Wordless Wednesday

Colorado Sunrise in November

Merc's Purses Give Away Winner

WHOOHOO!!

I am soooo happy to announce the winner 

of the $15.00 credit to my friend Mercy's Etsy shop

Merc's Purses

Chosen by 

Random.org

Congrats Brittany!  Be sure to check your email!

BUT WAIT!!

Mercy wanted you all to be winners!  

Until December 6, 2011 take 10% off your order when you use the coupon code KATHE. 

So, get get yourself over to 

Merc's Purses   

and buy something pretty for youself or as a gift!

Thank you Mercy and thanks to all of you who took the time to enter!  

You know you are all winners in my book!!

Thrifting to Burn Calories

Hello friends! How is everyone?  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

We spent the day with Mr. B's family.  His brother, wife and their two kiddlets 

were here in CO from Omaha for the holiday.  

Mr. B's mother made the traditional turkey dinner (her stuffing and mashed potatoes are to.die.for!) and I provided a pumpkin pie and an apple pie. It was such a beautiful day in the mountains!  Lots of talking and laughing to be sure! 

I do have to share with you the Fall tree my dear mother-in-law decorated!  

It greeted us as we entered the house.

Isn't it just so beautiful?  

She had all kinds of fall flowers and leaves and picks all over it!  

It is just so creative. 

I loved it!

This weekend has been all about the Christmas decorating. 

Poor Mr. B.  I don't know how he puts up with my obsession with Christmas!  

I even have an app on my phone that counts down how many days until Christmas that I show to him

nearly everyday.  

I lovelovelove Christmas.  

And as much as I love the spirit of the day, I love to decorate for it too.  

I have bin after bin of decor stashed all over. 

I did try so very hard to be a good girl this year and I was able to purge one bin full of odd decorations I won't use again. 

Of course, I will fill that empty bin with my other passion, 

DISHES! LOL!

Speaking of which, a few weekends ago we had gone out to dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants.  After we eat we usually like to go somewhere to walk it off, so to speak.  

He asked if there was any place I needed to go and I immediately shouted "ARC Thrift Store".  

Hey, it wasn't out of our way, in fact,totally on the way home and gosh!  

They were having a 50% off most items sale...how lucky for me!! <Grin>.

Mr. B is not a big thrift store kind of guy, he'd had rather gone to Best Buy, but he had no better suggestions so, off to ARC we went.

The first to catch my eye were this set of four salad plates.  I love how each one has a different flower on it and a butterfly.  Is it too soon to be wishing for Spring? Only .75 each!

  I don't know the maker.  Anyone familiar with this label?

Next, Mr. B found this plate.  

Now if I had been alone I would have looked at it, wanted it, turned it over and seen the pink tag 

(not 50% off!) and put it back on the shelf.  

Not Mr. B.  He really liked it.  

He pointed out that at even $3.99 it was a one of a kind and that we were getting it. I am happy we did.  

It really is so beautiful.  So colorful! It had a place of honor in the kitchen 

until a Christmas plate took its place.

You can see that it probably was some sort of collectors plate and has a wire so that it can be hung on the wall for display. 

The photo does not do it justice. 

Everything is lined in gold.  Truly, a beautiful piece that we will treasure.

The next lucky find was, once again, found by Mr. B.  A small little piece and you know I had to have it!  

A Candlewick coffee saucer.  On sale for only .65.  

It has joined it's other Candlewick brothers and sisters in my ever growing collection!

Next I ventured over to the linens while Mr. B perused the electronics (not quite Best Buy but good enough).  I was able to score two sets of napkins.  

There were six in this set of napkins depicting wheat for only .75!  

I can see a farm table set up in my future. 

These pink ones were also .75 and there were only four of them but, I have been on the lookout for pink napkins and they were in perfect condition so I grabbed them too.

 Not too bad of a haul when all was said and done. 

We did, of course, expend some calories in the process which is also good, right?   

Maybe I can get Mr. B to do it again the next time we go out to eat?? 

Nah, probably not, I will have to play fair and suggest Best Buy.

 (Don't forget!!  Monday, November 28 is the last day to enter my give away!  Click here to find out how you can win a $15.00 credit to my favorite Etsy shop!!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

May you always remember the important things to be thankful for.

On this day I wish you good times with friends and family.

Let there be laughter and food a plenty.

May the day end with cherished memories and a belly full of pie.

My best to you,
Kathe (with an e)

Spotlight on Merc's Purses & A Give Away! ***Give Away is Now Closed***

Today I wanted to spotlight one of my favorite Etsy shops, Merc's Purses. The owner of the shop, Mercy, is not only a terrific mom, wife and creative sewer, she is a friend of mine in the real world.  Mercy and I worked together for a period of time and shared a love of crafting as well as coupons for Joann's and Michael's.

Before Mercy moved on to bigger and better things, thus leaving me with an office full of men <sigh>, she started creating purses and clutches.  

She would bring some in to show me and I was blown away by not only the creative use of fabric but of the superior quality! This gal, my friends, has talent out the ying yang!  

 Her choice of colorful fabric just makes each piece such a one of the kind.  Not long after, Mercy opened her shop on Etsy.  To no surprise to me, she has met with great success!  She has done custom bridesmaid clutches for weddings as well as moving into creating headbands and wallets.  She also has started to crochet and adds cute little hand made flowers to some of her pieces.

 (If I had a little girl in my life I know she would be wearing this headband every time the Broncos played! Seriously cute and squee worthy!)

I love too, that there is always free shipping on any order! 

Now, since Mercy is one of my bestest gal pals, she has offered to sponsor a giveaway from her Etsy shop!  I know!  I told you she is awesome!! 

She will give away a $15.00 credit to her shop to one of you lucky ducks!  

All you have to do is visit her Etsy shop, Merc's Purses and come back here and leave a comment telling me what you liked (if you don't have a blog, make sure to include your email address (you can use (at) and (dot) so you you don't get on some list!)).  Easy Peasy! 

(I'm sorry but this give away is only open to US addresses)

You have until 6:00pm MST Monday November 28th to enter.  The winner will be chosen using Random.Org

and will be announced on Tuesday November 29th. 

So, what are you doing here?  Get over to Merc's Purses NOW :)

White Thanksgiving Table

If you have been around long enough, or if you have taken the time to go back and visit past posts, you will remember this post Fall hutch challenge. The classic white was the resounding winner. Most of you seemed to like the simple elegance. 

In keeping with the theme I decided to use the same color palette for a Thanksgiving table.

To disclose fully, we will not be dining at this table.  We will be spending the day with Mr. B's family, about an hour away.  No matter, it's Thanksgiving and I wanted to set a pretty table.

I started with burlap fabric place mats that were gift from, my personal enabler, Mr. B. The wooden chargers are in just about every  tablescaper's arsenal and are from WalMart.

I then added dinner plates purchased from the Dollar tree and then leaf plates I bought several years ago from Ross, on clearance.  I have two in each shape so I alternated them around the table.

The flatware is my Rogers silverplate from Ebay.

The goblets are also from the Dollar Tree.  I used rust and green colored napkins that I have had forever.I folded them to look like a leaf.  The white napkin rings are from our Gibson everyday set.

 For the centerpiece I used a mirror I had found at a thrift store this past summer. Originally it was the hot mess that I seem to attract and yet, must have.  A couple of coats of white spray paint later and it was presentable.  It normally resides on the dresser in one of the guest bedrooms. I gathered some of the white and off white ceramic pumpkins from other areas and placed them on the mirror with several small glass tea light candle holders from Ikea.  I added my favorite crystal candlesticks that were a gift many years ago, from my oldest son. The white leaf salt and pepper are Better Homes and Gardens from WalMart.

I have so much to be thankful this year.  Mr. B & I are both healthy and happy as are my sons.

I hope you have a joyful day spent with loved ones. 

And always remember and never forget, there is always room for pie ;)

Amber Coffee Klatch

Last Spring I was so thrilled to win a box lot of amber ware at an auction Mr. B & I attended.

It is just so beautiful in its vintage color. I only paid $35.00 for the whole box! Woot!

I decided to set a table as though my mother and the neighbor ladies were getting together for coffee and snacks, circa 1972.

A few weeks ago I picked up the tablecloth from Burlington Coat Factory.  It seems perfect with its paisley-ish pattern to go along with the dishes. 

I used a simple cream placemat and the gold plated flatware that was given to me by my parents when I was a young girl (thus making them true vintage LOL). They are unmarked.

The snack plates, coffee cups and cream and sugar were manufactured by the Indiana Glass Co. and the pattern is known as King's Crown or Thumbprint. 

The plate has an indent for the coffee cup to sit in. 

The water glasses are from Goodwill and are probably Libby.

The sugar and creamer are sitting atop a Tiara Indiana Glass small oval plate in the Sandwich pattern. The pattern was introduced in the 1970's and was sold through home-parties, much like Tupperware.

The lot also included 3 berry bowls in the same Sandwich pattern.  I used 2 of them along with an crackled glass amber hurricane I picked up from Ross for the centerpiece.

I won the vintage wooden salt & pepper shaker recently from 
Rhett Didn't Give a Damn's blog.

In the background you can see a platter also in the Sandwich pattern that I used on the buffet.

I used wooden napkin rings, found at Goodwill, to tie in with the salt & pepper shakers.  The gold (no seriously, they are gold and not peach like the pictures want you to believe) napkins I have had for years.

I truly love the classic, vintage feel of this table.  I can almost see and hear mom and her gal pals sitting at this table, gossiping and laughing while enjoying finger sandwiches and tea cakes followed by a rousing card game of Canasta or Pinocle.

Kitchen - Before & After

So, waaaaay back before I started reading blogs and realized you should take lots of pictures when undertaking a home improvement project we decided the kitchen needed some help. This post will be heavy on words and light on photos.

When we bought our home 8 years ago it still had the Harvest Gold range.  Granted, it was in pristine condition. I don't think it had ever been used in its 20+  year life. But 1980's Harvest Gold was not going to work for us (Although it seems to be making a come back. I found out recently that someone sold theirs for over $1,000.00!) so one of our first purchases was a new range. We (meaning Mr. B) did spray paint the matching range hood with bisque appliance spray paint.

I could live with the, let's call them vintage shall we, goldish Formica countertops.  They were in great shape and the cost to replace them was not in our budget.

Now, the dark oak cabinets were a whole other story.  Man did they drag the whole room down! Even on the sunniest day I'd have to have all of the lights on just to see the controls on the range. We looked in to refacing but this kitchen is not short on cabinet and drawer fronts!  I think Mr. B is still trying to catch his breath from seeing that quote!
(If you look real hard you can see me standing in front of the stove.  
Just kidding lol!)

After much hemming and hawing and researching, we decided we could and we would paint the doors and drawers until we could afford a full kitchen reno.
(Check out the floor tile!  That used to be dark and somewhat sticky oak parquet. 
What a job that was to take up!  Mr. B laid all of the tile himself in the kitchen and into the eating area!)

I liked the idea of white to brighten up the room but didn't want it to feel to...oh...institutional, y'know? So we agreed upon a color called Queen Anne Lace from Lowes.

Mr. B added the bead board on the front of the return as well as on the side of the pantry.  It mimics the fronts of the cabinets so well.  He also added the molding on the return and painted it bright white to make it look more like a piece of furniture.

As amazing as it looks in the photo, it looks so much better in real life.  The lighter cabinets have really toned down the gold in the countertops and has just brighten everything up dramatically!  

I still love, to this day, the simple pewter knobs we chose.

This was all done 3 or 4 years ago and I still haven't decided on a paint color for the walls!  

Suggestions happily accepted.

 I enjoy cooking in, what to me is, my new kitchen so much! With very little cost and a few weeks of DIY labor we turned this out-dated nightmare into our dream!

Collecting Candlewick

As I have posted before, when I am out thrifting, I keep an eye out for Candlewick glass pieces.  It all started after my maternal grandmother passed away and I inherited a few pieces. I didn't even know what they were at the time.  I did know that I loved the simple beaded design and the clear glass.  I started with four dinner plates, a large salad bowl and some small pieces.  Over time I did some research, found out some history and decided that I needed to add to the collection. 

Candlewick glassware had its humble beginnings in Ohio in the mid-30s. The Imperial Glass Company opened its doors in 1904 in Bellaire, Ohio, under the direction of Edward Muhleman, a gentleman who had much experience in the glass industry. With Muhleman's guidance, The Imperial Glass Company became one of the most preeminent glass manufacturers in the country. And while their glass was high quality it was also extremely affordable for the average family; this rare combination made Imperial glass soar in popularity.

In the early 1930s Candlewick glassware was developed by Imperial's Chicago sales representative, Earl Newton. Newton made adaptations to the French Cannonball line of glassware after having seen it on a trip to New York and being taken with its distinctiveness and elegance. Newton used this design as starting ground to develop what he believed would be a unique and timeless glassware line. His resulting design reminded Newton of candlewicking - a style of needlework popular in Colonial times and thus the name was born.

The Imperial Glass Company jumped onboard and released its Candlewick line in the summer of 1936. Candlewick glassware proved itself to be one of Imperial's best sellers, as customers lined up for these elegant pieces.

(Source)

Most of the pieces I have added have come from Ebay, thrift stores and estate sales.  I have signed up to receive emails from Estatesales.net and receive notice of upcoming sales in my area.  Most of them show pictures and if I see they have any Candlewick shown I will decide whether or not to hunt it down.  

My most recent estate sale find was this large divided relish tray.  It is 13" wide and has 5 sections for olives and such.

I have not seen one like it listed on Ebay so I am not certain if the $15.00 I paid for it is a fair price or not but, no matter,  I had to have it.  

At this same sale I was also able to pick up this mayo dish that includes the under dish and spoon.  This was not pictured so I had no idea it was for sale.  It had been on my want list for a long time.  I was delighted with the $10.00 price.

At an earlier estate sale I scored this beautiful celery dish.  The handles are very unique.  I don't recall what I paid but I am sure it was under $10.00

I purchased the salt cellars from Ebay.  I have them in several sizes but the two small ones came with the cute little spoons. 

Ebay also turned up the salt and pepper shakers.  Usually, the silver plated top on the salt shaker is corroded from the salt.  These are pristine and still have the original labels on them.

My collection is ever growing and I like the variety of the pieces I have been able to find.  The pieces are loved and used for special occasions and holidays. I am now keeping an eye out for salad plates and for pieces to complete sets such as the glasses.

Now comes the "one of these things is not like the other" portion of this post.  In doing my research I found that Anchor Hocking also made pieces that resemble Candlewick and is sometimes called Boopie glass.  The difference between them is the Candlewick pattern has balls that do not run together or even touch each other. They are full circle balls that have a little space in between them. They tend to look more fragile that way. The Boopie or Anchor Hocking design has the balls touching each other without any space in between. They almost look welded together. The ever so subtle differences in the two designs have confused novice collectors (including myself) and sellers all over the world (source). 

One more disclaimer.  The snack plates and cups that I love and I have just recently gathered myself, and with the help of friends, are also not Candlewick but were made by Hazel-Atlas Glass company (source).

And then it seems this divided piece could actually be Czechoslovakian glass.

If you too enjoy collecting Candlewick glass pieces I hope this information helps you. Whatever you collect, there is fun to be found in doing research.  I know that I love all of my pieces more now that I know what their history is. I hope someday to pass them along to my sons so that they too can enjoy them and think of me as I think of my grandmother and know each piece was touched by my loving hands.

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