Thrift Thursday

There's a little town that I pass through whenever I drive down to visit my grandparents. It's a tiny place, one of those old towns where the highway is also main street. The town used to be dumpy and dirty but in the past two or three years things have really improved. There's money coming in from somewhere and now the downtown features a few cafes, a day spa, a yarn store and several antique stores--a big leap for this wide spot in the road! We rarely stop to shop, as it seems we're always in a hurry to get to grandma's or back home, but every time we pass through I stare longingly out the window at the the antique stores. One in particular has always looked intriguing--the tiny storefront windows are filled with a jumble of dusty merchandise, perfect for a digger like me--but it is always closed. I mean ALWAYS, no matter what time of year or what day of the week you pass through town.

Except.

Except for the last time I came through town in August, on my way home from our family reunion at The Barn. I'd already had a particularly fruitful thrifting weekend and my car was stuffed to the gills with junque, including my grandma's old dress form riding shotgun in the front seat. I had Maren and the dog in the back and we were making good time, but when I drove past the store and realized that -gasp- it was OPEN, I had to stop! I parked in the shade of a big old tree and cracked all the windows for Bronco, but still knew I could only be inside for a few minutes--the length of time I felt comfortable leaving him in the car and how long it would take before Maren was doing her best "Bull in a China Shop" impression. It didn't take long; the minute I walked in the door to the tiny shop I spotted this:

Of course I was immediately drawn to its chippy, mirrored, pink fabulousness! Hard to tell from my blurry photo but it is an old metal medicine cabinet that someone once painted pink. It has its original glass knob and the mirror is all streaky with age. The inside has some really interesting shelves and I just know it's the kind of thing I'd see in a magazine photo, all cleaned up with some really great vintage pearls hanging off the knob and stuffed full of glitter and other trinkets.

So what did I do? Why, I talked myself out of buying it, of course. As much as I loved it, I couldn't imagine where in this house I could possibly put it. Only my daughter's room and the guest bedroom have any pink, and it's heavy so I'd have to anchor it to a stud, which would make hanging it a pain. No, I was just not going to buy it. I had all kinds of other goodies in the car already, and I was going to exercise some restraint for once and by the time I got back to Denver it would be a happy memory. I collected Maren, we said goodbye to the nice old gent running the shop, and I went out to the car to change Maren's hideous stinky diaper.

In the time it took to fix Maren (who was precariously balanced on the driver's seat in a feat of acrobatic diaper changing), I got to thinking about one of my favorite quotes from designer Betsey Johnson: "If you love it and it's beautiful, it goes with anything else that you love and is beautiful."

So you guessed it--I talked myself back into buying it! Man, I am a pushover! I ran the 5 steps back into the shop, threw my money at the man and grabbed my prize. I had just enough room on the seat under the dress form to wedge it in for the ride home. I've never regretted it since, but I can guarantee you that I would have regretted not buying it! It needs a good scrubbing, inside and out. The interior is dirty from being used as a medicine cabinet for who knows how many years. When I first opened it in the shop, I found an old dirty Q-tip (skeeve factor 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. yack.) so I'm going to be donning the ol' rubber gloves and hitting it with a good amount of bleach for my own peace of mind. You just wait--it's going to be a beauty, and I even have the perfect thrift store pearls to hang from the glass knob. Still have NO idea where I'll put it, but I know I'll find a place, because I love it!

Ahoy, me hearties!

Break out the puffy shirts and gold hoop earrings, it's time to celebrate--it's International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Be sure to visit the ITLAPD official website, where you can find all kinds of fun stuff, including several versions of the Pirate Name Generator and a bunch of other silly fun. I love Pirate day!

And how lucky is Miss Andrea? She gets to share her birthday with the pirates! Happy birthday, ya scurvy wench! (and I mean that in the nicest way! ;)

Just when you think your week can't get much worse...

...you are magnificently proven wrong!

Yesterday morning DH came home from Hawaii and I'm not sure who was more excited to see him--Maren, me or the dog. LOL Maren woke up at 5:50 a.m. (after fighting me until 10:45 p.m. the previous night to go to bed) and was exhausted by noon. DH was able to get her to go down for a nap and he went to take a nap too, as he'd flown through the night without much sleep. I left at about 1:30 while everyone was still asleep to go run errands and get my hair done.

DH called my cell phone while I was having my hair cut. I could tell he had that note in his voice; the one that says something isn't right, but he didn't say what it was and just asked that I call him as soon as I got finished. I called as I was walking out to the car (by this time it was nearly 6:00 p.m.) and he informed me that our basement had flooded! It seems someone (probably culprit: a little 2-year-old someone) turned on the faucet in the laundry sink downstairs and it ran for probably a good 3 or more hours before DH opened the basement door and discovered the mess.

As you might imagine, I cried all the way home from the hairdresser. Our basement is about 1000 square feet but it is a huge, unorganized mess. We've been meaning to get down there and reorganize for a while now but I'm afraid it just hasn't been a huge priority. DH has a $4000 big screen TV and an Xbox 360 down there, as well as a lot of inventory for his business, all of my holiday decorations, and our washer & dryer and food storage, in addition to all kinds of normal basement junk. All I could imagine was all of this floating in about a foot of water.

Thankfully, when I got home it wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined. The laundry room has vinyl flooring and DH had been working hard with our steam vac to suck up all the water, so it was mostly dry. Only a small part of the larger carpeted area got wet--really only a few square feet at the base of the stairs, a huge relief. The room that got the worst of the water damage backs to the laundry room and is the only unfinished part of the basement, which we use for storage. There's no flooring, only the plywood subfloor atop which the previous owners (who also used it for storage) laid down old pieces of carpet and carpet padding. The water soaked more than half the floor, so that meant that we had to take almost everything out of that room and find a place for it in the rest of the basement so we could pull up the soggy carpet & pad and get the plywood dried out. Well, we had been meaning to reorganize that room--nothing like a watery kick in the pants to get us motivated, huh?

We are lucky that most of the things in the storage room were in plastic tubs already, so there wasn't much damage to our belongings. So far the only real casualty looks to be a couple of dozen vintage glass ball ornaments that were on the bottom of a box that was right next to the wall to the laundry room. PSA: vintage colored glass ball ornaments and water do not mix! The colored film comes right off the glass ball when it gets wet. I set them out to dry last night so I think they'll survive, albeit with a much more wrinkly texture than they had before! The box for my beloved aluminum Christmas tree also got wet as did the box for its rotating spotlight, but I think both will be okay once they're dry.

We cleared everything out of the storage room last night and threw the sodden padding & carpet out the basement window, so this morning we'll go out and hang it all over the balcony. Good thing we have a couple of sunny, warm days forecast! LOL We borrowed some box fans from a neighbor and ran them all night. I just went and checked and the plywood floor is still pretty wet, so I'm guessing it will be at least another 24 hours before things are dry. We bought some shelving units to put together and once the floor is dry we can spend a few evenings this week getting everything all reorganized and put back in there neatly, a task we desperately needed to do anyway. And really, things could have been much, much worse--none of the electronics got wet, the carpet is dry, I'm not freaked out about mold growing, the food storage was off the ground on a storage shelf, and the washer and dryer are fine. However, this week as a whole still ranks right up there on the ol' Crappiest Weeks top ten list.

One thing that wasn't crappy about this week? The cute little consignment store I found in Boulder where I found these vintage felt pennants! They were marked down to $5 each and there was a huge stack, so I went through and picked those most meaningful to me. The Utah & SLC pennants are for my guest room with all the vintage travel memorabilia. The space pennant is for the future. If I ever have a little boy, I want to decorate his bedroom in vintage space and robot stuff, and I already have a small collection of treasures to get me started. Now all I need is a son! LOL At the same store I also bought an adorable vintage-style glittered papier mache candy bucket shaped like a black cat. I have considered gifting it but I love it so much that I'm not sure I'm going to be able to part with it. He was only $3, which I thought was a steal!

I am so, so glad that this week is nearly over! I've had enough--Check, please. Today I doubt we'll do much with the basement as it's still too wet. I have a wreath-making project that I'm going to attempt, and maybe if I can go get dressed I can go find a few yardsales; not too many more weeks before the season is over! Hope you all have a happy (and dry!) Saturday!

My thoughts are all over the place today so this entry will just be a bunch of random stuff that's floating in my brain:

• Went to JoAnn's today and they had a display up by the registers of these big silver glittered letters with eyelets in the top. They are clearly a copy of the big glittery Wendy Addison letters but they're not glass glitter like hers are. However, for $1.00 they sure would look cute strung on a ribbon or tied on a package!
• I just got a call from a friend who found out she is pregnant with twins! Yikes! She already has a 4-year-old DD and a DS who is just barely younger than Maren. She is going to have her hands full, that is for sure, but I'm excited for her! Congratulations, Jen!
• Yesterday Maren and I drove an hour north to Boulder to do a little shopping and just get out of the house for a while. Can I just tell you all that Boulder completely deserves its reputation as a haven for ultra-liberal, pot-smoking hippies? Seriously, it's a little weird up there. Good shopping, though! I went into a little consignment store and bought a few fun things that I forgot to photograph today, so I'll show them tomorrow.
• Maren's nap situation is still not great. Yesterday we left to drive to Boulder at 1 pm, which is normally naptime. I thought perhaps she might sleep better in the car than at home and while she was asleep within just a few minutes of leaving, she only slept for about 30 minutes total. She had no problem going to sleep last night although she did get out of her bed at about 1:15 a.m. She went right back without trouble, but then was up for the day at the unholy hour of 6:00 a.m. It's still dark at that hour, and I just don't do well when I have to get up before the sun does!
• A friend of mine watched Maren for a few hours this morning (I watched her DD yesterday) and I went to the craft store and got a pedicure. When I came home Maren was very tired from the early wake-up and playing with the kids so thankfully she went down for a nap without any trouble. I had a long nap while she slept, and we all woke up feeling much better! Amazing how much more positive my outlook on life is when we've all had some sleep, eh?
• Daddy comes home tomorrow! Hooray! His flight leaves Hawaii tonight at 10:00 p.m. local time and he arrives here at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. I am counting down the hours!
• I am so saddened to hear Katie's news. I will fully admit that I've been a whiner and complainer this week but when I read her post I shut right up. I know that all of us here in Blogland will be thinking of her and her sweet DH in the days to come.
  

So I won't forget

**Photos from our visit to Ground Zero, November 2006

Naptime Nightmare redux

I've been having a hard time blogging since I came back from the beach. Guess I just don't feel like I have anything interesting to say, but I'd like to stay in the habit so I'll plow on and just be boring.

An update on the Maren-climbing-out-of-the-crib situation: At present time, things are Not Good. After I posted my original "I'm going out of my mind" message, things actually improved. We had a few small struggles but for the most part Maren went back to her normal naps and not once did she climb out at bedtime. At the beach house we rented a crib and the first night we were there she got up at something like 3:30 a.m. and got out of the crib and I didn't get her back to sleep until 6:30 a.m. She got out of her crib several other times during that trip as well, including one morning at about 5:30 a.m. Her whole sleep schedule that week was a mess, but then once we got home things seemed to get back to normal.

Fast-forward to now. In the last few days things have gone all to hell. Saturday morning we did a 5K, with Maren walking/running a good part of it. We thought that would wear her out and she'd have no problem napping, but we were wrong. At one point that afternoon, Quin put her back in her bed again and laid down on the couch to take a nap himself. While he was asleep, she climbed out of bed, came downstairs, pushed a chair over to the counter and grabbed a big black Magic Marker and proceeded to decorate herself, the counter, the chair, and the garbage can lid with permanent black scribbles. He only woke up when he heard her bang on the garbage can lid, and she never did go back to sleep. That evening she behaved like a wild hyena because she hadn't had a nap, and when bedtime finally came she climbed out several times before finally falling asleep.

Yesterday Quin left at noon to fly to Hawaii for the week for work. Or rather, 'work'. After church I put her down for a nap, only to have her climb out of the bed a few minutes later. I've been trying the Supernanny method of just putting her back in the bed without a word and finally after a very long time, she stayed up there for about an hour. Whether she slept or not, I'm not sure but she did stay in her bed. Of course, she behaved again like a wild hyena yesterday evening while we were at the neighbor's house because she'd had almost no nap. I knew she was tired and put her to bed at about 8:00 p.m. (after she was almost falling asleep on the couch while we read books) and continued putting her back in the bed for a good hour and a half past that point.

Today hasn't been any better. I even waited until a little after Maren's usual naptime, hoping that combined with her late bedtime last night (and early 6:30 a.m. wake-up this morning) she'd be good and ready for a nap. Wrong again! I put her back in her bed at least a dozen times before I just gave up. I could actually hear her out of her bed upstairs but since she didn't come downstairs I just ignored her, which of course led to a mess for me to clean up when I finally did go upstairs. DH doesn't come home until Friday and the thought of going through this fight at every naptime and bedtime until then makes me want to poke my eyes out. Oh, and let me remind you that my DH is in Hawaii, all-expenses paid, while I'm stuck at home cleaning up the disasters wrought by a kid who won't sleep. If you think I sound bitter and cranky right now, you're right.

And because I hate to end my post on such a down note, I did visit 2 garage sales this weekend. They didn't look like anything interesting from the street but at one I bought 4 old blue glass Ball jars (the kind with the wire bail) and 2 huge picture frames for a dollar apiece. At the other I went though the owner's mother's costume jewelry and came up with 3 great pairs of vintage earrings and 3 vintage pearl necklaces, all for $5. Lesson 1: garage sales in the cookie-cutter suburbs can still have neat things, and 2: it's always worth a closer look, even though at a distance all it may look like is old VHS tapes and baby toys.

Hope you're having a better Monday than I am!

Weekend plans

Back from the Beach

We're easing back into non-beach life--wouldn't want to go too fast and strain anything, now would we? ;) We had a wonderful time! The only day that ended up less-than-ideal was Sunday morning (the last day we were there) and even that wasn't too bad, it was just less-than-ideal. For the most part the weather was great, the food was great, Maren behaved reasonably well, and we got to spend time doing whatever we wanted to do! I've got more stories to tell, but for now I'll just leave you with this photo of Maren that I love.

Beach bound

And we're off! We're headed to spend a week at Quin's family beach house in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. We can't wait to see how Maren takes to the ocean; we think she'll love it right up until she gets knocked flat by a wave and gets a face full of salt water! She's a pretty tough little girl so I'm sure it will take more than that to scare her away. I'm excited to spend some time in our beloved Charleston and Savannah again (we moved here from Savannah almost exactly 3 years ago). It's going to be face-meltingly hot and humid and I'm prepared to embrace the horror, but that is not going to stop me from complaining about it!

I most likely won't have access to the internet while I'm away (no email and no Bloglines--the horrors!) but I'll see you all when I get back! And if I return with blog posts full of ya'lls and dahlins, you'll know why! :)

The (not Pottery) Barn

All righty then. I'm just going to ignore that header mess up there and hope that maybe the HTML fairies come by and clean things up for me. In the mean time, I want to tell you a little about a place near to my heart called The Barn.

The Barn is the name by which my family's cabin is known. It's not really a barn, nor is it barn-shaped or barn-colored or anything remotely barn-related, for that matter. My great-uncle's cabin is on the same property and it actually is a barn (or was, more accurately) but for some reason we still call our place The Barn too.

Setting foot in The Barn is like stepping into an interior decorating time warp. It is a repository for old and unwanted furniture and as such is a special blend of interesting antiques and slightly horrifying relics of the 1970s. The carpet is orange & avocado shag, which nicely sets off the orange wicker furniture. Yes, orange wicker. Yes, I know--YIKES. The kitchen countertop is Formica patterned to look like ye olde time advertisements, kind of like they used to have at Wendy's and Subway, back in the day. The refrigerator is brown and very small, and has a tiny freezer inside the larger fridge compartment. The decor could accurately be summed up by that old bon mot, "Late Attic, Early Garage Sale."

Really though, part of the charm of The Barn is the whole "Land That Time Forgot" aesthetic and it's somewhat comforting to see the same yugly furniture, year after year. All of the crazy decor is strangely friendly and welcoming. While I was at The Barn a couple of weeks ago I took a few photos of some of my favorite things to share with you.

Acrylic grapes, fetchingly lit by the afternoon sun. Probably made by my Grammy at a church function sometime in the 1970s. (Note the stack of woven placemats in harvest gold, orange and avocado)

Pretty pillow-ticking from one of the bed pillows; there was also one with lavender flowers. Why don't they make pillows from pretty ticking like this any more?

Very cool 1950s-ish floor lamp and shade. If you look close you can spy a glimpse of the orange wicker desk on the left side, the orange & green shag carpet at the bottom, and the strange orange and yellow Lucite-look artwork on the wall behind.

I have no idea where this goofy sign or the old metal lantern hanging above it came from. All I know is that they've been there as long as I can remember and may well have hung in that exact spot longer than I've been alive. You can also see the old glass doorknob on the bottom left and the big dark shape on the right is the antique player piano.

This is the old wood stove in the kitchen. There is also a new cooktop (well, not new by today's standards but electric) and on the left you can spy a microwave, but this stove cooks the best darn breakfasts you've ever eaten. If you squint, you can also see a couple of orange & green mushroom plaques, an antique ice tongs-turned-paper-towel-holder, and a set of salt & pepper shakers and large bowl in the Jewel Tea "Autumn Leaf" pattern.

For some unknown reason there are numerous sets of salt & pepper shakers in the kitchen at The Barn. My favorites are the Autumn Leaf set in the background, this adorable spun aluminum set with the red tops, and this year I discovered the Hazel Atlas New Dot salt shaker lurking in a cupboard. I never noticed it before but that doesn't mean it wasn't there--it just means I didn't know as much about Hazel Atlas as I do now. That little beauty just might have *sneaked* home with me in my suitcase and be sitting on my kitchen windowsill right this very moment. Maybe. I'm not confirming or denying anything without my lawyer present.

So there you have a few of the highlights of The Barn. I wish you all could come and stay for a week--it's charming and quaint and relaxing and very orange, but I know you'd like it anyway!

Redecorating

Things are under construction on the ol' bloggity blog. If you're reading on Bloglines you won't be able to see my messed-up header but trust me, it's there. I successfully got the new header (made by my fabulous little brother, Nick) installed but I'm having trouble deleting the old title. I thought I followed the instructions exactly and deleted the proper code but now when I try to save my new template, Blogger tells me that I've made an error somewhere and my code is broken so it won't save. Arrgh! I'll try again tomorrow, but please excuse the mess in the meantime!

Thrifting on the road

I didn't go yardsaleing on Saturday morning, something I'll probably regret in cold January when I'm stuck paying inflated thrift store prices to get my junk fix. I did get to do a good amount of junkin' when I went to visit my grandparents a couple of weeks ago and have goodies to show you.

The three blue Ball jars were from an estate sale that we ran into while we were on the way out of town. My mom and I made a spur of the moment decision (involving a U-turn) and I'm glad we did, as we found good stuff. Usually estate sales are overpriced but the small jars were only $2.00 and the large one was $4.00, which I think is a bargain. The estate sale was interesting--the man worked for Kellogg's and had all kinds of cool memorabilia and promotional stuff, most of it priced pretty reasonably. I bet I could have bought some good stuff for resale if I'd had more time & money & knowledge (or a wi-fi connection!) The cherry teacup is a Mary Engelbreit piece and matches a honey pot & set of candlesticks I sold last year. I think it's an unusual pattern because I almost never see it, and I had a buyer email and ask if I had any more to sell. That was purchased at a brand-new church-run thrift store in the town just one over from the one where my grandparents live, so I will definitely be going back. Prices in there were high but it was their first week being open so maybe they'll get a better idea of what's reasonable in the future. The clear glass Ball jar was $1.00 and came from the thrift in my grandparents' town.

With the exception of the Girl Scout cookie cutter (which came from the same estate as the blue glass jars), everything else in this photo came from one estate (but two different sales). This one was an estate sale we happened onto when coming home from the pool Maren was just about in full meltdown-mode so I couldn't shop long. The old-lady beaded necklaces are great! I've already worn the pink one with a brown top. The dog broke one of the vintage ornaments. :( The vintage silk hankie is printed with an image of the Oakland Bay Bridge and will go in my guest room. Not sure what the crocheted thing is--a potholder, maybe? I forgot I was holding it until I got in the car! And I keep buying those darn painted-handle utensils, even though I already have about 3 of this particular tool (an egg beater?) and no good way to display them. Somebody stop me! I just can't leave them behind.


The two vintage felt pennants were from the same estate sale, and will also go in the guest room. I also bought a great big vintage Ball glass jar but that went to my mom as a birthday gift. Wish there had been more! This sale was held in an old shed/barn and it was the kind of place you have to dig. There was neat stuff and great old furniture, but everything was very dirty and would have needed a lot of work. I was there just an hour before they closed the sale on a Monday afternoon but I wish I'd known about it earlier--they said the place had been packed to the rafters on the Friday before. It makes me slightly ill to think of the treasures that must have been in there, since the leftovers were still pretty darn good. The calendar with the cute black terriers was from the same estate sale as the blue jars. The top part is embossed cardboard and it's really quite charming. Not particularly old--the calendar is for 1973--but a really sweet piece of ephemera nonetheless.

The Avon Outlook is a booklet sent to Avon ladies and is dated 1943. It's a hoot! I should scan some pages to show you. It's all about encouraging sales and such and I find the pictures highly entertaining. The Girl Scout catalog is from 1949 and is really fun to look through. There was an official Girl Scout Apron and it's just darling! Another one I where I need to scan and post someday.






And last, another pile of ephemera I bought in a bag at the barn estate sale. Lots of vintage Valentines for my collection (my fave is the one on the right with the astronaut), some neat old flash cards with scalloped edges, and a few random old playing cards with fun pictures. There was a bunch of other random stuff in the bag, including school pictures and report cards for a boy that my mom went to high school with! She took those and is planning on sending them back to him. Yeah, it's a small town. :)

One other thing is a very old carved wood frame from the barn but it's really dirty and it's pretty darn shabby. It has potential but it's going to need some work. I love small town junking! The prices are usually low and you don't have as much competition from other pickers. Good stuff!

Halloween a la Martha

Thank you all for your well-wishes and words of advice about my last post--I really appreciate them! It's going to be a few weeks before we can get a toddler bed because we're going out of town but until then I think I might just put the side of the crib down. If Maren's going to get out anyway, maybe I can make it less likely that she'll hurt herself in the process . I'll look into the crib tent, and we may have to start doing the Supernanny thing Sarah suggested at naptime. Again, thank you all, really. Motherhood is not for wimps, indeed!

Have you seen the new Martha craft Halloween stuff at Michael's? If you haven't, get thee to Michael's, pronto! (You may want to call first to make sure they have it--my mom's store does not yet.) One reason I've always had a soft spot for ol' Martha is her unabashed love for Halloween that translates over to really great spooky projects in her magazine and now, products in her craft line. Halloween is my favorite holiday to decorate for so I'm always looking for something new and spooky!

I did a quick reconnaissance run yesterday to check out the new stuff and bought a package of black cupcake boxes, Halloween-colored bakers' twine, neat vintage-looking patterned paper tape, and a spooky witch cling to put in the window. I may go back for more later but this time I got the things I wanted most while they're still in stock. Maybe it's a good thing that they don't take 40% off coupons on the Martha stuff, or I have a feeling I'd be making a trip once a week, coupon in hand! There are many more neat things like glittering kits and bones & bugs to glitter, laboratory-inspired party supplies & favors, and neat patterned paper and stickers.

One thing that I didn't buy was an invitation kit using mock slide holders and plastic specimen slides. I'm hoping to have another Halloween party this year but I'll need a whole lot more than the 6 invitations the kit makes. It does give me some good ideas, and I bet I can find plain slide holders and slides in bulk somewhere else if I start looking now. Hmm, maybe a "mad scientist" theme for my party would be really fun!

Naptime Nightmare

Ever feel like you're walking around with a little black raincloud over your head? That's been me for the past 3 days. Maren figured out on Wednesday night that she could climb out of her crib. I know that prior to then she absolutely could have physically done it; the child is like Spiderman in her ability to scale the furniture and appliances in this house. I attribute it solely to a tender mercy of the Lord that it took her this long to realize that she could do it.

Thursday morning at about 6:45 a.m. I was awakened from a blissful slumber by a -thump- and a little voice saying proudly, "I get out!" followed by a bedside visit from the owner of that little voice. I'm going to confess: when I heard that thump I knew exactly what (or rather, who) it was, and the first thought that popped into my head was a four-letter word not suitable for polite company. My fears were well-founded, as I am now unable to confine Maren anywhere in the house, which for her means NO NAPTIME! I can't make her stay in her crib to take a nap in the afternoon if she doesn't want to, and she rarely wants to. Oh, she needs to take a nap, she just doesn't realize that, so I wasn't surprised at all when she started to melt down at about 5:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon.

Perhaps more than Maren needs a nap, I need her to take a nap. Naptime has always been my favorite time of the whole day, and if it makes me a bad mom to say that, so be it. I have always looked forward to and relished those few hours of peace and quiet and solitude when I don't have to be Mommy; I can just be Heidi again. Sometimes I take a short nap, other times I do chores that are easiest without little hands undoing all the work right behind me, and sometimes I even do something crafty without the threat of those little hands tearing up or spilling my supplies. Either way, those hours are precious and quite vital to me and when Maren doesn't take a nap I get cranky and short-tempered and I count the minutes until Quin comes home so I can get a break.

The prospect of no more afternoon naps because I can't keep Maren in her bed makes me incredibly distressed. Short of installing a net over the top of the crib or handcuffing her to the crib bars, I'm out of ideas. I have a feeble hope that maybe the novelty of climbing out will wear off after a few days and naptime will resume. Until that happens (if it does), I'm going to be praying hard. I just don't know what else to do.

Birthday wishes

Happy Happy Birthday Shara dear
Happy days will come to you all year
If I had a wish than it would be
A Happy Happy Birthday to YOU from ME!

It's Shara's birthday today! Hop over to her blog and leave her a birthday wish!

Vintage Linen Q & A

This post is for you, Miss Sarabeth! Sarabeth posted this lovely comment this morning:

Hello Heidi,
This is off your topic for today, but I'd love your advice on a thrifting question. I've been enjoying your blog for a while and you have inspired me to get over my fear of the "linens" area of my local thrift shop. My questions are
1) how do you know when sheets, pillowcases, etc. are vintage?
and 2) What do you do the clean the average sheet when you bring it home? Is it safe to use bleach if the sheet has a colored pattern? or do you clean it some other way?
Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom! I just bought a cool (I think vintage, but who knows) sheet with big pink and yellow flowers all over it.
--Sarabeth in Mass.

I don't have Sarabeth's contact information and I thought it was a good post topic so I'll answer it right here. Also, I know there are readers of this blog who also love vintage linens and probably know a lot more about them than I do, so I hope they'll leave a comment or two and we can all learn from each other!

Question 1: How do you know when sheets, pillowcases, etc. are vintage?
The more linens you look at, the easier you will be able to distinguish vintage linens from newer goods. Thrift stores are a good place to practice this as they will usually have many examples that you can compare, whereas yard sales might have only one or two.

One distinguishing factor is the pattern. I like floral patterned sheets in bright pinks and yellows and aqua blues. Look for bright, happy colors! Same goes for pillowcases. Often they'll have a nice contrasting "cuff" (is there a better term for that?) like you can see on the yellow pillowcases in the photo. The older ones seem to have nicer details than newer pillowcases. Embroidery or monogramming is another giveaway on pillowcases, although from time to time I do see new cases that have been embroidered with old patterns. I can tell they're newer because the quality of the fabric isn't as nice as the old ones. That's another distinguishing factor: fabric quality. Again at the thrift store, run your hands over the pillowcases and you'll be able to tell which ones are made of yucky synthetics or blends (the kind that pill and look all crummy) and nicer quality cottons. Sometimes you can even find real linen. Good fabrics are heavy and smooth and feel cool to the touch.

As for printed tablecloths (my favorite!), they're easy to recognize because they all have a certain "look". To see what I mean, head over to Sarah's blog and check out the link to her flickr, where she has lots of photos of her fabulous printed tablecloth collection.

Question 2: What do you do the clean the average sheet when you bring it home? Is it safe to use bleach if the sheet has a colored pattern? or do you clean it some other way?
If the linens are stained or just looking dingy, I like to put them into a good OxiClean soak. Personally, I am afraid of bleach--ever since the incident in high school where I dropped a bottle of bleach with a loose cap down the front stairs of my house with predictably disastrous results, I've steered clear of using it. That's why I like the OxiClean and then usually a good hot wash right after, but you could probably use color-safe bleach and be okay even on patterns. Maybe another reader has experience with this and will comment. Tablecloths are more likely than bed linens to have tough stains, just given the nature of their use. If you have a clothesline (I don't, darn HOA regulations) you might want to hang out your linens to bleach in the sun a little. I've heard that Biz detergent can work for really, really grungy stains but haven't ever tried it. Sarah cautions against using OxiClean on tablecloths that have gold printed details, as it will eat through the gold and leave you with holes in the fabric!

Most of all, I think you should just buy what you like and what makes you happy to look at, no matter how old it really is. I hope that helps!

Hollyhocks

The town where my parents grew up and where my grandparents still live is a small one; the population is under 10,000. It's full of old houses and old yards, which fortunately equates to an abundance of hollyhocks! Hollyhocks are an old-fashioned flower. I rarely see them in my area of the 'burbs, but they seem abundant in the old parts of town and in the small, rural towns we so often pass through on our road trips.

I tried my hand at hollyhocks of my own last year and planted a whole packet along a back fence, but nothing came up. I can't say I was too surprised, given that the ground there had more in common with a concrete sidewalk than a flowerbed. This spring I vowed to rip out the ugly, scraggly ground cover and work some fertilizer into that dirt so that I could plant the hollyhock seeds I received from Linda. I have to shamefully admit that I didn't get the work done in time and my laziness coupled with our unusually wet and cold May-June meant that I didn't get any more seeds planted.

Imagine my surprise when a few green shoots with heart-shaped leaves popped up! A few of the seeds I planted last year survived the cold winter and the poor soil and up they came. They weren't completely unscathed, as the stalks are much shorter than they should be and only managed a few pitiful white blooms before they keeled over and died. Next year I'm going to try again with Linda's precious seeds and some old ones I found in a bag at an estate sale. The old seeds may be dead, but what have I got to lose? I'm sure Linda's are still good. I have already worked several bags of Soil Pep into the ground and I'm determined to have my own hollyhocks for next summer! Maybe in a few years mine will look like the flowers I saw all over Alamosa, in gorgeous fuschias, pinks and whites. Maybe they'll add a little old-fashioned charm to my otherwise modern, suburban backyard.

Happy Mail

My goodness, it's been a while since we visited, hasn't it? Since I last posted, my parents came to visit from Utah and then together we drove to Southern Colorado to spend 5 days at a family reunion. The rest of the days have been spent getting the house put back together and getting back into the swing of everyday life. I admit that I haven't felt like I had much to write about, hence the blog silence. I don't know why but for me it's so easy to fall out of the blogging habit and such a struggle to get back in the saddle. How about I ease back into things by showing you a few photos of fun mail goodies I've received?

The first package was just a fun, no-reason Happy Mail box from Miss Andy, who is on a fabulous island vacation as we speak. She sent me a set of handmade tissue paper cards and envelopes, a bottle of her favorite OPI summer polish, perfect for pedicures, a bookmark (which promptly went into Harry Potter), cute H sticky notes, and a great vintage Colorado plate for my guest room wall! The plate was even tied up in a vintage apron. What a fun surprise it was to receive those goodies in the mail!

The second package was from Shara, who very sneakily found out when my birthday was and sent a box full of red & aqua goodies! Everything was wrapped creatively in red or aqua fabric and tied with ribbon and vintage seam binding. Isn't it just darling? I had to take a quick photo before I opened it all up so I could remember how cute it was. I still haven't unwrapped the books tied up in the red nylon scarf and vintage aqua earrings--I just like looking at them on my desk! LOL

Inside all that wrapping and ribbon was a neat vintage Fire-King turquoise mug, a set of vintage Colorado salt & pepper shakers and a Colorado bell for my guest room, the books Heidi and Heidi's Children, a hilarious t-shirt with Heidi the Hen on the front (conveniently done in red & blue!), a baby Leo Ward bluebird (to go with the mama bird Shara sent me a couple of weeks ago), a cool letter H from a sign, a set of glass salt & pepper shakers with darling red lids, a very funny Rugrats book for Miss Maren (who is not too young to love junk!), red and aqua foil, and two darling aprons. One has buttons strategically placed so that the wearer can make a little pocket to hold eggs or veggies (or Legos, as Shara suggested LOL) and the other one is probably my new favorite: it's done in turquoise polka dots and seam binding and has bright red radishes appliquéd on the front. I love it so much that I very nearly wore it to dinner that night, only to chicken out at the last minute! One of these days I'll get up the courage and do it. Shara's package was an absolute delight to open!

I did some good junking in my travels last week and I'm off to take photos so I can show you all my goodies!

"Cheap" Thrills

I love getting a bargain! Tonight I had to run a few errands and I got good deals everywhere.

First stop was Albertson's (a grocery store). I spent $10.49 and walked out with the following:
--two containers of Earthbound Farms organic salad greens, $5.99 BOGO (the other grocery store sells 16 oz. of the same salad for $5.99 but my two containers added up to 22 oz.)
--three boxes of 100 calorie Pop Secret packs, retail $5.39 each and I got them for $1.00 each because I had a rain check
--a bottle of taco sauce, free (the checker asked if I wanted free taco sauce--it was $2.50 and she had a $2.50 off coupon for me to use)
--one lb. of strawberries, $1.50 (that's cheap around here, regular price would be at least double that)
So I figure I got more than $33 worth of groceries for $10.49. Not bad, especially since Albertson's tends to be on the pricey side for food.

Next stop was Office Max. I got a coupon in the mail for $10 off a $10 purchase. I bought an ink cartridge for my printer; I got the Office Max brand which was $10.49 so my total out of pocket cost was 53¢. I had another identical coupon that I used last week for the same deal. Plus, Office Max lets you bring in used cartridges for a $3 credit on your purchase, so I'll use one of those the next time I have to buy ink.

And last I went to Blockbuster, where I had a coupon for a free non-New Release movie. I picked out an Elmo movie that our library doesn't carry and I'll take that on our trip this weekend for Maren to watch. Cheap thrills, indeed!

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Thank you all so very much for your kind birthday wishes! DH and I went to a swanky Italian place in the happenin' part of downtown Denver. The food was delish and for dessert we walked around the corner to a gelato shop! He gave me the cutest purse from my favorite shop in Utah and I got other wonderful gifts from my family and a dear old friend. It was a perfect birthday--I couldn't have asked for more! Your comments only made it sweeter! :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday! I'm 29 this year. We started out the festivities this morning with strawberry pancakes at IHOP, I spent 3 hours of Maren's naptime on the couch with Harry Potter and now we're getting dressed up to go downtown to dinner. It has been a wonderful day!