns to cope with farm life and she struggles to form a decent relationship with her new family, and the community, who do not care for her much either.

(I love the scenes in the 40s farmhouse kitchen and farm; it's just so adorable.)

Lily loves to sew and soon starts sewing pretty little things for the ladies in the community.

Soon, Charlie (her husband) arrives home - but he is a changed man. The horrors of war have made him sad and bitter; and he is not the man she remembers. Still, she is determined to start anew, and in time he unloads his feelings and his heart begins to thaw.

The mother and sister also begin to accept Lily, and the community as well.

By the end of the movie, the War has ended, and all is well between Lily and Charlie. The family is beginning to form a bond and everyone finds peace with each other.

It is definitely a new favorite of mine and one I can watch again for sure! It is available on Netflix to watch instantly; and in segments on You Tube as well.
I highly recommend it.

(However; if you are sensitive to kissing/make-out type scenes, you may have two or three to skip. But there is nothing R rated in the movie. It's actually rated PG)

Little Black Retro Shoes

2011-08-04T21:24:00.000-04:00

I found these at Goodwill for $3.50. They're in like-new condition - and leather - by Madden Girl. They're comfortable, too! They're a tad too large for me; which is probably why they're so comfy. The heel is a perfect height! (Not too high)

And they're so retro! I love them. I am going to have to throw out some of my old stash to make room for all the great new shoes I have found this year!

Saving Flower Seeds

2011-08-03T13:11:00.000-04:00

As the blooms on my flowers and plants dry up, I've been collecting them for their seeds. I keep them sorted out in these old jars and make sure they're labeled so I know what is what next spring. I'm hoping to expand my "cut flower" selections next year. I've not been cutting a single one; so I have all the seed I can get from them.

I especially love the zinnias!

The hollyhock seed I kinda stole. I'm a board member of the Preservation and Beautification Society in my historical hometown; and we plant and maintain large concrete flower "barrels" along the sidewalks in the town. The members of the society take turns watering the plants, and on my last rounds, I happened upon some hollyhocks that were growing along the sides of one of the old shop buildings that is up for sale. Someone had come along and cut them all down. But I scoured around the area and found a good hand full of the seed pods.
I am so looking forward to a lovely batch of old fashioned hollyhocks next year!

Do any of you save seeds for replanting the following year?

Back To School Bags

2011-08-02T15:29:00.000-04:00

I've been "saving" some goodies for fall, but I decided to go on and list these, as they're great for what is left of summer also. And since all the Back to School promos are going full throttle right now I thought it was as good a time as any to break out some new items for the shop. Starting with some new handbags.

Buy It Here

Buy It Here

Buy It Here

Buy It Here

I am blogging on my old Dell desktop that I dug out of retirement; as my HP desktop crashed ...... with all my photos on it.
The day following that crash, I accidentally slammed my laptop against a wall and then onto the hardwood floor and I think the jolt smashed the hard drive to smithereens. Not sure on the lap top; as I have not heard back from the computer repair man.
So my desktop, which was under a warranty because I have had it less than one year, got sent off and the repair person discovered that it was full of cat hair and basically fried itself. And my photos.
Long story short: I am getting a custom built computer to replace the other one; though it breaks my heart, because I loved the other one.
I guess I can learn to love another.
I had forgot how sloooooow my old Dell is; slow, but trusty; and enabling me to keep up with my business and not put my shop on vacation.

Speaking of vacations - I really need one! I have been working every single weekend for a month and I work this coming weekend as well and I think I will go mad.
A beach trip is in the works so I think I can endure until then.

Enjoy your day, lovelies!

What's In A Name

2011-07-30T12:51:00.001-04:00

My Mom gave all of my siblings and I very interesting names - mostly Biblical/Hebrew. She told us from the time we were all little of how she prayed about all of our names, and the meanings of our names.

But I think, more than all of them, I have the weirdest name of them all.

You have no idea how my name - "Hosanna" - has been butchered over the years.

Just yesterday I was called "Havana"at the Post Office and then the computer repair guy wrote it down as "Joseanna" - like some kind of feminine form of "Jose". I get that a lot - along with people assuming that I am Spanish. It has to be the tan - or my dark eyes? I don't know, but much of the time I get asked if I am Spanish. Which isn't surprising, as my Mom was always presumed to be Cuban when we lived in Florida because of her olive skin and dark hair/eyes.

There is a neighbor that has always called me "Hannah" forever and I just play along with it. As long as there is not another Hannah in the room to be confused with.

I remember being a part of a summer reading program at the local library when I was in grade school and when someone asked me for my name to write out on a certificate for reading a bunch of books, they didn't believe my name was "Hosanna" and wrote, instead, "Roseanna" even after I spelled my name out for them.
I've been called Roseanna on many other occasions and I just smile and nod. Smile and nod.......

And growing up in Church was really awful, as you can imagine; I was constantly greeted by people singing some song or another with "hosanna" in the chorus or verse. It made me want to seriously stab my eye with a fork.

When I was showing horses frequently in my teens and early 20s, the show announcers almost always botched my name. If they got the first part right, they'd botch my last name - which was Pennell at the time. I was a different name at every show. I'd be sitting there, on my horse, baking in my black hunt jacket, velvet hunt cap, and tall black boots, and groan as they called me in for my prize.
"And in second place.... Hos.... Jose..... Hus-anna............Penel." OR, "Hose-ann Peeeenayle".
Finally I started using my middle name and was just plain "Joy" at horse shows. At least, I figured, they could get that part right.

When my brothers started having kids, and they started talking, they'd always stumble over the mouthful of "Aunt Hosanna" so eventually my official name for the kids in my life (7 that I see frequently) became "Zanna". This worked out great for all of the kids, except my niece Emilie, who is now 4. She would not - or could not - say "Zanna" or anything like "Zanna" so when she started talking, she simply called me "Kevin" - my husband's name. She'd come over to my house and say something like "Hey, Aunt Kebin? Kin I pet that kitty?"
I would explain: "Yes, you may. But, my name is 'Zanna'. Can you say 'Zanna'?"
Emilie, mumbling: "Aunt Zanna".
"Yep! That's my name."
"Hey, Aunt Kebin........................?"

Sometimes the kids will try my whole name on for size. Then it's something like "HOSE-anna" or "Hoseyanna".

My close friends call me "Hos" (like "hose"), or "Hosie".

In addition to the strange pronunciations of my name, I get strange looks and blank stares when I introduce myself to someone I have never met before. The head tilts of inquiry.

So while I do like having an unusual name, it does come with certain "issues".

That is why, should I ever produce offspring, I think I will go with names like..... "Mary". And "Ed". Or names with easier to pronounce nicknames.

Yeah. Plan carefully when choosing names for your children, parents.

Want To Buy: Vintage Wash Tub

2011-07-26T23:15:00.001-04:00

Last summer I answered a CL ad for some vintage metal lawn chairs; and when I went to purchase them, the man also had a vintage double washstand on his front porch. It looked much like this one (found on eBay classifieds for the El Dorado area) except, it was white enamel.

At the time I was just beginning to explore "garden salvage" and wasn't sure if I could use the wash stand; which the owner offered to me for only $20. Looking back I could kick myself for not snatching it up.

Now I wish I had it, so I could do things like this with it:

(Photos found on Flikr)

So now I am in the market for one.

How My Garden Grows

2011-07-25T10:43:00.000-04:00

So, chickens may not be my thing, but gardening is much more tolerable.

While my dreams of gathering eggs in a vintage sundress and apron may have never come true, (See the link above) I have, in fact, gathered veggies and herbs in a sundress and apron. On several occasions.

As I have said before, I am not a natural born gardener; I kill a lot of plants with my ignorance, and everything I do keep alive is only because of what I have learned in books, magazines, and mostly on the Internet.

So this year, instead of just going and buying plants in the spring, I decided I was going to start my own from seeds.
I did tomatoes, and that was a huge fail. Out of all the packages of seed I started in the very late winter/early spring, I have two plants growing. The rest of my tomato patch is from plants I purchased after my failed seedling attempt.

I also started peppers, which are a little late, but thriving beautifully.

And, I saved basil seeds from last years crop and re-planted the seeds this spring, and to my amazement, they grew, and I have been enjoying basil from the plants for some months.

I also have dahlias, zinnias, and marigold I planted from seeds given to me by a friend who saved them from her plants. So that was pretty cool.

Also started from seeds, kinda accidentally, was my pumpkin patch; which resulted from my dumping of the rotten harvest decor pumpkins off of my front porch in the garden, where they sat all winter, and in the chilly early spring, popped up in globs. I transplanted them into rows, and had very healthy pumpkin vines all over. Last week I harvested them, cooked and pureed them and now they're in my freezer waiting to go into pies, bread, and roulade.

I kina got overly excited about my garden, after the cold winter; and I planted all kinds of stuff: broccoli, cabbage, spinach, Swiss chard, lettuce, onions, and carrots for my early garden; a lot of which is in the freezer already.

I also planted green beans, the previously mentioned tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash,and a whole field of red potatoes. That was Kevin's idea. Plus, I get okra from our friend. Our corn didn't make it. For some weird reason....

We're getting everything from friends; three people we know have "too much garden" and we're getting buckets full from them and buckets full from ours, and giving buckets full away, and canning buckets full.

I kid you not.

My enclosed back porch is stacked with buckets, crates, and bushel baskets, waiting to be canned or given away.

Most mornings you can find me in the garden weeding, hoeing, picking, and watering along with my feline garden buddies.
Most afternoons - even during the recent heat wave - I can be found in the kitchen - washing, snapping, chopping, mixing, stuffing, boiling, peeling, blanching, and more than anything, sweating and wilting.

Of course we've been eating it as fast as we can as well..... BLT, tomato pie, tomato sandwiches, stuffed tomatoes, home made salsa, cucumber salad, cucumber chicken salad, squash and zucchini on the grill, oven fried okra, and anything else we can think of.

There is something very fulfilling about walking out to the garden - whether or not I am wearing a vintage sundress and apron - picking vegetables straight off the plant, walking back into the kitchen, and making them into a meal.
It is also satisfying to look at a plate of food and know where every item came from - because I grew and butchered them with my own two hands. (Or my husband's two hands; as he is in charge of the butchering that gets done.)

I certainly have gained an appreciation for the women of yesteryear and all they did to make sure their families were fed; when there were no grocery stores, farmer's markets or roadside stands to buy food from; or if there was, there was no money to buy food with.

(This is a group of about five tomatoes that grew together in a mass.)

In the next few weeks I'll be getting my fall plots ready; with more broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, carrots, cauliflower, and whatever else can be planted in the fall. Plus our field of "salad greens".

And all winter long we'll be enjoying Summer from a jar.

Baby It's HOT Outside!

2011-07-23T12:03:00.000-04:00

"Nineteens"

1950s

I know it's been hot just about everywhere and these photos just make me feel hotter, but they sure are fantastic pieces!

It was about 100 in my spot in Virginia yesterday, and 104 when I drove through Raleigh, NC in the late afternoon. We hopped in the pool (an in ground one) around 7 pm and the water was 90 degrees!

I really love summer and hot weather, but even so, it's been hot - hot this week. I confess I had a teeny weeny little thought about fall yesterday. It was a very wee little thought; and passed so quickly I don't even know if it was a full thought.

I hear that the heat is going to break today; but we'll see.

Whoops. I forgot.

2011-07-18T16:12:00.001-04:00

I forgot to include this vintage style 2-piece bathing suit in my finds of the day post. As soon as I saw it, I thought of my Grandmother; because this reminds me of something she made, and that I saw in some stack of snapshots of my Mom, or my Aunt, on Cocoa Beach in the late 50s - 60s. The material is not stretchy bathing suit material; it's almost like a cotton blend and very sturdy. Cute! And, my size. :)

Finds Of The Day....

2011-07-18T15:48:00.000-04:00

My work usually is all done from home; but from time to time entails me having to sit with an elderly person for many hours at a time. For the past few days, it's been 12 hour shifts for me.
Much of my time is employed by caring for the needs of the persons I am sitting with, fixing and serving meals, cleaning, etc.
But, much of the time is also "idle" time, when I usually read a book, work on my embroidery projects, or watch movies from my Netflix account on my laptop.
Which I have been doing the past few days, so bored I have been with my John Grisham novel. (Funny how seeing the movie of the book, while in the middle of reading the book, takes all interest out of finishing the book.....)
I have been watching far too many of those depressing, sad, 1900s - 1920s costume dramas. The costumes take my breath away, but the hopeless love triangles, the unrequited love, the penniless girls forced to marry rich men they do not love, while forsaking their true feelings, all for the sake of "being taken care of"; the cruel relatives, the sad endings...........
Yeah. I needed a break.

I got a chance to run into my favorite thrift shop on a quick break and I scored some fantastic stuff! They never fail me.

I think I will make a fabric flower pin for this awesome clutch before I list it on Etsy.

This one is not vintage; but the gold purse frame and the blue and gold brocade were stunning. I am going to put a different handle on it, and doll it up with some vintage brooches or something.

I've seen shoes just like these for sale in the Victorian Trading Co. catalogs. They don't fit me; alas....

I have been noticing the comeback of small prints like these recently. I think they're cute! This is a purpley floral print dress that was handmade. What you can't see it how the neckline is attached with some little darts. (I don't sew, but that's what I think they're called.) I plan on wearing it with a cute belt. It will also be cute with a cardigan in the fall!

And lastly, a vintage linen table cloth with a cute yellow and blue stripe; that I might just cut up to make a curtain valance in my kitchen.

I also looking forward to getting back to my normal working schedule after today, and having some time to ride my horses and relax in the pool again!

Stay cool everybody!

Shabby Chic Tote Bag

2011-07-13T08:31:00.001-04:00

Done with mostly vintage trims and scraps; including a piece of an old doily, scraps from a 40s chinelle bedspread, lace, and the handles are part of a ripped up dinner napkin that had holes in the middle but not the edge.

I am trying to decide if I am going to sell this on Etsy or hang on to it for awhile. (It's a little pink for my personal taste in handbags.)

Question.

2011-07-12T12:37:00.000-04:00

What would you do with a single, lonely "Simply Shabby Chic" (Rachael Ashwell's Target line) place mat?

I came upon one the other day at the Goodwill - it even has the tag (sticker) still on it.

Well, I came up with a plan to use it in a project. Here's a hint:

Stay tuned for the final result in a few days.

Individual Lasagnas

2011-07-08T13:53:00.002-04:00

I looked in my fridge the other evening wondering what to make for dinner. I had a little of this and a little of that but not enough to make a whole dish..... then I remembered something I saw a chef do on TV recently.

I had a partial box of lasagna noodles; a half head of cauliflower, starting to decay a bit; a half container of ricotta cheese, two chicken tenderloins, and ramekin dishes I've only ever used for creme brulee.

So I made this.

Individual Chicken Lasagnas - 4 servings

4 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
1/2 cup cooked chicken, diced
1/2 cup cauliflower florets, diced
2 Tbsp. diced onion
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
Cooking spray

Heat oven to 350.

Saute the onion and cauliflower together in a little olive oil until browned. Add chicken and remove from heat; set aside.

Mix the ricotta and mozzarella cheese with the Italian seasoning; set aside.

Spray 4 ramekins with the cooking oil and place on a baking sheet.

Place one end lasagna noodle inside the dish, letting the rest of the noodle drape out. Spoon a spoon full (a couple Tablespoons worth) of the ricotta mixture on top of the noodle and fold the rest of the noodle back over it to cover. Next, spoon in several Tbsp. of the chicken mixture; top with a pinch of the Parmesan. Fold the noodle back over, and spread with more ricotta mixture, and then fold the rest of the way over, topping with a generous pinch of the Parmesan.

Repeat with all the ramekins. You'll have leftover filling; I did. If you want to continue with it and make more do so.

Bake for 20 minutes until bubbly and cheese on top is slightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. To serve, turn the lasagnas out onto a plate.

( I found it to be a tad dry; so next time I plan on spooning some Alfredo sauce over the lasagnas after turning them out onto a plate, before serving.)

Delish!

My Silly Niece ...

2011-07-07T11:36:00.000-04:00

I try not to bore you readers with too many photos of the kids in my life - my nieces and nephews. I try not to irritate you with stats on the kids; or the cute things they say/do/wear/make; or their smarty britches achievements - like when Ethan's baseball team was undefeated this season? I didn't even mention it. Nor do I mention when certain ones of them get killer grades, or do awesome school projects. Just like I never mention that my sister made the Dean's list at Regent University and that she is testing to get into law school this fall...... nah, I just don't go there. (Winky winky....)

Except once in a while when the awesomeness of my brother's kids forces me to post photos of them, and mention them here.

Like my oldest niece, Abi. She's 10 years old. (Geeez that makes me feel old.......) She loves drama and singing and acting and she is talented at it.

She was in the cast of "Annie" last summer; a huge production in our town compete with an orchestra.

She's been in other plays; including "Godspell"; "101 Dalmations", and others.

And this past spring, she had the LEADING ROLE in another play...... which I can't remember the name of. Ooops.

Anyway - this past 4th of July weekend, we had our usual huge family shindig at my brother's house, and I, of course, took tons of photos of the kids. When I got home and started sorting out the pics, I noticed something....

She's going to kill me for this.

Tee hee.

Etsy Shop Update: New Jewelry

2011-07-06T14:01:00.001-04:00

I haven't been paying much attention to my shops recently; because I have been so busy gardening and tinkering in the yard and helping in the hayfield, and those kinds of summertime things.... meanwhile, I have been hoarding away some pretty nifty jewelry. I finally decided I needed to let it go; I never wear these pieces anyway. Click on the links below each photo to read more details or buy.

Love this turquoise jewelry box. Not for sale, though. :)

Vintage Luzier Perfume Compact Necklace

Sarah Coventry, with issues.

Milk Glass Clip Ons

Faux marcasite and cameo necklace

Antique 14 karat rolled gold plate ring

1928 Jewelry Co. Style brooch

Purple and lavender beaded necklace

The Demise of Cupcakes

2011-07-05T15:46:00.000-04:00

All photos were taken at our family's big 4th of July picnic held at my brother's house; where cupcakes abounded.

I Want This Dress.

2011-07-05T08:19:00.000-04:00

I am not a Royal Watcher. But I saw a clip about William and Kate's tour of Canada and one of the dresses she was pictured in stopped me in my tracks and dropped my jaw.

It is so 1930s.

I want it.

Cheerwine Cupcakes

2011-07-02T23:48:00.000-04:00

Yummy yummy yummy.

If you are not fortunate enough to live in the South, you probably have no idea what Cheerwine is......

Cheerwine is a cherry flavored soft drink produced in North Carolina and only distributed from West (By God) Virginia, to Georgia; and a few other places around the country as a "specialty" soda.

I found an awesome recipe for Cheerwine flavored cupcakes and the Indipendance Day picnic our friends held this evening was a perfect excuse to try the recipe.

*If you live up North or out West and can't get your hands on Cheerwine, just use a cup of water and some cherry extract in place of the 1 cup of Cheerwine.

Cheerwine Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix
1 box cherry Jello-O
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs
1 cup Cheerwine

Mix well and fill cupcake papers 1/3 full.
Makes 2 dozen.

Frosting:

1 8-oz. package cream cheese, soft
1 Tsp. cherry extract
4-5 cups powdered sugar

Beat the cream cheese, cherry extract, and enough powdered sugar to make a somewhat stiff icing; using more sugar if needed.
Pipe onto the cooled cupcakes, garnish (if desired) and refrigerate until needed.

The cupcakes have a lovely pink color, and a wonderful cherry flavor. This is going to be a favorite in my house.

Sundress Must Have.

2011-06-28T13:49:00.002-04:00

During the summer, I love to wear sundresses and shorter skirts. Not micro minis; just "shorter". But I hate wearing slips underneath said dresses and skirts. It's just so HOT! However; with the lighter fabrics of summer skirts and dresses, you're in danger of the see-through factor. Not to mention the breeze catching your skirt factor. Or any number of ways in which you could accidentally expose your nether regions to innocent, unsuspecting passers-by. Ahem.

I sometimes wear light shorts under my sundresses and skirts but often they feel bulky and annoying.

I think I have found just the thing for this issue:

1950s era "undershorts".

I bought these a few weeks ago for inventory in my Etsy shop and just got around to photographing and inspecting them today. I had assumed they would be too small for me, but popped them on anyway just to see, and they fit so I am keeping them and wearing them under all my sundresses from now on.

On first glance, it looks like a half slip; but behind the front panel thingy there is a crotch built in. They're comfy and pretty and I am wearing them under a sundress as I type.

Dress and skirt wearers, both vintage and modern, take note! Vintage "pantalettes" or "undershorts" or whatever you want to call them, are the way to go!

I am SO DONE with chickens.

2011-06-27T12:07:00.000-04:00

This began as a venting facebook status this morning and morphed into a tirade.....

I think I am going to make this farm a fowl - free farm. And let me explain why.

When I moved in here, I had visions of an adorable farmette, complete with a clothesline and chickens and veggie and flower gardens. You know, like you see in all the magazines. Cute.

So we made our "chicken park" out of a tiny log cabin builgins (built in the 20's and originally used to store canned goods, etc.) and tall steel dog kennel panels. And I had visions of going out in my sundress and vintage floral apron, and collecting large brown eggs from nest boxes where fat and fluffy hens had deposited their daily fruit; like all farmgirls do in the magazines and movies, and books and such. Awwwww.

Pfffffttt.

So we got some eggs from a friend and I incubated them; they hatched, and I had about 20 chickens. They were all killed a few months later by foxes.

Then our friend gave us over 20 game chickens, and plumed heirloom birds with fancy feathers and whatnot. They were so neat looking. In one night, all but two or three were killed by the foxes. Or skunks, or coons, or whatevers. But we're pretty sure it was foxes.

Last year, I bought 25 more chicks from the feed store. When they were old enough, I let them go free ranging all over the place, and one by one were picked off by foxes, skunks, or killed in the road ("why did the chickens cross the road?" was a very legitimate question asked in my house).

It was so quaint, I thought, to see my chickens puttering about the place; so "farm-y" and "cute". But it stopped being so "cute" and became downright annoying when they started scratching holes in all the mulch in the flower beds, and digging holes around all my plants, and worst of all, pecking holes in my tomatoes and other veggies in the garden.

I didn't see "cute" feathered fowl when I looked at my chickens, I saw chicken and dumplings. And chicken salad. And chicken divan.

There were eggs.... healthy, 100% organic free-range eggs from happy hens. When I could find them. "Free range" meant hunting for their nest day after day, until I finally found it; hidden away in some dark hole in a brush pile, or in the back of the barn where you have to climb over a mountain of junk to get to them; or under the barn where you have to find a hole in the floor and hope your arm is long enough to reach the egg pile in the corner, just barely out of range or your grasping fingers. Then, once you discover the nest, the spiteful, conniving hens move their laying spot to a new top secret locale, just to be mean.

And, because of the fox killings that had gone on in their cute little log cabin hen house, they didn't like to go in of their own accord. They decided that the thing to do was roost on my front porch furniture. So every night I had chickens or varying numbers perched on my white wicker porch furniture. And my white wicker porch furniture was covered - and I mean covered - in chicken doo. And every night we had to pick them up and carry them to their coop, and secure the doors and windows. Every night.

One night, during the nightly visits from the fox in which they managed to get one bird per night for a whole week, I decided to let the chickens stay on the front porch and I was, by God, going to bait that fox and shoot him. We kept the front porch lights on and slept on the sofa in the front room and waited. Just as I thought, about 3:30 am, I heard the chickens make a commotion on the front porch. I jumped up ahead of Kevin, grabbing the shotgun we had sitting by the front door. I was going to put and end to the fox issue once and for all. I've never shot an animal before, but I was totally prepared to shoot this one. I was sick and tired of buying and feeding chickens just to feed fat foxes on a nightly basis! By the time I jerked the door open and brought the gun up to shoot, that evil fox had dragged a hen, screaming and squawking, across the road and into the tobacco field, where her squawking abruptly ended, and the fox disappeared with his dinner into the darkness; leaving me with nothing to shoot at. Plus, it's illegal to shoot across a highway. I bet that no good fox knew it, too. Stinker.

The four chickens that survived the foxes last year lived through the winter and gained my good graces. This spring, I declared that they would not be free ranging anymore, because of the damage they did in the gardens last summer; so we kept them locked in their chicken "park", and my garden was safe and life was great.
I was overcome by the cuteness of the spring chicks at the feed store in the early spring; and I broke down and bought 20 chickens. Cute, fluffy little yellow balls of adorableness; populating my cute, adorable chicken accommodations. I already had folks asking to buy eggs when they started laying. More visions of quaint farm scenes formed in my mind - but I hastily pushed them aside. I started getting over the "cutesy farm" thing a while ago; along with the fantasy of farming in a floral apron and sundress - the first time I got on a tractor to bale hay, and ended up having to fix the flywheel on the baler all by myself with two wrenches and a bolt in the middle of the hayfield on the hottest day of the year and got home at 10:00 pm covered in hay, sweat, and axle grease.
There is really not very much cutesyness in farming; no matter what you may see in magazines. Trust me.

Anyway, back to my chicken issues.

I raised 20 chicks this spring, and when they were feathered out, moved them into the chicken park. A few weeks went by. I started to think I had finally outsmarted the wicked fox and his kin. One morning, I discovered a small portion of the chinking between the logs in my log cabin hen house ripped out and one of the little birds missing. We fixed it. A few weeks later, we found half the young chickens missing and feathers and blood and a body or two - and the boards from the door pushed in. We fixed that. The next day he managed to get in again and kill more..... leaving me with six white leghorns, one red one, and my four grown birds from last year. It's been several more weeks and we've made some improvements to the chicken park; and thought we had this licked once and for all.

No such luck. This morning Kevin found one of my lovely big red hens from last year - the most faithful of the egg layers - dead. The fox had somehow slipped in a crack around the door; ate his meal, and escaped; unable to drag the meal with him, since he slipped in such a small crack......

One of the other hens escaped when Kevin went in, and ran up here to my garden, where she proceeded to eat holes in every single one of my almost ripe, big, juicy tomatoes that she cold get to.

I have done everything short of electrifying my coop to keep varmints out; or making it from solid, reinforced steel and shatterproof glass like some sort of maximum security prison cell.

At this point I am thinking it is easier for me to go to the farmers market in town and buy my eggs from now on.

Anybody want my chickens?

Bugs Explores The Garden

2011-06-23T12:12:00.000-04:00

We've had our new little baby, Bugs, for about a month now. He has grown from being a tiny, traumatized, and timid blighter to being being a fun, playful, kitten! We absolutely adore him. (As we do all our cats.)

We only recently started letting him outside the house for supervised play time out of doors. (He is still so little, I am afraid he'd get lost or wander into the street if left unattended outside.)

I finded a toy under here!

I just can't reach it!

I Kinda Collect Vintage Handbags.

2011-06-21T15:55:00.000-04:00

I started collecting vintage handbags when I was a teenager; that's how I got into collecting everything else along the way. I have gathered quite a stash.... and growing....

I bought this one today; brown straw with a clear plastic handle. A little shabby, but still cute.

I bought this one from an Etsy seller recently; it's black satin with a petit point floral spray on the front. I love anything with embroidery on it.

And just last week, I picked this up at one of my favorite thrifts; along with several other vintage bags (someone must have been dumping the contents of their closet!):

Brought it home, researched the label, and found out it's real croc skin. 1950s. In nearly perfect condition. I won't say how much I paid for it; your heart might break.

So....... I guess you can say I love handbags. Just a little bit. :)

Key Lime Pie

2011-06-18T11:33:00.000-04:00

Key Lime pie is my favorite pie, ever. I first remember my mom making it from a recipe in her "Indian River Cookbook" that was published in the 50s. The book's inside cover had an ad about the benefits of electricity in the home.....

You see, my Mom grew up in Florida and our family has quite a history there; and Florida is where Key Lime Pie - my favorite pie - is from .

My mom went to Cocoa High School. She played in the band, and surfed, and lived for a while at her Aunt and Uncle's citrus grove on the Indian River - which is still occupied by our family members today. Even though the pier is gone, and the sailboat sank in one of the last hurricanes, the grove is still there. My great Grandmother lived two blocks from the ocean in Cocoa Beach.
Later, when my parents got married, they lived in some other Florida cities like Miami and Gainesville; where the family finally settled for awhile, until moving up to North Carolina, where I was born. We moved back to Florida for awhile, and lived out in the country until my sister was born. Then we moved back to NC after a couple of years. But, we went back to visit frequently.

My Mom and my Grandmother both, took us to all the cool places: The Devil's Millhopper (a sinkhole), Payne's Prairie (where we walked the trails and saw gators in the wild - close enough to touch) Lake Alice (where we saw one gator fight another one once). We also went to the Kennedy Space Center all the time - the rocket graveyard was the coolest. We've been to St. Augustine over and over - for kids, there is nothing cooler than exploring the Costillo de San Marcos, and all the buildings in the living history village; taking the ferry boat to Fort Matanzas; or climbing the 200 some steps of the lighthouse - where my Aunt worked as a guide for a while. The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings House and Farm Yard was pretty neat, too. And probably the best of all, tubing at Ichetucknee Springs.

Florida is like a second home to me.... and writing this now, I want to go back for a visit. *sniff*

But, back to the pie......

"Key" limes come from the Florida Keys. ("Key" limes are grown in other parts of the world as well.) A Key lime is much smaller than a regular Persian lime. And I think their flavor is more "limey", and fruity. They're best when yellow. You should be able to find Key limes at a larger grocery store; you may also be able to find bottled Key lime juice.

Key lime pie is made from condensed milk originally; and still is. You can make it with water and cornstarch like the Lemon Meringue pie from a few posts back; but I choose to make it with condensed milk, like the original.

In the early, less populated days of Florida's history, refrigeration was scarce in the Keys - because electricity was scarce in the Keys. So the milk the residents had was condensed, canned, and boated in. And so, Key Lime pie was born.

Key Lime Pie

3 egg yolks
1can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup Key Lime Juice
1tsp. finely graded rind of the limes (just the green part)
1 graham cracker crust, baked
1 cup whipping cream
2-3 Tbsp. sugar

Fold the condensed milk, lime juice, rind, and egg yolk together until blended. Pour into the prepared crust. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes until set. Remove from the oven and cool
Whip the cream with the sugar (more to taste) until stiff peaks form; spread over cooled pie. Cover, and refrigerate overnight. (You can use regular lime juice if you want.)

( Most recipes include meringue topping; but I prefer whipped cream; lightly sweetened.)

Sour Cream Coconut Cake

2011-06-15T13:21:00.000-04:00

I got this recipe from a stash my husband has. Yep, my hubby likes to cook - not so much bake, but cook, yes. I guess he just collected recipes that he thought looked yummy. I have no idea where he got it from. I have no idea how old it is.

I was fascinated by this particular recipe, because it has an unusual twist; and you know me: anything strange and unusual, I am all for!

The recipe is printed on a a faded newspaper clipping; about 2 inches square. I had to tape it onto a index card to keep from loosing it. The first part reads:

"A friend in a local shoe store asked for the recipe of the Refrigerator Sour Cream Cake. She likes it because it (here's the kicker) keeps for weeks. The flavor improves with age."
I don't know about the "keeps for weeks" part; I'm not going to go there. I did make the cake, and if you like coconut, this cake is just the thing for you. I am not crazy about heavy coconut desserts - unless they have lemon curd involved somewhere; but in my opinion, this is a halfway decent coconut cake.

First of all, make sure you have space in your fridge for this cake to reside for at least four days.

Second, make sure your fridge is clean and no onions or garlic or other pungent items are in there, uncovered. The cake will take on the flavor in your fridge. (And no, I don't know this from personal experience; I just know that my Mom always told me this, and if a cake is going to live in your fridge for several days, this would happen.)

Step one: Make the filling.

16 oz. sour cream
2 cups sugar (or a little less. it was really sweet.)
24 oz. shredded coconut

Mix together in a bowl, cover, and keep in the fridge for one day; stirring occasionally.

Step two: Make the cake.

Not hard. I used a yellow cake mix, and did 2 round layers. Or, you can do this in a 9x13 pan.

After the cake is cool, spread the filling between the layers, and on top; but not on the sides. The filling is going to be a good inch thick or more. Glop it on.

Cover (I used a huge mixing bowl and a glass cake plate) and refrigerate for 4 fays before cutting.

Old Things I Still Use: Vintage Juicers

2011-06-13T20:58:00.000-04:00

I love to collect vintage kitchen gadgets; and I like to use them - if they're still useable, and if I can do so without damaging them.

One of the gadgets I love to use are old juicers. I have several in my kitchen; and I use a couple of them all the time.

There are all kinds of other styles of vintage juicers.

Here is one I'd love to have; a pink depression glass repro; available here. It is in two parts with the juicer sitting on a handled measuring type cup.

Things were really made to last, back in "the day". With all the citrus to be enjoyed in the summer months, I use my juicers frequently.

"Skinny Chicks Don't Eat Salads" - It Worked For Me.

2011-06-09T10:28:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I mentioned that I was on a nutritional plan for tiredness and fatigue, and that I had lost some weight on the plan as well. Catherine asked me about it, so to answer Catherine's question:

A few months ago, I complained to my mom that I was feeling tired and run down all the time. I felt like an "old woman", I told her. I was tired by 2 PM, and ready to go to bed at 5 PM. Once, I pulled into the driveway at my barn to ride horses, at about 5 PM, and never made it out of my truck. I fell asleep right then and there, and slept until my sister got there a little while later and woke me up. I was also getting headaches all the time.

I was dragging around every evening, until I would finally fall asleep on the couch, or head to bed before 9 PM.
I was sleeping well all night, so that wasn't the issue.
I wasn't doing an excess of hard physical labor.
I had no idea what was up, but I didn't like it. I need a lot of energy to keep up with my busy life.

Right about that time I got a book from my sister in law, Katie. I found it in her Suburban one day when I was babysitting my niece and nephew. I stole it, and began reading it.

It changed the way I think about food, and eat food, forever.

The book is "Skinny Chicks Don't eat Salads" by Christine Avanti, CN.

I highly recommend the book.

Here is what I learned about myself and my eating habits:

As the weather started warming up, I did my usual "Get rid of winter flab" thing: I started eating less and less.

I ate something like this: Granola and low fat yogurt at 7:00 am. Leftovers from dinner, or a sandwich, or a wrap, at 12:00 noon. Dinner was usually some kind of lean chicken/fish/beef and veggies, or some stir fry, or casserole, etc. at 7:00 or 8:00 PM - or later, depending on when I got done riding horses and working in the yard/gardens.

So of course I was feeling tired by 2 pm! I was going from 12:00 noon to 8:00 or 9:00 pm without eating anything, and drinking water and sweet tea. I was eating the right foods; I was just not eating them often enough, in the correct proportions.

I was also not eating many carbs. I don't eat much bread, so the only carbs I was eating were occasional flour tortillas, or the morning granola, or maybe some rice - usually brown. And of course, whatever carbs are in different fruits and veggies and the like.

So here is what I learned, in a nutshell:
You need to feed your body every 4 hours. After 4 hours without anything, your metabolism starts to slow down because your body thinks it's "starving". And, your brain needs glucose to function.
That doesn't mean eat like a piglet every 4 hours. It means eat something smart and healthy every 4 hours. And, well-balanced: a protein, a carbohydrate, and a healthy fat. Very little refined sugar; if any. Sugar makes me so tired!

So this is how I changed my routine:

I try to eat within 1/2 hour after waking up. I am NOT a breakfast person, so this was a challenge. Then I eat a small lunch at 11 am. And I eat a second small "lunch" at 4 PM, even if it's just a low fat cheese stick and some sliced turkey. I eat again at 8 pm (after horses and swimming and gardening), and if I am not in bed yet, I will eat a bowl of pop corn or something again at 11:30 - 12 PM - although, I don't usually stay up that late.

You can't eat processed foods or tons of sugar, or sodas or any of those things; this only works with whole and healthy foods; but you eat more often. Also, she goes into how bad "carb-free" eating is for you. Your body and brain need the glucose from carbs - healthy carbs. Not white bread carbs. Not eating carbs will make you tired and cranky; and sluggish. (And, despite the title, you can still have a salad. It's just a cute title, poking a little jab at people who only eat salads and practically starve themselves into the size they think they need to be. I, myself, love taco salads, with black beans and home made salsa.... mmmm)

Anyways, I did it for a week and I felt better each day! My energy came back, I was like a tornado getting things done in the house, I felt sharper and less sleepy. And, even though I wasn't really on the plan to loose weight, I noticed, and my husband noticed, after a week on the plan, that I had lost some weight; mainly noticeable in my mid section. I didn't even try. I wasn't wanting to loose a bunch of weight; I like the way I look, and don't obsess about being a particular size, or number on the scale. I had gained 10 lbs. after getting married three years ago and just never shook it. I just learned to accept it. It was the lack of energy I was disturbed about.

If you're having such issues, I suggest reading the book; and see if the plan works for you. Especially read the first half of the book. Most of the rest of the book is about meal plans and exercise.

This is the first diet and exercise book I have taken seriously; because it worked - for me.

A Lucky Find - And An Awesome Gift

2011-06-08T10:55:00.000-04:00

Looky what I found at "Sallies" yesterday.

I went over the dress racks and debated about a bunch of different dresses that just weren't the "vibe" of my shop; nor things I would wear myself. I moved on to other parts of the store to browse and ponder, then returned to the dress racks once more before leaving, to affirm my decisions not to buy what I had been looking at; when I spotted this. I don't know if I passed over it before, or if someone put it on the rack after I walked away, but as soon as I saw that print and the cuffed 3/4 sleeve I yanked it off the rack in a flash!

At first I was expecting to use it as inventory for the shop; because I never find things from the late 40s, postwar early 50s era that fit me - the waists are always so tiny. But then I got home, and decided to give it a try; and what do you know - it fits me like it was made for me! (This is partly due to the fact that I have been following a nutritional plan I read about in a book; for tiredness and fatigue. The plan worked for my tiredness and fatigue, and I lost weight - mostly in my middle - to boot! That's a post for another day, however.)

It's a Pat Perkins label. In 100% cotton.

My sister gave me the umbrella; that she picked up at an antique shop in Staunton, VA. She said I had to go to the shop.... and mentioned something about the entire second floor being full of "racks and racks" of vintage clothing.

Anyhow... I estimate the umbrella/parasol to be pre 1950s - maybe even pre war? I think it's from the 1930s at least. The handle is metal and (what I believe to be) lucite. The end knob is engraved in a lovely monogram. I love it.

Oh and the shoes in the photos? I found those at the same store, at the same time as the dress. By Blowfish. They were a perfect match; it was like it was meant to be.

I love it when that happens!

Old Fashioned Lemon Meringue Pie Rocks My Socks

2011-06-07T13:24:00.000-04:00

I love love lovelovelove citrus desserts. Even more than chocolate desserts, since I found out chocolate gives me headaches.

One of my favorites is classic lemon meringue pie. I began trying my hand at making lemon meringue pie in my middle/late teens the "easy" way; with sweetened condensed milk. I also had a heck of a time getting meringue right.

Eventually I decided to search out a "no-sweetened condensed milk" recipe; the way the pie would have been made in the good ol' days - because I love that kind of recipe. The originals. The oldies, but goodies. The ones that take a little longer; the ones that aren't "fast" or "easy"; the ones with "Grandma's" somewhere in the title.

So I fooled around with some recipes using plain milk. (Not condensed.) They tasted good; but the pies fell apart when sliced and served. I don't know about anyone else, but I like for a slice of pie to remain in an upright posture when presented on a plate; not succumb to gravity and spread out into a pile of sugary blob. And that's what the milk recipes did; they turned into a pile of yellow glop as soon as the pie was sliced.

So I did some more reading and looking at recipes; and I noted that the really old ones used water; not milk. So I altered my recipe; using two lemons instead of one; omitting the standard 2 cups of milk, and instead used 1 1/2 cups of water. I also cooked it till it was truly thick, and not just "thickened".

And as for the meringue: It has taken me many repeated and failed attempts over the years to get meringue right. I figured it out, finally. Room temperature egg whites, and working fast with the egg whites. Perfect every time now.

I use beans to weigh my crusts for pre-baking. I guess I ought to get some pie weights. But this old fashioned method has served me well for years......

Just so you know, I did not personally eat all my recent experiments; I brought it over to my parent's for my dad to do away with. Hehehe

Old Fashioned Lemon Meringue Pie (No Milk)

1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. flour
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup water
2 lemons, juiced and zested
2 Tbsp. butter
4 egg yolks, beaten
1 pastry pie shell, baked
4 egg whites
6 Tbsp. sugar

In a med. heavy saucepan, whisk together the sugar, flour, cornstarch, flour, and salt. Stir in the lemon juice, lemon zest, and water. Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl and have ready.
Cook the lemon mixture over med. high heat until boiling. (Will be thick.) Stir in the butter. Gradually mix in 1/2 cup of the hot liquid into the egg yolks.Whisk back into the saucepan. Cook at a gentle boil, stirring constantly, until thick; one or two minutes. remove from heat and pour into the prepared pie shell.

Beat room temperature egg yolks with an electric mixer until foamy; begin adding 1 Tbsp. sugar at a time and continue beating until high peaks form. Spread on top of the lemon filling while it is still warm and seal to the edges of the crust. Bake in a slow oven (300 - 275) until meringue is lightly browned. Cool, an serve.

Farm Kids and Hummers

2011-06-06T14:02:00.000-04:00

Emilie and Ethan.

Emilie.

I love that my nieces and nephews work on the farm with the adults. This weekend we did a lot of our hay and the kids were right these alongside of us. They can't do much work, yet, but they're learning by observing.
My 11 year old niece Abi did begin learning to drive the hay trailers through the fields; and picked up some bales.

The humming birds are back! I made some feeble attempts to get some pictures of them. I stuck my hummingbird feeders in the midst of a bed of lilies and they love it.

I have discovered a downside to extensive gardens.

The time it takes to keep them up.

I feel like I spend every waking moment in the garden/yard.

And I am getting ready to embark on my biggest project yet - a massive bulb garden in the front yard, with iris, glads, tulips; and whatever else comes my way - complete with a antique hay rake for climbing roses to ramble over. (This entails more moving of rocks - ugh)

But I just can't stop. I am attached to this idea of sprawling, cottage style gardens surrounding the house. Gardens growing willy-nilly and spontaneously all around me.

Every day, just about, I find myself on line somewhere, reading about gardening - because I am not a natural born gardener.

I go to Lowe's, or Home Depot, or Wally World and look around, pick up a pot of something and think to myself "this is pretty". Buy it; take it home, and stick it in the first available patch of empty dirt I spot. That's how I am "designing" my cottage gardens. Also, people give me cuttings of this or tthat, or give me cast off bulbs, slips, etc. from thinnings and I just stick them anywhere that seems good.

I only hope that, one day (in the not too distant future) it will begin to make sense and look like the dream in my head.

And, my hope is to not have to plant everything every year; but to have returning plants.

We'll see it my mad gardener method produces the desired - and expected - result. Then I can sit on my patio and enjoy my flowers, hummingbirds, and cats while drinking sweet tea and reading a magazine.

That's the plan.

Office Before and After Pics; Part 2

2011-06-03T10:00:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the cruddy, dark photos. I took them at a time of day when there is very little natural light in the front rooms of my house, and my camera doesn't take good indoor photos without natural light.

Okay, let's venture into some of the rest of my studio/office/den room.

Keep in mind: This room will eventually have to be gutted when we re-wire the house. There has been some water damage to two of the walls, and the bead board has buckled.

Also, the fireplace, which is a working one, has to be re-made into a heat resistant hearth and wall, for our very hot, cozy wood stove.

What I did in the room is basically a temporary fix.

Before

Before

The original mantle pieces in the house were, at some point, replaced with more ornate ones. Years ago, when the house was vacated after the resident passed away, the mantles, many of the antique light fixtures, rugs, furniture, etc. were stolen - or otherwise removed - from the house. When we moved in, there was no mantlepiece here; just a hole in the wall.

However. Upon exploring in the barns, I found the missing original mantle piece belonging in this room! Now all the original plain mantle pieces are in place.

After the painting was done, but before I arranged it all

After:

I got rid of the tall, boring, white Wally World book case and brought in a wrought iron, shorter shelf. I have my embroidery and vintage sewing books here, along with some vintage sewing baskets. I also stashed my home made dress form in the corner; wearing a white maid's style apron.

My new slip cover from Sure Fit; it's the "Lexington" one that also comes in pink/red. I pinned it up on the bottom, though.

This is a fashion plate from a vintage 1927 magazine. I love it. The distressed turquoise colored frame I picked up at a yard sale.

This is a throw pillow I made by drawing the "B" monogram on an old stained table linen, embroidering it, and then sewing it into a pillow.

The fire place. I wish the wood stove wasn't in the way but there is no possible way I was budging that monster out of the shot. To cover up the fire place holes in the summer, I came up with this cool idea: a shower curtain rod and a length of fabric. Done.

I hung a big print of some roses above the fire place; but what I really have in mind here is a large, antique, distressed mirror and frame. I am on the lookout.

In the reflection in the glass of the print, you can kind of see the vintage light fixture. It's frosted blue glass. Hence, my use of blue in this room. The large white milk glass vase was something I found lying at the dumpster and rescued. (Yes, I rescue things from the dumpster.)

The corner cross ways from the chair corner; now complete. The dresser was a vintage Goodwill find, already painted green. Here, I used some pink; which I may get rid of.

The corner I am not showing is the sofa corner because it is just a blank wall and a comforter tossed over a sofa. Bleh. I need to buy a new sofa and decorate the wall with................... something. Working on that. I also need a room sized natural colored rug.

So for a temporary fix, I don't think it's too bad. It's tolerable; at least I can work in the room and feel inspired instead of feeling like I was working in a store room; or a dungeon.

Miscellaneousness

2011-06-02T10:47:00.000-04:00

I think I just invented another word to add to my personal thesaurus.

We have a goat now. I kind of inherited her from a few friends.... it's a long, unimportant story. Her name is June, or "Junie", and she eats brush and weeds and poison ivy off our old barns. Hooray!

We have a new kitten now, also. I don't know if I mentioned it here or only to friends on Facebook; but a few months ago we lost our kitty Spook in a sudden accident. We knew that eventually another kitty would find us, and he did! It's a long and unimportant story..... basically, he was an orphan, and now he has a family. We call him Bugs - like Bugs Bunny.

I want to try this project. I have just the lamps. I only have to find the perfect fabric.

I love this blog. I found her via "Flea Market Style" magazine. Her clean, basic, vintage, understated, uncluttered, bright style is very similar to what I call "my style", also! Check out A Country Farmhouse.

I think I'll go make a pie.

Y'all come back now, hear?

Upcycled Can Vases

2011-06-01T12:54:00.000-04:00

I really don't mean to beat the "old bottle/jar/can" horse to death, here. But I have recently, really, really been "into" flowers in odd/unusual/whimsical vessels! Have you noticed?! I also just really love my flowers that I am managing to keep alive around here. I like to drag them into the house and put them in just about anything. As you have seen.
So I apologize if this is redundant and annoying. :)

I did this project with emptied out tomato paste cans. And paint.

For these, I used leftover paints I have lying around. I find that the paint samples from Home Depot are great for small projects, too.

This would be a great project to do with youngsters. Let them get all crazy with the paint, you know? Then, let them jump in the pool or play in the sprinkler, and serve ice cream and lemonade...... looks like I have planned my next party with my nieces, already.
You could also use different size cans, as well.

My Holiday Weekend

2011-05-31T11:16:00.000-04:00

My main weekend activity consisted of baking and constructing this cake for my friend's wedding:

Sorry, I didn't take photos of the entire process; but I assure you: I did make it. With great help from my sister, Naomi.All of the icing is coffee flavored. The bottom tier is chocolate, with Kahlua for flavoring. The next tier is white cake with raspberry jam filling. After that, yellow layers with butterscotch filling; and the top is a repeat of the bottom. The flavors were all my friend Crystal's invention; and everyone said the cake tasted wonderful! I have no idea how it tasted; I was in no mood to eat any of it after 2 days of baking and assembling it. I had done some taste-test trial runs with the recipes before, and they were great; so I think it was okay.

Anyway... the wedding was held at a historic Antebellum home in my hometown, and the reception was held at the home of the parents of the bride.

I wore the dress from this post; which was expertly altered by my Mom. My look was entirely 1950s; except for I had no hat to match the dress. :(

My weekend also included my nephew's 2nd birthday party, and attending the Memorial Day Ceremony at the Historic Caswell County, NC Courthouse on Monday; following some morning thrifting and yard sale-ing. We also went and saw the movie Thor; which, in my opinion, rocked.

Here's my 2 favorite things from my weekend yard sale-ing:

(Small enamelware pitcher with floral design on the front)

(Awesome apple green saucer with raised floral design.... I would trade almost my other dishes for an entire set of these!)

A Great Garden Idea

2011-05-30T08:07:00.000-04:00

I found this old wash tub in one of our barns. I thought it would be a great way to contain my garden hose and accessories.

More Flowers And Old Jars

2011-05-29T11:47:00.000-04:00

I got really into my old jars last week; and playing around with different ways to use them for floral display. What I love about the old jars, I think, is the basic simplicity of the look; with a simple stem or two of a flower. It's so simple and yet so elegant.... and sweet. I never look at a jar as just another thing to toss anymore.

You don't have to have a huge bunch of a bunch of different kinds of flowers to make a statement. Sometimes, a small flower in a simple vessel makes a big impact, too.

I didn't think up this project on my own; I have seen old bottles and jars fitted with wire for hanging before in magazines like Southern Living, Country Living, Victoria, Country Home, etc. as well as a very nifty, very inspiring old bottle and wire mobile on the Magnolia Pearl website (photo number 5 in this collage from her wedding, featured in Romantic Homes).

Ideally, I'd like the wire to be rusty and old looking. All I have to do is leave these out in the rain once or twice for that.

Office Before and After Pics

2011-05-27T11:49:00.000-04:00

Two posts in one day..... because I am so excited about finally getting to actually see progress and see results from all my recent, very hard, patient, and painstaking work in my "office" room. I am only showing one corner of the room, however - as the other side is not "put together" yet, as I am waiting (always waiting around for something or another) on some slipcovers, curtains, etc. for my official "after" photos there.

Okay, here is before:

Oh dear. We improvised a desk from 1960s bedside tables and a board. What a fright. I was picky about what I wanted for a desk and didn't want to buy a cheap Wally World computer cabinet desk. I suffered with this .... thing ..... for over a year. But, I started my business here - so, not all bad. :)

When the weather started to stay consistently warm this spring, I dove into painting. Now, this is not your "get it done in a jiffy" roll job paining. The rooms in my house are 1920s pine beaded board, and every inch has to be brushed on. With primer. And then two coats of wall paint have to be brushed on. This, after all the loose paint has been scraped and sanded off. This one room took me a week of scraping, sanding, priming and painting almost every single day; all day - and sometimes at night.

Oh, and the old "desk" got tossed when I found, and bought, an old handmade pine farm table on Craigslist for $25.

After:

The one thing I still don't like is my old brown metal filing cabinet that my printer sits on. I am going to look for an oak one, and maybe one a bit taller also.

I like to use the odds and ends that I collect in my decor, and I think one good way to do that is on wall shelves. I bought some wrought iron, "scrolly", rustic looking shelf brackets at Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off. Both cost me less than $10. While I really like the "shabby cottage" look, I like to mix it with rustic elements and go easy on the frilly, Victorian girly aspect of "shabby cottage". So, Kevin cut me a length of rough-sawn oak board from the barn, and a painted it with some leftover flat off white paint; so it looks white washed and "old". I had hung two vintage prints on either side of the message board thing, and it looked crammed and cluttered on the wall so I took them down right away. No cluttered walls for me!

I found the window shutter in one of our barns, already painted a fantastic vintage green color. I scrubbed it, clear coated it, put some picture hanging brackets on the back, and hung it on the small corner wall. I can now stick all kinds of trinkets on it.

As you can probably gather from this one corner, my color theme in the office is blues and greens. The floor, as you can see, needs attention; but we're going to strip and sand all the floors in one weekend later in the summer after the painting is all done. To do the floors, all the furniture has to be moved out; so we're going to have to empty the front rooms of our house for two or three days to get it done right. Then, they'll be a lovely light pine, and we're going to shellac the hack out of them.

A few thoughts on walls:

After moving in here, I confess I was at a loss as to how to handle decorating the huge expanse of wall space I had in my downstairs rooms. The rooms are square, with double windows facing the street on only one side, with a fire place on the side at right angles to the window walls. The ceilings are high, so the walls are tall.
I like neutral colored walls and color in my furniture and textiles; so what I had is tall, bare expanses of bone-colored walls. And I despise clutter; I like a clean wall without busyness. I don't even like hanging framed photographs on my walls. I am weird and non-traditional like that. And I don't want to clutter them up with rows of framed prints, sconces, mirrors, and the like.
I have thought about it a lot and I decided the best way for me to deal with my large walls is by hanging "objects" on the walls. Like the window shutter. Also, shelves, for displaying my collections. So now when I yard sale, thrift, auction and antique shop, I look at objects for their "hanging on walls" possibilities. Also, I think another way I am going to solve my empty amounts of wall space is by buying some taller pieces of furniture.

So this is where I conduct my Etsy business every day. And blog, and keep up with friends on face book, and shop eBay and watch costume dramas on Netflix. I am excited about showing the rest of the room as soon as I can! Finally - some progress I can see and touch.

Vintage Chair Planter, Part 2.

2011-05-27T10:20:00.000-04:00

Inspired by my other chair, I decided to make another vintage chair planter under a shade tree outside one of my kitchen windows.
Okay, so I don't think this chair is vintage; but anyway..... I found it at the "green box" and fished it out. It's falling apart and very shabby.

I ripped the seat out, first.

Phileppe, who must be in on all exciting yard projects, had to get involved. And please excuse the grubby, baggy husband sweatshirt. It was chilly in the shade that morning, and I stole it.

I cut a piece of chicken wire and formed it into the hole where the seat was. Then I lined it with the sheet moss.

Added potting soil and impatiens...

It will probably not survive until next summer, but that's okay. For now, it's a quaint and quirky piece of beauty that I can enjoy while cooking. :)

The more I "design" my gardens, the more I love using salvage and whimsical, non-traditional, outside-the-box ideas.