On this last day of March

I had 2 topics I wanted to share with you...

There is a Barbie Expo in Montreal!

FREE!!!

 I love Barbie and her wonderfully wild and crazy get ups!

This will be so much fun!

NEXT!

Do you know Modglass ?

I don't !

They sell some kind of 21st century Pyrex!

I have seen a blue and turquoise one too, I took pictures but never found them!

I have a witness too....

They are super cute, but a bit on the pricey side....

$25 each

Oh well....

Enjoy the last evening of March

Getting ready

Ever since Halloween is behind us, I have Xmas on my mind....

I don't know how I would plan it if I was living in the U.S. because Thanksgiving is still to come...

So I have made a food/goodies schedule to keep everything under control!

It is flexible (of course) and in the end if something doesn't get done, well...It happens!

So tonight in a rare burst of energy, I made my cranberry sauce. Check!

I tweek the recipe on the bag.

Here it is:

2 cups (450 ml) cranberries (fresh or frozen), 1/2 cup (125ml) water, 1/2 cup (125ml) maple syrup, zest of one orange and the juice of 1/2 an orange.

I put everything in the medium sized sauce pan and brought to a gentle boil . Continue to cook until the berries start to pop, reduce until thickened a bit. It was then that I added some Jack Daniel's , about an ounce or 2.....I hope it will give an interesting taste!

 Cool, then put in a jar or a Tupperware, label and freeze. Or keep in fridge for about a week .

One down! I hope to keep posting my Holidays recipes to inspire you in your celebrations.

Have a great evening!

TCB

Being a child of the 60's ; I would've been a total recluse if I'd never heard Taking Care of Business from Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

It nearly played hourly on CHOM FM Montreal's classic rock station. In my 20's I visited Graceland with my Dad and was amazed to see Elvis's ring with TCB on it. It was a big ass ring!

Here's a link for it in case you've never seen it TCB RING . I can't copy a picture it is copyrighted.

TCB has been my word of the year twice in a row and let's face it I need to take care of business!

We have loose ends all over the house and our heads are full of projects we should do....

Here are 2 I tackled in the last 24 hours!

 I bought 2 mid-century lamps in Wells Maine in 2011. They would turn on but I was not comfortable
with the old dried up wires....Once in a while I would talk about re-wiring them...but basically did nothing about it.
Now since I feel so recharged and productive, I started to check out Ebay for the new parts...I found some but the shipping was crazy!

 So Dan suggested going to the Home Depot to search for them....Well I was very surprised that I found what I was looking for!

                                            I took a new extension cord, cut out the head, seperated the wires
                                         and took out the insulation. I then connected the wires to their appropriate
mates...Smooth to brass and ridged to silver and presto changeo...

 a super duper cool lamp that I'm not afraid to use anymore!

 Ans here's her orange sister....

My next project was to change the screens to some windows that Bandito had a lot of fun ripping to schreds!

 Cutting the screen is the easy part....

 Then you need to use the little tool to force the screen and the retaining strip in the frame's groove

 Oh man that sure was hard to do! My arms will definitely feel it tomorrow morning!

 Here's the finished product back where it belongs...Fresh AIR at last!

Now I can go back to my book....

Shortly I will share what Dan wsa working on....

Sunshiny Thrifty Finds

10 years ago, no make that 7 years ago I would have never looked twice at anything orange, or brown for that matter.

I'm a child of the 60's and my super thrifty mom would transform my dad's sweaters in outfits for me...brown,brown and more brown!

My aunt (the one that yelled at me about the will) crocheted a spider web sweater for me in brown,orange and yellow and it haunted me for years...

So now I love orange! Don't love brown yet but I'm getting there....

So here are my latest orangey finds!

A Seashore Trolley Museum Federal Glass mug

This brings back memories of my summer in Maine as a child with my parents.

 I got this in Hudson last saturday at the street fair.

Dan and I reached for it at the same time. This is barely used and will look fab in my house.

BTW we are already filling it with iced water!

And the best part is that it was made in Montreal, sweet!

I love my beautiful orange thermos carafe! 

And last but not least....and not orange but to die for nevertheless....

No this is not the franciscans stuff, to me it's even better!

It is made in France! OOOOOHHHH LALA!

It is called 'Les Étoiles' (the stars) and manufactured by Les Faienceries Continentales.

It came from the Salvation Army. Beautiful!

Well that's it for now.

If you are a follower be sure to enter my super duper birthday giveaway

RIGHT HERE! 

Sleep tight, stay cool

You just never know!

Well last night we were on the way to dance (in the rain ?!?) and I saw a hand written sign in the window BAZAAR.....

And I said hum a bazzar? Say no more sweets , we have plenty of time I'll turn around and you can stop and shop to your heart's content.

I was in for a surprise!

A Colonial Mist casserole!

Believe it or not I just had a 401 bowl in that pattern.

Not only I found this casserole but I was treated to not one but 2 arguments (hillbilly arguments!)

It felt like I was transported in a Michel Tremblay play or even a Fellini movie and I was a bystander.

Now the shop owner was screaming at her boyfriend who was placing stuff on the shelves and at the same time screaming at a nurse on the phone and quoting me a price for the casserole!

A true multitasker!

There was also a female friend (of theirs) on the premises with her toy dog. Both ladies were missing a front tooth, I didn't notice the boyfriend teeth because I was too busy holding the casserole and trying to get a price.

Damage? 2 dollars.

I wish them lotsa of success and less arguments. 

Here's more stuff I found last week

A 70's Pepsi Cola glass (needless to say these never appeared in my parents house)

and a Federal Glass Circus bowl with an orange elephant.

Keeping the glass and selling the bowl ; )

We didn't dance in the rain... a nearby Country dance bar opens its door when it rains.

It was great fun but since we get up at 5:00 am we had to leave earlier :(

Me is pooped, must go to bed....

Thrifting happy I wish yous all

Thrifty Gifts

A couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, I got an email from a lady I used to work with.  Her mother was selling her house and they had a lot of stuff to get rid off.

Well we talked and she was really pushing a dinette set which I had no room for (she's a nice pusher).

Eventally we went over and she gave use some really cool pieces.....

I've been wanting a pickup table for ages! I nearly bought one the other day!

 With the addition of this cool orange tray, it turns into a fab

phone table!

Notice the blue tape on the baseboards, a work in progress....

We also got 2 bookshelves with sliding glass doors. I don't have pictures because the light never

seems quite right. Bummer

Thank you Josée! We love the furniture!

Until next time! 

Baking and Thrifting

Even if I get to thrift on a small scale every week....it's seldom I find something that strikes my fancy.

I was rewarded last thrusday with this delicious carafe!

I've found quite a few Pyrex carafes in my day but this is my first all orange!

It's full of sunshine! I just couldn't leave there, I had to bring it to Vonlipi's House of Pyrex!

Over the weekend I had the deep craving for some cranberry and orange bread. A treat my mother made quite often when I was young. To my dismay I couldn't find the recipe! Rats!

But I remembered that it was a Quaker Oats recipe, so off I was to surf the web.

You can find the recipe HERE

I was delighted to see that they made the recipe healthier. I myself divided the flour as follows 1/2 cup of unbleached flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat and 1/2 cup spelt flour. I alos added the zest of a whole orange.

I baked it in Pyrex, of course.

I prefer to bake 2 smaller loafs.

   

YUM!

Off to bed I am, sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite!

Bandito is spending the night at the vet motel and will get de-balled tomorrow.

We choose that vet because they are close and very professional. They mucho get on my nerves because they talk about money all, I mean ALL THE TIME!

When we went for shots about 2 weeks ago, they presented us with a quote for the castration. Tonight after we gave them the cat (OUR cat, yes we decided to adopt it) they asked for a deposit.

I WAS SO INSULTED! HEY PEOPLE I'M LEAVING YOU MY CAT FOR THE NIGHT, A CAT I'VE DECIDED TO TAKE CARE OF AND LOVE UNTIL HE DIES AND YOU WANT ME TO GIVE A FREAKING DEPOSIT?????

Of course I didn't say anything, but I was boilling inside. Dan said: I knew you would flip out, I just knew.

 And of course I know that it's their policy because some yahoos left their cats and ran away without paying. But it still pisses me off! 

Atomic Treasures

We were making our way north from Hampton Beach NH to Old Orchard Maine on rte 1.....and we were specifically heading to the Bo-Mar flea (opened year round). Next door there's this really big old house filled with antiques but it's messy and you can't really walk around because there's so much stuff.

We had decided not to go this time and concentrate on the flea. We got out of the car and like being pulled with a giant magnet we ended up on their lawn where a big sign said VINTAGE STUFF. First thing we knew we were in the house hunting.....

Holy bubbly vintage atomic goodness!

And in turquoise too!

Can you guess what these are?

Let me tell you that when I spotted these I screamed and jumped! Look,look,look,look! Don't you see?

ARE YOU BLIND?

Here they are when I first saw them in the store....

Aren't these totally fabulous? But really! I was a bit sad because I found them too expensive. I was resigned to leave them there. Then Dan asked me how much I'd be willing to pay for them, I answered and firts thing i knew there was bargaining action downstairs.

OMG I'm not a bargainner by nature so I was totally petrified to witness Dan reeling in the seller like a big fish. We ended up buying the lamps at nearly 50% off.

Here are the atomic godesses in their new habitat...

I need to re-wire them but otherwise they are perfect!

Good night and sweet thrifting dreams!