My Entry for the FABULOUS not-a-contest GIVEAWAY

Apron Memories is hosting a contest with the most FABULOUS prizes! The entry requirements were so easy, I couldn't NOT participate. Click here to see why I am so excited.

When we moved into our fixer upper's (That would me my husband!) dream, the kitchen was going to be the first thing we remodeled. Gut it, redesign it and Viola! The kitchen of my dreams. After almost a year of using a crock pot, electric roaster, microwave, electric griddle and our gas grill to fix our meals, I told my husband I didn't want to go through another holiday season with out a stove or oven. The fridge is still in the dining room, but at least we now have a good used stove.

Here are a couple of pictures of my depressing kitchen.
Because it doesn't look like I'm going to be getting that dream kitchen soon, during my spring cleaning frenzy I decided to "spruce up" the kitchen and at least make it look a little homier. Not wanting to spend any money, I dug out some of my vintage kitchen things, including a table cloth. Then I dug around on my apron rack. Here are some pictures of the results.
It is not my dream kitchen yet, but with many of my much loved vintage things displayed, it is a much nicer place to work.

Finished for Friday - March 27

I'm participating in "Finished for Friday" hosted by Lit and Laundry. Make sure you check to see what others have accomplished this week.

I have no pictures of my accomplishments this week. Guess I could have taken pictures of piles of dust and stacks of dirty dishes.

Last weekend, I chased after our eighteen month old grandson. How can anyone so small move so fast and climb so high? Here is a picture of him in one of his quieter moments loving our old Boxer girlie, Ashley.
On Monday, I FINALLY finished the spring cleaning of 3500 square feet of old house. That has been a major ongoing task since the installation of the HVAC. You can see a couple of pictures of what I faced here. I say "finished" but there is one room upstairs that is used for storage right now. It is on my list of things to do for next week.

Tuesday was spent doing general cleaning downstairs in preparation for the arrival of our daughter, Laura, and her husband, Tommy. I was also busy in the kitchen preparing a meal for them upon their arrival here after a fourteen hour drive. They were treated to melt in your mouth bbq beef sandwiches, potato salad, cole slaw, deviled eggs, and Grandma Leach's Pink Salad.

Wednesday's dinner was prepared in between visiting with the kids. We dined on a perfectly cooked roast pork tenderloin, sweet potatoes, steamed fresh asparagus and homemade yeast rolls. For dessert, we had pecan pie that I made for hubbies birthday.

Laura flew back home on Thursday. Hardly enough time to spend with her. Tommy is still here. He will be our guest for a few weeks as he is replacing our wrap around porch. More mess, but at least it is outside.

Now it is my turn. I plan on spending the weekend working in my studio completing some projects to share with you next week. Best get going as I have been so anxious to get back up there.

Have a great weekend and I hope to see you again next week for "Finished for Friday".

Orange You Glad to See Me?

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Orange.

Orange who?

Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?

Remember that old knock, knock joke? This week my vintage show and share is about orange.

Included in the lot of Fiestaware dishes I shared last week, was this red (orange) ring handled creamer.

The Homer Laughlin Pottery Company began producing the Fiesta dinnerware line in 1936. They started their line with five colors – red, blue, green, yellow and ivory. While the red appeared orange, the company decided to keep its original name as “red”. The ring handled creamer was introduced in the fall of 1939 to replace the stick handled creamer.

Another piece I purchased at the same auction, but not included in the lot with the other items was this red 12” comport.

This piece has a small manufacturing flaw on the underside. From what I understand, this was common in this pottery line. Other than that, it is in excellent condition.

Because the red glaze was created using a uranium glaze, the red pieces were discontinued during World War II. All 12” comports were also discontinued from the line during the war.

Did you know that there were over 10 million pieces of Fiestaware pottery produced in 1948 alone?

Included in my dining room center piece are these glass candelabras. I got them at an auction several years ago and have no idea of their origin. They look art deco-ish to me. No matter. I love them.

A note to Janet - Last week you asked about the water pitcher and bowls. They ARE on display, just in other parts of the house.

To see more awesome vintage things, hurry over to Suzanne's, our wonderful hostess.

They Say It's Your Birthday!

Even though it may look and feel like any other Monday, today is a special day at our house. Today is Larry’s birthday! There will not be much celebrating. No birthday cake or presents. I’m hoping to make him a batch of his favorite cookies, Snickerdoodles. And I may get a cake baked to share with his daughter and son in law, Laura and Tommy, while they are here this week.

While roaming around the blogosphere, I saw a post from blogger about the six reasons she loves her husband. Why six reasons? I don’t know and she didn’t explain. That idea was tucked away in my mental file to use later. I thought today, his birthday, would be a good day to share the six reasons I love my husband.

1. He met my daughters and married me anyway. Caity was fourteen and Paige was eleven. It had been just the three of us girls for over eight years. Estrogen dripped from the walls of our house. It never bothered him or if it did, he never showed it. He developed a wonderful rapport with both of the girls and they are better women for it.2. He can fix anything. If he couldn’t, we wouldn’t be living in this house. A few days ago, he told me that he was looking back at all the things wrong with our house when we first moved into it. He didn’t know why I stayed. That’s easy to answer. He’s here and this is what he wants to do.

3. Larry is hilarious. He always has me laughing.
4. He is so analytical. I’ve learned not to ask what he is thinking or how he arrived at a particular solution. It usually makes my eyes cross. He’s a perfect balance to my decisions based on intuition and feelings.5. Everyone likes him. If they don’t like him, it’s because they have never met him.

6. He spoils me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY LOVE!

Finished for Friday March 20th

Things are all a buzz here at the hive. Lots of things going on and lots of things coming up that have kept hubby and I busy.

This week I have completed alterations to a bed skirt of a friend of one of the daughters. Tracy asked me to take two twin size bed skirts she got when Linens and Things was going out of business and make them fit her full size bed. I am embarrassed to say she gave me this task before Christmas. But I told her I wouldn't be able to get to it until after the holidays. Then there was the HVAC installation that had the entire house in chaos. And the redo of my studio. So this has been the first opportunity I've had. Glad to get it finished. Speaking of studio redo...I have a pink office chair I use at my desk or one of the sewing machines. Pink was not part of the new decor, so with some spray paint for plastic and a bit of fabric, I made a seat and back cover to go with the new decor this week. Not bad since I had to design the covers myself.
I've had a rag quilt and an apron I made for one of the daughters laying around for a couple of weeks. Finally got those packed and shipped. Check out the rubber gloves and pot scrubber I found to match the apron.
Another project I have been working on and finally completed was painting an expandable cup rack to hang in my studio. After the first two coats of spray paint, I realized I probably should have used a primer first. It took THREE cans of spray paint. Cross off "contact caterer" on the wedding reception planning list. Got that done today.

Oh, and I finished the last of the chocolate sheet cake I made on Tuesday.

Finished for Friday is hosted by Lit and Laundry. See what others have accomplished this week.

Vintage Thingies Thursday - Fiestaware

It's that time of the week again. Time for another installment of Vintage Thingies Thursday. Make sure you check out all the neat things everyone is sharing over at Suzanne's place.

This is not the post I had hoped to make this week, but due some technical difficulties with my IT Dept., I'm missing some pictures. My apologies.

Last summer, I bought 30 pieces of vintage Fiestaware at an auction for $1 a piece. WOW! I'm not a Fiestaware collector, but no one was buying it so it came home with me.

In this box lot, there were several luncheon plates, a couple dinner plates, six saucers, three or four cups, two different style bowls, a water pitcher, a creamer and a sugar bowl minus the lid, all in various colors. Most of the pieces had a chip or two. Several of the plates were badly scratched or stained. Once home, I put them in storage thinking I would find something to do with them one day.

Recently, I have been redecorating my studio. My special place to sew, paint and craft. I've been gathering many of my favorite things that really don't fit in any other room. While sewing my window treatments, it occurred to me that the colors in the fabric were colors of the Fiestaware. I had a "lightbulb" moment. A trip to Lowe's for several plate hangers and I now have Fiestaware wall groupings.

Saucers hang over two of the three doors.

Here is a grouping of dinner and luncheon plates. The yellow and orange plates are hung so the Fiestaware label on the bottom can be seen. Not to prove they are Fiestaware, but because the front side of these plates are really scratched and stained. Three cups are displayed on the shelf below.

I'm so glad I found a use for these colorful plates.

It's a Bee Thing

Another Thursday and another chance to see all the fun vintage thingies every one has to share. Make sure you check them out at Suzanne’s blog.

For those of you who only know me through my blog, a little background information for you. When my husband and I were dating, he would give me small gifts and they were usually bees. Before long, I had quite a collection. The bee gift giving has continued through our nine years of marriage. Now, all my friends and family are in on the search for bee things.

There is the usual assortment of stuffed bees and jewelry. I also have some more obscure items such as a remote control bee-mobile, a Tommy Hilfiger tie in orange with lavendar bees, a tin of Bee Kissed bee’s wax lip balm, and a picture frame made by a preschool class with their thumbprints made into bees. I also have a dvd of an old 50s horror movie, “The Invasion of the Bee Girls.”

Here are a couple of pictures of some of my bees.

Imagine my excitement when we attended an auction and they had this fabulous vintage cookie jar there! When they started the bidding on this cookie jar, my hand went up and I didn’t put it down until I had won the bid at $17. After the bidding was over, my husband laughed and asked me if I thought others realized I was not going to let this cookie jar get away from me. In front of the cookie jar is a cookie cutter set of a beehive, bee and a honeycomb. They aren’t vintage but I had to include them in the picture.

Every cookie jar needs some cookies. Check out this recipe for Oatmeal Refrigerator Cookies.

See you all next week!

Same Blog, Different Look

The approach of spring has me in the mood to redecorate everything, including my blog. I rambled around the blogosphere and looked at other blogs. There are so many cool blogs out there. I was not only looking at things I liked and disliked about other blogs, but I was also looking at who designed them. One of the blogs I visited had Susan's button displayed, so I took a trip to her blog and looked at the many blogs she had designed. I really liked her work and she was reasonably priced.

I contacted Susan and she was able to start working on my blog within a couple of days. Since I had a specific theme in mind, Susan directed me to some graphic websites. I picked out some graphics I liked and Susan took it from there. Susan was so very patient with me as she put my design together.

Thank you, Susan, for a fabulous job!

What do you think of the new "me"?

Vintage Thingies Thursday - A Bit o' the Green

March always makes me think of green with St. Pat's Day in the middle and spring around the corner. Thought I would share some green with you this week.

There are eight of these green custard dishes and saucers. I call them custard dishes but I don't know what they are really called. And I have no idea of the name of this pattern or the manufacturer. I do know that I love them. They are always displayed somewhere in our home and usually are lit up with a tealight.

A closer look.

I have two berry bowls that match. Always on the look out for more.

And there was this beautiful fluted bowl. Notice I said "was". Not long after I photographed it, my husband and one of the dogs knocked it off the hall table. I heard it shatter on the floor and didn't have to look to know what happened. Maybe I'll find another one to replace it some time.

Let's hurry over to Coloradolady to see what everyone else has to share this week. As always, a big thanks to Suzanne for hosting VTT every week.