Monday, January 31, 2011

Yippee!

OMGOMGOMGOMG! I'm sooooo excited, I'm almost besides myself!

But first a big Vonlipi's welcome to my new followers and especially to Zuitsuitmama| It's always nice when you've been following and enjoying a blog and they become followers too :)

So tomorrow we wake up bright and early and head south to Maine, I can't wait to discover what wonders it holds for us this time. For the time being, here's some pics that I took in October but never shared.

I'm totally glass addicted so of course I would take pics of tons of mugs!

A shelf full of FireKing! WOW 
Nesting bowls, my faves!

Casseroles....Autumn Harvest, Town & Country,Acorn, Spring Blossom Green.

OOOOh! More bowls! And Jadeite too!

Ok I kinda regret leaving this one...A Pink Desert Dawn pie plate. I left it because I already have 3 pie plates....But I'd never seen Desert Dawn in the flesh! Oh well! Better luck next time!

I can't wait to go to my fave Maine fleas 

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Pyrex Tragedy!

Today I'm hanging around the Pyrex Collective!

Remember this?


If you want the whole story click HERE

I'm warning you it's not pretty!

I'm off to a 12 hours Line Dance PARTY!

Later gators :)

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Problem Fixed!

Well what's a girl to do when she has the winter blues? She makes reservations of course! But where, oh where will she go?

Maine of course! You're gonna say, how come? It's cold! It's about the same as here.
But here we don't have this.... 

                                         I can't wait to see the ocean in all it's winter glory

and we'll do a spot of shopping....besides my fave fleas are opened year round! There will also be some Triple D action....

I hope to eat there and sample some of their award winning...

                                                                       Seafood Chowder

Hit the outlets in Kittery and have a spot of lunch here.....




                                              And eat some fried deliciousness....


OMG! I'm so excited, I wake up at night thinking about it!
And at this time of year, it's even cheaper than in October!
Yes I'm packing the long johns just in case! 

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Totaly on Fire!

Just to prove that no 2 days are alike...I was smokin' today! On fire I tell you! I started listing things left and right, you know stuff I had for 2 years, meaning to list it....

Actually I've had this skirt to more than 25 years. It was a plain denim mini skirt I got in 1984.
It actually fit me way back when. 

In 1986, I decided it needed a face lift!

This is the back of the skirt. And yes I wore this in the street, it was the 80's after all 


It's even signed by moi. One sad day it didn't fit anymore and i never got my weight doen enough to wear it. So I decide to drink a tall glass of reality juice and list it in the store.

Life happens! I also listed some hawaiian shirts, a beach towel and some button cards I had been hoarding 4 EVER!
I do need to give myslef a swift kick or 2 in the behind to list, because althought I find this fun, I also find it a lot of work....Take pictures, list it, check the shipping, post the pics in Flickr, put them in the appropriate groups. And I also try to manage a pic file I have for Etsy. OMG I need a nap!

By the way I've decided to fix my winter blues problem....come back tomorrow to see what I'm gonna do about it! 

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Blah!

It's cold, I'm starving, I'm crabby, It's that time of the month,I'm lazy, I want some french fries, I nearly called for take out for lunch.....a nice sub or a pizza would've been totally FAB. I'm cold,sleepy,sneezy,I don't want to do anything and all I'm thinking off is this:

 Yep thinking of the sea

Big,cold,beautiful Atlantic

With all its force and fury 

and all the fried goodness....OMG! I could just eat this and smile and be happy.

That's right folks I need an ocean fix. Heck I need to win the lottery and MOVE to the shore. I don't know if I could leave my beloved Quebec but one thing is for sure I would take looooonnnnngggg vacations by the sea. I would love to spend the whole summer!

Seeing those pictures just cured my winter blues! How cool is that?


Sunday, January 23, 2011

Before Pyrex

Yes there was life before I discovered Pyrex! It seems that I've always collected stuff...it's genetic.

As a small girl there was the ladybug collection, the button and Barbie collection. One summer vacation in Portugal I would hoard all the sugar packets I could get my sticky little hands on....I would give some to an ant colony that lived in a tree in the yard of our hotel. I'm sure the owner was thrilled about that one.

There was the mineral bottle label collection in Italy. I had help from my Dad (my companion in hoarding). We would stick them in a little booklet much to my mother's dismay. I knew from her face that she found this sooooo distasteful. It was FUN!

The old glass medicine bottle collection, I still have that one, it's quite small. I've been strongly encouraged not to expand that one....

And the BIG collection before Pyrex....taking more room than Pyrex (could that be possible?).

The Dept 56 Xmas village collection! Actually this collection has 2 branches: The Dickens Village and the Original Snow Village. It all started in 1995....I was working downtown and not too far, in Old Montreal, was a Xmas boutique. OMG! It was quite exotic at that time here in Québec. Now you have some all over.

My Dad was definitely an enabler in that one too. We love them all but can't display all of them each year. So In late November, I go-a-digging and pull out a couple of pieces and make vignettes.

Makes me want to build snowman!

How about a warm bowl of soup?

I had 2 more tableaux but the lighting was really awful and no matter how hard I tried , the pics came out awful. So maybe next year!

So that's it for today, I gotta get ready for my dance lesson! Happy Sunday :)

Friday, January 21, 2011

What was she thinking?

Canada is talk show poor. Oh we have some, actually we have 3. And until last Monday only 2.

The Steven and Chris show. Don't like it much...they wear more makeup than 10 women together and Steven is so uptight he can barely bend....Chris is a big goof.

Cityline. That is totally geared on mom's. Everytime I catch it it's about babies....I might be wrong

This week I decided to check out the new kid on the block The Marilyn Denis show, well not really new kid because she had been at the elm of Cityline for a very long time and she decided to do something else, but now she's back.

Suzanne Somers was on. OMG yes I screamed in my living room! She looked just like Madam. You remember Madam? Of course you do she had an act in the 80's with Wayland Flowers....

Anyways here's a clip

 

Here she is with Bea Arthur.

Look at that chin. Do you think Suzanne Somers asked for a Madam chin when she went to her monthly visit to her plastic surgeon?

I couldn't get the code for a Suzanne Somers clip but follow this LINK .  Check out the chin, it has bumps in it. It looks like a man chin.

I still can't understand the complusion to try to push back time and ending up looking terrible. Do they find themselves beautiful? Do they tell themselves that it's better to look young and ugly than beautiful and older?
What do their husbands think when they wake up in the morning? oooh I had sex with this hot ugly chick with an old neck but yong boobies? Do they even recognize their wives? Do they yell where is my wife and what king of android are you?

Suzanne I'm sure being an aging 'celebrity' is hard, but you lost all credibility to me right when I saw the CHIN. Someone who sells health like you do should not rack in flying miles from plastic surgery. NayNay that is not right!

It's like John Pinette advertizing for Weight Watchers, I'm not going to believe it. Snooki peddling Channel....

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Across the River

I decided yesterday to cross the river and check out what the thrift stores had in store for me. You know how it is you need to keep both eyes opened! You never know what you might find!

I'm sure they had owls like that on That 70's show. They sure would match her kitchen!

Veggie S&P with a napking holder, new in box.

Vintage squeezy Ketchup and Mustard dispensers still in their packaging.

And this adorable yet kitschy Coffee Set from Japan.

Too bad I didn't find anything for me; I did find a piece of Pyrex....of course I already have it....so I was thinking , I don't know....maybe a giveaway soon.

My craaaazzzzzyyyy aunt sent me a copy of a new testament, that has her as the sole beneficiary....I can't say for sure I didn't have the courage to open the enveloppe...I wonder if it was made before or after my mother lost ALL of her marbles...

On another subject: I've been hoarding stuff to list in my Etsy store, but I was lazy and didn't take pics or list any  goodies. So this afternoon I should be hard at work and list, list, list!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Many Many Hearfelt Thanks and Tons of Hugs

Ok people, I totally felt all your well wishes, your love and your hugs! Thank you everyone who commented and supported me me through this difficult time.

I'm not a 100% over it but on my way (let's say 90% over). Bloggyland is like having infinite penpals, only faster. I'd saved the crazy message my loony aunt left me, but with reflexion I decided I didn't need more hurt and I erased it.

I received plenty of good advice: Yes I will only communicate with them through my lawyer (that sounds so important!)

Time for some pics!

Some photos I took on my road trip to Massena NY in Deccember.....

I love the spray cheese, I haven't bought any in 5 or 6 years but I still love the stuff anyways. Cheese in a can? Unreal!

Pickled eggs and pickled polish sausage. In my neck of the woods people used to make their own pickled eggs. I think you can find small jars of them but not polish sausages! 

This is a total shocker! I was in a dollar store in Cornwall Ontario and I spotted a big pile of Martha Stewart DVDs for 2 $. Yep Martha is hanging out at the dollarstore!
We used to have her merchandise at Zellers, then Sears and now it's Home Depot and the dollarstore.Since she moved her show to the Hallmark channel, she has a lot less visibility in Canada....

Sleep tight! And don't let the bedbugs bite!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Calm

So after an eventful friday (read the previous post), I had a very interesting saturday afternoon... I was invited by a company (maybe a future employer) to take some tests. OMG I answered 450 questions in 2 1/2 hours. OY! This girl was tired after.

My eyes felt like raisins! It was like test bootcamp, I couldn't look in my purse, drink water,go to the bathroom. At 9:30 pm I was snoring snug as a bug!

I kept singing a silly little song that brought me a lot of comfort...Here it is!



Yes Sheldon Mom was right! Soft kitty is a great song for all aches!

I'm plotting a MAJOR thrifting expedition this week! I hope it will materialize! Cross your fingers loyal readers!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Avalanche

As you well know I strive to write a positive happy blog, I also strive to be happy on all levels in my life and even if it's a lot of work at times, I feel I do a pretty good job.

So this is NOT a happy positive post, it's a 'I just got thrown a big bucket of stinking' crap' post, so bear with me.

I lost my mother in mid-december. I wasn't close to my mother due to the horrible way she treated me when I was a teenager. When I say horrible, I mean 'you will have to go to therapy for quite a while' horrible. I felt so helpless, I kept asking for help from my grandma (her mother) but she would only tell me to be patient and live with it.
So shortly after her death I was looking for some pictures of her for her sister and I found a copy of a will she had made 15 years ago that left me most of what she had (which is probably nothing) and made me excecutor.
So I decided to call my aunt to see what was happening with the will, so I left her a message yesterday....Oh boy!
I went out for a bit this morning and when I came back I saw the answering machine light blinking, so naturally I took the message....My aunt was hand delivering oodles and oodles of crap in my answering machine. I was a heartless b****, a coward, I had abadonned my mother in her hour of need, I should destroy her number and never call her back, I was a money grabbing selfish god knows what....You get the gist. The message was so violent I felt like somedy hit me in the face!
So I decided to call her to explain about the will I found and basicaly I just wanted some info.

OMG she was even more histerical than on the message, she managed to scream that she had taken my mother to see shows and she had spent thousands of dollars of her own money to take care of her, and the same stuff from the message, and that my dad was an asshole and even worse things.
I tried to reason with her but she was too far gone. I tried to tell her how I felt as a teenager when I was asking for help and they wouldn't give me the time of day. I tried to tell her how lonely I felt with a crazy chain smoking alcoholic falling allover the house. But I couldn't
She did manage to tell me once again that she didn't want to see or hear from me again (good i think we can arrange that!). And to think I only wanted some information!

You know that feels so good, I feel so much better to have gotten that off my chest.

Sorry about the awful post   

Here's my favorite prayer that has helped my countless times.

The Serenity Prayer



God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Amen. 

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Unscheduled Thrifting

Picture this....I was invited to take some tests on saturday for a job I applied on. They need my diploma. I turned the house upside down and did not find it....

So I had to go to my old college to get it. So I took the train, the metro and the bus yesterday morning.

Collège Jean de Brébeuf

I spent many a lunch hour sitting on those steps.

The place was like a fortress. I had to go through a gard station, state my business and get a visitor's pass. Since all the school killings it is the norm.
I tried to take some pics inside but the lighting was shit and I couldn't hang around too long because I could see people were suspicious of me.
The whole thing took less than 10 minutes, after while looking for a bathroom, I took the opportunity to check the place out. I studied in Arts & Communications. Nothing in that department had changed, same paint, same linoleum, same furniture as 28 years ago. Freaky!

After I took the bus back to the Metro and I realize that it was near some ethic grocery stores ! PARTY!


This I saw in a vietnamese grocery. Talk about fusion! Mexican corn tostadas,chinese cookies and italian biscottis.

Noodles

This is probably one of the worst wine ever produced. I didn't even know it was still being produced.It's sweet,pink and bubbly. Back in the day, a lot of people I knew would drink copious quantities of this and proceed to be sick. Graduation anyone?

Of course no trip to Montreal is complete without a stop at the Salvation Army...

I really liked this chair, but we have no room, sniff!

A tableful of sewing machines 

 
An Ice-O-Matic ice crusher (everybody needs one NOT)

A blender. I don't know what happened to that little guy but part of the insides were coming out from the front!

I love picking up Xmas stuff in January because nobody wants it, hehehe!

A cute aluminum tea pot for the store 

And a cool oj pitcher for the store as well.
Needless to say Pyrex was no where to be seen...oh well! Better luck next time!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Retro Tuesday: Ben's a slice of Montreal history

Happy Retro Tuesday faithfull readers and friends!

By now I'm sure you know that I love a things vintage. So I was realy excited to see an article in The Montreal Gazette on Ben's Delicatessen . Ben's was the oldest deli in Montreal. It was opened in 1908 by Lithuanian immigrant Ben Kravitz. It served well known delicaties such as smoked meat, chopped liver, latkes, corn beef and cabbage and assorted sandwiches. Don't forget the Kosher pickles!

It relocated in the 50's to the corner of Metcalfe and Maisonneuve Sts. The interior never really changed...yellow and green formica tables, retro-style stools and counters and a wall covered with autographed pictures of celebrities. Every smoked-meat lover and tourist had to go there at least once!


My dad was a regular. A a matter of fact my dad looooves smoked-meat! 

The employees became unionized in 1994. The went on strike in 2006 asking for a raise and improved working conditions. By late 2006 the owners, now the 3rd generation, had decided to definitely closed the joint after 98 years!
The front doors after the closing.


The McCord museum acquired most of the inside artifacts. So we won't forget the joy Ben's brought us for nearly 100 years!

Too bad the fries were of the frozen variety!
You know how I feel about fries! They have to be freshly fried!

If ever you want to read the entire article here's the LINK 

In the meantime be sure to visit my pal's Tracy super blog Crazy Suburban Mom for more Retro deliciousness!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Still Rockin' the Pyrex!

I have to admit I have the after Xmas blues....I'm a bit congested, it's snowing nearly everyday, it's cold and let's face it it's time to put away Xmas...sad face.
Even if i lit the tree every night I still feel I didn't enjoy it enough...Most of the goodies are long gone. My jeans are sighing in relief!

Here's how I use my Pyrex in January...

I take out all the ornements out of the tree and they await triage in the bowls. Then I can put them in their boxes.

Last year I got a Pyrex Terra mug and I've been looking for a suitable plant for it ever since (not too big,not too expensive,not too spikey...I have to keep the house Feng Shui after all and spikey is no good!)
I found it last week and I got some succulent potting medium and tada! Plant in Pyrex. I think it looks cool.
Terra was one of Pyrex misses, the matte finish scratched too easily and the mugs without the handles? Not a good idea, especially since the mugs are too big to hold comfortably in your hand!

   
Here's a little girl who's too cute to be yelled at! I don't know how she does it, but she manages to change the side of the screens on my laptop. She needs a hug!

I should be back tomorrow for some Retro Tuesday goodness! Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite!

Friday, January 7, 2011

What I kept and the LONG awaited recipe!

A glorious morning to you! I apologize for not posting the Maple Tarlets recipe yesterday; I was busy with taking down the Xmas tree and changing the beds. As much as I love LLBean flannel bedding...fitting a comforter in one of their comforter covers is like running on a threadmill for 20 minutes!

I did 2 and was out for part of the afternoon! I want to thank my blogger friend De Tout De Rien for her very generous offer to translate the recipe. It was much appreciated! But I did want to try my hand at it. Please, if you read things that don't make sense don't hesitate to write! And by the way I don't even know your name and couldn't find your email (sad face).

Remember my rant about the vintage Xmas lights? Well I was lucky enough to find a box of new replacement lights for a mere .99 cents!

Oooh! I got red, yellow, fuschia, green and blue. I should be set for next Xmas!

 
So this is what I kept. The egg cups will go in the store, they are soooo orangey and fun!
An avocado Tupperware spoon rest (never used). How do I know it's never been used? No scratches of course! A medium bottle brush tree, one can never have too much of these.A Pyrex Flameware teapot lid, it has a chip on the inside but I will sand it down. Since I broke one, I'm always on the lookout for some and they can be pretty pricey on eBay...8-10$ plus shipping OY! 
 One small milkglass jar Night Formula from Beauty Counselor (with the Good Housekeeping seal of approval) and a glass and enamel dresser container.
And of course a Pyrex divided dish which I believe is from the Horizon pattern. I'm usually not a big fan of divided dishes but I could'nt leave this one. I saw myself serving 2 kinds of veggies in it.
I feel I did pretty good at 9.00$ for the whole kit'n'kaboodle.

And now for the recipe.

Maple Tartlets (tartelettes à l’érable)


You will notice that these contain NO maple whatsoever…but that’s their name I swear.

Yield: 12 tartlets
1 pie crust recipe

Heat oven to 375F

Roll the dough about ¼ inch thick. Cut with a round cookie cutter or a teacup. It needs to be big enough to fit in a muffin pan. Put the dough rounds in the muffin pan and place a cupcake paper cup in each, fill the bottom with dried beans. This will prevent the dough from puffing up too much.

Bake from 5 to 10 minutes. Dough needs to look dry. Remove paper cups and beans. You can keep the dried beans in a mason jar for another time. Be careful those beans will be awful HOT!

Filling

1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 oz soft butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pinch of flour

Mix everything in a bowl. Pour about 1 tablespoon in each crust. Bake at same temp for 5 to 10 minutes until dough is golden. You have to keep an eye on them, they tend to burn quickly. Let cool in the muffin pan for about 20 minutes. Remove carefully.

Let cool completely before storing in a container. These are best eaten the same day or the day after. If you keep them too long the filling will crystallize.

Ok now dear readers a word of caution! These are very sweet, if you eat too much your eyes might glaze over. No joke! And to think that my great grand father would eat 2 or 3 with a scoop of ice cream...Every time I think of this I go Whoa Nelly!