Sassy Lassies Vintage Life

Wash day Wednesday

2012-02-08T09:48:00.000-05:00

I have not been home much lately as I have been living with my mother and helping her with the care of my dad, but I did get home this weekend and on Monday I made my second batch of laundry detergent. Recently Pabu has been very itchy. He has been waking us up and gnawing at his hind quarters. Poor little man. I bathed him yesterday and gave him a big trim and while I was combing him out (gasp) I saw a flea. I have not seen fleas in years and was totally aghast! I quickly picked it off of him and killed the damn thing. He has white hair so it is very easy to see a flea and I found one other and killed that little bugger too. I did not find anymore, but where there is one flea, there are others.

I could not imagine how he had gotten fleas and with much thinking I am certain they have come from the Coyotes that are in our back yard every night. We have had no snow to speak of since October and the grass is a perfect place for the fleas to hide and then jump onto a host like Pabu. I ran, did I say I ran, to the vets and got Frontline for all three pets (I hate putting those chemicals on the animals but there was not good other choice)...and then I did wash.

I washed everything in the whole damn house that I could. Bedding, dog beds, dog coats, sofa throws and on and on. I must have gone up and down the stairs 50 or more times as my washer and dryer are in the basement.

Hopefully I have won the first round with these pesky creatures and my home made laundry detergent did the trick. There are tons of recipes all over the internet for both dry and liquid detergent so I won't bore you with that. The only three ingredients are below and fairly cheap and make many batches of detergent.

I had this wonderful glass container that was housing some split peas and thought it would

make a perfect container for my creation.

You can hand grate the soap, but frankly with a Cuisinart why would I do that? And my Cuisinart is so old it is practically vintage in its own right. With the shredder attachment it took all of 30 seconds to make mincemeat of the soap.

Add the washing soda and Borax and VOILA!!

The Lennon Sisters Georgy Girl

2012-02-01T17:46:00.001-05:00

Today is my dad's 85th birthday and we will be moving him from the hospital to a nursing home very, very close to where he lives. It is such a blessing that we were able to get him to this specific care facility. My mom can visit him all the time and not worry about driving on a highway or after dark. It is literally a few hundred yards down the street.

We don't know what the future holds, and every day we are blessed to still have him with us. My dad loved the Lawrence Welk Show and even took his mom and sister to see him once. He also enjoyed the Lennon Sisters. I found this quite amusing and just realized the name of the song is "Georgy Girl". I don't know who there stylist was but......she must have been fired after this. What is with those hats? Are they supposed to look 'groovy'? What is your favorite Lennon Sisters song?

Here's to you Georgy....with all my love on your birthday

Que Sera Sera

2012-01-25T13:06:00.000-05:00

So much for the simple life I envisioned for myself at the beginning of the year. The first few weeks of 2012 have been anything but simple. On January 3rd and 4th I began the process of making a sourdough starter...poor little thing has been in and out of the fridge so many times its head is spinning. I am hoping one day I will be able to bring it to its full level of sparkle and use it to make bread, but it needs consistent feeding and I have not been around to do it. Feeding and caring for my dad is ten thousand times more important than bread.

In the past two and a half weeks my dad has been moved to four different hospitals/facilities and we are about to move him again. I have been there to make the decisions with my mom and siblings and paperwork etc. My dad has advanced prostate cancer that has gone to his bones along with pretty severe aortic stenosis. All of this recent 'stuff' resulted from an infection that went undetected and sent him into delirium. We treated the delirium and then he got all messed up from the drugs. Oy vey!!!

The good news is that he is on the mend and a hundred percent better than he was just a week ago. He is one of the kindest, gentlest most wonderful dad's EVER.

Here he is as a toddler. He grew up during the depression and
they did not have much money.

Dad lied about his age and joined the navy when he was 17.
He then found out he got seasick and held a job on land until the end of the war.

Home on leave with his sister Hermaline (quite a name).
We just found out after all these years that he called her
Eme (long e sound on both)
and she called him Daudy (like the word dog minus the g and add the dy).
My Auntie Herm is still alive and doing well at 87.

Here he is with his mom who lived to be 91. This is the dining room of my childhood home.
Love the bottle of Lancers on the table.

This is his sister Ruth who was quite an athlete and LOVED basketball.
Soon after this photo she joined the convent. She taught school and remained in the convent for 25 years.

Aunt Ruth and my grandpa on the day of her invocation to the convent. She is quite a beauty.

Here she is as a nun. That is our country squire and my little sister Patti. To the right of Aunt Ruth is my cousin Ruthie who is Hermaline's daughter. Sadly we lost her last year at the age of 56 from brain cancer.
Aunt Ruth passed away 3 years ago at the age of 85. She was driving to a vacation home with her 'boyfriend' and crossed the center line and hit a school bus.

Mom and dad newly engaged. She is 19 and he is 24.

Dancing with me at my wedding in 1979.

My dad's short term memory has really been affected by all he has gone through in recent years. But his long term memory is sharp as a whip. He remembers everything! And it is fun to gather with my siblings and reminisce with him. Some days it is the only thing to take his mind off the pain and confusion and bring him around again. He still has his great sense of humor and is even smiling again. Last week we could not even get a smile out of him. His favorite sayings were "This is a real ball buster" and "What am I/we going to do".

Last night he said, "Que sera sera" and how he loves that song. So I dedicate this to him and to the hopes and prayers that he is on his way to feeling better.

Georgie Porgie

2012-01-20T09:33:00.000-05:00

Georgie Porgie, Puddin' and Pie,

Kissed the girls and made them cry,

When the boys came out to play Georgie Porgie ran away

Been living with my mom for the past 12 days and driving her back and forth to the hospital. It has been a tough few weeks for us. My dad is being moved to a new hospital today that will more specifically deal with all that is going on with him. Prayers are asked for and most appreciated. I don't know when I will get back to regular blogging but hoping we can stabilize dad and get him home again soon.

Knitting and Underwear 1947

2012-01-13T07:29:00.000-05:00

I am at my mom's helping with my dad. I have so much to share but it will have to wait. I thought you might enjoy these photos.

Abigail Wilson age 92

A little blurry, but you get the idea. How cute are these ladies?

Undies 1947

Can you say wedgie?

The Scandal of it All

2012-01-07T12:37:00.002-05:00

Imagine going down the hallway of a hotel or apartment building and seeing THIS guy with THIS contraption peering into the room. The women in the background is his wife keeping watch for any interlopers, although I guess you could call Mr. I Spy the biggest interloper on the scene.

Remember this picture was in Life Magazine.
I have to think that if I knew this women I might recognize her even with her face erased out. Change the color of her hair and it could be my mother. Oy!

From 5th Avenue to the bedroom, this particular edition of Life Magazine seems to have really torn at the hearts of its readers. I googled Mr. Graham Moulton and found this response in the Oct. 13, 1947 issue. No one was thinking very highly of his profession.

This still happens. Right? I certainly know sleeping around happens, but are there private detectives taking pictures? On this account I am completely naive. Scandalous!!!!

Well Worth the $2.00

2012-01-06T10:19:00.001-05:00

Hubby has not discovered my new $2.00 magazine purchase and I have decided he never will. Next time I drive through the town I bought this in, I am going to bring it back to the store and give it back to them so they can sell it again. I have totally gotten my $2.00 out of it and maybe someone else can enjoy it in the future. It makes me feel good to do this and is part of my living simply new lifestyle. With that said here are some more lovelies from 1947.

Imagine an ad for buttons in Life Magazine today?

I suppose there 'could' be a Spanx ad.

The wording in this ad would NEVER fly today.

Scott Tissue 1930

1947

No sleeping together in 1947.

More tomorrow and an truly scandalous article for you on Sunday!

11 Billion Dollars in 1947 on Fashion

2012-01-06T09:55:00.000-05:00

This little tidbit was the thing that literally took my breath away while reading this article. $11 billion dollars in 1947 seems an unimaginable amount of money for that time.

Today's Statistic: American women spend about $30 billion a year on beauty, which includes $20 billion on cosmetics. They also spend $104 billion on apparel. This totals $134 billion spent on beauty and fashion annually.

I did an inflation calculator and it came to this for 2011:

$11,000,000,000.00 in 1947 had the same buying power as $112,138,093,023.26 in 2011.

So they spent what would amount to $8 billion more on clothes and accessories in 1947. Now remember that advertising was NOTHING like it is today. Now Malls, no real clothing chains, no teenagers with deep pockets, and women were not in the workforce in ANY way like they are today. They were just getting out of WW II and the Depression. And please let's not forget how many women sewed their own clothing. I don't think this number is taken into account in the 11 billion dollars. Quite impressive don't you say?

So here is what they spent all of their money on.

THE SHOES

THE HATS

THE DRESSES

THE PINCHED WAIST

THE CAPE

Which boasts 6 1/2 yards of wool and costs $210.00

THE DISGUST

Yesterday I spent the day with my parents and my brother. My brother Tim was headed back to Japan after spending the holidays here. It is always sad to see him off, but knowing how much he loves his life and wife in Japan makes it a bit easier. My parents cried. :( ...I cried and then we pulled ourselves up by the bootstraps and realized how very blessed all of us are.

What does all this have to do with this post? Well I told my mother about the magazine and right away she said, "I remember the "new look" like it was yesterday. I was one of the first girls in my class to get the new 'longer look". She was 15 years old. She said that because she was a teenager she was ready and eager to try the new fashion, but she remembers it did not go over with the older women. It was a huge change. Maybe they felt like they were going back in time rather than forward. What do you think the reason behind the furor was? Is this like The Beatles haircut? Pants on the ground?

I have never been one to spend lots of money on clothes. I love fashion, but have never felt it is worth the money asked and I just did not have the money to purchase. How about you? What do you spend your hard earned money on?

Life Magazine September 1947

2012-01-03T14:20:00.000-05:00

When Miss Moll Doll was home for Christmas we took off for an afternoon and did one of our favorite things (Raindrops on Roses), went thrift store/antiquing. I live in an area that is absolutely loaded with antique stores of all kinds and for many years we have spent fun time together perusing the local stores. Miss Moll Doll has a real eye and has done most all of her decorating and clothes shopping from thrift stores. She lives in Maine and there is a plethora of places to go there as well.

Our favorite place, Miss Moll Doll calls it the "nun's store" because it is run by volunteers from the Catholic Church, was closed. So we moved on to Plan B and found some new spots. It was a few days after Christmas and with the idea of simplifying on my mind, I knew I did not really want to bring anything home, and that hubby would not be happy if I did.

But when I saw this magazine for $2 I thought I could easily smuggle it into the house and enjoy the heck out of it.

It seems this new look was not loved at first!

I will show you the fashions which caused such furor.

Be well!

Sassy Lassie becomes a Housewife?

2012-01-02T15:03:00.000-05:00

I had a bit of a revelation today while thinking of the new year. Back in the day, when being a housewife was something other than an obnoxious TV reality show, women's job's (if they were a housewife) was to take care of the home. It was a full time job and more. Furniture was waxed, sheets were cleaned and line dried and possibly ironed. There was a time each week to do mending. Clothes were sewn or knit and cared for, not thrown in a good-will bin. You darned your socks when a hole appeared. Does anyone out there know how to darn a sock? I don't, but our house came with some darning eggs and I may give it a try.

Though I don't want to return to the 1940's, there are parts of it that I like. I would like my furniture to smell like bees wax and my sheets to be refreshed with lavender. I would like to do more canning, baking, cooking, sewing and knitting. My job gives me lots of free time, but I am often exhausted from the late hours. I will have to work on a remedy for that.

My goal this year is to use as little processed food as possible and try making things from scratch that I would normally buy. I spent some of the day yesterday reading Nancy Silverton's book "Breads from the La Brea Bakery". It is a book about making sourdough bread. I plan to start at the beginning making a starter and then work my way through the book. I plan on getting my flour from a local farmer who mills the wheat to order. I also looked online as to making butter. I have done it by accident a few times, so how hard can it be? I will start with the jar method and see how it goes.

This may all become too much for me. I may only do it for a week or two, but it is a plan I would like to enact. How do you feel about housework? Do you keep a schedule? Do you put aside time each week to clean and do chores? Just wondering how today's modern women keeps up with the house. I would suppose a lot less TV, Facebook and computer time will be how it gets done. Hmmmm. I may have to rethink this. Just kidding.

A Simple Ramble for the New Year

2011-12-31T13:22:00.000-05:00

I am not one to make new years resolutions, but I do enjoy setting a few goals or pushing myself to learn something new each year. A few years ago after finding some UFO's from almost 20 years ago, I decided to start sewing, knitting and getting crafty again. All of this led to starting this website and turning to a more vintage lifestyle. I have been motivated and encouraged by many blogs and those who live a simpler life. My goal for this year is to start baking bread for our home, making our laundry detergent, knitting and sewing most everything we wear and being the best non-consumer I can be. When I go to flea markets or thrift stores, I am always blown away by how much 'stuff' there is in the world. I bet if NOTHING was manufactured as new we could live just fine with what we have on this earth right now. I detest that our society and government is based on the masses to consume more and more new 'stuff'. I already don't do the big box stores or chains stores and quite frankly don't really need anything, so why go and get pulled in? We will be putting in a garden this year and hopefully some fruit trees. Chickens? I would love them, but I have a feeling hubby would end up taking care of them and he has enough on his plate for now.

I wish all of you the brightest and simplest of new years.

Season's Greetings

2011-12-27T10:23:00.000-05:00

Without much expectation as to where or how we were going to celebrate Christmas this year we just threw it together and it became a magical day. My dad was not well enough to go somewhere, so all 17 of us went to them.

Christmas paper crowns

Mom and Dad

Dalai and Pabu

Sassy

Jingle Bells

2011-12-24T09:43:00.000-05:00

May the spirit of all that is good and pure be with you this holiday season!

Much love to all of my readers.

Yup...More~Moore

2011-12-15T12:50:00.000-05:00

In the middle of writing this post, I was called to go to my parents and help. My dad is having some sort of neck spasms that are causing him lots of pain and discomfort. I have spent the past two night with them and will be here till he can be left alone...God knows when. At the moment we are waiting for a home health aid type person to come and talk to us about his care. He is having trouble getting in and out of bed and my back is about ready to crack from lifting him. Ugh! I had saved this post, so with some downtime here at my parents I will try and finish it.

More Pages

I searched the term 'wrapper' but could not find anything on the web. I am assuming because of the type of cloth, design etc. that these are what we might call a bathrobe. Any ideas out there?

Wrapper made by Mrs. White 189?

Wrapper made and worn Miss Masters October 1893

Spring dress trimmed ecru lace and silk vest. Worn at church in Yonkers May 1892

White Chiffon trimmed with white satin and lace. Made for Hannah Chamberlin wedding and also worn at the wedding of Emily Hefferman.

Blue Crepe trimmed with insertions worn for evening at Miss Masters January 1894

What I have found out about the Moore's is that they did not own a home until he purchased the house I grew up in. He and his father rented an apartment in The Dakota in NYC and 'seasoned' in other places in both winter and summer. They had a maid, a servant and a cook that went with them everywhere.

Mr. Moore went to Harvard and graduated in the year 1900 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He then went to China and spent many years, 10 or so, working there. He had a servant there who he called "boy". I have correspondence between the two of them. "Boy" called Mr. Moore "Master".

This is a world I only see in the movies. How fascinating it is to have a small personal glimpse into it. As I research more I will try and blog more about it.

I Promised You This

2011-12-14T09:33:00.000-05:00

On Sunday I wrote that I had a great find at my parents house that I wanted to share. I might have been able to get this post out earlier in the week, but I frankly did not know where to begin. The find is this:

And was found in here, "Mooresden":

But what is it? And how did my parents become the owners of it? To truly do this justice, I would probably need to start a whole new blog just about it...but I am having enough just keeping this one going.

It all started for us in 1975 when a good friend of my father's, an attorney, told my dad that a house was for sale. The reason it was for sale was because the man who lived in it and was living in it, had run out of money (basically) and needed the sale of the house to continue to live. The house was built in 1776 and was truly fantastic.

The man's name was Henry Dubois Bailey Moore or H.D.B.B. Moore as he was also known and he was 98 years old. He had a stroke in his 80's and had round the clock care in his home since....even with all the money he had, it was now gone. My parents bought the house (actually two houses) and we moved in. The two houses were named Mooresden and Crookedstone. We (my parents and my sister and I ) lived in Crookedstone and Mr. Moore lived in Mooresden until his death a year later. I don't believe there were any relatives still alive, so we acquired some of his belongings and this was one of them. Although we have had this for over 36 years, last week was the first time I ever set eyes on it.

A Dress Album

Belonging to

Edith Moore

Commencing with her twelfth year

April 1890

Yonkers

Edith was Mr. Moore's sister and only sibling. In speaking to my mother, she recalls learning that Edith died rather young from Scarlet Fever. How I wish I had photos of Edith in these clothes, but alas it is enough to have this album. There are pages and pages like this:

India Silk made for Edith by Mrs. White

April 1890

Church and Walking Dress
Brown Camel hair trimmed with
silk and velvet~made Oct 1891

Since seeing this, I have become slightly obsessed with this man and who he was. 12 years ago, when my family sold the house, my mom gave me a box that contained bound books from Mr. Moore of every correspondence he had in certain years. Yesterday I read the year 1919 where he comes to Norfolk, Ct for the first time.

More to come...or shall I say Moore to come.

P.S. This is the house today. It has been for sale for 5 or more years and I just noticed it was under contract. After my divorce, when I was 25 years old, I moved into Crookedstone and lived there for 15 years, next door to my parents and raising my children. These houses are very dear to me, my children and all of our family.

"Crookedstone"

May I Introduce Mr. Ed Shmidt and his Model A

2011-12-11T15:31:00.001-05:00

I never get to see hubby lately. With our completely different work schedules and my overnights and visits with my parents, it is hard to find any us time. So, this week I asked him out for a Sunday morning breakfast date. We live in a really amazing part of the world. We can be 'out in the wild' in minutes and into a 'city/actually large town' in a few more. Lee, Lenox, Stockbridge, Tyringham and the truly wonderful Great Barrington are just 15-30 minutes away. One of my customers at the restaurant told me about a lovely drive on a dirt road above the valley of Tyringham and I decided to surprise hubby with a drive and then breakfast. He loved it and we had a magical morning.

Up on the top of the mountain we found a house for sale...these are the light fixtures at the entrance to one of the driveways. The photo does not do them justice. They were kind of sparkly...

The stone work along the whole road, in all directions was astounding.

I did not know where we were going to eat and as we drove into Lee we parked and looked around. We settled on The Starving Artist Creperie and were completely delighted with our meal and the fact that it is a working artist gallery with the restaurant portion housing exhibits of art by adults on the Autism Spectrum. Miss Moll Doll is a teacher for pre-schoolers on the Autism Spectrum.so the whole idea of this gallery was dear to me.

As we left the restaurant I noticed across the street was a kind of thrift store called the Upstairs Basement. Uh..hubby? Follow me please.

As we walked across the street, the gentleman below pulled up in his 1929 Ford Model A car. While I was busy scouring the store, hubby struck up a conversation with Mr. Ed. Schmidt, who when I walked over to join them looked at me and said, "Would you like a drive?". "In your car?" "You bet"...and off we went. What a gas!!!!! It was just so special to be puttering around the beautiful town of Lee, Mass in this old car driven by the cutest man this side of the Mississippi. We found out he had lived for a time in the town I grew up in and the one person he knew was someone I wrote about here and he had Shih Tzu's..

As we drove around he would randomly honk the horn. Giggle.

Above the running board. I loved the way it says ~Ford~

Back Tail Light

The trunk holder.

The Engine!

It was a magical date...and you know what? It did not go unnoticed by us. Thank you to all who made it so special.

Somedays I just can't think of a blog post title

2011-12-11T14:52:00.001-05:00

and today is one of them. Fa la la la la.

My creative brain is in overdrive. Too much I want to do but not enough time or energy to get it all accomplished. My dad has had his ups and downs this past week and I am doing my best to support my parents through this. They live well over an hour from my house and it takes the whole day to go visit with them so I can't do it everyday, although, if there were more hours in the day, I would.

The one thing I can do while visiting them, is to knit, so that has been the best outlet for my creativity of late. Here is a pile of things I have knit. Not saying what they are right now, as they are all presents for Christmas.

I also made this wreath out of vintage glass ornaments. Hubby says 'tacky'. I say 'love it'.

Somehow I have also managed to make quite a bit of Scottish Shortbread using this lovely mold. I am making Lavender and Lemon. So tender and flaky.

The one thing that can really cheer my dad up these days are dogs (small children would do it too). I brought mine the other day and they jumped on his bed and started licking his face. He was sound asleep at the time, but woke up with a smile and a giggle.

Pabu then went and ran around the house like a madman and ended up on one of their coaches.

All tuckered out Mr. Pabu takes a nap.

and a different pillow for another nap

Stay tuned this week for the most amazing find, found at my parents house. They have had it for over 30 years and I just discovered it the other day....hint...it has to do with vintage clothing.

Quince..ever had it?

2011-12-01T08:47:00.001-05:00

While cleaning up our yard for the winter, I came across a huge bush in our yard that had this strange hard fruit on it. I googled it and found out we had a Japanese Flowering Quince bush. It was late at night and after reading about it, I was so excited about the prospect of making jelly that I was ready to go out in the dark and pick them all off the ground.

In the morning I was able to get pounds of them. It is a really huge bush. They are not the most attractive fruit, but their smell is sweet filled perfume. There are oodles of recipes on-line and I chose Martha Stewarts Quince Jelly with Star Anise.

Most of the pectin (thickening agent) is in the seeds and skins, so it all goes into the pot.

I also made Membrillo

And finally Quince Pound Cake, which was just delicious.

I also just adore the history of this fruit taken from Wikipedia:

Cultivation of quince may have preceded apple culture, and many references translated to "apple", such as the fruit in Song of Solomon, may have been a quince. Among the ancient Greeks, the quince was a ritual offering at weddings, for it had come from the Levant with Aphroditeand remained sacred to her. Plutarch reported that a Greek bride would nibble a quince to perfume her kiss before entering the bridal chamber, "in order that the first greeting may not be disagreeable nor unpleasant" (Roman Questions 3.65). It was a quince that Paris awarded Aphrodite. It was for a golden quince that Atalanta paused in her race. The Romans also used quinces; the Roman cookbook of Apicius gives recipes for stewing quince with honey, and even combining them, unexpectedly, with leeks. Pliny the Elder mentioned the one variety, Mulvian quince, that could be eaten raw. Columella mentioned three, one of which, the "golden apple" that may have been the paradisal fruit in theGarden of the Hesperides, has donated its name in Italian to the tomato, pomodoro

On another note, my dad had a small heart attack over the Thanksgiving holiday and is on the mend. As soon as I finish this post I will go visit him for the day.

I hope to do more blogging this month...time will tell.

October in Vermont

2011-11-06T11:47:00.002-05:00

One week after the Snowtober storm and my brother-in-law is still without electricity and Hubby has been home all week because the home he is building is without electricity as well. Hubby has been on the go for years on end with hardly a moment to relax and it has been wonderful to see him rest for an entire week. As I sit and write this post he is sound asleep on the couch at 11:30 in the morning. It is doing his body SO much good to rest this much. Sometimes you just need to go with the flow and mother nature does the bidding for us. I know many, many have suffered loss during this storm, but for us (we did not loose electricity) it has been a nice respite from the go, go, go world.

Here are some photos of our Vermont vacation and some yard sale finds.

Hubby recently brought this home to me. It was his mothers. He knew no one in the family would cherish it like I would. It is so fantastic and so 1960's. I fit everything into it perfectly.

On the way to our get-a-way we saw the unbelievable damage that happened from Hurricane Irene.

It was everywhere!

Hubby wanted to get the low down from a 'local' and went to ask the man in the hot dog stand about the flooding...."I'll be back in just a minute", he said to me. 45 minutes later he came back. Hubby LOVES to talk with people.

Yin and Yang dogs

Family Photo

Hubby and Mr. Pabu kyaking!

While in Vermont the girls loaded into a car and went thrifting and to one yard sale. My radar must have been on, for all the years I have gone to yard sales I have never come across sewing patterns, but this day was different. For a moment I thought I had hit the sewing pattern lottery, but most of them were yuck. At 10 cents a piece it could have been a regular bonanza!!! These are the few I picked out.

"Dress to mach mink lining" Winter 1978

This outfit to me is just sooooooo Mrs. Brady! I want to make a Christmas outfit with this pattern and come sweeping down the stairs and nestle my toes in a shag carpet.

I am going to look for fabric for this jumper this week.

Teenage boys playing with yo-yo's and wearing polka dot pajamas? What planet is this from!!

I am still doing lots of knitting, but I think you may just see a little sewing in the near future. Till then.......

I Won't Bore You

2011-11-03T13:53:00.000-04:00

With all the reasons I have not been sewing, blogging or doing much of anything. Well maybe I will bore you with just a few. During the month of October, hubby and I went on a much needed get-a-way to Vermont. We were with family and had a really wonderful time.

My Dad has been dealing with cancer the past 8 months and I have been helping my mom. Here is a recent photo of the two of us taken by my sister while we were at the radiologists office. He is doing really well right now. I love my daddy!

I have also been knitting up a small storm but because all of the things I have knit are gifts, I can't post them here and ruin the surprise.

While away in Vermont, I tried to access my facebook account (first wrong move) and could not remember my password. After a few attempts the beings of facebook decided I was a hacker and blocked me out of my account which then led to me not being able to get on to Flickr (where I keep most of my pictures for the blog) because...well just because. Then I got frustrated and just stopped blogging.

This past week we got the BIG SNOWTOBER storm. YIKES! Almost 20" of snow on October. On the night of the storm I had planned on being in NYC to see Peter and Michael in Noah's Very Unusual Insight. On the day of the storm I made the much dreaded decision that it was just too dangerous to make the trek. It was the right decision. Most all of Connecticut got hammered. Most everyone in my family lost power and some are still without it 5 days later. We had a few guests spend the night and have dinner with us and time has just gotten away from me.

I really do want to sew. I just don't know why I keep making excuses and never getting around to it. I have a funny feeling it is that fear of failure thing. I will overcome it though and get my arse in gear.

I have plenty of patterns, fabric and accoutrement's to make any number of things...time will tell.

Tick Tock~It's Time to Milk the Cows

2011-10-12T00:30:00.000-04:00

A week or so ago I told you about how hubby picked up these milk caps from his grandfathers dairy.

I also told you I had something wonderful in store for them. Ta Da!!!
A wall clock for my kitchen. Cute isn't it?

It was so easy to make and as soon as I saw the milk caps this idea came into my mind. I searched the web and it did not take me long to find all of the components I needed.

Unpainted Wood Board

Quartz Clock Movement

Fun Hands

I painted the clock with leftover red paint from the border. Used a glue gun to affix the milk caps. Then put the hands on. It took all of 1/2 hour to complete. I love it!

This reminder hangs atop the doorway leaving my kitchen.

Kitchen Curtains

2011-10-10T11:09:00.002-04:00

Good day blogger friend. Today is day two of my Kitchy Kitchen Dream Makeover, or how to turn a rather ho hum old kitchen into a strawberry lovers dream. Exactly one year ago today, I purchased a vintage hand embroidered tablecloth on Ebay for a mere $8.00. When I saw it, I just could not believe my eyes as to how perfect it would be for the kitchen I was about to create. I had already purchased and received the wallpaper, which dare I say cost me only $2.99 per single roll and I used 7 rolls. I knew right away that I was going to transform this tablecloth into valences.

These were lovingly hand embroidered by someone.

I wish I could tell her how much I enjoy and love her work.

To make these, I just cut the tablecloth in half and used the larger piece of embroidery for the bigger window. I zig zag stitched the cut edge and then turned it over with enough room to put a curtain rod through and stitched again.

VOILA!

If you would like to do something like this for your kitchen here is what's available on Ebay today

Sassy Lassie's Kitchen Week

2011-10-09T13:31:00.001-04:00

After just about one year in our new home, I finally feel as though our kitchen is complete. Each day I love walking into this kitchen and starting my day. To say it is sunny and bright is an understatement and I adore the feeling it gives to me. When I invite people over to my house for the first time, I always tell them ahead of time that I have a very retro kitchen, so they don't feel obliged to ohhh over it. I certainly know it is not most peoples ideal kitchen. It is pretty over the top. But it is my ideal kitchen, at least for the moment. I can't tell you how many people have said to me, "My grandmother had strawberry wallpaper in her kitchen." When I hear this, I know I am on the right track in making this a vintage kitchen. This week I am going to take each day and show you a part of my kitchen. I hope you enjoy.

To take you back in time. This is how it looked when we bought the house.

Youngstown Sink Unit

Green walls and fairly unadorned.

A single man lived here for 50 years and there are places you can really tell that there was never a woman's touch. The kitchen was one of them.

And this was the look I was going for.

And here is mine.

I really think I achieved what I sought to create.
All for less than $250.00

The table is now in the center of the room.

Here it is last Christmas.

I so enjoy having a place to sit and have a cup of tea or coffee with a friend here.

1) I took all of the Youngstown cabinets off and spray painted them with appliance paint.

2) Wallpapered entire upper half of walls, painted lower portion white and added a cherry red border.
3) Took butcher block out of our other house and installed it next to Youngstown unit.

More this week...I hope you join me...will also show you the few DIY projects I did.

More Middy

2011-10-05T10:14:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, Janice of the sewing blog She's In Fashion, wanted to see a few more photos of my "Middy".

The first picture is of the haircut un-styled, albeit blown dry.

I can see that I just might be able to connect with my inner Carol Brady.

I feel as though I look like a deer in the headlights in all of these photos. I need to get myself a tripod.

My arm is just not long enough for decent picture taking.

There it is. I am still trying to figure out other ways to wear it. I know there are many.

My New Middy

2011-10-04T07:44:00.000-04:00

Last week I finally bit the bullet and had my hair cut into a vintage cut called "The Middy" (mine is actually a long middy) at 6" for the nap. I had not had my hair cut in over 2 years and it was looking rather lame. The hairstylist took the diagram I gave her and followed it completely. She even used a ruler to get all of the layers the correct length.

Per last weeks ditching post, some things are good to ditch and others leave you wishing you could un-ditch the ditch.. This is one item I wish I still had. I could really use this.

A must for getting the perfect curl.

Damp hair ready for pincurls.

I tried doing this while I was watching the new show Pan Am (more on that another day). My hair started getting dry and many of the ends were not cooperating. This takes practice.

Ready for bed. Good thing hubby was already sound asleep or I might have scared him.

Curls and lots of them. I love curls