... the THEME of it all

Nine days into True SUMMER, and I'm FINALLY starting to get my groove back (of course, the fact that Mother Nature has FINALLY decided to turn the heat ON has not hurt MY feelings at all either!!)

Fri am: Left early for work so that I could hit a few sales enroute.  Six sales = Four pieces of Fun, modern, costume jewelry @ .10¢ ea ((you get the gist, not really photo worthy!!))

Sat am: Up and ready to go by 8am.  1 mi long Streetwide Sale nearby!  Heavy duty canvas messenger bag at the ready!  BEAUTIFUL day - I ended up parking at one end of the street and just walking the E-N-T-I-R-E thing 8-).  No major quantities or Scores, just a FUN couple of hours for ME-ME-ME!  

Some Odd 'THEME ACTION' seemed to be characterizing my purchases of the morning...

VINTAGE COOKING THEMED

(RED MELAMINE MEASURING SPOONS w/ 1/2 tsp & 1/2 Tbs .10¢ ; NATURAL COOKBOOKS I'VE BEEN READING ABOUT ON OTHER BLOGS AND BEEN WANTING TO CHECK OUT  "DARN YOU OTHER BLOGGERS!!" .25¢ ea

VINTAGE CHILLIN' w/ THE CHILDREN THEMED

(WINNIE THE POOH, BOBBY COON, FAVORITE POEMS FOR CHILDREN AND RICHARD SCARRY - remember him??  .30¢ ea)

 VINTAGE CHRISTMAS IN JUNE (?!) THEMED

 (LEFTON XMAS DEER LETTER HOLDER .25¢, JAPAN XMAS DEER FIGURINE .10¢, RUDOLPH GOLDEN BOOK .25¢)

VINTAGE MYSTIC THEMED

(1927 THE PROPHET BOOK .50¢, ORCHID of HAWAII TIKI MUG .50¢, kids books .10¢)

The one common theme seemed to be...

ADIOS KINDLE / SAVE THE LIBRARY THEME

I NEVER BUY BOOKS (well, hardly ever) - WHY WOULD I DO THIS ON A DAY THAT I WAS WALKING?? 

Probably my FAVORITE 'purchased' FIND of the day was this old Bank envelope from the town where we currently live!  Accurately marked on the outside 'ALPHABET STENCILS', I opened it to find older heavy cardstock alpha-numeric stencils...

 BUT,

upon

 closer inspection,

and

digging

all the way

to the bottom

treasure awaited!

 HAPPY DANCE!!

OLD! BRASS! Stencil Letters!

Just like my Grandpa used to use on his farm to label his crates -

(Except, Most of these were clean and free of paint)

Now, decisions-decisions...  do I keep svelteSTUFFj and break up this wonderful COMPLETE set or sell it whole??

Back home by 11am to spend the rest of the day work in the yard and the gardens - not a Bad thing.  I've been waiting MANY cold months for this, and the berries are ripe - so I get to take LOTS of snack breaks!!  

**PLUS, I made my FAVORITE FIND OF THE DAY- FREE!!**  while digging deep in the dirt, I found this-

It is the EXACT size of a golf ball, and since there seem to be a lot of stray golf balls in our yard/flower beds ((cough, cough)), that is what I thought it was at first.  Until I went to pick it up.  And it was heavy.  and metal.  and cold.  and vibrated in my hand. and started 'chiming'. I am SO fascinated by this and can find NOTHING about a ball this size in any research that I do.  Is it part of an old clock?  Something religious?  (There used to be a chapel behind our property).  HELP!!  I have found info on smaller versions...

Sunday, J & I took the day off of all 'yard / housework' to just.play!  We ventured to one of my favorite towns about 45 minutes away, took in a FAB Farmers market, hiked the gorge to a waterfall, and of course, happened upon a couple of Estate Sales!

 (Imagine that! )

Only a couple of small purchases, one of which I have NO CLUE what it is... 

the elusive 'MIRRORED PITCHER'~

ANY IDEAS?
IT'S BY THE SAME MAKER AS 'THE RABBIT'
3" x 3" x 8"

So, there it is.  Nothing too exciting, just a LOT of questions.  Sometimes questions are GOOD though - right?!
Hope EVERYONE has a 
HAPPY & SAFE JULY 4TH!!!

...PIGS IN BLANKET!

IT'S SUMMER!

Stopped by one Garage Sale and one Estate Sale on Friday in honor of  'The Last Day of Spring'  (something wrong about saying "in honor of 'Summers Eve' " ?!!)
Had been wanting a lightweight, authentic Mexican blanket to use as a table cover on our Summer Porch - found TWO in beautiful condition!! ($2 ea)
Also found three Great OLD sets of metal stamping alphabets and numbers in sizes I don't currently have - The letters are HUGE!! ($10 for all) 

At the Estate Sale I just picked up a few 'useful bits' - a new in box mini blind (to replace an existing one in the house that has seen better days - not shown 'cause it's already installed!!), a couple of soldering irons (still looking for 'Mr. Right'), and 

a 'Brazilian Hammer'?!  Did you

Know that there was such a thing? 
'Famastil'.  Anybody ever heard of
them? 

Very nice tool - the balance, the 

texture of the handle...

Fri. night we had mentioned to a friend that we had used just about all of the Scapes from our garden already.  Upon returning home from saling on Saturday, we received a LARGE bag of freshly picked Scapes - OH.WHAT.A.TREAT!!
...We have been grilling them
...and I made a big batch of Scape Pesto



...and this morning I tried two different variations of pickling them!

Did you grow up with a dinner called 'PIGS IN BLANKET'?
How was it prepared?
In our house, it was one of MY Fav's! A hot dog filled with cheese, with a crescent roll wrapped around it and baked - YUMMY! Now that is Comfort food!  I'll never forget my disappointment the first time a friend said that they were having P.I.B. for dinner and I got served some kind of Polish cabbage dish (which, as I have aged I have kinda learned to appreciate!)

I recently came upon this 1898 Methodist Church cookbook from a Coastal New England - kinda puts a whole new twist on Pigs in Blankets!!  I guess it just doesn't get much better than Oysters wrapped in Pork Fat on toast!?! 

...at peace.

“Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.” ― Vincent van Gogh. 

...somethings are better left 'UN-PINNED'!!

Come on, fess up - I know that I'm not the only guilty one.  Spending Way-Too-Many hours, drooling over Pinterest!  Sure, I 'claim' that it is research.  Keeping on the pulse of the latest trends, what will sell, etc... ((HA!))

Sweet little Mushrooms/Toadstools as first seen on Monkeybox


MANY of them I have 'actually' gotten a "round tuit" and TRIED -
Some with FANTASTIC results!
Some were miserable FAILURES!!
others, just 'eh, not MY style, but I got TOO Far in not to finish'...

First time using a recently inherited iron skillet to make another pin - CLAFOUTI!!

Well, one was a keeper, and one was a 'What was I thinking?!'

Have you figured it out yet???

Yep.
LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. The Berry Clafouti,
~BUT~
Shroomies with Polka dots - as adorable as they may be,
Have NO PLACE in MY GARDEN and they GOTTA GO!!!
Better luck next time PINTEREST!