Vintage Pretties

The Transfer of Stuff

I may have written about this before, but my parents are moving from my hometown to Williamsburg, VA.  I'm very sad that they are leaving State College (best hometown ever!), but that is the way things go.

They have spent the past few months in a flurry of going through things, throwing out things and generally cleaning up in order to get the house ready for sale.  This is no small feat for anyone, let alone my parents, who haven't thrown out anything since sometime around 1982.  You think that I'm kidding. 

Through this cleaning up/out process that Mom & Dad have been going through, I have come tor realize how people end up with so much STUFF in their houses.  Its not just not throwing things away.  Its the transfer of STUFF.  From one generation to another. As my parents have gone through things, they put them aside for my sister & I..."Kim always liked this...This was Aunt so & so's & it should stay in the family...This was purchased for Kim as a baby & she should have it...".  And so, as their house becomes less cluttered, I have (eagerly, mind you!) taken on the stuff that they have gotten rid of.

Don't get me wrong! I am very happy to have received these treasures, but I also realized this with a chuckle to myself.  This, I think, goes along with hearing yourself sound like your mother, but that is a post for another day :)

OK, now to the good part, photos of those treasures....My parents are the reason that I love flea marketing & treasure hunting.  They would take us to fleas on Sundays in the summer to just look around or to try to spy old food & candy tins, which they collected for some time.  At the time, they owned a small candy & gourmet food shop, so it all went together.  In addition, they also have several items from a butcher/grocery store that my great grandfather owned as well as 1940s & 1950s school books!

The books are pictured above & are just a part of what I received.  Some of the others weren't of interest to either my sister or myself, so I'm going to sell them (having gained my mother's permission).  I also got a stack of 1940s & 1950s National Geographics that were mostly of interest for the ads, but also amusing in their antiquated verbage.  I'm keeping a few of those & recycling the rest.

Here are some of the lovely tins that I received:


I also returned with a great deal of office supplies (my father could have had an outpost of Staples in his study) and my old prom dress (surprisingly, I still think that it is gorgeous, despite being circa 1990).

They still have a lot of beautiful things that will come my way some day and I'm glad that they are holding onto them for the time being.  But, its pretty neat to have things in my house that I grew up with for so many years.

Christmas in July, or Recent Flea Market Finds

It's beginning to look a lot like....flea market season!  I just found a little flea market quite close to my house.  Yay!  It's so rare for me to find sources of goodies so close.  I usually have to travel somewhere to get the good stuff.  Its a small market, but I found a few precious things on my first visit and they were very, very inexpensive! This sled will probably find a place our holiday decor, all festooned with greens & holly.

For the once & future vintage pretties booth....

I got three of these fabulous boxes of Christmas tree lights from the 1950s/1960s.  The lights seem to be in pretty good shape, but I'm really in love with the graphics on the box.  Snow covered cottages are one of my favorite Christmas images.

This lovely pedestal dish was another find:

And, this nice picnic basket, which is now a home for legos:

And, just for those readers who tune in hoping to get a new picture of Hope (Aunts/Nana, you know who you are!)...a picture of a recent finger painting session:

I Heart Wegmans

We just got a Wegmans here in the Woodbridge Virginia area & I am obsessed.  I cannot keep myself away from the place.  The food! The deals! The eye candy!  The bulk candy section!  For those of you not in the mid Atlantic region, Wegmans is the absolutely best grocery store that you can imagine.  First of all, its gorgeous.  The displays are like something out of a magazine.Secondly, the food, especially the prepared food & bakery, are just to die for. For regular weekly shopping, they have a great selection & the prices are actually the same or less than other local stores.Yeah, they have $800 a pound black truffles, but they also have 12 packs of Coke on sale for $2 each.  I swear, I don't work for Wegmans!  I just love it.  If you ever are in an area that has a Wegmans, you must visit it.  Here are some pics from their website:



In addition to food, they have a section with tableware & cooking items such as All Clad.  You could do your wedding registry here.  Seriously.

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I hope that all of you had a great 4th!  We did yard work, I went to Wegmans to get our groceries :), and then we went to a friend's barbeque.  Today's a rainy day here, so we are headed up to Tyson's Corner for some shopping.  Have a great weekend!

Score!

I made a great score at the local thrift stores on Thursday!  I got 3 adorable dresses(one Ralph Lauren), 3 shirts, and a Madeline book for Hope, all for about $14.  I know, not as cheap as the thrift stores in most areas, but MUCH cheaper than buying new!  For me, I found a brand new, with tags, Brooks Brothers shirt for $3.95.  Perfect for work.  The thing that I'm really excited about is this:

I've been looking for a cheap brass chandelier for our kitchen eating area so that I can copy this:

Glenn checked to see that it works (it does!) and I've given it a first coat of spray paint.  I choose to use matte black instead of the brown that they used in the magazine, because that is what we had!  I'm so glad to get rid of the current light fixture. Not my style at all.  I'll post a photo as soon as it is up. The kitchen mini-redo is almost complete!

A Pretty New H

I'm at home on a mini-break & having the best time!  I took two days off just to be at home. By.Myself. I've shipped the kiddo off to day care & am doing wonderful things like crafting, scrapbooking, thrift shopping and reading. Ah.

Yesterday morning, I created a new 'H' for Hope's shelf.  I've had the chipboard 'H' form around for awhile, but was waiting for inspiration & time to do anything with it.  I love the font of this one...its from the departed ..sigh...Recollections.  I got inspiration for the medallion from the wonderful art of Andrea of www.velvetstrawberries.typepad.com (stupid new typepad won't let me link...if you are reading Mr. Typepad, please fix it) and Rosemary of http://rosespetitemaison.blogspot.com.

Here is how it fits in with its other H friends on the shelf:

I will post more soon because I've had both a successful thrift shopping & flea marketing trip!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Glenn!  Hope is the luckiest girl in the world.  I had to wait 27 years for you, but she got you from Day One.  We love you!!!

The Fleming Follies

You may have been saying to yourself, "Gee, I wonder what Kim & her wacky family have been up to???"  Busy weeks & busier weekends!  I dove right into baking by making Boston Cream Cupcakes from this magazine:

Here are the results:

Here is my review of the recipe: Fine but nothing spectacular.  You use a cake mix for the cupcake, which is fine, but nothing amazing.  Other than that, the fun part is the "boston cream" filling that you squirt into the cupcakes using a long nozzled bottle.  I'm looking forward to making the next recipe on my list, Red Velvet Cake Roll with White Chocolate filling.  MMMMMmmmmm.

I've also been consumed by the attention that needs to be paid to a toddler in potty training.  Can I just tell you, I feel like we've been doing this potty training thing FOREVER????? It had been going well & then she got sick & we sort of slacked off & now we are just getting her to a good place.  Of course, we finally got to this good place by bribery.  I swear, I tried EVERYTHING else & we were tearing.our.hair.out.  It seems that my kid will work for cookies.  A chip off the ole' Mommy block.

This past weekend we returned to one of my favorite summertime activities, the Arlington Flea Market. Yay, the season for fleas has returned!  It was hot as blazes, so there weren't as many vendors as there usually are.  However, we had a good time looking around and I found one treasure:

 

Look at this beauty!  It was $5!!!  It came framed & ready to hang.  It has a small tear in the lower left corner, but its barely noticeable.  And, it was $5!!! I love bargains.

On Sunday, we took Hope to the pool, where she went on the toddler water slide again & again & again.  We would wait at the bottom to catch her as she splashed down.  She would come up, shake off the water & declare "Do it Again!".  Afterwards, Glenn had craft time with her:

Note the evidence on her face of her successful potty reward.

He decided that he needed one as well:

Teehee.  Lets see how long it takes him to realize that I've posted this :)

I hope that you are enjoying these first few days of summer!

May Happenings

Greetings! I'm finally back after a hiatus.  Not an intentional hiatus, but before I knew it, it was the end of May.  We have been busy, busy, busy!  First, my parents were here.  Then, our friends from Indiana came for a visit.  You may remember the wife as my friend who bakes & decorates the most gorgeous cakes (February 12, 2007 blog entry that Typepad won't let me link to at the moment).  She completely inspired me to start baking more.  Since she left, I've purchased this:


And this:
I'm going to try out the Paula Deen Boston Cream Cupcakes this weekend.  Our officemates are the happy recipients of many of these baked goods.  We try a few servings & then get them out of the house!

After Leslie & Brian left, my sister & brother in law came for a fun-filled visit.  They just about ate up Hope...Cue to a gratuitous Hope photo....

I also have been reading a lot.  My recent reads:

So, so gorgeous.  I'm a fast reader & I made myself put it down so that I could savor it for awhile longer.  Also, The Interpreter of Maladies by the same author.  It's a collection of short stories & I normally do not like short stories.  But, I Loved these.  Again, as with The Glass Castle, I urge you to read these books if you have not.  I've been very lucky recently to have come across a few authors who have that incredible rare gift of taking the ordinary words that comprise our language & craft them into art.

I'm resting up this weekend, after a month of being hostess.  I purchased the peony that is pictured above on the way home tonight.  Peonies are one of my very favorite flowers & they only last such a short time each season. I wish that I could send their scent to all of you over the web. Just heavenly.

Cork Wreath Tutorial

I thought that I'd show you how I made my cork wreath, which I mentioned in my earlier posts.  I got the idea from a friend of mine, who also made one out of the corks that she'd been saving. 

First of all, you need a lot of corks.  I mean A LOT of corks.  I had a whole bowl full of them & thought "this must be enough".  Nope.  Collected some more.  "This must be enough." Nope.  I probably have about 150-200 corks on this wreath, which is about 20-24 inches in diameter.  I forgot to measure.

Next, you need a straw wreath form, like the one above (back of the wreath is pictured).  The color of the straw blends in well with the corks. Then, get out your hot glue gun & just start gluing!  I found that putting the glue onto the cork (rather than onto the wreath) worked better.  Remember to put the corks at different angles & overlapping, or it won't look right.  Even if some of them look sort of strange, like they are just sticking out of the wreath, that's OK because it will look good in the end. Edited to add: Only put corks on the front & sides, not the back, or you'll have a hard time hanging on the wall.

Then, put it up on the wall, pour yourself a glass of wine, and admire your handiwork.

Corks & Matchbooks

I was browsing through Blissfully Domestic recently & came upon a thread about one of my favorite decorating things, apothecary jars.  One woman had an idea that was like a light bulb going off in my head (more like "hello, why didn't I think of that????")...putting your collected corks & matchbooks in your jars. 

I've been collecting restaurant/bar matchbooks since, well, forever, and I've kept the cork from every bottle of wine that Glenn & I have shared (Ahem....the numbers are embarrassing....).  Its so cool to go through them every once in awhile & remember times that you had at a restaurant or a special bottle of wine that you had.  Or, a couple of bottles of wine that made the world a very happy place...

I've already made a wreath of some of my corks (a fun addition to the kitchen),
but I was looking for something to do with all of the rest.  And, those matchbooks.  I'm liking the two of them together -- it's all about thinking about good times!