Summer Turns to Fall

Happens every year.....

I started the summer, and this blog, with such excitement for the season. I had plans. I'm always really, really good at beginnings. The beginning of a project, a season, a class - I'm on it. But somewhere around midway through it, I lose my resolve to finish. And endings in my life, both big things and little things, are never as pulled together as I'd like. I'm always looking forward to my next beginning. There's always something to pull me in another direction, and that's exactly what happened this summer.

June was a blast. But the fun ground to a halt like a broken carnival ride as soon as July emerged. July was drudgery. Complete drudgery. I took a statistics class. Maybe I'll talk more about my classwork later. All I'll say now is that it was miserable.

And it got worse in August when our lovely little kitty, our little baby Owen, our kitty practically since birth (hers and our relationship's), had a bad kidney crash. Reality set in after her week at the OSU vet hospital and subsequent few weeks at home with us. She came home with a feeding tube and showed us moments of happiness I'll always remember. But she also told us she was ready for us to let her go.

We started September as a family of two. And we have been sad. The tears have lessened, but we still ache for our lap buddy, our nap buddy, or door greeter and overall loneliness curer. We stayed busy - the beginning of the academic year at work, busy weekends with family, fun and football - and we got through it.


Now suddenly it's nearly November. It's dark when I leave for work (the best part of my drive to work is seeing the sunrise). And as the season has firmly changed to fall with hints of winter, I'm planning to restart some blogging and just see where it goes. Maybe I'll talk about school, maybe I'll talk about the holidays, maybe I'll talk about....whatever new beginning is around the corner :).

Rebecca

Thrift Stores and Credit Cards

Uh Oh.

Thrift Store Purchases Could Hurt Cardholders
Some Credit Card Companies Track Purchases At Thrift Stores

That the card companies would be watching purchases isn't news. But that they would use my transactions against me? Ugh.

I wonder what the rest of my transactions say about me? I grocery shop at Giant Eagle - since their prices are so high, that should show that I'm solvent, right?!

Proof

I am linking this old post to the Pets in Your Home theme-party at Funky Junk Interiors.  I'm late to the party, but I just found it, so hopefully I can still post.  She lost a pet last week, and it reminded me of our little baby.  Miss you every day, Owie :).

And by the way, I did paint the brass on the fireplace. It's now a hammered copper color, and it was a low-cost solution to that case of the uglies.

__________________________________________________________________________

Proof that:


(1) Our Monster is indeed a monster. But we love her anyway (because she's microchipped and there's nothing we can do about it).

(2) I have the ugliest fireplace. I haven't died from looking at it, but it has made me grimace multiple times. Will somebody PLEASE get around to doing something about that hideous brass trim?!?! It's on the list.....

4th of July Weekend

I'm linking this post to Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch.

I have an addictive personality. When I discover something new I fall into it and forget about every other single thing for awhile. I somehow found BNOTP and spent hours pouring through all of Susan's great pictures and links on that blog.

Please go see all the tablescapes linked to this week's post - but don't blame me if you are up all night looking at pictures :).

Anyway, here's our table from the holiday:


Plates are The Cellar line from Macy's. The bowls are from World Market. I love my white dishes. I lucked out one day at Macy's and found the open stock plates and the salad plates for .50/each, so I think I bought 16 of each. The napkins and placemats came from Kohls a couple of years ago. The tablecloth is just fabric pieces I had on hand. The glassware is thrift store goodness.

Who says Santa only comes out in December?
Maybe he wants to lead a summer parade!

I used little scraps of fabric as ties on stems, napkins and silverware. They were from an americana-themed christmas tree I used to do--that's why I have the santa (bought him at Bronner's in Frankenmuth, MI).

My sister bought me these little partylite tealight holders a few years ago for Christmas. I finally found a place for them to fit! They look like the stars on the placemats or little sunshines....either way, it works for the holiday.

With the passing of July 4th, my summer travel and holidays for the summer are officially over. Only 2 weeks until the "dog days of summer" and their associated heat and drudgery!

A New Storage Solution

I'm always wondering where to put the new dishes as I accumulate them. I may have found a solution.

Everyone talks about their fantastic Craigslist finds. I have found a couple of things, but I haven't found the crazy good, jump up and down deal yet. I'm usually just not willing to drive very far.

I do love to look at the Free ads. They're good for a laugh. I especially like ads that are one line, very little info, no pictures.

Today there was a funny one. I clicked on it because it said "Free Tea Set." Here is the full text:

"There is a Tea set in my tree at the front of my yard if you have an eye for them all yours. "

OK...assuming the person means for you to take the tea set and not the tree....there is no hint as to where the tree is, so one would have to email the author to get the location. Couldn't he/she just let the person then know - hey, here's the location, and I left it in the tree for you?

Check CL and see if you can find an amusing ad. If so, post it here!

Pantry Clean Up

I have a list of nagging projects around the house, and I accomplished one over the weekend: Pantry Overhaul.

When we moved in almost 2 years ago, our first project was installing shelves in this closet/storage area under the stairs, off the kitchen. I wanted a pantry. So, narrow as it is, it's now a pantry.

But it was stuffed. And often we can't find things or don't rediscover something until it's long expired. Such is the life of a black-hole pantry.

I read an article recently about organizing (from Get Organized Now!). The article talked about excuses for not organizing, and one excuse was that it's too expensive. I totally related to that excuse when it came to my pantry. Each time I thought about redoing the space, I wandered from the basics and had a full list of lovely ideas for the space.....take down the shelves, paint, rehang shelves, fill with lovely wicker baskets with cute little label ties to identify the contents....and then I'd think "I don't want to spend that kind of money," and the project went back to the end of the pile.

But I decided the thing just needed to get cleaned and organized, and I needed to do it for no money. It's just the pantry, for crying out loud!

So, here's sort of the before shot. Forgot to take the pic before I started pulling out all the contents. Trust me, it was stuffed:

I bought a few plastic bins when I first added the shelves, so I did go back to the store to find more. Fortunately, they still had the same version. I spent $20 more on those bins, even though this was supposed to be a $0 project.

And here's the pantry after:

Room to spare! I don't know that it looks that much better to you, but I can already tell that it was a success. It's much easier to find things. I'm glad I waited to do this project, because I've definitely learned what I need to get to easily, what was hardest to find, etc.

I did label everything, even though Eyeball said, "can't we just see where things are supposed to go?" Right. But it will be helpful for spices, which I divided into 3 bins by alphabet.


OK, so one day I'd like to make the wire shelves more attractive (can't find the pics but I saw how someone covered the wire shelves in melamine and added a fabric border so it looked like more substantial shelving); have pretty baskets and tags; and paint the walls and bookcase to match. Someday. But until then, I have a functional space that makes me happy.

Do any of you have ideas on making wire shelving work hard for you? Feel free to leave comments with your ideas or links!

Dishes in the Mornin, Dishes in the Evenin, Dishes at Suppertime

Poor neglected blog :(. I'll do my best to get back to building a fun site now that most of my summer travel is out of the way.

I'm Linking this post to 2nd Time Around Tuesday at A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words, since my souvenir is definitely used but new to me. Check out the other posts linked to this week's 2nd Time Around by clicking on the link above.

WHAT I FOUND ON TWO RECENT TRIPS:

Thrifty Souvenir Find, on our vacation trip to Summersville, WV: plates with an "R"top mark (my initial)--set of 6 for $10. I found them in an antique store that had a big sign on the front door: "Good Junk." My kind of place! This set has led to a new obsession as I try to identify this piece of restaurant ware. The stamp on the back is McNichol China (West Virginia).


Fiestaware Tent Sale: At the end of June we went to Homer Laughlin in Newell, WV. By all accounts I shouldn't have had such a good time. I don't even use/collect Fiesta, I dislike lines and HATE the heat, and I was dealing with an infected hangnail that landed me in the ER earlier in the week. But I had the time of my life! It was such fun, and we're already planning a trip to the next tent sale in October. The staff was so organized, the people in line were all laid back, and the process of getting from car to tent was super efficient.

We arrived at 6am to get a ticket and got tickets around 7:30am. We went back to our hotel for breakfast and killed some time at the casino down the street. BTW, casinos at 7am are sort of sad.

Back in line at 9am, and got to the tent at noon. People in line were so chatty and friendly. It was hot, but there were places where the line went through shade, and sometimes there were places to sit. It really didn't feel like 3 hours.

Time spent shopping: about 1/2 hour.
Time spent waiting in line to checkout: about 45 minutes.
Best find: a divided plate with a scrolled edge for $4
Biggest haul: my boss got service for 16 (4 of 4 different colors), lots of serving pieces for $150
Funniest moment: when a friend lost her mind mid-hunt & changed the colors she was looking for
Weird and wacky: ended up in line behind someone I went to college with, nowhere near there, 15 years ago.

Hall Pottery 50% Off Sale: People in line told us about another local pottery. After we cooled off and had some lunch we made our way to Hall's. JACKPOT!

Ramekins and small bowls for .05!
giant plates (charger size and larger) for .75!
a huge white rectange server for 2.50!

I spent a total of $11 and have put all my pieces to use in my kitchen. I'll show some of those items on future posts.

Here we are, all loaded up and ready to go home:



But the most valuable gain on this trip wasn't the actual dishes. It was a new interest in some pottery history. That area of West Virginia/Ohio is connected to McNicol China (the R plates) via the potters that migrated from one area to the other. I have done lots of internet reading on the history of these areas, and I'm interested to learn more. I'd better hurry and look for some books before Ted Strickland closes all our libraries.

Change of Plans

I'm linking this post to Today's Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality. Rhoda hosts the event every Monday. Check out her blog at http://southernhospitality-rhoda.blogspot.com/ to see all the links to everyone else's finds.

The past few days have been a constant change of plans.


I planned to do the Route 40 yard sales all day on Thursday and Friday. But a baby in the family was born on Wednesday afternoon and had a dramatic first 48-hours. He will be fine, but we spent the past few days making runs to two hospitals (mom at one and baby at the other), babysitting the 2 year-old sister, and generally trying to be available to help.


I did do sales on the way to the hospital on Thursday morning. My best find: a pile of Waverly valances and curtains that solve my dining room and kitchen window problems. The whole pile was $3 (some of them still in the packages). The man that took my money said his wife just told him to price everything. I told him to be sure to thank her for me! I'll use the valances and then cut up the curtain tiers for placemats and/or napkins to match.


But generally it just didn't feel like a lucky trip. Other things on my mind, I guess.


Do you ever wonder what's going to make a good thrift hunting trip? Is it just a matter of being in the right frame of mind? right place/right time? some aligning of the stars and moon? Because this morning I went to Goodwill, and I found so many things! A lamp, a pillar with the 29.99 Kohls sticker still on it, 2 wine carafs, a cloche ( 59 cents!), a pair of white candle sticks, a set of salt/pep to match a set of dishes I'm accumulating, & some ribbon.


But my best find, not pictured b/c it's still in the car - a thick bronze-ish curtain rod. I'm working on getting curtains hung in our master. I bought the curtains, the rod and the ring clips. But I forgot to get a rod for my closet window. I wasn't looking forward to going back to the store and spending another $30 on a matching rod, plus another at least $20 for ring clips. The rod I found today included a baggie with the tie backs, the hardware, and some nice clips, all nearly identical to what I bought for the main bedroom, all for 1.99!!! I saved about $48. I'm so excited to get this project started.



I fully intend to use that wine carafe tonight. It was one of those weekends that makes you look forward to the NEXT weekend.

Test

Just testing out my new signature! Learning something new every day.....

Route 40 Yard Sales - Here I Come!

It's time for my first big event of the summer. Today starts the Route 40 Yard Sale week/end. The sale starts the Wednesday after Memorial Day and ends that Sunday. I'm disappointed that I can't find much on the web about the national road sale; It looks like the antique store that was hosting the website is no longer active or participating. But it's an adventure, and I'm ready!

I am taking two days off to travel some of Ohio's Route 40 tomorrow and Friday. I had originally planned to use the two days to drive west into Indiana, but I have to come home for a meeting on Thursday night.

So here's the plan. I am most familiar with the area east of Columbus, so that's where I'll start on Thursday. It seems to be a pretty well developed area for the sales, and I think I'll have the best shot at finding sales that actually start before the weekend.

Friday I'll go west. I don't know how far I'll get or how dense the sales will be on Friday. But I don't have any time constraints except crossing back through Columbus during rush hour.

I'll upload some pictures as soon as I find anything picture worthy.

Summer Preview

This week I had to seriously sit down with a calendar and get my vacation dates on the work schedule. Until I looked at the dates and really thought about it, I didn't realize that my summer has a theme: bargain hunting!

I previously mentioned the Route 40 Yard Sale. It's scheduled for the week after Memorial Day. I usually go out for a morning of yard sales, but I've never made it a real event. Last year I planned to drive further and see a new area, but gas was $4/gallon, and it didn't make any sense to bargain hunt while spending $200 for gas. This year I'm determined to enjoy 2 full days of shopping. The dates are sneaking up on me! It's just two weeks from today!

I unfortunately don't have a friend that can go with me. All the usual suspects that might jump on board have other obligations. And my partner (who I'll call Eyeball for the purposes of this blog....because she's always watching and knows when I bring junk into the house) is definitely not interested in two days of treasure hunting. In fact, when she reads this entry, she'll probably blow a gasket when she realizes how much yard/flea time is coming. So I'm on my own, and I'm excited to go at my own pace.

Mid-June is our family vacation. A few days of family fun in a terribly chic and glamorous location: Summersville, West Virginia. It's sort of a midway point for the branches of our family. I wanted to go to the beach as usual. I love the beach. But we couldn't get everyone together for a week, and it's too far of a drive for just a couple of days. Meeting in the middle makes sense.

When I made the reservation and gave the guy my address, he said, "you know, all good hillbillies have kinfolk in Columbus." I did not know that.

Summersville apparently has lots of outdoor activities - hiking, boating, diving, fishing, even snorkling. Here's the thing--I would travel around in a temperature controlled, bug free bubble most of the year if I could. I don't like being outside. If I'm not burning, baking or sweating, I'm scratching at bug bites. So I need to find other things to do that keep me in a more comfortable environment. That means finding the nearest flea market, as least one day.

The end of June is the Homer Laughlin Fiesta ware tent sale in Newell, WV. I'm going to WV a lot this summer, I guess! I don't collect Fiesta ware, but a couple of coworkers want to go. And I'm not saying no to an event that involves dishware at bargain basement prices. It should be an adventure. http://www.homerlaughlin.com/ffd/tent.asp, The picture above is a new color--lemongrass. I also read that brown came out last fall. I'd be interested in those two colors. The other pic is Homer Laughlin's restaurant line. I wonder if they have seconds of that type of dinnerware, too?

And then I think I will be bargain shopped out. I have such a long list of things I hope to find. And I have work to do; I need to find a suitable cart, put together a list of measurements/sizes for items I hope to find, and figure out a non-purse money carrying situation.

Now you know what the near future will be for my blog. May and June will be chatter about all my potential finds. I hope July and August can be full of projects derived from all those bargains. But I have a class to take in July/August, so we'll see how much I can accomplish.

A New Favorite Place

Over time I'm sure I'll blog about some of my favorite treasure places.....the flea market at Lancaster, Ohio, the thrift stores around Cleveland Avenue in Columbus, and all the other fun places along the way. Today I discovered a new favorite, and I can't believe I didn't find it sooner. It's only about 5 miles from my house!

http://www.heritagesquareantiquemall.com/

More later about the treasures there.

Today's Thrifty Treasures: Books

Before I started this blog I followed a few other blogs, one of which was Southern Hospitality. Mondays are Thrifty Treasures days at Southern Hospitality, so here's my contribution. Go to Southern Hospitality to see all the great finds posted by other bloggers; I'm so jealous of all the good finds that get posted there!

I didn't go to any yard sales over the weekend. I'm saving cash, time and enthusiasm for the Routh 40 yard sale at the end of the month.

But I did make a stop at GW. I didn't see anything exciting, but on my way out I noticed a sign that said books were all 10 cents that day. I turned back around to look for the books--just a couple of cases in the very back. But I got there just as some boxes were being unloaded. I picked up 7 craft/christmas/cook books for a total of .70. They're full of future projects!

Metamorphasis Monday: Plant Stand Project

My first attempt at a weekly theme-post.


One of my favorite blogs right now is Between Naps on the Porch. That's where Metamorphasis Monday is hosted, so my thanks to Susan for some inspiration to set up my own creative space. Stop by her blog to see all sorts of great Met Monday projects.


My Met Monday project this week is a plant stand. I picked it up at a yard sale last year for $1, intending to sand off the rust, spray some black paint.....bing, bang, boom, good as new. I quickly learned that it wasn't that easy to get the rust off, so it sat in the garage gathering dust all year. I recently found a small wire brush drill bit that made it much easier to derust, but I didn't get around to actually doing the project until this weekend. I didn't think to take a pic of the stand before I started the project, but trust me, it wasn't much to look at. I'm certain my mom had the same stand sometime around 1973, but I like the shape and functionality of it for my guest room.


So here it is, post-rust removal and two coats of black spray paint on the metal parts.





















I painted the middle wooden post cream.





















I added a variety of rub-on vines around each part of the post.
















AFTER: After spraying with a sealer, here is the finished project. The guest room where I'll use it is all black/cream, so I'm happy with how it turned out. Next project is to paint some pots for each spot, some for plants, some to hold items for the guest room.

Total cost: $1 for the stand, $1 for the paint, $3 for the rub-ons, and $5 for the wire drill bit for the rust removal.

Gettin' Goin'

Post #1.....

I have been looking at other blogs and thought it might be fun to jump in and start my own. So here I am! Consider everything right now "in progress," and I'll learn as I go.

Rebecca