Thrifting for Thrills!

I’ve been doing a lot of thrifting lately.  It’s hard not to, GW has opened an outlet next to the building where I work 5 days a week.  I’m not really good at identifying true vintage, so it’s a good thing that the prices are so very reasonable.  I am so easily influenced in what to collect.  I see a display on a blog that I like, and then I am spying similar treasures at the GW, and the next thing I know I am taking them home, and trying to re-create the vignettes I’ve seen on my favorite blogs. 

In an unabashed declaration of my admiration, I direct you to my latest blog infatuation:  Sweet Cottage Dreams.  She does some especially delectable Christmas decorating, and caused me to fall in love with chippy, vintage-looking Santas.  (Although I do think I had a tendency in that direction already!)  Check out these kitschy vintage Santa mugs on etsy.com   This Santa is actually a planter, with an opening in the sack over his shoulder.  I think it’ll be perfect to put candy canes in.  As I look at this picture, I realize that it is too cluttered to see all the great finds individually.

      So, here are a couple

 of views showing Santa’s cheery charms.

And check out this happy mug!  (Get it?  Mug?! Heh-heh!)

And another view of the Christmas-y things.  That box with the tree stand really has the tree stand in it – score!

The vase that looks like old mercury glass probably isn’t, but I wouldn’t know.

Do you love the doll-sized park bench?  It’s really painted cast iron and weathered wood.  I think somebody had a front porch display because there were a couple of pine needles still on it.  I’m considering ways to use it, including using it to display my treasured Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls.

The crescent bone dishes are green transferware, and bear the marking:  “Genoa J&C Meakin Hanley England”.

These don’t appear to be too terribly old, but I think the bright red cards with the charming illustration make a good accent piece in a vignette, and the Bingo cards will be terrif for various crafting projects (at least I know that I’ve seen others do clever things with them!).

Again, these items aren’t particularly old, but made it into my cart by virtue of their timeless charm.  The fabric is a curtain, rather small.  I will not use it for a curtain, it is quite loud when you stretch it all out.  It will be better suited incorporated in pillow tops, tote bags, that sort of thing.  The colors are so cheery, no?

That’s all for now!

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

I wanted to post these birdfeeder pictures yesterday, but didn't get to it. You all know this is a blue jay, I'm sure.

There were at least 4 jays by the feeder just then and one chased off a beautiful male cardinal before I could get a picture. I never got to see if he had his lady with him. There's a goal for me this winter. A pic of a cardinal (or even a pair!) in the snow. Do you see the jay in the snow below the feeder?
That tiny little thing on the left side of the feeder is a black-capped chickadee, the state bird of Maine. They were plentiful and hard to photograph, as they flit about so much.And here's an even harder-to-identify bird due to inadequate photographing, but down on the ground is a junco. There were titmice too, but they were mainly flitting about and coming right up to my kitchen window, didn't get a pic this time.

A couple more neighborhood houses seen on my snowy walk with Jeff. Liked the sculpted drift on this roof. As we get closer to the ocean, there are fewer pines to protect from the wind, and it really seemed to be whipping around, there was even less snow, and it's only about a quarter of a mile from our place.

Back to our place, and I wanted to show you this overgrown evergreen at the corner of the house...

You can't tell it 'til at least dusk, but it's.......................

strung with lights, and a star on top.

New Background

Did you notice my new background?

I stumbled across the website of a graphic artist, Karen, who creates beautiful backgrounds and teaches you how to put them on your own site! I have always wondered how people have such beautiful and creative blogs. The secret is that they are either techno-smart, or they know where to turn to for help. So, in my case, I am thrilled to have this enormously talented lady's help. And it's free! She is The Background Fairy. She also has vintage epherema-inspired clip art on her other website Graphic Fairy. I will be sure to credit her whenever I use her images.

Here are some examples:

She has an abundant collection of birds, eggs, and nests, some on greeting cards.

Then there's beautiful Spencerian penmanship, with its fluorishes and scrolls, not just text, but beautiful images, such as the leaping stag above.

And finally, since we are still in the 12 days of Christmas, I feel that it is still timely to include this adorable Christmas-y image. Karen has a huge selection of art depicting children that'll make your heart melt!

Speaking of the Twelve Days of Christmas, check out this website. Laura is on a blogging break, but has filled her absence with clever depictions from the ancient Christmas carol.

Well, now I need to go knit, birthdays coming up fast, you know...

Dock Square, Kennebunkport

Just a fly-by post, as I am supposed to be busy with other things...;).

I promised pictures of the tree in K'port, and found quite a few. I saw one pic I thought was the best, but didn't really know how to "lift" it. As it is, I am "borrowing" the pics below, but with credit to the websites where I got them. I hope that's okay.....

This tree-topper makes me want to get out the"crackers" and melt some butter............... (Photo lifted from this website.)
This one shows the same Christmas tree, lit up in the dark --- can you see that the ornaments are lobster buoys? ( This photo came from here.) For those who are land-locked, or just not up on their lobster lore, lobstermen attach a buoy to the rope when they drop a lobster trap (sometimes also called a "lobster-pot") down onto the ocean floor. Each licensed lobstermen paints his buoys his signature pattern, so that he can find his traps when he returns to pull up the traps and harvest the "keepers". With all the color combinations, they make for colorful decorations on trees, lamp-posts, doors, and of course on the side of lobster shacks!

As I was saying to my friends about the Country Club....

Shawl, that is... Here is the finished project. I thought I didn't have pictures, but it turns out Evan had my camera card with these pics on it. The knitting directions call it the "Country Club Shawl", but I always think of a long rectangular wrap as a stole, and then when it is a triangle, it is a shawl. Anybody want to weigh in? Is the distinction legitimate?

How do you like this year's tree-topper? The old lighted star broke last year, and we hadn't yet replaced it when Ian brought in one of his lobster-trap buoys. It made us want to decorate a whole tree with a seashore theme. Probably plenty of people have....you should see the tree down in Dock Square in Kennbunkport, huge and decorated with lobster buoys, etc. I'll see if I can find a pic to post.
Anyway, back to the shawl/stole, Mum came to visit the night before Christmas Eve, and we had a Christmas morn with her on the 24th. She helped me with the shawl-fringeing. You can sort of see it in the second picture. She brought it back to Stratton with her and gave it to Gram for me. Apparently, she likes it- she sits with it in her lap. I'll probably call her in a day or two, when all the excitement dies down. She has had lots of visitors and festivities, and it's best to call when the house is quiet, when there is little background noise -- doesn't hear well.
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Speaking of Mum.........

This dear lady is getting acquainted with her new techno-gizmo: a cell phone! And being a good sport about being photographed for the blog. The more I teased her about not having a cell phone, the more I realized how much utility she'd get out of having one. She lives in a very remote, rural area and drives through some potentially dangerous weather on a curvy, winding road alongside a river to get to doctor's appointments, pharmacies, decent grocery shopping. And let's not forget that the best way to communicate with her nearly 17-yo granddaughter is by texting. As it turned out, even though TracFone seemed to have the best coverage in her poorly-covered area when we consulted the coverage maps, her phone won't work up there! When we were trying to activate the phone, it refused to activate for her zip code. My DH Jeff called the 800# and they are going to send her a different phone for her zip. She should get it maybe Tuesday. In the meantime, she was so excited, we sent her home with one of our old TracFones. She is thrilled to be using it, and reports that she has in fact already texted Emma! Who says you can't teach Granny how to use the new-fangled contraptions!

A Lovely Christmas was had by All......

I just remarked to Honore on her blog Bygone Knits that I am using "lovely" too much and I need to vary my adjectives more. You see I have just visited most of my favorite blogs to check in with everyone's holiday, and in the spirit of sending warm Christmas greetings, I left comments. And because I appreciate the sharing, both writing and photos, I told 'most everyone that her blog is lovely, or the photos were lovely, or her children/pets were lovely, or the sentiments expressed were lovely, and in at least one case, the music was lovely. What to do? The word "lovely" for me evokes soft and gentle expressions of happy and pleasant loving feelings. And that's what my favorite blogs do for me. That's why I go back over and over.

Feel free to leave suggestions for other adjectives I can use. I'll try them out and see how they feel.

We did not travel this year and actually only had 1 family member visit. We live pretty far from our families. Sigh.... Whose idea was that? Oh, yeah, mine. Hindsight is 20/20.

Christmas is less chaotic now that the youngest in the family is almost 13. And with 3 teenage boys in the house, any holiday is less about decorating and presents and very much about the food! I should work on photographing food for this blog, because there is lots of it around and most of it is really quite pretty. I'll work on that. It's been pretty quiet here. Even the snow fell softly today. No wind or fuss, just gentle flakes drifting down. And then, as quickly as it started, it was over.

And now, late at night, I am quietly counting my blessings and thinking about heading off to bed.

Good night, all. Thanks for coming by.