Twins Treasure Trove

Trying To Fish and Not In The Rain!

2016-09-04T06:04:00.001-07:00

This season has been so strange with the strange weather we have been having.

We'd like to say we trust the weather reports, but we are slowly losing faith.

Mary's work has been understaffed for months so her days off are limited. So much
overtime! When she does get a day off, to wind down from a crazy week, fishing is the
answer.

The first time we went fishing we knew it was going to be cool so we prepared with our coffee
and warm clothing. Weather reports were to be mid to upper 60's for the day. We got to
our favorite spot and set up our chairs and poured hot coffee into our cups and tossed out
our lines in the water.

All of the people that were around the lake were leaving but we were determined!
The winds picked up so I brought out the 2 blankets that cover my car seats and by
10:30 we finally threw in the towel. Mary did catch a bluegill. We were thrilled and
put him back in the water and decided to head for a warmer location. Breakfast :)

Sadly a new cook was in the kitchen and our french toast was more like toast fried on
top of egg whites. No matter, we still had hot coffee, warm surroundings and a nice
conversation.

2 weeks later we set out to fish and the weather said rain around 1pm. We set up our spot
again and started fishing. Mary caught a striped bass and set it free. Happy as a clam.
10:30 here comes the rain. We sat in light rain for awhile and decided we needed to find
the sun. We remembered a sign at an intersection for another lake so this time we decided
to follow the country road out there.

As soon as we got on the road, the rain stopped and there was SUNSHINE!
21 miles of country road and we found the sign for the lake.

We laughed and laughed about the sign and realized it was true, we were in the middle of nowhere!
We found the lake, fished a bit in the sun but never saw the restaurant. We think it was further into the middle of nowhere and we were not ready to take that adventure on this day.

We got just enough sunshine and nature to wash away the week and headed back toward home.

Is summer really over?

2014-10-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all. Yes, we are still here :)

It has been a strange summer for the two of us. We have had some changes here that have altered our time together, our listings and blogging posts.

Mary got a full time job (finally) so our time has been together has been limited.

When she has her days off, we do get out and hunt for treasures together or intend to go shopping and end up going fishing :) We have got the hang of taking the fish off the hooks rather well.

Summer just went so fast this year.

Our garden was a great producer this year of tomatoes so we did get a chance to make homemade pasta sauce for both of our freezers but we did not get to any canning this year.

We had peppers, cucumbers, green beans, radishes, eggplant, herbs and of course tomatoes! Currently the spinach is up.

We are hoping once Mary gets her set schedule we will be able to get back into our usual routine
of shopping, playing, listing, blogging and laughing at silly things.

Hoping everyone had a wonderful summer, a relaxing fall and are looking forward to the upcoming holidays.

Keep smiling, it is contagious :)

Live, Love and Giggle

Cathy and Mary

Easter Memories

2014-04-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

As Easter is upon us were thinking of our childhoods and how similar yet different they were being over 350 miles apart.

Cathy's Easter:
Mom would always take me out the week before Easter to find a beautiful new dress, patent leather shoes (white), lacy white socks and an Easter bonnet. When under the age of 8 or so I also had little white gloves.
It was my favorite dress up time of the year!

Sunday morning my Mother would make sure everyone was dressed nicely for church and Dad would have an Easter corsage for my Mother that he had picked up the day before and hid in the refrigerator. She dressed beautifully for the special Sunday service.

After church we'd go home and change into play clothes because Mom was going to cook and we needed to be outside playing and out of the way :)

When we were called in, we dressed up again and the "good dishes",fine silver, and Grandma's etched water glasses were on the table with flowers and candles. Mom would bring out a beautiful ham that Dad would carve. All home made side dishes and fresh veggies on our plates and a prayer before we started our meal.

My brother and I clear the table and do the dishes and then on to the egg hunt with real colored eggs hidden in the yard. No plastics. Off we would go to find the eggs and when we came in we had a small basket with a large solid chocolate bunny. Thinking back of those memories warms my heart as the first part of the day was about celebrating the true meaning of Easter. The second part of the day was the family all together. No friends, no phone, just family.

My Mother was very sentimental about family which is why she would bring out her heirloom dishes to bring her memories to the Easter table. That is probably where I got the vintage bug from :)

Mary's Easter:

One of my earliest Easter memories was coloring Easter eggs. All the little dishes filled with different colors of dye. Being somewhat picky about how I decorated my eggs it could be a challenge sometimes to create something that I loved. My mom loved to color eggs, and hers always came out so pretty. That I have to admit I was always a little disappointed in the way mine came out. But my mom would make over each egg we did, as if they were all perfect treasures. They were displayed on our dining room table for all to see, along with a beautiful purple Hyacinth. I still love the scent of Hyacinth, it brings back that memory of childhood.

We always got new church clothes around Easter, to wear on the special day. I loved the new Spring dress, with the gentle pastels, or flowers, usually paired with little white gloves and matching patent leather shoes. Sometimes with a sweater or white shawl because of weather.

Our Easter day would start off with running down the stairs to see what Peter Cottontail had left in our basket overnight. My brother and I had our favorite, candies in our baskets, with plenty of chocolate and jelly beans. We were allowed a couple pieces before breakfast, but only a couple. Then it was off to church services.

After church we would come home and get out of our good clothes, while my father would go pick up my great-grandmother to spend the day with us. My mother and grandmother would cook up a storm in the kitchen, and my brother and I would play outside most of the afternoon, until dinner was ready. We did not always have an Easter Egg Hunt, but on those occasions when the weather cooperated, we had a blast looking for those colored eggs in the tall grass, that had not yet seen a lawn mower.

Our Easter meal was a more casual affair. We always began our meal with a prayer and grateful hearts. We used our everyday plates and cups. With exception of the Jadite bowl, that we always had slaw in. My mother made the best homemade slaw and always served it in the same bowl, which belonged to my great-grandmother. That bowl now has a place of honor on my Hoosier that was my great-grandmother's.

May your Easter be filled with a grateful heart, family, love and laughter!

Live, Love and Giggle

The Twins

2014-03-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

We are sorry but we are having technical difficulties........

We were to appear on The CraftStar live show this week to talk about the Treasure Hunt we had where we had hid an item in our shop for no cost and no cost for shipping. It was a freebie. And we had a happy winner!

It got near the time to plug in and we usually use the IPad for these live shows and for some reason my IPad was blocking our link to the live show.

I raced to the laptop, plugged it in and it took forever to load and it would not let us get to the link either which put us in panic mode.

We raced to the back room where my desktop pc is and tried to plug in the camera which the wire is too short so it was teetering on the edge of my monitor and we were trying to find the jack for the earbuds we needed to use. By now the show is 15 minutes running and all they can see is the top of Mary's head and my back room. I am plugging the earbuds into every port and we still can't hear anyone, but apparently they could hear us. We were unaware until we realized they muted us because we were laughing so hard.

Finally after the show was 3/4 over we had to find a way to communicate with them. They obviously could tell we had issues. Technology can be wonderful but to communicate this time we had to do it the old fashioned way.........pen and paper. This was our sign......... :)

Embarrassing? Yes Annoying? Yes Fixed? Yes Another Adventure? Yes

Live, Love and Giggle! A lot!

We made a mess in the kitchen today.....but oh so worth it!

2014-03-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

Tears of joy?

More garlic!

measuring spoon

spices!

Time to simmer

Cathy's half minus the one for dinner

We had a great time cooking together today. Mary had tears from the onions, and Cathy goofing around like she is eating the garlic. We now have quick meals in the freezer for the busier days. We were going to try to can this in jars in the pressure canner, but we ran out of time today. Next time. We will let you know if we blow up the kitchen :)

We had talked about a bumper crop of tomatoes this year and even though the garden isn't in yet, we are dreaming of making sauce from our own tomatoes. The deer got them last year, so the fence is going up.

Can you tell we have Spring fever yet?

Live, Love and Giggle Often :)

Our First Crafting Project Together.......thank goodness we had COFFEE

2014-03-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

We have completed what we started out to do which was yet another adventure! We had some odd pieces of glassware, plates, tons of buttons. As we laid it all out on the table we started thinking which pieces would go with what to make something pretty. After our first day of rearranging the pieces again and again we got 2 or 3 we thought were perfect.

Day 2 we went shopping for some marine grade epoxy glue, silicone and PVC elbows. As we opened the glue and tried to squeeze it out, we had such a hard time getting the one side to come out and blend. We made a bigger hole in the container, squeezed, used a pipe wrench to squeeze it, Cathy stomped on it, stood on it and then with a razor knife sliced the whole side open (and wished she hadn't). What an awful smell. Mary claimed it reminded her of elephant dung from the zoo.

A sit down coffee break and butter cake. Done.

Day 3 we went back to the store for more epoxy, this time choosing one for outdoors as well. Back home we went and opened in, put it on a paper plate to mix.......and we were in another part of the zoo.......the monkey house :) We did use that one and after it dried there was no odor so with that and silicone we continued on.

A sit down coffee break and butter cake.

Day 4 we were cranking right along however we started noticing we needed more pieces so off to the resale we went. Our favorite shop owner greeted us as always knowing we were going to load up a cart. Found some sweet accents but not quite enough so we hit one more store on the way home.

A sit down coffee break and english muffins.

Day 5 back at it again and were rolling right along. We need more buttons, we need more glass stones, we need more COFFEE!

A sit down coffee break and jelly beans.

Day 6 we went outside and took photos of our goodies and both felt pleased. We had laughed so hard all week it was almost a relief to be done so our stomach muscles could rest :) We did some listings and then...a sit down coffee break and some Necco candy.

Day 7............We need to go shopping! We grabbed our go cups of coffee and drove off in search of treasure.

Live, Love and Giggle often :)

Our project is coming along nicely, or so we thought :)

2014-02-25T19:38:00.000-08:00

We actually got a good early start today which seem to be unusual as of late.
Coffee ready, music on, space heater going so off into the basement (dungeon) to get to work.

As we started putting together our creations we were feeling pretty good about things.We dumped the stinky glue and the new glue smells a little better, more like the monkey house than the elephant house. So no more elephant dung for us lol.
Cathy was adding the finishing touch on a piece which was a wooden bird with metal feet.
Well, the feet would not fit into the piece so she decided to take the feet off. Well, she broke the feet off and half of the bird as well. Hence the sad photo.
That led us to look around the table and realize we were running out of glass options and needed to make another run to our favorite shop.

Our favorite thrift store is a friendly store called Twice As Nice, where everything we buy goes to a charity that supports families. And we know how important family is to us so we shop there almost weekly. We have gotten to know the owner pretty well, and he is getting used to the quirky twin thing we have going. So today was pretty typical for us, crawling around on the floor to locate the special items that no one else sees on the lower shelves. We found a lot of items that we thought would fit into our plans for creating the new items. Mary spotted a little accent item, and then lost track of where it was when she got distracted by something Cathy said. So as she is frantically searching again for it, Cathy says "What are you looking for", so I said it was a little butterfly thing. Cathy says "Oh you mean this" she had of course picked up the very item I was looking for. Which of course sent us into gales of laughter, no wonder I could not find it, she was holding it among other items.

We finally get up to the front to pay for our items, and the owner greets us with "How are you two today" and we both responded at the same time "We are good how are you". Naturally we are all laughing at this point, and he says can you do that again. We are like "ummm no" at the same time lol. We don't do it on purpose, it happens randomly, without thought or planning of any kind. It is that strange ability that we seem to have that causes us to speak the same thing, pick up coffee cups at the same time, just to name a few.

We are so blessed to be the best of friends, and sisters (twins of the heart). We don't consider our business Twins Treasure Trove to be work. Every day is another day for us to share, bond, and create more memories.

So Live, Love and Giggle

The Twins
Mary and Cathy

Winter has forced us to play indoors..........

2014-02-24T13:21:00.002-08:00

The weather has been chilly as it has been everywhere, darn Polar Vortex!

This has kept us indoors and cabin fever has set in so we decided to gather all of our unused pieces of glassware and start a new project.

As our coffee was brewing, we set up the big folding table in the basement which was once covered almost to the ceiling in vintage clothing. We set all of the pieces of glassware on the table, turned on Pandora and the wheels of creation were starting to turn slowly.

We wanted to find out which glue would be the best for this project, so we had purchased Marine epoxy glue which is water resistant. We cut off the top of the glue and tried to put in on a paper plate to mix it and the brown side was hard as a rock. We even tried a giant crescent wrench to get that side to move. Finally we got a little bit of it out after Cathy was stomping it on the floor :)

As we mixed it and started to put in on the place we realized it had a horrible odor. We thought we had transported ourselves to the elephant house at the zoo. It was like we were wading in elephant dung! I'm sure the glue will hold fine and the smell will go away, but WOW, what a shocker, :)

Once we scrape off our boots, we will be back to let you know how our latest adventure is progressing.

Stay tuned for more fun and giggles with the twins.

Live Love and Giggle
The Twins
Mary and Cathy

Planning for Spring!

2014-02-13T12:05:00.000-08:00

We are sitting inside looking at the snow covered tundra, thinking of all the things we want to do when Spring arrives.

We have been planning out what to plant this year as last years garden was decimated by the deer.
We love the daily visitors to the yard, but had very little bounty left after they were done mowing down the tomatoes, peppers, green beans, yellow beans, even onions. The only thing they wouldn't touch was the accidental gourds we thought were cucumbers when they were planted. So first..........a fence.

We would love to hear your tips on keeping deer out of the gardens. Please and thank you!

Cathy received a pressure canner and 2 boxes of jars for Christmas so as we wait for winter's exit we will be canning pasta sauce with meat. Hoping for a bumper crop of home grown tomatoes this year since we have the new equipment. New experience so we will let you know if we blew up the kitchen or not. :)

We also are anxiously awaiting the garage sale/yard sale/flea market season as we have been unable to travel very far to find treasures. We are no match for the ice that has covered the roads. Ice wins every time!

Wondering what you are dreaming of for upcoming Springtime? Drop us a line. We'd love to know. In the meantime, stay safe, stay warm, live, love and giggle.

Share us with your friends :)

What Were We Thinking?!

2014-01-22T09:39:00.001-08:00

Cathy's son who still lives near Chicago told us that his neighbor was having a garage sale and sent her a few pictures of the table. All of the items were vintage, they had been this gentleman's mothers things. The gentleman had racks and racks of clothing in his home. His mother was a traveler and loved to buy clothing. He did not know what to do with all of the clothing in his house.

We offered to purchase the clothing based on what we had seen in the photos of the garage sale, and the gentleman agreed.

Cathy's husband drove up to Chicago and visited some friends and family since that is where Cathy and her husband moved from in July. He then rented the trailer and he, our sons, daughter-in-law and Grandsons all loaded up the trailer and the back of the SUV. He then drove back to Southern Illinois where Mary, her son and Cathy awaited his arrival. He is such a good sport!

We were so excited thinking of all of the clothes and how we would list them. We even bought a form to put the clothing on to photograph.

When we opened the back of the trailer there were bags upon bags of clothes, coats on hangers, skirts and dresses on hangers and our jaws dropped!

So much work to do! We started sorting which took days and ended up with about 22 bags to donate. Still we had tons of clothes. We could not imagine owning that much clothing, even both of us combined.

We started washing what was washable and using Dryell on the dry clean items. Yes, some we ruined (Cathy did anyway) lol. Then on to ironing and photographing. Cathy had an iron that was very vintage and very heavy so she went out and got a new lightweight iron. Ironing is just not her thing!

This all started right before Thanksgiving and all are not listed as of yet. Even working on it every day has been a challenge. Some items went in the washer just fine, and came out with hems that came loose, lace that fell off, or a stain that just would not come out. Even on a gentle cycle. Those items we salvaged the buttons to sell but kick ourselves for not thinking of the buttons sooner in the 22 bags we donated!

So as excited as we were about the whole idea, it has been decided that we will never buy sight unseen again. Such a learning experience. It has become a bit of a joke between us now.

We've tried on some of the clothing and hats and imagined where they were worn. Was it Italy, Japan, a special dinner, church, or a wedding? We realized vintage clothing sizes are not the same as today's sizing standards because that dress certainly should have fit LOL. So this was our learning adventure without a doubt which is where we've use the words "what were we thinking?"

Every day is an adventure of one kind or another. Embrace it. Live, love and giggle!

Traveling for Treasures

2014-01-13T14:44:00.001-08:00

We decided we needed to try a new area for hunting treasures. We thought it would be fun
to go to Paducah Kentucky which is about 2 hours away. It was raining that day, but we were not deterred by that fact and we were determined to hunt treasure.

We grabbed our go cups of coffee and drove and drove it seemed and when we got to Paducah, we were expecting one or two exits. Well there were four! We had no map, just addresses we had taken from the internet for resale shops.
Cathy's husband decided to be our chauffeur that day and as many U-turns as we made, he was very patient. We would stop at a gas station and they would tell us to get back on the highway and go down 2 more exits to find the store. After that store we stopped at another gas station and got the same answer.........keep driving. We drove and drove.

We made it to some of the stores and decided we needed to refuel so we stopped for lunch and more coffee of course.

We found a really large resale shop and thought this was the one we would find treasures in......well we found not even one treasure! :(

So after hitting 6 resale shops and not finding 3 of the shops on our list, we decided to head back home. We were disappointed at being gone for 8 hours and not finding a thing, but we sure did have some laughs.

We have found that we find the best treasures in the most unexpected places, not the planned trips that we make. But the biggest treasure of all, is not in finding the best item of the day, it is the day itself. For the biggest treasure of all, are the moments that we are together, the memories that we make, and our love as sisters.

Live, Love and Giggle

The Twins

The Twins Go To The Post Office

2013-11-11T08:00:00.001-08:00

We started off our day early on Saturday morning with a super strong brew of coffee. We had been surprised with several large orders the night before and had to get everything ready to go. It would not be our usual fun day of shopping on this day. We were all about getting our orders packed and ready to go.

Since we specialize in vintage glass, this is no simple task. We can't just put our items in a box with a little stuffing and send it off. Everything we ship has to be bubble wrapped to the max, and carefully packed to make sure that they get to their new homes in good condition We always think to ourselves that the items made it all this time through the years, we would feel terrible if they broke during shipping. We use a lot of bubble wrap and packing, and this particular day was no exception. We finally saw the light at the end of the bubble wrap tube around 11:00 am. We had been wrapping and packing since about 8:00 working together to get all the orders packed, weighed and labeled for shipment. It was finally time to go. We carried everything out to the car, loaded it up, got our coffee and got ready to roll.

We headed off to the post office, happy with the way our morning was going. We parked close up front and start unloading the car. We were each juggling three boxes and they are definitely not light as glassware is quite heavy. lol. As we were walking to the front door we notice through the front window that the counter area is blocked off.

THEY WERE CLOSED!

How can this be!? We had hurried as fast as we possibly could. They are supposed to be open till noon on Sat, or well we thought they were. They locked their doors at exactly 11:00 am. on Saturday.

We sadly made our way with our boxes back to the car and gently put them back in. Now what the heck are we gonna do? We settled back into the car and start trying to figure out what we are going to do. We have deadlines which are mostly self imposed of course. We like our orders to go out the next day if at all possible.

We headed off thinking maybe another Post Office would be open in another town, however we live in a rather rural area so they all close at the same time. The post office in the town Mary lives in is actually open only until 10:30am. We then remembered seeing Cathy's postal gal on her road earlier, in fact we waved hello to her on our way to her post office. So the light went on in our heads that we could find her on her route and ask her, beg her to take our packages to go out.

We headed down toward Cathy's house and passed her street. About a mile down is the next street and so we thought we would catch her down the winding road. As we passed each road we looked down to see if we could see her car and finally low and behold she was in a cul-de-sac. We had her cornered :) Cathy got out of the car and explained what had happened and the postal gal said she would be happy to take our packages..........but her car was filled to the brim.

She rearranged her whole car to fit in our 6 big boxes and we felt terrible because she barely had room to sit in her own car to drive. It reminded us of Santa's sleigh filled with toys. She went on her way and we sat back with a sigh of relief. Kudos to our post office delivery gal! A little gift at Christmas will express our happiness.

To celebrate our adventure we went to a local restaurant and had a nice hearty bowl of beef vegetable soup and a good hot cup of coffee, some conversation and some laughs.

We now have the post office hours on the refrigerator. We have become more wise since this experience. All in all, just having the soup, coffee and sister time was worth every minute!

Laughing Through The Tears

2013-08-11T10:43:00.001-07:00

We recently took a road trip to Tennessee that was unplanned and truly unexpected. This time it was not to find treasures, but to say goodbye to a treasure, my sister Cathy's brother Warren. He had passed away suddenly and at too young of an age. He was a wonderful man full of laughter and love for others, and he is deeply missed each day. Grief and shock were our companions as we started our journey South to be with his wife and family.

Anyone who knows the two of us, know we cover our sadness and pain pretty well. Usually with silly stuff and laughter. And believe me this trip was no exception. We thought we had prepared for everything we would need for our drive down to a small town in Tennessee. We had the Garmen for backup if we got lost, had our coffee (we do not travel without coffee), and a printout of directions.
It did not take us long to run out of coffee. Sheila aka the Garmen, would not let us leave the state of Illinois. No matter what buttons we pushed to program it to allow us into Kentucky or Tennessee, all it kept telling us to make a u-turn on the interstate. What kind of "helpful" directional device tells you to make a u-turn on the interstate! Isn't that illegal? We finally decided to scrap Sheila's help, and relied on the printed directions and Cathy's memory to get us there.

We stopped for fuel at a little gas station in Kentucky. Cathy fueled up the vehicle and I went in search of coffee. What I found was coffee that certainly had been on since the wee hours of the morning or possibly reheated from the day before.. As desperate as I was, I was not drinking that grog. When I came back outside Cathy said "What no coffee"?
All I could do was shake my head and tell her we certainly do not want coffee from here!

We decided we would just stop farther down the road for coffee. When we open the doors to get back in the car a swarm, and I do mean swarm of flies rushed into the car. We were sitting there in disbelief at how many there were, and then frantically start trying to shoo them out. We did what we could and then got back on the interstate. While I was driving the flies started biting my legs. I am stomping my feet trying to get the flies off of my legs, and the car is lurching forward and slowing to the rhythm of my stomping. My sister is looking at me like I am crazy or something is wrong with the car and she asks what is going on. I told her "these flies are biting me" and we started laughing so hard that it just made it worse. Cathy said "we don't have any bug spray or Lysol in the car, we need a plan." So she whips out what else, hairspray! Here we are driving down the interstate with flies biting us and a fog of hairspray as she is spraying my legs trying to keep the blood sucking flies from biting me. Finally, the flies were done!

After many stops for coffee at McDonald's and a few wrong turns on 45ES, 45, 45EN or whatever the road signs told us, we managed to get to our destination. We thought wow, we made it....until we checked into our hotel room.

Our hotel room was lovely, big and spacious. We unpacked our stuff so it was our comfy temporary home away from home. Tired, we decided it was time to call it a night and turned on the air conditioner. All was fine until the air conditioner went through its' cycle and shut off. It sounded like someone screaming. We laughed until we cried. Then the second time it cycled it sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Well, you can only imagine. Cathy finally turned it on to continuous fan and there was peace. Around 5 am, the air unit decided it wasn't done with us yet. It screamed and screeched constant. Cathy woke up, but did not want to get up to shut it down, hoping I would wake up (NOT). So she got up and turned it all the way off.

The next day we had a busy morning and afternoon. We went back to our hotel room tired and very hungry. At least we had thought to grab some food to eat in our room. As we settled in to eat our lunch we remembered the screaming air conditioner. Cathy called down to let maintenance know we had a problem, and before she could hang up the phone maintenance was knocking on our door. Was this man standing outside just waiting for the call? Cathy let him inside, and he said "Hello my name is Lewis, and I am your maintenance man". It was all we could do not to burst out laughing, it was like he was introducing himself at a restaurant "Hello my name is Lewis and I will be your server today". He was a very kind gentleman who sadly informed us that our air conditioner was kaput, the motor was done! He also informed us he was going to need to move us to another room. We were thinking we had just got settled and situated in to this room. He must have seen the look our our faces and he explained all we had to do was walk across the hall. He would move all of our things for us, we would not have to do anything but finish our lunch. Well talk about service with a smile! We got relocated after a very short time. Lewis told us if we needed anything, and he said "I mean anything" than please call him because he wanted us to be happy.

Lewis went on his way leaving us to finally eat our lunch and relax a little bit. We were trying to eat a little healthier than just the comfort food of fries and coffee, so we had both opted for a fish sandwich. Cathy went to take a big bite of her now cold sandwich, and splat! Out flew a big glob of tartar sauce and landed right on to the carpet in front of her. We are sitting there staring at this huge mess on the carpet, and Cathy says loudly "Oh Lewis cleanup in isle 5". Needless to say that sent us into peals of laughter. They probably heard us in the next room and thought what on earth is wrong with those women.

The service was lovely as were all the people who surrounded the family. As we departed to go back to the hotel, we were sitting in line to go over the train tracks, the train gates would go up and let 3 cars through, then down. This went on 3 or 4 times and Cathy decided it was her brother playing a trick from heaven. Oh how he loved to tease her and make her laugh. And it worked.

We prepared to leave Tenn with heavy hearts and minds the day after the funeral for our brother. The sky opened up and poured rivers of tears. It was like brother was up there, watching us, and said "Okay sissy's, you can cry now for a little while, but when the sun comes back out dry your tears".

Life is sprinkled with love, faith, tears and laughter.

Busting Tar Bubbles with the Twins

2013-07-14T19:04:00.000-07:00

We enjoy taking long walks after dinner together, every chance we get. We both love nature, and watching the seasons change. And of course just spending time together doing something relaxing is always a plus for us, and a great way to get rid of a few calories as well.

On one such walk to our favorite little creek close to Mary's house, we had a close up encounter with a beautiful bobcat. Kind of scary to be that close and not even realize he was less than ten feet away from us. We were just standing there looking into the creek searching for George(a huge catfish that we named), and we caught sight of an adult bobcat, working his way down to the water for a drink. Talk about a unexpected visitor to our quiet refuge, of course we were invading his habitat. So we just quietly backed up, and gave him space and he went on his way.

The last time we went for a walk, we started talking about our childhood memories. We don't share the same memories because we did not grow up together. We were both adopted to different families very young, and then found each other as adults. So we have a lot of catching up to do. So we share things from time to time. One thing that we both did was of course the same thing that kids all over the states do every summer, catch lightning bugs. Neither one of us had the cute little bug catchers that they sell now. We used old glass Mason jars. Running around in the dark with a glass jar would absolutely horrify modern parents today. But yet we had the best of times, and I don't ever remember dropping one of moms canning jars. We both had sandboxes and good old fashioned mud puddles. We knew how to enjoy the simple joys of getting dirty and not getting in trouble. Maybe that is why we both love to play in the dirt aka garden work now.

The one thing that we both do not have in common was tar bubble popping. I knew what it was but had never experienced it. Cathy introduced me to the joys of popping tar bubbles on our last walk. It takes a special touch to get them to pop, and after a few tries I was able to get that satisfaction of hearing it go pop. I am sure we must have looked hilarious to anyone who happened to be watching us. Two grown women in the middle of the road, on a hot day squatting down to pop as many tar bubbles as we could. And of course laughing so hard the tears are running down our face. And you know what happens when you have tar junk on your fingers and you reach up to wipe your wet face. You got it.... tar on the face too. We came back home and had to do some serious scrubbing to get that stuff off,. But oh what fun did we have on our evening stroll. And really that is what it is all about for us, having fun. Just the simple joy of spending time together as sisters and also learning about each others childhoods.

So the next time you get the chance, pop some tar bubbles and feel the simple joy of being a child again.

Till Next Time
The Twins

Moving Day Has Come and Gone

2013-07-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

We finally got Cathy all moved in! All of the boxes are unpacked, and the Treasure Trove storage room organized. Shelving added, room swept, and the TTT radio is in it's proper place.

The last week has been pretty crazy getting everything done, as I am sure anybody that has ever moved knows, nothing goes as planned. 20 years in one house can accumulate quicker than we thought.

The moving van did not come on the day expected. My sister Cathy wanted to stay at the house the first night to clean, and of course I had to help. So armed with cleaning supplies, an air mattress, a coffee pot and her beloved pet cats Lizzie and Felix we went to the new home. We had power and water so it was all good, we however forgot a radio. All of her electronics were on the truck of course lol. We cleaned until about two in the morning.

We got the air mattress all aired up and turned out the lights to try and sleep. Which even as adults we act like teenagers, talking and talking, and giggling and giggling. And then I rolled over and when I did I bounced her right off the air bed onto the floor. I had overfilled the air mattress and it was like a rock. Don't know why one of us did not think to simply let some air out of it, so we could sleep more comfortably. So between the hard air mattress and the cats exploring their new home there was not much sleep that night.

So now the house is pretty much in order, the furniture arrived and has been put in its proper place. The air mattress has been retired back to my closet. Cathy and Greg are settling in to their new home and life in Southern Illinois, where the deer play in their backyard and Bandit the raccoon steals bird seed from the porch in the middle of the night. :)

Until Next Time

The Twins

The Twins Together At Last

2013-06-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to announce the big move is just one week away. Cathy is relocating to the same area as Mary. We could not be happier, we have such big plans for us as sisters, as well as our business Twins Treasure Trove.

I recently made a trip to Chicago to help my sister Cathy pack up what she has of the Twins inventory, wow we went through the bubble wrap and boxes and coffee. Took us almost a week to get everything properly boxed so that when the movers handled them nothing gets broke. We do hate those kinds of surprises.

We are looking forward to lots of fun unpacking and setting up our shop. And I do mean fun, believe me when I say we can have fun doing anything as long as we are doing it together. Our store has less than normal inventory at the moment since half of it is boxed up for the big move Once everything is unpacked, we are planning several outings for restocking our online store. We have been busy working on some marketing plans. We have recently opened a Pintrest account, as well as Wanelo so look for us there as well as our Etsy store. We hope one day to have a bricks and mortar store, with a huge window for decorating with vintage finds.

But most of all we want to have fun as sisters, oh don't get us wrong the business is an important part of who we are, but not the most important part. We are sisters first and business partners second. We hope to see you all in a couple weeks with an update on the big move.

Blessings

The Twins

Spring is Coming

2013-01-28T17:59:00.001-08:00

As we sit by our fires this winter season in an effort to keep warm and cozy, we are already planning our spring adventures.

This spring will be different from all the others for the twins, we will finally be living in the same area. Big sister is moving from Chicago with her husband to Southern Illinois. We are so excited we can hardly contain ourselves from jumping up and down and giggling like a couple school girls. We have not lived in the same area in 47 years!

The biggest plans aside from our business expansions, will be a big family garden. Eating fresh food is so important to both of us, as well as providing nutritious meals for our families. Most people do not know this but we both suffer from Fibromyalgia which makes just simple everyday activities difficult at times. But put us together there will be no stopping us, not to mention our favorite place to be other than together, is outside with nature and plants.

We already are in the planning stages of what we want to grow. Of course we will plant a lot of the tried and true favorites, of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and onions. Maybe some kale and definitely herbs. This will be a challenge for Cathy as she does not have clay in her Chicago garden, so it will be interesting and funny too! She will probably try to make pottery!

We had a discussion on whether to put hay or straw on the garden. We found out it is straw we should be using or we will have all kinds of stray grass growing. Maybe for a smoothie? :)

Whether our garden takes off or not remains to be seen. We will be prepared for a bumper crop for canning and freezing but even if we only get 2 tomatoes, we were able to spend time together which to us is what it is all about.

Happy Planning from the Twins

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2012-12-23T22:21:00.000-08:00

We wanted to take time out from cleaning, wrapping and baking to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

We will be spending our holiday separately but we both will be with family which is a blessing.

We await the smiles and hugs from our Grandchildren and to mingle with all of our relatives.

When all of the festivities are through we will await the end of 2012 and hope for a new start with family, togetherness, happiness and good health.

This is our wish for all of you.

Be safe in your travels and visit us again when you settle back in.

Love and Laughter,

Cathy and Mary

Cooler Weather Is On The Horizon

2012-10-10T18:55:00.001-07:00

As we watch the 10 day forecast, each day we see the numbers dipping towards the colder season.
Trying to prepare the right way is a little confusing. If you listen to the predictions for this winter here, they are saying because last winter was mild it is going to be a rough one. But my sister Mary says that the woolly worms are not as big and not as dark and no stripes which means mild winter.
So, on the optimistic side.......I'm going with the woolly worms.

So many things to do to get ready. Clean the fireplace, make sure the furnace has a new filter, put the garden to bed, bring wood closer to the house, cover the air conditioners, bring out the bags of sweaters and put the shorts in the bags for next summer (or the winter getaway I dream of).

Then into the kitchen to get creative with all of the veggies left from the garden. Stewed tomatoes for the freezer, roasted tomatoes, sliced peppers for the freezer and prepare the herbs for the freezer too.

Since we are in the cooler weather mode, comfort foods come to mind. Bringing out the big old Club pot for soups, stews, chili, hot apple cider and so much more. Nothing tastes like homemade soup in a good old pot. Maybe even some apple bread baking in the oven warming the house and making it smell so wonderful and feel so cozy!

We wish you all a happy, relaxing and festive cooler weather season.
Post back to let us know how you are preparing :)

Rocking on the Porch

2012-09-04T21:17:00.001-07:00

Every year we wait patiently for July or August when we can get together for our sister time. During the waiting period we talk on the phone, chat on Facebook, text, or Skype. We have all these ideas of what we want to do together when really just sitting on the porch rockers with a cup of coffee would be just fine.
This year we spent time together cooking, rocking on the porch, shopping for our Etsy shop, rocking on the porch, going to the county fair, out to dinner, out to breakfast (awesome french toast and really crunchy bacon), but the best moments were those quiet times while fishing and sitting on the rockers on the porch. Fishing not so quiet though with a few giggles trying to get the fish off the hook.

We can all get wrapped up in the hustle bustle, but just listening to the crickets, the hummingbirds and some one on one conversation can be so relaxing, a stress buster.

Spend time with your family and friends, listen to what is said and what is not said, laugh with them, love them, hug them and take time to rock on the porch.

The Good Ole Days of Mayberry

2012-07-06T19:28:00.001-07:00

    With the passing of Andy Griffith, it has given us alot to ponder the last few days. We have a strong desire to go back to the simpler times. We want to go back to when our lives were not so busy, and there was always time for family and friends. Time to sit on the porch and visit for awhile. We not only love vintage items, we love the times when the vintage items were created.

Are the days of unexpected company stopping by at dinner time gone for good?
Years ago, people would go driving around and visiting. We were always prepared to feed an extra few people at dinner time if someone did. We usually have a standby meal that we can fix if a few extras show up. Maybe a favorite pasta dish that could be doubled if need be. We have become so wrapped up in our own lives that we tend to neglect the friends and extended family that we do have.

I live in a farming community and my property is surrounded by crops.   Several years ago the farmer who owned the fields was in the hospital and was dying, as he had lost his battle with cancer. He had put his crops in during the planting season. I had wondered what would happen to his crops. One morning during harvest season, harvesters started showing up. And they just kept coming. I had never seen such a sight. I counted 10 harvesters in the farmers field, they had all just come to help out their neighbor and friend. I just stood there in amazement with tears running down my face. I was so touched by the sense of community and honor that they were showing for this man.

We would like to see a "get back to Mayberry movement" in our communities, where people take the time to stop and see how you are doing. A stronger sense of community and pride in our towns.

Instead of getting frustrated because you are getting delayed while running errands and run into someone you know, just stop and talk for awhile. It does the heart good and will lift your spirits as well as the other persons. People need to know we care about them. This world can be a lonely place for some people, especially the elderly and those who are alone.   Sometimes just a kind word and a huge smile can make a huge difference in someones day.

So while we thinking about how we wish things were like good ole Mayberry, lets start to make small changes in our own lives. If we all do our part, we can have our own little piece of Mayberry here today.

Have a Great Day!
Mary and Cathy

Keep it or sell it?

2012-06-16T11:23:00.003-07:00

So many times when we go out shopping for items to sell whether it be the antique store, flea market, resale shop, Shorty's or a garage sale we have the best intentions to buy only things we feel will sell or associate with our years of youth.

While we hunt these items (coffee mugs in hand), we pick up all sorts of goodies that have a memory for one or both of us. When we make our purchases, we get them home, wash them up and look them over for flaws. For some reason the items with flaws hang around my house to look at, until I finally go donate them for someone else to work with. (keeping it out of the landfill one item at a time)

Many times though, we look at the items and set them in a special spot where it looks good in one of our homes and keep it there for a few days or months before it is listed. A few times, they were never listed at all because we have fallen in love with them all over again. Mary will ask me when I am going to list that beautiful pressed glass bowl we bought last month, and I will say "oops, sorry, I'm keeping it".

Once in a blue moon an item that is listed and sold can't be found because it is not in the storage area, it is in that special spot in one of our houses. Always found of course, but can make for a panicked few moments until one of us remembers we have it. We have enjoyed it so much that it has become a part of our home. Now it MUST leave.

The point of having our ETSY store is to sell items, not add to our stock at home, yet we do it over and over again.

Whatever things make you feel comfy and loved that you were surrounded with through the years, keep them close. You may turn into the crazy twins who want to keep everything. Hopefully you will never see us on the tv show HOARDERS.

But it could happen....................
:)

Fishing With The Twins

2012-05-22T17:56:00.002-07:00

   My sister and I share the love of life's simple pleasures; gardening, treasure hunting, and we love, love to fish. This blog is dedicated to some of our fishing adventures. When we go fishing together it is always with a fresh cup of coffee in hand in our favorite beat-up travel mugs. Oh, of course we take our fishing poles, bait and the normal fishing gear that most people carry. For us it is not even about catching the biggest fish. We don't care if we catch a fish at all. It is about spending time together, sharing the quiet of nature along with some chatting. The simple joy of spending time together.

We went fishing together with our husbands in the early morning hours of a extremely hot steamy day. The area that we had chosen for that morning was weedy and had lots of underwater brush. Great for catching the fish who like to hide. Our husbands prefer to fish away from us as we tend to be a little too chatty, too giggly for their fishing enjoyment. On this particular day, we kept getting hung up in this one area where this one bush was located at. Oh, and did I mention we like big bobbers too? Mine is a light up bobber. In any case I got stuck, I mean really stuck. I tried all of the tricks of the trade trying to get my bobber and hook unstuck. Nothing was working.   So my sister Cathy says "here let me help". If you can possibly picture this; I have a hold of the pole, my sister gets in front of me, grabs on to the line. She says just keep steady pressure and keep backing up. We will get it free of the brush in just a second. So we keep backing up, and backing up, and her husband tells my husband will you just look at those two. I am sure we probably looked ridiculous, but we were in it together 'til the end!   All of the sudden the bobber gets free, and comes flying back at us and warp speed, and we were like oh oh, and it goes Thwack, and smacks my sister on the thigh. She turns around and looks at me and all we could manage to do is laugh hysterically. She had the biggest bruise on her thigh. Our husbands could not figure out why that was so funny, they are just standing there shaking there heads. This could only happen to us.

On another occasion we wanted to go fishing and our husbands refused. It was too hot, they were too tired.   We decided we're going to go, just the two of us, night fishing!   So we got our gear together, coffee mugs included (we never go anywhere without our coffee)   We headed down to the local dock to go fishing. Keep in mind, I am afraid of water snakes, my sister is afraid of spiders. It is those childhood phobia's, and we know it is crazy.   When we fish, she watches for the snakes for me, and I keep a lookout for the spiders for her. We protect each other. If we walk under trees, we hold our poles up, in a X fashion to brush away the spiders ahead of us, and we sing to keep the snakes away, as well as anything else that might be lurking around. We thought we were being very brave going fishing at night by ourselves. I think we were also trying to prove our independence as well. We get out on the dock cast our lines out, and sit down.

We had not been there an hour, and the snakes started coming in. I can see them churning up the water under the dock. At this point I am terrified, and my sister is like it's okay. They can't get up on the dock. I still am not so sure about this, but I keep fishing. Then we noticed that the spiders were coming up on the dock. Not just one or two that I can stomp as I have to be the one to stomp them, but a whole army of the little creepy crawly things. I look at her, and she looks at me, and said I think it is time to go. Wait just a minute, we have only been gone an hour, what wimps are we! We decided to add on to our "fishing time" by going to the nearest McDonald's to get what? Of course, coffee LOL. We wasted another hour so we didn't appear to wimp out too quickly.

We arrived back home to my house where the guys were watching tv, and they wanted to know how the fishing went. We told them we had a great time. They said they figured we would be back in a few minutes, once the spiders and snakes came up.

So if you go fishing, watch out for flying bobber's, and snakes, and spiders! You just never know what will happen on your fishing adventures.

Live Love and Giggle

The Twins

When Technology Changes Everything

2012-04-10T12:34:00.002-07:00

We were talking about the old butcher shops and general stores from days gone by and it brought up a whole long discussion about another era. The following are a few examples of how times have changed

Today when we go into a grocery store to purchase meat, everything is pre-packaged or pre-cut. You would be lucky to find a butcher who still knows the trade without using machinery to do the work.
In the old days people would head to the butcher shop, take a number and wait their turn. You would order ground meat, cut up pork chops in a thickness of your choice and in a number of your choice whether it be 1 pork chop or a dozen. When affordable or for a special occasion a nice roast cut from a large piece of meat, hand cut and tied by the butcher. Then wrapped in paper and labeled as to what is in the package. Their time with the butcher may have been 5 minutes or 30 minutes depending on your order but everyone expected to wait.

These days there are no Mom and Pop stores so we go to Walmart or Target and load up our carts with everything from food to clothing, even appliances and mixing it all together. When it is time to check out it seems so impersonal and robotic. The cashier hands you a receipt and say "sign here" and sometimes, not even a thank you for dropping your whole paycheck in their register.

In a general store people could go into the store, ask to order items with an actual person, shop leisurely and go to the counter to have your bill added up, all the while finding out how the store clerks family is doing and probably some town gossip. If necessary it could be added to "your account", and then it could even be delivered.
It was based on neighborly goodness and human kindness.

If needed you would visit the druggist or pharmacy where the customer could talk things over with the druggist and would go home with the feeling that someone truly cared about them. Just 20 years ago I stopped at a local Rexall about my son's dry cracked feet. The pharmacist went in the back and scooped something out of a larger container, put it into a small container and gave it to me. He said try this for a week and if it works, we will order more. It was pure Lanolin and it did work. I would not find that assistance anywhere today especially at no cost. Sadly that store went out when the chain store came in.

When folks were sick, the doctor came to their homes by "house call". Day or night. He did not ask who their insurance was or how they were going to pay the bill. He might even have had medicine in his bag and leave that with the patient to help their symptoms and would come back in a day or two to check up on them. There were no trips to the ER at $500+ per visit.

As for the telephone, these days we call a number it is "push 1" for this, or "leave a message after the tone" We did not rely on our phones for every movement we made. If people were not home when someone called, then the person would just call back. I remember how appalled my mother was when someone (wink wink) suggested she get an answering machine. She wanted to know "why"? They will just call back she said.

A lot of these scenarios are stories I heard from my mother who grew up back in that time, so they are not just imagined, they were truly how life was.

Technology is moving us forward into the future, yes, but sometimes we long for the days when it was just nice to meet face to face.

How On Earth Did They Do It?

2012-03-19T14:08:00.001-07:00

I was looking at a recipe the other day for a German cookie called Springerle. The directions said to beat by hand for one hour. One hour! I am lucky if I can beat brownies for 10 minutes. This got me to thinking about the chores from the old days when electricity was not a thought in anyone's mind yet.

In order to bake something you had to start a fire in the stove, wash the clothes on a washboard, shred cheese or cabbage on a grater, grind your own meat with a crank handle, knead the bread for who knows how long or to make a hole in wood for building using a crank or push drill.

No wonder they went to bed early, from total exhaustion.

Today we have food processors, washing machines, home delivery groceries that come to you frozen, hand mixers, power drills, lawn mowers and more.
As I look at the flab on my arms and legs, I realize if I took the old fashioned route and really did the work I probably would look a whole lot better. I love to look at all the old tools and think back to how they used them, maybe even try them out and realize how lucky we all are to have the inventions that are out there today.

So the next time you see some of these items, just think of all they had to go through back then to get a loaf of bread, the laundry done, the food sliced and diced, the meat ground up or that special Springerle cookie. I'm so glad there is a bakery in town!