Do the math.......

If you take this......... and add it to this..............

Your answer will be this............
What I turn tomorrow...time sure flies!
I still feel like the same girl dressed up in my majorette uniform, the the bright eyed sales clerk in the juniors dept. at Carlisles..... the girl who used to get to pick out any special cereal she wanted when she would spend the night with grandma and grampa....the girl who would love to play Space Invaders on Atari, the girl who had a huge poster of John Travolta on her closet door...the girl who loved Michael Jackson and Waylon Jennings....Yep I still feel the same on the inside and have a huge grin while writing this post remembering all these great memories....

A few Auction Finds! What a day!

Last week I headed off to an auction...a good ole fashion , in the country, park in the pasture, porta-potty kind of sale. Mr. OTM ran the shop so I could head on out. It started at 9:00 and I got there at 9:15 thanks to some road construction....ugh! You can miss ALOT in the first 15 minutes let me tell ya! I have been going to auctions all my life and it does't take long to learn the do's and don'ts. First and formost...DON'T BE LATE! In the beginning the auctioneer fills you in on all the details and pretty much that's all you get...no "refresher course" during the sale. Well during the first 15 of this sale I missed a REALLY important detail.......here goes....As the auctioneer was selling like crazy, it didn't take me long to realize that I was not going to be able to afford ANYTHING! The prices we ridiculous! ...50 bucks for kids blocks?....165 .00 for a glass cloche??? C~R~A~Z~Y! So I turned to leave and heard a lady mention that she was going "to the back" for the other sale. THE BACK?? WHAT?? WHERE??? So I did a little research and HAD I MADE IT ON TIME (thanks North Carolina Dept.of Transportation) I would have known that YEP...they were indeed running TWO sales that day...the one up front was for all the fancy schmancy (aka...high dollar, big money) stuff and the one down back was for the "stuff nobody really wants" (aka, rusty, crusty, battered, chippy.......H~E~A~V~E~N!!!! I swear it was like the sky parted and the light shown down and the Hallelujah chorus started singin! Well THIS was MORE like it....GAME ON!! Let's take a peek............... The red chest was used in one of the barns to hold screws and electrical tape (as a bonus I got 8 rolls of it!...surprise in drawer #2) LOVE the old red color!! The little green table is upsidedown in the picture because if I would turn it right side up the legs would fall off! A little glue and some clamps will fix er up good!

The old gray box had this great wire basket inside! The rusty old milk can was one of three I got that day and see the white cupboard leaning against the back window? Well I had to brush off the snakeskin that was attached to the front of it before I could even think about getting it off the wall of the barn......I know.....gross! BUT WORTH IT! Can you say 5 dollars?? Anyway that is only the tip of the iceburg of the stuff I got. The truck was heaping and I took more pictures to share with ya later. Just a hint of what's to come...stack of quilts, chimney cupboard, shutters, blah, blah blah......... See ya later!

SHOPKEEPER SUNDAY!!

Join us for a Fall Afternoon in the Country!

It's time again for

SHOPKEEPER SUNDAY!

THIS SUNDAY OCT. 18TH 11-5

The shop will be packed with new junk and we'll have great vendors set up outside!

BRING A FRIEND FOR FUN ~FOOD~FINDS!!

This is our last one for the year until Spring so........

DON'T MISS OUT!!

rain or shine!

121 N. White St.

Marshville, NC 28103

704-942-6258

SEE YOU THERE!!!

HOMEMADE APPLESAUCE!

Yesterday was one of my favorite kind of days....it was all drizzly and cold outside and nice and cozy inside! The perfect kind of day to make up my homemade applesauce. I do this every year and freeze a bunch to have throughout the rest of the coming year. We ran up to the mountains on Sunday so I could get the wonderful North Carolina mountain apples.....(plus to stop a few fav shops too...*wink*! ) The drive was so nice and relaxing..just the break I needed with all the prep going on for the holiday season. The leaves are just starting to turn up there and there was just enough color to ohhh and ahhh over. I really don't have time to be hiking to get the apples let alone spending a whole day making it BUT it is a tradition I love and refuse to give it up. Thought you might enjoy how I go about making the sauce...it's easy and the result is delicious! Follow me....... I like to use a combination of apples. You will need a nice firm crisp variety with good texture. This year I used Winesap and Arkansas Black. I always like to choose one variety with a nice red skin as that will give your sauce a great pink color. If you can't get your hands on either of these McIntosh is an all time favorite. I like to cut and quarter them and remove as much of the core and seeds as possible. Whatever you don't get the food mill get later.

Toss them into a tall pot and put about 3 cups of water in. Turn the heat on medium and let them cook down until they become mushy. Mine take about 20-25 minutes but it will depend on how many apples you have used. A smaller batch will take less time.

Let them cool for a bit. Get a ladel and pour some into the food mill. Crank the mill and watch all the wonderful sauce come out! When using the food mill it is very important to crank it until there are nothing but pieces of apple skin left. The color of the sauce somes from the skin, so don't try to go to fast ....it is worth it!

All I add to my sauce is sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. I do all of this "to taste" so I have no measurements. Mix well.As a little "extra" treat ...while the sauce is still warm, fill a little bowl for yourself, add a pat of butter to it and you'll think your in heaven it's sooo good!

And finally you have a wonderful batch of sweet, pink, delicious Homemade Applesauce! At this point I will get out my Ziploc freezer containers and load them up and stack um in the freezer. It is so nice to have this throughout the year and well worth the day it takes to get it done. Hope your sauce turns out great! I am sure you're gonna love it! ENJOY!

If money were no object............

Okay..so how many times have you gone shopping and came across a piece that made you have a tantrum you wanted it so bad and couldn't get it because it was a GA-ZILLION BUCKS??!! Well that happened to me this past Sunday...ONLY I WANTED TWO PIECES not just one..(I was being selfish but since it was MY tantrum I might as well make it worth it ..right??!!) The OPEN sign knocked me over it was so cool...You know how you try to guess-timate the price even before you look at tag..well I wasn't even close. To make matters worse then I fell in love with the piece that the OPEN sign is sitting on......guess -timating again....hoping....praying.....AGAIN not even close!.....full on tantrum mode now...legs shakin... bottom lip stuck out a mile, severe pouting, wondering where the closest place is to by a Mega Millions lottery ticket... take out a second mortage..... OH YES!! Layaway....could I possibly put it on layaway for like a year (and a half...maybe)?....would I look stupid asking?..... SNAP OUT OF IT...realizing that YES I would , I settled for a picture of yet another killer piece that will go into the "if money were no object" file. Oh well, sometimes you just gotta let it go.....

THRIFT STORE BEAUTY!

Ain't she sweet??? I want to call it a dresser BUT I have a feeling there is a more fancier name for her? Anybody know?? All I know is that she is white, she is chippy, she the perfect height for the other side display in my booth at the Southern Christmas show and she makes me ONE STEP CLOSER to being "panic attack free!" I still have to get the small details figured out but at least I have all the bigger pieces I need. Believe me...that is HUGE load of off the ole noggin!

JUNKIN TREASURES!

I was on a mission last weekend for sure!! I desperately needed to find some great pieces to use for display in my booth at the Southern Christmas Show next month. I HAD THE BEST LUCK!! I hit one of my regular spots and made out really well there......

then I hit a couple new spots that didn't disappoint either!! Oh the stars were lined up that day...............

I felt as though I landed in chippy heaven...it was all over the place...

The best part of all of it was the PRICES WERE GREAT! Thank goodness, for once it felt like the good ole days of cheap junkin!!

This big ole cupboard top was my best find for the day and will allow me to sleep better at night. I was freaking out because I needed to find a BIG piece to use as I has sold my previous one. I kept going into mini panic attack mode (is there such a thing?) because I hadn't found anything all summer ...well 25.00... yep...ONLY 25 bucks later, I can now have panic attacks about something else.

Lots of this stuff made it's way into my booth at the Sleepy Poet today as well. The other stuff will be in my booth for the show. Now I am off to work on who knows what.....hope your day was great!