Thursday's Things in a Row

My neighbor told me about this cool store called Garden Ridge. The store is only about 5 minutes from my home. My sister and I walked through it briefly because we didn't have a lot of time. They have a plethora of items, some practical, some whimsical, some odd, some unpractical, but ALL cool!

Are you waiting for your knight in shining armor? Wait no more, m'lady! You can buy one here, cheap!

If you're happy and you know it, flip your eggs! With your happy fllipper, of course!

Do you miss the ole homestead where you grew up? Want to add a little bit of "home" into your humble abode? I couldn't help but think of Gail At The Farm when I saw these.

They really aren't "crappers", but bookshelves with doors. A novel idea, yes?

Oh to be young and hip, have you're own apartment, fill it with cool items like these high heel CHAIRS. Who am I kidding, just using the WORD "hip" shows how old I am!

Please pass the salt! An array of salts : Mediterranean Sea Salt and Himalayan Pink Salt. Say what? Does it turn the food pink? Anyone cook with that one?

Bamboo salad "hands". Solution to when our mothers used to say, "I only have two hands!"

My list of contributors is dropping. Are you people not seeing rows anymore or what?

Signs - Story of my Life

For more signs, visit Lesley here.

More on 34 Continued

Last week I posted about the 100 miles of garage sales on Route 34 called "More on 34". My daughter and I went to several of the sales in her town. I showed you some of my bargains in my previous post. Here are some more.

This is a cute little earthenware pot with hand painted flowers. I think I paid a quarter for it!

It was Saturday at around noon when we stopped at this sale. It was 90 degrees out and humid. In other words - hot and sticky. The woman running the sale was ready to GIVE away everything. It was the second day of her sale, the time was almost up, it was HOT, and there was no shade. I started digging in a big box, sifting through all sorts of items. Almost every item had something to do with bees. Yes, bees. Bee plaques. Bee statues. Flowers with bees in them. Bees, bees, bees. I never knew there were so many things with bees on them!  I said, "SOMEBODY loves bees!" The woman said, "Oh. That whole box belongs to my neighbor. SHE didn't want to come over here and sit. So whatever you want in there? Half price. I DON'T CARE!" I liked this honey pot pitcher and picked it up for a buck.

At the same garage sale, I picked up 3 of these rooster plates, and 3 larger yellow plates without the rooster in the center. I plan to hang the three rooster plates on my kitchen soffitt.

Don't know if I mentioned it before, but I am into roosters. I found this old, old rooster at another garage sale. It had this note on the bottom of it: "This was made in Deerfield, MI where the squirrel was. Old.  Mom" I have no idea if the "squirrel" is referring to a statue, a store, or what. Can anybody out there help me with this?

I bought this "American rooster", too.

These roosters are to add to my ever growing collection of roosters. Here are some on top of my hutch.

Here are some roosting on the buffet of my hutch:

And, I've got some fellas on the ledge over my sink:

Oh, one more item from the sales. I just loved this picture with the rough, barn wood frame:

So, those were my buys. Throw in a couple of odds and ends for my granddaughter, and I think I spent a grand total of $30.00!

Thursday's Things in a Row

The bad news is, my sister, Pam, lost her job a couple of months ago. The good news is, now I have someone to explore all the different stores in the area. This particular day we visited an antique mall. I was only able to take four photos before my battery died. Darn it! I was NOT prepared like a good photographer should be!

I just loved how these old rolling pins were displayed!

I hate ironing, and I can't IMAGINE ironing with one of these back in the day!

What's really sad is seeing things that I grew up with - and finding out that they are considered "antiques"! How could that even be possible? Like these glasses, for instance.

Or these California Raisins. C'mon, seriously? Antiques? I am NOT old! Well, at least I'll just keep telling myself that. It really helps when I continually forget my age. It's pretty sad when I have to ask my twin sister how old we are.....even then sometimes SHE forgets! Ha ha!

So, do you have any oldies but goodies this week?

Signs - Star Trek and Nature

What do you do if you have a dead tree in your yard? Why, carve it into a Star Trek hand symbol!   Located about 20 miles from my daughter's home, Jim and I took a detour just so I could take a picture of this!

For more signs, visit Lesley here.

More on 34

Every year on Father's Day weekend, the towns around where my daughter lives sponsor HUGE garage sales. It's called, "More on 34" because it runs over 100 miles along Route 34, from Aurora to Galesburg, Illinois.

We usually try to be down by Jessica's that weekend, so that she and I can hit the sales. This year we shopped in her town, and hit about 6-8 sales PLUS an antique mall on Friday, and on Saturday  we went to 6-8 sales PLUS the fairgrounds had a huge building filled with vendors.

I was hot, sticky, and had sweat dripping from, well, you don't want to KNOW where it was dripping from! It was about 90 degrees out and humid. My whole body ached, but we trudged on. You never know if you'll miss a great bargain for a quarter!

One of my best buys are the bowls made in Italy. I got both of them for a total of $5. This first one is HUGE.

Here are the two together.

There were quite heavy. I left them at the table and paid for them; then returned when I was done looking at everything else in the building.

Jessica said to me, "I suppose you want ME to carry those for you?"

"Of course!"

"Since when did I become the pack mule around here?" She kidded.

The old farmer, who's wife was selling the bowls, looked over his glasses that were at the edge of his nose, eyed my daughter up and down, and said with a Southern drawl, "Well, you're the best looking pack mule I've EVER seen!"

Jess and I had a good laugh over that all afternoon!

I have been looking for coasters (for drinks). Remember when they used to be so popular? I couldn't seem to find them anywhere! Finally I found some cheap ones somewhere. They are plastic lined with a thin piece of cork. The cork is already warped. So I was happy when I found both these stone coasters for .25 

AND these plexi-glass wine designed ones at another sale for a quarter, also!

I found this old teapot at the antique mall. They were supposed to be having a "garage sale", too, but their prices didn't seem to reflect that fact. Except that this teapot was only $5.85.

It's big, made of aluminum, holds six quarts. I like the wooden handle, and the lid is attached. You can open it up with your thumb by pushing down on that piece of metal sticking up from the lid. There is an indent on the wooden handle from the metal "thumb" lid opener. The bottom of the kettle is stamped:

After further exploring, I found that this kettle can sell for anywhere from $30-$45. Pretty cool! It was made around 1902! I'm putting it on my kitchen soffit .


One of my oddest and eclectic finds is this saguaro puzzle. It stands about 8 inches tall. I thought this was a great little something to remind me of Arizona.

Here it is lying on the table, with the "arm" of the cactus taken off.

Next, the top slides off. You can see two compartments inside.

Here is the first compartment.

And it opens up!

And finally, the last piece. The top lifts off to show another hidden compartment.

  

Now, let's see.... what kind of treasure kind I hide in there?

Tune in next time for more of my finds from "More on 34"!

Thursday's Things in a Row

This week's photos are still from my visit to Gordman's Store.

Polly want a cracker?

Updated version of the plastic flamingo - nice metal ones!

Who wouldn't want to cook when you have these adorable ceramic smiley measuring spoons?

Metal stars just in time for Independence Day!

Are these wild or what? Serving trays and bowls, when you're hungry enough to eat a, uh, zebra!

Show me what 'cha got!

Signs - Good Morning!

Some mornings are like this, no?

For more signs, visit Lesley here.

Show me The Way

If you are looking for a movie that will make you cry, this will do it.

If you are looking for one that will make you laugh, this one fits the bill.

If you are looking for a movie that will make your heart want to burst out of your chest, yep, I got one for you.

I'm talking about "THE WAY".

Have you heard of it?

Emilio Estevez both produced and stars in it, along with his father, Martin Sheen. They play father and son in the movie, too.

Tom Avery (Martin) is an opthalmologist who doesn't have a great relationship with his son, Daniel, ever since Daniel's mother passed away. Daniel decides to quit school and working on his dissertation. He'd rather learn different cultures by traveling around the world. Some time later Tom gets a call that Daniel was killed in the Pyrenees during a storm while walking the "Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James), a Catholic pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain.

Tom must fly to France to claim his son's body. Tom decides in honor of his son, he will walk the Camino de Santiago, spreading his son's ashes along the way. Tom befriends three other pilgrims along the way; a Dutchman, and Irishman, and a Canadian woman. All have their reasons for walking.

Here is a short clip of the movie:



I will guarantee that you will love this movie!

I had never heard of the Camino de Santiago before this movie. This is a real pilgrimage that began over a thousand years ago!

Legend states that St. James's remains were carried by boat from Jerusalem to northern Spain where he was buried on the site of what is now the city of Santiago de Compostela. The Way can take one of any number of pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. Traditionally, the Way of Saint James began at one's home and ended at the pilgrimage site. However a few of the routes are considered main ones. During the Middle Ages, the route was highly traveled. However, the Black Death, the Protestant Reformation and political unrest in 16th-century Europe led to its decline. By the 1980s, only a few pilgrims arrived in Santiago annually. Since then however the route has attracted a growing number of modern-day pilgrims from around the globe. The route was declared the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe in October 1987; it was also named one of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. (Wikipedia)

This route was originally a Roman trade route and once nicknamed "Milky Way" because it followed the Milky Way to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Way of St. James is highlighted in red. 

The symbol of the Camino de Santiago is the scalloped shell.

plain scalloped shell, one with the Santiago de Compostela church stamped on it, and what I assume to be a water jug?

The scalloped shell is said to have many meanings:

• When the disciples shipped James' body to the Iberian Peninsula to be buried at Santiago, a storm hit the ship and the body was lost at sea. Sometime later, the body washed ashore, unharmed, covered in scallops.
• After James' death, his body was mysteriously transported to the Iberian Peninsula on a ship with no crew. When it came to Santiago, a wedding was taking place. The groom was on a horse. The horse got spooked from the approaching ship and jumped in the water. The groom and horse were rescued, but when they came out of the water, they were covered with shells.
• Looking at the scalloped shell, the grooves represent the many paths the pilgrims take to get to the same point - the tomb of St. James.
• Supposedly the shell was used by the pilgrim for drinking water and could be used as a bowl.

Here are some pictures of scalloped shells along the route.

St.James' shell at a well of the Way, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, Languedoc-Roussillon, France

Spain - Leon

This is the modern symbol of The Way.

The pilgrims have a "passport" and get it stamped along the way.

Once the pilgrims reach the town of Santiago, they go to the Pilgrim's Office. The pilgrims must have walked a minimum of 100 km or biked at LEAST 200 km. The passport is carefully examined for the appropriate stamps before the compostela (certificate of accomplishment) is awarded. 

Go ahead and rent the movie, "The Way". There is so much more to see and learn. You will really enjoy it!

The ants go marching one by one, hooray, hooray!

I don't know about you, but I have ants.

Well, not me personally. But our condo.

Those teeny-tiny ants. And not a lot, just enough to infuriate a person - namely ME.

I've been told that this is the season for ants. That rain drives the ants indoors or something like that.

I first noticed a couple of ants on my kitchen counter. I didn't freak out.

Yet.

You know how people put a piece of pipe in the window track for safety to prevent the window from being open? Well, we have that in a few of the windows around the condo from the previous owner. (We live on the ground floor.) I took the pipe out and placed it on the counter so I could open the window. Unbeknownst to me, those little buggers where nesting or conducting a meeting or whatever-the-hell ants do together, in the pipe.

Once the pipe was on the counter? All hell broke loose.

Ants everywhere.

THEN I freaked out.

Luckily my sister was over and she helped kill those little suckers.

We realized that they were coming from the pipe.

I grabbed the pipe, ran outside with the pipe in one hand, and bug killer spray in the other. I soaked that pipe inside and out.

Take that you little mother tuckers!

After that, I haven't seen any ants in the kitchen.

We DID but these little numbers....

and spread them throughout the kitchen, pantry and both bathrooms.

What is it, you ask?

Why, it's the "ant" version of the "Roach Motel". Supposedly the ants "check in", but they don't "check out".

Well- I'm sorry to say that MY ants must be awfully particular and want to stay at the Hilton or something because they are totally ignoring these strange little black squares all over my place.

Maybe it's an advertising joke. "Hey, let's make these little black squares with two holes in it, and just TELL people that this attracts ants. Even if they only fall for it once, we've made a sale!"

Yeah.

It hasn't rained in a few days, so I haven't seen any ants. Although I usually see at least one ant a day in our master bath. Either crawling across the sink, or when I'm sitting on the toilet staring at the tiles on the floor. Sure enough - there's an ant.

But the other day, I spied something unusual.

A spider web.

Not that a spider web is unusual in MY house.

But this spider web was under the bathroom cabinet. And it had three teeny tiny DEAD ants stuck in the web.

Am I awful to admit that it made me smile?

Now I'm not a big fan of spiders. Gail from At the Farm can attest to that. But if I got one on my side taking care of the ant problem, I just may keep her around. And I'm going to name her Charlotte.

     
And I'm going to keep her.

Unless she's hairy, big, and black.

Then I'm going to step on her.