Just TOOOO Tired....

I'm tired. I fall asleep in the train, and then again when I get home....I've been told I have small beady eyes (lovely). Probably the 'will I have a job tomorrow ?' stress is getting to me. I applied for anither job and I got news Friday that I didn't get it...Oh well. Now HR has found something else that I can apply for....

On a more pratical side....really down to earth. It is late July and that means END OF SEASON SALES! Well who are we kidding? Most of it is way too small for regular/ slightly chunky/ middle age ladies....

Don,t you find that there's clothing for young clueless girls and then boring lady clothes. What happened to the in the middle of all that? We have money you know (well not tons but a bit!) and we would like to see some cool colorful clothes in normal sizes ( double zero, really people WTF?).

Anyways I went to a shopping center (I go there 3 times a year) and got myslef some new undies tha is NOT a luxury! And some rocking sneaker flats that I can wear to work!

That is a BAD picture! LOL! So these are flts that have a sneaker sole and a big flower on top. I got them at Clark's and they were originally 90$ that is a craaaaazzzzzyyyyy price ! 90$ for some sneakers you might wear 10 times?

I got them for 29.99$ and in the last week I've worn them 4 times. They make my soul happy and my eyes too! They are so fresh and girly and joyful. That grey bob in the back ground is the carpet at work.....lol 

Shoping for bargains is good for stress! :)

How sad is this?

Last Friday in crazy hot temperatures...read 108F people this is unbearable for a middle aged slightly overweight asthmatic like me! So last friday I took a loooonnngggg walk (well it certainly felt that way), I walked down the hill and headed to Salvation Army.

It was the 50% off sale.....you know the usual....tons of stuff......tons of crazies....all the stressed out,crazy,neurotic,stinky,not so clean and some really sad and desperate people crammed in an old building with NO air conditionning! WHOA NELLY that is a recipe for disaster!

Turns out I didn't find anything interesting to me so I didn't have to fight in line to go to the cash.

But I saw 2 noteworthy items....

I first saw this a couple of months ago and in fact I saw a whole box of these. Now please tell me what the heck are these doing in Montreal ? I used to have a collection of cheap souvenir water globes but most of it got smashed by my landlord's plumber who came to fix the tub.....bummer. I still have a soft spot for them. I'm a tacky girl at heart.

And this ....this is really sad, and I'm in denial at the crazy price they want for this.....

  Boohoo,boohoo,boohoo poor little Pyrex bowl! By the color I'm guessing it was a Spring Blossom Green 402. Some people call this well loved I call this being lazy! Instead of washing it by hand why not just stuffing it in the dishwasher? It's so much easier....that is CRAP!

Please if you want to enjoy your Pyrex don't put them in the dishwasher! It will damage your dishes not to mention the paint you'll wash in your waterways that are already in dire need of help!

Ok that concludes the eco/Pyrex militant part of the post!

Do you watch Top Chef Just Dessert? How crazy is Seth? He could fit right in the Salvation Army right along Penny from the Next Food Network Star! Why can't people just get along and cook peacefully?

Here at Casa de Vonlipi we are totally addicted to food competitions! Rats ! Masterchef is not on because of the President's address....

Sweet Sweet Oleander

In my parents house we always had a big oleander plant. My Dad would drag it out in late Spring and drag it back in in Fall.. When it would bloom, the air was filled with the sweetest scent, a scent that always made me feel like everything was going to be alright.

When we went to vacation to Italy in the 70's, I was soooo surprised to see and smell oleanders everywhere, litterally!

I was also happily surprised to see one in front of a designer boutique near my workplace.

I stop by it every morning and take a big whiff out of those adorable pink flowers.

                                          I can almost smell them right now! :)

Now on the Pyrex front I went to pick up a Butterfly Gold that I had purchased on Etsy. Much to my surprise when I grabbed the box I could hear the broken pieces rattling inside. UGH! So I came home and took some pics and wrote the seller.

It wasn't very well wrapped....I asked for a refund.....Stay tuned on that!

                                                                        See?

Have a great night! And keep on thrifting!
 

Blackberry Bounty!

This is an amazing ime of year it is blackberry time! More than 10 years ago a friend twisted my arm to take one blackberry plant.....I confess that I planted it where I would not see it! LOL

But since then I've learned to appreciate this easy care plant. Ok you need to trim it in September but besides that it requires NO CARE! I'm NOT KIDDING! REALLY!

I trim it in the fall (with gloves of course) and let it go. This year I've had a major BUMPER crop (sorry for the sintax, remember I am a french canadian by birth).

Usually I have to fight bird and probably rodends for fruit, but not this year....is it that the harvest is late and birds can stuff themselves on Saskatoon berries? Maybe!

Now I can understand why blackberries are soooo expensive in the farmer's market....They are quite time consuming to harvest! And you have to deal with mosquito bites, thorns and bending and stretching.

Here's part of the blackberry plant. It is really a good 12 feet longer. Usually it grows in height not lenght...

That is really strange!

Here the heat is brutal and even with the best will I wasn't able to really get ahead in the garden because of the crazy heat. I water and that is about it. I float around a lot in the pool. The vegetable garden looks great: I might have tomatoes...I see two smallish ones....No cherry tomatoes.....I picked a yellow sweet pepper....We eat our lettuce almost every night and I think we will munch on green or yellow beens next week.

On the thrifting front, well you know it's not that easy to thrift when you work full time....and most of the church basements are closed during the summer.....bummer!

But we did find this at Renaissance:

A nice shaker with all the parts and a bar spoon as a bonus for 2.99$ SWEET!

Oh I forgot to show a pic of the blackberries and my latest Pyrex find....

Yep I got a Square Flower Green cassrole, which I never liked before but now I just LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEEEE the pattern! Unfortunately the seller never mentionned that this sweet casserole had quite a ride in the dishwasher.....

On the job front well believe it or not I still feel stressed out of my mind!

The company decided to add permanent positions to my group (basically my job was becoming permanent) and if I wanted to stay I had to apply for it and pass an interview, which I did.

I didn't get the job...some guy who's not bilingual (remember this is Québec folks and you need to speak both french and english to get a decent job) but has an accounting degree got the job......

I also had another interview but I'm still waiting for the result....

in my current job well now is the time when my crappy training comes shining through! It seems I did a lot of mistakes and now the crapp is raining all over the place!

I'm sure I will pull through because I'm a fighter and always have been! I survived my crazy mother didn't I?

Have a great Monday :) 

Trades going well

I'm really happy the way the trades are turning out! I sent 2 boxes today....I have 2 other in the works.

If you wrote me or commented and haven't has a reply don't worry, I want to be fair and treat trade requests as a first come first served basis and basically I want to trade .

Getting money doesn't advance my collection, but it's not out of the question. So be patient and I will get back to you soon. The most popular items are fridgies! I'm not really surprised, but I got other cool stuff leftover! What about those fab platters ?

 They are still looking for a good home!

I still have tons of culling to do.... I predict some Flameware and Citrus bowls for trade....Stay tuned!

I have high levels of stress at work and the situation should be back to semi-normal by next week. Let,s just say that choices will have to be made; by me and by the powers that be because we all know we ain't in this playground by ourselves...

Be well and sleep tight my friends and may the thrifting be plentiful!

What's new!

I'll tell you what is new! I finally posted on The Pyrex Collective  my pieces for trade, well some of them at least....

Reducing a collection can be a very emotionnal venture....

So if you love Pyrex, visit The Pyrex Collective and write me if you're interested.

You could get your paws on this

You saw right, it is Pink Pyrex!

I can't wait to hear from you all!

Clamato WINNER!

Well folks, this is it!

Time for the draw of my super duper Clamato giveaway!

Since I only had 3 eligible participants I didn't rely on a random number generator (why use technology for such a small number?), so I asked the Danmeister to pick a number between 1 and 3....and the result was......

Number 2!

SixBalloons you're the winner! YIPPEE! I'm emailing you right now!

Thanks to De Tout, De Rien and Yutha for commenting. I just wish I could send some Clamato love your way too!

Thanks again to everyone who commented and Mom Wald I can't wait to see your clammy tomato costume!

Remember this cutie?

First things first!

This is you last chance to comment for my super duper Clamato giveaway, click HERE for a chance to win.

Now please be honest....Do you remember this?

That cutie is part of a set of 4 that were rescued from the trash in Lachine last year. Yes they are made of teak and worth a pretty penny (Why someone would want to throw them out, it leaves me speechless, which doesn't happen very often let me tell you!)

Also in the trash was the dinning room table minus legs (Go figure!). So the plan was to re-upholster the chairs and have some legs made.

These things are easier said than done! lol

Here at Casa de Vonlipi we definitely have problems with follow through. We had to figure out what we wanted to re-upholster the chairs with....originaly it was black vinyl....But I suggested we reuse some dark blue leather we had, so we bought some dye....2 months ago.

The chairs got done last weekend! I so thrilled I can't believe my eyes everytime I look at them! hihihi

Isn't she SWEET? OMG I can't believe we now have genuine mid-century teak dinning room chairs!
 It cost less than 30$  for the dye and the padding so that is 7.50$ per chair which is pretty trifty in my book!

Now here are some pics of Canada Day Pyrex in action!

As an appetizer I made crab cakes....with a special tartar sauce. I haven't written down the recipe yet, but they were delicious!

A Pyrex dredging station (can you tell I watch a lot of cooking shows?)

Some of the dishes resting after a hard evening's work!

This is oe of those morning after shots....I still had the tablecloth on the table and the Pink Pyrex fridgie set just wanted to come out and play!

Look how the pink from the tablecloth is really close to the color of the Pyrex? F-R-E-A-K-Y!

Well that's it for tonight....As much as my heart wants to thrift, my mind says  I should take care of the house and the yard.....sniff.....I try to do a little bit every night after work.....

Have a restful night my friends!