So thankful for all who serve(d) our country....THANK YOU

I like finding things in 'bunches', always have, always will~~~~~

Did some shopping today....didn't find a lot but what I did find?

I absolutely love....like this stack of vintage and chippy tea trays in the most luscious colors.....

I found these in one of my very favorite...shhh, secret little stores that I can't share with anyone because if I did, well we all know how that saying ends.
She had just set them out on the counter so I thought I would do her a huge favor and free up her counter space for her. Nice of me, don't you think?
Seriously I think there are about 25 or so of these trays...now listed in my Etsy shop.

I also found these fantastic very old and again, chippy, red garden stakes......also available in my Etsy shop.
It's a holiday weekend so I'm not sure I'll be listing anymore but never say never.
~~~~Happy gardening and Happy tea parties~~~~

Like my new "kicks"?

Today our power was turned off at promptly 8:00 am and wasn't turned back on until 3:00 pm. No, not because we didn't pay our bill but because our power company was doing "tree work" in our neighborhood...so all I could do was take my dd to lunch and shop.....darn it!
I saw these cuties at DSW shoes on the clearance rack and thought they'd be the perfect shoe for Summer.

What do you think? With a pair of cuffed jeans and a white flowy top? These will be my beach shoes for sure....when I'm not wearing flip flops that is.
The original laces were a bright pink crochet lace and so I switched them out for these tea dyed ones that I made.
I think I may even go lighter eventually with an off white crochet lace.
Anyway, not bad for under $30 clams, right?
They also had them in a purple color....hmmm, may have to go back!

What I like is odd........

very odd, like this old wooden time card holder. It was in a local antique mall and I let my dd know quite some time ago how very smitten I was with it. 

So every time I went to this mall I'd peek in and see if it still was there....it always was. But being a bit out of my price range I just wrote it off.

I dug these grungy old cards out of it as best I could.

You see, I was gifted this beauty for Mother's Day. As it sat in front of me folded up I had no idea on earth what it was. It looked like a huge wooden slab. It weighs about 20lbs.

I can't think of a better way to display my favorite little pieces of ephemera and pretty cards than on this. Aren't the numbers cool?

This monster is 3 feet tall....now to find a place to display it....wish me luck?

I'm crushin' on this china pattern~~~~~~~~!

While on our coast vacation last year I found this huge platter at my favorite antique store in Gearhart, Yankee Trader. I fell completely head over heels in love with it which I don't normally do with china....but this pattern is special.

I love the pink rose clusters, the delicate branches, and of course, the bluebirds! I vowed to look for more. The thing is, even though this is marked on the bottom this particular manufacturer isn't that easy to figure out. It has become my fun challenge to find more pieces of this and yesterday, on Etsy of all places, I found the piece below!

Can you stand it? Can you believe how lucky I was to find this?
And it's even here in Oregon, shipping to me today.....I'm so thrilled. It's my early Mother's Day gift to myself.

On another note, I spent my afternoon yesterday making cheese enchiladas and homemade refried beans. See, my sweet MIL is from Texas and we're heading up to see her on Saturday to celebrate Mother's Day with her a day early. So she doesn't have to cook I'm bringing the food and since she's a Texan through and through she loves her mexican food! My SIL (thanks so much Heather for the tip!) told me that she loves cheese enchiladas.
I made my own enchilada sauce from scratch and it is yummy and super easy to make and oh-so-much-better than that canned stuff from the market! Trust me on that! Then I made the refried beans from scratch as well. Heavenly, they are......no comparison there either as to taste with the store bought.
Hmmmm, what can I make today?
If you'd like to know where I found my recipes I'm happy to share.
http://www.cooking-mexican-recipes.com/index.html

Estate sale heaven? I went back twice.......

Last friday I hit an estate sale...it started at 1:00 and by the time I got there it had already begun and there were about 15 people in line in front of me......it was o.k., a beautiful day to be outside.
This was a smaller, older home that proved to be one of a 'hoarder'.  Lucky me!!!!!
Doll head, tiny pincushion, glass shaker, rare card game, tart tins, antique powder box, Flinch card game, antique velvet jewelry case, large laundry or locker pins.

Huge floral serving bowl, I bought a smaller one too that I forgot to photograph.

Lots of ephemera, I especially love the Night Before Christmas booklet.

2 old composition notebooks, the blue one someone used as a recipe book.

Fabulous old hymn books.

Humongous bound magazines from the 1800's.
This heavy book is 16 inches tall.

Anyone need an antique Bible?

The amount of books in this little house was astounding.

I was in hog heaven with all these books.

So I came to this sale totally unprepared and within moments my hands were full.....a nice man offered to start a pile for me and then gave me a basket.....hmmm, he must have known that I'd find a ton more. He was right.
I had to make 3 trips out to my car and then I went back the next day for more.
Note to self.....must attend more estate sales.....:)

Thanks to those who added helpful comments about my blog. For some reason all of my sidebar had disappeared so I couldn't see anyone's blog.....weird, now it's back thankfully.
Hope you all have a great week, don't forget to check out my etsy as I add these goodies to my shop!!!!!!

Just when I wanted to ramp up my blog......

Blogger goes all wacko on me.......I'm growing tired of blogger....not sure when I'll be back.
I can't seem to access my blog when I want to so I'm exploring another platform to host my blog on.
Hopefully see you soon.