Who's getting older"? Not me!

Good Morning!  I am sitting here watching the snow fall.  Big, fluffy flakes, though it was 50 degrees here yesterday, so it's really not sticking. Yet.  It is supposed to be 7 degrees tonight in Southtown!  Ridiculous! 

This weekend my sister and I celebrated our Birthday's together, like always!  She was born on the 20th and I was born on the 22nd, 5 years apart.

Neither of us really like cake, but I made one anyway, because the rest of the family does.  Together we are 101 years old! 

My sister also gave me some awesome gifts!

DIRT!

Yep!  That's exactly what I wanted!  It's almost time to get some seeds started in the greenhouse and I go through lots of potting soil!  That's me with my big mouth open and my sis beside me with her big mouth open.  Seems to run in the family.

Then I got the biggest surprise of all.

It was wrapped in the coolest paper.  She had cut out paper dolls and other adorable images and pasted them on the brown paper wrapping.  I just couldn't tear it.  I had to save it!

Inside was my sink!

 

The only missing piece to my pink kitchen set!

I have all the pieces now!  I am so excited.  I just need to find a place where I can display all 5 pieces.

I gave my sister some things that she had mentioned that were kind of boring, a crock pot, a teasing comb, a scary movie,  and the Pioneer Woman's Holiday cookbook.  I also made her some glasses cases that I had pinned on Pinterest and she had commented that she wanted these.

One had a dog and one had a cat.  You can find the instructions here:

 

http://gingermelondolls.blogspot.jp/2012/10/free-pencilglasses-case-pattern.html

They are quite easy to make and are just adorable.

I also went to an estate sale on Saturday and bought an entire box of vintage patterns.

I love the red, white and blue outfit on the left and am thinking that it's going to be my Easter outfit this year. 

Some I keeping, most I am going to try and sell on Ebay. 

The other thing I bought this weekend has me dreaming of spring

Lots of seeds!  Some like the leeks need to be started ASAP!  I already have some cabbage plants started and plan to get these leeks started this coming weekend.  Awww, spring dreaming on a snowy day!

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!

Blessings

 

Linda

I couldn't help myself

Yet one more Pixie to add to the collection.

Isn't he adorable?

Birthday Party goings on at my house today!

Busy, busy, busy!

More on this tomorrow along with details of yesterday's estate sale!

Happy Sunday

Blessings

Linda

Vintage Recipe Monday! Dutch Stewed Potatoes

Good Monday Morning!  A beautiful sunny, though chilly day here in SW Virginia.  Did everyone have a great weekend?  We went to the Home and Garden show in town and I was left wishing for Spring.  They had the most fantastic garden designs for ponds and patios.  I wish I had more time and more money!

Yesterday I got out this old Norge Cookbook that I bought at an estate sale last summer.  This book is gigantic and weighs a ton! 

 

It is by the Culinary Arts Institute in New York and written in 1948

I love this picture!

Lots of "odd" recipes in this cookbook, like a lot of gelatin type foods with un-gelatin type foods in them!  Like fish in Jello.  Ugh!

 

However I found one that I thought would go perfect with the meatloaf and peas that I had made for lunch and it was:

 

 

Dutch Stewed Potatoes

2 onions sliced

1 Tbls. fat, melted (I used Crisco)

1/2 tea. salt (I probably used a little more), dash of pepper

2 teaspoons of minced parsley (I didn't have any so I left it out)

2 cups diced, uncooked potatoes

1 1/2 cups boiling water

2 teaspoons flour

 

Cook onion in fat, 5 minutes.  Add salt, pepper, parsley and potatoes, cover with boiling water and cook until tender.  Thicken with flours which has been mixed with a little cold water.  For 4.

It actually was very good!  I did add a little butter at the end as well.

It tasted a lot like the scalloped potatoes my Aunt Clara used to make in the oven as it's really just boiled potatoes with a white sauce.  But it was very easy and quick and I will definitely be using it again.  Give it a try!

 

(p.s. How do you like my pink pyrex!  I collect the blue Amish Butterprint, but when I saw this pink one for $2.00, I couldn't pass it up!)

 

Blessings!

 

Linda



 

 

Happy Shelves- Valentines Style

Good Morning! TGIF!!!  It's a cool, rainy day here in SW Virginia, but fortunately where I live, it's too warm for the ice that's occurring in many parts of our state.  I am definitely not a winter person, so that suits me just fine.

This past week I put up my Valentine decorations in my Happy shelves and I also decorated my antique buffet.

I have most of my pink kitchen set on top of my cabinet.  I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see it every day!  I just added a few of my Peanuts figures and a Kewpie doll that I gussied up with a Valentines dress.

You can see my little green stove in the background!  I stuck a few vintage valentines in with my everyday décor and of course I have a Valentine's Pixie!  (I see a wayward rabbit that is photo bombing, he's jumping the gun on his season!) 

Another doll in her Valentine finery and there's Mr. Marty Mouse that I made last year.

A few more of my vintage valentines.  That guy with the red sunglasses is kind of creepy!

I put all the Valentines that I made or that someone else made and gave to me on my buffet.

I love these homemade Valentines!

This is my oldest Valentine!  It folds out to make this scene.

This is the date written on the back.  105 years old! 

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  I think DH and I are going to the home and garden show in town this weekend because there is supposed to be several plant nurseries there and I can hardly wait for spring.

 

Blessings

 

Linda



Vintage Recipe Monday!

Good Monday morning everyone!  How's everyone surviving these bitterly cold days?  If it gets as cold as the weatherman says tomorrow we will be breaking a record that goes back to 1918! 

So what's good to eat that will warm you innards?  How about some Corn Meal Muffins, recipe right out of a 1920's recipe booklet from Snow King Baking Powder.  I have so many of these little recipe booklets and the other day I pulled them out and decided I was going to try some of these old recipes.  I am glad I tried this one!

 

 

 

Corn Meal Muffins

compliments of Mrs Herbert. L Richie of Concord N.C.

 

4 Tbls shortening

2 Tbls. sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 cups milk

1 cup flour

1 cup corn meal

4 tea. Snow King Baking Powder

1/2 tea. salt.

Cream shortening and sugar together until light.  Add well-beaten egg, then flour, baking powder and salt sifted together and mixed with cornmeal.  Add milk gradually.  Beat well and bake in a hot over in well greased muffin pans about 25 minutes in a moderately hot oven. 

 

At the bottom it says "This recipe won first prize for four consecutive years at Cabarrus Co. Fair!

 

 

Here is the deal with mine.  I add self rising flour only so I didn't use the baking powder or the salt.  I should have!  They didn't rise like they should have, but they were still delicious!

 

While these are baking I browsed through the booklet and I think it must have belonged to someone with a mischievous little one, because someone has colored all the cheeks red on all the ladies photos in the book!

 

These really do take 25 minutes to bake, I was worried it would be too long but they came out great!

Crispy on the outside and light and delicious on the inside.

This recipe is a keeper!

I can't really find any information about Snow King Baking powder on the internet other than they are no longer in business and tins of vintage baking powder cost about $50.00! 

 

Have a great day and stay warm!

 

Linda



Good Morning and Happy New Year!

First off, I have not abandoned all of you, I read your blogs at least once a week, so I am keeping up.

Crafting really fell off for me in the fall.  I have no idea what I was doing that was keeping me so busy, but I just couldn't get into making anything.

We had a wonderful Christmas and I am loving my newest elf/Pixie that my husband got for me.  He is "Sparkly" and is a 7-Up advertising pixie.  I have looked at him for a couple of years in the antique store but didn't buy him because he was too expensive.  I was so surprised to see him Christmas morning.

My mother in law continues to decline.  Can I just say how much I HATE Alzheimer's!!!  She can still do her daily basic living things like make toast for breakfast, fix a sandwich for lunch, bathe, and watches game shows most all day.  We take her supper every night and make give her her medications and insulin shots each day.  Our neighbor comes over once a day to make sure she is doing okay as well.  The best Christmas present we had was that for 2 hours Christmas morning she was totally lucid and her  usual laughing, funny self.  Then she slowly slipped back into her scared and confused state.  It is so sad.

I am going to try and post to my blog at least once a week.  I have really missed it and want to keep it up.  I have already made a couple of things since Christmas, but I can't show them until after my sister's birthday, in case she sees this post.

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!

Blessings!

Linda

I am soooo 80's!

Arg!!!!!!!!!  No it's not talk like a pirate day.  It's me pulling my hair out and screaming!

So short version of what I have been doing is I have been cleaning out!  Under the beds, in all the closets, in the pantry, garage and bookshelves...I don't think there is anything in my house that I haven't touched except the attic and I'm headed into there this coming weekend.  Add to all of that, we have gutted the master bath and we are overhauling it.  Kinda.  Did you know that almond fixtures are OUT?  I did, and so I was going to change the sinks, bath and toilets to white.  White never goes out.  Until I started pricing what it would cost us to replace the cast iron tub,  $1200.00!!!  No way am I paying 1200.00 for a bathtub just because I want to change the color.  So the new plan was buy an almond toilet and new almond sinks because they really do need to be replaced and the bathtub is just fine.  Dear husband and I took last week off to work on the bathroom.  Of course we had to order the sinks and toilet because as the girl who took our order said as she rolled her eyes, nobody orders almond any more because that is sooooo 80's and it's a special order.  It will take two weeks to come in!  ARG!!!  That's me yelling again.  So another week with only a working tub in the master bath and then we have to go downstairs and brush our teeth and use the potty in the 1/2 bath.  Fun stuff!

My mother in law, who has Alzheimers is not doing so good.  Her mental state is going down hill quickly.  I can see a difference every day.  She is still able to dress herself, make her own meals as long as she doesn't use the stove, and do some light cleaning, but that is about it.  She cries most of the day because she can't drive anymore and she doesn't want anybody to see her because she says they think she is crazy.  It is heartbreaking.  The woman who used to look at a ridiculously expensive dress in a catalog and then go and make it herself with no pattern, can't even remember how to thread the needle.  She calls us 10-15 times per day and asks the same questions, she is becoming very paranoid, she thinks there are people in her house taking things. 

We are looking for someone who can stay with her in the day while we are at work.  She doesn't want this, but the only other choice is a nursing home, and we really do not want to do that.  Please pray we find the right person soon.

On a lighter note, my sister did some awesome dumpster diving for me the other day!!!  Her husband has a rental house and the lady who lived near him passed away and her relatives brought in a dumpster threw tons of stuff away.  After they left Dear Sis went over and looked in and saw some fabric hanging out of a trash bag.  She crawled on in (she has learned well) and started looking in the bags and there were  bags of fabric that she pulled out, all in great shape and most from the 1960's and 1970's!  My neice and I split it.  Of course it hit the washing machine as soon as it came in the house, but it cleaned up great and I have already made a skirt from some of it.

No crafting or sewing going on right now as all the junk from the bathroom is scattered into every room upstairs and especially stuffed into my craft room.  Can't wait to get the project finished.  As soon as I'm done I will show you all a photo of my "vintage almond" bathroom!

Blessings

Linda 

Taking a Blogging Break!

I have been a terrible blogger as of late.  I keep forgetting to take photos of my projects before I give them away, I put my estate sale stuff up before I photograph it, etc...  Life is just really busy right now.  My mother in law is home and is doing better, but needs a lot of care.

I will still be checking up on your blogs as often as possible!!! 

Blessings

Linda

Super Quick Check In to ask for prayers.

Good Thursday everyone.  Just a quick post to say hi and to ask you for prayers for my mother in law.  I believe I have mentioned before that my mother in law in in the early stages of Alzheimers.  Well she had a cold for the last week and this morning when we went over to give her her medications (she lives next door), she was really feeling much worse.  So I took the morning off and took her to the Dr. who sent her straight to the hospital.  They are running some tests and think there may be a heart valve problem and are also checking for blood clots in her lungs.  She is 78 years old and is sooo frail.  Please ask the Lord to watch over her and keep her comfortable and her spirits strong through this.

I also thought I would show you a photo of my latest aquistion for the children's stove collection that I apparently have going on now..  it was unintentional, I assure you, but don't they say 3's a collection?  Yeah, I thought so.

It's a little on the rusty, crusty side but for only $3.50 there was no way I was going to leave it sitting there!  I got the little dishes at the same sale for 25 cents. 

Blessings

Linda



Model of the year is....

NOT ME!  I hate pictures of me!  But I wanted to share some of my latest sewing projects.  I have been sewing crazy this spring.  Unfortunately, I have gained about 10 pounds this year!  UGH!  It is mostly due to a migraine medication that I am taking that causes me to never feel full, so I over eat.  I am trying to keep this in mind and have started back to Jazzercise and running.  It's very hard to lose weight when you are over 50!

Anyway, here is a blouse and skirt that I finished and I love them both!  The skirt was made with a very soft denim and a vintage Du Barry pattern from the 1950's.  It was very easy to put together.  The blouse was made from a vintage Simplicity from the 1950's and was a little tricky.  The back has a V yoke and with that slippery fabric it gave me some trouble, but I finally got it and am very happy with the outcome.

The second dress is a red and white toile and just as plain as can be, but very comfortable.  I wore it to church with a red sweater with some white silk roses on the side and it looked really nice.

This was made with a more modern pattern. 

Next is a yard sale find from a couple of weeks ago that I have been meaning to share.  These are some "people" blocks that I bought at a church yard sale.  I thought they were so cute and asked why they were selling them.  They were asked not to let the children play with them anymore because they were not politically correct!  What??  Someone pointed out that there were no African-American or Asian people and that they portray men with typical "man" jobs and women as "mothers".   I am all about equal rights for everyone, but I think this is pushing it a bit far.  They are just blocks.  I bet kids wouldn't even notice or care.  If I wanted to be a firefighter, I would have just grabbed the firefighter block and pretended it was me, even if it shows a man being the firefighter. 

Stepping off the platform now....

these blocks are just dang cute!

So what if the women are wearing dresses... who cares??

(oops, back on the platform)

I love these blocks!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!!

Linda



Estate Sale Pictures!

Finally! I have been so lazy about taking photos..I'm not sure what is up with that.

Anywhoo!!  Here are some pictures of the mountain of fabric I found at an estate sale this past weekend!

The smallest amount of any piece was a yard and a half and that the blue gingham and I got two pieces of that.

I love the blue and white.  There is four yards of that.

Remember when all department stores carried fabric?  I miss those days!  This was .20 a yard back in the day!!!

I love, love, love the pink check.

There is 7 yards of the pink and it is 60" wide!  The yellow is so 70's!

beautiful colors...

More pink!

And this is the blouse that is on my sewing table right now.  A cotton shirting being made into this vintage pattern.

I love the detail on the back!

And my favorite buy of the day!  A pink cabinet to match the rest of my pink Wolverine set!  I think all I need now is the sink and I will have the complete set!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Blessings

Linda



Sewing along..



LBP has been doing a lot of sewing!  However, I haven't gotten a photo of a single thing yet!!!  I have made two dresses, 4 pairs of shorts and a skirt in the last 2-3 weeks.  As a matter of fact that's probably what has caused this unusally cold couple of weeks we have been having.  I put up all my winter clothes and am in the process of making some summer ones.  Murphy's law and all that!

Hopefully I will be back this week with photos of what I've made and the awesome fabric I got at an estate sale this weekend!

Blessings

LBP