Tuesday Tidbits - Bye Bye Birdie

Last week, I shared pictures of the Squatters, Winnie, Will and their babies, living in our back porch. It has been such a delight to watch these hard working parents take care of their young. Like all creatures, the time comes when they must make their own way in the world. For the Squatters, yesterday was that day.

Winnie and Will began pulling pieces out of their nest early in the morning. (NOTE TO HUMANS - Make the nest as uncomfortable as possible if you want your young adults to leave.)
Before long, the young were exploring just outside their nest.

Then they got a little braver and sat just outside the nest. Before long, we had babies all over our back porch testing their wings and exploring the big world.


All too soon, they found their way off the porch and into the cover of the azaleas and day lilies bordering the side of the house. From my kitchen window, I could see Will and Winnie flitting and fluttering over these shrubs keeping a close eye on the youngsters. I observed the young ones climb their way to the top of the azaleas, then shove off to give their wings a test. From the kitchen window, I saw one get great height and distance until, PLUNK! it flew into one of the pillars on our porch. I had to laugh.

Late in the afternoon, I saw Will back at the nest chattering up a storm. Then he moved to the back of one of the chairs on our porch and continued to chatter at the nest. Before long, I saw a little head pop over the side of the nest. With the encouragement of Will, the little one finally took the leap to the porch floor then followed Will into the bushes.

This morning, I sit on my back porch missing all the activity and noise from these tiny little creatures. I worry about the babies. Every now and then, I will hear a small chirp that sounds like one of the nestlings. Then I look to the nest and remember it is empty. Truly, the empty nest syndrome.

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Several months ago, I was one of the lucky winners of the "Not a Contest" that EllynAnne of Apron Memories had. Due to some delivery problems, I finally got my prize package. Even though I knew what it would contain, it was such a delight to open the box and touch the wonderful items within.

There were all three of EllynAnne's books.

There was this cute pouch made from tea towels and embroidered with a vintage pattern from Aunt Martha's transfers.

A peek inside the pouch...

...that contained six tea towels...

...and all of these embroidery items.

Thank you to EllynAnne and Chris Price of Colonial Patterns for such a fabulous treat.

*NOTE - Clicking on the pictures will enlarge them.

Blue Plate Monday - Lazy Pasta Sauce

I know a lot of things taste better when they are homemade. I'm sure pasta sauce is one of those things. But honestly, the store bought sauce is probably better than what I can make and it is cheaper too. It does lack "substance" though, so I add my own.

This is one of those recipes that really has no exact amounts. Play it by ear, add more or less of what you want. If you want a larger batch, add more veggies, meat and another jar of sauce.

I always use zucchini, yellow squash, red onion and sliced mushrooms. My family did not like it with green peppers added, so sometimes I will add red, yellow or orange peppers if the price is right. We like sweet Italian sausage, but your family might prefer ground beef. As for the sauce, I buy what ever is on sale and the chunkier the better.

While the meat is browning, slice up the veggies.

Add the veggies and the browned meat to a large pot.

Then pour in the sauce and stir.

Cover the pot with a lid and let it simmer all day long. About an hour before serving, remove the lid and continue to simmer.

Serve sauce hot over your favorite pasta.

One of the best things about this sauce is it makes a lot. From this pot of sauce, Hubs and I had two dinners. I put enough sauce for two into small containers to put into the freezer and I got four containers. Four more meals with nothing to do but boil pasta. My kind of meal.

Kelly at (un)Deniably Domestic is the weekly hostess with the mostest of Blue Plate Mondays. Check out what is cooking in other kitchens and tell us what is cooking in yours.

My Hero!

On Tuesday I posted about the Squatters that have made their home on our back porch. If you missed it, you can see it here.

Since I made that post, Will and Winnie's babies have hatched. You can click on the picture below to enlarge it, then look carefully and you can make out four of the five nestlings.

It has been so fun watching Winnie and Will feed these little guys. Soon they will be leaving the nest and making their way in the big world. That began me fretting because this was directly below the nest.

A large hole in the flooring. I could just see the babies dropping out of the nest right through that hole with no way to get them out. During dinner last night, I expressed my concerns to Hubs.

This morning, this was what was happening on the back porch.

Before the day was over, the temporary repair of the porch was complete.

I feel better now.

And what about that man I married? Is he not the best? He is my hero!

Finished for Friday - Well, Almost

Last week, I set a goal for myself. This room, which needs to be painted and decorated for a second guest room, was going to get decluttered.

How did I do?
I still have some blankets and quilts to reorganize and place in storage. There are family photos we need to decide what to do with. Other than that, it is decluttered.

You know the hardest part of this job? Not digging through all this stuff, but finding a place to put it. If you live in an old home like ours, you know that there are no closets really. In the 3600 square feet of our house, there are four closets totaling forty eight square feet.

So what did I do with all that stuff? There were several boxes of kitchen items that I did not unpack when we first moved because "The Plan" was to remodel the kitchen first. Since that job has been moved way down the list, I unpacked those boxes, washed and washed and washed items then rearranged my six cabinets and three drawers to accommodate the things I wanted to keep.

This pile of things will go into the attic in the garage.

These items will go back in the guest bedroom after it is repainted.

I created this little dining area on our back porch so Hubs and I can dine al fresco occasionally.

The tablecloth was placed on the table to remind Hubs that this is not another surface for things like this:


All the stuff in the next two pictures are marked and ready to go in our yard sale next weekend. To me, that in itself is a big accomplishment as pricing items for a yard sale is a large task.

I feel so much better about this area now that I have all of this *stuff* sorted. Thanks to all my friends that offered encouragement in this endeavor. My friend at Lit and Laundry offered good advice when she told me the saying, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Every time I went into that room, I'd tell myself to just take two more bites...

Lit and Laundry hosts "Finished for Friday". Click over there to see what others have done this week. What have you finished this week?

Vintage Thingies Thursday - Weekend Shopping Finds

Welcome to my weekly post for Vintage Thingies Thursday. VTT is a place for lovers of old, retro and vintage to share their wonderful treasures so others can oohh and aahh. Sometimes they even drool over your things. Suzanne is the host for this weekly meme and it just so happens, she and I were doing the same thing last weekend...Looking for treasures at local flea markets. Here's what I found: A mustache tea cup. It is just so delicate. There are a few chips in the front but not enough to detract from its loveliness. Since I found this treasure, I've been wondering if these tea cups were made for females with too much testosterone or males with too much estrogen?

Here is our Ashley sporting a vintage Girl Scout beret that cost me a quarter. The Girl Scout motto is "Be Prepared." You can tell Ashley was never a Girl Scout because she was NOT prepared for this latest humiliation.

I have had these vintage rolling pins for a while, but did not have a nice way to display them. They look great in this crock I found this weekend, don't you think?
Harry, my favorite vendor at our local flea market, knows exactly what I like. He had these things set back just for me. A green handled spoon and a green handled sifter. Can you see what it says on that sifter? "BEE"!!! How could I not buy this baby? If you missed my past post showing my vintage flour sifters, you can click here and here.
This little basket may or may not be vintage, but for a quarter I could not go wrong. It is not gold any more though. You will have to wait a couple of weeks to see what it looks like and what I do with it.

Does this vase just shout, "ART DECO"? I love its shape, design and color.
After spending Saturday afternoon at the flea market, I talked Hubs into spending the evening with me at the local auction house. Actually, my exact words were, "I'm going to the auction tonight. Do you want to go?" Look what I brought home.

Some rusty tins. I first thought that the can with lid was an old lunch pail. Now I'm not sure.

Here is a closer look at the pie tin. Crusty pie. The white spots on the tin are the cloth beneath showing through the holes in the tin. These holes must have helped make the pie crusty.
A Revere tea kettle and a copper pot with porcelain knob. It is stamped with Coppercraft Guild, Taunton, Mass.
I love the red pitchers on the front of these metal canisters.
And speaking of red...That is one of the favorite colors of the gals participating in VTT, especially our host Suzanne. But the following red things are all mine! Na-na-na-boo-boo! Ruby red glassware. All in mint condition except for the two cup saucers that have small chips in the edge.

Four red enamel cups.
A red plaid Thermos lunch box with matching Thermos. The Thermos has been used and washed so much that it has faded to orange.
This week, I have been busy cleaning out an upstairs room that will become our second guest bedroom. You can click here to see what it was like before I started. In the coming weeks, I will show you all the wonderful vintage things I have found buried in this room. I still have not found my vintage cracker jar and am getting worried. There are only two more boxes and I can not think that they are in with "books" and "artwork".

On Tuesday, I posted some vintage mirrors, picnic baskets and lap tray that I found and already have displayed. Click here to see those.

Hurry over to Suzanne's place and see what she found at a flea market. While you are there, you can also see what others are sharing this week, thanks to Mr. Linky.

Tuesday Tidbits - The Squatters and Room Progress

Not long after we moved into our house, Hubs wanted to see what was underneath the lap siding. He took two small pieces off of a corner of our back porch. Why he did not put the siding back is beyond me.
*You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.


Last fall, we noticed bits of insulation and the heavy brown paper covering it laying on the floor of the porch. Something was making a hole where the siding had been. It was not long until there was a nice size hole in the insulation.


Then we discovered the culprits. A pair of Carolina wrens made there home in our back porch all winter. I call them The Squatters, Winnie and Will.

This past week, there has been a lot of activity around that hole. One of the birds coming and going every few minutes. It was Will bringing food to Winnie, who is sitting on their nest.

If you look closely, you can see Will sitting at the opening of the nest giving Winnie some food.

In the above picture, you can see Winnie with some food that Will just left with her.

Watching how hard Will has worked this week has made me think that female birds know the secret to having babies. Just lounge around at home and make the male do your bidding.

But then poor Will can not even get a good night's sleep. In the picture below, you can see poor Will with his butt hanging out of the nest trying to sleep. Shortly after I took this picture, he fell out of the nest and ended up spending the rest of the night clinging to the black tar paper beneath the nest.

On Monday, I noticed both Will and Winnie carrying food into the nest. I took a quick peek inside and found four tiny beaks wide open. Stay tuned for pictures of the Baby Squatters next week.

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If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know of the challenge I have facing me cleaning out an upstairs room. If you missed that post, you can see it and the pictures here.

I have made some progress in this room, but not as much as I had hoped. Part of the reason I have not been able to make a lot of progress is I'm not sure what to do with all the stuff stuffed into this room. I thought what I did not want would just go to Goodwill but there are a lot of things I no longer have a need for that are just too good to donate. So I decided to put a little more effort into the clean up and mark things for a yard sale.

Here are a couple of pictures of my progress so far. Like I said, it does not seem like much but you can see more floor.

Now I know you are wondering what wonderful treasures I have found while digging in here.

I found this vintage print and hung it in our downstairs center hallway.

These picnic baskets have found a home in my laundry room/kitchen.

I discovered this vintage lap tray.

It now hangs in my kitchen along with another lap tray that has been on my kitchen counter.


I knew my collection of vintage mirrors was tucked in one corner but I had to clear a path to them. Hubs and I spent Monday evening hanging them in our downstairs center hallway. I am so pleased.

There will be more...

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Hubs has been busy painting some of the outside of the house. I am so pleased with the new colors and I can not wait until it is complete. Probably not until 2011, but...