Not Quite A Yard Sale

This morning we went to the local Lion's Club Craft Sale. They were selling books for a buck each and there was a big room filled with local craftspeople. Here's what I came back with...

 I loved the cover art of the Blender Cookbook. It reminded me of my childhood. When I returned, we played the game "Guess when it was published?" My husband said late sixties or early seventies. I said 1978, and my son said the eighties. What do you think? Read on...

 This book is fairly classy and has numerous French recipes in it. I grew up in the pre-food processor days and we had a workhorse blender with a wide blade that my mother used for everything. In the early eighties (I think), the mother of my best friend Jodie got a Cuisineart, which was a new contraption for the time. 

 I've always wanted to make my own pate. Maybe this summer, I'll give it a try. 

 I bought a few other books on the way out and the gentleman from the Lion's Club who took my money told me that his wife donated the Blender Cookbook, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy. So the answer to the publishing question is - 1970!

 We ran out of store-bought apricot jam this morning, so I couldn't resist the homemade variety. 

 We bought two strudels for $12. They are really big and the seller told me that they made them throughout the night, so I think it was a fair deal. 

 This honey came from the jam people. 

 I bought my son an orange fizzing bath soap shaped like an egg. 

For a donation to the Lion's Club, a talented man made this wooden Easter egg for my son. We had fun watching it spin on the lathe. It brought back memories of Grade 7 Industrial Arts. 

Happy Easter everyone. 

A Work in (a lot of) Progress

Thank you for the kind comments from my last post. I've been getting a lot of spam comments lately, so I'm trying to get rid of those while not deleting those from the "thrifterhood." 

Here are some pictures of our new (circa 1910) home. The pictures don't do the house justice and we're still in the just moved in stage - so I apologize in advance for the photos. Having gone from a small Toronto semi (with an unfinished basement), to a humongous two and a half story detached house on a large, treed lot in a funky small town in the greater Hamilton area, we're in the funny position of actually needing more furniture. We moved our old living room sofa down to the TV rec room in the basement, and now we're on a mission to save up for a new sofa and two Barcelona chairs for the large living room. 

Voila! We're going to take out the yew and build a rock garden with a different low-growing tree. 

Here is half of the living room. There is an odd mish-mash of pot lights, track lighting, wall sconces, and ceiling fans in the house. We're going to remove 90% of the existing fixtures and put in new pendant lights. The area that the camera faces was once the original kitchen. 

 The newer kitchen is an addition. The good thing is that it is surrounded by windows (including a sky light). The bad news is that we have to renovate it. The old cabinets are old and rickety and we've actually had to bring in cheap Ikea shelves to temporarily hold Pyrex and other bits and pieces. Please excuse the mess!

 Feast your eyes on our mucho grande backyard, complete with play fort, tree swing, and a tool shed. 

 Here's the gas fireplace with a whole bunch of stuff temporarily stacked on top. I'd love to have Arts and Crafts style tiles covering this one day. 

 This is the enclosed dining room with our kitchen table and chairs in it. We're going to move this table into the corner of the kitchen and I'm hoping to buy a simple wooden dining room table and chairs in time to host Christmas this year. 

 Staircase with the 100 + year sag that gives it a tipsy angle. 

 This is half of a bedroom on the second floor that will be used for an office and a model train room for my husband and son. 

 View of the escarpment from the upstairs landing. I pinch myself every time I look out and see this view. 

 Stairs leading to Duncan's bedroom/toy palace. 

 His room runs the length of the house and has two skylights. What I would have given to have a room of my own this size when I was a kid (not that I'm complaining, Mom). 

 The end table is now set up for painting, etc. It's so nice not tripping over toys in the living room anymore. 

 Duncan uses MY Star Wars pillowslip from the seventies. Ah - good times. 

 I originally started collecting Pez dispensers back in my early 20s. I gave my modest collection to my nephew, who bought more. He outgrew this hobby and passed it along to Duncan. It's a vicious cycle. 

 The enchanted backyard forest view from the back of Duncan's room. 

The pictures I took of our bedroom didn't turn out so well. Our room and the second bedroom on the second floor both have mirrored closets. We're going to get rid of them as soon as possible. There are oodles of closets in this house, which is fantastic. We also have two large bathrooms, which we didn't have at the old house. 

So there you have it. Many people think I'm nuts for the hour and 40 minute commute to Toronto each day, but it's well worth it. As Michael Douglas' character said in The Wonderboys: "It's the kind of house you want to wake up in on Christmas day." I'm grateful to be here. 

I'll try to get some better pics up once we're more set up. I also can't wait to do some serious thrifting and hitting local yard sales. 

Thanks for reading!

Back From the Real Estate Brink

(Above: Here's a photo I found of the Niagara Escarpment. This is what I see out my window from down below every day. Magic!)

Hello there,
If you are still reading - I thank you so much. If you are not... well, I guess other people are reading this. 

It's been sooooo long since I last posted, but I have a very good excuse. After a whirlwind period of getting our old house fixed up and sold, we have just moved into our new house in a small town in the greater Hamilton area. 

We've been busy unpacking and now we're putting things away. I've also been working and just came out of report card writing and parent interviews, so I'm well and truly ready for this March Break. I was going to take some pictures today - my first non-weekend day off, but as luck would have it, it's raining. 

I'll be back very soon with pictures and more blogging. 

Spring is almost here!
All the best,
Erin

Frying Pan Trivet

Happy New Year! 
Thanks for all the nice comments on our impending move. Needless to say, our house is not as staged looking as it was a week or so ago. Gone is the rented tulip table and colourful chairs. I'm now thinking of saving up for a Danish teak table and mid-century modern chairs. It may take awhile...

My folks gave me a Sears gift card for Christmas and I happily ran out and bought a hot air popcorn machine (just like old days), a Starfrit mandoline, and this trés cool Lodge silicone trivet that pays tribute to the famous cast iron frying pans that made the company famous. I love that the little pans are so mod looking. 

Rock on!
Erin

Sold!

What do you do when you fall in love with your dream home, on your dream street in a pretty little town? Do you tell yourself it will never work and just go back to the same old, same old or do you find out what it would take to make it happen and go for it? Well, we went for it and with the help of an amazing realtor, we were able to fix up our circa 1925 East York semi that we've lived in for the past 14 years and sell it within a week - Christmas week! We actually have two amazing agents - Alex Brott in Toronto, who also happens to be a cool, funky Pyrex collector herself, and the very classy Catherine Sennett who works the greater Hamilton area. Our dream has come true. Below are some slightly blurry photos of our decluttered home, staged with Pyrex. Follow your dreams!

 Alex brought in this vintage cowboy painting, so I put my cowboy crockery on top. The old bookcase belonged to my grandmother. In our rush to pack, all the books that were in it were boxed up and put in storage. It was Alex's idea to turn it into a Pyrex display case. Love it! Pyrex purists will note that it is not filled exclusively with Pyrex, but beautiful vintage crockery nevertheless. 

 Here's our beautiful kitchen that my husband did completely on his own. The colour is Behr Poppy Glow, if you like it. Ken was going to use glass tiles, but at the last minute switched to these stick-on stainless steel tiles for the backsplash. He thinks it's a bit too much steel, but everyone else likes it. Check out the Pyrex and other vintage crockery in warm tones. I staged that one!

 The dishwasher has to be up there with the wheel in terms of brilliant inventions. 

 Look, still life with Pyrex bowl!

 Alex brought in this circa 1960s US school map from her own place to hang over our sofa. The area carpet comes from Ikea. It's a little hard to keep clean with a seven-year-old boy and a cat, so we'd been cleaning it every day with zeal and verve (feel free to add your own adverbs).

 A look out the window: I will miss our wonderful neighbours the most. Friends and family will always be visitable. 

 We bought these green cabinets a few years back to hold glassware. I really like them. The Umbra clock is ours and Alex added some pretty candles and vases. 

 Close up of the vintage cowboy theme. Time for come chuck wagon stew!

 To highlight how roomy our little dining room is, we removed our retro fifties table and chair and Alex rented this vintage tulip table with funky repro chairs. She bought the pendant light at Ikea and brought in the big mirror and modern art you'll see in the blurry photo below. The art is really cool. It's painted on wood panels and adds a much needed splash of colour to the room. 

There you have it. The upstairs rooms are just bedrooms and our refurbished bathroom, so I didn't bother taking pictures. I hope that the new year will be full of good health, good times, and good thrifty pickings for all of my blogging buddies. When we get settled in our new home, I'll post pictures. 

Happy new year!
Erin

Merry Christmas

Hello there,

Our big news is that we've found our dream house and we're in the process of selling our current home in Toronto. We may be close to an offer, so we'll see. I'll be back over the next little while to show how we've used vintage Pyrex to help in the staging of our home. We have an awesome agent who collects Pyrex too. How perfect is that? 
Merry Christmas and bye for now,
Erin

Here's a piece of classic eighties Brit one hit wonder pop to get you smiling for the holidays. Get into it!