April Ramblings - A Thrifting We Will Go

We had the kids over two weeks ago for Jordon's birthday and had a good time thrift shopping while they were here.  There was a new flea market that was open that weekend and we also went to a couple thrift stores. We found a lot of great items.  Since the lil guy is crawling now and it won't be long until he's walking I decided to start buying some good toys for him.  I found a great toddler barn set with animals and tractors at the flea market to start the collection.  I need to get a toy box to put stuff in so I'm keeping an eye out for one.  One of my neighbors bought him a set of baby Carhartt bib overalls so he'll be properly dressed to play with the farm set.

I picked him up a high chair at the thrift store.  They don't have one since they don't have a table set yet so it was totally new for him and he loved it.  He didn't want to leave it even though he was falling asleep in it while we played a game at the table.  I still have a lullaby cd that I use to play when Jordon was a baby that I played while he was here.

Saturday morning he decided he needed to crawl across the room and use Tip to try and stand up.  Tip was a great sport and as soon as I got the picture I had Tip move to a safer location.  I'll need to keep an eye on him while he's here so he doesn't accidentally injure one of the dogs.  He got up on Oreo's blind twice and tried to grab her.

While at the flea market we picked up a treadle sewing machine base to use for the base of some bookcases we'd bought from a neighbor.  We picked up several items she was getting rid of and I'll be posting as I get them organized.  The bookcases are definitely antiques.  The glass has dimples and waves to it.  By putting it on the stand it eliminated us having to decide how to repair or replace the top of it.  Our neighbor had plants on it and there was water damage to the wood and it was peeling up.  I still need to clean these up and decide which books I'm moving into it.  We're thinking my classic reading collection would look good in here and possibly my cardinal figure collection.  The sewing machine base was pretty rusty so I used a metal brush to scrape off the loose bits and then used Rustoleum Forged Hammered paint in chestnut.  Matt didn't agree with me on the paint but really liked it after I got it painted. The hammered effect really worked well with the flaking texture of the metal.

Side view of bookcases

Front of bookcases 

I've been trying to get rid of all the blinds in the house.  I'd been looking online for some type of curtains for the dining room area.  I'd decided I wanted a small check with dark red and tan colors and had found some valances that were about $30+ for that window.  Guess what I found this weekend? Yep, a set of valances that fit on that window perfectly for $2.50!  It definitely changed the look of that corner.  I'm also thinking about getting some dark red folding shutters to put on the bottom for privacy at night so I can get rid of that blind.  I HATE blinds.

I also found another long valance with pine cones on it that will fit in perfect with my lodge/cabin theme for the camper for the same price. The valance is actually pretty wide and I think it will cover the entire window.

Another purchase I made was a new FoodSaver machine.  I'd gotten one years ago at a thrift store but haven't used it in years.  I tried to use it a couple weeks ago and the seal function wouldn't work.  Last week Amazon had a unit on special for $54 (1/2 price).  I checked it against Walmart's price and it was $97 so it was an awesome deal and I decided to grab it.  I had been really upset when I inventoried the freezers a couple weeks ago to find a lot of meat I'd put in freezer bags was freezer burned and I had to throw it out. The meat hadn't been in the freezer that long either.  I'll start using this for anything I put in the freezer now.  It also has the tube that you can seal jars with so I can use it for dehydrated things I put in jars.

Weekend Ramblings - March 30th

Saturday Menu: 

Lunch: Cobb Salad
Supper:  Dinner Theater at The Art Center

The morning was disappointing.  With temps being predicted to be well over 50' I had expected to be outside to enjoy the warmth of spring but the winds were 20 mph or higher and it just wasn't the kind of weather to be outside in.

My first stop Saturday when I left for my errands was to stop at Goodwill.  I picked up several more sheets.  I think I have enough to do a red, white and blue rug next or maybe a table runner.  While I was there I noticed a large oak computer desk with hutch for $40.  I mentioned it to Matt when I got home so we ended up going back and he liked it enough to buy it.  He's been wanting a larger desk.

We attended  the dinner theater at The Arts Center.  The play was Relative Values and was about 3 hours long.  They were in the final act when the fire alarm started going off.  Nobody knew why it was going off.  They checked for a fire and found nothing.  They couldn't get the alarm off.  The couple on the stage when it occurred started ad-libbing about the situation.  It was pretty amusing.  Fortunately they found somebody to turn it off.  Since the play was a British comedy they served roast beef, scalloped potatoes, carrots, and a roll.

Sunday Menu:

Breakfast: Easy Cheese Danish
Lunch: Leftover Cobb Salad
Supper:  Italian subs and pasta salad

Temps were wonderful with a high just over 50'.  After my disappointment with the weather Saturday I didn't expect much today.  I did take the furkids out for a wander around the neighborhood.  Matt was outside and he came in and told me to come outside to see something.  It seemed like a million geese in multiple groups flying over head.  They just kept coming.  It's a wonderful sign of spring.

My morning and the early part of the afternoon was spent working on the rag rug.  I ripped it totally out and started over, ripped out part of it again and finally finished it today!  The rug consisted of 4 sheets that I ripped up into 2" strips and crocheted.  I can't wait to for Matt to build my twining frame so I can twine/weave them.  Trying to get the corners right can be difficult.

Since I planned to work on the rug most of the day, I decided to make something for breakfast.  I frequently pick up a package of cheese danish for the weekends. This Easy Cheese Danish was so easy and so good! I found the recipe on Pinterest.  It was super easy to make and I got 2 thumbs up from Matt.

Basically it's just 1 roll of crescent rolls.  Mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla with room temp package of cream cheese.  Roll out crescent rolls and smush the lines together so they don't pull apart - so you have a large rectangle.  Cut in lines diagonally about every 1" to fold over.  Smear cheese mixture down center and then pull sections in alternating so they appear to be braided.  I decided to put this on parchment paper on the baking sheet for ease of clean up.  Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes and allow to cool.  Mix 1 cup powdered sugar, 3-4 tablespoons of cream, and 1 tsp vanilla.  Drizzle over.  I was surprised at how much this made.  We have enough left for breakfast tomorrow if he doesn't eat it for a snack tonight.

Weekend Rambling

Another cold although less windy weekend.  I ended up having something of a long weekend since I had to take Friday off due to Lacey being sick.  She decided to rip open a brand new bag of dog food Thursday while we were at work and gorged herself.  Of course once I got home she proceeded to start vomiting a good portion of it back up all over the carpets.  She is my problem child.  Thankfully when I ordered the bar soap for my laundry soap I decided to buy a bottle of the liquid soap as well (also in peppermint scent) so it masked the smell wonderfully.  I was concerned about diarrhea Friday so I decided to stay home and play it safe because diarrhea and carpets do not go well together.

Lacey the Problem Child

Saturday:
Breakfast: Donuts
Lunch:  I had leftover ravioli and Matt made a PB&J
Dinner:  Brats and coleslaw with cranberries and sunflower seeds

Sunday: 
Breakfast:  Egg in a Hole
Lunch:  Leftover brocolli cheddar soup and roll
Supper:  Chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes (I've been craving this for weeks!)


I got myself motivated early and cleaned the bedroom and bath along with running a couple loads of laundry and working out on the treadmill before I headed out to do some thrift store and grocery shopping.  I'd planned to hit 2 of the thrift stores in town but hit a jackpot at Goodwill so I didn't bother with Salvation Army.  I picked up several queen and king size sheets for a rug project I'm getting ready to start.  I think I paid about $10 for all 4 sheets, which should make a rug from what I've read.  I may go back and pick up the other green striped sheet just in case.  I also picked up 2 Patterson novels for Matt and several books for myself.

My afternoon was spent canning beef & vegetable soup.  I canned 6 quarts of soup.   While the soup base was simmering on the stove I put together a pie using some of the Gala apples and pear apples (asian pears?) from the Bountiful Basket along with some leftover cherry berry smoothie mix I had in the freezer.  It wasn't bad for a thrown together treat especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  I'd planned to can some of the 25 pounds of carrots I bought but Matt doesn't want them "mushy" so I guess I'll have to freeze them instead.

After I got done with that I was ready to kick back and watch the Olympics with Matt.  Matt and I both spent a good portion of the weekend kicking back.  I have been feeling mentally exhausted.  I think all the mandatory overtime is starting to wear on me.  I could use a vacation but since that's not on the calendar any time soon this mini vacation helped.  I really wish I had snowshoes or cross country skis so I could try that and do some skijoring and snowshoeing with the dogs.  I'm sure some good outdoor exercise would do me a world of good.  Hopefully next winter.

My reading for the weekend included a mystery and a romance.  I downloaded a free Kindle book called A Shot in the Bark by C.A. Newsome.  Excellent book and I will definitely be purchasing her next 2 books in the series.  The book centers around a dog park so dog lovers will definitely enjoy this book.  I worked on Mansfield Park.  The movie is not my favorite Austen movie and the book is turning out to be the same which is causing me to not be enthusiastic about finishing it.  Thankfully I have over a month to finish it for the discussion group.  I just keep getting annoyed she doesn't seem to have any backbone and she's so timid.  I also purchased A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg and started that.  For some romance I read One Magic Moment by Lynn Kurland.  I adore Kurland's books about time travel.  I thought I had all them and to discover one at Goodwill that I didn't have was so exciting.   This one is definitely up on my favorites list.

SUNDAY MORNING RAMBLINGS

Yesterday was Matt's and my five year anniversary of our first date.  Hard to believe it's been five years already.  So yesterday we went exploring and thrift storing, which are two of my favorite activities.  It was a beautiful sunny day although chilly with a temp of 9 and wind chill of -9.

I guess I can mention that dressing to go out here in North Dakota is different.  People are use to the cold temps and dress appropriately.  With temps in this range women don't dress in flimsy little tops to impress the guys, we dress in multiple layers for warmth.  Unfortunately most seem to think this means hooded sweatshirts nearly exclusively but for me it means beautiful sweaters.  To keep warm yesterday I wore a mock turtleneck under a hooded sweater with faux fur around the hood along with flannel lined jeans over which I wore my long down coat, which kept me warm and comfortable walking around town.

Even though we live only about 25 minutes away from Valley City, we haven't been there.  I'd heard they had a lot of neat little antique shops but hadn't heard much else about it so we decided to do some exploring.  They're also known as the City of Bridges.  Due to the chilly temps we didn't explore those but will wait until it's warmer out.  We'd heard from several people about Four Corner Pizza so we decided to stop there for lunch.  The thin crust pizza was awesome.  I'm not a fan of thin crust but I really liked their pizza, TONS of vegetables loaded on it, and the perfect amount of sauce. They slice the pizza in small squares which I liked but Matt would have preferred larger slices.

After fueling up we headed out to explore. Of course I then realized I had forgotten my camera and couldn't take pictures.  My phone has a decent camera but with the bright light yesterday it makes the screen impossible to see to take pictures.  The first thing that caught our attention, besides the jet displayed at the Veteran's Memorial Park across from the pizza joint, was the old buildings.  I love old buildings and especially the ones that were built with the original occupant's names on their fronts.

The antique shops were awesome.  I could have spent a fortune at one of them if I'd had a fortune to spend.  I have a feeling I'll be going back to pick up a couple things if she still has them.  There's a beautiful wood table at the one shop I'd love to get.  She also has 6 chairs with it (sold separately) that are pretty nice looking too.  I'd mentioned to Matt that I'd like to get a new tablet set this year and this one definitely grabbed my eye. 

We explored several thrift shops and a quilt store.  The quilt store had a huge selection of fabrics so I know where I will be going for fabric now if I can't get to Fargo.  Matt was quite impressed with their kitchen items at the front of the store.  We picked up several finds at the thrift stores including this beautiful log cabin tea pot ($5) and set of nutcracker salt & pepper shakers ($3) to add to my collections.  Matt picked up several books to read, so he should be set through at least the end of the year.  For my present to him I bought him a bookcase for his office/man cave to put his books in so now he needs to work on filling it up.

We ended the evening by going to City Lights for supper.  The food was good although not fabulous.  Matt ordered garlic mashed potatoes and was disappointed to find they were instant garlic flavored potatoes.  Considering the cost of their meals, they should be serving the real stuff.  I had similar problems with my loaded baked potato which just had cheese and bacon on it - they forgot the sour cream and butter so it was dry to say the least and the cheese was rubbery.  Our steaks were extremely good as was our dessert, a triple berry torte with ice cream, when we finally got it.  Matt's issue with his steak was that he'd ordered a ribeye and there was no bone in it.  I tried their tiramisu martini and loved it, it really tasted like tiramisu.  Our service initially was good but our waitress was the bartender and after the bar and restaurant started getting busy we didn't see her again.  It took nearly 45 minutes to get our dessert after we ordered it and we had to wait nearly that long to get our check so we could leave and Matt had to flag down another waitress to get it.  It was nice to try a new restaurant but I doubt we'll go back.