Reminded!!

Yesterday while out running a few errands, I happened to see a sign for a garage sale, and, of course, I had to stop. I am redoing one of the upstairs bedrooms and have a few things on my list that I'm searching for. The room doesn't belong to any of the girls any more, so it's becoming the guest room.

I have been on the hunt for bedside tables. Nothing has really caught my eye, you know how that goes. Well.... the garage sale I stopped at yesterday had two matching side tables. When I first looked at them, I wanted to see the inside of the drawers and they did not open. The seller came over and said the side tables were file cabinets. The bottom portion was the drawer part of the file cabinet. The top of the side table opened up to hold the hanging type files.

I thought they might work and of course then asked the price... $40.00 for the two tables. I did not want to spend $40.00. I hesitated and said I'd think about it.

I did not even ask if she'd take less. I went home.

As I went about my day, I thought more about it, and sat in the room I wanted to put the tables in and I realized they were just what I was looking for. Even if they were file cabinets.

So..... I went back to the sale. Of course it was over, it was late afternoon. I knocked on the door and the woman said she had sold them. I had to make it worse by asking how much and she said she took $30.00 for the two. I would have paid $30.00. I should have offered $30.00 when I was there!! I said thanks and she said sorry!!

What I was reminded of was what anyone who is an experienced junker knows.....

1. Always make an offer you never know the seller may take it.

2. Never second guess yourself. If your first thought is "it's just what I'm looking for" try and work with the seller.

The item is often not sitting there waiting for you to come back!!

Chris

All Done... For Now???

Well, my letter "X" pages are done!! All 27 pages! The pages are stacked very gently in a box that I will take with me to work tomorrow. I will repack with bubble wrap so they arrive at our hostess's house in good shape.

I am proud of my letter "X" pages. They may not be as creative as some of the others I've seen, but they're mine.

And no I'm not done yet.... I'm off to make 20 Valentines for three different swaps I'm in. 5 for one, 10 for another, and a partner tag swap that needs 5 Valentines and some other goodies to be sent. I told myself that I would not over commit when looking at the Valentine Swaps being hosted. Well, maybe next time!!

Remeber, I'm having a blast!!!!

Whistle While I Work!!!

chris

On My Honor.....

You know how it is with close friends... sometimes it's hard to know what to give them. Sometimes, you don't even give a gift for a birthday or Christmas. And it's no big deal. It doesn't take a gift from one of my girlfriends to make me realize what great friends they are.

And I know they feel the same way.

And sometimes all of sudden you see something that you realize would make special gift for a friend. And it doesn't have to be for any specific occasion. It's just because.

About six months ago a close friend, the invitation maker, shared via email, a family photo. It was picture of herself and her sister as young girls reciting the Brownie Girl Scout promise in front of their dad. Their dad at the time was the territorial govenor of Alaska and the photo was taken during Girl Scout week in March of 1958. The email said one of my favorite photos!!

I didn't think much about it, other than enjoy the photo of my friend at 8 years old... until I was out flea marketing. I happened to find 2 Brownie Girl Scout hankies. They were so cute and I love hankies and couldn't pass these up. But what would I use the hankies for besides adding them to my collection? And then the light bulb went on. What if I made a shadow box using the photo of my girlfriend and her sister as the main focus in the shadow box? I decided I would continue to look for scouting memorabilla. A couple of months later I found a Brownie Handbook and two Brownie pins. I had some Brownie pins that my mom had saved and I decided I would use those if I needed to. The last item I added to my collection were a few Brownie badges.
Today, I finally got around to putting the shadow box togther.

I covered the piece of cardboard in the shadow box with pages from the Brownie Girl Scout handbook. And then just put the hankie, badges and pins in places that I thought looked just right!!

You can see in the photos the two different hankies that I found. They both are pretty darn cute!!! I decided I would make a shadow box for her sister too since I have enough Brownie memorabilla to make one more.

Thank Heaven for Friends!!

chris

Whistle While I Work!!!

I have been working all day on 27 pages for a special kind of swap. I was asked to join a Vintage ABC Christmas Book Swap this past December. Each participant takes a letter and creates 27 identical pages. And the hostess sends each of the swap members a book. It sounded like so much fun, but I was worried that if I had to have them finished by the end of December I just couldn't do it. The hostess said the due date was the end of January, and I said sign me up!!
I was told I could choose between the letter X or D. I thought well I live on Xavier Ct., why not take X. Not really a big mistake, but, not the easiest letter to work with. Especially since it was a Christmas theme.
I had a few ideas, and then I saw some samples of the other ladies work. OMG!! The ladies in this swap are a talented group.. AND one 11 year old girl is creating a page!! I have changed my mind a million times, but have finally decided to go with what I've got as of today. No more changes. It is what is..... I took a day off from work today to work on my pages. I did get a lot done today and will finish up this weekend.

The above picture is the front of the page. I need to decorate the back as well. I'll be sure to take pictures of the finished pages, so I can show to you.
After looking at some of the pages others have created, I realize I need to start thinking a little further outside of the box. The ladies use so many elements when creating their pages.

I worry about measuring up, but really the most important thing is to have fun. Which I am.... I'm having a BLAST!!!

Back to work... Whistle, Whistle, Whistle!!

chris

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Like many of you, I too have a few New Year's Goals. I am hoping to organized my garage, and my craft room. I am hoping to find a routine to my blogging. I am also back at Weight Watchers.

I am fortunate that my employer offers Weight Watchers at work. The meetings are held every Tuesday during the lunch hour. The meetings will start up again in the next couple of weeks. At home we've decided to go back to something that Mr. Math and I used to do when all 5 daughters lived at home that helped us with our food shopping and planning.....deciding what our meals will be for the for the week. We have gotten away from that in the past year or so. What we've started to do is meet Sunday afternoons with Daughter number 3 and plan our meals for the week. After we decide what the menu for the week will be, Mr. Math does the shopping. Daughter number 3 lives with us and cooks at least two nights a week.

One of the hardest things for me when making my food choices is what to have for something sweet. I have quite a sweet tooth. Daughter number 3 has an app on her phone called Spark Recipes. She has used several recipes from this app for her cooking turn during the week. She of course has lived with us long enough to know about my sweet tooth. Last night she made a treat for me, and well, Mr. Math too.

She made a great Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin!! I've included the recipe for you. Easy, Easy, Easy!!!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 box Spice Cake Mix
1 can 15oz Pumpkin
1 cup Chocolate Chips
Mix together and spoon into greased, (we used a cooking spray), muffin tin. Bake 12 minutes at 350 degree oven
Serving size 1 muffin
85 calories
2.0 grams fat
1.0 mg cholesteral
97 mg sodium
total carbs 15grams
1gram protein
0.6 fiber
Found on Spark Recipes

Here's hoping for a good week counting my points!!

chris

F.M.F.....

AKA Flea Market Find....after I took down Christmas at the Xavier Ct. House, I realized that I really liked having something tall near the sliding door in the kitchen. During the Christmas holiday I had a tall Christmas tree decorated with cookie cutters in the empty spot. This isn't the best picture, but you'll get the idea.

Here's a picture of the same spot without the tree.

This past weekend was our local junior college flea market. I was disappointed, not too many vendors. Just as I was ready to leave, I noticed a vendor with some painted pieces of wood. As I got a closer look, I realized that the pieces of wood were really painted cupboards. The vendor told me that he had salvaged them from an old farmhouse in Morgan Hill. They were already painted when he bought the cupboard doors. The more I looked at the doors, I knew I had to buy one.

It was perfect for my empty kichen wall!!

The vendor told me he had taken them to the December Alameda Point Flea Market and had sold them for $35.00 each. He was selling them at the local flea market for $15.00!!

I love it, don't you?

chris

Gift Exchange and Toys for Tots!

After the Ladies enjoyed their lunch, we moved upstairs to my family room. Yes, my family room is upstairs. So instead of having one large area for guests to roam around in we have two smaller areas. The living room downstairs and the family room upstairs.

Anyway... we moved upstairs to exchange gifts. We have a ten dollar limit and play the gift game where you can "steal" the gift that the person before you has choosen. Once a person has held a gift for three rounds... it's yours to keep.

Most Ladies are great at showing the rest of the group what the gift is.. Others, aren't. Especially if the gift is something that they really, really like and don't want to someone to "steal". This year there were three gifts, that seemed to exchange hands quite often. One was a scarf one of the Flea Market friends brought back from her trip to Italy this fall, a purple chenille throw blanket, and a pair of Christmas salt and pepper shakers.
This year the Flea Market Friend, the Invitation Maker and I, talked about how to grow our group. We talked about how we could be more involved in our community. Of course at Christmas it's pretty easy... Toys for Tots run by our local fire departments. We collected thirty one toys!! We had no rules to follow. All you had to do was bring a toy. No minimum dollar value, and no age restrictions on the toys.

Daughter number 5 dropped the toys off at the local fire house.

We are already talking about our Valentine Tea. And I have an idea about using the Valentine Tea to help our community. But, I won't post about it yet, I have to talk to the Flea Market Friend, and the Invitation Maker first!

Off to the local Flea Market!

Happy Saturday,

chris

Holiday Tea

Our ladies annual Holiday Tea was the third weekend in December. Myself and one of the Flea Market friends take turns hosting the tea and this year it was my turn. For the Holiday Tea we invite our daughters too. This year we had twenty one attending. We usually have the ladies sign up for a food item to bring, and they are asked to bring a tea cup as well. We also do a small gift exchange.
This year we decided to change the rules of the Holiday Tea. Three of us, myself as the host, one Flea Market Friend and the Invitation Maker, provided the food. I made the main dish, individual chicken pot pies, the Flea Market Friend, provided the desserts, and the Invitation Maker provided the salad. We also decided that this year the Ladies would participate in the Toys for Tots program by bringing a toy to donate.

We decided to change the rules of the Holiday Tea for one main reason.... Ease. We thought it would be easier for us to have the chicken pot pies and salads served rather than having twenty one people trying to work their way through a buffet line. This worked well, especially because of the layout of my main floor.
This year we did three tables. I had one in the kitchen/dining area, and two in the livingroom. We always do one with our Christmas Spode, one with my mom's china, a Bavarian china with a blue flower and silver trim, and this year we added a new, well new for us, set I found at the Goodwill. For this table I used the red glassware I found at a garage sale a few months ago. Flea Market Friend and I hunt all year long for dishes, glassware, and linens to add to our collection. We have enough to serve an army, but we still hunt. I store mine on shelves in the garage. Not too long ago, I had a repairman working in the garage.. as he looked around at my collection with a puzzled look on his face he asked if I ran a catering business!! Does that mean I have too much?

We have a fairly good size eating area in our kitchen, but our kitchen lacks counter space.

The closest thing to a picture of the pot pies. The Invitation Maker found individual ramekins in Christmas red at the dollar store.

The view from the kitchen/dining area into the livingroom.

Daughter number 3 on the left and her BFF of twenty years.

The Invitation Maker,(she's on the left) and I working in the kitchen. The Invitation Maker is a midwife and an hour before the tea started, she got a phone call... fortunately my house is only ten minutes from the hospital. She was back in two hours just in time to put her salad together!!
The desserts were bit size, finger desserts, so no need for forks. I set up a table in my hallway to put the desserts on. I think it's important to have separate serving areas to help with the people flow at a party.

I hope you've enjoyed a small snapshot of our Holiday Tea. Tomorrow the Gift Exchange and Toys for Tots

Chris

Pin Cushion

A couple of months ago I picked up a vintage dog planter, marked made in 1948 for $4.00.

I bought it for a close friend who loves dogs, with the idea that I would make it into a pin cushion. I have to get better at taking pictures while I am making something so you can see my steps. Oh, well.... next time.
I took an old nylon stocking and stuffed it with batting. I tied off the open end and covered it with a piece of muslin. I used a basting stitch to attach it to the stuffed stocking. I then worked it into the opening on the planter.

I finished it off by putting a piece of vintage lace around the edge and added a couple vintage buttons. I used a hot glue gun to secure both the lace and the buttons.

It's hard to see the buttons, but they are on the narrow side of the opening, closest to the dog's body.

Using vintage planters, has become a favorite gift of mine to give my sewing friends. I have use vintage head vases as well... they make great pin cushions.

Mmmmmm... maybe I should start looking for tea cups as well!!

chris