Finds

Wow, I have really been a blogging slacker. It has been a week since I last posted and I wish I could show you some fabulous projects I have been working on, (there aren't any) but you will have to just settle for some pictures of the stuff I found over the last week.

As I mentioned on my last post, I took my #1 girl and my Mom with me over to the Tarte barn. Cindy was so cute decked out in her pink afro and mile long eye lashes. The barn wasn't bad either. Just kidding. It was awesome, as always. Got to visit with Joe a little bit too, which is always fun. He was nice enough to snap this picture of me and my posse.
I didn't buy much, but I did get another "O" (for "ROSES", remember?), a cute little metal cabinet with drawers (not shown) which my daughter confiscated, and this lovely feather ticking pillow which I bought out of Joe's truck at the last minute. I love the fabric on this oneOn Friday at the Portland Antique Expo, I found this adorable aqua blue crinoline. So much prettier in person. It has been pretty clowdy and gloomy around here lately, making it hard to take decent pictures.Found these goodies on a day out thrifting. The decanters, I think, are crystal. Very heavy, but so lovely. I love these for bath salts or bubble bath. I am using the cute jar in front with the spout for dish soap in my kitchen.
I got not one, but two vintage beveled mirrors on the same day. One at Goodwill and one at Value Village. Don't need to do much with these as they are great as is.
More small finds at Expo. Little glass and brass box, diamond chip watch, little rhinestone pin, blue rhinestone pin and tiny rick rack.
I did find a couple other vintage slips at Expo, but can't find them right now. My favorite find of the day has to be this adorable pink lace dress. This one is so, so much prettier in person. I love all the lace from the top to the bottom.
Here's a close up of the lace.
And finally, for some reason I decided I had to have a cute square dance dress. So, I looked on etsy (one of my most favorite websites) and found this.
Cute, simple and cheap brown and white checked vintage square dance dress. I had my son take this picture of me with my head cut off. I love that I found this dress and that it actually fits me perfectly. Now I need to decide if I gussy it up with lace and/or rick rack or leave it as is. What do you think? This may be a potential Farm Chicks outfit for next year. Okay, I know it's a long way off, but it's never too soon to start planning your wardrobe for such a special event.

Speaking of Farm Chicks, we got our contract in the mail this week! Yippee! So excited to be doing this fabulous show again next year. Already thinking about how I'll do things differently next year.

So, that's it for me for now. I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween!

Home Again and a Birthday Boy

Back from my trip to Southern California. I had such a great time visiting with family, shopping and eating. My most favorite things. Here is where I admit that I was awful about taking photos. Really, I was. I only took my camera out of my bag once. Here is the shot I got.

This lovely headboard was in my most favorite antique shop in Temecula. Isn't it gorgeous? I know Isabel would love it.

My Dad and I did manage to hit the Long Beach Flea Market on Sunday. I wasn't sure it was going to work out to go, but am I ever glad I did. We spent several hours walking and looking, looking and walking. I heard from one dealer that she sold something to Simon Baker that day. I told my Dad that I would most likely never see a celebrity at a flea market because I hardly ever look up. I'm always looking at the stuff.

While I didn't take any pictures of my trip, here are a few pictures of the things I bought.

A chocolate brown crinoline and white fluffy crinoline.

Calling cards, rhinestone hair clip, rhinestone pin and two old watch faces.

Old picture frame, pair of old crusty electric sconces, pair of wood and porcelain lamps, metal architectural pieces, black metal hooks, sweet cotton slip with lace, crochet sachet, bag of glass knobs (not shown ) and three velvet hangers.

Sunday was also the day of my step-Mom, Thetis' retirement party. She retired two weeks ago after spending 40 years working for the US Postal Service. You wouldn't believe how excited she is to be retired. They had Romano's Macaroni Grill cater the party (yummy!) and it was just so nice to visit with my So. Cal family.

Remember I mentioned that when my Dad and I were in Paris we went to three movies? Well, a visit with my Dad just isn't complete without going to see a show. This time we saw "The Boys are Back" with Clive Owen. Great movie! I highly recommend it. Wonderful acting, gorgeous photography, touching story.

I not only ate at my favorite breakfast place, Swing Inn, once, but twice. Biscuits and Gravy the first time, Giant Cinnamon Roll the second time. And as far as beating my Dad at tennis, let's just say that I started off strong, (lost first set 5-6) and then fell apart (lost second set 0-6). I was too exhausted to play a third. Okay, my Dad may be almost 70, but he plays every week, while I only played twice since I last visited him in February. I guess I need to practice more or maybe take some lessons.

So basically that was my trip. It is so good to be home. Today is my son's 14th birthday. I can hardly believe it. It seems as if it was only yesterday when he looked like this.

Look what we found at Costco.

In kindergarten with his red-headed mom who was parent-helping that day.

Camping cutie

Now he looks like this.


He's awesome! Gets straight A's and plays a mean electric guitar.

Yesterday I was at the Portland Expo helping Isabel set up and doing a little shopping. I found a few cute things which I will show in my next post. This morning I am taking my Mom and my blue haired girl to the Tarte Barn Sale. Family birthday party tomorrow so a busy, but fun weekend! I hope you are having a fun weekend too!

Finally, I thought I would show you a picture of my "love." I finally found an "e." Right now it's on my mantel, but it may end up somewhere else. I love letters. I think I'm going to try to find "Pink" next or maybe "Roses." Wish me luck!

I'm Off

Leaving early tomorrow morning for my trip South. I'll be back next week with some pictures and stories of my trip. Until then, have a fun weekend!

Nothing Much

Hi there! I can't believe that I have been back from Kauai for two weeks now. After a summer of busy-ness with shows, moving into a new antique mall, and family activities, I am finally slowing down. I haven't been a good blogger lately. Partly due to the fact that there are four people in my family and only one computer. Partly because I haven't really done anything blog-worthy these last two weeks.

I could tell you about the fun new cowboy boots I found at Monticello last week

(can't wait to wear these with some dresses/skirts and tights this season)

or the cute pair of mary janes I got yesterday at TJ Maxx.

(I love Mary Jane's-they make me smile just looking at them and these are really comfy!)

Or I could tell you about the fabulous cast iron casserole I bought at Macy's. It's the 5 quart Martha Stewart one in a nice bone color. So far I have made meatballs and beef stew in it and I'm looking forward to making many more soups, stews and casseroles in it this fall/winter.

(A special thanks to Timi for posting the link to these casseroles on her blog)

I did find a few things at a couple garage sales this weekend and last. Some of them have already landed at Monticello and Splendid. But others, like this trunk and little side table are waiting for some elbow grease.

( The little table will get some sanding and paint, the trunk some sanding and a little bit of my special stained wax)

Speaking of Splendid, my booth there is packed to overflowing. Most of the stuff (cool junk) that was left over from the Monticello Fall Sale went there. Wish I had taken a picture of it, but I was in a hurry to meet up with some friends for lunch and forgot.

Not a lot planned for this weekend, but it is Onion Festival today in my little town and there is Fireman Chicken to be had. It is so yummy!

As an added note, I also wanted to tell you about my friend Amy who finally started her blog, Into Vintage. Amy is an incredibly creative and sweet gal and has been selling her lovely creations on ebay for years and is also selling on etsy. I first met Amy at Expo a few years ago when I was selling with Isabel. I haven't seen her since last November when we were neighbors at a Christmas bazaar. Amy is super sweet so stop by and give her a warm bloggy welcome. I'm sure she would love it.

Next weekend I'll be making that trip to So. Cal that I mentioned on my last post. I'm really looking forward to visiting with family down there and hopefully doing a little shopping. I'll also get to have breakfast at my favorite place (Swing Inn in Temecula) and try to beat my dad at tennis for once. Should be a good time and I think the weather will be nice too! Hope you all have a fun and relaxing weekend!

Kauai

Finally, here is my Kauai post. Sorry it took so long. As I mentioned before, we wouldn't have even taken this trip if not for the kindness of our neighbor who gave us his time share. We are so grateful. Last summer we took a family trip to Maui and while that was fun, Kauai alone with my husband was pure heaven. This summer we both had birthdays and celebrated our 18 year anniversary so this was our gift to each other.


The last time we took a trip alone (other than a rare weekend) this is what we looked like.

This picture was taken on our honeymoon. Wow! We were so young and skinny back then. We joke to each other that we are literally "growing" old together.

Now, I have to tell you that I had an awesome post with all of our Kauai pictures on it, but for some reason, it didn't save and I lost it all. So frustrating. So instead, I decided to do a flickr mosaic of pictures of our trip.
You can click on it to see greater detail.

As you can see from the pictures, we had a wonderful time. A friend of mine loaned us an awesome travel book called "Kauai Revealed." If you are traveling to Kauai, this is a must have. The authors live in Kauai and share all the best places to see, eat, etc. They tell you which places are a waste of time too, which I thought was really helpful. We couldn't believe how great the food was there. We didn't have one disapointing meal while on the island.

I also want to recommend the two excursions we did. The first was a zip lining tour through the Princeville Ranch. It was called Zip and Dip and I have to admit, it was kind of expensive, but neither of us had done any zipping before and we loved it! There are other companies that do zipping on the island, and while I can't vouch for how good those are, I was thrilled with the one we chose.

The second excursion we did was a tubing adventure. Here we rode inner tubes through old irrigation canals and tunnels (one a mile long). Not something if you are looking for excitement and an adrenaline rush, but it was really fun and included lunch as did the zip tour.

The week went way too fast. I could have easily stayed another week as there were several things I didn't get to do that I wanted to, but I guess that we will just have to go back another time. We would definitely spend a little more time at the north end of the island where Hanalei is.

Now it's back to reality. Doing the kids school run, monkeying with my stuff at Monticello and Splendid.

I do have a trip coming up in a couple weeks by myself. I am flying down to Southern California to see my dad in Temecula. We will be going to the Long Beach flea market again which I'm really excited about. If you live in the area and can give me some other suggestions of must see and do things, please leave me a comment on this post. I haven't had much time to think about this trip, but since it is coming up soon, I need to start making some plans.

Hope you enjoyed my trip to Kauai pictures. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you how much fun we had snorkeling. One of the best places in the island for snorkeling was right across the street from our resort. We saw tons of beautiful fish and a bunch of sea turtles too. Okay, I could go on an on. But I gotta dentist appt. I have to head out for. TTFN!