52 Tuesdays: Favorite Thrifts #12

What: Vintage Doctor Bag Style Suitcase
Where: Monroe Flee Market
Level of Love: 9 out of 10

Although we've only been to the Monroe flee market a (small) handful of times it has been good to us. In fact, it's been featured in this space before on favorite thrift post number seven. This find happened on a different trip. Probably almost a year or more ago. If you've been to my house, you know I've got a major crush on vintage luggage. Especially of the chestnut leather variety. Seriously, does leather get any more beautiful than this?

This guy felt like a true treasure because I had to dig for him a bit. He was sitting pretty much out of view under a table with some other items sitting in front. But, I spotted my favorite shade of leather, dug him out, and promptly asked how much (this is not the sort of place with ready made price tags). Oh. I also did my two automatic checks for vintage luggage: the smell test and the zipper test. One. Does it smell like old? The kind of old you're pretty sure you're not going to be able to "air out"? Put 'er back. It's not worth it. Two. For me it has to be usable. Either as visible storage space in our storage-space-less apartment or as actual luggage. This guy went on a trip to Vancouver B.C. with us via Amtrak shortly after we brought him home. Not so practical for air travel, but it worked swell for the train. Now, he sits in the living room holding our DVDs.

Oh, extra special bonus: a monogram. I'm not sure why this makes it extra special to me, but I fall hard for a gold monogram. Doesn't even matter who's initials. I just like that this belonged to someone.

Churchill Family Yurt Tour 2013: Pacific Beach

At last the Churchill Family Yurt Tour makes a stop at an actual yurt. It's located at Pacific Beach, which is along the very southern edge of the Olympic Peninsula on the big 'ole Pacific Ocean. Boy was there plenty of beach to go around, and I assure we took long walks on all of them. Oh, and there were t-shirts this time. Yep, we got t-shirts.

Saturday we loaded up the car (something we're getting quite good at) and had our lunch on a beach in the more southern town of Ocean Shores. There were surfers. In full body wet suits, but still. The weather the whole weekend was absolutely perfect. Sunny, no rain, blue skies, and warmer than we're allowed to have in Washington at this time of year.

After arriving at our yurt and getting settled, we decided to head out in search of a spot for surf perch. Yep, fishing. As you may recall, Kevin tried fishing for surf perch on this trip but had been unsuccessful.  This time, he did his research and knew just how to do it. We got there at the right time for the tide and found some nice swirly, rocky areas like they like. Despite this, we were both still skeptical about him catching anything. It just seems sort of strange to us inlanders that you can pull a fish out of the big 'ole ocean. Thus, when he came running back toward my beach spot after about 10 minutes I assumed he was frozen and giving up. How wrong I was! Surf perch number one. He went back out for my dinner, and came back with another in about five minutes. That's my man. While Kevin caught fish, I caught a sunburn, being a little too over zealous of the warm weather and skeptical of the Washington sun's ability to burn.

Oh! I forgot to mention! Before the surf perch we experienced another first! I drove on the beach! Looking back, this was pretty cool. There were lots of others driving on the beach, too, and it was clearly okay per the signage. At the time however, while driving, I was kinda freaking out. I just kept picturing the old Taur getting stuck in the sand and us trying hopelessly to get her out. I was cussing it up in the car (sorry Mom!) while Kevin laughed and laughed at my dirty sailor mouth and general lack of nerve. Needless to say, things turned out fine, and then I decided I loved driving on the sand, that I was a sand-driving rockstar, and thus asked Kevin to take this picture:

Back at camp, we had a surf perch feast! I contributed with asparagus and cast iron corn bread. Then, it was time to make after-dinner coffee and go down to the beach for the sunset. Perfection.

Sunday morning we took another beach walk, then came back to camp for Sunday brunch. Can you tell food is our favorite? Camp cooking = the best. Someday I'll attempt Grandpa Firnstahl inspired cobbler - but that's another story. This time it was leftover cornbread, beans, tomatoes, and sausages (which were brought in case the surf perch thing was a bust).

Then, we started our drive back, stopping at one more beach. And getting more of a sunburn. There was a bit of thrifting in Aberdeen, then home to sleep off the sun. Best yurt tour stop yet.

For a history of the past two stops of the Churchill Family Yurt Tour see here and here.

52 Tuesdays: Favorite Thrifts #11

What: Not sure what to call these exactly? Here goes a really long adjective riddled name: Woven Leather T-Strap Sandals with Stacked Wooden Heel
Where: Monroe, WA Goodwill
Level of Love: 5 out of 10

Lovely leather vintage shoes with wooden heels are one of the number one things I look for at thrift stores but rarely find. At least in a size 8 1/2. These little beauties I almost passed up...not because I didn't love them but because really, do I need another pair of heels I never wear? The thing about these, though, is that it turns out I do wear them. The heel is not super high, and unlike other pretty vintage heels I own they actually fit (why oh why do I keep buying shoes a half size too small and thinking it will end well). I've worn them them three times now on outings that required a medium amount of walking without any blister incidents. That's a win.

At this point you may be wondering why they got a five, because it's clear from my glowing review that they rock. It's because I'm painfully afraid they're going to break. Like an irreparable tear in the woven leather or a broken strap. So, I'm trying not to get too attached to them just in case.

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.