My Vintage Kitchen...

Has yet to materialize. But someday...someday....

Well, someday it will.

For now I collect the dishes I will display when that day comes.

When your thrifting and you turn over a bowl and see something like this:

Does your heart skip a beat? If so, read on. If not, you might think me a nutcase, but let me tell you, there are a lot of us out there! I barely register on the vintage cookware collector nutcase richter scale. I took a quick glimpse at Pyrex and Fire King groups on flickr the other day and WOW the beauty that is out there! My collection is very mundane and run of the mill. Nothing very notable, but OH so beautiful.

I had it out the other day, trying to organize my cabinets before my husband got home so the clutter might not alert him to the fact I bought more dishes that I'm not ENTIRELY sure how I will use. I just can't walk by $1.99 for one of these puppies. One of these days I'll have a nice place to display them and he will see the light.....or maybe not. 

Anyway, I had them out, so I had to take pictures and share:

The blue and white Fire King dishes below are probably the oldest ones I have, from the mid 40s (white one) through the mid 50s (blue one) The rest seem to be from the 70s.

A fading Fire King pattern:

Pyrex:

Oh oops, I think that blue cornflower pattern is actually Corningware:

Cutest little bitty Pyrex bread loaf dish:

They sure don't print dishes like they used to!

Velcro Blocks

I had never heard of velcro blocks, but apparently the mommy over at Chasing Cheerios had, b/c I found a link on Pinterest which lead me HERE to her brilliant post about them. I take no credit for this post, therefore, it was all her. However I think she glued her velcro on, where I found some adhesive stuff on sale at Walmart and it worked a treat, so maybe that's an easier option for you. 

My materials:

The blocks were some we got at Target for Christmas last year. Maybe made by Circo or something like that? Cheapies, they were $10 and came in a little pull wagon.

 I just guessed at the best places for velcro and where to put soft or rough sides. I usually put a soft and rough on each block opposite each other.

Super easy. And then they get to sculpt with them! 

Different Yolks For Different Folks.

This post brought to you by the color orange.

I was reveling in domestic bliss this morning. Woke up early and sat out in the hammock to watch the sun rise over the garden. I watched the chickens warbling about and digging up everything in their paths, foraging leftover goat grain and gobbling up bugs. 

After a while I went inside and read up on harvesting calendula and echinacea (great links on my linkapalooza page...tab is at the top). So I went out and pinched the two beautiful blossoms I have going on my one calendula plant (harvesting of echinacea seems to be best left until after a couple of frosts). The author of the article I read assures me that they will be quickly replaced by new blossoms. They are now set to dry in my bedroom windowsill:

Had a quick cuppa while I gathered up calendula seeds to save (i.e. the mess there in the background). Yummy with whipped cream and the coffee/sugar/chocolate grinder from Trader Joes:

Then I commenced to making breakfast. Fresh squeezed orange juice (by this time the boys were awake and ready to help):

Cream biscuits, turkey bacon, and eggs. Our chickens are molting, so they aren't laying a lot of eggs lately and I've had to supplement with grocery store eggs. Today was a mixture and boy, the difference is striking.

Eggs from our chickens, who roam freely, get lots of sun, and eat grains/greens/bugs:

Compared to a commercial, USDA organic egg from hens the carton claims have access to the outdoors:

This article from Mother Earth News discusses the results of their studies on the nutritional content of real free range eggs vs. confined eggs. They've found that the real free range eggs contained:

1/3 less cholesterol

1/4 less saturated fat

2/3 more vitamin A

2 times more omega-3 fatty acids

3 times more vitamin E

and 7 times more beta carotene

So those are the facts, ma'am. But if you ask me, the proof is in the orange. Keep digging chickens!

My $3 Thrifted Vintage House Coat Makeover?

Stay with me here, I have no real sense of fashion beyond a sense of what I like. But I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that I had a lightening strike at the Salvation Army today.

It all began when a cute blue and white floral pattern jumped off the rack at me. "Cute" I thought. So I checked it out. Granny house coat. OK. Cool though, with it's vintage-y quilted neckline, cute pattern, and I love those snaps. And if I don't wear it, I can cut it up and use it as fabric. And for $1.50 why the heck not?

I was also in the market for a wide leather belt to go with a dress I just ordered which is to be gushed about at a later date, and I found a pretty nice one, also for $1.50. In the dressing room, yeah, the house coat was a house coat:

Before you look at the rest of this post, please know I'm duly mortified by the dirty mirror. While it quite accurately represents the state of EVERYTHING in my household that lives at little person level, I realize that if I plan to blog self portraits in the future I'm going to need to find a dedicated "clean mirror". I apologize in advance.

ANYWAY. Next thing to do was try on the belt, so I did...over the house coat! And maybe I'm nutso, but I think the result is pretty darn cute! So how 'bout it ladies? Housecoat dresses? Raid your Grandma's closet and let me know how it turns out!

Pretty quilted neckline:

Super bonus sweet: POCKETS!

Also scored this cute little quilt and a Juice-O-Mat! These old kitchen things remind me of the cars of their time, I love it. 

Embroidery Books

Last post, I promised I would get back in touch with a link to the embroidery book from whence my little mermaid came from. Here you are: 

Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection: 400+ Easy Embroidery Designs

And OMG only $7.70 Im gonna say that's an incredible steal for this book which is jam-packed with adorable and simple motifs, as well as basic instructions.

By the way, while I'm pimping products and services, do you use swagbucks? It's a search engine and works like this: You sign up and use it to search. Every once in a while your search will earn you a certain amount of "swagbucks". You can earn them in numerous other ways, not all of which involve making purchases, but it's way beyond me to outline them all here. I really recommend it. I am a moderate searcher, I probably search 1-5 things on average a day, and I seem to accumulate enough to chash in points for a $5 amazon.com gift card once a month or so. Considering the decent prices on amazon (there is also an entire swagbucks store you can get other stuff at) I think it's a super deal. They don't harass me at all and I get money for doing something I'd do anyway. Win! If you're interested in signing up, click here: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/catd5b

I'll get some swagbucks for referring you and you'll get signed up :-)

Another book that has my embroidery wheels turning though I haven't actually made anything in it yet is this one:

Stitch with Love

Its really beautiful. I love how she stuck with the one color scheme throughout. She also gives instruction from a left and right handed perspective, which may be really helpful for you south paw out there!

Happy stitching!

Moving Right Along

Well, I'm daily taking on new challenges. This week I butchered a rabbit. That is not to say I killed (or harvested or whatever term you think fits) the bunny, I am so far running like a little girl in the other direction while my husband handles the life ending portion of the meal. I did however, thaw it out and then dismember it. By. Myself. And photographed the results for you. It went reasonably well, wouldn't you say?

The butchering was in the name of a rabbit pot pie recipe I found in an old book I got from Goodwill on raising small livestock. For the crust I used the same recipe from the America's Test Kitchen book that I used on my peach pie. Next time I'm going to add a bunch more veggies to this concoction, as it tasted darn good but I feel the need to jazz up the prison slop image it projects:

Food needs color, a little on the dish and  a little in the food, like so:

This is my go-to treat lately, cantalope cubed in vanilla yogurt with a little bit of granola and honey drizzled on top. YUUUUUUUUUUUUUm.

Life is really just amazing lately. I love this Stay At Home Mom gig. My biggest fear is that money issues will creep up and grab us around the neck and force me back into the workforce. But until that day I'm going to revel in how wonderful this is.

We've had a couple of walks in the desert after Daddy gets home...

The little guy seems to prefer my company to keeping up with the big boys and the dog who set a faster pace than meandering old mama. Im so blessed to have my little escort.

The big boys scout out amazing finds for us, like this:

If I were worth my salt as a blogger I'd have found out what kind of lizard this is but hey, I'm a total amateur. He was beautiful though. He was so perfectly intact, at first we thought he was just soaking up the rays on his little rock. On closer inspection we found the little guy had sadly passed from this realm, leaving a really beautiful corpse. Must've lived hard, huh? Happy Trails little dude.

These pictures (above and below) just make my catch my breath and wonder at the amazing life I'm leading. How can I manage to find anything to complain about?!

Finally, I picked up a needle and some thread and got embroidering today. I'm making myself a key fob. I've got a thing for mermaids, so here's a preview:

I'm not great at it, but I think she's pretty cute. Next post I will have the patience to figure out how to link to the book I got her out of and hopefully show off the finished product. 

Have a lovely weekend!

Accomplishments

I've been ignoring the big things this week, like laundry and the laundry room in general, which really needs to be gutted of belongings that have no real home. Instead I've been focusing on the small things, not so noticeable on the "will my  husband think I've sat on the couch all week eating bonbons" scale, but just as fun on a personal level.

I'm going back to cloth diapering, which I gave up when Boone was about six months old and started getting diaper rashes...I just couldn't troubleshoot the laundry while working full time. So I have a bunch of fitteds which require covers. I like fleece covers. I went online to find some cheapies, but my subconscious mind revolted and reminded me of all the fleece material I have sitting in my crafting closet. so I got to work and in less than two hours had churned out these two beauties:

Im proud, really proud. Of the soakers, not of my inability to rotate these photos. They are Katrina soakers, it's a free online pattern

Accomplishment number two is a peach pie I made today. On the way back from visiting my family in California last weekend, we stopped at a Central Valley fruit stand and I bought a shit ton of nectarines and peaches for $2.68 - locally bought certainly does pay off! I had peach pie on the mind. Good thing I didn't have anything in mind for the nectarines b/c Boone kept climbing up to the counter and stealing them. Kid was eating them like popcorn. Anyway, turns out that armed with the America's Test Kitchen cookbook I can throw down on a peach pie. Not that I'm picky, and Willie did refuse to try it (what the hell kind of five year old doesn't like peaches? Much less peaches drowning in sugar and cinnamon? Oh well, more for me and Boone and Daddy when he gets home).

Can I just remark on how beautiful peaches are. Beautiful. I dutifully boiled them then tossed them in ice water and sure enough they practically climbed out of their skins themselves. How pretty and refreshing does this look:

If you stick with this blog for any period of time  you will learn my oldest son is a shameless camera hog.  Anyway, prior to their undressing, we stood there marveling at the peaches, floating in their own personal Arctic Sea as we sweltered in the high 90s. Beautiful.

Then you know the rest, I mixed and rolled and refrigerated and I poked vent holes. Then I cooled. Then I ate....and partway through eating I remembered I would want to blog this later so I took a picture:

Yummy.

So those are the accomplishments. And here is a picture of a bottle:

An old mason jar, rather, that my parents dug up at their house. It was sitting around dirty so I took it home and it shined up like a diamond. I just love this color of glass and so I took a million pictures of it, thought I'd share it. Maybe someday I'll incorporate it into my blog layout.

'Kay, bye :-)