Lemons....

When we vacationned in Maine with my Dad he complained about the price of lemons.

They were $1.29 a piece. He flipped out.

OMG the lemons are soooo expensive here, next time we come we will bring lemons from Montreal!

Right Dad! Like we would be able to smuggle a bunch of lemons at customs.....He just spent thousands of dollars for a week by the shore, car rental and meals...Yet those lemons were bugging him.

In the past months Dad stopped buying lemons because he felt they were too expensive...He was buying limes instead!

Today I was grocery shopping in my secret thrifty no frills grocery shop....and I saw this:

Lemons .39 cents each

Just for you Dad, just for you!

This will always crack me up!

Nostalgia

When I was a little girl, my Dad would take me to Howard Johnson's restaurant for supper in December after Xmas shopping.

I would get the London Bridge (a hot dog from the kids menu ) and peppermint ice cream with chocolate chips.

I think my Dad ordered baked beans that came with a side order of brown round bread. You could buy the bread to take home and it came in a can.

Well on a road trip to the U.S. a looooooonnnnggg time ago I got a can of this wondrous bread. It might have 15 years ago....I don't know for sure.

There is a 1998 copyright on the can which that I couldn't have bought this before ....

The can is not dented. Now tell me would you open it?

I looked up the brand on line and was happy to find out it is manufacture in Portland Maine !

And while I was visiting their web site , I sent them an email for self life....

We will see

On a related subject my Dad told me he found some bouillon cubes in his pantry that were 15 years old...

It runs in the family!!! 

Still TCB

Choosing 2015's word was a no brainer. TCB (taking care of business) worked so well in 2014, that I decided to choose it AGAIN.

So as our first TCB actions of 2015 today : we will install our vision board, clean the pots and pans cupboard....You know what I mean...Yes you do!

The recipe is simple: 1 part keep, 1 part store, 1 part donate. Easy peasy!

And finish caulking around the kitchen sink.

The organizing experts have got it wrong...Even when you are reading to give some stuff up, doesn't mean you can do it all in 1 hour!

On December 26th we cleaned out the first shelf of the pots and pan cupboard but after I had a headache and was exhausted, so I asked Dan if we could finish this another time.

2015 will be a year of change and of many trips to the thrift to donate! I might even pick up some new treasure along the way!

 If you remember, I will put my Etsy store on hiatus on January 13 th. I already have gone through my inventory with what I will kept for myself, what to offer to my stepdaughter and what to donate.

We also have decided to put our house on the market; I.E all the purging nd organizing. We can't stand the commute anymore and let's face it our little town has been invaded by loads of stressed out citydwellers leaching their stress all over, driving like a-holes etc...

So if all goes according to plans, we should have Xmas 2015 in the city. Everything is still up in the air, but I have faith that all will be for the best and all parties involved will be hunkydory.

 I end this post with pictures of our trip to Maine in February 2011. They had a big ass
snowstorm and for us it has been one of the most memorable road trip to date. We hope to go back soon and bring Dad.

 Dad loves Maine and the ocean and would love seeing them in winter too.

 The first 3 pictures are of York Beach Maine. The first of is of the Goldenrod , makers of the best
salt water kisses EVER!

 Last 2 pictures are from the beach in OOB.

   of course we had to stop there. This place is so dear to our hearts.

So that's it for today. I will finish with capuccino (yum) and attck the caulk!

Be well!!!

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....

Pictures from Maine

                                          So today I tought I would show you some pictures
                                           of our long weekend in Maine
                                          First picture is from a really sad yard sale. Everything was stale
                                          and cigarette stinky. The boxes were a real mish mash of unrelated stuff:
                                          dishes and allen keys and sparkplugs.

                                You know how I am a Pumpkin pie spice everything fan so I tried it and it did not
                                 taste like pumpkin anything. It was nice but no cigar.

                               Awesome Que from Famous Dave in Scarborough, Maine
                                It was truly delicious and as close to real Que as will have for quite a while.

                               Autumn Harvest 443 Cinderella bowl seen in our motel room.

                                 Footsteps on the beach

And last but not least....

This amazing Pyrex bowl Federal Eagle

I left it there because it was too expensive!

 

So have a nice evening and a nice night!

Be well my friends and see you soon :)

 

Crazy

Crazy!!!

 I have to wake up at the crack of dawn to go to work!|

A week's vacation is real short considering what we lived through.

But a girl has to do what a girl has to do. I will wake up, drink coffee, get dressed , get on the train, and walk up that !"/$%?&*( hill!

It was not crazy shopping vacation and we were okay with that, we do need to wear the clothes we bought in April and July.

But I did buy some booties at a considerable discount rom a store chain from Quebec (Aldo).

                                            For some reason I wanted to get a full Mason jar of licorice
                                            pastels from the OOB candy store.
                                              In this pic Dan has already made a dent in it. From the Xmas Trees store some tackylicious Santa and Mrs Claus mugs; I'm sure that coffee will be delicious in those.
 

                                Now for a poisonned gift....Last Xmas I gave my step daughter a huge
                                decal of The Boondocks Saints...It had to be installed on her dinning room wall.
                                 Back in August we came and painted the wall that had a very orange circle on it.
                                 As per the instructions we had to wait at least 3 weeks to install the decal.

                                It took us at least 4 hours to install that darn thing; it was really intense.
                                here I took a pic of the chair so you can better judge the size of it.

                                Word of advice: If someone you know wants one, just smile and walk away.

                                It looks great by the way!

                                 Sleep tight!

Bacontastic lattice of goodness

Sunday, after watching 2 back to back episodes of Feed the Beast I was inspired to try something new.

I decide to wrap a deboned turkey breast in a latttice of sweet bacon and grill it.

                                Ok the bacon lattice is not perfect....lol

                                I placed the turkey breast on top with some Pixie Dust and Chick Magnet

                                 Wrapped everything up and tied it with bucher's twine (you don't want stuff to    fall away)

                                            Here's the finished product! Delicious!

                                            Now about the Pixie Dust and the Chick Magnet, these rubs are made in Maine by Denny Mikes . When ever I go, I make sure to stock up and so should you!

Well gotta go the morning comes fast....Sleep tight!

Thrifted in Maine

Like i told you before, I didn't find much on my long weekend in Maine...

                                           I found this amazing purple jar that I'm using as a votive holder.

                                           From the sign in the shop, I learned that it was originaly clear glass but a chemical turned it purple over time....Wow, I love the color!

                               I've been eyeing the Camp Snoopy glass collection for a while now but I always find them too expensive, so I was thrilled to find this one for a dollar.
                              My cousin Josee had expressed the desire to get some fridgies, so this one was a great thrifty buy. I also found a glasbake milk glass mug for .99 cents at the Scarborough Goodwill, but for the time being it is missing in action...»oh well!

Sleep tight!

Where was I ?

                                 There was some Pyrex sightings....

                              

More Pyrex? Yes siree bob!

 

Overpriced scrappy blowmolds

 

Fabulous glassware and

 

and amazing barware?

 

Well I was in Maine for a long weekend.

 

It was beautiful and restorative as usual.

 

It is was my soul needed.

 

I didn't buy anything in the pictures.

 

Nothing , nada. I did find some cool stuff but I can't seem to find it.

 

We arrived late on Tuesday night, I worked Wednesday and we are still not unpacked!

 

Oh well, things to do on the weekend! 

Smile

Oh in case you're wondering which Dutch Baby recipe I used here's the link :

 http://allrecipes.com/recipe/dutch-babies-ii/

 

An unknown Pyrex pattern from the archives.

 

I don't believe I've shared that one with you.

I saw it Maine in October.

 

Seeing it again made me smile.

And we all need to smile more!

 

Be well

Finally!

Finally!

I finally found the camera ansd downloaded some Maine pictures!

                               Sunrise over Saco Bay

                                Seagulls fishing

                               It was magical as usual. I love going to Maine late in the season, when it's not in season anymore. The hotels and motels are opened (most of them) and only a few restaurants and shops are opened.
                            The tourist factor is low and the locals come out.
                           

                                  I had plenty of opportunity to drink Pumpkin Pie Spice coffee! YUM!
                                   

 

                                  I was even able to find......

                                 
                                        Pumpkin beer! Pumpkinhead is delicious, smooth and spicy.
                                        The perfect drink for a Fall afternoon; after you raked all those leaves!

                                       But most of all we chilled out, did the usual: Shop,eat,walk,sleep,walk,eat,
                                       sleep,eat,shop,walk,walk,shop again,sleep...and then it was time to go home
                                       again.

                                       We scored great deals at the outlets....Why would anyone buy full price running shoes in Canada? This always fascinates me, here it's $120-$150 and in the U.S outlets you can get the same pair for $50-$75.
                                       Are the taxes this high???

                                      I thrifted but didn't buy a whole lot...and I still haven't got pics of my finds....
                                     
                                      It's getting late and my brain is mush....

                                       Night night my friends!

Aaaaahhhhh! The weekend!

Today we had a very productive day!

A quick trip to the hairdresser, a touch of thrifting, we rented a carpet cleaning machine, the balance of the living room baseboard got painted, the hall got a big declutter, the heat registers got a good cleaning, we changed a curtain rod and many other tid bits were taken care of.....and I'm fighting a little cold.

Did I mention I made homemade chicken broth? and veggie soup too?

Here's what I harvested last night, we had a real hot and humid summer with periods of drought and big buckets of rain but the overall harvest is dismal. I thank God that we have other means to feed ourselves, otherwise we would have been skinny and mal-nourished.

The cukes are doing great we had about 20 so far, the green beans, shish....and to my great surprise we have oodles of cherry tomatoes. The italian tomato is a rogue, i didn't planted, it probably came from  the compost pile.

On thursday I went thrifting to Renaissance in Verdun, and I spotted this. This is a fairly rare JAJ Pyrex gravy boat, I was totally in awe. And it was just .99 cents! I forced myself to leave it there because it had 2 big chips on the base. Maybe next time! But I did get plenty of pictures for future FTW? Tuesday!

After all that hard work, I needed a break! So around 5pm I sneaked outside to enjoy the fading day....

 A cold one, one of my fave magazine and my latest Pyrex find!

 I found The Cracker Barrel and in very good condition. I'm guessing that it originally came with a plastic insert to make it more air tight as with the Stack'n'See storage containers because no way will this canister keep your crackers dry! And I hate a soggy cracker!

 However you have a tip on the side of the container.....If you want crisper crackers you can shove the crackers with the glass container in the stove minus the lid of course!

For supper we had grilled steak with Cow Bell Hell rub (from Maine), mushroom barley risotto and field tomatoes (from my CSA basket) 

The temperature has been very cold in the last few days and I'm worried my swimming days will be over soon, rats! I hope to take a dip or 2 tomorrow in between chores. Well they're not realy chores. I see it as TCB or taking care of business. You do what you have to do. Winter is coming so we must prepare!

Square Eggs and Funky Shoes

We had a free breakfast at work today! You know how I love all things free!!!

Well let's just say I was quite surprised with what they served us.....

Bacon (delicious), home fries (ok), crescent rolls(delicious) but I'm still surprised at that square of yellow matter they called eggs! It reminded me of creme caramel but way less tasty. Let's just say that it wasn't a big favorite. I had to be discreet in taking the pic; my new co-workers are not aware of my bloggy ways....And I can be not a lot of them have vintage thingies in their homes!

I wanted to share my shoes. I was worried they would be totally out of style, but no. I got those in 2002 or 2003 in the Nine West outlet in Freeport Maine.

I love the faux croc effect.

I was plaisantly surprised to find some whoopie pies in one of our local supermarkets (IGA), only here in Québec they call them Yoyos. I didn't buy any, I didn't want to be disappointed. I tasted some amazing ones in; you guessed it : Maine! LOL

What can I say; I love this state! Unfortunately Maine is not in the cards this summer....However a long weekend is already in the cards in New Hampshire! Hampton beach here we come! In a couple of months....

Still very slow on the thrifting front (sad face).

Have a nice evening!

Yes we brought a shovel

Tuesday morning at the customs, the agent asked us to open the trunk. He leaned in and we just heard a big guffaw and is that a shovel? Yep we brought a shovel on vacation along with some traction aids, long johns and ski goggles.

We used the later on a walk we took yesterday and I took those pics...

The bowl I found in Oxford at a deep discount. I paid 5.88$ (tax included)

Now zoom out

I was able to take a pic of the sea

This small house litterally hangs on the cliff. Scary! I would never buy a house like that, I'm too much of a scaredy cat!

Wind and snow.

I had a nice surprise in the room. The kitchen cupboards were fully stocked with Butterfly Gold! Not just the gravy boat and the cream and sugar but full place settings and veggie bowls and service plates.

The nice big and very clean room, I still miss my own comfy bed and kitty cats!

We just might use the shovel today to dig the car our for we are going to the fleas!

The sun is shinning :)