French Toast Mornings

Christmas has come and gone, last week's vinyl Sunday too (which was Eddie Vedder's Ukelele Songs since it was his birthday) . As for this weeks turntable, it's spinning Elliott Smith's Roman Candle (sure more on the depressant side of life, but New Years is coming and we all need to wallow once in awhile). Fistful of Mercy is up next, just to keep with the theme.

Let's go back a few days and discuss this past holiday and all the love that should of been shared. I am a 32 year old woman (single, so the next statement is somewhat acceptable) I still like to have Christmas breakfast with my parents (my dad makes the best ham and eggs)! This year I treated myself to an adult version, by adding in dogfish head hellhound. An excellent decision on my part. I was able to facetime with my girl from the north and her kiddos... making excellent use of technology! It was fantastic to see them on christmas day. The most heartfelt gift I received was one hand made by my father, an origami humming bird mobile (which I proudly have handing in my living room now). It's simply beautiful.

Plans for thrifting in the New Year.... There's a few things I'd like to obtain to complete the image in my mind (knoll tulip round dining table or even the knoll Florence table) all pipe dreams of course! But thrifting for me isn't about looking for something, it's about finding something that you didn't know you needed and having it be perfect.

Another exciting part of the new year is concerts... The influx of new tours being announced makes a girl giddy (especially since Pearl Jam is supposedly announcing a new album and tour this year). The Black Crowes just announced a "comeback" , Soundgarden will be here in a few weeks, G Love is here that same weekend, and Clapton is in April... Yay!! Oh let's not forget one of my favorite Seattle girls, Sera Cahoone, in February.

I'm now looking at the bottom of the cup... Needs a coffee refill. I'll finish off by saying that this year has been a fantastic one (I'm thinking I'll do a concert recap tomorrow, maybe Miggy will do an album recap as well???) until then, be grateful for the year you had, good or bad... And excited for what could come... I know I am!

Rust Never Sleeps

Tally after my last trip north, miles.

    I don't know exactly how long it's been since either of us have even thought about sharing on here. There have been a lot of beautiful finds since last visiting, vintage and vinyl. There have been many visits and many shows, a few drinks as well. The concert poster collection is growing to an unframeable size and the miles/kilometers are wracking up on the vehicles. It's been a GREAT few years and now it's time to share it all again! (there also have been some new tattoo additions!)

Vinyl Sundays have a special place in my heart.

   This fine Sunday morning I woke up (after sleeping in, which everyone should get to), popped on the vinyl I purchased at last night's show (Chris Velan) and made a yummy breakfast. Forgot to mention that I turned the lights on, on my mini tree... sat in the glow of a 4 foot tall silver Christmas tree covered in quirky and vintage ornaments (I feel every tree needs glass mushrooms). There's something about these moments that get you through the rest of the hectic week. I'm also sipping Timmy's outta my mug I bought on my last trip up to visit Miguette.

  Sitting here I see all the fantastic finds I've hauled back from Canada in the past few years... and I think about those I passed on (this last trip). I cannot wait to share these with you, from the littlest trinket, to an amazing album find, all the way to the best furniture score yet! I look around and see that every piece, every thing... has a story... nothing in my home was purchased to "fit" an empty space. Set lists line the walls, concert posters, old family photos, beer bottles (Pearl Jam Dogfish head of course) and even an old tackle box. If a visitor was to pick up anything in my home I could tell them the story that comes from that item, I can't tell you what I wore yesterday but I can tell you how I happened upon that art deco tea cup and saucer I have. It's an illness I have, I think!!  I know that's why this feels like home more so than any other place I have lived.

   Enough rambling for today. Time to flip the record and continue with the Lazy Vinyl Sunday.

Countdown to Canada

Howdy Folks...
The weekly countdown has begun! In a meer 4 days my American ass will be crossing the border into Canada land once again, this time bearing furniture for my girl in the north. Also I'll be returning with a few "furnitures" myself!!

There is a little hope in my words today considering Miguette showed me this lovely event going on this weekend... http://www.cityofcraft.com/2010/loveandrummage2/index.html
I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I understand if we can't make it.

As for crafting... I've learned to knit! I'm creating the worlds biggest scarf right now, it isn't a beauty but I'm practicing my craft! Hopefully I'll have something to keep me warm on my travels.... maybe I'll add some buttons! Buttons make everything better!


Get knitting.... it's fun and potentially warm! :p

I'm Free!!

That is, the kids are away for the weekend. Which means I'm free to run wild in the second hand stores! Considering I was drinking last night at a friends house I feel pretty great. The sun is shining and I'm only $16. poorer than I was this morning. And I'm satisfied.

It's strange how finding great thrift store deals can give me so much gratification. Some days I'm just not into it, but today was not one of those days. My eyes darted around the store looking for treasures and I think I came out with some good ones. I'll share a couple of them.

I found these Matryoshka dolls for 99 cents a piece. Assuming they were sets of nesting dolls, I opened them and was disappointed to see they were empty. But then i noticed holes on the tops.....thats right!!
So cute!

That was my favorite find for the day. But i also found 2 of these little stone birds.
A hideous handbag that I'm going to keep my "work-in-progress" embroidery projects in.
And this hard shell Impala suitcase that I have big plans for. I think I'm going to give it a little makeover. Maybe something like this, or this, or maybe this.
That's it for today! I hope your Saturday was sunny too.

Miguette

another day another blog

So here we are on a Tuesday, the 19th of January... I've been home from Canada a week and just washed up my finds. maybe by the end of the week I'll post the sweetness of my loot. Just last night after a coffee run with my mom while waiting for my dad to be done with his "mediation treatment" (don't ask) we decided to hit the nearest goodwill in order to kill time. This particular store was so picked over but I manged to find 2 great items, a cd shelf with great glass sliding doors and a set of 5 milk glass bowls.... to my dismay these items were far too over priced for a thrift store and I left them there (12$ for the cd shelf and 6$ for the bowls).

I have been slightly distracted from thrifting since I'm redoing my spare room to make it more craft/sewing friendly. Just last night I took off the closet doors and hung a bracket for the new shelves that will go up. Before I started painting I assessed the closet and decided to take out a small wall so I can better utilize the space. I'll post some before pictures this way you can get the full picture.

I'm off to look at tattoo ideas :D

Vinyl Sunday!!

That's right folks! This is my first post on our new blog and I'm already taking charge and starting a tradition. Every Sunday I (or my yankee counterpart) will offer you a glimpse of a fantastic, or perhaps visually hideous record, or album art and perhaps a nice review of the music that goes along with it. This may not be what miss Brandi had in mind for this blog, but tough shit for her. She invited me and I plan to make myself good and comfy here!

I find that I tend to be attracted to the under-loved and otherwise ugly bits and pieces found at thrift stores or yard sales. I get excited when I find something completely nauseating....but why? Well, I suppose its like those people who go to the animal shelters and adopt the most mangy and smelly animals. They feel sorry for them. So, i guess I feel sorry for these little bits of ugly. If I don't take them in and proudly display them, who will?

I ended up with this little beauty in my cart!



I was completely oblivious to what kind of music it was, or even the language or country of origin...but, I intended to find out as soon as I got in front of my laptop. So when I arrived home the first thing I did was spin the black circle, and did some googling! It turns out that Moravanka is from the Czech Republic, and this particular album is from 1974!

Here's a bit more about Moravanka to enlighten you:

Sold out halls and hundreds of thousands of sold out records in our country as well as abroad, a wide circle of listeners of all generations- that is the most convincing proof of sympathy and popularity for the brass band Moravanka of Jan Slabák. The basic root of success is in the musical performance of each composition. All of the brass band members are outstanding musicians, who graduated from Brno Musical Conservatoire and Janáček Academy of Musical Arts with practice in symphonic or dance orchestras. The repertoire is very pleasant, as it builds on Moravian folklore, mainly from Slovacko, which is naturally lively and temperamental. However, the main source of popularity is the individualistic sound and style Moravanka interprets each composition with, as it is closer to a jazz-band than a typical brass-band.

And guess what folks!! They are still kickin' it!! CLICK HERE BITCHES!!

PS....here's a bit of ear candy (and eye candy) for you. :D



With love, Miguette.

Rainy Days

It's raining today and here I am at work when I'd rather be home sewing or out thrifting. I have such the creative bug since coming home from Canada. Tomorrow I plan on an early morning adventure to at least 4 thrift shops, consisting of ones I have yet to go to. Hopefully I don't find any awesome furniture since I no longer have room for any in my tiny condo. I'm really hoping for great clothing finds, something I can refashion into a new piece I love... and always wear. This photo i included is a favorite piece of mine I acquired a long time ago. Even after my divorce I still hold tightly to this one piece... most of the others are in storage but this one has a special place in my bedroom.

For the rest of the day I'll wait here until Miggy posts the great finds she stumbled upon today... and hopefully she'll post a photo of the ashtray I begged her to go back for. For some reason I kept thinking of this one ashtray I say at goodwill... the color was so vivid and the shape was something that suits me.... now if I only smoked!