Oodles and oodles

Something else for the giveaway

There was only one thing  I wanted at the auction I went to Saturday: a dilapidated cardboard chest filled with sewing stuff. Most of it was junk. But there was one thing in it I really wanted.



This fabric was in the chest. But that's not the one thing I wanted.



I like the fabric a lot, though. The prints are great. And I love that herringbone seersucker.



The needlepoint couple, stitched but never finished, are kind of cute. But that's not what I wanted, either.



The kiddie apron? I love the kiddie apron. But I didn't realize it was in the chest until after I bought it. Nope, what I wanted was this:



I wanted these buttons. In the worst kind of way I wanted these buttons. I've never seen this many in one spot.



There are red buttons, neatly strung.



And red buttons whose string broke.



Earth-tone buttons.



My favorite shade of green buttons.



And pastel buttons. The pink flower buttons make me very, very happy. Why do you suppose anybody had this many buttons? (And will someone be asking that about me some day?) Anyway, I've got lots of buttons now. Plenty to share. So let's figure on some buttons in that giveaway, too.

Today's word, and a giveaway

I know, I used this photo earlier this week. I need it to illustrate today's word. Besides, you guys will pretty much tolerate anything once you see the word "giveaway," won't you?

Before we get to today's word, much less the giveaway, I need you to help me out. I'm starting a new collection. One that, for a change, won't cost anything or clutter up my house. It's my new collection of misspelled words that appear in yard sale and auction ads. When you find them, can you report in? If my local advertisements are any indication, I think we will have quite an impressive collection by the end of the season. On to today's word:

aphgan

You know, aphgan. That crocheted thing in the picture. Somebody was advertising one in their yard sale listing this week.  I chose it out of all the other misspellings I saw because of the effort that went into it. I mean, you could kinda understand how somebody might use an "f" instead of a "ph." But to use a "ph" instead of an "f" - that takes effort and deliberation. You can just see the furrowed eyebrows as the person bends over their work: "Hmmm, I know it's kind of a funny looking word, and there's an "h" in there somewhere" - and then the little light bulb fires off over their head, and they think they've nailed it. Aphgan.

Much as I like this word, it pales in comparison to my all-time favorite sale misspelling. Somebody was selling a Louie Baton bag. I really puzzled over this one. I thought they might be selling a long, skinny case for a majorette. And maybe Louie was a company well-known to majorettes. And then the little light bulb fired off over my head. Louis Vuitton. They were selling a Louis Vuitton bag.

OK, here's the giveaway. I'm coming up on my 100th post, and tradition dictates that I need to give something away to celebrate this. Which I'm happy to do. So I'm thinking of digging into my stash of vintage fabric and notions and putting together a pretty little package. Just leave a comment over the next week; I'll let you know when I'm closing it off. The package will be light, so I'm happy to send it to the UK or Australia or the Netherlands (hi, LiLi!) or wherever. It would be fabulous if your comment provided a misspelling for our dictionary, but it doesn't have to.

I leave you with my favorite misspelling of all time, which appeared not in an ad but at our local grocery store. The store wants us to use tongs instead of our hands to pick up bagels. But the sign over the bagels said: "Please use tongues to pick up bagels."

I leave you with that image as I head off to some sales and look for aphgans.

Friday finds

These were my favorite finds from Friday's yard sales.

These are the kinds of things that necessitate rearranging a shelf, which leads to rearranging several shelves, which leads to rearranging the entire kitchen.

Which was what I planned on doing after I found them. But then I went to another sale and got something I have wanted for years. But I have to fix it up a bit before I show you. So that's what I'm going to do. And then I'll tackle the kitchen.

Blue beauties

The only thing as pretty as the bluebirds living in this house ...



are their tiny, perfect eggs.



The baby bluebird watch begins!

Cute stuff

 

The yard sale season has been pretty dreadful so far, but I did go to a fun little sale Friday. My new-found interest (great, because I needed another one) in tiny teacups led me to these, which are too cute for words. The black teapot thing behind it is a napkin holder, which I bought largely because of its 10-cent price tag, but the more I look at it, the more I like it.



This candleholder was another 10-cent find. I would like my nearly nonexistent vintage Easter collection to keep pace with my splendiferous vintage Christmas collection, which is going to be tough. Christmas got a big head start, AND I found some more Christmas stuff at this sale. In fact, I bought something I had never seen before, and something that shot right onto my Top 10 All-Time Favorite Christmas Items list. Are you ready?

 

A vintage reindeer nodder! Or a bobblehead, if you prefer. This really is worth posting a video for, because he is just too funny nodding his head up and down. But it is twice as funny when ...



he and his bobblehead buddy both start nodding! Yes! A pair! And they came home with a pair of ...



bottle-brush trees! I am hoping this is the year I achieve my goal of becoming the world's foremost collector of bottle-brush trees. I adore them. One of the little old ladies running the sale said I could have the pair of trees for a dollar. But the little old lady running the checkout rolled her eyes when I told her that. She said that was too much and charged me 50 cents.



This was in the freebie box. They're having the second part of their sale Friday. I think I'll go.

A milestone

  
Memorial Day has an additional significance in our family. We got our dog, Carson, on Memorial Day. Monday was our third dogiversary. Carson thinks every day is a holiday. We think that it's important to be loving but firm.



For example, we would never let him get up on the back of the couch to watch TV.



Or snuggle under a blanket.



He has his own crate and blanket, so there is never any need for him to sleep on our bed.



We expect good behavior outdoors, too. He is not allowed anywhere near a garden.



Especially the flower bed.

 

Yes, I'm talking to you. Out of the flower bed!




Oh, don't cry! You can stay. Happy dogiversary, sweet puppy!

Our little town celebrates Memorial Day

 
 

Tea for two

Welcome to Show and Tell Sunday, the china and silver edition, hosted by Analise and Cerri. My house is not one where you'll find matching service for 12.



But tea for two? That we can do. The toast tray, bird napkin ring and silver sugar tongs all were yard sale finds.



The teacup was a gift from a friend who was moving away.



And this one was a gift from a friend who was de-cluttering.



Hope she de-clutters again soon.



The plates peeking out from underneath the saucer came from Nanny, my great-grandmother.



More pieces from Nanny.



Any silver I own is the kind I find at a yard sale. This was a lucky find - 12 monogrammed spoons, and the right monogram.



A few of my butter knives match, too. (Any tarnish you see is a figment of your imagination.)



But mismatched and loved before more often than not is what you'll find at my house.

Tagged

My pal Susan (who claims not to have buried anyone in her backyard - scroll down through her photos and you decide) has tagged me, so here goes. The reason there's a picture of a cake will soon become obvious.

1. What was I doing ten years ago?

I was living where I do now with the same people I do now, but two of them were much, much smaller.  My daughter was 4, my son was about to turn 7, and I had just talked my bosses into letting me work part-time instead of full-time, thus preserving my sanity for at least a few more years.

2. Five things on my to-do list today:

Get my snow tires off the car. Pick up my son from his golf match. List some stuff on Etsy. Clean. Bake a birthday cake for my daughter! Here it comes again (devil's food with seven-minute icing and unsweetened chocolate drizzles...mmmmmm)

 

3.Five snacks I enjoy:

It would be much easier for me to list five foods I don't like (if I could even come up with that many) because I love every kind of snack. Especially if it's not particularly good for me. Especially if it's 10 o'clock at night. Especially salt and pepper potato chips if I want something salty,  M & Ms if I want something sweet. Both of which I happen to have. Be right back.

4. Things I would do if I was a billionaire:

I thought about this way too much. Give most of it away, most of it to projects in Kenya, where we sponsor a little girl, Beatrice.  Buy my home town in Pennsylvania, restore all the old houses and turn the town square back to the way it was when my parents were growing up. Give money to the animal shelter in Nebraska where our dog was born. (He's seen more of the country than I have.) Take care of my family. Buy a thatched cottage in England. Get a massage. This really sounds like so much fun. I really want a billion dollars now.

5. Five places I have lived:

Fredonia, Pennsylvania; Edinboro, Pennsylvania; Manchester, New Hampshire; Clayton, New York; Skaneateles, New York



I really, really, really wanted to post the incredibly cute picture I took of my incredibly cute daughter here, but she didn't like the idea so much. And it is her birthday.

I'm passing this tag along to Gail at Crafty Little Beana, Linda at My Vintage Soul (who I was sitting next to at work 10 years ago!), Lindsey and Twyla at Two Crazy Crafters and I hope two more people whose names may appear here shortly.

Little shop of oddities

Every few weeks I stop in a little shop that's off the beaten track and open only a few hours on weekends. The sign out front says "Flea Market," but really it isn't.  It isn't a thrift store, or an antique store. It's more like an odds and ends store. These are paper placemats that you're supposed to put under your flower pots. A mere 50 cents for a box full of them. I've never seen them anywhere but in this little shop of oddities.



These made me laugh. Check out the Executive Action Labels inside this box.



I'm going to try sticking them on notes I leave for my kids. That'll get them moving!



I love old office supplies. I also love the shade of green on these labels. Need some? I've got, like, a million of them now.



Itty-bitty clothespins (they're maybe an inch long) with little doo-dads on them. Irresistible. How the couple that runs this store makes any money is a mystery to me. I see them all the time at yard sales, driving an ancient station wagon that must get 7 miles to the gallon. Then they take everything back to the store and wash it up and sell it for 10 cents or a quarter. It takes a lot of itty-bitty clothespin sales to pay the rent and light bill.



Pretty vintage playing cards. I have a hard time finding nice horse ephemera. My daughter's world revolves around horses and her horse friends, so these will be put to good use, I'm sure.



My favorite find there: millinery fruit. Too cute. Who was the dame with the big hat full of fruit? Carmen Miranda?



More fruit. Did Carmen Miranda do anything other than wear a big hat full of fruit? Not that it matters. But I can now make my own miniature version of her hat, should I choose to do so, thanks to the little odds and ends shop.