Still Decorating....

We've been in our house for 11 months now, but are still getting pictures up! Part of the hold-up has been plaster walls! We've always had drywall; but with plaster you can't just pound a nail in. Also, I had to thrift some album covers to stick in these ikea frames:

Here's a closer look:

None of them have any particular meaning except for the Sound of Music soundtrack (one of my favourites when I was a kid - and we had this album!). I just chose mustard yellow as a colour to tie them all together.

Vintage Levi's and bonus Jean nostalgia

How come when you can't find something anymore it becomes more desirable to you? It seems you can no longer find jeans without 'stretch.' The problem with them is, if they fit well in the change room, they don't stay that way. They start to 'bag out' once you wear them.  Not so with the jeans of my youth. 

I was intrigued by a pair of Levi's I saw in the vintage store for only $11, with all the tags attached. I didn't buy them right then, but overnight I thought they would probably fit me. I went back and they did fit!

They are super high waisted, and are made (in Canada!) of really thick, unyielding denim. I think I should be able to get away with wearing them with a longer top without it looking too weird.  My internet research on them didn't dig up anything about them. I can't tell from the label if they are late 70s or early 80s.  What do you think?

And thinking about jeans, since living in Alberta I've come across a few references to the Great Western Garment Co. which operated a factory in Edmonton until 2004.  Apparently, it was one of the only places that hired non-English speaking women.  When I was a kid a popular brand, the "GWG's" came from there. I think I had a white pair in the mid-1980s.  Check out a commercial from that era:

Alberta Summer

Hi All,

My lack of posts can be explained by Summer! Its been beautiful here, and we've spent most of our summer outdoors and exploring our new province since this is our first full summer here. The weather has been great...see the explosion of flowers in my tacky pots compared to last post...(ignore the weeds!)

And we've travelled south to visit friends in Okotoks.  And we've travelled East of Edmonton to get the full Ukrainian experience at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. 

And we ate pierogies at the cafe there...yum!

And we went to Vegreville to visit the giant psyanka (egg)....

It's the largest one in the world. See Hus in the picture for contrast. 

And we've also been riding our bikes on the river trails bordering the North Saskatchewan. I make Hus stop when I see a garage sale.  Now for $1, I have psyanka's of my own!

May Long Going-ons

I had a glorious long weekend.  Went to a friend's for Friday night libations, shopped Saturday for long-weekend necessities (see below), went for a bike ride along the river on Sunday, and gardened Monday.

We've been looking for a patio dining table for a few weeks, but were limited by two factors. First, price.  And second, I wanted something bright and white, like on Magnum P.I. Which I've been watching on Netflix in anticipation of our trip to Maui in December (this is why we have to scrimp on the patio furniture).  Almost every outdoor scene has great white, multi-coloured and yellow furniture.  It looks 'happy' to me.  See? (all images from magnum-mania.com)

  I've scoured websites and popped into stores, but unlike the selection of white furniture apparently available in 1983, all there really is now is brown, grey, black and khaki-coloured sets.  On Saturday, I had a feeling I might find something at the Habitat for Humanity Restore.  We hadn't been before, but I was able to convince Hus to go.  Success!  We found this white table for $5!

It is a little scratched up on top.  I might give it a paint later in the summer.  We purchased these folding chairs at Canadian Tire.  So far, I am happy with them.  And such a happy green!  Not shown is a yellow patio umbrella.  I 'hacked' these Ikea soap dishes, with Hens and Chicks for a table topper....

I did some other gardening.  I planted an herb garden...

 And wanted to plant flowers, but then realized none of my other planters made the move last summer.  No worry, my next door neighbour was having a garage sale and I found some awesome '60s or '70s planters.... $1 each....

Deer!  One is perched on the stump of the overgrown fir next to the door that Hus cut down last summer.  Check out the crazy cross-eyes on this one...

Here is a picture of the front of our house...

All of this gardening was really tiring, and I was baking in the warm sunshine. So we went for cervezas and I got this free hat.  Perfect for more gardening!

Here is my gardening assistant modelling it....

Looking forward to more sunny days and cervezas this summer!

A few weeks worth of garage sale/thrift store treasures

Here are some random things I've purchased over the last few weeks.  Okay, months. 

I think I bought these vintage mini-serving forks and knives (sorry - Dinkee knives) way back in February.     

Why? Because I always fantasize about inviting people over and serving appetizers.  But, I've been too busy to do it, and we don't really have many friends here yet.  And, I loved that they had their original boxes and were only $1.99 at Value Village.

More recently, I went to the Salvation Army and found these great hard-board placemats.  

They were a little pricey at $8.99, but are brand-new and I've been looking out for some for years.  When we went to England several years ago, all the B&B's had these placemats.  So sturdy and easy to wipe off!  Now, if I could only find Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages here!  They are the best.

Last weekend our next door neighbour had a garage sale, and I snagged this '70s footstool for my retro rumpus room and bar for $5 bucks.

Her husband had added wheels to the bottom; I may take them off. I'm not sure yet.  And she threw in this 1975 Avon perfume pin! 

I'll have to find someway to incorporate it into Easter decorations next year.  That means I'll actually have to put up Easter decorations.

Where did April go?

It whizzed by and the exam period was gruelling.  And now I can look forward to a relaxing summer of full-time work and weekends off, instead of the 15+ hours a day I've been putting in in my first year of law school.

I managed to do a few other things besides studying.  I went to my first ever NHL game (and the Oilers actually won it). That was some time earlier in April when they played against the Ducks. I'm not much of a hockey fan (the tickets were given to us) so I was more interested in observing crowd behaviour etc.  And, the opening of the game brought home to me that I'm living in Oil country now, because the team skated through a derrick that was lowered from the ceiling.  Really.

 

I also celebrated my birthday.  And Hus and I celebrated our 12th anniversary.  We dashed out to dinner in the middle of my studying.  

And now that my finals are over, I made a trip to the public library to sign up and check out 'fun' non-law books!  

Last year was the library's centennial, so they threw in this bag with my membership, and check out this great library card...

And I know you want to have a closer look at some of the pictures in the Tiki book....

I could go for one of those drinks now.  It was a fun read about the origins of Tiki and the mish-mash of cultures and creativity that went into it. Not shown in the picture, is Camilla Lackberg's second to last novel, which I blew threw in two days.

My friend Moe also came for a visit, and we went to some consignment shops and to the Royal Albert Museum.  I only really have this picture to show, I took it because it was so shockingly gross....

A HUGE diorama of what happens when a mouse corpse decomposes.  

And on that cheery note, I'll bid you farewell until next time.

Looking forward to Springtime Past and Present

We had some warm weather, but it went down to below freezing this last week.  But, there are still signs of spring!  Longer evenings, blue skies, and the cottonwoods by the river ready to burst into leaves!

 And I am ready to shed my long johns for lighter, breezier clothing! (I don't think I've ever worn long johns more than this winter).

I had a trip down memory lane recently about one of my favourite spring shirts when I was a kid in the mid-1980s.  It was this lovely white cotton blouse with pastel flowers.  I am wearing it in the picture below with white stirrup pants.

It looks like my sister, dog, and I were posing in the early spring (R.I.P. Bessy!).  Luckily, I can give you a closer look at the pattern of shirt because I recently found the shoulder pads!  So here is a blast from the past from over 25 years ago!

When I organized our crap in the basement a couple of weeks ago I had a look in my Barbie box, and there they were! I must have thought they were decent pillows for Barbie's bed.

Then on Friday I had a few minutes to look over the spring fashions in the mall, and found a very reminiscent shirt!

Now, I just have to wait until the temperatures get above freezing again.  Hus agreed it was a very 80s pattern.

Storage Area Shelving

We've been organizing a corner of our basement.  

Actually, first Hus had to destroy a corner of our basement!  Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures, but one corner had a cold room and a creepy little darkroom circa late 1960s. Our nephew immediately dubbed it the 'kill room' since there was a shower stall immediately outside of it (He's a Dexter fan).  Well the creepiness started to get to us, especially since there was no window in the room, but  the outside of the house has one where the room is!  Who puts walls over windows?  Also the coldness was starting to get to us.  The cold room was immediate below our rather chilly bedroom.  So over a few weekends, Hus pulled it all out.  The dark room was so shoddily built, that he didn't even need tools!

Lo and behold, the window that the wall was erected over, was open a crack.  For over forty years! In Edmonton! It gets cold here; this weekend it hit a low of -38 celsius!  So with the window now closed and air circulating throughout our basement, our house is much warmer and cozier.

But where to put all of our storage?  Another trip to Ikea for utility shelving.  But I wanted to incorporate something 'vintage' from the mess that we pulled out, so we saved this groovy, psychedelic shelf liner to gussy up the boring shelving:

And I cut out some bunting for the shelving:

Close up:

This is the extent of my DIY decorating skills.  At least everything is contained now, in a non-creepy space.

Trio of Tables

When we moved provinces this summer, we came dining table-less.  We now have three places to sit (four - if you count TV trays at the couch).

We needed something immediately, so IKEA came to the rescue to furnish our kitchen in August.

It is a small space, so we bought this bamboo-veneered table.  A better picture is here.  Since the two ends flip up it has come in handy the few times we've had guests.  We decided on the Sigurd chairs, which have a great design but aren't the most comfortable to sit in.

Then in October, I decided that I needed some cheap seating for my 70s rumpus room basement bar.  Not wanting to spend much, I found this vintage '50s metal card table on kijiji.  I had never seen anything like this before.  It's in pretty good condition, and made by Cooey Metal Products.  Due to the wonders of the internet I found out that the company operated on Ontario from 1941 to 1989.  Unfortunately, the plant contaminated the site, which the province is still trying to get cleaned up.

The weird thing is, is two weeks after I bought the table, Hus came home with two of the same card tables in red (no chairs).  He got them for free while helping clean out an office at his work.  One is in our basement pantry now, and the other is in the garage awaiting a purpose.  

And just two weekends ago, I found a use for the money that I made at our moving-out yard sale in the summer.  It took months and months of trolling on kijiji, but I finally found a '60s teak dining set!

The solid top comes off and two "wings" come out from the ends to expand the table.  I'm not in love with the mushroom colour upholstery, but that can be changed at some point.  The important thing is that it is in great condition, was a reasonable price, and is small enough to fit in the space.  We had to pass over so many beautiful ones that would have just been too large.  Now I just have to find a buffet & hutch.  Hopefully it doesn't take another 8 months! 

February Happenings

Hello all,

I hope your February is going well; I can't believe it is almost over!  I have been so busy with my schooling, that I've neglected my poor blog (and a bunch of other things).

We did manage to do Valentine's Day, though!  The night before we went to a wine tasting featuring Australian wines.

Here is how the station was set up before the tasting began:

There were three whites and five reds.  Most were from a winery called Yalumba.  We found a few new favourites including the Shiraz Viognier and the 'cigar' Cabernet Sauvignon from that winery.  No one was sitting at the station next to me, so I sampled those wines twice!

Then on V-day I cooked butternut squash ravioli I bought from the local Italian centre and we drank more Shiraz Viognier.  And we ate at our new dining room table! (post to come).

Then the next day we went out with friends for Ethiopian food and to a swanky bar.  It was a fun weekend.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

....let it STOP!

Second time shovelling today!  Hus did the first round.  But the shovelling is easier in Alberta compared to the North Coast of BC where the snow comes down sodding wet and heavy.  I am also sporting my new (yes, brand new for once!) Calvin Klein parka.  At least I got it on a 50% off sale.  I am thinking that I am going to need the hood once the temperature drops some more (its about -10 C today).  

The wintery, Christmas-y title of this post also suits some of my recent thrift finds:

Like this circa-1978 embroidered picture.  If I can't get cold chills from looking out my window, I can get them by looking at my wall!  Actually I think it is really well done and it goes well with our minty-green walls.  I think I paid 5 bucks.

Maybe I'll be in the kitchen with the blinds closed, and want a reminder of the snow...

....I only have to look at my circa-1980 table centrepiece!  Can you believe that all I need is an aluminum can to complete my snow friend?  That's my kind of crafting!

While I was scouring the Christmas wares at the Salvation Army, I also bought a few ornaments, 'cause I can't help myself.

There are quite a few pink balls in the box, although from the picture you can't tell them from the red ones.  I also liked these smaller ones.  

 

Mocha Pecan Pie and Baby Bum Squash

This post is about two unrelated scenes from my kitchen this weekend.  

Now that we live in a city we finally have access to Costco.  There are some savings to be found in staples, which means some mega-quantitites.  Behold:

So, I baked a Mocha Pecan Pie from the Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant cookbook.  It was delicious!

After I snapped this pic I moved the pie and noticed the middle was still wobbly, so it ended up a bit darker since I had to put it back in the oven.

OK, there really isn't a type of squash called 'Baby Bum.'  This was the beauty (?) we brought home from the grocery store last week:

We cracked stupid jokes about it between ourselves and with the cashier, but the laughter stopped when we cut it open....

...Ewww....  The photo doesn't do it justice, but where the split was the inside was baby-poop brown!  The moral of the story is...don't do crack!