I TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY LOVE GOODWILL *scream*

Yesterday was just about AWESOME.

It started a little poopy, with a no-show parent conference (the FIRST scheduled, which was, like, not a good sign), the second then rescheduled, but the third - which technically ended up being my first - was nice!! Such a nice, fun, sweet momma that is, with a cute little girl.

So, I made a few rounds to a couple thrift stores before declaring to myself that I was going back to Cafe Corleone. I really thought about going to one chemical-smelling thrift store that is a little bit out of the way, but decided not to since I was basically running on empty in the big ole yard sale van, and wanted to try to get to Corleone's for the lunch prices. I still adore the wholly eau d'vintage-shopping strappy tie aprony-looking tank top I got there last weekend, though.

I'd been lamenting how I wouldn't be passing by a Stater Brothers to take advantage of the 10 2L Pepsis for $10, when I remembered that there was one across the plaza from a Goodwill on the way home from Corleone's!!!!

So I left Corleone's (they sadly didn't have the risotto, which was the ONE new thing I wanted to try), I stuffed in a few pieces of awesome hot garlic bread before diving in Goodwill, then browsed and browsed and browsed.

Found a cookbook with Mediterranean recipes (love the cuisine! love seafood! love Nice, France! and Italy!), then started glancing through the dishes section.

Would you believe I FINALLY FOUND THIS!!!!!!!!!!!

I was seriously hunting up and down and all around town for a stinkin', frinking, frikkin' frakkin' set of these goshdarn goldang PLATES!!!!!!!!

And they were $5.99!!!!!

I grabbed them and hugged them and clutched them and nearly wet myself wanting to jump up and down I was so half-miserably afraid that I was dang hyperVENtilating, it was so surreal.

Yayness!! The universe smiled down on me!!!

I cannot even being to describe the relief now that I have found them. The inner gleaming, the gloating ... (a word which I have taught my students and which they find common occasion upon which to use it LIBERALLY, to my unending bemusement). I think my set is now complete. Now just watch me use them. Which I will probably not do, or do reluctantly, because I HATE IT SO MUCH WHEN STUFF BREAKS AND THEN I DON'T EVEN HAVE A SET ANYMORE!

So I guess I'll just have to go back and keep checking to get more of the stuff.

!!!!!!

Hee!! Glee!!!

Sometimes I just wonder about all the little arrangements that had to come together in order for me to be in the right place at the right time to scoop up the right item, like these gosh-o-malley darn Chelsea floral salad plates.

So much love, it is indescribable.

But I'm easy to please.

I did end up getting the Pepsi (only wanted 5 or so to last me the next few months, I'm really not a huge soda drinker) but they had 10 for $10 AND a $2 off coupon in the store flyer, making it 10 for $8!!!!!

And then I got sea salt and vinegar thick-cut potato chips for 10/$10.

It turned out to be a production, though, because the lines were huge and long - then a manager did open new lines up, and even motioned for me to come to a new line, but I felt bad because I'd already seen another lady waiting for at least 5 minutes, with a giant ole turkey, so I asked her if she wanted to go first before her turkey defrosted for her in line.

And then the nice manager guy never did ring up the Pepsis for $8, NOR the chips for $1 each, so I am glad I checked the receipt before leaving the door!!!! I got that all taken care of before I left and was somewhat taken aback by the manager going back to the chips display where I TOLD him there was a sign that 10 bags were $10 ... he didn't have to THROW the "old sign, they forgot to take it down" onto the counter like that. Eeps! So, instead of a $44 expense (got orange juice and some chicken and pork to try out my crock pot this week!!!), I even got $7 back. Whee!

And I am so stocked on Pepsi and sea salt and vinegar chips it's not even funny. I have the Archer Farms ones from Target, as well.

I'm so addicted to this flavor of chips, and I exactly remember coming upon a half-finished bag that my college roommates left on the dining table, that I helpfully polished off for them. It is so not a combination I would ever have found interesting before then, I think - but Becca was from Massachusetts!

I even ended up hitting another thrift store (the one where I found the blue glass cake plate!) and didn't see anything super mesmerizing, but they had loads of trim - looked like a store discard - so I got beautiful red tassel edging for about $3. Red red red, that is the color for me and my vintage and my kitchen.

And tonight, I went to my new favorite giant thrift store (the one with the Shabby Chic quilt, and Cath Kidston pillows!) and ended up only getting a tile.

It looked a little weird at first, but caught my eye because it was painted in blue on an ecru kind of background, and I love those colors.

At first it looked like ... "Toods Historical Museum"? I wondered if it could be English, since it was a picture of an oldish-looking building ...

Foods Historisch Museum?

And then it dawned on me - Joods Historisch Museum.

Jewish Historical Museum, in Amsterdam. I knew I had a little Dutch locked away in me somewhere!

It was a great find because that part of Amsterdam is one of my most favorite tucked away corners in all the WORLD, QUITE LITERALLY. And the museum is right next to the big square where the Nazis rounded up all the Jews in Amsterdam.

Man. I love my little tile. If I can bear to use it (it's probably just a cheap little tacky souvenir, even if it's going for the Delft-painted look), I'll probably use it as a trivet. But I love anything that reminds me of Amsterdam.

As I was going to check out, another patron I'd noticed earlier up and saw me walking by with just my little tile, and she said, "You know, I'm gonna ask you!"

I always wonder why people say that to me, when it happens.

Anyway, she had her cart full of a few things and wanted me to convince her to put it all back.

She obviously asked the WRONG GIRL!

I started out with the giant wooden abstract bunny on a metal stick, which she said she was going to put on her porch.

Then I asked about her two rose paintings in gaudy weird frames (she said she KNEW she was going to keep those - they were decent, at least oil paintings).

And there was a ceramic (not plastic) picture frame of lavender - then a white milk glass compote - and then she had a couple dishes (cute black silhouetted Venetian/French couple), and a set of dishes for $13.

I tried to ask her what she was going to do with it all (she had answer for everything) and if she could afford it and if she needed it ... and she informed me that I wasn't really doing such a great job of getting her to put stuff back, but I just HAD to tell her that she had good enough reasons for getting everything, if she had the room and finances, and frankly, she knew herself better than I did so I'm sure her counterarguments were FAR more compelling!

Anyway, looking at those little silhouette plates - I asked where they were from, and she said American, and nothing's made in America now, so she knew they were [antique], and that made me want them! because it reminded me of some beautiful cards and stationery I bought when I was in Venice, Italy ... anyhoo - made me want them, and then I pined for them for about 5 minutes when I got in the car. Oh well. I wonder if she ever did put them back. In the end, I told her, that my basic philosophy was - she picked everything out for a reason, and I was totally the kind of person that would much rather buy something, and regret it, and get rid of it, than put it back, regretting it for the next 10 years. I HONESTLY CANNOT STAND THAT FEELING!!

The cashier lady seemed very interested in my tile and was trying to figure out what it said, also, so I explained to her about the whole Dutch thing.

And here I am STILL typing away when over an hour ago I wanted to get all my dumb huge messy piles of stinking dirty laundry over to the laundromat (ugh, HATE laundromat, want and need a washer NOW!) ... so maybe I'll have to actually forgo watching TV to have clean linens and clothing.

Ack.

Nice week so far, just wish it would cool down!!!! One of the kids actually had a heat rash today!!! Ugh. And they have nosebleeds, and are always begging to go get some water, and take off their undershirts, and have me turn the fan on ... I need to stop thinking about it because I either get depressed or very irate.

Goodnight. :)

900 visitors!!

Oh, hooray, I love attention.

Thanks to all who have come to visit and spent an "average of 1:34 minutes" viewing "1.8 pages". Whee, it's like, 2 visitors a day!

I came on today and saw this and wanted to melt. So close to 1,000! That's like, a landmark for me. So will be 100 posts.

*throws a tea party with her stash of goods*

Fabric patterns and designers - like Cath Kidston!

One of my all-time favorite, favorite, favorite designers is Rachel Ashwell, as people who know me can attest to. I usually buy the Simply Shabby Chic stuff she has out at Target (especially when it goes on clearance!!!) and I really like her bedding. I like the mix of colors (never thought I would like white that much, or even pink, much less froofy roses, but like I have said before, I am TOTALLY turning into an old granny cat lady, except sans cat) and the paleness, the pastels, the florals. I haven't ever seen and I doubt I could ever afford her Treasures stuff. But I find her ideas, her look, and her home philosophy utterly inspiring and am always on the lookout for things related.

I only first heard of her when I was over at Jen's house, and her younger sister, who was studying interior design at the time, I think, happened to have a Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic book out on the table. I remember looking at the cover, reading the title, but never picking up the book or even leafing through it or anything. But that is the first time I heard of the chick, and shortly after got really into the Target stuff. (Incidentally, I've run into Jen's sister - and mom - TWICE now, as of yesterday, out on thrifting finds. First time was a local estate sale in their neighborhood, and then just yesterday, at Goodwill! Heh.) This was at least 3 or 4 years ago.

So I love searching for stuff on eBay (have a few things I missed out on during the sales and would love to get), and on some google searches, ended up finding other blogs about thrift store shopping, yard sale-ing (if that is even a verb, though I attempt to make it so) while I was looking for what was then my newest Target obsession - the Chelsea line of dishes!! I wish I had a pic of the flatware, but I've been too lazy to take a picture of it. It's what first caught my eye in the line a few months back when it was regular stuff on the shelf, and I remember making a note to myself to come back when it went on clearance. I never even looked at the salad plates, and then the stuff totally FLEW off the shelves once it started clearancing!!! Horrible.
I love, love, love those floral plates. I was able to get a set of large dinner plates, 2 sets of 2 bowls, and the mugs for 30-50% off. They only had the salad plates in the dots or stripes so I decided to go with the dots, since I think the stripes are a bit ugly. I did, however, get the large salad/serving bowls in the dots and stripes because that was all they had. And this stuff is porcelain!! So I have the floral salad plates, with the polka dot salad plates, floral bowls, and floral mugs. I liked those last two because they have the little butterfly peeking out from the inside. I suppose I could have gotten some polka dot mugs, too, but I really wasn't in love with them. Oops. (They really are very Cath Kidston, though. She has something almost exactly like it out, just for, like, three times as much.)

So the picture I found is this:

from the adorable site freshvintage.typepad.com . The odd thing is, I also came upon a vintage Mikasa set of dishes like the blue pictured there, and I hadn't thought of putting them together. I nearly got the blue Mikasa for full price, but was able to hold off until it went 50% off. It was a slightly different line, but the colors were very similar. What I really need to do is get everything out and set up on the table like I have it imagined in my head! You'd all be impressed, I swear.

So then, I found a link off the freshvintage site and discovered Apron Thrift Girl ! I LOVE her site. She posted about a set of sheets she got, a Cath Kidston print from Ikea.

I was starting to recognize some of the elements of Cath Kidston stuff and was interested in checking it out. A few weeks later, I saw these at a thrift store ...

These aren't exactly the same ones from the store, these are off an eBay listing, actually. I saw one of the flowered print pillows way high up on the shelf in the bedding area, and whacked it down, and a sweet dear old fellow shopper informed me that there was a matching 2nd one!!! I grabbed them both. I unzipped them to check to see if they were slipcovers only, thusly easy to wash, and moreover, to see if they were Ikea - which they were! (Though nowhere did it say Cath Kidston). Then she said she thought I had good taste. Ha! They were $6 each, and one was even labeled $14.95. Don't know what exactly it was for, because it was a hand-made tag, so it was probably for resale in a little shoppy boutique somewhere and couldn't sell! (I do always wonder about gorgeous adorable stuff that ends up at the thrift store somehow!!) And yes, the tag also was labeled "Shabby Chic pillow." The are larger than regular square pillows. These two covers-only sold for $10.50 with $8 shipping. At the thrift store, i also ended up chatting with a nice older lady who noticed the pillows in my cart and was eyeing then. She ended up buying a white-painted cast-iron garden chair that I was hoping would last until 50% off. Oh well!!

So now I officially also have Cath Kidston on the brain, and have a new color combo that I'm diggin' - reds and blues and whites and teals. I was able to get a vintage tablecloth in the 40-ish red/blue/white/smattering of green combo, for about a buck.

Like the Target "Summer Strawberry" line that I got on clearance over the summer!! (Along with a nifty aqua rolling cooler!)

(The color on the plates is way off, somehow, it's more like the strawberry plates right here:)
I love all this stuff. I love matching colors, I love putting things together, and just making it look nice. I just need to find some way to properly STORE and ORGANIZE all this craziness!!

Anyhoo, lately I've also had a mondo quilt fixation (still meaning to post some pics of ones I've gotten lately since for them I hold mondo adoration) and have gotten several off eBay, and a rather uninspired, yet somewhat quaint, patchwork from Goodwill for $6. This is one I am currently watching on eBay, love the colors!!

I had also eyed this quilt because it totally reminds me of the Cath Kidston palette. It was a cutter, though, like, already pieces chopped off the sides and everything. Darn it. The colors, and patterns, and prints, and sheer WORK that was involved in making something like this is quite staggering. What a pity about this little piece, though. It is very sweet and I wouldn't have minded just a swatch for my future "inspiration board".

I'm also hoping to get this one soon, it reminds me of spring gardens!
And, to end this surprisingly long post, at the same glorious thrift store where I found the Cath Kidston pillows, I found this quilt (new, with the new smell, but no tags) for $9.95. It's Simply Shabby Chic from about 4 years ago! I have the matching duvet on the bed right now. And coincidentally, Target has the twin quilt for 50% off and the matching pillow shams for 75% off. I SO remember seeing these in the store and passing on them because I wasn't into it at the time. Agh, naivete and ignorance!! So I bought a few sets of shams and a quilt, why not. I figured I was meant to since it was free shipping with any order over $50.

Still raging over the missed out pink rose quilts, though. That's a story for another time.

Bathroom.

Well, it's Veterans Day and most of the day has gotten away from me already/again!! It is very nice to relax and do absolutely nothing all day though.

It just feels later because it's so dark so much earlier.

Anyhoo, I usually like to start my cleaning frenzies in the bathroom. Since, you know, I use it a lot, and also, it's the smallest room with the least amount of stuff and thusly the easiest to clean.

The apartment came with a couple hooks in the ceiling already. Not sure if they were meant for hanging planters, or what, but there's one above the window/counter that I've always thought would look nice with a chandelier.

I happened to be on Amazon and found one for about $23 with shipping:

So I brought it home on Friday and put it up, and it's definitely missing something without having the small tapers in. And it was MUCH MUCH smaller than I thought it would be. And it's only for candles, bleh. But it looks nice! It fits the smaller bathroom also. I love how the bathroom looks. I've also been meaning to put up a green-matted rose print in a thin burgundy wooden frame that I got at the thrift store for $4. The original price tag was still on it, and it looks like a ca. 1980's tag - $9.99!! Not that much cheaper, but I don't care. I will take a pic soon.

I just really, really, really am enjoying putting things together and finding things that match and what is imagined up in my brain is usually much more productive and complete because it takes a whole heck of a lot less time!!!

Darn, and this long weekend I meant to finish grading up some papers so I would be ready for this week's frenzy.

But I still love my bathroom.

Little Italian Restaurants.

I have two local places that I really like for Italian food. The funny thing is, they are both mom'n'pop - with one spouse being Latino (Mexican and Peruvian) and the other spouse being the Italian one.

Anyway, one is around the corner from my parents' house - Franco's. Their marinara is UNBELIEVABLE. So good, and chunky, and just awesome. It goes so great with the fried calamari. They also have a totally WONDERFUL "minestrone" that is more like a vegetable soup. My favorite, though? Is the stinkin' Chicken Marsala. So. Intensely. Good. Also, $17 a pop for 2 pieces of chicken breast, sauce, and a small side of spaghetti. So I don't go that often. I prefer to take advantage of the lunch specials but they are only on WEEKDAYS!! All day Saturday is dinner prices. Oy. Anyway, it's good every once in a while when I feel like "splurging".

So, my nice cute new-parent neighbors downstairs told me about this other Italian place a few streets over from where we live - Cafe Corleone! (Yeah, like the gangster. They have the pictures from the movie up and everything.) The husband - the chef - is from Sicily. So my neighbors recommended the place, said the pizza was amazing. We had it together for the first time about 3 weeks ago (the week before the new baby came!) and the pizza was OKAY - perhaps slightly undercooked? Or maybe it just got too cold in the car - because the cheese was a bit hard. But I do love me a stinkin' margherita pizza. Yay! Basil!

However, I tried the spaghetti with meat sauce ("bolognese") and LOVE IT. YES, BETTER THAN CHEF BOYARDEE - yet slightly reminiscent. It is a really, really, really good sauce, and the pasta is cooked SO well. Dang. And it's $7.50. I can handle that.

So Friday after school, I decided I wanted to have that for dinner. I ordered the calamari appetizer (totally thought it was fried, and it turned out not to be!) as well as the chicken marsala- just to compare.

The calamari is fanTAStic. It is cooked in a "spicy" marinara sauce, with chunks of onion, and it is SO good!!! I dipped heaps of the garlic bread in it and that was a great entree in itself - $8.50 for the dinner portion.

Scarfed down the spaghetti (whoo, gorging mode) and loved it as well. What is great is that both sauces were totally tomato based, and you could TELL that it was a distinctly different sauce. I love that. Hate when one place calls it "alfredo" AND uses the same sauce for chicken mushroom. Hmm.

Then later, wanted to try the chicken marsala. THE SAUCE TASTES THE SAME!!! I must freaking love chicken marsala. What is in that amazing sauce?? Maybe I like sweet sauces, too. Anyhoo, it was good, but maybe I don't wanna order it again. There were a couple little chunks of fat in the breaded chicken, and they also serve it with chunks of rosemary baked potatoes, that's not my fave.

I will definitely be having the calamari and bolognese again though. Man.

While I was waiting for the food, I started a conversation with the nice signora (she's the one from Peru, actually) about the giant Italian flag she had up on the wall with "Campione del Mondo". I just asked where she got it, and she said during an Italian festival in LA. So I told her I was in Berlin for the finals and she got real interested and we chatted for a good 15-20 minutes while the food was being made in the kitchen.

She told me the regrettable story of a friend who was in Berlin for the finals and promised to get her an Italian jersey ... and ended up bringing back a Brazilian one instead. Oops.

She also talked about going up to Macchu Pichu, and then mentioned a "secret" "locals" haunt in Venice where the only way you can get to it or know about it is for a local to tell you about it. She says she told some friends about it and asked if they had gone there on their trip, and they said they went, but never got in, because the line was so long!!!!! Dang, Venice can have some great food, and there is also some gross tourist junk. But when you crave fried calamari at 9pm, what can you do???

I must HIGHLY recommend the Trattoria da Bepi (near Piazza Apostoli, off the top of my head, if I recall correctly -- whoops, I just looked it up and it's actually Campo SS Apostoli) in Venice because the owner is just SO NICE. Such a nice sweet man, and I ate there 3 times while I was there. Will definitely go back there again. That's where I had the BLACK SPAGHETTI (omg, so scary-looking - made from cuttlefish ink). But it actually tastes not-dissimilar to another very black dry noodle dish in Chinese cuisine! I found that funny. The arugula salad was disappointing, though. Old, tart, tough arugula leaves in a bowl with vinegar and olive oil, salt and pepper brought out. That was it!! For 5 Euros.

Anyhoo, I told the Cafe Corleone lady I would love to get directions to the Venetian place some time so I will go back for that. Maybe bring my map!!

And lastly, I nearly forgot about a super cute little mom'n'pop place near my last school. A lovely fellow teacher treated our entire first grade level to lunch on our first day back at work and I started going there regularly! The wife is Italian, I think, and the husband is Greek - they go on vacation every summer, and they always remember my name! And they know I love their Italian Wedding soup, the soup of the day every Wednesday. They are so sweet. Prices went up a year or so ago, but they used to have daily sandwich specials - 6" for $2.99 (BLT, meatball, Italian sub, etc.) which they no longer have. And a linguine with clams (I liked the white sauce) used to be $4.95. You just can't beat it! Great great large, unlimited topping pizza for $9.99, and it is just as good the next day. It's the best next-day pizza ever.

The Deli News, in Los Altos!!!!

But nothing is likely to top the margherita I had for 4.50 Euros in Naples at da Michele.

I LOVE those last two shots. And of COURSE I am going back.

Horribly embarrassed, mildly mollified, thankfully rectified.

I went back a couple days later to the nice little Wok Express Chinese fast food joint because I OWED THEM MONEY FROM last Saturday.

It was earlier in the afternoon.

They recognized me.

They were nice and friendly, yet again.

So I paid and asked them not to give me change since I was short on Saturday.

And do you know what that nice nice owner Chinese-speaking lady said, when she saw what I did? "Aww, it's okay."

Such nice people make my day. I will make it my point to stop by there more often for late night noshy quasi-sustenance.

I think it says a lot that they would do that for a first-time customer.

Or maybe I just looked really sad and pitiful that night!!

Subway.

Good morning! Happy Sunday!

Exactly one week since we turned the clocks back. Man, I love that time of year.

It was very very weird to be getting up at 7:15 with the sky not even light yet, since we had it so incredibly late this year.

It certainly helps with getting up earlier, though. At least for a little while.

So I'm gonna try to squeeze this in since I have responsibilities at church today and should get there on time. Also, it's better (maybe? will check with Snopes in the near future) to gas up early in the morning when gas is colder, thusly more dense, thusly you get more for what you are paying. Hm.

Anyhoo, had Subway seriously FOUR TIMES this past week. They currently have the 3-footlong-subs-for-$12.99-after-4-pm deal. There is nothing else like that tangy Subway funk!

I like to take advantage of the higher-priced sandwiches when this deal comes around so I tried a couple new ones. They were okay. Here are the ones listed in INCREASING gastronomical goodness order!!!

1. Chicken and Bacon Ranch - this one was okay. It's strips of chicken, but Subway's bacon is always nearly half raw. I think it gets soggy from sitting in that fridge bin? Anyhoo, this time I had them toast the thing WITH the bacon on top BEFORE putting the cheese on and I ASKED for Swiss but they put shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack or what have you. It did not taste nice with the mustard AND ranch.
2. Grilled Chicken Breast - this is basically a hash brown-shaped semi-grayish chicken patty. Mmm, appetizing. This one was decent, but for me, nothing much to rave about.
3. Carne Asada - I liked this one okay, except for ooooooone little piece of stringy muscle-something I had a hard time chewing through. I like this much better than the cheesesteak-y one I had before, BECAUSE I HATE ALL BELL PEPPERS AND ONIONS, EVEN GRILLED.
4. And now there's a big big big space here between the ones I like okay, and can tolerate, and the ones that I LURVE.
5. More space.
6. Big, big -
7. Space.
8. Begin!!
9. Cold Cut Trio - This is my STAPLE. I love it. I think I order it 8 times out of 10. Because I am not allergic to nitrates and nitrites, apparently. And because I am the kind of person who has, and has enjoyed, and can occasionaly be found, ingesting BOLOGNA FOOD PRODUCT. I always get it on the Italian Herbs and Cheese bread and my style is with mayo, obscene amounts of mustard, lettuce, extra tomato, olives, extra extra pickles, oil, vinegar, and black pepper!!! I love it! I love that firm chewy COLD chunk of dense tissue right in the middle!!!
10. Mah ultimate fav at the moment: Meatball Marinara on Italian Herbs and Cheese. Apparently, the way I like it is a bit weird. I don't care, I find it utterly delicious!!! Meatballs (yummy), minimal sauce, only a little teeny smattering of lettuce, loads of spinach (yay!), loads of olives, cilantro, shredded carrot, oil (maybe - sometimes), vinegar, heavy on the black pepper, and RANCH DRESSING ALL OVER IT. Yes, that is what I like.

I also highly recommend the Honey Oat bread. It is nice for regular-degular sandwiches, like turkeybreast, BLT, etc. It is quite sweet.

Yum, food.

Horribly embarrassed.

So, it was about 8:40 and I hadn't eaten dinner and had weird rampant cravings for cheap, nasty, quick'n'dirty Chinese food. I looked up some places in the area (not familiar with what's around here so far) and found a nice little place - I was just happy they were open!!

Talked for a bit with the nice Chinese lady there, who mentioned that she wouldn't have guessed *I* was Chinese, because apparently "people don't look like they used to anymore, you can't tell these days anymore."

I would agree.

So, I got the eggrolls I was craaaaaaaaaving (I swear I would have made a run down to Jack in the Box if they didn't have any, because I was darn near salivating for those), and the nice orange chicken, and fried rice, and the total was $5.40, and I ended up having exactly ... um, $5.09 in my wallet.

WHAT THE HECK!!!!

I love the convenience of POS (point of sale, people, not the other p.o.s.!) but it seems like so many times I end up needing cold, hard, cash - for school lunch, yard sales and garage sales, the thrift store ... and this place was cash only too. They had an ATM machine but it was $1.50 charge. GAH.

So I handed them the five and left the food on the counter and told them I'd give them the rest as soon as I went out to get the rest - and the chick looked at the clock and apparently they were closing in 10 minutes. Gosh darn it.

But you know what? The other chick that had just come out and was behind the counter told me not to worry about it and I swore to them that I would come back and pay it next time I was in there and that was so incredibly stinking nice of her.

So I will be back.

I didn't even finish it all, which, I mean, come on - for those of you that know me and my relationship with foooooooooooooooood ... well, that is just unheard of.

Or maybe it was because of the rest of that liter of Pepsi that I polished off when I ended up having to buy it at Rite-Aid this morning so I could withdraw cash with the debit card so that I could pay $3 for the set of 4 pink swirl glass goblets (likely Arcoroc, since they were imprinted "France") and two old, dirty baby/doll dresses.

HEEE!! I love little baby/toddler/children's dresses and things now. I am still meaning to post about my weird antique flea market experience a couple weeks ago (the day of the start of the big recent wildfires, sadly), since that's when I bought my first ones and had such a lovely talk with that nice lady.

Anyhoo, the dresses I got today were a great find because I went to take one last look in the garage (that's where I found them, when I was just looking for a stool!!!) and there was this stuffed cardboard box of nasty rags, basically. It was all doll clothes and hankies that had been converted to like, grease rags. (Better than the random pair of BOXERS I inexplicably found myself handling when I was digging through a box of what I THOUGHT were towels and tablecloths and aprons earlier in the sale!) It was kind of a pity, because some of the fabrics were really cute and it all looked cheery and vintage and everything, but boy was it all in a sorry state.

It was worth digging through, though. Everything in the garage (and kitchen) was 50% off, with everything else 20% off (guess they started yesterday), and I totally just stumbled upon it when I saw the sign from the major cross street intersection. So weird, since the one I went to last week was right around the corner and it was like deja vu all over again. So the one dress was only 50¢ so I will practice washing vintage fabrics (i.e., experimenting with bleach!) on it and see how I do.

Because I got a gorgeous, lovely, undeniably tattered quilt last week that perhaps I paid a little too much for but I have not fallen in LOVE with some random weird old item like that in a long, long time.

Quilt post to come shortly.

But for now: aren't these glasses cute?? :)

Quick garage sale finds.

Last Saturday ...

I hit on far away garage sale early - they didn't really have anything. Nice Asian - Filipino? people though.

And then I saw some other garage sales while on the way driving to another place - stopped and got HELLO KITTY HEAD EASTER EGGS!!! Still in the package!

Dunno why that made me excited but it did. She wanted $1 for them - I think they were originally $1.39 or something at Target this year. So I offered 25¢ and she took it. Yay!

Then I kept seeing a BUNCH of signs for another sale and decided just to turn around and go to it. It was a cute little neighborhood, old, probably, so the streets were quite narrow. And it was crowded.

The sale was in the driveway/carport and was SO organized! Everything set out neatly, presented well, hung nicely on the fence, labeled, priced, everything. And it was all cute and shabby dabby yabby chic!

The freaky thing was when I walked up, the daughter (about my age, maybe a few years older) made the comment that I looked "SO familiar!" Um, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I could buy a plane ticket to England and back. Heh. Pretty sure I didn't know her, but she said maybe I just looked like a friend of her husband's. Probably did.

(I had the same thing happen to me at Goodwill once, with an employee there, and then a couple weekends ago when I went to Chuck E. Cheese's, a random man came up and chucked me on the shoulder and said, "Hey, nice to see you again!!!" Weirdo. He thought I was someone he had run into and started talking to that morning. "Same face, same clothes!" apparently. Oy. And he was a nurse and apparently had "learned to read people really well" and he thought I was sensitive and cared a lot about the kids (after I told him I was a teacher) and other stuff that I dismissed because I was starting to feel annoyed. Okay, enough non-sequitur tangent.)

I had my eye on a blue and white ceramic dish, but it had stains and crazing and junk on it so I passed. But I picked up a cute little Royal Albert Old Country Roses dish, to do with my teacups I bought on eBay.

(This one is obviously not my picture, as I have no stand :P). The dish was $1, and there was also a box of salt and pepper shakers by the cashbox table, and so I got a little cream-colored set of shakers with gold painted accents for 25¢.

A young teenage boy then walked up to the table with the blue dish I'd been eyeing - it was $2, I guess? - and he asked about a pair of metally, stein-looking shakers and the nice lady said he could have them for free if he bought the dish.

And he did.

I also got the lady's number because there was a HUGE gorgeous upholstered/padded rocking chair that was marked $100 and I WANTED IT. But they were having the sale the next day (Sunday) as well so I told her I'd call her. I just found the number but never did call her the next day. I might try calling her today. She said she would consider going down to $75 but that's still kind of a lot, despite it being a BIG, BEAUTIFUL rocking chair. Painted a nice shade of green, and with a pretty, yellow flowered print on the headrest and seat. Argh.

Oh! One more thing - with my newfound addiction to Depression glass, I found THIS at the thrift store for $1.95+tax:

Does it look like a martini glass, or does it look like a martini glass??? I hunted around a bit looking for another, and didn't see one, and almost put it back, since I wasn't sure I had enough cash.

I am very glad I got it, as it is a "crystal" (read: clear) glass Miss America pattern comport/compote! Book price $18, I guess, but it certainly doesn't sell for that on eBay. Maybe $3 with $6 shipping, something like that? But it is a gorgeous display piece regardless, and I think I love it in the clear. The pink ones are going for $12+ and such. The detail is great!

Off to unload the car so I can throw more junk in the back after my rounds today.

Stuff. And manners.

I am definitely not very good at posting in a quasi-immediate, semi-timely fashion.

Last week's hunting was verrrrrrry fun and fantastic and I have the ill habit of not sorting through my finds very quickly - and they just pile up during the week while I revel and lounge in being shuddering, huddled, useless lump after work. Boo hoo.

I have 4 places marked out for treasure-hunting today and plan to post much more today/tomorrow since I have a social event this evening.

I also have profound intentions of taking my own pictures instead of just copying other people's stuff off the internet. But what can I say, I'm not always entirely original.

And now.

I had a weird thought/memory about a week and a half ago when I woke up and got up in the morning. One of my newfound crazes is this homey, nesting sort of gig where I am into buying dishes and setting up a beautiful dining table and hosting tea parties and all that.

For some reason, I was reminded of this one time I was invited over for a dinner party and sleepover at my good friend Lorraine Sadler's house - and this was in middle school. Probably grade 7 or something like that.

She lived in a nice neighborhood, in a nice house, with nice things. Nothing overly showy, at all, but different from my house. I always slept in the trundle underneath her white metal daybed. Hee. And I remember the nice icy water I would get from the glass bottle with attached stopper (one of those flippy things) that they would keep in the fridge. We certainly never did things like that at my house.

At the dinner party - and I don't even remember who else was there, really - maybe some other family friends?? - there was a "formal" table setting where I had nary a clue.

I remember taking some salad, and putting it on my dinner plate, and then passing it over to Lorraine's mom, who did the same thing.

I know it was not until much much much later - maybe the next day, or week - that I realized there was also a salad plate, and I was supposed to put the salad on the salad plate, instead of on the dinner plate. Oops. I did keep wondering what that extra empty plate was for, really.

You know though, the funny thing is, I am utterly convinced that Lorraine's mom knew salad was for the salad plate, while the dinner plate was for the other stuff, but she saw me doing what I did. And as a hostess, she did the same thing I did to make me feel comfortable. Maybe I had learned a few things about table manners, and etiquette, and such from our mandatory Home Ec classes (for which I am eternally and wonderfully grateful, by the way), but we honestly did not really eat salad in my house growing up, and I was not familiar with salad plates. A salad compartment on the lunch tray from the cafeteria, maybe, but not a sit-down, formal, social dinner.

And I have heard it said that the mark of a true, polite, well-mannered hostess is to make her guests feels comfortable, and not to point out the relatively small gaffe of her daughter's clueless friend. And if you see a guest do something slightly "off", you should do the same thing so as not to highlight the blunder and embarrass her.

I don't know, I was just thinking about that random, little incident and feeling utterly thankful and mildly chided because as much as I like to focus on manners (especially in dealing with some of these wild! untamed! modern! children!), sometimes I feel like quite a shrill, strident Nazi about it. But Lorraine's mom did something silently like that (she was conversing and being entertaining throughout, I remember) and it was very subtle, but I've never forgotten it and feel much appreciation for how she chose to handle it.

So I guess I still have a lot to learn about being a kind, sensitive, and thoughtful person.

Thank you, Lorraine's mom!!!

P.S. I saw Lorraine at the high school reunion a couple years back and I believe she was happily married and being her old brilliant self. Salutatorian of our high school class, I believe she was?? And she was working on her doctorate in physics at Berkeley. Yowza. But I still remember playing "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" at her house during one of these sleepovers and getting the right answers to two questions, but ultimately caving to her insistence on other, wrong, answers.

Because the difference between a rabbit and a hare is the size of the legs, AND THE EARS. Not the teeth.

And the Mississippi River is not the longest river in America.

:P