something for everyone at the antique mall

We have an antique mall less than two miles from our house, but haven't been there in about four years. The place is huge ~ three buildings filled with antiques. You need at least a few hours to wander through the buildings. A snowy day was the perfect time for a visit. Though it turned out that the mall closed early due to the snowstorm, so our visit was cut short.

Wandering around the mall, I noticed more mid-century modern items. This style must be "in" again, which is fine with me ~ I happen to like it, as well as antiques. I think you can successfully mix the two styles, as long as it's not overdone.

I happen to love these groovy lamps, though I don't have anywhere to put them. Besides, I have a white slipcovered cottage-style sofa in my small living room, so these lamps would definitely not fit into my decor. I'm picturing my childhood best friend's basement family room from the 70's...there was red shag carpeting and a black vinyl sofa. These lamps would've been perfect there!

There was a booth filled with vintage clothing...

and pretty glassware and tchotchkes filling a window. So many things to browse!

Another booth was filled with feminine, romantic decor.

For the man cave, an assortment of neon beer signs.

Another part of the mall had tons of collector childhood items...toys, figurines, Matchbox cars and records from the 50's - 80's. It's fun looking at all these things that bring back memories from childhood. I still have my plastic dollhouse furniture from the early 70's and I saw a metal dollhouse that was practically identical to the one I used to have that housed the plastic furniture. It was only $10! But what would I do with it and where would I put it? If I had a grandchild, I would've snatched it up for her/him to play with here. 

Love these milk glass plates. Each one had a different design.

This electric coffee pot caught my eye, too. It had a large chip at the spout though.

I was tempted to buy this jar, but the price was too high.

I came home with a couple of items not pictured. One was a birthday gift for a friend and the other a Pyrex bowl. I'll show you the bowl in my next post.

In the meantime, I'm dreaming of warm weather...it was -4 here today with the wind chill factor and will be -20 tomorrow morning. 

Have you done any vintage or antique shopping lately?

finally summer

Always a great start to the summer to have long-distance cousins in town (Tim and our four-year old cousin)...

and taking a jaunt to the local antique mall.

 Our evening walks take us down to the lake where we watch the sunsets...

 and another weekend day trip was in store where we to a vintage market and then had drinks on a rooftop overlooking the town.

Rain, rain and more rain, now in the form of thunderstorms....

 But I guess on the plus side, all this rain has made everything SO green.

 My herb garden...

The butterfly garden is looking fantastic, though nothing is in bloom yet except the columbine. That's purple coneflower in the foreground, then sedum, lamb's ear, bee balm, phlox and black-eyed Susan.

 It's also mulberry time, which means our neighbor's tree is dropping these berries all over our patio, the patio furniture (which is why the chairs are moved to the side for now) and in the plants and mulch all leading up to the patio. We can't use our patio unless the berries are cleaned up first and they ruin our plants. They rot and smell and then attract flies. They stain our patio and the furniture. We've had our neighbor's tree trimmed back to her property line a couple of times, but it doesn't do much good. Those berries still (obviously) find their way to our property. It also costs a lot of money for a tree trimmer AND this neighbor is very nasty about us trimming her trees, even though we have every right to. 

But back to better things about the patio...summer nights sitting out there with a glass of wine is peaceful and relaxing...

And now that the hot, humid weather has hit (low 90's this weekend!), it's time for more salads. I had this for dinner tonight and it was absolutely delicious. It's brown rice pasta tossed with steamed asparagus, baby spinach, artichoke hearts, fresh basil, salt and pepper, Asiago-Parmesan cheese, and then a homemade lemon vinaigrette (fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, a little raw honey, and extra-virgin olive oil). I toasted some pine nuts and added them to my salad, too. Leave out the cheese (and the honey in the vinaigrette) if you want/need a vegan dish.

Happy summer!