Yay!!! I finally made it to the thrift store~

Thinking the e-mail said all Christmas items 50% off I went hog wild and bought a bunch of Christmas goodies.

Does anyone know who makes these sickly sweet little buggers?  I couldn't help but buy them, cutesy wootsy isn't usually my thing but I mean look at them.  Don't they just melt your heart. 

My favorite and most coveted item of the day was finding these vintage Gurley candles.  They sold me all three for only $2.00 and after I saw they were upposed to be $5.00 dollars each.  Score!!

Come to find out all the christmas items I bought were regular price.  Even though some vintage Santas, candle molds, childrens books from 1945, more miscellanious vintage ornaments and my first pair of high heel shoes made it home with me.  I know can you believe it almost 30 and never owned a pair of high hells.  I am going to look like a wobbling baby bird in those things. 

I am still steadily working on all my handmade gifts: layered cookie jars, flavored coffee mixes and necklaces for all the girl cousins are done.  The necklaces turned out quite nice I think.

Next up on the todo is the Rum Balls, Ale and Pretzel carmels, jar soups and assorted fudge.  I know it is making my damn head spin.  The one thing that has me the most stressed is shopping for my 9 year old son.  What do you get a boy who only wants video games?

All that glitters is not gold......

This is the little precious that almost cost my granny her life.  I fell in love with this clip when I saw it.  Out of the whole estate sale this was the only thing that caught my eye.  I asked how much it was knowing that I didn't have enough; I only had $2.00 on me.  So when the gentleman said $3.00 I figured it was meant to be.  Chris and Granny were standing right next to me,  I looked at Granny and said, "Stay right here!" I ran to the car to scour the seat cushions.  I looked everywhere for change.  Why is it when you don't need it's there, and when you do it's not.  I did manage to find $.50.  When I resurfaced Granny and Chris were by the car.  I ran passed Granny and told her, "Go ahead and get in on this side" (the side away from the street) and ran off in hopes the man would take $2.50 instead.

The next thing I know Chris is yelling all the way across the yard," That piece of garbage is worth more than your grandma's life!"  What, is he talking about?  The man just looked at me and was like "Yeah, just take it."  I felt so bad.  I am still not absolutely sure of what all happened.  But from what I gather is that when I walked away instead of getting in on the side she was already on, she walked into the street without looking while a car was coming and Chris couldn't get out of the car fast enough to stop her.  It caused major drama. Since Granny has dementia we have to watch her carefully. Somehow Chris thought it was all my fault, and I was pissed because going to a couple garage sales is my only time out in the week and he was right there.  And I did say, "Stay Here!" in the first place.  Needless to say she wasn't hit and I still got a treasure and $.50 cheaper the original price. 

Does any one know what it is?  Or seen something similar?  It has sharp hooks on the clip so I don't think it could be a scarf or blouse pin.  I was thinking maybe a money clip but then again the hooks are so sharp.

 I am leaving you all with a quick and easy recipe you can use with a variety of summer fruits.

Cut plum, peach, nectarine, etc. in half taking the seed out.  Put halves in a baking dish, sprinkle with brown sugar and place a little dab of butter in each center.  Place under the broiler and let the sugar brown and caramelize.  Making sure not to let them burn.  Once done place a dollop of ice cream on the top with another little sprinkle of brown sugar.

Yeah, it's almost the weekend.

Linking up to:

I have been a baking fool lately.....

First off I think I found the best chocolate cake recipe.  I am more of a vanilla lover, but this cake may make me cross over.  I made it by altering this recipe I found at allrecipes.com. With over 800 reviews it couldn't go wrong

I altered it by adding coffee and using dark unsweetened cocoa instead of regular unsweetened.

This is their recipe with my changes.

Coffee Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1 cup hot coffee
1 cup boiling water
1 cup unsweetened Hershey's Special Dark chocolate cocoa powder
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  Grease a 9x13 inch cake pan.  In a medium bowl, pour boiling water and coffee over cocoa, and whisk until smooth.  Let mixture cool.  Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla.  Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture.  Spread batter in the 9x13 pan.  Bake for 35-40 min.  Allow to cool.

 

My mom and I made it for my grandmother's birthday.  I was our first time using fondant.  They make it look so easy on those baking shows.  We hand placed each of those damn little pearls all around the cake.

Oh!, I am forgetting the best part the frosting. To use underneath the fondant.

Sweet Butter frosting

Ingredients:

1 pound butter, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Directions:
Combine everything in a medium mixing bowl.  Mix everything together on low speed until well blended.  Then increase speed to medium for another 3 minutes until totally smooth.

This recipe was actually made by mistake.  I accidentally put in a pound of butter instead of a cup.  At least it doesn't have shortening in it- *gag*.  I like it, but then again one of my all time fav foods is creamed butter and sugar. So it may not be for everyone.  It passed my families inspections though; so all is good.


My goals for this week are pretty much the same as last week.  I had a lot of other things pop up that took presidence over last weeks goal list.  Gotta roll with those punches. 

1. Finish canvas
2. Try to get stain out of dress
3. Vintage Thursday
4. Art Walk
5. Catch up on Kelly Rae's class
6. Gussy up my facebook fan page

This is the vintage dress I wanted to add my etsy site last week.  But on closer inspection I noticed that some of the red trim had bled a bit onto the fabric.  Does anyone know of a way to get that out?  Any stain remover suggestions?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Mom for modeling!!

Hope you all have a nice week!

Happy 4th of July!

 I was lazy again and decided instead of getting up in the attic and finding my decorations; I would just make some.

This is very simple to make with items on hand and adapted for any holiday.  I did something similar to this for Halloween.  To make the pleated circles, take 4 pieces of paper in equal size and fold them accordion style.  Glue the strips together and then glue all the edges together in the center.  For the red crepe paper use a running stitch along the bottom.  Next you want to gather and pleat the crepe paper and sew the ends together.  Glue on to your pleated paper circle.  I had these vintage Americana milk caps.  They were perfect to finish it off.  I added a little ruffle of white crepe paper and glued it all together.  I glued all the ribbon with Fabri-Tac.  I added the feathers to honor our Native American ancestors since our land was their's first. 

 

The pic's aren't the best.  I swear my camera's begging me to get a better one.  

Linking up to the wonderful weekly wrap up at  

Recent vintage finds........

Vintage lace in a rainbow of colors!

Velvet, satin, lace, and woven ribbon!

and some abalone and bone buttons!

My treasures from yesterday

 

This is a pic of  all the goodies I found at the flea market yesterday.  My favorite Peter Pan and Wendy from 1925, two sets of vintage buttons, a vintage flower frog and the cutest little hor d' oeuvre picks. 

A Saturday Drive

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.  Go for a drive to Gilroy and look around, maybe make it to San Juan Batista to go see the mission.  Who would we take Kiah, Granny, or (gasp!) Kiah and Granny.  Kiah whined and complained, "But mom I don't want to go!  Why do you always make me go to different cities!"  Okay.  I guess he wouldn't like it anyways.  The last time we went antique shopping he kept bugging me for vintage comics, so much so I couldn't even hear myself think and Grandma would enjoy it, she used to help out at an antique store back in the day.

As we started on our way I remembered that my favorite thrift store was having a $1.00 sale.  I convinced Chris to stop for a quick second. I found some really cute embroidered linens.  A tatted table runner that was $15 marked down to $1.  The find that I got really excited about was a Dennison Centennial Rose napkin set that has never been opened.  It would be perfect for someone who is throwing a vintage themed party.  Or a party for someone who was born or married in 1964.  It seemed to be the start of a perfect day.

The drive to Gilroy was gorgeous, everything was so green.  I wanted to pull over somewhere so I could take some pics, but no such luck.We waited and waited while Chris got some arrows for his bow.  That took forever it seemed.  Finally we able to take a stroll and find some antique shops.  I love looking at the old masonry buildings in the downtown area.  They have so much character.  Unfortunately a lot of the buildings here are falling apart and some even have "Enter at your own risk!" posted. 

We walked into the first store and the trouble began.  First Granny nearly sat down in a 200 year old chair, the seat was barely threads.  Thankfully I caught her in time.  I spot this really cool painting which I notice has a Whistler signature.  I'm thinking to myself, Dang! I think I heard that name on Antiques Roadshow. Then hear glass being jumbled around........Grandma!  No!  She's picking up and messing around with everything.  Where the heck is Chris, I mean, come-on, I watched Grandma while you were getting your arrows, now it's my turn.  But no, he is no where to be found.  By this time I think she wanted to punish me for telling her what to do.  So she started farting.  Not just one or two, it was over and over again.  "Grandma do you need to go to the bathroom?"  "No"  "Are you sure?"  "Yes, I will tell you when I need to go."  I find this pile of really cool illustrations and get all excited because they are on sale.  " I need to go to the bathroom" ; "Okay, let's go."  We make our way to the front of the store and I start to ask the clerk if she has a bathroom.  Then Grandma chimes in, "I don't have to go anymore"  What the heck!  I start my way to the back of the store again and Chris starts to hurry me.  "I am hungry, let's go!'  You have got to be kidding me.  I mean, come on, when is it going to my turn to have some fun and be able to look around?  I guess I am shit out of luck.  I mention to Chris that I like the painting in the front of the store, the lady at the front who must have had super sonic hearing ( I wonder how many of Grandma's farts she heard ) says, " Oh you mean the one painting with the lady in the wooden frame?"  "Yes." "I'll let you have it for 50% off."  "Okay!"  When I got to the counter she already had it wrapped and everything.  Which kinda bugged because I wanted to have a closer look at it, but oh well it was only $7.50 and I didn't have to pay sales tax because I paid cash.  When I got out of the store I opened it up and it was a print covered in a bunch of shellac to look like paint strokes.  If I wanted to return it I probably could have, but she didn't give me a receipt. I am sure she just wanted of get rid of the eyesore, and I was distracted enough to want to purchase it. 

Chris, trying to lift my spirits, stopped by another antique store, but as soon as we walked in Grandma started her farting again, so I just gave up on the whole idea.  We ate dinner as I sulked and then we made our way home.  I just love family outings.

Before and after using Susan Suttle's sepia technique. I loved taking this workshop. I learned more in a few weeks then I did in years. Her videos made the lessons so easy. If you ever have a chance to take one of her workshops, I definately recommend it.

Christmas goodies I found over the summer at garage sales and thrift shops. I got all this stuff under $10.00. I can't wait for the next garage sale season. I bought stuff to list on my Etsy site but now I can't let go of it.