I’ve moved, and you can find me here:
Come on over!
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Ok, so I haven’t been blogging for a year. But I’m still playing along with Sophie’s Flea Market Find of the Year! I’ve had a hard time deciding, so I’ve narrowed it down to a few that are my latest favorites.
This past weekend I picked up these two gorgeous ladderback chairs at a church’s yard sale. They were leftover from an estate sale, and I was given the gift of a story by the man who sold them to me.
The chairs were his mother-in-law’s and the seats are needlepoint stitched by her and her sister. He also shared that her father was a local landowner and owned quite a bit of the area and that her grandfather was appointed to a gov’t post by Woodrow Wilson.
Antique Ladderback Chairs
This chest of drawers is a mystery to me, but it’s completely wood and was only $5 at one of our local DAV stores. Although the veneer is peeling up in a spot, it looks fixable and if I’m very gentle sanding it, I think I can restain it. Otherwise it’ll get a paint job. Can you see the way the top of the profile meets in the middle and almost looks only decorative? That’s actually side by side drawers!
Chest of Drawers
My last pick would have to be our new (original) Atari. For only $1 it was a real steal, because they can run upwards of $50 depending on where you find them. Now we play Pacman, Frogger, Space Invaders and more. Fun!
Atari and Games
If you haven’t had time to check out the other entries in the Flea Market Find of the Year, you can check it out at:
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Thrift Share Mondays, Thrifting, Vintage | 7 Comments »
My girl and I are huge fans of Sherlock Holmes. Actually our whole family loves the British TV series starring Jeremy Brett. He’s an amazing Holmes!
We also love the Laurie R. King series starring an older Holmes. I won’t give anything away, but if you’re a Holmes fan, do try them out. They’re very good, enough so that the author was inducted into the Baker Street Irregulars.
So, to spread the Holmes love, let me share a giveaway by Kelly of A Stuffed Life. Kelly makes handmade teddy bears, and she has created a beautiful Sherlock Holmes inspired cuff with houndstooth, vintage buttons and other beautiful things.
Holmes Cuff
You can enter her giveaway here.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Giveaway | 3 Comments »
This past weekend was fun and busy. I saw the inside of several thrift stores and a church yard sale.
I’m coming down with a cold, so no lallygagging this morning. Here are the lovelies!
Stack 'o Books
A bunch of wonderful books. All but one of these are from the same sale, a small thrift shop booth set up at a local art show.
Hymnals
Two Hymnals. The one on the left is not from the booth. It’s St. Basil’s Hymnal published in 1935. On the right is Spiritual Songs for Social Worship, published in 1881. Interestingly enough there are two hymns, handwritten and hand noted, affixed in the front.
Bobbsey Twins and AEsop's Fables
I was thrilled to find several children’s books at the booth. This Bobbsey Twins book was printed in 1918, a first printing I’m fairly sure given the Post-text ads in the back.
The other book is 1939 printing of Aesop’s Fables.
AEsop's Fables Cover
The forward is by GK Chesterton and the plates and cover by Arthur Rackham. As you can see, the pictures are amazing!
My Book House
The My Book House series is one of my favorites. The whole set was on my bookshelf when I was a child, courtesy of my dad’s childhood. I lucked out finding two of the 1920 editions of books two and three.
W&M Colonial Echo 1930 Yearbook
This 1930 yearbook, William & Mary’s Colonial Echo, is in fantastic shape also.
Portraits
Just look at the portraits and pages!
Ads in the 1930 Colonial Echo
And check out the ads in the back of the yearbook.
If you’ve ever been to a church yard sale, you probably know that going late in the day can be an interesting experience. Most yard sales are fairly picked over by 10 a.m., but church sales have so many items that even late in the day there are sometimes great finds to be made.
Pyrex and glassware
Like this Pyrex bowl and Semco glass jar.
Margot Flower Prints
Or these flower prints signed Margot. The only lead I can find on these so far is that perhaps they are Mid-Century from Gold Bond Stamps redemption.
Atari and Games
Or an Atari with 9 games included. For only $1! My husband and daughter are in heaven. And yes, it works. We were playing Frogger and Pac-Man last night.
I’ll share some of my clothing finds soon, too. For now, I’m linking up to:
Flea Market Finds at Her Library Adventures
Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Thrift Share Mondays, Thrifting | 9 Comments »
Of the three of us in this house, I’m the only regular coffee drinker. So when my old Mr. Coffee started to die and I decided to keep my Keurig for sometimes use rather than spending a small fortune on k-cups, I opted for a pour-over brewer by Melitta.
I’m really happy with my pot, however about a week ago I realized I was running out of paper filters. Oh no! I vaguely remember seeing a post somewhere about experimenting with a homemade filter. Now that I can do. So last Friday at my local fabric store I sneaked a peek in the remnants bin, and what did I find but a quarter yard of muslin. Just the thing!
I traced my last coffee filter on a piece of paper, laid one side of my new pattern on the fold of the muslin and cut out my new filter. Because this is sort of a prototype and there are a few things I’d like to fix about my coffee filters, I did make it longer. Check out the tracing pencil line on the muslin. See what I mean?
Filter pattern
Next I sewed up the other side and the base of the filter using an overlock type stitch. Easy Peasy!
Sewn Filter
The new filter fits fairly well, though perhaps it doesn’t need to overlap the top quite so much.
The filter in place
This morning was the perfect time to try it out. My new filter with the freshly ground joe waiting for the water.
Waiting. . .
The small space between my appliance garage and refrigerator is the perfect size for a tray that holds my pot, sugar, and creamer.
Coffee Corner
Time to pour the water over the grounds and see how things go.
Brewing
The muslin is holding up well. It’s not sinking down, and the water isn’t just rushing right through it either. Great! Let’s see how the coffee tastes.
Cup of coffee made with muslin filter
The coffee is good! The only difference I’ve notice with the process is that it did take a bit longer than usual for the water to finish pouring through the muslin than through a paper filter. However I don’t think it was much longer, and I can live with that.
I’ll probably make a few tweaks to the design, but I’m happy with the idea! Now to make a few more filters so that I have more than one on hand.
What do you use for making coffee? Anyone else out there use a pour-over brewer or cloth filter? How about for tea? We do drink a fair bit of that in the winter, too!
This post is linked up to:
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged IDIM - I Do It Myself!, tutorials | 1 Comment »
-
Join 4 other subscribers
Tags
Ballard-Inspired Blogging CSI eBay Etsy Giveaway IDIM - I Do It Myself! Not So Clever ReUse Thankfulness Thrifting Thrift Share Mondays tutorials Vintage WWCDSearch
-
Calendar
December 2025 M T W T F S S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Clever Penguin Plays With
Clever Penguin ♥s
cleverpenguin.wordpress.com 