Weekend Happenings and Flea Market Finds

Whew! What a weekend!  Friday afternoon my computer locked up.  I did the usual unplug, remove battery, reboot, but it wasn't rebooting properly. My DH got up early on Saturday to start working on it.  He installed Windows 7 and was able to save all of my data (except my e-mails)!  Yea!  I'm so glad he knows what he is doing as I have very little computer knowledge.  And it was just last week that my friends and I were talking about technology and I commented on how I do not store any of my business records on the computer.  This week is a perfect example of WHY.  I quickly vowed to print hard copies of anything really important if I could just get my documents back.  And truth be told, I probably will. 
But I do rely on my computer for many other things.  It's become my social link to the outside world.   It greets me in the morning with it's happy little "ding-dong" sound when I power it up, and it sits quietly on my desk like a friend who is there whenever I need help.  Sometimes it helps me to spell words like antidisestablishmentarianism or rutabaga.  It shares recipes with me and helps me to find other people out in the world with similar interests.  My computer is a friend who has sat non-judgmentally as I've typed out my vents and frustrations on it's keyboard just to see them in black and white only to delete them later, knowing it will never tell others how ticked off or frustrated I was with a situation.  I've become quite attached to it.  You know the common phrase, "you don't know what you've got until it's gone".  That's how I felt about my computer yesterday.  I'd zip into the kitchen to quickly check facebook, or turn on some happy music, but would turn to see my computer not there. 

I heard someone once say it takes 60 days to rid yourself of a bad habit.  I went through one day without my computer and it was quite bothersome.  I don't think I'd want to go 60 days without it.  I could do it, mind you, I just wouldn't want to.

Because of my computer and my all-around blue mood Saturday morning, I did not go to my Small Catechism class.  I should have, as it might have cheered me up a bit, but I just couldn't open the door to leave.  I was all ready, showered, hair done, books in hand...just couldn't force myself to go.   I sometimes wish there was a pill one could take for shyness. 

After I knew my computer was going to be okay, I perked up a bit and remembered that Autumn wanted to go to the flea market.  We found a couple of good deals.

Autumn picked up a dozen knitting needles (nice one's too) for only $1.  She wants to go with me next Saturday to my crochet and knitting group to learn to knit.

I picked up this cool little book, Yesterday's Kids written by Bob Nesbit, a man remembering his childhood in small town North Dakota during the 20's and 30's.  Autumn and I have started reading it and we like it. 

I picked up a Nesbitt's Orange Bottle with the cap for $3.50 which is a steal.  Apparently I had a thing for the Nesbitts that day.  (see authors name above).

I've wanted a Nesbitt's bottle ever since I saw this old sign on the Ghosts of North Dakota website in the town of Regan.  There is just something interesting about this sign...I don't know who took the photo but I thank them whomever they may be.  Here is a link to Ghosts of North Dakota.  It's a fantastic site about ghost towns in ND.  http://ghostsofnorthdakota.com/

I also picked up this cut little tin.  It used to hold something called cotter pins (whatever they are). I think they might have something to do with engines or automobiles?  One can never have too many cute little tins so I picked it up for a whopping 50 cents. 

What makes this little tin so darn cool is all the writing on the lid. 

Apparently this is a cotter pin.  There is one on the lid if you look closely through the words Hammer Lock.

Autumn and I each had a hot dog from the Timboe family's snack cart which is always kind of fun.  They run the flea and are always so nice.  They also own the antique store downtown that Autumn and I like to visit to look for old magazines and books. 

Have A Happy Week!

Kitchen Curtains

I find it funny that I can be going along quite contently, not thinking too much about what I don't have, then I'll see something on someone else's blog and and say to myself, "If only I could have that" or "Maybe I could do that." 
Clear as mud, right?  Thought so.
Let me explain.
It all started when I found this page of Welcome to Deluxeville's Blog
http://welcometodeluxeville.blogspot.com/2010/07/old-and-new.html
and I saw her kitchen.

I love her kitchen.  And this picture was taken before she got her gray, boomerang Formica counter top!

The number one thing that makes her kitchen way more vintage than mine is her white cupboards, which were dark, but she painted them.  My cupboards are an orangish brown and I do not like them.  Now, that may sound petty, and I know there are bigger issues to be thinking about than what color my cupboards are.  Please do not get me wrong, I appreciate what I have.  I know there are many who have much less than I do in the way of kitchen cupboards.  But, I find that if I don't dream every once in a while life gets mighty boring, and the fact is, we are going to be living in this house for a very long time and darn-it, if I've gotta live with it then I want it the way I want it!  Plus Darling Husband gets the livingroom for his "man-cave" home theater and said the kitchen is all mine (decorating wise). 
The more searching I do on the Internet, the more I find out that VINTAGE style kitchens almost always have one thing in common!  White woodwork and white cupboards.

Example #1  Here's a vintage kitchen, oh, and look at that...white cupboards.

 

Example #2 White woodwork and cupboards with turquoise.  NICE!

Example #3  One of my ABSOLUTE favorites!

Example #4  Another Favorite.

And here are my kitchen cupboards.  Is anyone else singing, "One of these things is not like the others, which one is different, do you know?"   It just seems so dark.  Dark cupboards, dark blue walls, dark black countertops.

The other thing I enjoyed looking at in Miss Deluxeville's kitchen was her curtains!  Now, my curtains (see above picture) are dull and boring.  I made them out of kitchen towels and....well, I think I should stick to making tea towels, not curtains. So this week I've had curtains on the brain.  I can see the exact curtains I want in my head, but nothing seems to exist.  I want vintage looking curtains made out of the same material as vintage tablecloths.  The primary colors of the fruit should go with my dark blue walls.

This is EXACTLY what I am looking for!  It is on Etsy and I do hope my DH will buy it for me.  Oh the possibilities with this one!  Although, the more I look at it, the more faded it seems to look.  They are more pastel than primary colors.

I could add some fruity chalk ware to my walls...eh, maybe not.

I can just hear my mother saying, "oh yuck, not those ugly things."  This is a picture from I Love Collecting's Blog.  Nice collection!

But I do have my little fruit containers that would match fruity curtains.

These pretty, yellow bark cloth towels would make cute curtains.  But I can't seem to find anything like them for sale.

This is a perfect example of what I'd like to do.  But I have one medium sized window above my sink and a large sliding glass door that needs a matching valence.  I'd never be able to find enough matching tea towels!

Here is another cute example. I wish I could remember which blog I found these on.  By using the little gold clip rings, there is no damage done to the actual towels.

In the picture below, I moved my laundry room curtains into the kitchen.  I found that I don't care for bright white curtains in the kitchen.  That's a good thing to know as I move forward, I suppose.  These curtains quickly made their way back into the laundry room where they will stay.

It's tough to match my dark blue walls with any kind of blue fabric, so if I don't get a multicolored fruit mixture, I might have to go with something in more of a burgundy red.  But I've been collecting yellow vintage, not red.  sigh.  This will be a good lesson in creating what I want to see (a vintage kitchen) using what I have, the way it is.

Maybe I'm over thinking this.  After all they are just curtains, cupboards and walls. LOL.  But it has made for a good distraction throughout this long, winter week. 

Here's an afterthought...If we were to paint the cupboards an off white, we would also have to paint all of the trim, the doors, the wains coating, the trim on the ceiling...the list of woodwork in our kitchen is long.  Do we really want to do all that?
Here is someone who did and I love the transformation!
http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2011/08/finally-how-to-paint-cabinets-trim.html

This is Most Certainly True

Whew, what a fun weekend! 

I woke up bright and early Saturday and went to a Small Catechism class at Ebeneezer's Restaurant.  What a neat little Irish place that is!  It had been awhile since I'd eaten there.  Last year it was damaged during the flood, but they have done a wonderful job of re-doing the place with it's tin ceilings, lamps and mirrors.
We are studying this book with Pastor Pancoast as our leader.

The book is available at this website. http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/5185/Study-of-Luther-Small-Catechism-Participant

Here is a link to Luther's Small Catechism it if anyone in interested.  http://bookofconcord.org/smallcatechism.php

I've wanted to study the Small Catechism again for quite awhile now. Autumn will soon be in confirmation and I feel I should brush up a bit. 
I did study a little bit of the Small Catechism during my confirmation years in Jr. High, but that was a long time ago and to be honest, I was at that awkward age where Lutheranism meant very little to me.

My home church.  My father took this picture early in the morning.  The sun is shining right on the face of Jesus in the big stain glass window.

I remember disliking confirmation.  All I can remember of the Small Catechism during those days was the memorization.  I remember being so concered about getting it all memorized, that I think I lost what Luther was trying to teach us.  I'm not saying students shouldn't memorize it, I just think more emphasis should have been put on what the Small Catechism could mean for us in our everyday lives, through high school and college, no matter where life was going to take us.  Instead, it felt like something we had to "get through" section by section.  And do I still have any of it memorized? Nope.

So, why do I feel the need to participate in this particular Small Catecism study?  

Is it because of the good company?  No, even thought this group is a very cool, funny, and interesting group of people, that's not why I'm there.

Is it to win brownie points with God?  No

Do I feel my salvation hinges upon it?  No, because "There is nothing we can do". 
                                                                                         
Then why on earth do I get out of bed at the crack of 0-dark-hundred, on a Saturday morning, to go?

Because I want to learn it inside and out!  Luther's Small Catechism is the basic fundamentals of what Lutherans believe.  Every Lutheran should know it and know it well!  I want to be able to teach it with confidence to my daughter because I want her to know it well.  And I want someone to sit across the table from me and explain to me, in plain english, so that I understand it completely.  And I want to do all of this while eating hashbrowns, eggs and toast 'cause that's just how I roll.

Proof you can find a photo of just about anything on the internet!

Have a Happy Day!

The Elmer Project

Elmer by David McKee is a children's book about a very colorful, elephant.  So each year in the daycare the kids get to create their very own Elmer Elephants!  We have such a blast with glue, bits of paper, and crayons.  Next year we will use crayons, paint and sequins!  Fun Fun Fun!

Here are this year's beautiful Elmer Elephants ready to decorate the refrigerators at home

Here is Elmer and his cousin Wilbur where they sit in our "library".

Mini Bolts of Fabric

I'd thought I'd do a quick entry about my fabric storage.  The projects I do are usually quite small, therefore, I don't buy large quantities of fabric at a time.  Instead, I buy little fat quarters here and there and if I don't keep them all together I end up finding them everywhere!  So I did some digging on the internet and found the perfect solution from The Little Green Bean blog.  Here is the link:
http://maluukkonen.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-addiction.html
She uses little foam board pieces and wraps her fabrics around them to create mini bolts of fabric.
Here is how my mini fabric bolt project turned out.

I keep the mini bolts in an old photo storage box in one of my craft drawers.

Here is what the mini bolts look like.  It's so much easier to keep my little bits of fabric organized now that I've done this.  At a glance, I can see what I have.

Easter Egg Embroidery

I've been embroidering again!
After my Saturday morning of cleaning house, Autumn and I took a little walk downtown and visited Margie's, Dakota Antiques (looking for vintage Betsy Tacy books) and the fabric store.  I bought another fat quarter of the black and white fabric I love so much for my puppy dog tea towels.

Here's the fabric I just can't get enough of! It goes pretty well with the puppy dog pattern.  I wanted to make sure I had an extra fat quarter on hand in case they do not re-stock it after it's gone.  Bernina Plus has it in their 1930's vintage collection of fabrics.  They have the best 1930's vintage fabric selection in town! 

I also bought this peachy-orange colored fabric to go with my bunny tea-towel that's in progress (very slow progress).  I'm not sure it goes well with the bunny towel, but I like to use it with my kitty towels so it will get used eventually.

I was recently reminded that I had done these little embroidered Easter eggs a few years ago and I've decided to do a few more this year. Last year I painted blown-eggs for my family.  Not sure I want to do that again this year.

Painted Eggs from Easter last year.  Fun to do, but quite time consuming over my weekends.

This year I'm not really in the painting mood, so embroidered eggs with chicks inside are what everyone will be getting this year.  I still have to make the little yellow chicks that go inside, but here they are so far.

Here is the website I got the idea from.  http://april-makingendsmeet.blogspot.com/2008/03/spring-chick-and-easter-egg-tutorial.html

I made these three over the weekend so they really don't take that long at all!  It felt so good to be taking some time to embroider again after putting the floss away for awhile.  And these are small, simple and nice to work on while listening to Autumn practice piano, or during the winding-down time after supper.   Hopefully, I'll get enough done so I can give many away!

A Complete Day in Radio September 21, 1939

A 1939 Radio found on Radio Phil's Website.

This is a very interesting find.  On September 21, 1939 WJSV, a radio station in Washington DC recorded their entire broadcast day.  It's like going back in time for a whole day!  The day starts at 6:58AM and goes until 1:00AM. 
The morning starts with Arthur Godfrey, a disc jockey who had a very laid-back way of announcing.  I found it funny that while reading copy he'd just start singing some random line from a song!  He talked to his radio audience as if they were having morning coffee with him! 
Here is the link to the Complete Broadcast Day from '39...
http://www.archive.org/details/CompleteBroadcastDay
If you move down to #9 on the list you can hear President Roosevelt's speech to congress concerning "cash and carry" and how we must stay out of this war.  The speech took place at 2:00PM.  I hope to be able to sit down soon to listen to it, as I think it would be quite interesting. (it is very interesting!)
The history of that day happened in real time for the folks listening to their radios that day.  We see it differently because we know what came of that invasion.  We know that we later went to war and we know the outcome of that war.  I'm sure there's a fancy term for the word, but basically it's seeing things through different glasses.  Hindsight is always 20-20????  No, that's not really it, but I hope you know what I mean. 

There is also a National's baseball game and an episode of Amos and Andy. 

Arthur Godfrey

I listened to the Certified Magic Carpet show which was a quiz show.  Shows seemed to be only about 15 minutes long.  There are songs every once in a while, and "soaps" such as The Bachelor's Children and Hilltop House. Soaps were only 15 minutes long as well.  There are commercials mixed in between for products such as Wonderbread,  Old Dutch Cleanser, and Pomolive Soap.  There is also a gong that chimes before they announce the time. 

 I can just imagine as a mom, rushing my kids off to school, then listening to Certified Magic Carpet quiz show while I cleaned up the breakfast dishes.  That is if I had a radio in the kitchen.  I suppose most radios were in the livingroom, and who had time to sit and listen to the radio all day?  I suppose a gal would have to get her morning work done and then might rest for 15 minutes and catch her favorite "soap" or quiz show.

Here is a link about the role of radio soap operas in women's lives.
  http://www.otrcat.com/soap-opera-radio-shows.html#daysoapoperadied

I think about how quiet a housewives day must've been back then, especially if she didn't have children in the house.  NO television, NO computer, NO dishwasher humming (or if it's mine, roaring) in the background, there was only the radio to keep her company.  And maybe it's just me but old time radio seems more quiet than the radio we have today.  Old time radio is almost soothing.  But even with the radio, I think I still would've gotten lonely.  If I were a housewife back in the 30's and 40's I suppose I would've made it a point to get to know the other neighbor ladies around me and to talk to them over the back fence, or have them over for coffee and cake. 

I like this picture from Old Time Radio Catalog's website.  It shows ladies doing the dishes while listening to the radio.  Maybe it's 12:30 and they are washing the lunch dishes while listening to the "Road of Life". 

Oh how I wish there were more complete radio broadcasts.....wait, there is one more!
There is one from D-Day, June 6th, 1944.  It is mostly news but is ALSO very interesting!
http://www.archive.org/details/Complete_Broadcast_Day_D-Day

Enjoy some old time radio and as always, have a great day!

1943 Newspapers

So, back in 2006 my family (mostly my parents, my Uncle and I)  took a few consecutive weekends to clean out my Grandma Eva's house.  It had been decided that she would not be able to return home after she'd taken a fall on the ice earlier that winter.  Going through decades of memories was a difficult task for us all.  But we learned much.  We sold many items, but kept many things that we had personal connections to.  I will probably talk about them often. 
Anyways, one of the things we kept was Grandma's very antique ironing board (actually, I think I encouraged someone to keep it because it was so old and unique and my parents took it home to store as I had no room).  Well, this fall they took it apart and you wouldn't believe what they found!  Under the cover, the padding had worn so Grandma (or Grandpa) had placed newspaper under the cover.  The papers are The Williston Herald from May, June and July of 1943!  One is even from my birthdate in June!  They are so much fun to read through.

Here they are all together.  A treasure-trove of American History!!  Little snippets and snapshots of the everyday happenings of May 1943!  How cool is that?!

Each paper has this little sticker on the front page with my Grandfather's name on it.  Not sure what that was all about.  Was the newspaper put into their mailbox?  I always thought papers were delivered by paperboys who just blindly grabbed a paper and tossed it to whomever.  But these are labeled.

This is adorable!  Look at those cute little spice jars singing away.  I wonder what they are singing?

There were two whole pages of grocery store ads.  I'm thinking this was done every Thursday?  It's interesting that nowadays we have just a couple of the big supermarkets here in town but back then they had a number of smaller "mom and pop" grocery stores.  

If my map reading skills are correct, this grocery store was located where the American State Bank building now stands on Broadway.

 

"Read both figures for the biggest point values"---oh yeah, that's right, there was quite a bit of rationing going on in 1943.  Wow!  A 20lb box of apples for 1.89!  I pay more than that for 1 Lb of apples now-a-days.

"Oh wow! Look at that!" is exactly what I said when I saw this OLDER logo for Red Owl.  I think I got goosebumps!  Nerdy, I know.

Threw this one in so we can see what prices were like back then. 

And (this is cool) in each paper there is an offer for a dress pattern.  I would so wear this dress!  If I had a decent figure I would wear dresses like this almost everyday. 

I chuckled when I first read this lost and found notice for the bottom of a fountain pen.  But I suppose that would be a big deal to lose.

Here is an advertisement for Penney's.  What I would've LOVED to see was an advertisement for Hedderick's of Williston.  I remember going there as a kid.  I remember Penney's too as a kid, and the Woolworth.  We never ate at the Woolworth lunch counter, but it was there, and there were parakeets in the back of the store. 

So that is the issue from May 13th, 1943.  There was much more to be read.  Happenings of the War, local news, actually someone from the Epping area had died in a car-train accident. 

Thank you Mom and Dad for NOT throwing that ironing board away at the time.  And thank you for entrusting these papers (little gems) to me!  They are so much fun!  I will blog more about the other papers later.

For now, Have a Happy Day!