"I pretty much try to stay in a constant state of confusion just because of the expression it leaves on my face."~Johnny Depp~
Easy Black Bean Soup
1 hour ago
Friday, June 26, 2009
Weekend Wisdom
"I pretty much try to stay in a constant state of confusion just because of the expression it leaves on my face."
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Vintage Thingies Thursday - My Desk
I have a sturdy wooden desk that I have loved ever since I was a little girl. It's a traveling desk. I don't know where it was made or who it's original owners were. I do know that it was abused before my grandparents rescued it.
After WWII, my grandpa found a job working for the Meat & Animal Research Center in the Nebraska Panhandle. He met my grandma, and they were married in Chadron in 1950. Their first home was in Fort Robinson. Sometime between 1951 and 1955, they inherited my desk from one of their neighbors who didn't want to take it with them as they moved across the state to Omaha. The neighbors had said the desk was already in their home at the Fort when they moved in. If you know anything about Fort Robinson's history, you can see why I find this tidbit of information exciting!
Once Grandma had it, she claimed it as her sewing table. That is how I remember seeing the desk - sitting in her sewing room with her machine on top and the drawers bursting with threads, sewing tools, and notions.
When we lost my grandpa almost 4 years ago, the desk came home with me. At first, we put it in the boys' bedroom for Taylor to use as a drawing table and his "Home Fun" desk when he started Kindergarten. We moved my desk into our bedroom after Taylor and Landon got their Lego table. From there it was moved into my sewing room/office, and a month ago, when we turned my sewing room into Landon's bedroom, we moved my beautiful desk into the kitchen. It fits perfectly along the wall between our little entry and the bathroom.
One of the many things I love about this desk is this little flap that you can fold up for more surface area. You can also see the cigarette burns that were left by one of the previous owners (my grandparents weren't smokers, so the burns have been there since before they had the desk)!
One more note about Fort Robinson. It is well worth your time to do a little more reasearch on the Fort. The links provided above say very little about Crazy Horse being killed there, the Red Cloud Agency, or the WWII German POW camp. Also, if you're ever looking for a place to visit in the Nebraska Panhandle, I highly recommend Fort Robinson. It is now a state park and has a lodge and cabins (these were at one time the soldier's and officer's quarters). If you do happen to stop and go through their musuem, look for the WAC uniform they have on display. Jessie Mercer donated that uniform. She was stationed there, as was my grandpa's older brother, at the end of the war. They fell in love, were married at the Fort in 1946, and a freed German POW even made their wedding cake!
For more Vintage Thingies, check out Colorado Lady's blog.
After WWII, my grandpa found a job working for the Meat & Animal Research Center in the Nebraska Panhandle. He met my grandma, and they were married in Chadron in 1950. Their first home was in Fort Robinson. Sometime between 1951 and 1955, they inherited my desk from one of their neighbors who didn't want to take it with them as they moved across the state to Omaha. The neighbors had said the desk was already in their home at the Fort when they moved in. If you know anything about Fort Robinson's history, you can see why I find this tidbit of information exciting!
Once Grandma had it, she claimed it as her sewing table. That is how I remember seeing the desk - sitting in her sewing room with her machine on top and the drawers bursting with threads, sewing tools, and notions.
When we lost my grandpa almost 4 years ago, the desk came home with me. At first, we put it in the boys' bedroom for Taylor to use as a drawing table and his "Home Fun" desk when he started Kindergarten. We moved my desk into our bedroom after Taylor and Landon got their Lego table. From there it was moved into my sewing room/office, and a month ago, when we turned my sewing room into Landon's bedroom, we moved my beautiful desk into the kitchen. It fits perfectly along the wall between our little entry and the bathroom.
One of the many things I love about this desk is this little flap that you can fold up for more surface area. You can also see the cigarette burns that were left by one of the previous owners (my grandparents weren't smokers, so the burns have been there since before they had the desk)!
One more note about Fort Robinson. It is well worth your time to do a little more reasearch on the Fort. The links provided above say very little about Crazy Horse being killed there, the Red Cloud Agency, or the WWII German POW camp. Also, if you're ever looking for a place to visit in the Nebraska Panhandle, I highly recommend Fort Robinson. It is now a state park and has a lodge and cabins (these were at one time the soldier's and officer's quarters). If you do happen to stop and go through their musuem, look for the WAC uniform they have on display. Jessie Mercer donated that uniform. She was stationed there, as was my grandpa's older brother, at the end of the war. They fell in love, were married at the Fort in 1946, and a freed German POW even made their wedding cake!
For more Vintage Thingies, check out Colorado Lady's blog.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Garage Sale Goodies
Saturday my mom and I were on a mission: to find a dresser for Landon. Unfortunately, we didn't find one (at least not one that would work), but I did come home with a bunch of goodies, most of which are shown in the picture below.
Blue Hill had their annual city-wide garage sale day, so we started there before heading to Hastings where we hit a few sales including a 2-block long garage sale and an estate sale. Here's the low down on my loot:
Large beach mat (not shown) - $3
3 glass insulators - .75
4 small bushel baskets - $1
2 blue/green atlas jars - $1
2 blue/green Ball jars - $1
Old Chicken Feeder (not shown) - .50
Old Chicken Waterer (not shown) - .50
Vintage (1948) "Red Book of Trees" - .10
Vintage (1948) "Blue Book of Trees" - .10
2 Vintage feed sacks - .50
Vintage crib sized quilted blanket with hand appliqued butterflies - $1
Total Spent: $9.45
In other news...my uncle is currently in Germany visiting his exchange students from the last couple of years (he's a host). He emailed me this morning to see how we made it through the storm. Apparently the tornado north of town made international news! It sounds like it flipped over a couple of pivots, but not much else.
And, just to toot my own horn, one of my photos (the first one in the post below) made "Picture of the Day" on one of our local news stations! According to Landon, I'm "awesomer than awesome"!
Blue Hill had their annual city-wide garage sale day, so we started there before heading to Hastings where we hit a few sales including a 2-block long garage sale and an estate sale. Here's the low down on my loot:
Large beach mat (not shown) - $3
3 glass insulators - .75
4 small bushel baskets - $1
2 blue/green atlas jars - $1
2 blue/green Ball jars - $1
Old Chicken Feeder (not shown) - .50
Old Chicken Waterer (not shown) - .50
Vintage (1948) "Red Book of Trees" - .10
Vintage (1948) "Blue Book of Trees" - .10
2 Vintage feed sacks - .50
Vintage crib sized quilted blanket with hand appliqued butterflies - $1
Total Spent: $9.45
In other news...my uncle is currently in Germany visiting his exchange students from the last couple of years (he's a host). He emailed me this morning to see how we made it through the storm. Apparently the tornado north of town made international news! It sounds like it flipped over a couple of pivots, but not much else.
And, just to toot my own horn, one of my photos (the first one in the post below) made "Picture of the Day" on one of our local news stations! According to Landon, I'm "awesomer than awesome"!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Stormy Skies
I know, I rarely make two posts in one day. This second one is to a)marvel at Mother Nature, and b)try to calm my slightly frazzled nerves.
This is what our skies looked like about an hour or so ago:
This next pic is the same as the first, but I added red and blue lines. Everything to the left of the red line was moving East. Everything to the right of the blue line was moving West. This was the sight when we looked North, and slightly West from our front porch area.
These were the clouds above one of the elevators just half a block South of our house (immediately after taking the above photo, I turned around and took this one):
They were ROTATING. I turned around, and our neigbor was running over to offer to let us come down to their basement. I politely declined, then saw more rotating clouds that looked like they were just on the west side of our house. I ran in the house, got the boys and our stuff in the basement, then the sirens went off. Luckily we weren't down their for long, and nothing hit us!
***EDIT***
After posting this last night, I found out that a tornado had touched down North/Northwest of Roseland. Other than some crops, I don't think there was any serious damage, and as far as I know there were no injuries.
This is what our skies looked like about an hour or so ago:
This next pic is the same as the first, but I added red and blue lines. Everything to the left of the red line was moving East. Everything to the right of the blue line was moving West. This was the sight when we looked North, and slightly West from our front porch area.
These were the clouds above one of the elevators just half a block South of our house (immediately after taking the above photo, I turned around and took this one):
They were ROTATING. I turned around, and our neigbor was running over to offer to let us come down to their basement. I politely declined, then saw more rotating clouds that looked like they were just on the west side of our house. I ran in the house, got the boys and our stuff in the basement, then the sirens went off. Luckily we weren't down their for long, and nothing hit us!
***EDIT***
After posting this last night, I found out that a tornado had touched down North/Northwest of Roseland. Other than some crops, I don't think there was any serious damage, and as far as I know there were no injuries.
Betty's Here!
Gretta, my wonderfully old green sewing machine, sews like a dream. She belonged to my grandma, my mom remembers Gretta well from her childhood. Anyway, the ONLY thing wrong with her is that the bobbin winder doesn't work worth a darn. It'll wind my bobbins, but the thread is REALLY loose. So, I've been wanting to buy a bobbin winder for some time. I've had my mom's sewing machine, and only use it for winding bobbins, but hate having to haul it out every time I need it. Not only that, but she's decided she'd like to use it sometime, too...you know, since she bought the thing and all!
I've found bobbin winders at Wal-Mart, KMart, Hobby Lobby, etc, but have been way too cheap to buy one (they run about $35). Last Wednesday, I was looking at the Fabric Depot website and found Betty! She was on sale for $16.50, so I ordered her right then and there, and she arrived in my mailbox this morning.
She's a cute little thing, measuring in at about 5.5" x 3.5" and she's VERY lightweight. She runs on 2 AA batteries (not included), but what is included is a power cord. Another bonus is that the boys think she's a lot of fun, so they've both offered to wind my bobbins when I need them!
The sidewinders like Betty are now on sale for only $15 (shipping is $4.95) here, or they also offer some pink ones here for $20. The pink ones are more because they benefit cancer research.
Well, it's time to get the boys ready for their first day of swim lessons! See you tomorrow (mom and I hit some garage sales over the weekend, and I have lots of goodies to show you)!
I've found bobbin winders at Wal-Mart, KMart, Hobby Lobby, etc, but have been way too cheap to buy one (they run about $35). Last Wednesday, I was looking at the Fabric Depot website and found Betty! She was on sale for $16.50, so I ordered her right then and there, and she arrived in my mailbox this morning.
She's a cute little thing, measuring in at about 5.5" x 3.5" and she's VERY lightweight. She runs on 2 AA batteries (not included), but what is included is a power cord. Another bonus is that the boys think she's a lot of fun, so they've both offered to wind my bobbins when I need them!
The sidewinders like Betty are now on sale for only $15 (shipping is $4.95) here, or they also offer some pink ones here for $20. The pink ones are more because they benefit cancer research.
Well, it's time to get the boys ready for their first day of swim lessons! See you tomorrow (mom and I hit some garage sales over the weekend, and I have lots of goodies to show you)!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Weekend Wisdom
"The first thing I put in was this diary, then hair curlers, handkerchiefs, schoolbooks, a comb, old letters; I put in the craziest things with the idea that we were going into hiding. But I'm not sorry, memories mean more to me than dresses."
~Anne Frank~
1929 - 1945
Happy 80th Birthday, Anne
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