Happy Halloween

Want to know what 34 feet of feathers and 104 yards of tulle look like? Well, I'll show you! Take a look at this:

 It took fooooooooorever to get those feather boas on the shirt. I decided Friday a week ago that I really wanted to dress up as a flamingo for Halloween this year. Flamingos are my favorite bird so what better reason did I need to dress as one? Well, how about this reason:

How hilarious is that gnome? LOL Once I decided to be a flamingo, I figured I could get the honey to be a garden gnome and together we could go as "Tacky Yard Ornaments". 

 
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures with my good camera so the only ones I have are these crappy quality cell phone pics. Well, the bf has one on his camera but I don't know if he has the cables to that camera and my card reader doesn't recognize his card so I can't get the picture off of it yet.

Anyway, we went to the club last night and everyone thought our costumes were adorable and original and the best there. We entered the costume contest but didn't hear them announce when it was time to line up so we missed out on winning. I know we would have -- look at us! 

I am trying to find an excuse to wear my costume again since it was such a pain to make. Am I *really* too old to go Trick or Treating?! 

Nine Weeks til Christmas

 

 

Have you started shopping yet? Aside from scanning in 100s of vintage Christmas cards, I'm not even thinking about Christmas yet. I'm enjoying the pretty fall colors on the trees, the nice crisp mornings, the rainy weather, the early nights. 

 

 

The Baltimore Big Flea is this weekend and I am hoping to find lots of vintage Christmas goodies for my shop. And once Halloween is over, hopefully the thrifts will start putting out more Christmas items. I'm ready to get my paws on some vintage Shiny Brites but for now, I will go get another cup of pumpkin spice coffee and enjoy the bright yellow tree outside my living room window!! 

Stock up and Save!!

Just in time for the holiday weekend, I am having a sale on all sheets and pillowcases in my shop. My shelves are overflowing with vintage sheets so from now through Sunday, 9 October, all the sheets and pillowcases (bundles included) are 20% off!! Click the sheet below to go to my Etsy shop.

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!)