Found objects, collecting

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elegant Chip and dip set with two Margarita glasses

      I am always bragging about how I got something cheap or free, so today I want to show you some things that really were free.  Either we found them on the street, in a dumpster or at the little shed at our solid waste facility that is called "the exchange".  Some of them cost money fixing but they were worth it.  I don't think I will try doing a post on things I get cheap, I would have to take pictures of my entire wardrobe for starters!

Nifty Red Riding Hood basket

This painting has been cleaned and in-painted and has a gilt frame.  The artist is Stry.

I had planned to spray paint some twigs but didn't even have to buy the paint.  I used these for a Christmas decoration.

This pan was almost new but had been burned, which took me about half an hour to scrub off. It's a "Whirley Pop".   Now we have Popcorn every night and are fair to being addicted to it!

Most of these plants came from friends and from Florida.

I picked up these Burr Oak acorns under the tree.

I thought this a wonderfully colorful plate.

One of these 9 pressed glasses was badly chipped. so they threw away the whole set?  My husband filed away the chip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This lamp was set out on the street, but the shade is new and  not cheap!

Just some of countless frames in various stages of being painted.

A wonderful parlor painting.

This painting came out of a dumpster, was folded in quarters.  Title:  Charlie Two-bears, by (Charles) Bruce Mulholland.  It did require extensive repair and then was framed.

     If there is a moral to this post, it might be, pay attention.  I am always looking around me and in fact have found  money in the street at times.  Of course, I also pick up sticks, stones, bird feathers, acorns and colorful leaves.  I guess I could be said to have eclectic tastes!

     Will this snow never end?  Every day we tune to the weatherman to hear about more snow.  I have not been running to the grocery to stock up each snow because we have gone to once a month shopping.  Well, almost a month.  I can't seem to reach 30 days, and only have made 28 days once.  But I keep trying.  It's just there are certain things we haven't the moxy to do without.  Coffee, soft drinks, dish detergent, toilet paper.  Other things, we do without fine.  If we run out of bread, I just make biscuits.  Paper napkins, we use cloth ones.  When snacks dwindle, I make graham crackers, always a hit around here.  I really thought we were going to make it this month.  Until the snow prediction.  The weatherman changed his numbers about 11 pm, going from a "dusting of snow"  to "2 to 4 inches".  We had planned to go the the store the next day.  I thought about slogging through the snow with a months worth of groceries.  "Hey!"  I said to my husband, "what say we go the the store now"?  He was working on something in the back room.  He mumbled something which I interpreted as "Naaaaaa, not now".  So I went on watching  tv.  An hour later he came in and said "Yes, I think we should go now".   So we did. At midnight.  The store was deserted.  Fresh vegetables had not been restocked.  We had two carts.  When we got to the checkout, there were no clerks.  It seems we were expected to use the automated checkout.  Which I had never done before, preferring to be waited on by a real live person.  That was a new experience.  It's obvious that the automatons were never intended to process a months worth of groceries because there isn't enough space to bag all that stuff.  But when you remove a bag the machine gets upset and says, out loud, "please replace the object on the shelf" and becomes reluctant to scan the next object.  So it took us some time.  But in the middle of the night, I found I was less concerned about what time it was.  We were having fun, and getting away with a con on the snow, for isn't it just trying to get us snowbound without coffee in the pantry?

So here are all the groceries, except a large box of mushrooms, which we seem to have lost on the way home.

The pantry is restocked  except for potatoes, in the left basket,  I still have a few to use up.  The new ones, ten pounds worth, will be put in the back room, which is cool.

The fridge is full again.  Don't forget that there is another cabinet full of home canned things, which you have seen a picture of earlier.

I keep a lot of things in glass though I am not a plastic-free household yet.  Plastic bags are the hardest to stop using, I think.  It was easy to go to glass jars for leftovers.  On the left are the salad makings, in a vintage glass pan with a removable handle.  The cheese keeper lived for decades in a high cabinet where I put things I never intended to use.  It's great for keeping cheese in all the time.  It's already sliced for convenience.

      So we are ready for another month.  Another month of snow, if that happens.  We have plenty of wood for our wood-burner too so let the cold winds howl!  We had our favorite omelet this morning, without the mushrooms but so what. At least we had coffee.  And a new recipe for an artisanal bread that I got at another blog, can't remember which one now, that turned out great though it's a very plain one, all technique and smoking hot pans in the oven.
     I think it's just one more month of winter and I can begin to watch for spring.  Yea!

I have put away all the Christmas decorations except for this one postcard, which I get out every year because it is such a good likeness to a house I once lived in as a teenager.  Not exactly, of course, being a painting by an Indiana artist, Ronald Mack, called "Homestead".  I have only two photos of the house we lived in, in Virginia but neither shows the house and the approach, the  aloneness of the location, as this painting does.  It was the last time we lived together as a family, dysfunctional but not yet broken.

I have moved a table near the stove for us to eat warm.  We already had our breakfast, the favorite omelette with Swiss cheese and spinach and mushrooms, and now I am sitting there with my coffee, reading the book Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo, translated from the French.  For lunch I had just a quarter of an avacado, salted and eaten from the shell with a spoon and the last cup of coffee.  Mmmmmm, delicious!  Outgoing mail is propped against the lamp, lest we forget to put it in the mailbox tomorrow morning.

This New Year's I did make some resolutions,  to eat less, exercise more and to fast from spending money.  Amazingly, I have actually eaten much less and have walked on the days the street was not covered with snow or it was below 10  degrees outside, but somehow fasting from spending has not worked out so well.  I had read about a woman in New York who did this.  She was asked about groceries and she said Oh well, one has to spend some money but just in general I try to find some other way to get my needs met.  I loved that.  My daughter says that might be called "bricolage".  I understand that to mean working things so that more items do not have to be added, just using what you have.  Sounds a very green thing, no?  But in my own case, I ended up buying a new kitchen range, since three burners misbehaved, on Christmas day even, ramping up to high no matter what the setting was on and burning things all 'round.  However, if you like, you can excuse me because it was still 2010 when I bought the stove.  The new china shown in the picture above was definitely bought in the new year.  And though the first 10 pieces were cheap or free, the necessary plates and cups and bowls were purchased and were not cheap.  They are, however, not made in China!  It is Pfalzgraff from the '60's called "Gourmet".  Oven safe and reasonably resistant to chipping, unlike most new china.  Dark brown with a white drip all around the edges, I have quite fallen in love with it.  Now it takes up the space I used to set the bread dough in to rise.  I already had two pitchers in this style.  However, you will notice some blue and white little pitchers on the right in the picture,  I also have a large pitcher in that style.  Somewhat at odds.  Are you sure that things have to match?

I tell you, I am unwilling to give up the big blue pitcher, its the perfect size for iced tea and frozen orange juice!

Additionally, I found at an Antique Mall a lovely Tell City rocking chair rather like one I used for years that went to it's real home at another daughter's last summer.  And on the back a reproduction coverlet bought at the same booth.  And for this purchase I have no real excuse except that the price was very reasonable.  But saying I bought something because it was on sale sounds like recreational shopping to me!

                                                  

The Doll's Christmas Day, 2010

Here are the Doll's presents, all in one basket.

Ana Doll already has her own Doll and seems surprised to receive a gift bag.

Marie Claire has two presents.

Abigail has been given a doll of her own.  No longer will she be all alone, no matter where she is displayed.  I hope that will make her look less sad.  Christine is already opening her first box.

Miss Molly Polly has been the Hostess for this whole thing.  She's been with me the longest, 63 years today.  She was purchased for $.50 at McAtees in Owensboro, Kentucky.  She's a Toni Doll.  She came in a box with little bottles of setting lotion.  Her hair has been washed many times and is now kind of thin but of course, she has a little age on her!

 

Already a pile of boxes is growing on the carpet.

Oh, look, it's a photo of me and Miss Molly Polly, taken years ago.  Note that the card reads:  "To my life's companion."

Christine has a dolly too, as well as a purse, which she refuses to take off her arm. 

Beatrice has a dolly of her own too and Goldilocks has a lovely real pendant to hang over the printed one on her neck.

Katrina has a rather gaudy trinket but she is perfectly happy with it.  All the jewelery is compliments of Oshe.

Little Joe has a Teddy Bear and is grinning about it as you can see!

Rita has a pendant necklace too and she looks very beautiful, doesn't she?

Ana Doll has received some note cards, no doubt she will be asked to send some Thank You's for all the dolls.

Mary has dropped her Christmas card but in just a minute Abe will reach down and pick it up for her!

The Bairn is delighted with his beetle in a closeable box.  The legs wiggle in the most amazing way!

Beatrice has discovered an article in the trade paper about Dolls being in an Auction.  She was purchased at an auction too and is most interested.  A Doll always wants to know how much she might be worth on the market even though she wouldn't want to go anywhere else.  She's happy here.  She's wearing a relatively new dress and a real (though very small) opal on a chain.

So we are surfing the net to see more Dolls like them.  And while I may have the tag sticking out of my dress, the dolls are always nicely and neatly dressed.  They are very proud of their vintage clothing.  You can see Christine has a new wig from Dollsparts.  Before that she was bald for years!  You can see in the other photos that she is much happier to have that taken care of!

     So we have had a lovely Christmas and hope you all will have one too.  I am already thinking about dinner!

Christmas is approaching!

The doll's tea party has been set up for a couple of days.  Today the napkins were distributed and several dolls are holding teacups on their laps.  Some have tasted of the goodies but since they are fake, it's more anticipation than actual eating going on!  As many dolls as can fit have crowded onto the trunk in the living room, where there is a long pew-like seat for them.  This India silver tea pot is about 3 inches tall and had to be polished roundly last Wednesday!

I have been signing the Christmas cards with both our signatures and sealing the envelopes with glue.  Most say "Have a sweet, sweet Christmas!"  Note the tiny stamps.  There are still plenty of cards left.

    

Here are the cards in the little mailbox.  It's about 6 inches tall.

Now the flag is up for the mailman.  My husband, Bill, collects the cards and cancels them with a special partridge stamper.  Then they appear in the mailbox again the next day!

 

Katrina is like to lose her cup in her excitement over her card, the first one she has ever gotten.  How I have neglected my poor dolls!

Cards and napkins are scattered every where.

Christine has her hands up in excitement too.  Little Hannah, on her left, seems a little nervous at Christine's enthusiasm.

Abigail seems a little overwhelmed but is certainly not as sad as she usually is.

Rita has been strumming Christmas carols for the others well into the night.  One cannot say that the dolls have not celebrated Christmas this year!

     I have their presents ready and they will receive them tomorrow morning, after our breakfast.  Then we will really see some excitement!  I shall sleep happily tonight anticipating the Doll's Christmas tomorrow.  Let us all count our blessings!

     It has been a while since I posted,  I really meant to do better than that.  The holidays sucked up all my time.  We had a lovely Thanksgiving, with steak and baked potatoes, Bisteeya, stuffed zucchini, and many other goodies.  My brother Ernie came and brought a pecan pie.  My daughter Rose brought Chocolate silk tarts.  It was all delicious.  The next day we lunched with still more family.

     Here are my son John and daughter-in-law, Jenny and their three sons, Sam, Eli, and Julian at lunch.  Rose is on the left and Ernie is on the right.  Vince is not there yet.  We had green curry and a very good time.

     After Thanksgiving we had some warm days and I was able to work on the trunk.  The house was already clean so I didn't have much in the way of housework to use as an excuse to procrastinate.

Now I need to paint the iron work and put on the clear coat.  A few more warm days, please!
 

      The dolls' Christmas is coming along nicely and I will begin mailing their cards next week, when I do ours.  I have composed a Christmas letter for us this year rather than buying cards.  I really owe people letters rather than cards.  But the dolls will have cards with candy and Santas on them.  I have begun wrapping the presents too.  Of course for most of my family I will need to mail the presents, hence the early wrapping.  But I may as well get the dolls' presents wrapped too!  I can't wait to see the pile.
      I have put up a tiny feather tree, some lights and some framed Santa pictures, and a bright Pointsettia centers the table.  And today, I burned up the orange slices I was candying!  At least the rice pudding for dinner is baking nicely.