Crochet Butterfly Necklace

I made this seaside butterfly necklace for my friend's birthday from this pattern. I made the butterfly a while ago and hid it so she wouldn't find it when she came over to crochet. Of course, I left it unfinished and had to scramble to find it to finish it for her party tonight because I hid it so well and it took me forever to find! I sewed on some vintage pearls and attached a chain from the craft store.

Weekend Tag Sale Finds

No flea markets this weekend, but we did stop at a tag sale on our way to the apple orchard. I found these cool vintage goodies to use for scrapbooking:

Never A Dull Moment - party games for every occasion. The box is full of printables to use for party games, recipes, mysteries to solve, and fun pictures. I also picked up a pile of vintage valentine's for $1.50. And a book with tips on taking pictures. Because I think I need it!

I also found this fun box of disposable coasters. I love the saying on the box!

Stormville Flea Market Treasure Hunt!

In the words of Bill (words I never thought would come out of his mouth, although I detected a hint of sarcasm), "Let the treasure hunting begin!"

To celebrate Labor Day weekend, the family headed to Stormville, New York for some bargain hunting galore! Lauren only looks crabby in this picture because Bill was living up to the picture on his shirt. But I know she was secretly excited inside...

Especially about these $35 EACH seltzer bottles. We would have loved them to adorn our kitchen counter tops but they were way out of our price range!

I loved the McCoy pottery. I tried to convince James and Bill that I could use the Shawnee globe as a candy dish but they just said it looked broken. Men!


Of course there were plenty of salt and pepper shakers for me to dream about adding to my kitchen and dining room shelves. I think that the key is for me to just take pictures of all of them from now on since I have absolutely no space to put them!

Bill is not smiling on the inside. James was being a good sport though!


Maybe because he was excited about the $10 Otis Anderson (does the name ring a bell Dad?) signed Sports Illustrated that he bought within the first 5 minutes of the morning.

Daddy and I liked the HO scale Monopoly trains. How cool!?! But again, we weren't big fans of the price!

While my family finished shopping, we stopped to rest so I could take a picture of our purchases:

Vintage postcards to use for scrapbooking $2
Winnie the Pooh salt and pepper shakers $5
White Owl cigar box to go with our snowy owl collection $4
Morton pink peacock wall pocket $15 - now I have a girl peacock and a boy since I already have the green one at home!

We ended our family day with a trip to Stew Leonard's for lunch and a trip to the petting zoo. Lauren is happier here because Bill isn't nagging her about spending money at the flea market anymore. Despite some newlywed turmoil (okay I'm exaggerating a little), it was definitely a successful trip!

Crochet Bougainvillea

I finally finished my Bougainvillea hairpiece to wear to the next 3 weddings. We're halfway done for the year, woohoo! I found the pattern through Ravelry on Crochetology.net.

Antiques Capital of the U.S.A.

Also known as Adamstown, Pennsylvania. We went to a wedding for one of James' college friends this weekend. The four hour drive wasn't so bad, considering that it gave me time to crochet 8 baby hats, and I had something to look forward to...antiques! We started our journey in a magical carriage...















Not really, but I thought it was really cool so I took a picture. It was a little out of my price range. Going to Adamstown is sort of like going to wine country with sprawling vineyards as far as the eye can see. There is a street full of miles and miles of antique shops and flea markets everywhere you look. Lot of fun kitchen collectibles...















And, of course, salt and pepper shakers. I took home the cute little mouse sitting on the clock in the top center of the picture. Hickory, dickory dock. The mouse ran up the clock. Cute, right?






























Here is a hot picture of our legs in the mirror of a fishy display. What you can't see is the scowl on James' face. Which is not fair because he spent more money than I did! He found a Star Wars Jeff Gordon car - now what are the chances of that?

Putnam Antiques Road Trip

My mom and I decided to do some exploring last week and what better way than to drive two hours (ugh) to Putnam, CT for some antiquing. Although it wasn't as exciting as the first time we came across the town last year, we definitely found some treasures!















First, we stopped at the Boxcar Children Museum. Putnam is the birthplace of Gertrude Chandler Warner, one of my favorite childhood authors. Of course it was closed, but we still got to see the boxcar that started it all.















Then we headed to the antique shops. Here are some cool vintage packages. I think that I'm going to start saving empty Goldfish boxes so that after I die, my grandchildren can sell them for a fortune. I mean, really!















And of course, salt and pepper shakers were in abundance. I stayed strong and didn't add any to my collection on this trip though.















I did, however, become weak in the knees when I spotted these buttons. They were only $6 and I know they will look amazing on my crocheted flower hair clips.















And I also got this cute Lefton girl with apples. She is sitting on my shelf at home reminding me of fall - I can't wait! Although I can wait for school to start back up again signaling the end of my summer exploring days...so sad!

Mystery Tin

I think that maybe I should make this a recurring post theme. Like a "Guess What's in the Mystery Tin Day"?















Yup. I bought a $4 tin of 228 matchbooks from the 1960's and 1970's. They were so fun and colorful that I just couldn't resist. What am I going to do with them you ask? Maybe I'll be a millionaire one day for having some really rare matchbook that every single collector wants. Unlikely, especially since most of them have the year inscribed in ink. But a girl can dream!















Here are some with great illustrations and captions.















Gotta love Smokey the Bear from 1965! Just imagine all the adventures
the original collector experienced along the way.















And my personal favorite...it's a good thing I can cook!