Birthday Happenings....Thrift Score!

Laid Back Weekend

As you may know from Friday's post, yesterday was my birthday.  I do my best to extend the celebrations for as long as possible. I mean, celebrating life should be done right.  I don't sweat the age thing. Never have. Maybe I will someday but for now, I'm always happy to blessed to be here. You either get older or you don't. Know what I mean?

Friday afternoon, I did play hooky as planned. I was off to Salvation Army and Goodwill for a little inexpensive thrifting fun.  As always, I came away with some new treasures. Some I will sell in our Etsy shop, Bates Mercantile Co., other's I've decided to keep.

Found this retro wall plaque. Was going to sell it, but now seeing it on my kitchen wall, I'm thinking I might keep it.

Check out these awesome signed pottery dishes.  These may stay too, because they will make a really nice grouping with the wall plaque, on my kitchen wall.  I still have to do a little research and get the magnifying glass out to see if I can identify the artist.

A charming little bone china saucer with violets. A steal of a deal.

Another little bone china dish with violets, and another steal.

While I'm dishin' my scores, how about this one? Can you even stand how cute this is with the little vintage characters?  Little kids off to milk their toy cows. Oh man. Cute factor of at least 100. I mean, look at the girl in the back carrying the milk stool on her head. How can this not make you giggle and smile?

Forget the dishes, check out this bowl.  Ultra cool. This one is signed Sierndof Austria. I found an artist Thomasch Sierndorf in Austria, but Sierndorf is also an area in Austria.  It has really beautiful coloring. Again, more research to do.

 

What? 25cents? As my mother would say, I couldn't leave it there for that.

It's plastic, but it's vintage and it's British according to the mark. By the weight of the backer board I'd say it might be from the 50s.  Love it the way it is, but thought it could be really nice with some gold gilting and a mirror insert.

I'm quite happy with my finds and I thoroughly enjoyed just wasting the time away thrifting.

Saturday I was running out to my hairdresser, who I hadn't seen in much too long, when my husband came in with these for me.  He often buys me roses, but has been branching out.  Now, not a lot of girls would be excited to say thir husband bought them cabbage for their birthday, but check these ornamentals out.

So pretty. Thanks Babe.

We were going to go to dinner on Saturday, but Gman spent the day working in the well and pump house again, so I gave him the out. Instead I cooked some beef burgundy and mashed potatoes, we found some John Wayne and chilled on the couch.

He made up for Saturday night by taking me to lunch yesterday. We were off to our favorite Irish local, RiRa.  Finally got a seat at a table...it was packed....and was waited on by our favorite Irish waiter Michael. Met the new girl Jen too.  She was fresh off the boat from Gar's hometown of Dublin and loving our area so far.

We both went with the fish and chips and my husband's platter looked like an entire side of haddock. I am not joking. It was ridiculous.

I also took two naps. Yup, count them. TWO. I am a huge proponent of naps. Sister Di doesn't 'get naps', but thankfully my college roommate and I were on the same page. We were the nap queens. When my body says nap, I am happy to oblige. I curled up under the afghan by the stove and was all toasty and warm.  Heavenly.

The celebration continues tonight at my parent's for cocktail hour and big honkin' shrimp cocktail. 

Hey, I forewarned you that I work these birthdays for all they're worth.

What did you do this weekend? Craft fairs? Busy getting ready for the holidays? Anything special or something exciting like housework?

Happy Monday. Make it a good one and I'll do the same.

Ciao for now,

Thrift Takes & Weekend Wrap

Learn Something New Every Day

I snuck away on Saturday to do a sweep through Goodwill and Salvation Army. I wasn't up and at it early, so I beat the morning rush by missing it....yippee for that.  Sure, I probably missed some things I might have had to have, but I was pretty happy with what I did find.

My thrift take included the sweetest little nippon dessert plate. I've opted not to put it up for sale in Bates Mercantile Co.'s vintage selection and instead I'm going to include in the next giveaway. In case you're wondering, I'm currently pulling together the giveaway, have some awesome stuff already and it should be set to begin next week.

For now a sneak peak of one of the prizes.

See what I mean about sweet? Some of you may remember me mentioning this before, but see that first picture? The one where you can see my hand through the plate? That's how you can tell bone china. It's translucent when you hold it up to light.

I also found a piece of ironstone I couldn't leave behind.  This will be going into our shop.

Beyond the floral design, I lave the pretty pattern and crimped edges.  It does have a spot or two of discoloration but I find this happens a lot with ironstone. I think it adds to it's charm.  It shows a piece has been used the way it should be.

I also scored this lovely Rorstrand porcelain bone china serving bowl. I had never heard of Rorstrand and had to look it up to find out some info.  Rorstrand has been manufacturing china in Sweden for more than 300 years, and continues to do so to this day.  They have some romantic patterns like the one I found, but also some really great midcentury patterns that really fun.

Once I picked this up, and felt how soft and silky it was I knew it was coming home. I'm planning on putting this in the shop as well, though it might be a tough call.  It's so very lovely.

So as usual, while researching a vintage piece, I did in fact learn something new. Am I the only one who had never heard of Rorstrand? 

My mother found a pretty little sugar/jam bowl last week, but I'll save that for the next Thrift Takes.  Oh the things you can find.

The Weekend Round These Parts

We didn't get the campfire in on Friday night, but we did on Saturday.  Friday was a pool fest at the end of the day with our pal Charlie bringing his granddaughter Makenna over to swim with our visitors Leah and Harry.  We had a ball. Then neighborhoodlums Tom and Joan showed up with lobster appetizers to share. Honestly, I don't know who they think they are to just show up with lobster like that. (Insert sarcastic tone). 

We let brother in law Niall, aka Chef Bates, cook dinner for us which included stuff portabellos.

We did get a little youtube dancing and singing in later, well at least Gar and Niall and I. We're still not sure how the kiddos and sil Caragh slept through it, but they did. Solid as a rock.

Saturday we did enjoy a campfire. Caragh opted for lobsters while the rest of us enjoyed some swordfish kabobs and chicken kabobs. The brothers worked on World Peace at the campfire.

My husband looks like a lobster in this picture, but he's not really that red.

We had a good view of the Blue Moon. I liked this shot even though the moon isn't as crisp as I'd like. It looks like it's emanating a blue force field of sorts.

Enjoyed more pooltime.  Just ignore the tilted picnic table with the umbrella balancing on it in the background (it has to get moved when Gar mows), my hairclip on the pool edge, the styrofoam box that has no reason to be sitting next to the pool. Life can be messy.

Picked our first tomatoes. Yay. Isn't that a beautiful yellow color?

The chitlins even got in a little Mommy & Me time.

Yesterday we were across the street to Tom and Joan's annual Labor Day Cookout. Missed a family cookout, but you can't be at two places at once, can you?  We obviously need an appointment secretary.

Sunset Meadows

The sun continues to dazzle us with its Summer show.

I hope your weekend was as chock full as ours. Today, even though I'm not 'working per se' I am sneaking in a little time at my desk.  The plans for later include more pooltime --- who would have guessed?  Picking some green beans and getting them into the freezer. I think there's more tomatoes that need picking too.  Generally speaking, the afternoon is reserved for some chill-axin'. How are you spending this Labor Day? Hope you're getting some downtime.

Ciao for now,