Bli Bla Blog

This weekend's haul. Spent around $30.
Garage sales were overall disappointing.

Can anyone explain to me how to format pictures on Blogger?? There has to be a way to place them side by side. 

   

Linens. Table cloths, table runners, place mats and napkins. $7.50 

Never pass up anything from Crate and Barrel.
Laundered and pressed. Lovely tea towel. 50 cents.

Hand cream in a pump; Crabtree and Evelyne hand cream in a tube. Body wash for men. All smelled fresh and new. Total cost $1.50. Picture frame 50 cents. Shakespeare, Explorers, and Civil War "fans" with lots of trivia on those subjects, 50 cents each.

Holly Hobbie from the Seventies.  Loved it then, love it now. Especially this tea pot. $3

Travelocity Gnome 50 cents.
German fairy tale $1

 Spent $2.50 on all books and $6 on CD's.

Sugar pot. $2

Twenty percent

While shopping garage sales today, I listened to an interview with a nurse midwife on National Public Radio. She talked about how in Oregon almost 20% of all births are assisted by a nurse midwife instead of a doctor, and nationwide 10%. She explained that it takes 20% of the population to participate in a new idea or way of doing things for it to get mainstream. It got me to thinking about our church's emphasis on earth care, our successful first attempt at a no-trash Fourth of July picnic (many people answered the call to bring their own plates, cups, utensils, and cloth napkins), and the meeting this coming Sunday that won't be using Post-It notes, but scrap paper cut to Post-It notes size instead. When an organization starts walking their talk, it reaches and inspires more people than an individual could. Let's hope we're contributing to reaching 20% for refusing, reusing, reducing and recycling! My personal drop in the bucket is ordering my latte at Starbucks in a ceramic cup and my treat on a ceramic plate. And by using my clothes line during the heat wave we just had. (There is something seriously messed up with running the A/C and the clothes dryer simultaneously.) Today at a sale, I found new clothes pins. They'll soon be holding on to towels, shirts, underwear, socks... If you're looking for a practical, sturdy, and portable clothes line, check out the Brabantia Rotary Clothes Dryer here: http://www.brabantia.com/int_en/laundry-drying-ironing/rotary-dryer/ They are available here: http://www.amazon.com/Brabantia-311048-Lift-O-Matic-Weather-Rotary/dp/B0002EXYPM/ref=sr_1_10?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1436570078&sr=1-10&keywords=brabantia (Yes, it's Dutch as am I.) I highly recommend it. Of course, I do drive my car from sale to sale... and it runs on gas not electricity. Small steps. Small steps.

Here are my photos of Friday's haul:

I spent $40.

This tea cup tray will adorn my kitchen and be on display at the annual High Tea.

I collect these glass sundae cups for our church.
The plan is to have enough so we never have to buy disposable dishes again
for Sundae Sunday and other events that include ice cream. 

Pretty tablecloth from Provence. It's heavy and has a sheen on it. I paid $10. It's in excellent condition.

Peter Rabbit plate of a Mama Rabbit who takes care of her sick baby ($1).
Reminded me of a Dutch nursery rhyme called "Sick Little Rabbit." Moeder konijntje zat bij haar kleintje. Zat bij haar kleintje dat mazelen had." The title sounds awful in English!
The Pig just had to come home with me.
It's original artwork ($15). 

Always nice to pick up skin care from a trusted brand. I paid a quarter each.

Happy days!

Garage sales during a heat wave

Yesterday and today, we braved temperatures in the 90s (32 degrees Celsius and up). A heatwave is just as bad as heavy rain for garage sales, so they weren't very busy at all. I'm getting a lot of use out of my wide brimmed sunhat that keeps my hair color from fading and might keep some new wrinkles at bay. Who knows.

Friday's haul. Spent $16.60 total.

On Friday, I found two beautiful Delft blue pitchers (Delft blue...here we go again). They were $2.50 each and I had to bring them home. Also found 5 ceramic spheres, a book by Susan Vreeland, a happy print of a bright red pitcher, and a book on Vincent van Gogh that came all the way from Amsterdam, from the VvG Museum.They don't show up well in the photo, but, for $1, I got a set of 6 plates and 6 bowls by Zak! Design (a $42 value). Those will come with us to our church's Picnic in the Park, which we're trying to make trash-free this year.

Saturday's treasures. Spent $11.75 total.

Fossil coin purse. Looks brand new. I paid $1 for it and gave them my old coin purse to sell at their sale. 

Two yellow mugs from London Pottery. A book of cat poetry that I've wanted for a long time; I paid $1 for it-- better than the $12.95 I almost paid for it at a bookstore once. And, the surprise of the weekend: shower foam by Rituals. Made in Germany and sold in the Netherlands in Rituals stores. It's not readily available in the USA, so I was very surprised to find it at a garage sale. Unused. Brand new. After paying $2 for it, I asked the lady where she bought it. She told me it was in her Glossy Box. "Glossy Box?" I asked. And now I know all about this subscription that sends you a collection of surprise cosmetics and skincare each month, packed in a keepsake box. I've already Googled them and think I'll sign up.  

And I was super pleased to find this Mary Engelbreit BIG platter. Will look good on my cherry table cloth that I got a few weeks ago.

See you next week!

Get Happy

How to get happy after a sh***y week.

I went to Weight Watchers this morning for the first time after two months. The scale didn't make me happy, but their new Summer campaign "Get Happy!" did. (Although the damage on the scale was limited to 2.5 lbs--so not too bad.) This Summer, we are to focus on what makes us happy. The idea behind this is that you need to be happy in order to lose weight. There's truth in that! Happiness helps you stay in control and makes you strong. I'm usually pretty happy and upbeat, but this week had me down. My younger child has been ill with Mono since March and is now being hit with depression. Everything together made it so that my child's participation in the high school exchange trip to Germany had to be canceled. This is something that I didn't want to accept, and so I grieve a little over this. Knowing full well that I'm spoiled and that this isn't the end of the world. Traveling, making new friends, celebrating graduation and broadening horizons has made way for months of medication and counseling to battle the blues and anxiety. I'm sure that this experience broadens one's horizons too. But it's all so different from what I had imagined for my child. So, I was ready for the Get Happy! message.

In the top 10 chart of things that make me happy, going to garage sales ranks in the top 3. So, off to garage sales we went, my older child and I. And man oh man was it ever my lucky day. People don't know what they have or they don't care: I scored a pepper mill by Peugeot (made in France) for the ridiculous sum of fifty cents. Look up the brand to see what a deal I got. And, if you're in the market for a pepper mill that will age with you and move with you to the assisted living: go with Peugeot. They make awesome cars AND pepper mills. Odd combination, but true.

Then my second FIND of the day must have been planted there just for me. As a big Bandaid or a big hug from the parenting Gods for my kid's not going to Germany and thus my not getting a handcrafted-in-Germany souvenir. A Rauchermannchen was waiting for me by his lonely self on day 3 of a giant moving sale. Looked over by many, treasured and taken home by 1: me.  (I could almost hear him whisper "Danke Schon.") He's never been used, and came with a box of Raucherkerzen (incense)! I paid the princely sum of fifty cents for this jewel that was made in the Erzgebirge of Germany.

Other happy-making scores were CD's for a quarter each: jazz, swing, and classical. All gems; all happy.  Six mugs that go with my dishes, a Vera scarf, rubber stamps and a stack of cloth napkins to be used at our church's no-trash picnic on July 5. A picture frame by Mary Engelbreit that affirms that I in fact AM the Queen of Everything-- this bubble got burst a little when it dropped on the drive way and chipped--oh well. Rubber stamps with perfectly happy images. A great movie and a Weight Watchers cookbook and a linen tea towel that came all the way from England.

Weight Watchers, the Happy Challenge is ON!

Gone off my Dutch rocker

Today, Sunday, my daughter and I went back to an estate sale I had shopped last Friday. The estate was of a deceased, single woman who spent her life working for the Foreign Service. She must have spent some time in the Netherlands. On Friday, I picked up the Sinterklaas cookie mold and decided I could have some Delft Blue on Sunday when it would be half off. So back we went today!

A 3 X 4" watercolor of a canal in Amsterdam. $4. The original price sticker of 55 guilders was still on the back!

The other two cookie molds that I saw on Friday and that were still there today: $3 for the pair.

Ha ha ha. Some bonafide Dutch kitsch: a Delft Blue windmill musical box that plays: "Tulips from Amsterdam!" At one time, the wings used to rotate while the music played, but they don't anymore.

And, yes, I DO have a plan for future use of all the Delft Blue I have accumulated so far. To be continued...

Scandinavian design?

My trip to the Netherlands was great. The weather was unusually mild for the time of year, and I even got to go for long walks on the beach without a coat. Great to see family and friends. Nice to be back. I missed my garage sales and was ready to go last Friday! Here are the highlights of my finds.

Not Scandinavian but German. A men's choir with village church, houses and trees. I believe it's Erzgebirge. $4

We paid $15 each. Would love to know more about where they are from. They look Scandinavian to me.

Not Scandinavian but Dutch! A Sinterklaas (yes, Santaclaus) wooden cookie mold. $3

From Denmark: a Rosendahl corkscrew. $1

Ordered at Amazon. Happy with the Design and Chairs one. Not too impressed with the tools for living.

A bear's head of unknown heritage. First I though Skjode, but it has no marks. 

It cannot sit by itself, unless you put it on its side. It has no evidence of ever having been attached to something.

This is how it sits if it's not supported. Someone help me out! What IS it? $1

On my last day in Holland, I found this sugar bowl and creamer by Mosa (Maastricht, the Netherlands), at an antiques barn. It belongs to my mom's dinnerware set that I have and grew up with. Terrific find. 7.5 Euros.

The last of this season's sales.

 The harvest of Friday's and Saturday's garage sales in my neighborhood. A grand total of about $32. My favorite purchases are the double walled, stainless steel French press by Frieling (It came without the plunger, unfortunately) $10, the German jug $5, and the abalone brooch $1.

 The jug obviously cannot be any younger than 1989. I wish it had the manufacturer's mark. Anybody know?

After passing up a perfectly good set of Pyrex nesting bowls (3 for $3) in a darker red with wheat pattern, I did buy this blue divided dish, measuring cup and glass bowls. I love Williams Sonoma, so these four cook books came home with me. Two of them I might actually use.

The view from my living room. These are ash trees. 

I'm saying goodbye for now to Oregon's seventy-nine degree Fall weather and will trade it in, tomorrow, for Dutch rain and temperatures of fifty-nine degrees, if I'm lucky. But my mom's house is always warm and inviting, so it won't bother me a bit.

 And, I'll be back in time for Halloween.

I already know what I'll be wearing. 

Bye!