Habitat For Humanity ReStore

Hello! As I'd mentioned in my previous post, a recent plumbing issue morphed into the replacing of bathroom flooring. Thus, a-shopping we will go...

In a money-saving effort, we headed over to the local Habitat For Humanity ReStore first. There was one large roll of vinyl flooring in stock, but it wasn't in a pattern we liked. The guy at the counter informed us that they don't get much vinyl flooring in. 

However, what caught my eye when we walked in the door was a white artificial Christmas tree; not sure of the height - either 5' or 6' tall. I'd seen some nicely-decorated white Christmas trees in the December shelter magazines, so had fancied one for myself. This ReStore tree was priced a low $5.00 - but alas, it was marked "SOLD" as well. 

My husband had thought that a place like ReStore sold items more along the lines of architectural salvage, but that's not exactly the case. And some of the items, like the Christmas tree, aren't strictly related to building or remodeling - for instance, we saw used books and movie videos for sale. 

Some used furniture was available as well; I noted the 1960's era kitchen chair among the selection. 

Of course, ReStore does mostly cater to restoring/remodeling projects - tiles, lumber, paint, numerous light fixtures, toilets, appliances and more were available. We only did a quick walk-through, as we still needed to purchase bathroom flooring, but I'll be back soon to look things over more thoroughly! 

In case you wish to know more about the local ReStore, you can find more information HERE. If you haven't been there before, it's worth checking out!
 


 

Holidays - Post-Christmas Greeting

Hello! Above, you see a small collection of gifted and thrifted Santas; they are displayed in close proximity to my Santa tree, seen HERE.  They, and I, hope that you had a very Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year as well! 

Our holiday season was nice. There were the busy days and nights leading up to Christmas with decorating, the crafting and wrapping of gifts, and cookie tins and stockings to be filled. A few packages were mailed  out as well. 

Traveled to the other side of the state to my hometown for Christmas Day, but then decided to return the same evening due to an approaching snowstorm the next day. Am glad we made that decision, as there ended up being numerous accidents and subsequent backups on the route we take to get back home.

Upon our return we began addressing what we thought would be a simple plumbing repair for a leaky pipe. Not so fast - it turned out that the leaky pipe was due to the first floor toilet sitting on rotting plywood. So all of the sudden we're talking about needing someone to do carpentry work and flooring. 

Thus far it's ending up for the best. It's a slow time of year for home repairs (probably because many people have Christmas bills to pay off), so we were able to get workmen to come out, give estimates and then begin work right away! And since we had some older, nagging home repair issues that needed attention as well, I had the carpenter take care of some of these repairs. 

The flooring guy will take care of some of the other repairs. Turns out there's a good reason why our flooring looks bad no matter how much I mop it - he estimated that some of it is close to 30 years old, and in the second floor bathroom it's over 30 years old. Seeing how the floorings are beginning to wear through in spots, I believe him on the age. 

The leaky  toilet is even older - the plumber says it had been made in 1959. It looks retro, all right - pale pink. Probably makes sense to go with a new toilet and its lower water usage. 

And so it goes - never a dull moment with an old house!

 

Thrifted Christmas

Hello! As we get close to Christmas 2012, it's time to show off some of the thrifted Christmas items I've purchased over the past couple of months. Vintage pickings have been slim at the local thrift stores, but fortunately a church rummage sale last month helped pick up the slack. So, let's begin the show and tell:

Fabric gingerbread person garland, $1.00 at church rummage sale. This is nearly 6' long from end to end! 

Close-up of some of the fabrics used:

I love this green print with small flowers all over. 

Fittingly, the gingerbread person garland resides for the season in my kitchen.

From the sale rummage sale, a couple of fabric angels. Not crazy about the green hair, but again, I liked the older fabrics used. 

Vintage glass bead garland in unopened package, 25c at a thrift store. I was very happy to find this, especially at that  price!

Large burlap bag; measures 17"w x 14"h, so it would hold a generous amount. 75c at a thrift store. I'm a sucker for felt and sequin crafts.

Recently the thrift stores have marked down their Christmas wares to 1/2 off, so I took advantage of the sale to buy this:

Above, 1959 Holt Howard candy dish, on sale for $2.00. I liked the soft blues and pinks; not the most common color scheme one sees at Christmas, but the colors happen to match our dining room decor nicely. 

I actually had purchased a few more Christmas items besides these,  these are just what I'm showing off today. As I'd said, there wasn't much vintage to be had in the thrift stores this holiday season, but I was happy to find what I did.

No Chef Boy-Ar-Dee Here!

Hello! Spied this a few weeks ago at the local Salvation Army thrift store:

It was $2.99,and although I loved the graphics on the box, I was pleased to see that this set was complete; ravioli tin, small wooden rolling pin and recipe sheet were inside. Yes, I thought myself up to the challenge of making ravioli, and did just that last week.

I used the ravioli dough recipe included on the recipe sheet; it was easy to work with. For filling, I used a spinach-ricotta recipe I found on the Internet (the recipe sheet had recipes for a spinach-less ricotta cheese filling and a meat filling). 

Of course, it took awhile to roll out each sheet of pasta dough, a task complicated a bit by the recipe giving no mention of how much dough to use to make each sheet. But I quickly figured it out and then was able to weigh out the same amount of dough on my kitchen scale each time I was ready to make another round of ravioli. 

Here's my batch of ravioli, ready to be cooked:

If you're thinking the recipe made a lot of ravioli, you would be right - although the dough recipe gave 72 ravioli as the yield, I got 84. 

Close up:

Don't they look nice? The darker color of the ravioli dough is due to the white wheat flour that I used. That's one reason why I bought the ravioli set; I try to avoid pastas made with white flour when I can.

These cooked up nicely, too - only needed about eight minutes, and only one or two ravioli fell apart while cooking. That's a testament to how well the ravioli tin was designed - by going over the filled pasta sheets with the rolling pin, they were cut and sealed at the same time. 

Even though the tin and rolling pin worked in tandem, this wasn't exactly a quick dinner to prepare. However, the recipe ended up making enough ravioli for two meals, plus an additional 12 ounces of noodles were made from leftover dough. Three meals from one cooking session isn't too bad! And the cooked ravioli, served with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese, were delicious. 

Note: I don't know how old this set is. My set's recipe sheet listed the address of the Ohio importer of this Italian-made set, and the address included a five-digit zip code. This dates the set as no older than 1963, even if the box design makes it look even older. Nevertheless, a fun find that resulted in something fun to make and eat!

Get Carded - A Pacific Northwest Birthday

Hello! I have a friend who has lived in the Seattle area for many years now, but her heart is in her native state of Oregon. So what better card to craft for her birthday than the following? 

Supplies used:
- white card stock
- yellow card stock scrap
- yellow plaid card stock scrap
- "Oregon" game card piece from vintage State Capitals game
- German scrap piece (girl figure)
- "Mary" cut from vintage alphabet flashcard set
- "happy" and "birthday" cut from various sources
- hand-dyed (by me) pale yellow string

The recipient loved her card and framed it to keep out on display - I can't think of a better compliment than that! And I didn't think it was my best effort - as I told her, my brain starts to fizzle a little with all the baking and crafting that I do this time of year. 

I do enjoy creating a homemade Christmas though! (and homemade birthdays!) 

Roses In December

Hello! As seen earlier this week in downtown Holland:

Yes, we have roses blooming in December. Granted, this bush was probably helped by the fact that it's growing next to a building, but even so... December weather thus far has been very un-Decemberish for this region. Just checked our local paper, the Holland Sentinel, and its weather page shows that we've had just a trace of snow thus far - and we're already almost halfway through the month.
 
I have to admit, I don't miss the snow. As chief snow shoveler, grocery shopper and errand runner of the family, I am happy to not have to deal with the stuff. It's much easier - and safer - to drive on clear streets than on snow-covered ones! 

All the same, it feels strange to not have any snow to speak of yet. We are probably several inches below the average snowfall already. I grew up with snow as a reliable part of December, so when it's not here, it seems odd. But we have to take the weather as it comes - and at least for now, we can enjoy roses in December.
 

God Jul

Hello! Although I don't have a Scandinavian background, I've developed a fondness for the Christmas items of that region. I showed off a number of Scandinavian Christmas figures last year, seen HERE.  Since then, I have added three more pieces to my collection.

First up, this wooden St. Lucia figure:

Not counting the candles, she is 8 1/2" high. I purchased it for $1.50 at a thrift store. We happen to have a charming shop in town called The Tin Ceiling, which specializes in Scandinavian items; perhaps my St. Lucia figure had originally come from there. I visited the shop yesterday to see if they had my St. Lucia in stock. They did not, but I saw other wooden holiday figures of similar size and style - selling for  between $45-$55 dollars! 

Continuing with the wooden figures, I picked up a much smaller one for 50c at a thrift store:

This figurine is similar in style to the ones I had shown off in last year's post. It's 4 1/2" tall from base to the top of the hat. The label on the bottom says Holboll Denmark. I don't know what the current value is. 

Back to Sweden, with the same holiday greeting:

I didn't know anything about this plate when I saw it at a thrift store, but I sensed it was vintage, and was only 75c, so I snapped it up. Looked it up on eBay, and learned that the company that produced it, Berggren, is Swedish. Some eBay sellers referred to the plate as mid-century in age.

A close-up:

Gotta love those dancing elves! Also gotta love that although I paid less than a dollar for the plate, an identical one recently sold on eBay for $14.99.

It just so happens that today is St. Lucia Day, a popular holiday in
Sweden and in other countries around the world -so Happy St. Lucia Day - and a God Jul to all!