Drawings are closed!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes and playing along with us for some birthday fun.

The give aways are officially closed and my assistant and I will work on getting all of your entries together and drawing winners!

It is really lovely to see so many new faces, and I have a million new blogs to check out. (I can see my bloglines list growing already!) I hope you will stay around to see what we are up to after the give aways are over. :-)

P.S. I sent out a reminder for the apron swap yesterday. If you didn't receive email or need my assistance, shoot me an email.

It's my party

Yesterday Jack sat down beside me with his Thomas brochure clutched tightly in his fists and asked me which train did I want for my birthday. They don't have Jon Bon Jovi on the Island of Sodor, do they? LOL
On another note, I am tableclothed out. Sick of looking at them, sick of taking pictures of them, blah blah. (Well, really I am so sick of the rain. It is making me crabby. We are 9 inches above normal for May. Just wrong. I need some sunshine.)

So maybe you want something else I have spilling out of every crevice? Today's winner will receive as many vintage ornaments as I can fit in whatever box I can find. There are 36 in that bowl above, so I imagine it will be roughly 3 dozen or so.

Because they are fragile and the box will be largish, U.S. entrants only please.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me you want them.

Good luck!

And Hapde number firty-free to me. :-) (Even though Jack thinks I am five.)

A picnic perhaps?

Let's just ignore that this one is currently wrinkly*, okay?

While the plaid may not be as exciting as the flowers for many, it is more unusual than flowers, which seem to be plentiful.

In fact, it is the only plaid one I have ever found.

It's also a bit larger than the first one and I think it is perfect for a picnic!

The same rules apply as yesterday, although there is no need to post on your blog twice, if you have already done so, you will be in twice for any cloth you want.

Good luck to everyone!

*Vintage tablecloths seem to come in 3 versions: regular cotton, heavy sailcloth cotton and cotton rayon blend, this one has some rayon in it I think, hence the wrinkles. The sailcloth ones hardly wrinkle at all, and I never iron any of them. LOL

It's that time of year again

The very best part of the haul from the trip to Chicago were the tablecloths. I know you haven't seen them yet because the sun is really vital to getting them clean, but I bought an obscene amount of them for very little money up there.

And since last year we had fun doing a few days of giveaways leading up to my birthday, I thought this year I would give away a few tablecloths.
So, here's the deal:

I will give away a tablecloth a day until my birthday, which is Wednesday (and also your apron swap mailing deadline!).

All you need to do is leave a comment on the post saying you want in, with a way to contact you.

You are more than welcome to leave a comment each day if you want.

Mention the contest on your own blog and I will enter your name twice. (And let me know you have done that.)

I will have Jack draw names on Thursday.

My only request (and it might be a big one for some of you!) is that if you are the winner, please don't cut it up. There are plenty of cloths that are suitable for cutting, but I have specifically chosen ones that are fine for use on your tables. Besides, I have invested time in getting them clean! (But they are not perfect. I am not sure there is a single one in my huge collection that is perfect.)

Today's beauty is in lovely condition and who doesn't love a daisy?

And with that, I had better hit post before I lose my nerve. I have so many, but I want them all, all, all! :-)

Good luck everyone!

Always be a mother

Yesterday Jack and Dave were having a conversation in the car about Mother's Day which ended with Jack saying, "You'll always be a mother."

Which is so very true, but it caught me off guard a little.
It's amazing how I went from living what feels like an entire life as one person and then in the blink of an eye, I was his mother.
I've had five Mother's Days as his mother now. From being a few months pregnant and puking my guts out to being the mother of my little baby and then onto being the mother of my sweet little boy.
Time really flies on this journey.

I love you sweet baby.

And yes, I will always be your mother.

The rain in Spain

Well, it just keeps raining here. With no end to the rain in sight, I figured I had better just go ahead and take pictures of what I could in the rain. The mess in the kitchen was driving me crazy!
Just before we left for Chicago I was browsing an old issue of Country Living (sorry, I have no clue what issue, or I would try and find it again) and I found an article on a rummage sale in Lake Forest, IL. The rummage sale at First Presbyterian of Lake Forest to be exact. The pictures were totally droolworthy. And what luck! It was the same weekend we would be in Chicago.

We arrived at about 8:30 on Saturday morning and this thing was i-n-s-a-n-e. I consider myself to be quite the junk veteran and even for me this place was stressful and chaotic.

Stressful or not though, we did buy stuff there. LOL I found the queen bee above there. I love old Fisher Price toys, and I have been wanting this one for a long time. And her condition is awesome.
I spotted this canister set from the other side of the very crowded housewares tent and made my way there as fast as possible. Love, love that decal! (And the whole set was a $1.)
I have been wanting another cake carrier and they seem to be impossible to find. This one came from the Allstate Flea, $5. I have 3 now, so I guess it is an official collection.

Speaking of collections, I have quite the canister collection suddenly. Purely accidental. I think I am going to pack away the pyrex for a bit and put the cake carriers and the canisters on top of that cabinet instead.
Some smaller pieces of vintage fabrics from the rummage sale. I was hoping the one on the left was a feedsack, I couldn't tell inside the ziploc bag, but it isn't. Love the print anyway.
I bought 10 (!!) of these sweet curtain panels at the Allstate Flea for $10. Dave is hoping to build us a teardrop trailer for camping, and I think they are perfect for that. A few panels will find a home on my kitchen door in the meantime.
And this is one of those "What on earth is she thinking?" buys. Coincidentally, it is the only thing I bought at Kane County this year. (And I don't think I will bother going back there next year. It is $5 each to get in, and for what? Hmmmph.)

When I first walked past it I thought it was a roll of old linoleum. I love the color and the pattern (it is the perfect vintage green), and it kept calling me to come back to it. So, I asked the price. I usually have a rule that if I have no clue what I am going to do with something I won't pay more than $10. The price? $10. So we bought it. Turns out that it is old wallboard, not lino.

There is a good amount of it there, and only that front bit is torn. I think I might use it in the backs of cabinets (I do need another pie safe), or something.

The rest of the treasure is in the washing machine or the to be washed pile, waiting for that much needed sunshine. Hopefully I will get pictures soon.

Other news: My birthday is next week, and there will be birthday giveaways again this year. I see tablecloths in someone's future!

Your apron swap deadline is next week also, get them in the mail! If you have already received yours, add it to the Flickr group please.

And there are a few more random photos on Flickr.

From the mouth of my babe

Yesterday we walked up the road to retrieve our housekey from the neighbor. We happened to see Grandma Jane while we were there, and Jack was showing off his spelling skills.

Grandma Jane: "Jack, that is wonderful! How did you get so smart? Did you get that from your mommy or your daddy?"

Jack, laughing: "My mommy silly!"

Grandma Jane: "What did you get from daddy then? Your good looks?"

Jack, hysterically laughing: "No silly, my toots!"

That's right. My son told her the only thing he inherited from his father was his ability to pass gas.

LOL

(Since it is pouring down rain, I am loot photo-less. Soon, I hope. It's piled up in the kitchen and I need to move it!)