Tuesday, April 25, 2017

antiquing, a new furry friend, and grilling

Every winter, me, my mom and aunt make our annual trek to the antique mall a couple of miles from my house. It's a great place to explore and treasure hunt when it's bitter cold and we're stuck indoors. This year, we weren't able to get together on a Saturday in winter for various reasons. We finally found ourselves there this past Saturday. This is me and my little mommy. :-)


I found a few treasures: for one, this yellow cat pitcher. It's in the little nook above the range and microwave.


I also came home with this metal shelf and the mini pitcher in the middle. Right now the shelf is on my kitchen wall. We didn't want to make any holes in the newly painted wall, so I used a 3M sticky hook, but I think it looks tacky. I'm going to look for a pretty, decorative hook at Hobby Lobby. Nail holes, be damned!


Sunday, I drove out to the south side of Chicago to visit with my cousin before having to pick up Brian at the airport. He was in Los Angeles, CA for five days, visiting his sister.

I saw these flowers growing underneath my cousin's lilac bush and I asked him what they were. He said his mother planted them many years ago and that they were bluebells. So pretty!


Sorry for the lousy photo...meet JR. He showed up on my cousin's doorstep last week. He's such a love, that when I was trying to take his photo, he kept coming up to my phone and rubbing it. He's already made himself right at home in my cousin's house, sleeping in his bed and on a favorite chair in the living room. My cousin's previous kitty, Grayce passed away last year and my cousin has been heartbroken. JR is just what my cousin needed. It's funny...Grayce was also a stray that showed up at my cousin's house. And my cats were strays that appeared at my door, too. I think they know who the cat lovers are.


Meanwhile, Brian came home to beautiful, sunny weather and with a couple more days off work, broke out the power washer and started tackling all the dirty stuff outdoors.


Brian said he couldn't believe how much the trees and flowers blossomed in those few days he was away. In fact, just today, our lilacs started to open.


The clematis has already climbed 3/4 of the way to the top of the trellis and has flower buds.


And we were able to grill for the first time! Brian power-washed the Weber and he grilled sausages and a basket full of veggies ~ zucchini, yellow squash, onions, and red and orange peppers. I made a side dish of brown rice with slivered almonds and chives from our garden.


Did you ever see a cat that liked grilled zucchini?! We had the grilled veggies up on the kitchen counter and weren't paying any attention to Zippo, who was in the open kitchen window. Next thing you know, Zippo (who is almost 18 but can move quickly when he wants to) grabbed a piece of yellow squash in his mouth, jumped off the counter, and ran across the kitchen with the squash dangling from his mouth like it was a mouse. We were laughing so hard...he looked so ridiculous! That piece of squash was gone in a heartbeat. We couldn't believe it...a cat likes grilled squash? So, we gave him a piece of zucchini. He loved it.


Doesn't look like we'll be grilling again for awhile. The extended forecast shows nothing but rain - or at least, cloudy skies - for the next 10 days. And much cooler temps. I need to tell my California sister-in-law to send more sunshine our way.

Enjoy the rest of your week!


16 comments:

  1. Love that yellow cat pitcher - so cheerful!
    We have the "s" word in our weather forecast for the weekend. Ugh. That's all there is to say to that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good Morning Melanie . . . what a fun post! I just had to smile at your little cat pitcher, so cute. I love little pops of whimsy throughout the house . . . things that make life fun and not so darn serious. Your grilled dinner looks so good . . . I love food cooked outside. Here's hoping that your rainy spell doesn't last too long.
    keep smiling,
    Connie :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh that yellow cat pitcher is adorable. Good to see things blooming and everyone having a good day. JR is a cutie. Yes cats know who we are I think!! We had rain and more on the way but we are sunny today! Hugs!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Melanie :)

    Your mom looks like such a sweet lady. I'm glad you three had such a good time and that you found some treasures to bring home.

    The weather has been weird here too. It was almost 80 for weeks and now it's barely in the high 60s. I woke up this morning freezing, because I had my window open and didn't expect it to be 36 overnight. Brrrr.....

    Your cat cracks me up! Silly squash lover lol

    xo,
    rue

    ReplyDelete
  5. I cannot believe your kitty likes squash, what a weirdo kitty cat!! :) My sweetie's kitty loves when I send home leftovers with Sweetie - she always shares. One of her favorites is spaghetti, go figure!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. You got some neat collectibles.

    Great pic of you and your Mom.

    We had a glorious long steady rain Sunday morning. We needed it desperately.

    Happy Spring ~ FlowerLady

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ha Ha... sometimes you just have to take a stand against those darned nail holes :).
    What a fun outing you had with your mom and aunt. The little kitty pitcher is adorable.
    The timing on the kitties showing up on your cousins doorstep is very interesting. It sounds like JR found just the right home.
    I would love to smell your lilacs. They don't do very well in the south and I miss that heavenly scent.
    So glad you were able to get out there and grill while you could. We just got done with several days of downpours. So happy to see sunshine once again.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Melanie, it looks like you had a nice time antiquing. I loved seeing you with your mom. I think you look very similar around the eyes. We finally had some rain yesterday and there's more coming Friday and Saturday, hopefully. We've had a pretty dry couple of months. I love your little cat pitcher. I would have grabbed that too. The new kitty friend is adorable. I have never had a cat but I really like them. Last week, our neighbor had some relatives visiting for Easter and they brought their cat. The cat got out of the house at some point and came to our yard, where she sat under our front bushes for a while. I saw her from the window and lured her out by saying "Kitty, kitty," to her. I thought it was pretty neat that she responded by coming to me. Then the neighbor came over looking for her and calling, "Kitty, kitty!" I thought, how strange, why doesn't he use the cat's name? When he walked over to where I was in the yard with the cat, I asked him what her name was. He said Kitty! So no wonder she came when I said kitty, that's her name. It never occurred to me that the cat's actual name would be Kitty. :) I'm sorry to read in your comments on my blog that your recovery has not been easy. I really hope you're feeling well soon. P has been very lucky with his recovery so far. He was upset to learn that the orthopedist wants him to quit running, though. He thinks he'll damage his knee a lot more. I'm sure he'll find something else but he was looking forward to running again, so I feel bad for him. I hope your recovery gets smoother soon. Take care.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That's a very health conscious kitty! I went to a couple of antique stores on our trip to Wisconsin. My goodness, the Midwest has some great stores! Much better than our part of the country. How nice that you and your mom can enjoy antiquing together. Our plants are budding and growing higher every day. The weekend looks to be a bit snowy and rainy, so I will have to hold off doing outdoor things. Bummer!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh, Melanie, your first grill supper looks so delicious! I love JR and him finding his new mommy all on his own. I have a thing for ginger cats, I think they are usually very personable and intelligent. Your Zippo and my Kaiser look alike, and they are both characters! When I was a child, my grandfather, for some reason gave me a bluebell plant and I remember waiting for it to bloom every spring. They are a fabulous shade of blue. Love to see your newest finds and I especially like your smiling kitten addition to the collection. I like cheerful things like that.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have a cute little mommy almost exactly like that! Leave it to you to have a veggie eating cat...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Such a cute photo of your and your mom, Melanie! It looks like summer in your yard and I can almost smell those pretty lilacs. It's been snowing all week and nothing but white stuff in the forecast through the next week. I had to break out my winter coat again! Enjoy your sunshine and growing perennials!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh my gosh your kitty made me laugh so hard! What a stinker. My mom used to say that there is a sign that only strays can see above the houses of tenderhearted people. I would be happy for a stray to find me about now. Love the picture of you and your Mom. So very sweet.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Your mom has such a kind face Melanie. I bet her personality matches :).

    What a hoot your fur baby is! Never heard of a cat liking squash! Heck, even I don't like it much and I'll eat almost anything! lol

    Our weather has been odd too. Today was lovely, but the rest of the week, not so much.

    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  15. I'm just wondering if you had drizzled olive oil on the grilled veggies. Because cats love olive oil and one of my cat would eat anything that has had a little olive oil on it.

    ReplyDelete
  16. How I loved the times my mother and I would go antiquing together, miss that so much but at least have the memories and still have objects that I associate with a day out shopping with her. Your whole little pitcher collection is so sweet!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to leave a kind comment - I read and appreciate each one!