My Favorite Thrifted Thing for the week of 8/29/11

This week I had to choose 2 favorites because they are both awesome.

1.

 Vintage Cookie Jar $5.25

 This is one of those items that just sang to me when I laid my eyes on it. I know it's funky, but visions of my children and grandchildren (or nieces and nephews as the case may be) begging me for cookies out of this jar flashed before me when I saw it. 

2.

 Yellow Seychelles Heels $7.50

Don't worry folks, I lysoled these puppies up before I stuck my tootsies in there!

Until next time...

Jes

Happy Anniversary to Me! - By Jes

It's been 7 years since we got hitched
and here's what we did to celebrate.

Itinerary for Aug 22, 2011
(a few days late, our anniversary was on the 18th, but who's counting)

1. Breakfast at Howard's Station Cafe in Occidental
Humungous mocha with extra whipped cream?
Yes, please!

2. A trip to the Wildflour Bakery and Garden in Freestone

We were much too full to eat anything here but we bought a loaf of their Rosemary Garlic bread for later.






3. Local Color Gallery in Bodega

4. A drive up the coast

5. Antiquing in Duncan's Mill

I fell in love with a small cast iron dog at this store, but it was so expensive I couldn't bring myself to actually buy it.
The only thing that comforts me, is that it's so expensive no one else is going to buy it either, so if I ever decide I must have it, it will still be there.
I didn't take a picture of it either. I should have, then I could have tried to whittle it myself.

I did however buy a small ceramic owl at the shop below, which was so charming I wanted to live there.
(I didn't take a picture of the owl either)

We also went to Armstrong Woods
but this post is already really long so I'll post those pictures later!


Thanks for sharing my day!


Jes

Polenta Pizza...By Jessica

So this is going to end up being one of my new favorite dinners! 

I love polenta and pizza separately...so why not put them together!

We have this place downtown called Arragoni's...If your from around here you know what it is, if not it's just a little deli that serves lunch, they've been here forever, and they have some yummy food!

My mother and Law ate there with Jax the other day for lunch before my shower...and we shared the polenta pizza. 

It was so good, I thought that it couldn't be that hard to make!

Doesn't it look yummy? Well it was better tasting than looking, that's for sure...

So here is what you do!

Buy some corn grits/polenta and cook according to the directions.

Preheat your oven to 400.

Once the polenta is cooked pour it into a round baking pyrex or other oven safe dish.

Once your oven has preheated, stick it in the oven for about 20-25 mins, until  the sides begin to barely look brown. 

Pull it out of the oven and top it with marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, the mushroom saute mixture and some olives. I topped it off with some shredded parmesean cheese too.

Then put it back in the oven until the cheese is bubbly and your done!

Let set for a few mins before serving...

You guys should seriously try this! If you want more detailed instructions, this is the recipe that I googled. I basically just used it for oven temperatures and times. You can top it with whatever you and your family likes:)

Enjoy!

Jessica

My Favorite Thrifted Thing for the week of 8/15/11

Vintage copy of 

Alice in Wonderland 

and Through the Looking Glass

$1

I think my favorite part of this book is the illustrations

 

Until next time...

Jes 

A Piece of Cake...By Jessica

I have been entirely distracted the past couple weeks with baking, crafting, cleaning, running errands and just too plain exhausted to blog about anything. I was keeping busy preparing for Lacey's shower. Now that it is over I can share some details with you...I'm not quite sure i'm cut out for this blogging thing yet, as I'm always forgetting to take photo's of the important details.

Last friday lovely prego friend Lee came over to help me bake...What happens when you put two pregnant girls in the kitchen? Well almost nothing...We were forgetting what we were doing every two seconds and instead of trying to muli task and make more than one thing at a time we could barely focus on one thing at a time. It was hilarious. 

Regardless we had a lot of fun. We made this cake. Although, don't go into shock, it doesn't quite look like that cake. Their instructions were easy, although I would definitely do a few things differently next time. So if you want to make this let me know before you try it!

Doesn't it look more like a stack of colorful pancakes..
I'm not a very good froster.
We had our doubts about whether or not it would actually look like a rainbow when it was cut, but to our surprise...

It did! The layers were just thinner than the instructions led us to believe it would be....

And the little mister of the house enjoyed it very much, all up to the last few bites when he said "my tummy hurts!"

More to come on the shower later....

My Favorite Thrifted Thing for the week of 8/8/11

Antique Sofa $75

I am pretty excited about this sofa.
I am imagining it in a dove grey velvet, or maybe a funky bold print, but the fabric is in good condition for now even if it's not
something I would choose.
I will be hiding it in my spare bedroom until I can
decide what to do with it.
Ideas?

...On another thought, I am well aware that the last 4 posts in this blog are mine. I don't intend to be a blog hog but apparently I can't help myself, and Jessie has been exceedingly busy doing many fun and exciting things that will surely show up on this blog soon.

Until next time...

Jes

Gardening Tips with Beasly

Okay, she doesn't really have any gardening tips but she likes to hang out with me while I garden, so you might catch glimpses of her here and there in my pictures.

My basil has gone to flower but it's so pretty I didn't 

want to do anything about it!

New strawberry patch.

We've been overhauling our yard and I'm just now getting things into the ground. These poor strawberries have been in pots and were all root bound, so hopefully they'll be able to breathe now.

They look happier already!

More updates soon!

Jes

My Favorite Thrifted Thing for the week of 8/1/11

 

Carved wooden decorative ball

$2

 

It was kind of hard to choose my favorite thing from what I found this week. I've been looking for funky vases for an upcoming event, and I found some really cool ones. I'm sure you'll see them in a later post.

While I was wandering around looking at the various vases, 

knick-knacks, etc. I noticed a lady that was intently examining a Jelly Belly jar. It was kinda like one of those cookie jars that say something when you open it, and when she opened it, it said (at a much higher volume than necessary, might I add) "TRY A COTTON CANDY WITH A LEMONADE! IT'S PINK LEMONADE!"

She was so delighted she scooped it up and stuck it under her arm right then. Which was fine with me. However, since she was not yet done browsing, every time she would bend over to look at something, the top would flop open and scream "TRY A COTTON CANDY!" before she could shut it again, only to forget moments later and repeat the process. Needless to say, I will never forget how to make a pink lemonade combo with jelly bellies. 

I love the adventure of thrift store shopping.

So if anyone has something particular you would like me to keep an eye out for, please let me know. 

Till next time...

Jes

7 Things I like about living on Hazel Street - By Jes

1. Having Seth and Jessie across the street.

2. Having an entrance to the greenway trail just around the corner.

3. Being within walking distance to railroad square with it's lovely shops and restaurants. 

4. Having a park with swings just down the street. 

5. Having a neighbor with a yard sale every Saturday and Sunday all summer long. (No, really, I got some good stuff. Including someone's super old family album. I now have pictures of families that I can pass off as my own)

6. Having a possibly senile neighbor who owns a dog that looks like a white sausage, and who gives my husband hand-me-downs. (the neighbor, not the dog) 

7. The possibility of hearing an impromptu drum circle and/or singalong from the neighbors to our right any time I am in my bathroom. It makes washing my hands feel like an adventure.

Jes

Ziploc Bags...

Yep, you read that correctly. 

I am posting about Ziploc Bags..

Now probably 50% of you guys will think this is nonsense, but I'm sort of a recycling fanatic. And I've been trying to find new ways to save money.

I even save the recyclables that are worth money in a separate bag for the guy that digs through our recycling bin every tuesday night just so he doesn't have to dig.

Anyways back to the bags..

I have been trying recently not to spend money on the big ziploc bags, since you can reuse them several times and they are fine. It's not like I don't have enough dishes to wash since we are sans dishwasher in this house, but it's better for the environment and plus i'm saving like $3...wow I know..But hey that's a latte! I'd rather spend my money on something fun.

The next step in my eliminating ziploc bags from my life will be ordering some reusable baggies that a very talented friend makes...(her etsy doesn't have them at the moment but i'm sure most of you have seen them on her blog.)

I guess I have to pay some credit to my mother who always made us wash out the ziplocs and reuse them when we were kids. As much as we complained and tried to throw them away look what i'm doing now!

I cleaned out my freezer and fridge today and found 8 bags that could be reused! yes my fridge needed to be cleaned bad!

Am I crazy or does anyone else reuse these things?
What else do you guys reuse to save money?


Jessica

Oh, the Fair - By Jes

I was wondering to myself recently 

"When did my fair-going stop centering around rides?

When did I become a person who goes to the fair to see the flower show?"

And then I remembered:

I was 15 and went to the fair with a group

of my best girls, 

and one unfortunate great-nephew 

of someone who happened to be visiting and was forced upon us.

I will only tell you that we always referred to him with his full name with a finger crooked just under the nose to indicate a sparse 17 year old wannabe mustache.

We did our best to make him feel welcome, but as much as we were excited to have our wristbands entitling us to ride as many rides as we could handle, he decidedly was not.

He was positive he would get sick, but after standing at the exit of ten or so rides, being designated coat holder, he decided he would try the most vomit inducing ride at the fair. 

THE GRAVATRON

  

We all went, and yes, he does get sick on rides.

We all believe him now.

And that, boys and girls, is when I became a flower

show kind of girl.

So, we went to the fair on Sunday.
This is my experience according to my camera:

That thing took 3 people to eat it.

I love checking out the art. There are some really 
talented people in our area!
This one was done by a 17 year old.

This was probably my favorite though.
"Oh Hey Girl! How you doin?"

 I got a kick out of this picture from the
History of Sonoma County Fair exhibit 

 This was certainly the scariest thing I saw at the fair




THE END




Jes