Twelve Weeks til Christmas

Are you prepared? I'm not. Not even close. I have no idea if we're going to exchange gifts. I'm thinking not but I hope we do because I am going to be awfully sad if we don't have at least some gifts under the tree. 

 

I finally bought a new all-in-one printer the other day. I have been meaning to get one for a while but kept putting it off but the other day, I walked right into Office Depot, determined to not leave until I had a printer in my cart. I ended up buying a Kodak, which wasn't my first choice, but they no longer carried the Brother one that I really wanted. I had one hell of a time installing this printer and ended up having to redo the entire wireless network at my house!! I was so frustrated, I swear I was on the verge of tears! I did eventually get it all worked out and I'm happy to say that I can now print invoices and postage, pictures, well, everything really, all from the comfort of my sofa! Wireless printers are the best invention ever!

 This morning, I took a few minutes to scan in some of the antique Christmas postcards I bought last fall at the Baltimore Big Flea. I fell in love with all of the gorgeous graphics, the pretty pastel colors and most of all, the sweet letters written on the reverse of the cards. Most of the paper is still in pristine condition for being 112 years old but I wanted the ability to print the cards onto cardstock to use in crafting. I would feel so guilty if I cut up the original ones. 

So, the weather is finally cooling off again and I am so excited that it's going to be a crisp weekend. I think we're going to have scattered showers tomorrow and the highs are only supposed to be in the upper 50s and I am just so thrilled that it's this time of the year. The honey has drill this weekend so I get to fill my time with all sorts of fun things, like scanning in 100s of vintage cards. 

I saw on the weather channel that they are forecasting SNOW over in the mountains of WV tomorrow through Sunday. How crazy is that? The leaves haven't really even started to change yet and they're going to have snow showers? I think it would look crazy weird to have green leaves and snow! I'll admit that I'm slightly jealous that they'll be seeing flakes. 

 

I was lucky enough to find quite a few vintage sheets while I was out thrifting yesterday so today I get to iron and photograph those and get them listed on my new vintage sheets blog and also on Etsy and Flickr. I have two sheets that I've sold before to several people that have in turn used them as backdrops for photo booths. Isn't that a great idea?? And I've sold a ton of sheets to a fabulous dress designer in NYC that makes the most beautiful bridesmaids gowns out of them. I love knowing my vintage finds are being reused by people that love them as much as I do. 

Okay, well, the coffee is gone from my cup so I guess that's my clue that it's time to get busy ironing. Have a fabulous Friday and a great weekend too, friends!

In the Kitchen -- Apple Cake

Mother Nature was such a tease last week, with her cooler temps and pleasant days. I was longing for fall recipes and found one online for an apple cake. The pictures didn't look very appealing but the recipe promised that it was only 100-something calories per serving so I figured I'd give it a try. It's baking in the oven right now and I hope it turns out super delicious. Would it be wrong to have apple cake and apple cider for lunch? Ha!

Apple Cake

2 cups of apples, chopped up

.5 cup raw sugar (or, in my case, light brown sugar since I didn't have raw)

1 cup of whole wheat flour

.75 teaspoon baking soda

.5 teaspoon salt

1.5 teaspoon cinnamon

1 egg (or 3 tbsp egg whites)

.5 cups applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla

Raisins and walnuts (optional)

Gather all your ingredients - Preheat your oven to 375.

Chop up your apples. I had 4 small apples but only needed 2. In hindsight, I should have chopped these smaller.

Put apples in bowl, add sugar. Step back and admire how fantabulous your vintage Pyrex Butterprint bowls are.

In separate bowl, put in the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix together. Forget to take a picture of that step so make up for it by taking a picture of your apple themed apron. Coincidence?

Then, in yet another bowl, mix up your egg whites with the vanilla and apple sauce. Once that is combined, mix the dry ingredients into the wet. Your batter will probably look a little dry. 

Add in the apple/sugar mixture. Realize that this cake would be a lot better with a handful of raisins and chopped walnuts. Throw those in too. 

Spray your 9" square pan with nonstick spray and scoop in the batter. Smooth out the top. 

  

Pop the pan in the 375 degree oven for 30-35 minutes. My oven cooks both hot and quick so I am going to test it at 30 minutes.

 

Admire your caaaa-ute plastic canisters you bought at the thrift store for a song.

 Thirty minutes later, check your cake. Mine was cooked perfectly. Decide that the cake is mostly healthy and suitable for lunch. Slice into that bad boy, put cake on vintage melmac pink plate, pour apple cider into cute pink cup from Ikea and enjoy the tastes of autumn. 

My Marty -- he's Famous!

My boy dog, Marty, is being featured on Pawesome.net!! Check him out:


Marty on Pawsome!!

Monday Morning Musings

Hola, vintage peeps. It's Monday, again. Where'd the weekend go? I would love a do-over since it seems as though the weekend went by in such a blur! And it's not like I was actually busy doing anything exciting or fun or whatever. Nope -- it was a lazy weekend, full of naps and football and chicken wings. 

Today is 25% off day at the Value Village(s) which means I must head out soon to do some junking. I need to resupply my vintage linens and hopefully find some kitschy Christmas decorations too. Then, after I finish at the VV's, I have to head to another thrift store which has 33% off and 50% off today. Whee!! That's my favorite thrift store but their offerings have been kind of slim lately. 

Also, I have to do the grocery shopping today since I was too lazy to do it yesterday. Well, that's not entirely true. I managed to get dressed and leave the house by 5:45 last night but it was too late to really shop and some of the stores I needed to visit close at 6:00 on Sunday. So, today, I get to play catch-up on all of the errands that were neglected over the weekend. 

I like to get the majority of the errands done on Monday anyway so that I can stay home the rest of the week and do domesticated things, like ironing linens. And vacuuming. Because I am addicted to my Dyson vacuum. I heart it. So, that's the plan for today: commissary, pet food, thrifting. What's on your agenda for today? 

(these pictures obviously have very little to do with the post, aside from them being vintage linens. I just hate posts that don't have pictures so I'm throwing these in for good measure!)

Vintage Children Books

I've come to the realization recently that I have started a new 'collection'. This time, it's vintage children's books. I didn't mean to start collecting these things. In fact, I bought these to resale in my Etsy shop but I can't seem to part with very many of them. 

This past Friday, my friend from Etsy and I went on what we like to call "Friday Funday" wherein we get in her car and then shop til we drop at thrift stores. One Goodwill we went in had *the* best vintage children's books. 

The graphics in these books are fantastic. They would be perfect for cutting and crafting, or cutting and framing, yet I cannot bring myself to do such a thing. 

 I am going to force myself to list some of these books because I do not have the space to continue to hoard them. I will read through them, enjoy the sweet pictures and then let them go on to a new home. 

 

Ten Years

 

It's so hard to fathom that 10 whole years have passed since that fateful day that changed our country forever. I remember it like it was yesterday:

I was at work, in SC, going about my normal daily routine of invoicing, time sheets, checking email. Nothing different from any other day aside from the fact that my then-boyfriend had just moved to SC from New Hampshire two days prior. 

On September 6, I flew from Myrtle Beach to Boston to help him pack up his belongings and the next day, we started our drive from NH back to SC, stopping overnight outside of NYC to visit with his parents. After our overnight stop, we headed south and drove through the city. Little did we know that the city we loved would be forever changed. 

The next week, that Tuesday morning, the boyfriend called me at work to alert me to what was going on. I sat at work, in shock, trying to find news on the internet. Ten years ago, the streaming media wasn't what it is today and all the usual sites were completely jammed. 

I remember calling my mom at work, having her watching the tv in her office and we just couldn't wrap our heads around what was going on. I know I was scared and wanted to leave work, even though I was in a po-dunk town that had zero reasons to be attacked. I just wanted to be home, with my family and my boyfriend. 

That night, like hundreds of millions of Americans, we were glued to the tv, where they showed the towers fall over and over. I don't think I slept much that night. I kept remembering Christmas of 2000 and how I'd spent the holidays in the city. I love New York -- so vibrant and different from my tiny little town in SC and it had been forever changed. 

My family had made vacation plans months prior to September 11th for the following weekend and we were contemplating if we should still go to the mountains. We did keep our reservations but every time we'd turn on the tv, we were watching coverage of the recovery efforts in NYC. The whole vacation was kind of somber. 

So, that's my memories of 9-11. I cannot believe it's been so long. Do I think our country is any safer today than it was then? I don't really know. Do I think another attack could happen? Yes. Do I spend my life worrying about an attack? Not at all. I'm vigilant but I will not live my life in fear and constant worry. Having spent 8 years of my life as a military wife or significant other, I've spent countless hours with that 'knot in the pit of the stomach' fear each time my husband had to fly into a war zone. I'm very aware of the fact that they could be called to action at any time and that's where my fear lies -- them being put in harms way, not over an attack on US soil.  

I will watch some of the coverage today on CNN but I'll also do things that make me happy, like visiting some thrift stores and antique shops. I know that the people that perished 10 years ago would want the country to remember but to also get on with their lives and I will honor their memory by living a life without fear. 

VTT- Vintage Christmas

I'm participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday, hosted by ColoradoLady. Please hop on over to her blog to see the other participants.

Did you know it's less than 17 weeks until Christmas? Well, it is!! These are some of the goodies I found at the estate sale the other week, some of which will make their way  into my Etsy shop but most of them are keepers for my own collection!!

My finds included a tiny box of Shiny Brites

a perfectly pink Putz house (my first!)

a baggy full of bottle brush trees

some spun heads

 

A honeycomb Santa

 
There was a whole table full of the Putz houses but like a dummy, I'd only brought $20 with me and that wouldn't have been enough to buy all of my goodies so I just bought the pink house. I'm kicking myself for not getting the others. I'm also kicking myself for leaving behind the fabulous pieces of barkcloth that were there two days in a row. 



And a couple of weekends ago, I went to a barn sale and picked up two more Gurley candles to add to my collection - a choir boy and a pink glittery tree. They had been sitting in the case at that barn sale for months so I finally rescued them. 

Also at the barn sale, I found a couple of Whitman Christmas Carol books

 and a promotional Esso Christmas Carol book from 1953. 

 
The graphics on each are so stunning. 

Later this week, I plan on tackling the daunting task of scanning in some of the hundreds of Christmas Cards from the brothel lady's suitcase. It's probably going to take me forever to get through them all but it's been almost a year and I promised myself when I bought that suitcase that I would actually USE the items inside so I better get started.  

Thanks for visiting me today for Vintage Thingies Thursday. I hope you enjoyed show & tell for the week. Do you have your Christmas lists started yet? lol