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!
 

Week 'O' Surprises!

I had some very nice surprises this week! I had to go in town (Montreal) for some doctor appointment and stopped at the Salvation army...

It was filled to the rafters! It was quite a while since i'd seen so much stuff but NO Pyrex people! 
                                                                 I found this

And this

And  later that night as part of the Just for Laughs festival we went to see the very funny John Pinette! we laughed for 2 hours straight!

  

Here's a taste!

And I also received some goodies! I traded some Pyrex with Jeni from In Color Order and I received it on Monday.

A beautiful Opal 503 and an adorable hommade tissue holder...LOVE!

A while ago I won Crazy Suburban Mom 's giveaway of a gift certificate from Novica and I chose some jewelry. A girl needs some bling! And I received that as well!

They came in those beautiful boxes...

Some nice hoops. 

This to die for bracelet.

and a gorgeous pendant that doesn't photograph well at all....because of the pearl!

I took this pic from the Novica web site.

I just spent 8$! The rest was covered by the gift certificate! How cool is that?

I had chosen other pieces but was floored by the shipping and duties. They vary from country to country. The web site has gorgeous stuff and I will make some Xmas shopping  there for sure !!!

Today Dan assembled the wardrobe doors for the hall and I assembled the lamp we ordered from LLBean. The doors were later installed but I was too tired for the lamp. The heat is unbearable and my AC feels tired! I should get around to installing the lamp tomorrow! How exciting :) 

Thrifty Finds....Yellow

It seems that with the mild weather,people have started to clean their attics,basements,garages....And that is GOOD for us thrifters!

So yesterday I took the train to downtown Montreal and went to my fave thrifty haunt: The Salvation Army. First thing I noticed was that the shelves were full, full of interesting stuff...And not so interesting. I saw a medium size cardboard box (15x9x8 inches) full of those little soaps you get in hotels....unwrapped and dusty. Who donates that? If I worked at the SA I would've thrown that out big time! Would would buy that??? All wrapped up maybe... And then I saw it, I saw it in a big cart they put the stuff in before placing it in the shelves....

A pristine Pyrex yellow 503 fridgie! Oh my! Oh my! I squealed and knelt on the floor to grab it.OMGOMGOMGOMG! IT'S MINE,MINE,ALL MINE! DON'T EVEN LOOK AT ME OR AT THE DISH,DON'T COME NEAR MY CART YOU INGRATE!!! Ok that was a bit much, but it's basicaly what the Pyrex crazy woman in my head screamed. It was in better condition than the one I already had...so of course I had to take it home...

Also some mini yellow Syracuse China cups....Could they be for expresso??? They are so tiny! They would look great with a tiny plant inside.... and that strange star shaped glass mold with tiny legs and the word Queen Anne under and phoenix...could be used as a jello mold....It might be Glasbake but quite early 

. It made me think of my Dad...he might have a fun story about that mold!

And last but not least....

3 little birdies to hang in the tree. They have aluminium clamps. One was missing a tail but I bet I can fix it....I'm guessing they are quite old, before 1950.And the best part is they were FREE!

FREE!FREE! My favorite word...GRATIS (french).

FREE stuff, FREE food,FREE booze....It's like music to my ears!LOL

Have a great weekend everyone! Don't stay in the sun too much!

Pick 'N' Paw

This is the second part of the way home.

I mentionned this place earlier in the blog...The Pick 'n' Paw! Mysterious place...It certainly looks like a flea market....A demented flea market! Huge piles of stuff all over the ground....An Old barn. It was closed when we passed in front on Aug 29th but one week later on the Sept 5th it was opened, and we almost missed it! We went back. There was piles of stuff as far as the eye could see, huge piles. Rotten cardboard boxes full of dishes, of rusted metal boxes,of old phonebooks....Whatever you wish for they probably have it but you need to dig! And it's filthy! EEEEWWWWWW!!!!

Well that certainly didn't stop me! After all we have wet ones in the car (the thrifter's best friend!). After going through a couple of boxes I found a 503 lid (Pyrex). It's the lid that goes on the biggest refrigerator dish. Great !I needed one, especially for 50 cents!

Did I mention that this place is in the middle of nowhere? In a field? I can't see anybody! I only hear crickets....We walk around the grounds and obviously they don't get a lot of traffic, the grass is waist high. At the far end a bunch of chickens are running around, scratching and pecking .

The building is missing windows and planks. Near the entrance are 2 clean and nice looking teenagers. I peer inside and it's looks really dark and creepy. And there's stuff all over the place, from floor to ceiling. It's a cross between Children of the Corn and Supernatural!

I'm pretty skittish and we hesitate. But curiosity and the prospect of treasures (Pink Pyrex) win us over.


I found those 2 Pyrex cups in an unknown pattern for 50 cents each too. No Pink Pyrex,or bowls. Is it necessary to mention that they don't give you a bag? LOL

This place definitely scared the bejesus out of me, I had goose bumps for at least an hour after!

But stopping at the Pick 'n' Paw was on my dream list and I will bring Dad next time we're in the neighborhood!

Blood orange marmalade

First of all I want to write that last friday I made pulled pork in the slow cooker for the first time and it was AWSOME!!!

The first picture is of leftovers coleslaw and pulled pork. I had made some biscuits but we ate them all....That recipe is definitely going into the 'do it again' file!!!

Last week when I saw my dad, he was his usual generous self and gave me at least 10 pounds of blood oranges! I like blood oranges but with such a huge quantity I didn't want any to go to waste....So I searched the net for some recipes and I found a blood orange marmalade recipe that i decided to try. The recipe says to prepared 6 jars....what kind of jars did they want coz' I was only able to fill 4!!! I used the regular jam jar (1/2 cup).....That pissed me off!!! On the plus side it looks really good!
I included pictures of the process. I initially decide to cut the oranges with my el cheapo mandoline but I reduced the hald orange to pulp....So I used my trusty santoku knife (it's a farberware nothing expensive or fancy but a really good knife!)

The recipe just said to pour the hot marmalade into the prepared jars screw the lid on tight and inverse them. After to keep them in the fridge....I don't have place in my fridge :(

And I am really paranoid about bacteria in my canning, so I decided to process my jars 10 minute in boiling water. Can someone tell me how come I alway have renegade lids that don't snap???? 3 lids snapped and the other one not, so that is why in the last picture I inverted the jar- It helps with the snapping! If nothing happens ,that one will go in the fridge....