a petite homemaker

All that time I spent collecting and stashing household goodies… it has all led to this! Rich and I are now finally settling into our little apartment. My cupboards are full of green Pyrex and I don’t have to feel guilty about decorating the living room with wool.

While we were on our honeymoon, we stopped at several antique malls. I found some special things including this wonderful linen tablecloth. During some intense browsing, I came across a pile of linens, and just happened to pull this one out without knowing its special hidden secret. A wheel! Of course I couldn’t pass up something with a spinning wheel on it! When we got home I put it on the table immediately. An unexpected bonus: it’s inspiring me keep the table clean.

the perfect day

We’re married now, Mr. and Mrs. R. Richard Brown. Despite mediocre weather, the day was superb. The only hiccup was my slip – it kept rotating around under my dress, making the strap hang out. Otherwise everything went perfectly! We had a great group of friends come support us. We had delicious food, a positive atmosphere, and lots of fun. Thanks to everyone who helped with cookies. And thank you for showing us so much love!

less than a month now

The official countdown begins, although I’m not officially counting down. My grandmother sent up the cake-topper from her wedding over 50 years ago. I’m not sure I’ll be putting it at the top of my cupcake tower, but it will definitely be present.

The lady appears to be missing a bit of her chin.

wedding bells news

It’s happening in just less than two months. I’m glad I’ve had this time to mentally prepare and whatnot. Pennsic was a bit of a road block to a lot of our preparations, but with that out of the way, we’ve moved forward successfully. The day after we returned home from Pennsic, we spent the entire day rearranging the furniture in Rich’s apartment. He takes his couch/futon to camp, so we wanted to take advantage of the living room being mostly empty. We’ve made room for some of my furniture which consists only of one chair, a coffee table, and spinning wheels.

As for planning the wedding itself, we had nearly everything taken care of before Pennsic except for a photographer. It was really difficult to find someone who was available and affordable. I didn’t think we’d get out without spending at least $1,000. However, through the grapevine, we reconnected with someone I knew from high school. She actually remembered me from when she worked there. We’re going to have a video done too, which I hadn’t considered before. And in a week or so we’ll meet with the caterer to discuss menu and cake!

Just a few days ago I finally decided on a head-topper. I really liked the look of the birdcage veils or little hat/veil thing rather than a large fluffy veil. My mom put together a few different things, but I just felt uncomfortable. In the end I decided on a birdcage attached to a headband since I have short hair and combs do NOT stay in! I found it at [Psalm117]

Also, I purchased an overnight carrying case to use as a card box from [Great Lakes Vintage], another Etsy shop. It’s actually a lot bigger than I had anticipated, even though I had a measuring tape in from of me at time of purchase. At the end of the night, I can just close the box and take it home! And then it’s reusable later. I’m not into this single-purpose-chatchka-lying-around-the house business.

turn back the hands of time

Clocks. My dad likes them a lot. He even made one once. But he has one that tocks very loudly and for some reason, it never stays running. My mental powers of dislike stop it, so he just doesn’t wind it up anymore.

I saw a neat clock at a church once and wondered why I never find anything like that at flea markets. This weekend I did. I asked the fellow selling it if it worked. He said he wouldn’t bring it out if it didn’t work. That’s honorable. Unfortunately it is not battery operated, and the plug is on a 3 inch cord. It makes sense for a kitchen from the 1950s when there was an outlet up near the ceiling into which a clock could be plugged. For the 21st century home, it might present a bit of an adventure.

My mom said it looked just like something they’d had when she was growing up. The colors – turquoise and peach – were very popular at the time. That’s one of the things I like about collecting vintage stuff: when my mom tells me what she remembers about it!

the dress

As requested by Valerie, I’ll do some sharing in regards to the hitching. Since the man and the dress are the only two things settled at this point, I’ll show the dress. I found it on Vintageous, a website with a great selection of clothes and accessories. She had just added it on Thursday and when I saw it, I knew I couldn’t wait around to think about it. It’s a late 1950s, early 1960s dress (http://vintageous.com/v5623.htm).

Looking for the right garment for this occasion did not concern me. When I was in high school, I loved searching out dresses for dances and accessorizing them. At no other moment in my life was I even remotely stylish, but I could manage a semi-formal event. The boy and the dress had never been a problem. Apparently that remains true for this also. My co-workers weren’t overly excited about it, but they’re all 50+ and likely rather traditional. Plus I don’t care what they think.

golden geometry

Thanks to everyone for your enthusiastic congratulations on my news. So far we haven’t made any specific plans, and frankly I don’t know where to start. But whatever we do, it’ll probably be weird! I’ll keep you posted.

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Whenever we go visit my friend Laura, we always stop at these two funky junk shops (my dad doesn’t like that I call them “junk” shops) that have not been restocked since 1975. They sell a lot of stuff, but a large majority of it is fabric. One store has mostly quilting stuff and the other has draperies. Since I was there last weekend, and in an appreciative mood for the unique and vintage, I picked up a few yards of this stuff:

The plan is to make into a bag for my Kromski loom. I realize it’s not going to be padded, but then again, I’ve been bumbling around with the loom for a month or two with nothing protecting it. Mostly I need something to keep everything together. I wish it had a date printed on it!

“surprised”

One never knows…

I didn’t come home with fabric or fiber. But I did come home with something else.

Here I am, down by the lake where Richard presented me with this vintage (1930’s) engagement ring Friday afternoon. He told me all about his extensive adventure trying to find just the right one. When he saw this one, he knew! It was already my size and fit his requirements. Done deal.

more green??

Stopped in at a new antique mall this weekend. Technically IT is not new – I’ve just never been there before. Thanks to working at the newspaper, I read about it in a listing of flea markets/antique malls.  Weee! It’s called “Wizard of Odds” and they had lots of interesting stuff and priced rather reasonably. I found many pieces of furniture I wish i could take home. Instead I added a few more items to some already established collections.

I found this little juice glass, a Swanky Swig, for $3.oo. The vendor had many of them. I chose this one because it goes with my other animal glasses. There is another Swanky Swig that has a spinning wheel on it (part of a different series), and I’m always looking for that one, but this vendor didn’t have it.

I also found this tiny lime green Pyex dish – the lable said “individual casserole”, which just cracked me up! I imagined putting a tiny crust in it with a few vegetables and some chicken and making a mini potpie. The stamped ID is 080, 8 oz. It isn’t part of the Verde set, but I do have a brownie pan this color. Apparently it has a lid, but this didn’t come with it.

One of the most exciting finds was this green cake plate, found in the same vendor space as the Pyrex dish above. I’ve been wanting a cake plate and after not buying one for so long, my mom gave me one for Christmas. A month later I found this! The reason I got it is because it matches two relishes dishes I already have! This one was a very early housewares purchase; this smaller one I found at an outdoor flea market in the fall (75 cents). We’re having a superbowl party of sorts today, so I got out a few of my items to use. Hooray!

did you know?

Green is my favorite color. And in January of 2008, thanks to Cosy, I started collecting pieces of a Pyrex set commonly called Verde. It’s not so much a pattern as a color scheme, and that color is green. Over the past year I have picked up various items, slowly building my collection. Each time I bought something, it was washed and put into a storage box, since I have no cabinets. That made it difficult to see just how vast my collection had grown. Every once and a while I’d unpack the box, just to find out which pieces I still needed.

On Monday a box arrived containing one of the few remaining pieces I needed to complete my collection. The 503 refrigerator dish. A kind member of Pyrex Love on Flickr traded one of my blue dishes for the dark green, thereby ending my hopeless search (503s are hard to find). Thank you, Knobby Wheezer!

And because there just happened to be a nice unoccupied shelf in the living room today, I decided to pull out all my Verde dishes and take a group picture. Here is my entire collection: