For The Birds. . . .

This past weekend, Howard and I tootled around New Jersey, picking up a few items I found on Craigslist.

In Bergen County, we got the Wedgwood vase I featured in Monday's post ($4!).
At the same house we got a little table that is destined to be transformed
from just plain shabby, to chic. Glamorous, even.
We also got a half-dozen little dishes. Bowls. Plates. Whatever.

They have birds on them. I love birds.

I think these fellas look rather 50s, maybe 60s. No backstamp.

We paid $6 for all six plates/dishes/whatevers.
They are a little shallow to be bowls, but a little deep to be plates.

What will they hold?
I see a baked apple sitting in a nice little pool of caramel drizzle.
Or Strawberry Shortcake, with real biscuit as the base.
Ice cream is always appropriate, with a nice Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie on the side.
(We just got our Girl Scout cookies yesterday.)

All the little birds are identified.
By their real names, not like "Moe" or "Frances."

There are a few repeats of individual birds, but no repeats of combinations;
every plate/dish/bowl thingy is different.

Yeah, I know. Hard not to make a wisecrack, isn't it?

There are an awful lot of birds that share this odd moniker.
Which ornithologist had the wacky sense of humor?

The bowl/dish/plate edges are thickly painted with gold.

And that's my Show & Tell for Friday.
Go visit Cindy at My Romantic Home for more domestic exhibitionism!
Click on highlighted words, or on logo, below.

(And come back Monday for that little table transformation. Va-va-va-VOOM!) -- Cass

A Welcome Fall Party -- Darn It

Yes, it galls me, but I have to bow to the calendar. It really is Fall now. I'm waving the white flag of Summer Surrender, and celebrating the good in this Season. Blast.

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(New Jersey) - Pumpkin Garland Runs Amuck - Tries to Strangle Dime Store Scarecrow!

In Monday's post, I asked your opinion about draping a garland of teeny pumpkins and squash over our fireplace mantel as part of the new Fall decorations. (Click here.)

The little punkin chain lost the informal poll.

I agree; they just didn't look quite right dangling in front of the mantelpiece. I tried swagging them up in the middle, but no. . . still not quite right.

So today we'll see if they can fit in anywhere else, as That Old House joins
Rhondi's Welcome Fall party at her Rose Colored Glasses blog.


I'll be using Three Or More things I found in the house to decorate my pie safe;
how's that for fitting into Tam's Three Or More Tuesday party at The Gypsy's Corner?

Click on any of the highlighted words, or the icons, to visit these parties
and these two lovely blogs and see what other folks are featuring today.

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The pie safe in the conservatory began life probably in the mid 19th century, homemade by someone with more need than time; it is not finely done. But I'm sure it saw good use in someone's kitchen, keeping varmints out of the food.

It was my Mom's; I brought it here two weeks ago. (Click here.)

My husband believes it will be filled with pies; he has a rich fantasy life.

To celebrate this brand new season, I began with early apples

from a New Jersey orchard, on a white platter I got at a thrift shop this summer.

Added a plum-and-pewter candleholder, a gift from my friend Betsy.

I love the reds and golds and oranges of autumn,

but I like to also bring in that rich plum of fallen leaves and ripe fruit.

An old vanity jar full of sedum blossoms, plucked from the border.

And a little old pitcher, an Ebay score.

There. I like it.

Let's add a goofy scarecrow

and a bittersweet wreath balanced on the windowsill.

That window is at the foot of our back stairs and gives light from the sunroom onto the landing.

For Halloween, a little stack of Jack'O'Lanterns would be nice.

Oh my.
Look who showed up.
The scarecrow doesn't look pleased.

Sorry, fellas. You don't belong here either. . .

Nor here.

Nor here.

Nor here.

This could get old.

OK. You can stay on the cupboard until your father gets home
and we decide what to do with you.

I wanted to use that pumpkin tureen, way up there on top of the kitchen cupboard.

It's one of my favorite things, but it's too much trouble to wrestle it down and I'm afraid of dropping it on the tile floor. I'll wait till Howard gets home. He won't need to stand on a chair. I hate to stand on chairs.


Our grapes are ready.
We've been harvesting them over the last couple of days. My dad helped on Sunday, but he ate as many as he put in the bucket. I'm going to make Grape Jam, friends. Stay tuned. I don't promise success!


Tomorrow -- I am featuring some wonderful things I won in two giveaways, and am delighted to show off to you. Please come back! -- Cass

fun like tourists

Photos by Neil!

Pastel Plaid Drop Waist Dress - Thrifted

Cut Out Heels, Rose Tights - Urban Outfitters

Lace Hair Clip - Handmade

Yesterday was our Nashville tourist day! We hit downtown, making stops at Ernest Tubb's Record Store, the best coffee and ice cream shop, and Gruhn Guitars. Later in the night, we ate pizza at Mafiaoza's, where we were waited on by Salome of Make Me A Supermodel! That show was a cheesy addiction of mine this past winter. What a crazy world we live in!

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

nashville's shady thrift row

I've heard rumors of seedy thrift stores in Nashville, but for some reason I could only find nice vintage shops like Local Honey and a Goodwill or two.. until now. This weekend, I received some tips from a cool Nashville friend on where some hole in the wall thrift stores were hiding. 

So, after watching (500) Days of Summer with Mom (which was fantastic, by the way! and not just because Zooey Deschanel is adorable and wears cute blue clothes throughout the film), my friend Zach and I went to about five different thrift shops, all nestled between Mexican grocery markets and adult video stores.

Here are a few of my finds. Lately, it seems all of my luck has been lurking in the children's section. Little girls always have the cutest, fanciest dresses, and today I found some lovely ones! I also found 70s sandals in wonderful condition and a touristy straw bag, as well as some other dresses and a couple bright 80s blazers I'm tempted to try out.

My latest lookouts? Definitely plaid jumpers and drop waist dresses. I've never been so into drop waists until the dress I found just this past week at Goodwill, which I can't wait to wear, and now the girly polka dot dress above. Good vintage slouchy boots? Although who knows when I'll be able to find some.. they will give an edge to all of the femininity I've been baring lately. Velvet is a new thing for me. Fur is also new.. never liked it before, but I recently bought an H&M cardigan with a fur collar. Wearing the cardigan makes me feel 40 years older in the best way. Half glamorous, half bohemian. As for pastels, florals, and puffy sleeves, well, they'll be around for awhile.

Friends are over! I'm currently living in a house filled with guys. We're hitting Nashville like tourists tomorrow, hopefully heading towards a great ice cream shop downtown. What's better than a mocha? A mocha with ice cream, of course. And it's burger week! Bison burgers today, classic cheeseburgers tomorrow.

One girl, four men.. I can live with this. At least until Friday.

300 mph finger breaking, no answers making, battered dirty hands, bee stung and busted up, empty cup torrential outpour blues

Photos by Rhi!

Red, white and blue dress - gift from Rhi, thrift

White 80s flats - thrift

Bow headband, floral ring - Forever21

Well, Neil and I are officially Nashville residents! We moved in on Monday, and as soon as we were there I called an internet provider. As it turns out, they aren't free for an appointment until a week from today. Nine days without internet. I've been hurting without this life-giving connection in front of me. Thank the Lord for coffee shops.

It has been a hectic beginning. We jumped into work and after full 8 hour days, we haven't made a lot of progress with unpacking. It has been fun, and crazy, and fun. Our Darth Vader bust is sitting quietly in our new living room next to a nice 70s burlap lamp I found at an Illinois antique store. And the bathroom and kitchen are put together. That is about it. It will be a wonderful day when every item is put in its proper position and I have a good one hour to take pictures of it all. You will definitely be seeing the finished product.. just give us three weeks and 200 gallons of coffee. Each.

These pictures were taken at my grandparent's house during the rainstorm.. the one that flooded my grandma's garden, the one Rhi, Drew and I narrowly missed during the drive. Even though the light was patchy, Rhiannon managed to take some lovely photos, and I had to show them off here. Thank you, awesome sister!

happy weekend!

Photos by Neil!

Floral skirt - thrift (cut a little girl's dress in half, made a crop jacket and long skirt out of it)

Sunglasses, purse - Urban Outfitters

Gray tank top - Banana Republic

70s heels - thrift

Floral felt and lace hair pin - handmade

Rhi and Drew are here this weekend, so Rhi and I are about to go take pictures and do some thrift store shopping! Then, we'll be celebrating the 4th with lots of family, fireworks, and barbecue. I can't wait!

Happy Independence Day, all! And happy weekend to my overseas friends!

a loss in the family and flea market finds

First, thank you for all of your prayers, concerns, comments, and thoughts about my father-in-law! We visited him and were surprised at how healthy and energetic he seemed - he was himself, 100%. What a blessing! The doctors still haven't figured out what caused the hemorrhage.. but it doesn't look serious, and it isn't stroke-related. They would still like to keep him for a few more days to run more tests, though.

Yesterday started off really well. On our way to visit Doug in St Louis, we made a stop at the Tennessee Flea Market and after finding booth after booth of socks (yes. just cheap, white socks) and medicine bins, we got to Shed 4 - which had a lot of great stuff. 

(My outfit is comprised of a headband my sister made me, as well as thrifted gifts - including the high waist skirt from a college friend - one of my favorites. It was originally a beautiful ivory color until I spilled chocolate on it and had to dye it something different! I like the salmon pink now.)

The absolute highlight of the flea market was a vintage clothing booth run by this lovely lady, Aria (blog here!). Wow, her stuff was just what I was looking for.. well priced and lots to choose from (including these adorable Italian heels, size 4.. if only my feet were a little bit smaller).

Keep an eye out for Aria, she has plans to start a vintage store in the Nashville area soon! 

I picked up several purses (eel skin clutch, bohemian bags) as well as belts and a couple dresses.. I also found this great orange terry jumper from Aria's booth which (of course) I wanted to wear right away.

We also found an old Brownie Hawkeye Flash camera from the 1950s at a different booth.. it is beautiful. We intend on using it for decoration but if we can get our hands on some film, we might put it to good use! I recently looked up some photos taken with our camera model and the prints have a great vintage look to them.

Yesterday took a turn for the worse when I found out my dog Scarlet died. She's been in our family for 14 years now and while we knew it would happen just because she was getting older and had arthritic problems, it didn't make the death any easier. Coming back from our trip, the house feels a bit empty.. I keep expecting the sound of her nails on the hardwood floors, but it's quiet.

It was hard to visit Doug while feeling sad about Scarlet. He is having serious health problems, so why should I bother Neil's family about my dog? I felt it was important to keep my sadness in, which of course just made me feel even more isolated. Keeping your emotions in is a terrible idea and I learned my lesson. Humans aren't programmed to solve problems on their own.

Now that it's been a day, it feels a little better, although it'll take awhile for it to be real to me. It also helps talking to my parents and Neil about it, and also that my sisters are coming to Tennessee this week. Having everyone home will definitely make things easier! We can reminisce about growing up with Scarlet and maybe even dig up some old family videos.