52 Tuesdays: Favorite Thrifts #10

What: Fiestaware Teacups
Where: Secondhand Rose, Rhinelander, WI (and Dearborn Goodwill in Seattle)
Level of Love: 140 out of 140 (10 point each)

I can't believe I've let nine Tuesdays pass without sharing any Fiestaware! This is absolutely my favorite thing to collect. It's the first thing I look for at any thrift store. I bee-line it for the plate aisle and start scanning the shelves for bright pops of color, turning things over to look for the stamp when I see something promising. I'll keep my eye out for it at antique stores as well, but it's generally out of my price range. Fiestaware's not super rare, so I figure I can afford (ha! pun intended) to collect it slowly by saying no to things that are less than a steal. I've loved it for such a long time, too. It's one of the rare things I saw as a teenager and always said "I want that for my house someday" and still really love.

Which is why I originally passed these up. Secondhand Rose is an antique store, so I went in expecting not to buy Fiestaware. Well, that and I was only home on a short visit to Wisconsin with not a lot of extra baggage room. So, I left without them. Pouting I'm sure. Flash forward to Washington a few weeks later, and I couldn't get the adorable teacups out of my head. I started scouring online vintage and antique sites to try to find the same. Which is when I realized these little darlings were even more of a steal that I had originally thought. At between $3 - $6 each for the cup and saucer set, and in very good condition, AND in my most favorite Fiesta colors, they were just too good to pass up. So, I sheepishly called up my wonderful Mother and asked if she'd go back, see if they were still there, and pick them up on my behalf.

Now, they sit happily taking up this shelf in our kitchen. Oh. Almost forgot. The two extra yellow teacups were found at a Goodwill in Seattle, and I paid $9 for each without a saucer. Yes, Secondhand Rose, you were good to me indeed. Now, I'm not going to think about all the other  Fiestaware I left behind there....

Churchill Family Yurt Tour 2013: Dosewallips

The Churchill family began the 2013 summer Yurt Tour at Wallace Falls. Our second stop was a few weekends ago at Dosewallips State Park (pronounced doe-see-wall-ups - thanks native Seattleite friend Sarah). First, note that this one, too, is not technically a yurt but rather a platform tent. I promise, the rest of our yurt tour stops are actually at yurts.

Dosewallips is situated on the Hood Canal on the lower, inner part of the Olympic Peninsula. It's the only stop on our tour featuring a platform tent, and we were pumped. A platform tent is pretty much what it sounds like. Tent on a platform. This one was sort of deceptively not rustic since it had electricity - meaning electric heater and lamp - but it still felt like camping since we didn't use the heater that much, still cooked over a campfire, and got to hear the rain on the tent through the night. (Which happens to be one of my favorite parts about camping. Is that weird that I like it when it rains?)

We arrived just around noon on Saturday and got settled in our tent. Setting up camp is my specialty. We had some Yurt Tour approved snacks, then decided to set off for a short hike while the rain held off. The hike ended up being sort of disappointing. Being on the Hood Canal, we were hoping we could hike upwards a bit and get some good views. But, the trail stayed pretty much in the woods with little change in elevation. The highlight for me was seeing several banana slug friends (there was much ooing and ahhing and look how big this is compared to my thumb).

After our hike, we walked down to the beach area. The highlight of this stretch of beaches on the Hood Canal are the oysters and clams. With a license, you can harvest oysters easily and dig for severals species of clams and the much sought after goeduck. We saw a family digging for clams while we were there, but didn't do any harvesting ourselves (this time).

Then, it was back to our site for a fire and dinner. Kevin insisted on getting steak and I gave in pretty easily. Add wine in coffee mugs and it was a classy campsite. We've decided these are our official Yurt Tour mugs. Both the potatoes and the steak were seasoned with my Dad's special secret seasoning mixture, which Kevin had labeled "Range Seasoning" for the spice drawer (My Dad's name was Randy and his nickname was Range for those who don't know. As in "home, home on the...." as he used to say).

Sunday we woke up to a little bit of drizzle. So, we decided to skip out on hiking any more trails in the area and instead look the leisurely drive home by going north up the Hood Canal side of the peninsula to Kingston to take the ferry ride. We also stopped at several antique, estate, thrift stores along way, which is much more fun than hiking in the rain in my opinion. 

FO: A Sweater for Mom

This sweater is the first one I've made for my Mom. I've made her quite a few things in the past - in fact she's probably my number one recipient, even over Kevin - but had yet to tackle making her a sweater. So, this year for Christmas I decided to take the plunge. Mom is a lover of all things winter, especially snow. So, this design was perfect for her. I fell in love with the design even before I started thinking of making a Mom sweater. It's by one of  my favorite knitwear designers Kate Davies. This specific pattern is called Boreal.

When picking out colors, I knew Mom would love a classic red and cream choice. The cream colored yarn is Lion Brand Fisherman's wool, which I've used for many projects before and had on hand. It's a very good all around sweater yarn. In fact, the first sweater I ever made for myself was a white cabled darling made from this yarn. Could have been this very skein. The red is recycled yarn. Meaning, it used to be a sweater made by Gap that I picked up for a pittance at a thrift store. Unravel. Wind into a ball. Reknit.

Now, you may be aware that it is currently not Christmas. Yes. Well. There are no excuses. Other than the fact that I started it with way too aggressive of a timeline. Decided "sweater for Christmas!" in November. Not the best planning on my part. That said, it did come out fairly quickly. As you may recall, Boreal made her first appearance in this post from early March, after being finished middle of February. 4ish months is not so bad in my book.

52 Tuesdays: Favorite Thrifts #9

What: Double Spouted Stovetop Espresso Maker
Where: West Seattle thrift store
Level of Love: 9 of 10

This little guy. He has truly grown on me since we first bought him. I will admit I was super skeptical when Kevin showed me this contraption at the thrift. I mean, it's kina weird, right? I'm used to stovetop espresso makers looking more like this. And the thing is, we had one of those for awhile and we got rid of it because we never used it. However, we've started to use this little guy quite a bit lately, and there's no denying that it's pretty adorable and more than a little magical. The simplicity is what I find magical. As you can see, it's got these two perfect little spouts. You unscrew the top, fill the bottom with water, pack the coffee in the basket thing that sits over the water, screw the top back on, put it on the stove, and all of a sudden two perfect little streams of espresso start filling the little demitasse cups that sit ever so neatly on the base. Oh and the text. You can't see it in this photo, but it's got this written underneath where the cups are sitting, which I find wildly amusing: Brevetto OMG Mignon 2 Tazze.

I'm giving it a nine just because I have a low tolerance for espresso. I can only handle one or two a week, and then it's weak drip coffee for me. Lame, I know. It' really not your fault little OMG.

Ode to Cherry Trees

The pictures do not do them justice, and yet they also speak for themselves.

These. Cherry. Trees. Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? Now imagine if you could smell them, too.

The cherry blossoms started showing up a few weeks ago and from then on it's felt like spring arrived overnight. I think as a Wisconsinite, I've been conditioned to never think about spring. Just tell yourself it's going to be winter forever and then you get a lovely surprise when the thaw finally comes. Plus, springtime in Wisconsin is sort of - how do I say this nicely - ugly? Maybe ugly is a bit harsh. But it's certainly not dramatic or fast or very pretty. The snow usually melts gradually leaving muddy half melted snowbanks and lots of icky, slightly salty mud. Plus, there's the leftover garbage. If you've seen it you know what I mean. It's the four months of litter that has been happily buried in snowbanks since December. When the snowbanks melt all you're left with are partially fossilized mountain dew bottles. Not very pretty. Now, when it does finally stay above 50 degrees for a whole day, it's magical. You revel at every robin, every tiny bud, every spot of open water in the lake ice. People come out of the woodwork with their flip flops and frisbees. They smile at each other. You can't deny the magic of spring in Wisconsin, especially because you've been telling yourself it's never gonna happen to avoid the disappointment of still having snow in April.

All this to say, I was not expecting the cherry blossoms in Seattle. I thought to myself "surely it can't be time for spring yet." Then, after realizing it was, in fact, not too good to be true we took every rainless night to take a walk around the streets of our neighborhood. Oohing and Ahhing and sniffing the air like bumble bees (note: I'm not entirely sure if bees sniff). Kevin laughed at my walking habits of drifting from one side of the street to another or turning a random corner just to walk under as many cherry trees as possible. These pictures were taken on Easter Sunday on the University of Washington campus. There's one square that's all cherry trees and they were in full bloom. Actually, just past full bloom, which made it better since we were treated to a snow-like flurry of petals every time the wind blew. We couldn't have asked for a better day with brilliant blue skies and mid 60's weather. Perfection.

Now comes the not-so-great part of Seattle weather. In the same way that I taught myself not to think about Spring in Wisconsin, I think I need to teach myself not to think about Summer in Washington. Just because we had a handful of sunny, 60 degree days, does not mean it's summer. There is plenty of rain and grey to go through before we get to that. I have heard many Seattleites say that summer doesn't really arrive until the 4th of July. Or, more likely, the 5th of July because of course it can't cooperate and be nice for the holiday. So self: don't be fooled. It's not summer yet. Enjoy the sporadic beautiful sunny days for what they are. Spring. Washington style.

52 Tuesdays: Favorite Thrifts #8

What: Vintage Wrangler Shirt (for Kevin)
Where: Bethesda Thrift Store, Wisconsin Rapids
Level of Love: Off the charts

This is my first post dedicated to an item of clothing, and it's probably the best item of clothing I've ever thrifted for Kevin. He loves it. Gets worn at least once a week. Perfect fit, perfect softness, and a lovely handsome plaid color combo. I love finding awesome things for Kevin, probably even more than finding things for myself. It's so much more rare to find fantastic vintage mens clothing, so I get more satisfaction from the "find". Plus, I really enjoy giving gifts. There's nothing better than seeing something, knowing it's just perfect for someone, then seeing the look in their eyes that tells you they love it just as much as you thought they would. Out-of-the-blue gifts are the best. Like when I come home from a thrift, pull something out from behind my back for Kev, and he goes "Wow! That's so cool!" (insert beaming wifey here). 

I snapped this shirt off the rack during a trip home to Wisconsin last winter. Remember Wisconsin friends? We had a mini friend reunion hosted by Kari, which of course had to include thrifting. Who can pass up some good Wisconsin thrifts with good friends?!? Other Wisconsin musts include: one or more favorite eateries (in Rapids that means Misty's Menu for us), Spotted Cow, cheese (I know, it's stereotypical...but it's true). Preferably the cheese comes in the form of deep fried cheese curds. 

52 Tuesdays: Favorite Thrifts #7

What: Coffee Grinder
Where: Monroe Flee Market
Level of Love: 6 out of 10

This awesome rickety coffee grinder was found on a Saturday trip to the Monroe Flee Market in Monroe, WA. The whole day is a good treasure hunting memory with lots of great finds and equally great company. Kevin, our friend Sarah, and I all set out early to make the drive north and arrive near the beginning of the market. I think our early start (plus obligatory Starbucks stop) paid off with this and other great finds! After the market, we hit up the other thrift stores in the area and didn't make it back home to Seattle until late afternoon. Thankfully, Sarah (being very smart about how these thrift days go) had the forethought to bring snacks so we held ourselves over with carrot sticks and pistachios in the car between thrifts stops. 

Kevin and I had been looking at hand coffee grinders like this for a bit now, but had not purchased one yet. This one was much more rustic than some of the others we had been seeing, and I fell for it. I'm not much of a haggler, but I think I maybe talked the guy down a fiver? Maybe? It was very gentle haggling I assure you. I remember him saying something like "well, I guess I need the room in the shop". So, home it came. It gets a 6 out of 10 because I'm not 100% how well (read: if) it works yet. It needs a good cleaning first, which I haven't gotten around to doing. The moving parts do work smoothly and the grind-y part (coffee aficionados feel free to correct my terminology) seems to be in good shape. So, as soon as I get around to cleaning it, I'll give it a go.