More Thrifting: Vintage BKF Butterfly Chair for Kitty?

Look what I scored on Craigslist from a very nice lady in Silverdale?!  A truly vintage Butterfly Chair (complete with faded cover)!!  Not sure who has made this, as there are no markings to be seen.  However, I am SO happy this isn't one of those HIDEOUS knockoffs that has a bunch of stupid connectors at the intersections of the wires.  This baby is WELDED together...

AS IT SHOULD BE.

Yes, I know...the wrinkles are actually my fault.  I let the cover sit in the dryer too long.  I was too excited to put it to use to iron the wrinkles out.  I just KNEW this would be an excellent chair for the Kitty cat.  I picked it up yesterday...upon waking this morning, I caught little Miss. Kitty lounging in the butterfly!  See how curled-up-comfy she looks...?

 

Of course, she lost interest in my and the camera PRETTY quickly when she decided it was time to return to her napping with a very obvious YAWN.  Translation:  "be off with you, Human!  Leave me to my beauty sleep!"

Leave her alone I did.  

 

Although I would like to replace this with a leather sling, I plan on starting out with a Mongolian sheep's wool throw or lumbar pillow, plus a little round pillow in either jet black or an eye-popping color.  I am leaning towards the black because I have SO much color going on in this room it's ridiculous!

XOXO.

 

 

MORE Thrfiting... Vintage Pottery!

I have been meaning to post about these two vintage finds the past few weeks...but meaningless things such as work and cleaning really take my precious time away from my posts.  I would MUCH rather have a four-day work week.  This 5-days-a-week thing is SUCH a drag...!  ;-)

The first one is an old Stanford Sebring piece, which I purchased off ETSY.  Founded in 1945, the company only produced pottery until 1961, when a fire destroyed the factory.  I LOVE the pink and black combo! I don't know anything about the blue tray, only that it has been hanging out at my favorite thrift mall since its opening.  So I finally bought it.  :-)

Thrifty! Vintage Hot Air Balloon PRINT!

Look at this amazing print I scored at Goodwill last Tuesday!  The print itself if very uplifting, although I do plan on changing the frame sometime down the line...as my budget permits!

I stuck this in my yoga room/office for the time being, as it coordinates TOO well in the main room and I am trying to get away from perfect color coordination.  It always ends up too thematic and matchy-matchy for me, so I try to blend a couple themes and color schemes in each room.

It looks like an old Serigraph-type print, but I really have very little clues of its history.  There is the last name "Carter" on the lower right hand corner, but that is pretty much it.  One of the balloons has "Double Eagle I" written across it.  I am really curious where this came from...anybody out there that knows anything??

XOXO.

Baked Falafel!! NO DEEP FRYING! WhooHoo!!

I came across an easy, interesting recipes for baked Falafel...yes, that's right, I said BAKED.  I found it on Apartment Therapy; the original recipe can be found at Chow Vegan .   I recently started reading this blog - Today I found a sushi BURRITO posting which I am also excited to try out for myself  :-)

These Falafel turned out perfectly spiced and with plenty of crunch!  

Both my husband and Little A enjoyed them.  I served them with cucumber, but one could also serve with greek yogurt for dipping.  Or, my personal favorite, Raita, which is yogurt, cucumber, onion, tomato, and herbs and spices such as mint, cumin, and chili powder.  YUM.  Chow Vegan stuffed them in a mini pita pocket with yogurt, and that tastes great as well!

 



 

St. Germain Elderflower Liquor

Look!  What is that pretty bottle hanging out next to my egg-basket-turned-garlic-holder?  

Ever since I read about it on Apartment Therapy/The Kitchn, I've always wanted a bottle of St. Germain at home.

So, I finally caved in and bought this.  At just under $40 for 750 mL, it's a GREAT deal.  It even comes with a recipe booklet(!)  Well, okay, a little black book of drinks.

This is a VERY sweet liquor (think ICE wine), floral with a faint hint of passion fruit quite possibly?

I mixed it with ginger ale.  I also mixed it in a shot glass with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice (yes, the lengths I will go to for a good anti-corn syrup drink) and a dash of bitters.  (I used angostura by the way...don't ask me how this differs from other bitters, I have not a clue).  

In both cases, the drinks were too sweet, but nonetheless intoxicating!  Next time, I will go for the recommended champagne or simple carbonated water.

I HIGHLY recommend this one to include in your collection.  Sweet, smooth, sophisticated, and unique.  It will WOW your guests, or keep this one all to yourself.  Whatever YOU *wish*

XOXO.

My first Banana Bread!

On a WHIM last Wednesday I thought I would try my hand at banana bread.  It was SO incredibly convenient that I happened to have ALL the ingredients ON HAND!!!!  Even the BOURBON the recipe called for.  I used Knob Creek.  See Little A's little hand trying to snatch away my hard work!?  She gobbled this stuff down like CANDY!

 I snagged the recipe from DEB at Smitten Kitchen.  GOOGLE HER SITE PLEASE, SHE ROCKS.  See below for the recipe (I know, you can't read it...I just wanted to demonstrate how neatly it prints off her site).  Deb, can you come over and organize my kitchen AND my blog PLEASE?!  ;-)

What We Did on Mother's Day

We took a walk down to the creek...this part belongs to our neighbors.  Our side needs some work (CLEAN UP).  And we have yet to tear down a ramshackle cabin (think Seattle's Hoover City during the depression...)  A tree during the last storm took care of some of the demolition work.  SEE:

 We (I mean CALLIE) enjoyed a dip in the creek.  That dog was happy to the Nth power!

She even enjoyed shaking it ALL off...

And here is the biggest trip of the day...there was an Airstream parked near our cabin (ON our property).  SILLY me thought it was a Mother's Day present!!  But NO, it turned out someone parked her Airstream on our property because she didn't have ANYWHERE ELSE TO PUT IT.  She basically bought it, turned the "for sold" sign over, then wrote us a note "dear neighbor, sorry for parking here without your permission..."

 

RIDICULOUS, RIGHT?!?!?!

Luckily, it's gone...but it came very close to me selling it off.    So anyway, NOW my husband has a VERY clear picture of what I want:  Airstream, DWR edition.  Yup, I'm going for the big bucks on this one...it'll be WAY cooler than this, but I thought I'd share a picture of the rogue Airstream regardless, so you all could see how AWESOME these look in a little clearing in the woods.  ENJOY.

 

XOXO.

 

 

Getting CRAFTY Again!

Late last week, Little A and I had a really crafty day.  It made me HAPPY.

I recently bought her a pack of gel-crayons. They are as bright as highlighters!  She LOVES them!  The drawing on the left is of a yellow caterpillar with spots, while the blue object on the right is the sun.

In her world, the sun comes in all colors of the rainbow  :-D

We also created our very first embroidery project using a simple hoop, floss, and piece of felt.  I supervised while Little A used the tapestry needle. 

These are ALL easy, cheap craft ideas to keep her busy when we visit my parents in a couple months.  :-)

XOXO.

Awesome Cardamom Cookies

I took Little A to a friend's birthday party.  Everybody brought their kids so she had a pretty fun time.  The birthday was butterfly themed!  (YES, adults can have cool parties too!)  There were butterfly gummies, butterfly cookies made by a friend, as well as a caterpillar pinata! (made by another friend).  Towards the end, we (tried to) released a butterfly which the birthday girl had grown from a caterpillar...Little A and I were super-blessed to be surrounded by such creative people!  It was pretty awesome.  :-)  We brought a yellow orchid in a dark lilac pot.

 
Anyway, we took home a couple of those AMAZING butterfly-shaped cardamom cookies.  She enjoyed them the next morning (Mother's Day!) with a white peach and some milk, while on the phone with Ba and DaaDaa!   

  These cookies were so super awesome, I was told the recipe came with the ceramic cookie mold from Brown Bag Cookie Molds.  I printed some recipes from the company's website, however, was unable to find the cardamom cookie recipe.  I am confident, though, that I can probably add this spice to the plain cookie recipe provided.  Maybe also mix in some lemon OR orange zest!  I might just try this recipe out when visiting my parents! 

XOXO for now!

Fatty Callie in the Yard

I absolutely LOVE my dog.  She's super sweet, and I love sharing the goofy pictures I take of her, like this one:

Of course, that is if she has the patience to sit still long enough!!  Usually, most of the pictures I am able to take of her are of her rump, like this one:

BUT

I

LOVE

HER
ANYWAY.

.

.

.

XOXO

:-)

New Toy for Little A!

Little A Got ANOTHER Toy...

 This one fits her MUCH better than the other two. However, as you can see, she is still really little.

 

And here are the Doggies roaming the yard...

 

Mikio is plotting to pee on my birdhouses...and Callie is grazing again like the Fat Girl she is.

 

 

 

My First Pear Pie

So about two weeks ago, one of my co-workers was going on and ON about how his wife made this pear pie at home.  Wait!  Let me clarify!  She made the pie at home with a store-bought crust, and fresh pears.

Now, I had not yet had a pie of pears...so all week I salivated over the idea of making a pear pie.  I cracked out the old 70's cake-n-pie book which Little A and I got at a local library bookstore, on a WHIM.  (yes, it's fantastic all the wonderful things we can find that are old and thrown away.  I LOVE thrifting!!  AND, we weren't even looking for a pie recipe book ;-) Anyway, my crust recipe came from this fabulous little book below:

I printed off the recipe for "fresh pear pie" from HERE, and arranged all the ingredients for both the pie crust + pear filling...

I actually (at first) followed the method "cutting" the ingredients together for the crust.  I used butter knives, per the retro pie booklet.  Then my husband walked up and showed me how to use a fork.  That went much quicker.  

For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of making pie crust from scratch, the ingredients get mixed COLD (that's butter, milk, shortening, flour, a bit of salt - *the milk and butter being cold, duh*).  The key here is to not allow the butter and*or shortening to "melt" in with the other ingredients.  You want to keep the fat source in chunks, as to create a "flakiness" in the crust.  For those of you whom appreciate a flakier, tastier crust, use more (or ALL) butter.  The reason for this is that butter is something like 80% fat, 20% liquid, whereas the shortening is 100% fat.  The liquid portion of the butter helps to create pockets/layers in the crust.  The shortening cannot afford this, as it is 100% fat.  You can use equal portions of each to substitute (that's what I did and it worked out well).  Another note:  shortening is flavorless, butter is RICH.

STAY CALM

and

EMBRACE THE

BUTTER

 See?  My pink pyrex pie plate (say THAT fast 5 times!) is also embracing the butter...

Roll out the pie crusts (top & bottom!)

 

Layer the filling (slices of pears, I used d'anjou, bosc, & those small apple pears) and sugar/dough mixture...

Remember, the recipe is "fresh pear pie" on allrecipes.com!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Both my husband AND Little A loved the pie!  They loved it by itself and with vanilla ice cream.

XOXO.

(I will later post the actual recipe for the crust...when I remember ;-)

Since I am feeling Crafty...

Alrighty...WELL, since working on the previous post I am in the crafting mood.  So, although I am short on time (what's new in my life, right?), I DO have a picture of the felt purse Little A and I made together.  SEW EASY!!  She even poked the needle through all the pre-marked holes!  :-)  

See below for Monkey modeling the results...

I wish I were a FAIRY

So...I have recently discovered "Once Upon A Time" on HULU!!  I am only two episodes in, yet already I am addicted!  It reminds me what it is like to be young, carefree, and full of adventure.  Yes, I am afraid the golden age has passed for me!  I am now buried in bills and worries.  I, for one, would appreciate some lottery winnings so I can leave the gnarled hands of society and find a quite cabin from which I may draw and write for the rest of my days.  Alone.  Unbothered.  Well, I would have my brother around so we could talk more.  Maybe he could have a cabin across the creak.  And my daughter could live in a tree house in the herb garden...or maybe in a turret attached to the cabin.  She is a princess, after all.

Long story shorter...I became ultra sad at the thought that I am in fact NOT a fairy in the forest, and that I am not living this hermittess lifestyle I so envisioned myself enjoying.  This made me remember the fairy tiara Little A and I made together - last MONTH.  (Yes, shame on little old me for neglecting this little piece of heaven I call a blog).

SO...DRUM ROLL PLEASE...here we go!!

Super simple:

pipe cleaners

felt

scissors

ribbon

play time!

XOXO.