This Is How It Is

So, my kitchen. You cool and lucky cats get to see it at it's least decorated and most regular. Please, don't mind the layer of dust that you think you can see in every shot. That's just your eyesight. You might want to have that checked. You're getting kind of old.

Let's jump right in, shall we?

If you click on the images, you will get to see a larger picture. Not that you'd want to see any of this jumbled mess up close. Note the striped cardboard popcorn box. If you purchase popcorn at the Dryden Theater you will get your very own stripy box, too! Plus you'll probably be seeing a rad movie. Can you see little Strawberry Shortcake there, on the tiny red plastic couch? She just loves vintage decor! Here is a closer look:


You probably also recognize that adorable and as yet unidentified basket of not-egg cups from before. Remember?

Vintage soda bottle from LeRoy, NY. Vintage tin bird was $5 at The Dome Sale one year. He thinks he's the cock of the walk.

The framed dog picture is a vintage trading card. A Westie and a Scottie dog. I heart them both. Here is a closer look:

The left hand cabinet shelves.

I grow mushrooms and Apple Dumplin's in my jadeite forest.

I love these lettuce leaf plates. I only have two of them but they make me happy every time I see them.

Accidental lobster collection.

Incidentally I ate a whole lobster once and it's something I never hope to repeat. I've never really loved disemboweling animals right on my dinner plate. Call me crazy, but that's something no amount of melted butter can make right.

The middle section of the cupboard.

My only piece of Holt Howard pixieware. You don't know about pixieware? Please go here and educate yourself. I got mine for TEN CENTS at a yard sale when I was in college. The steal of the century!

And the right hand side of the cupboard.

Now kids, smile for your close up! (Those pieces of candy are actually lip gloss containers.)

I keep a bunch of pitchers on this shelf. It's good to have them so easily at hand for all of my impromptu hostessing. A good hostess likes to have a full pitcher of water at hand for her guests at all times. Make a note of that. (A better hostess will have a full pitcher of booze on hand at all times.)

This is the Martha Steward shelf.

I sort of feel bad about doing a blog about my regular decor. In a way it feels like a clip show. You've already seen most of this stuff when I bought it and wrote about it then. It feels cheap, like the easy way out.

All of the fall decorations are up now, though. Had to be done. Although, it's pretty strange decorating for fall in 90 degree weather. And by strange I mean annoying and sweaty.

So all of the other regular Joe decorations will have to wait for another season or so. I'm sure you're all filled with despair and longing. But, take heart. I have two more blogs waiting in the wings already. I went thrift shopping this week and also will be taking pictures of the fall decor. I remember that last year I felt like I had one million decorations and this year I feel like, "Where are all my decorations!? I better run right out and get some more!"

And finally I'd like to give a shout out to Daria, who is also a faithful reader. What does that bring my total up to, now? Four? My span of influence and power is vast and wide reaching.

Advent Sale 2011

I'd like to state for the record, that I get lost every single time I drive to this sale. It's in Fairport, or just outside of Fairport and I never go to that town. I'm not real versed in the East side of the city at all, to be honest. This year was no exception. It wasn't a long detour though, for which I and my passengers were grateful.

This is my pile of treasure for which I paid about $7.50 total.

Look at this little charmer. Note the googley eyes. 50 cents. I have a friend who loves elephants. I gave it to her. She loves elephants like I love mice/bats. I made the mistake of wrapping a gift in elephant paper at a party we both attended. She almost went after the spent paper in the trash can before I promised to frame a piece for her from my fresh stock, at home. It is dreadfully cute paper, so I can't say that I really blame her.


Here you can bear witness to one of the most girly pocket knives ever. Cherry red with white zebra-like stripes and glitter. I sharped it up and now I'm ready to cut you. "Oh yes I will, girl". It was $1. Then there is the bag of Disney pins. The trading kind. I know I've told you about those before. Four of them for 50 cents! They are worth $10 each, but in reality we all know that they are worth one Muppet pin each! I can't wait to trade them on my next trip!


This frame is lined in leather and was one dollar. You know I can't resist frames. The wooden thing with the metal hooks is a tie rack. Or a necklace rack, as I like to call it. I haven't installed it yet, but I have plans for it! Oh, yes. So what if I have a stack of things started for "the bedroom of my dreams" and no plans to move or renovate in the foreseeable future? It had inlay! What's a girl to do? NOT buy it? Right! It was only $1! The talc bottle is Avon (don't even get me started, you know how I can go on about Avon) and is gorgeous as is the box. 50 cents. The bedroom of my dreams pile grows larger.


Two gorgeous and vintage pillowcases for $1. I need to get new sheets. I'm not going to tell you the last time I bought a pair of new sheets. It would make you vomit and I'm not here to do that to you. So just look at the pretty, clean pillowcases instead, okay?


This ring is sterling silver. It was $2. No, I don't know "what it is". It has writing on the bottom that I'm fairly sure is middle eastern? One side of the ring is braided. It's awesome, fits me and was $2 so don't drive yourself crazy with unanswerable questions.

As you well know, tomorrow is the first day of September. That means fall decorating is a "go". Even though I'm not really ready for fall yet and still need a bit more summer. That is the first time those words have been pushed out through this mouth. I'm a fall girl and not just because my birthday is in fall. But we got royally ripped off in the arena of nice weather this year and I'm just not ready for cold weather to start again. Maybe if I decorate I'll get in the mood.

At any rate, I'm going to try to do something a little different this time and take pictures of what amy normal decor looks like before fall descends in all it's orange and black glory. A little treat for you. You lucky kids. (Shout out to my three readers: Heidi, Beth and Ann! The only people brave enough to put up with the torture.)

It's In The Air

Fall, that is. I whined and complained so much and so loudly this year about summer never starting and the rain and the cold and the cloudy sky that I hardly feel that I should be allowed to get excited about fall. My friend who is in love with summer says that fall is great, but it's sort of a like a book you've read a bunch of times that you know has a sad ending. Namely: winter. I can't get the slightest bit excited about winter yet. Maybe ever again. But never say never. Just think it.

But, I do love fall. And fall decorating time is nigh upon us. September 1st. But as for me, I'm going to try to drain the last little bit of enjoyment out of summer that I can. Watermelon, sundresses, flipflops and the like. Because, I also know that with fall comes the end of yard sale season. That breeds desperation and depression. We don't want to think about that right now.

This weekend Sarah Mae, Andrew, Alicia, the husband and I went to a sale in Chili. We almost always go to this sale, never on purpose, really. We just end up going. And we've gotten great stuff every time.

Sarah Mae wins the award for most and biggest this time. (every time??) OK, to be fair I think I actually win the award for most this time, but the items are so tiny it hardly seems to count. You'll see.


One thing Sarah Mae is queen of for sure: The $1 furniture. My mother used to be Queen of the Free Bin. She'd find amazing things in the boxes marked "Free" every stinking time. Sarah Mae, on the other hand can find an awesome piece of furniture and have it be $1 way more than is healthy. Just ask her husband. ;) Look at this cute thing! One dollar! Bow in reverence to her majesty!


Large LasVegas rainbow tote from the 80's. Vintage Raggedy Ann and Andy clock. The metal world flip calendar is Andrew's. It was like 10 cents.

Andrew got this hat. It was like a quarter. It has a pocket in the front. He also got some records.

Alicia got a set of neon screwdrivers for her new apartment ($2), a FREE vintage toaster cover for HB to maybe sell on her Etsy page and the big eyed sailor girl picture for fifty cents.


Here are my tiny treasures. I got the tin for a friend (25 cents). The tiny pink wooden hanger is for me (Free) It looks great against my sage bedroom wall. The chick couple and the bunny couple that match along with the small bag of flocked bats were a find, indeed! (50 cents) and I got the two gray bunnies (20 cents), Sylvanian families for my own doll house. After all these years I've decided to oust all those weird looking humans that never quite look like they aren't aliens and let the animals have it. It ups the cute factor of a doll house by at least 100% in case you've been thinking of making the switch.


Sarah Mae also bought us each a friendship bracelet. This seems harmless enough in theory. Although, she didn't know that I had just seen a picture of pre-teen Sarah Elaine and thought, "Wow, look at all those friendship bracelets. I'd wear those. I'd like to get some of those!" I mean, how could she know? So, having the one gave me an intense desire to not only have more, but to make them. (No smart remarks about how having one of something always gives me the intense desire to start a collection.) I used to sit for hours on end and pump these babies out. So, that's just what I did on Sunday. I got out all my embroidery floss and chose colors (pink and black for me) found a hook (the lock on our trunk that serves as our coffee table) and sat on the floor, weaving. While watching episodes of Dark Wing Duck. Just like the old days. In case any of you think that watching this show sounds like a great idea, let me dissuade you. It won't be as funny as you remember. I mean, it's not Thunder Cats bad, but it's not great. Watch Tale Spin instead. That show had some great writers and is still very much worth while. Just, don't watch it if it's that time of the month. It gets a bit sentimental, and then Kit Cloudkicker loses his cloud kicking board and it's all over.

This weekend coming up I'm in a wedding. I'm going to try to sneak some sale-ing in on Saturday but I'm not sure how it's going to work yet. I'm taking Friday off to go to one of my favorite sales, ever. I also am starting a mental list of things that I should show you all which do not have to do with yard sales. Imagine!

Until next time, fair reader.

Misuse Tissues

The title is just fun to say, isn't it?

I'm going to tell you a sad story, kids. I've got a cold. In August. It sucks for a number of reasons. Let me enumerate: you want hot soup, but it's 85 degrees out. You want snuggly covers on you, but it's 85 degrees out. You want to sleep, but you can't because it's EIGHTY FIVE DEGREES OUT!

Also, when you are a human bag of snot you miss fun activities like family parties and yard sale-ing. This makes you more depressed. So, in an effort to keep our spirits up let's review finds from a week ago and pretend that we aren't blowing our nose every five minutes and wearing the tender skin raw, shall we? These things came from a church sale (St. Pius X) and a neighborhood sale in Gates.

Sidebar: You well know how much I love Catholic Church names that seem to be the type that should dissuade people from attending their churches. For instance, Our Lady of Sorrows. Add to that list, St. Pius. St. Goody-two-shoes? St. I'll-Tattle-On-You-If-You-Do-Something-Even-Smacking-Of-Wrongness? What happened to St. Nobody's Perfect? St. We're All Human? I guess there is just something I'm missing about these names. One day, mark my words, one day I will understand!

Sarah Mae's finds first:

Sarah Mae has started an awesome collection of anthropomorphic goodies. We found this bag of plush Christmas ornaments in an unlikely box of old toys. It's never been opened and each little fruit man is wearing or holding a symbol of Christmas. The maroon dress was handmade in Greece.

Vintage soccer camp shirt, deer plaque, tiny I Heart NY plastic purse what hinges open to reveal a mirror, bag of plastic Halloween creepers and an awesome bright red vintage cardigan with yarn wrapped buttons.


A gorgeous hand carved and painted wooden frame with poppies on it. Vintage nut cups. I'll just let that one go on by. A small leather purse. A large partridge in a pear tree pendant and a small metal pin.


Sarah Mae loves midcentury modern. She got two great (and colorful) planters. OK, so maybe the lilac hippo isn't a planter. But, it could be!


This light was $3. Real wood. The lady practically gave us the whole history of the thing and we were thinking the whole time that she was going to tell us it was $50 or some such. But no. At the end of the spiel it was $3. Oh yes, this is a good one.


These are the terrors that flap in the night! (No wait, that's Darkwing Duck.) But these are terrifying nonetheless. Sarah Mae likes a frightening little baby every now and again. The star burst is a Christmas craft and the leather wallet is a map of Greece. (We were in a neighborhood with a lot of Greek people.)

This light was $1. I'll just let that sink in.

Now my finds:

I had this book when I was a kid. I have a real thing for kids books. I have a growing collection. The tray was FREE and I don't really have a place for it. Oh well!


Christmas delights! This was one of those every so slightly illegal make your own bags. You know, when all the bags are laid out and priced individually but you don't want all the other crap in the bags. What you want is five things from five different bags. So what you do is open all the bags, rearrange the contents and come away with a bag of stuff full of things you do want. Looking over your shoulder the whole time just hoping against hope you don't get caught. Oh, you don't do that? Hm. Maybe it's just me.

The frame is real wood. I have another like it that is smaller and pink. I'm sure I'll paint this one at some point, too.

Want a closer look at these goodies?

The earrings are vintage 80's. I don't know what's wrong with me.


The white tree is a tin.


$3 and brand spanking new! I can't wait to mix up something wonderful for a party.

Check out the colors in this French street scene. These shot glasses match exactly some juice glasses that we already have. They say Florida.


This is my favorite find. $1. It's missing the front door and the base has seen better days but whoever designed these things was a genius. I love them all. This one has taken up residence in my living room and looks amazing.

Now, to get rid of this cold and get ready for next weekend!

Natural Oasis

Buckle up, kiddies. I'm about to go on at length about a restaurant that I've just discovered here in Rochester. I didn't take any pictures, so this post is just reading. Let that be a warning. Leave now if you, like Alice, can't imagine how anyone can possibly read a book with no pictures in it.

The place is called Natural Oasis. They have a website but the link I've provided is more informative and has a picture of the building. It can easily be mistaken for a spa. The front of the cafe is actually a health...supplements? store. The restaurant is at the back and only has about six or seven tables. They serve Ethiopian and vegetarian food. I think most (all?) of it is vegan as well.

The husband and I went with another couple. The menu is limited to about 11 or 12 items and everything is served family style. Now, you are going to want to pay attention to this next bit: Each item is $4. FOUR DOLLARS! What?? Yep. You'd be full ordering two items. The four of us ate for $43. Stuffed to the gills with delicates and healthy food.

Now, don't judge, but we ordered nearly everything on the menu. We were really hungry, ok? We did not get the ice cream or the greens. We did get the pizza, risotto, gnocchis, pizza, veggies, stew, lentils, cha,i and more.

I couldn't choose a favorite but I did love the gnocchis. They were in truffle oil. They tasted just like hamburgers. I'm not joking. It was amazing. I would eat those in lieu of beef any day of the week. I'd love to, in fact.

How on earth this place doesn't have a line out the door every day of the week is beyond me. But, for what it's worth, I'd like to make that happen. Who's with me?

If you can get over the fact that the restaurant is in the same building as a store, has only six tables and bad parking, please, do yourself a huge favor and go there.

Time Travel

This weekend we got the Kia up to 88 miles an hour and traveled back in time to Yore, the days of. We did it last year, too. One of the things that I like most about Yore is that it's in a very shaded area, so even if it's really hot out, you can be in the shade at nearly all times. It's pretty hilly as well, which helps you walk off some of the 8 million pounds of fried food that you'll eat there. I didn't take many pictures because, there was food. A lot of food. And when there are eats, I get excited and distracted and want to keep my hands free for shoveling things into my maw.

Since I didn't take as many pictures as I should have I can't figure out how to order my stories or tell you about what happened there. And when I say "what happened there" I mean, "what I ate".

I think I'll make lists.

Things I saw that were funny:
~It was "Pirate Week" while we were there. We saw about 15 Jack Sparrows, all of them trying to get lucky. Even the 70 year old version. That is not a joke.

~Tails. Actual fur tails. Like, raccoon tails or fox tails or something. I don't know if they were made from real fur, but they sure looked it. And people were wearing them. As tails. Clearly I'm missing some slice of culture here to know what on earth is going on with all the tails.

~Guys who love metal and clearly wanted to be in a hair band slightly re-imagining their wardrobe to be pirate wear. Very slightly.

~Drama kids of all ages. Working faux accents. Not breaking character. Ever. And also not getting paid for it.

~A little girl with a fake peg leg. It stuck straight out from her body when she walked because it was attached to her knee cap.

But more importantly...

Things I ate: ~A wine slushie (!!! Just as good as you could imagine)
~A bit of fried dough with blueberry sauce. HB couldn't finish it.

~Chicken fingers and fries. (I know, not very yore-sy, but sometimes I get in the mood for them. So sue me.)

~Sweet nuts. I cannot walk by them, smell them and not get some. The lady who sells them is a hoot. I heard her cow a man into buying two packages instead of one by telling him a story of enjoyment, the last line being "You can hold your nuts and have a taste explosion in your mouth at the same time." Quite a salesman, that lady.

~A bite of jerky, a few bites of a brownie ice cream sundae, some sips of beer, a few bites of a few different mile high cakes.

~A wine shlushie. (Yes, another one.)

Those were the high points.

The next day we went to a local craft show called Hearts and Crafts. It was outside of a coffee shop on the sidewalk. There were about 15 vendors. Some I recognized from Etsy, believe it or not. It was a fun show and I was glad to be able to buy a few things and support local artisans.


There were a lot of people selling great letter press prints. I chose this card. It's a birthday card but I'll be sending it on it's way to Philadelphia even though the birthday is past. I don't think the recipient will mind. I bought it from Fly Rabbit Press.

These next little guys made me actually squeal in delight. They were only $2 each and it is a mark of my extreme power of will that I did not make off with the whole lot of them. I mean, just LOOK!

Yes, exactly guy in the green hat. That's it exactly.

This is a print on a page from a dictionary. The page we chose goes from "post" to "Pomeranian."

There are some great sales coming up this weekend so stay tuned!

Do The Right Thing

It's finally happened. It's hot. I mean, hot. Like, cook an egg on the sidewalk hot. That could happen outside right now. For sure. Don't try it though, because that's just gross.

Even though we're spending most of our time powdering our sweaty crevices and considering cryogenics because freezing sort of sounds great right about now, we still hit the pavement and went yard sale-ing. Because we laugh in the face of pain. Or because we're delirious from heat.

Present: Sarah, Nick, Andrew, Sarah Mae

We only ventured to one church sale and a two street neighborhood sale, but got plenty of great things! Sarah Mae's finds:


Sarah Mae has a penchant for denim. This is her third denim purse. Not enough for a full collection, but it's getting close! The deer is cross stitched onto a vintage Levi's coat. I think the jacket was $2 and know that the purse was less than that.


She also loves elf style booties. And vintage insulated cups/mugs with raffia weave in them. $1.50 for the boots and cups. The genuine leather wallet is Andrew's. He bought two identical wallets. Just in case. $1 each.


She's also starting up a real nice collection of vintage elf dudes. Check out the planter. Some sweet paint by number pictures including what has to be my personal favorite. A 1950's street scene from the point of view of a church bell tower? Yep. Favorite. Then a little travel bag for toiletries. Everything you see here was under $5 including the thing in the next picture.


There are two of these. They came with clips on the ends. We speculated that they were for displaying pictures or maybe drying pictures in a dark room. Either way, they are magnificent and totally retro. I cannot wait to see what she does with them!


Who knew that the husband liked Fleetwood Mac? News to me. (25 cents) I'm all about these white enamel frames. (25 cents) And I have quite a collection going of mini headstones for the fall Halloween decor. (25 cents) The only thing that could be better was if they were replicas of the ones at the Haunted Mansion in Disney World. Don't get me started on Disney World. We don't have time for that right now.

I got this for myself for a quarter! It's a little boys shirt. So what of it? I think my inner geek is starting to show.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks dvd for $3. I love that movie. "Bobbing along, singing a song, on the bottom of the beautiful briny sea!" I'm pretty excited to watch it. The yellow bird is a vintage Avon bottle that a friend of mine will adore. (25 cents) The vintage Strawberry Shortcake doll is Apricot, I think. She's not in her right clothes. But, time will remedy that I'm sure. She also currently has a gum wrapper as a hair band. She's pretty creative and has her finger on the pulse of artistic innovative fashion. (25 cents) Now don't get all excited about my box of pink chicks. You get your own. (25 cents) If you remember correctly you already know I have a small box of yellow ones. Wahoo! These little pink tufts will be right at home with my spring/Easter decor!

We've also started watching our collection of hot weather movies. This includes Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing", one of my favorites "Fried Green Tomatoes" and Woody Allen's "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy".

It's too hot to keep writing. I'm going to go either stick my head in a bucket of ice or crawl into the freezer. Either way, stay tuned because next week we are going to the Renaissance Festival and you are not going to want to miss out on that report.