Rainy Day

What are you saving for a rainy day?
I took photos last Saturday in the last of the daylight.  It was really a bit too dim, but I kept going anyway.  I was so interested in what I was doing, and of course the light changing was gradual and my eyes could easily adjust, so it didn’t seem too dim – and then suddenly I realized I was peering in the darkness.
I saved the pictures to post on a rainy day, when I didn’t have good lighting for fresh pictures.  And as it turns out they are murky anyway.  Sometimes the learning curve is steep, isn’t it?
I thrifted this book.  I almost left it behind, as I thought it was probably too outdated.  Funny how our language changes.  The title is American Country.  Now, we would say Vintage, Cottage, Farmhouse, Shabby, Primitive, etc.  But it was only a quarter, so I picked it up again, and looked more closely at the pictures and saw how appealing they were.  There is no publication date in it.  It is a TIME-Life book.

I don’t know about you, but I am absolutely irrational about my love for old cookbooks.  I want to make everything in them, even if they would be strange to contemporary tastes.  This picture shows how appealing the artwork  is.  I think I have the book in the upper left:  All About Home Baking.  Remind me and I’ll share sometime.  Really, half the charm is in the wording of the text.  The language has a cheery, quaint quality that is terribly endearing. Do you collect vintage kitchen tools?  I do, and I have the gray enamelware dish/plate/pie tin you see in the picture below.  Check out the bread-slicing guide!  That would be handy in my house.  Slicing bread straight really is an acquired skill, and I’ve become pretty good at it.  (But I must say that the rest of the crowd around here could use more practice!)I love the prim look of shelf edging.  I have made some crocheted edgings, but never put them up on any shelf edges.  What am I waiting for?  I have never seen newspaper edging, but I so love the thrifty creativity of the humble American housewife that it proclaims, don’t you?  I’m dying to try it.  I loooove to cut paper shapes.  I still cut strings of paper dolls in all kinds of costumes, you know the kind?  When you’re done, and unfold them, you have a series of identical dolls holding hands?  I’ve made gingerbread boys, ragdolls, Boy Scouts (guess why), snowmen, clowns and schoolgirls.  This is how I pass time at family gatherings when the kids need to settle down from the frenetic running around the house.  Yeah, I do better at the kids’ table.Have you ever used one of the early electric toasters?  I have once.  I was visiting my great grandmother for the day, and she made me tea and toast.  With homemade bread, and homemade strawberry jam.  No, really.  And I’m not kidding when I tell you that she also showed me how to cut and press wool strips, and braid a chair mat that I still have to this day. (I really need to take a picture and share that.)I recently inherited the toaster cut off in the pic below from my grandmother’s basement.  For all I know, it was the toaster from Great Grammie’s house.The strawberry-painted glasses are a recent GW find.  They are in good condition, but some of the paint is a little cloudy from dishwasher exposure.  (If you have painted glasses, never put them in the dishwasher, the detergent is too harsh; same for colored Pyrex casseroles and mixing bowls!)  There was a matching pitcher on ebay, which I should have bought.  Wouldn’t it be a charming lemonade or sweet tea set?  (Speaking of ebay, I’ve taken the plunge, and made my first listings, wish me luck!)
I love the old canning jars with the glass lids and the wire bail.  I created this little grouping the other day when I was doing my “Back-to-School” mantel display.Speaking of canning, I am working up to learning more about canning, (not that I have a garden, and a bountiful harvest to preserve), along with learning more about pressure cooking.
I’ll leave that as a tease, hinting for future posts.  I have recently bought 2 vintage Presto pressure cookers (4 qt.), for only a quarter apiece.  And a vintage pressure cooker cookbook.  So, if you want me, I’ll be in the kitchen.

How do you like them apples?

No, I haven’t gone apple picking.  I’ll wait and buy a sackful of MacIntoshes at the store.  Do you know, the cute little paper bags with a handle?  I’ll make an apple pie and serve it hot with vanilla ice cream.  Another time, I’ll make apple crisp, and again serve it hot with vanilla ice cream.  And maybe, I’ll try making apple turnovers, too.  (Notice I said maybe.)
No, the apples I’m talking about are the decorative items in my happy red kitchen.  I had just taken the screens down from the casement windows, brushed away the cobwebs and dust, rubbed all the wood with lemon oil, washed the windows and created a little arrangement that made me smile.  Then I realized how pretty it looked in the late afternoon light, so out came my camera.  Do you like shortbread cookies with your tea?  I’ve only made it once.  It’s pretty decadent as I recall.  Mostly butter creamed with vanilla and powdered sugar, and a little flour thrown in to hold it together I guess.  I used the mold on top in the picture below.  It’s one I bought about 20 years ago, and has 9 flower and fruit motifs.  The round one below it I thrifted recently; both by Brown Bag Cookie Art.
The large apple cookie jar is a recent thrift store score, and the Bread-and-Butter pickles in the Mason jar were a generous gift from a co-worker who has been sharing his garden bounty.  The dishtowel is a calendar towel that I crocheted an edging for, and now it’s my fave.
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On another leaf,  I found the most adorable book (for only a quarter).  Do you know the book Wind in the Willows?  Of course you do.  Well, anyway my little happy discovery is another book by the same author, Kenneth Grahame.  It is a collection of short(er) stories, and was published before WITW. 

Many of the illustrations are by E.H. Shepard, and I believ he also immortalized the WITW characters.  But another treat is that some of the art is by Maxfield Parrish!  If you don’t recognize the name, you can click on it and see who he is.  I’ll bet you’ll recognize his early 20th century art.I love the italicized font with the flourishes. 
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This is just a gratuitous picture of a vintage saucer I found last week.  I love the colors.  Absolutely smitten.  And the images:  birds, a ship, cherry blossoms and a windmill.  What’s not to love?
Just found the little squirrel covered candy dish.  Very a propos to keep one’s treats and treasures hidden.  Do you remember those old penny candies in the yellow and red wax paper?  The Squirrel-Nut-Something caramels?  If I can find them, I’m going to stash some in this dish.  In the meantime, it has acorns.  Those acorns around the candle are huuuge.  I picked them up after a football game in Kennebunk on Thursday.  I have never seen them this big.  I wonder if next summer’s squirrels will be bigger than usual.

The 3-footed dish is also a new thrifting find.  No cover.  Too bad, but too pretty to leave behind.
What treasures are you squirrelling away this weekend?