Tuesday Tidbits

My mom and her sister are due to arrive any time. The two have been wandering from Kansas to North Carolina. My apologies to any of you in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina that may have encountered these two gray haired ladies in a white Oldsmobile.

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Last month I turned fifty. This month I received an invitation to join AARP. Are you a senior citizen at fifty?

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Last week, Hubs had his semi-annual appointment with his urologist. Two years ago he was diagnosed with prostrate cancer. It was caught very early due to his annual digital exam and annual blood work to check his PSA (prostate-specific antigen) level.
Following his prostatectomy, his PSA has been less than 0.1 - very good!

According to WebMD, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men in the United States. This disease does not present any early symptoms, so the PSA is SO important.

I know that most of my readers are female. So I ask you, is your husband over 50? Do you know his PSA? If not, maybe it is time to insist he see his doctor.

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My mom and her sister arrived around 7:00 p.m. After showing them around our house, feeding them dinner, and enjoying a little conversation, they are tucked in bed. The eastern half of the United States is safe once again.

Weekend Wackiness - R Rated Yard Art

~~Warning~~

You may not want to view the accompanying pictures with children in the room.

This yard art is located in a semi rural area of the town in which we live.
How would you like to walk out your front door every day to be looking at this?

Do you think you would want to have your hair or nails done in the shop next to this sculpture?

Finished for Friday - Bedroom Furniture

Work continues on our second guest room. It is getting there.

This week's finish is another collaborative effort with Hubs. See the two end tables underneath the picture? We got those at an auction several years ago. They were white when we bought them. I painted them brown last spring to go in the other guest room but I did not like them so I shoved them in the corner of the "storage" room.

The newest guest room is decorated in shabby chic. After giving them two coats of green paint and two coats of white paint, I sanded them down to give them a distressed look. Then I wiped on and wiped off some watered down brown paint. A couple of coats of poly and new drawer pulls and they were ready to place next to the bed and beside a chair.


This dresser was purchased at an auction for a couple months ago for $25. We added new drawer pulls and a wooden medallion on each drawer. It was painted the same as the end tables.

This is the end product.

Make sure you go to Lit and Laundry to see what others have finished this week. Tell us what you have accomplished.

Vintage Thingies Thursday - Tea Towels

Hello to all my vintage, retro and antique loving friends. Time for one of our favorite memes.

Last week I shared some vintage aprons I purchased at the local flea market. I found another one last weekend and I told some of you that I was going to share it this week. As often happens, life gets in the way. We had our two year old grandson visiting for a couple of days and I have been busy having so much fun with him that I did not get my newest apron pressed and photographed for this week. Hopefully, I can share it with you next week.

This week, I have something I think you will enjoy. I know you have all seen the embroidered tea towels with days of the week. But have you ever seen a set of courtship towels?

Make sure you click on the picture to enlarge it. These are too cute to miss. One of my dearest friends gave these to me for my birthday. She had to look long and hard to find them. I love the little stitches used to make the cats' fur. My favorite ones are "yearning" and "wedding" I can hear the tom "singing" from the top of a fence. His top hat and the bride's bouquet and headpiece are just precious.

Make sure you visit Suzanne's blog, Coloradolady to see more wonderful vintage, retro and antique things.

Weekend Wackiness

Hubs found this on Craigslist. I have not altered it in any way.

"I have a ten foot tall tree stump that is about 6 feet around that needs to be cut down and howled off. Cut it up and howl it off and it is yours."

Now I know why I can not understand most North Carolinians. And can you call something ten feet tall a "stump"?

I wonder if this person is the same one that was offering a free Chester's drawers.

Finished for Friday - Another Apron

My lovely neighbor, Anne, turned 87 in mid July. She and her husband, George, have been so wonderful to us since we moved to this new town in a new state. I love sitting on their front porch listening to the stories they have to tell.

Anne always says, "If I knew I was going to live this long...", she would have redone the kitchen or painted the living room. And then she looks at George and knows he would never have let go of the money to do these things. They are the funniest old couple.

Another thing Anne says she would have done different is made sure she had not given away all of her aprons. She has one apron that she wears all the time. It has been worn and washed thin. She always makes a comment about its ratty state every time I visit with her in her kitchen.

My intention was to give this to her for her birthday. I missed that deadline. After finishing it yesterday afternoon, I took it to her. She was thrilled to have a new apron, made especially for her. Here she is standing on her front porch wearing her new apron.

Here is a close up the apron. It is a simple cafe apron. Anne liked that there were no gathers at the waist as "they get so dirty". She can hardly wait to have company so she can wear her new apron.

Finished for Friday is hosted by ThreeUnderTwo at Lit and Laundry. Click here to see what others have finished this week. Tell us what you have accomplished.

Vintage Thingies Thursday - Aprons

Happy Thursday to you! Come on into the kitchen so I can show you what I got a couple weeks ago at the local flea market.



I found a stack of vintage aprons. When the vendor told me they were $2 each, I had to hide my excitement for fear that she would decide they were worth more. This one had to come home with me. I love the bright yellow waistband, pleats and binding at the hem.
But I lovelovelove the kitchen print used to make this.
Look what is tucked inside one of the pleats. A pocket, of course.

I gasped when I uncovered this one. It is so soft.
There is no waistband. Instead there are little pleats tacked with cross stitching.

The cross stitching also adorns the pocket and the hem. Tucked behind each cross stitch is a bit of ribbon. I wonder what woman put so much time and effort into this black and white beauty?

This is an apron I purchased on Ebay last year. It is brand new, never been worn. I bought it to use as a template for some aprons I want to make. My vintage sack material would work up really well with this pattern, don't you think?

I showed my mother in law this apron on her last visit. It brought tears to her eyes as she told me her grandmother always wore an apron just like this. Same style, same floral pattern and always, always in purple. Whatever I paid for it was worth the money bringing back this memory for Hubs' mother.

I would wear this apron, but then I would get it dirty and have to launder it. Then the tag would be lost. What year do you think you could have purchased this apron at Woolsworth for sixty seven cents?
Thanks for stopping by today. Make sure you check out the other vintage, antique and retro things shared by my friends this week. You can click here to take you to Suzanne's lovely blog. Be ready to say awhile.

Fungus Amongus

The last couple of weeks it has been damp and warm here in northern North Carolina. Perfect weather for growing weird stuff.

I did a little searching of websites to help identify some of these fungi. One of the most helpful websites is here. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

This is growing between some granite rocks I have surrounding my herb garden. I think it is a hemlock polypore. It is as hard as the rocks around it.

I was unable to identify this one so I call it a brainshroom. Doesn't is look like a brain? There are several of these growing in my herb garden. This one is the largest measuring ten inches in diameter.

I think the next type of fungus is maybe jack o' lantern. While it is not orange like the ones in the pictures at the website, the shape and clustering is very similar. This is what it looks like one day.

The next day it explodes and looks like this.

Then it looks like this the next day. It reminds me of a jack o' lantern that was left on the front porch too long. I think it looks more like something one of our dogs left in our yard.

Speaking of dogs... Our dog, Quade, alerted me to this lurking in our yard. I spied it while looking out the dining room window to see why he was barking.

This trio of toadstools is tucked in deep crevice in one of our trees. The third one is hiding behind these. I could not get a picture of it without climbing a ladder. The crevice is six feet off the ground.
Here is an up close and personal look at the underside. The black things are large gnat like insects.

While not as lovely as the flowers growing in my gardens, fungus intrigues me.