Summer!

Tomorrow is the last day of school for PB!!!! We have been making lists of what we want to do this summer and my list includes home improvements, fun craft stuff and adventures with the boy! (and sleeping in!)

I hope to live out a scene similar to the image above with happy active participants helping out with these tasks....but my list and PB's list aren't quite the same.  He plans on watching hours of spongebob, reading books and laying on the couch...all at the same time.

Ironing Board Discovery

This is my ironing board.  I picked it out as my birthday present from an antique store about 14 years ago. I have always loved it's wooden intricate braces that are a bit of a puzzle when opening and closing it.  I also loved the pattern on it's floral cover... Let's call it Cute Cover. But I do use this ironing board, not that I do loads of ironing but still after 14 additional years of heat wear and tear added to Cute Cover, it's reached it's end.   Several tears and rips have started appearing and grow a bit larger each time the iron accidently snags one.

As luck would have it, I happened to find a cute vintage, but in excellent shape, replacement for only a couple of bucks at a thrift last week.  It's a bit large but I am sure I can make it work.

I have never spent alot of time under my ironing board, as I wouldn't expect many have.  Here is an upshot of the underside done by it's previous owner, with it's complicated, almost frantic, gathering of fabric and safety pins anchoring sides together with elastic that lost it's snap before I ever came along. I guess who ever had Cute Cover before me had experienced the "It's a bit large but I am sure I can make it work", just as I spoke of.

While trying to figure out how to approach this perplexing web, I noticed some dried out masking tape running along the underside...and then noticed that partly obscured were some handwritten letters.  I peeled the tape away, with not much effort and saw this:

 XMAS 1938

It had been a gift for someone else in 1938! I felt like I had just discovered an ancient Egyptian tomb and was reading it's hieroglyphs, I was so excited.   

I also realized that the tape had a purpose and that there is a crack down the middle of the ironing board. It's nothing a bit of new tape can't handle...I am sure I can make it work.

So here is the new Cute Cover II almost in place. I decided to follow lead from the first owner and using safety pins and tucking fabric here and there, I rigged the new cover in place. I decided to leave Cute Cover I under it, kind of like layers that would be dug through in archaeology. I am thinking about adding my own handwritten date on the bottom that says "Birthday 1999".

Chalkware poodley-poo

I found this chalkware cutie at a thrift for 5 bucks!

I love his sweet face and I came up with a "job" for him to earn his keep.

Eyeglasses holder!

Mother's Day 2013

My Mother's Day week in review.

We squeezed in a bunch of activities mostly on Mother's day weekend but I did get an early "gift" from my man and I was taken to see one of my favorite musicians...Frank Black!

I am not sure why Frank is dressed like People of Walmart though... maybe he was just trying to fit in during his visit to the south.

On Friday evening we volunteered at the Rely for Life prime event.  Our booth, as Pumpkinbutt called out to the walkers on the track, was "you get to throw sharp pointy objects for only one dollar!".  We have a large wooden dart board with balloons attached to it, pop a balloon and win a prize, all money goes toward the fundraiser. Kids love it!
I got this cute paper retro pickle wrapper sack along with a huge pickle for 1 buck while there....

On Saturday (after sleeping in of course) we headed down to the Flea Market.  In front of a nearby thrift was this bowling ball garden:

We didn't find too many treasures...a few small toys and a vintage Halloween record called Monster Mash from 1972.

We then went downtown to have lunch at a new outdoor dining area with "food truck" Airstream trailers. Cute!

Afterwards we headed over for a small arts

 festival, downtown as well, and saw this neat ice cream trolley. I wanted to snatch those ginormous plastic ice creams and run!

We then went home and played "Go to The Head of the Class" (circa 1970) that I scored at a thrift the day before.

On Sunday we all hung around the house for awhile and I got some super cool gifts; a vintage Star Wars Tauntaun and the new David Sedaris book.

We went to lunch at a Mexican Restaurant, my favorite cuisine. Afterwards, we went on an adventure to seek out wild blackberries in a field that once was home to a drive-in movie theater. At home, we toasted some angel food cake, added whipped cream and the berries for a yummy dessert.

Pumkinbutt also made me a book about me. The highlights of it is that I am very clean and smarter than a whole bunch of college kids!

Whew! A lot of good times!

I even left out a few other things we did, like spending hours in the Comic Book Shop which is piled to the ceiling with neat stuff and collectibles. Pumpkinbutt about lost his mind when the owner showed him his Action Comics stash from the 50's and 60's.