Too busy to post lately...my last few weeks in pictures....

Tuesday evenings, June through the end of August...7pm until dark, we have drop in volleyball at our house. Each week it seems there are different people, some regulars, and some who just drop in. It's always a good work out and a fun time. 

A new restaurant opened in our town...tried it out last weekend with my youngest. Not a big fan. Glad I tried it, the food wasn't bad, just wasn't great.

Been soaking this little gem, that I got for a steal. The previous owners must have washed it in hot water and the color from the red border ran into the white causing it to turn pink. It's stubborn and wants to stay pink. I see many more soaking days in my near future.

Last Saturday, my youngest, the Mr. and I gave blood at a local church. I was planning to give double red, but was turned down because of low iron. Mr gave double red, and Eric and I just gave a regular donation. First time in a long time that I didn't end up with a giant bruise at the needle mark. 

Some flowers my youngest planted next to our pool. For the longest time they looked like weeds, and just barely survived the weed whacker.I'm glad he kept telling me to be patient.

Tulle is EVERYWHERE! Glitter is EVERYWHERE!! We've been busy making tutus for our team to wear when we walk in the Spina Bifida fundraiser walk in a couple of weeks. Our team is "Zoe's Court", and the reason we are walking and raising money for research is our sweet little 6 year old cousin-who LOVES to dress up as a princess. We are making 13 tutus-6 are done and 7 to go. Just waiting for a break in everyone's schedule to finish them up!

This is the before shot-so much hair, she could hardly see!

The after shot-looks like a totally different dog!!

A new to me vintage tablecloth--LOVE it!!!

Heading to Bay City on Saturday for a mini family reunion, less than half of the family is able to attend, but we're hoping for good weather and great times!!

Can't believe tomorrow is August already!!!  Hope you're having a great summer!!!

The last one to the party!

Today I got a tiny little package in the mail...it is the last one (that I want to collect) to the party. It's a mauve blue Harlequin individual (or sometimes called toy) creamer.

The little on on the right--LOVE it!!!

One Trip, Lots of FUN!

Today, Mr. and I headed to Lansing for Mega Mall's outdoor flea market. It was HUGE! So many vendors, so much variety-I LOVED it! After walking through, and finding a couple of treasures, I made a quick trip through the store. If it wasn't so far away, I'd LOVE to have a booth at one of their flea markets. The atmosphere is so much fun!

After Mega Mall, we went to Menard's and returned some leftovers from our front porch project, and to use the rebate that we got in the mail for some mulch for the flower beds. We got 4 plants and 30 bags of mulch-for FREE! Our rebate from the porch stuff completely covered it. We still have a couple more rebates to use, but nothing to buy right now, so that means another trip sometime in our near future. I wish Menard's would come to our area...or maybe I don't-I might be there all the time!

Our next stop was The Little Red Schoolhouse for me, and Harbor Freight for Mr. As soon as I walked in the front door, I saw a cute little display that was about a foot off the floor in front of the check-out desk, and on that display, I found a vintage turquoise Fiesta bulb candle holder!!

I scoured the rest of the mall, hoping for a second, but no luck! One of the workers helped me look and she even called the dealer, but there was only one...bummer!! It was fun to look, it's one of my favorite stores. Did you know they also do flea markets? Theirs was last Sunday. The worker told me that their entire parking lot is full of vendors on flea market days. I'm going to have to add their flea market schedule to my calendar!

After we got home, we planted the plants, spread the mulch, took a quick dip in the pool to cool off, and I finished soaking and hanging some linens. We got a lot accomplished today, and even had a few minutes to relax. This was a GREAT weekend!!!

Here is what I saw and found today...

 Mega Mall Flea Market-so much fun!!!

 Little Red Schoolhouse-if you look closely, you can see their flea market schedule in their window.

 I have a bunch of maps that I can't wait to mod podge on to something...this desk looks awesome!!

 This booth is having a 60% off sale! I took this pic for a friend who is always on the lookout for buttons.

 These are my treasures for the day, Fiesta, Pyrex and a vintage tablecloth!! Definitely a small addiction going on here!

The very last of the linens that needed to be soaked...until I find that bag that the boys did something with.

We tried to have a little bonfire last night, but the mosquitoes were too bad, so we quickly made a couple of s'mores and raced inside. My next task is to find an organic, non-toxic mosquito repellent. Do you have any suggestions??

Hope you had a great weekend too!!

Latest Finds and a Great Day for a Soak!

Here are some more pictures of my latest finds...

 The wooden chair is from the vintage sale yesterday, and the jewelry is from a new store in our area called Charming Charlie. The butterprint 401 completes my set and the friendship dish competes that set as well.

These were from yesterday's vintage sale too-they had a whole box, but I only grabbed 2...maybe I should have grabbed more...

 Look at this sky!!! Perfect day for soaking some linens!!

Can't wait to see them without the stains!

After my dentist appointment this morning, I stopped at Costco. I saw this bag, and decided I had to try it, and boy, am I GLAD I did!!! YUMMMMMMM!!

If you like salty and sweet, you have to try this!!! I bought two bags and I'm hiding one between my bed and nightstand-otherwise my guys would eat it all so quickly, I'd never get any more.

Bonus Day Off!!!

Things at work are pretty slow right now. something that very rarely happens, and I had everything that needed to be done for the week, done yesterday, so I asked my boss if I could take today off. She said go for it! It turned out to be really gorgeous outside, and I had an absolutely wonderful day!!

It started off with a few sales in the morning, a lunch date with Mr., some yard work, and some organizing of treasures. My shelves are overloaded with vintage Pyrex!! My youngest son said they might collapse, but Mr. says he made them extra sturdy to hold a lot of weight. I'm very lucky that he is so talented, and can make me such nice things out of wood!

The first sale I went to this morning was less than a mile from my house. They had a sign out that said "SUPER VINTAGE SALE". I was anxious to see what treasures they had! I wasn't disappointed-they had a LOT of great things. I enjoyed looking at it all, and even bought a few things. I went to 6 more sales after that one, and I didn't buy a single thing. I enjoyed looking at the things they had for sale and saw quite a few very interesting pieces, but things were either priced too high for my cheapness, or they were things that I liked but could live without.

I sent out a few text messages to people who've had me looking for things for them. They took a really long time to respond, so I ended up leaving the sales. You can only walk around so many times before (I think) people get suspicious-especially if you aren't buying anything!

As things like that go, I got about 10 miles away and got the response text of "YES!! GET IT!!" I had to say sorry, I'm too far away now. I gave them the address, so hopefully they were able to get over to the sale and hopefully the thing they wanted was still there!

I used to buy things as soon as I saw them, when people asked me to look, but now I make sure I get a confirmation before I pay. I've been stuck too many times with things that people decided they didn't want after all, or they just bought one and forgot to tell me to stop looking...or other times when I've bought something they've asked me to find, I've given them the items, and they don't have the money right then and there, but will get it to me-which doesn't always happen.

This is what came home with me today...

 A small old oak child's chair and an ivory beaded purse jumped in my car too, but they didn't make it into the photos. :)

These pics are of my cramming organizing efforts...

A quick trip to Treasuremart

I had an appointment today in Ann Arbor so on my way home, I stopped for a quick visit at Treasuremart. It was packed!! There was a long line out the door of Zingerman's (about a block away), and every parking space in the area was taken...until I found an amazing public parking lot that I've never even seen before!!

Just as I was parking, it started pouring like crazy, so I sat in the car until it let up, then walked the block and a half to Treasuremart. It was hard to move around in there. It was FULL of treasures and loaded with shoppers. I found a lot of fun things to look at, but nothing I couldn't live without. They had two full sets of Early American cinderella bowls, and a 441 yellow and black pyrex cinderella bowl.

They also had tons of vintage rolling pins, and a couch full of vintage typewriters. I saw a quilt in the basement that was really sweet, but it had too many loose stitches and too many threadbare spots to be able to come home with me. I would have expected a Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 to be a quite day/time to visit, but for some reason it wasn't.

I also stopped at Costco once I got closer to home, and it was like a Saturday morning! What's up with that? Is it a national skip work day? Is everyone but me on vacation? I still don't get it.

Oh well, to make a long story short...if you haven't been to Treasuremart in a while, you should stop in. They are loaded with treasures to look at and shop for

Legs Inn...don't miss it!!

While we were up north (that's what we Michiganders call pretty much anything north of Bay City) at my parents (which we call waaaaayyy up north because they live in the U.P.) they took us out to dinner at a really unusual, fun place in Cross Village called Legs Inn. It is near Petoskey, and about an hour drive from my parent's house.

I don't know about you, but a lot of times, when I am going someplace new, I get an idea in my head of what the place is going to look or be like. Well, this place was no where near what I had imagined. It is very unique and very interesting. Lots to look at as you are entering and walking through to your table.

If the weather is nice, make sure you ask for patio/outdoor seating! The view and atmosphere is amazing!! I've never had another dining experience like this-ever! We were seated outside in a marvelous garden, on a bluff right on the water of Lake Michigan,so we got to watch a freighter go by as we ate!

Their specialties are authentic Polish food, but there were quite a few American choices on the menu. I ordered a pierogi sampler (4 pierogi's two were cheese, one was meat and one had cabbage and cheese in it) and two potato pancakes-YUM!!!

If you'd like to find out more about this restaurant, click here to go to their website and check it out! If you are ever in the area, make sure you make time to stop-you won't regret it! Note that they don't open until noon,and they don't accept call ahead seating or reservations. My parents told me the last time they went, before our trip there, they arrived right at noon and had an hour and a half wait!

As you can see, the food was awesome! I scarfed half of it down before I remembered to take a picture!!

Part of the charm is driving through the tunnel of trees! It's a narrow, winding road that leads from Petoskey to Cross Village. At some points, it was actually kind of scary. My dad has a HUGE truck, and the road was so narrow, and the trees were so close to the road that either we had to stop or the oncoming car had to stop so one of the cars could squeeze through. Very pretty drive though.