Toy from Grandpa

I finally felt comfortable bringing out my dad's old toy for Charlie to look at.  Charlie got this as a gift from his Grandpa.  How cool is this??

TELL ME IT'S GORGEOUS

Everyone hates it, especially Matt.I'm obsessed with it. I love it, I want to look at it all day...kudos to Sheila for securing it for me- you are the best

Estate Sale

I love estate sales, but sometimes they are depressing because you know that a family has just lost a parent. You can get a feel for who they were and what they were like by digging through clothes, records, books etc. The one I went to today, I would have loved to meet this lady. Her clothes were amazing, and the lady working told me, you should have seen the stuff that left already! Tons of vintage Talbots, she loved tartans of every hue, scarves, scarves and more scarves....and her book collection? C'mon! I think we would have been friends. I had to stop myself from piling up every single book she had. My total expenditure for all below?  $5.00 - and Matt was nervous I was going to an estate sale....

This is what I narrowed it down to

Love

o

All three of these?  $0.25

Under the lid of the desk caddy- oh, how the times have changed

Queen Mary Bookmark.  Why?  I don't know- it was also only $0.25 That's Charlie's little fingers barging in on the picture

I also bought these two t-shirts. This must have been very fun for her to keep this shirt so long- excuse Charlie's head

Charlie approves

Child of the 80's- Grew up in the 90s

I was an 80's child, but came of age in the 90's. I was ages 12-21 in the 90's, is there any more coming of age than that? Here is why my child hood ruled....

Well, this didn't really rule, but it was brand new, and cool.  And charged by the minute...and only Rachel Jens house had it...

Subjected poor Theresa to this millions of times...

'and on your left is a naked pig'

Sadly, these have been replaced by texts...

'when you make your home out on the raaaange'

Kimmy Gibbler!!

I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so scared!

And my love obsession with Matt Damon began....

Oh Dorothy Torkelson, how I love you....

There are so many more than I could ever list, but I found this site here that had a bunch and took me back.  I compiled a collage of pictures of me in the 90s- there were cute ones, I tried not to hold back on the really bad 90s examples...

Vintage Cart- the details

Back Story:  my work becomes a catch-all for the owner's family's junk.  It's very much a family company, I'm one of the few that work here that have no relation. They were moving the owner's wife's grandma and this made it's way to the shop.  The maintenance guy uses it to wheel parts around from machine to machine and to set his laptop on.  I spotted this the minute it came in.  I wanted it...bad.  But, I had just finagled another piece for my house from the shop, so I knew I had to play my cards right.  After months and months, our maintenance guy proclaimed that he hated it and it never rolled right.  I pounced, and it was mine!

It was in rough shape, lots of rust and the trays were a heinous mauve.  Or, as my dad used to say moo-wah-vay.  I contacted my bloggie buddy Nikki over at The Hunt for Vintage for the best method to remove the rust and make the chrome shine again.  She does this all the time and had good tips.  One was to rub in with tin foil, which I'm sure would work amazing, but I didn't think my sanity could take it.  The other was Bar Keepers Friend.  This stuff is amazing.  It took some elbow grease.  But with some steel wool, hose water and time, it worked wonders

Matt was awesome enough to strip the paint from the trays for me.  Can you believe they painted that heinous pink over this red!?!  If they would have kept the red, I could have just cleaned it up, but as is, it needed many, many layers of spray paint.  I used Valspar high gloss classic red from Lowe's.  It spit a lot, so it was hard to work with.  Many sandings were required.  I don't know if I will be using the Valspar again. As usual, Matt helped me with my spray paint technique. I literally couldn't be crafty without him, he knows how to do everything and does all the hard stuff because he's the greatest like that.   Mwah- honey!

Charlie inspects our work

Your approved!

Charlie having a melt down because I asked him to move out of the picture.  He just turned two, we get a lot of these

Finally....a home for my mixer and room for my crock pots and big box of Penzy Spices.  I have so much more room in my little pantry now!  And we don't have to use the Aunt PJ chair to store my kitchen goods.  Between my curtains, my utensil holder, and this, we are getting there, but not quite yet.  So it still doesn't exactly flow, but it's a work in progress.  I'll get my dream kitchen some day

Utensil Holder

I've had the same utensil holder for about 15 years.  The only reason I know that is my sister gave it to me, and if I remember, she got it as a wedding gift and didn't want it?  Melinda, you'll need to clarify that for me.  They are coming up on their 15th anniversary so it's about that old.  The utensil holder was small and had chili peppers on it, not really my style, but it served me well for a very long time.  I have been looking for a utensil holder forever.  Every one I saw was either too small or too expensive.  I had my eye on one down at Prydes, but at $25, I was waiting.  This is more perfect than I ever imagined and it was $1

Bonus?  Since it's an enamel pot, not an actual utensil holder, it fits like, twice the schtuff
Matt's response? 'Well, it's very Mollie...' and 'oh great, more room to stick your crap!'
It'll grow on him, along with all the other stuff

Old Concert Tickets

I was really bad at keeping concert tickets, this would be so much more fun if I had all the concerts that I ever went to, but here is a hand full that are disintegrating, so I thought this would be a good place to preserve them

For some reason, the First Ave tickets are in rock star condition (no pun intended) I'm pretty sure this was my first 'real' concerts.  I would have been 14.  I went with my bestest friend in the whole world at the time, Chelsea.  She and I were full of teen angst and loved alternative music.  Flannels, converse, pearl jam and the like....
I'm trying to remember, but I'm pretty sure I met my first little boyfriend Toby at the 7th Street Entry at this concert. I think the Hang-Ups were playing there. (First Ave is connected to a smaller venue, The 7th Street Entry)  He looked like Chris Robinson from the Black Crowes and I was IN LURV (as much as you can be in lurv when you are 14)  And we felt sooo adult going downtown to First Ave.  I ended up seeing TMBG many times including Day on the Hill at KU

Another concert I went with Chelsea.   Oh, the begging and pleading I had to do to get my dad to agree to go to these concerts on school nights.

I remember I went to this show with Roger Schrader.  My dad only agreed to let me go if I was home by 11.  They didn't even take the stage until 10:30 and I had to call him from a pay phone begging him to let me stay.  He extended my curfew, but we still had to leave in the middle of the concert.  I had such a little crush on Roger too, I felt awful.

This was at Stephen Auditorium on the Iowa State Campus.  I went with my sister and we just saaaang and saaang and saaang.  They are the greatest live performers, they love it when everyone sings along to their songs.  It drives me nuts when singers/songwriters are mad when you sing along at their concert, shouldn't you be flattered?? (I'm looking at you James Taylor)

This one is in the worst shape, but this was the Rolling Stones.  I begged my dad saying 'but dad, this may be the last time they tour!!' Ugh, should have stayed home.  The opening band was Spin Doctors and if you remember from here, I hate them with a passion.  I remember there were two women in front of us that stood up and sang and danced to the damn Spin Doctors and then sat down for the entire Stones performance.  I went with a group of people including Megan Hoffman and Andraya Huldeen, but other than that, I can't remember who else was there.  Wished I could have seen them in 1972.  Seeing them in 1996?  eh, I could have passed.  (Ha! As I'm typing this, a Rolling Stones song just came on Pandora, I've never had them play a Stones song, it's a sign....)

Radiohead- right after OK Computer was released .  And as previously mentioned here and here, I pretty much worship this band.  This, to this day, was the best concert I have ever been to and I'll never get to recreate it again.  It was in a the Historic State Theatre, which is pretty small, they never play venues that small any more.  It was a once in a life time show and I'll never forget it.  Went with Marcie Fitch- poor girl had never even heard of Radiohead and I dragged her down there with me.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.  Again, eh, seeing these old bands is really hit or miss,  this was pretty miss, plus it was in the old Kemper Arena which was like the worst place ever to see a concert

Other concerts I wish I had my stubs on (not including the tons of local lawrence bands that were amazing- Lawrence had a great music scene ie, Sugar Daddies, Band that Saved the World, BR549, Split Lip etc.

Willie Nelson and the Lied Center in Lawrence, KS - with Missy the night of a HUGE ice storm.  Took us 2 hours to get there from her mom's house in KC, then we spent the night in the dark, frozen house and woke up to a tree on my little Hyundai ghetto-mobile

DMX at Kemper in KC- not a big rap fan but my friend Natalie dragged me, it ended up being super fun.  I was totally out of my element but I danced my butt off that night

Eric Bachman (or was he with Crooked Fingers?) at the Bottleneck.  Devotchka opened for him and BLEW ME AWAY- completely outshined the headliner.  It was the night I discovered Devotchka, which is one of my favorite bands (again, playing on Pandora right now, but they are on there all the time, but still, weird...) Went with Missy and bunch of other people, but I only remember Missy.

Modest Mouse at the Replay Lounge in Lawrence- this is a venue that fits less than 100 people, this was way before they were popular, would have been right after The Lonesome Crowded West  was released. Well, I guess I wouldn't have a stub from that, but was a GREAT concert.

Modest Mouse, De la Soul, Cake & Flaming Lips- River Market, KC.  This was AWESOME.  Cake was the headliner, but let Flaming Lips headline because they had this huge elaborate show (if you've ever seen them, you know) fun, fun, fun night.  Again, with Missy and a bunch of others, all of who I can't think of right now

Wow, what a fun trip down memory lane!!!  Ahh, to be young, I can't even handle live shows barely anymore, too old for that crap

Matt's Vintage Lantern Birdfeeder

As per usual, my husband did something super cool and super crafty and didn't let me run around after him taking pictures of the process for my blog...so we just have the finished project.

He made me a bird feeder out of PVC pipes and all this cool stuff and the squirrels just ate it. Like, ATE the actual bird feeder. PVC cannot be good on a squirrel's digestive system, so we took it down. I saw him messing with this old lantern, this is one of the lanterns my dad gave us that is from like 1981, but I didn't think anything of it, I just thought he was trying to make it usable again.

Matt took the mantles out, dissected this veggie grilling skewer/container and attached all three in the middle with nuts, bolts and washers I'm sure.  These double act as the perches and a way to lift the glass a bit so the seed can be accessed. He also blocked the opening to the fuel so the seed wouldn't fall in it.

My husband's resourcefulness never ceases to amaze me.

How awesome is this???

ahhh- sorry for the blurry pic, but I wanted to show this close up



It's been a big hit!




Mr & Mrs Cardinal



Now if can just get the loiterers away....