Thou shalt not pass by the FREE box

Okay Girls,

Look what I found at a recent estate sale in a box on the curb marked "FREE STUFF".  A hand painted dutch girl wearing polka dots (!), fruit and vegetable catalogue pages from the 1930's, 8 B & W mini photos of the California redwoods in the original package, and a chalk rose.  (Actually the chalk rose is a stand in for the sweet pottery yellow rose that really was in the box, but that one is hanging above Gail's sink and was not available for the photo shoot.)  Happy Junking this weekend!

Bagels for Obama

My husband and kids and I thought and thought and thought about what we could do to make sure the next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is Barack Obama. We wanted to do something that was fun and would require the minimum of commitment from people. We came up with the idea of selling bagels in front of our house every Saturday morning. Emma and her friend Sophia were the advertising committee.

Noah's donates the bagels (Hooray Noah's!), an employee at Starbuck's donates the coffee (Hooray Brandon!).  My estate sale sidekick Gail donates jewelry..."Baubles for Obama" 

(Hooray Gail!)  So far, we have raised $512 for the campaign!

Oh Happy Grape!

Sometimes it's a good idea to really look at your food.  What should we name him?

Junk Becomes Useful ~ Part 3

For as long as I can remember, I have been in love with vintage cookbooks. Not sure if it's the throwback to childhood thing, the saturated color photo thing, or the fact that someone back in the day would ever eat something that looks like this:

Sometimes, it's the illustrations that get me all misty eyed...I would so love to be at this cartoon dinner party:


Anyway, the point is, that I buy them for a dime, rip them apart and make greeting cards. I use the photos and the recipes. And no, the photo does not have to match the recipe.  Et Voila:

I get the glimmery embellishments at Collage .  I LOVE that place!  

A future post will address my similar love affair with vintage wrapping paper.  

Chenille, Buttons & Bullets a.k.a. Junkin' for Sarah Palin

Yesterday, Gail and I set out for another estate sale adventure. And boy, did we have one! On our first stop we found kitchen stuff, vintage buttons, chenille bedspreads and...a metal clip holding 8 bullets. Price: $1.00. One of us made a crack about sending it off to Sarah Palin for good luck with that whole running the country business.

So, we jump in the truck to head to our next stop. On the way I say outloud, "Man I hope the next sale has some dead animals". The words were still hanging in the air when...

Deer hide, beaver skin and a fox stole that I just fell in love with!
Then it started to get a little scary. The last and final sale featured the following:

An alligator purse, 2 animal stoles (including teeth and tails!) and a hunting theme rug. ("Hey Mommy, look at those sweet deer!" "Great sighting Bristol, now grab your rifle and shoot one in the head!")

Finally, I returned home to see that my friend Marg had emailed me this:

It just doesn't get any better!

My latest haul

Oh Joy...Friday's junking expedition brought many rewards! Vintage folding sewing basket, tea towel including recipe for Irish Coffee being poured by drunken gnomes, 2 fabulous sheets of old wrapping paper, vintage honeycomb turkeys, sweet pink rose writing paper, old frame with photos of geeky triplets and a vintage stuffed dachshund. No! Not a real one! What kind of person do you take me for? My very favorite find is the full set (8) of vintage numeral glasses. Total expenditure: $11.50

Lucky Seven

I got tagged awhile back by the lovely and smart Diane at Craftypod. My instructions are to post 7 random thoughts about myself. Then I get to tag 7 other bloggers to do the same. Sort of like a blogging chain letter.

1. I would like to make out with Colin Firth. (My husband knows this. He would like to make out with Juliet Binoche, so we're even.)

2. I have to remove the strings from my eggs before I eat them. When I lived in New York, the morning fry cook at my favorite deli would happily remove the strings before he made my scrambled egg, bacon and cheese on a Kaiser roll sandwich. Now that's service.

3. I like banana flavored things, (think Laffy Taffy and B & J's Chunky Monkey) but bananas? Not so much.

4. The only reason I ever go into Nordstrom is to use the ladies room. I used to listen to the live piano music too, but I think they fired that guy that wore a tux and played Rachmananoff.

5. I love to travel, but will never, ever take a cruise. Trapped on a boat: no thank you.

6. I often run out of gas. This never happened when I was a teenager or a college student. It happens now that I am old enough to know better and when I have at least 2 kids in the car.

7. There are few things in life better than the taste of cold water out of the hose after a day of summertime gardening.

I am now tagging the following bloggers: Laurie, Lisa, Amy, the Camp Whimsy girls, Karen, Mo