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.