Egg Cups, Church Keys, Pyrex Bowls and S&Ps . . . .

. . . that's where I spent my Wednesday,
amidst egg cups, church keys, Pyrex bowls,
and some of the oddest salt & pepper shaker
sets that ever gave you nightmares.

I spent the day working at Somerville Center Antiques, in historic Somerville, New Jersey,
where I maintain a little booth.  Now, SCA is in an old Woolworth's Store building
and on the main floor -- where my booth is -- are the more sober-sided antique and vintage wares.

But downstairs, it's funky time.

You don't believe me?

I wouldn't argue with this lady, and she says it's the truth. 

So I'm going to take you on a little tour of "Downtown" at Somerville.
(No pictures of my own booth -- it's looking too bare right now!)

The downstairs dealers specialize in 20th century vintage, with loads of kitchen wares,

clothing, paper ephemera, old books, records (remember them?), lots of barware and glassware,

and of course, salt and pepper shaker sets.

 I wasn't too sure what these were supposed to be, so I turned one around.

Yes, they are salt & pepper shakers. Yes, they are tomatoes. Yes, they appear to be wearing babushkas.

Was everyone starting cocktail hour at noon in the 50s and 60s?

 Poodles were a big deal back then.

 This charming poodle couple . . . 

 . . . seems to have had a love child.

 There are all sorts of things here.

Old games.

Bizarrely funky old porcelain flights of fancy, as seen below.

Seriously, who at that corporate meeting said, "Sure! Let's manufacture this!"

 Isn't it amazing?  It's huge, too.  Wouldn't you just love to wrap this up as a wedding present?
Hmmm . . . I've got a nephew getting married in March. . . .

Love this glassware with the thick gold banding.

What a gorgeous tablescape it would make!

The furniture upstairs runs more to the mahogany and cherry;

downstairs it's Deco, or 50s vinyl and chrome, or . . . painted vintage.

The vintage kitchen ware stretches for miles.

Well, not miles. . . but there's a lot.

Even a pink electric range.  How sweet!

 Vintage kitchen tools, tableware, even appliances.

Scotty dog glasses!

A very pretty single-width kitchen cupboard.

 With a beautiful original-equipment design on the glass.

Here's where a whole lot of old egg cups and

church keys (bottle openers) come to find new forever families:

Rolling pins, cast iron skillets, colanders, serving and stirring spoons, bottles . . . 

 . . . loads of dishes!

Trays, cookie jars . . . 

. . . and more cookie jars!

And remember that nightmare salt & pepper shaker set I mentioned in the beginning?

Here it is.

Twin devils, for your dining enjoyment.

You know, I would buy these for our next family Christmas grab bag,
but I'm a little afraid of them.  Maybe more than a little.

And that was my Wednesday!  How was yours?  -- Cass


At Sue's It's A Very Cherry World! blog,
it is Rednesday ... so click here, people!

P.S.  Tomorrow I start searching for more furniture for my booth, upstairs at SCA.  It's looking bare again!

Two Years, and 9,000 Gallons of Paint Later . . . .

When we bought That Old House in 2008,
she was yellow, with white trim,
a green front door, and green shutters.

On a snowy afternoon shortly before Christmas 2009, my daughters and I decorated

the front door with white pine roping, little white lights, and yards & yards of wired red ribbon.

Tarting up the front door went a long way in disguising the worn and chipped paint on the house,

the scarred pillars, the scuffed porch deck and steps, the general shabbiness of the house's exterior . . . 

but

what did an even better job of disguising all those uglies was the paint job That Old House

got in June 2011, when she was given a whole new wardrobe:  all white, with shutters and front door

trim so darkly green that the color looks black, and a brilliant yellow front door.

This year's front door roping went up against the now-dark transom and sidelights,

and even though we forgot the red ribbons this time (I save them from year to year),

it was enough bling against the pristine white and the austere near-black.

Oops.  A bit of roping flopping off the porch railing.
What messy people must live here.

December 2009: our front door.

December 2011: our front door.

 Now normally, I am not one for change.

I like things to stay as they are.

But I am OK with this metamorphosis.

White and very dark green are the original colors of That Old House,

found beneath many coats of paint during the scraping last June.

So I guess we didn't really change much, after all.  -- Cass

At Between Naps On The Porch, it is Metamorphosis Monday!  Click here to visit.

Howard Meets Mabel, and Dinosaurs Visit Bethlehem

It's coming on dusk this cloudy Sunday afternoon.
Our Christmas lights are gone from the fence and the grape arbor, but I
asked Howard to leave the lights and pine roping around the front door.

For a little while.

C'mon in, take a look around.

Inside That Old House, it is still Epiphany, and the Three Wisemen are visiting Bethlehem.

So is a Dinosaur.

Yes, we know that humans and dinosaurs did not roam the Earth at the same time,

but with the Lord -- for whom time and space are all laid out as one -- anything is possible.

A few years ago, Anne fashioned a model dinosaur for her sister Alida, who was beginning to study

for a Ph.D. in Philosophy in California.  Anne glued all the little fiddly wood bits together,

and then covered the Dinosaur with philosophical quotes.  Dozens of them.

She added an academic stole and a mortarboard for good measure.

I'm not sure who first put the Quotasaurus in the Creche -- it might have been me --

but it's a fixture now.  Until it finally goes to live with its rightful owner.

********************************

On Saturday, Howard removed the lights and ornaments

from the Fraser Fir Christmas tree in the sunroom.

Dion supervised.

This tree held up remarkably well, stayed perky all through the season,

and shed very few needles even as it was being dragged out the door to its doom.

It is still sad to see a beloved Christmas tree tossed to the curb.

I hope its evergreen friends who are still planted aren't taunting it.

So . . . 

this is why I wanted the door lights to stay up, and lit, just a little while longer.

I didn't have any pictures of the whole house.

Once again, I tied up the Christmas tree trimmings with red ribbon, and used that instead of a wreath

on the front door.  Because wreaths cost money, and I am (sometimes) thrifty.

The people who sold us That Old House live behind us now, in a bigger house they had built.

I still think ours is the Queen, even if only because of her age.

She does need her shutters back, though, doesn't she?

I dragged my poor husband all over creation today, buying old furniture to sell,

and a corner cupboard to use for display, for my booth at Somerville Center Antiques.

Howard is Mr. Patience, thank goodness.

He stayed calm when meeting Mabel, the giant German Shepherd, at one house way up in the hills;

Mabel didn't take kindly to strangers, let's just leave it at that.

(From the sound of her deep voice, I think ol' Mabel may have a bit of a hormone problem.)

Plus, that corner cupboard for the booth had to be carried down 3 staircases.  Or was it four?

That's it for today!  Nothing exciting.  Just a little slice of life at That Old House,

where Christmas is getting tucked back into its boxes, and we are ready for the rest of Winter.

Not.

Resolution?  Keep following the Star, with or without a Dinosaur at my side.  -- Cass

Farewell Christmas, Hola 2012

I took a look around our neighborhood late last night.
We are not the only ones with our Christmas lights still blazing.

So please, come in . . . if you can get past our fierce guard dog . . .

for a glimpse of what we've been up to this Christmas.

Which is mostly . . . eating, at least according to this post!

(Ha ha!  Just noticed the empty box leaning on the stairs.

It's already been recycled; this picture is from New Year's Eve.)

Back we go, to the week before Christmas.

When we celebrated Chanukah.

That Old House gets her money's worth out of the winter holidays, that's for sure.

For years our girls have timed their Christmas visits home

to be here for an annual Chanukah Latke dinner.

Latkes are potato pancakes, and I make the shredded kind.

 And that's all we eat at that dinner -- crispy hot latkes, with sour cream and applesauce.

Most of the traditional Chanukah foods are fried in oil,

and I am sure you know why.  Oil.  Lamps.  The miracle of the 8 nights.  

I make a mean potato latke, if I do say so myself.

There are other ways to make them, but this is how we like them.

I've seen recipes for sweet potato latkes, celery root latkes, latkes with carrots,

and all sorts of other abominations . . . but not here.  We are potato pancake purists here.

We also light our Menorah, and everyone teases me because I insist that the Menorah, with its lit candles,

has to stand in the kitchen sink for safety's sake if we leave it burning unattended.

And this is nuts, how?

*********************************

Christmas morning, in the Parlor, and this year . . .

the joy of a third kid.  (A fourth if you count Howard.)

 A robotic arm for Howard from Anne, who has promised to help him assemble it.

Josh sporting his new hat from me, and one of his cigars from Howard.

We'll turn this one into a Jersey boy yet!

And what Dad wouldn't love to find bacon-flavored popcorn under the tree?

Howard in the sunroom, testing out the portable hammock I got him.

Have hammock, will travel to beach house.

I so wanted to see if I could fold it up with him still in it, 'cause then I'd have a portable-hammock-husband.

He was not game for this plan.

Christmas breakfast was something special.

Josh and Alida made Monkey Bread, a tradition with his family.

 And it was so good with strong coffee!

Anne made her trademark Special Waffles, which are so light you can hardly believe they are real.

Really.  They have no weight.  Therefore, they have no calories.

Later on Christmas Day, we piled in the car for the drive to Peg and Bill's house.

Peggy in her kitchen, preparing a fabulous dinner.  (It really was!)

I want her big Sub-Zero fridge and freezer, on the left.

She says I can't have them.  Sisters are so mean.

 Bill, in charge of the liquid refreshment.  Always a popular guy.

And Howard, in a new Christmas sweater, telling me to stop taking silly pictures.

 I didn't take pictures of all the "kids" as they were all wearing not just fuzzy slippers,

but questionable pajamas.

My girls and Peggy's decided years ago that if they were just going to be at one another's houses

for Christmas, they could just as well stay in their PJs and be comfy.  And that's what they do.

I love how Peggy does her mantle at Christmas.

Their Christmas tree, and the view across the foyer to their dining room.

This year there were so few "grownups" and so many "kids,"

that the kids got the dining room and we sat in the kitchen.  Ah, times change.

Ernie, the yellow Lab, filled his bed with torn wrapping paper,

and settled down for a long winter's nap with his favorite duck.

*********************************

During the holiday, Josh and Alida cooked dinner for us.

Chinese food -- the real deal.

While on their honeymoon in China in July, they took a cooking class.

It paid off.  This was so delicious!

They've promised to share the recipes, so when I get them I'll pass them along to you.

They are well worth trying.

********************************

FRIDAY FISH FRY!

On the Friday after Christmas, my girls and I scooted west on Route 80, to a Cracker Barrel, for lunch.

Now, Cracker Barrel wouldn't have been our first choice for a Ladies' Lunch Out,

except it was Friday and that means Fish Fry.

Oh yeah.

Fried cod, mac & cheese, and stewed apples.

 Brought back memories of the old Howard Johnson's Fish Fry nights.

Well, for me, anyway.  My girls are too young to remember them.

Anne got chicken, but Alida and I got the fish.

So, how is it, Alida?

I think she likes it.

Somewhere along the way that week, I made a big lasagna.

We're talking enormous.  Turkey roasting pan size.

 Me, I like the corners of lasagna.

This one fed the family, and then some a lot of friends.

Including Alida's former college roommate Alyssa and her boyfriend Steve,

shown here posing for me before leaving for a party on New Year's Eve.

"Mom, it's freezing!  Take the picture, already!"

Kids today.  No guts.

And the litany of What-We-Cooked and What-We-Ate isn't over yet.

On the day after New Year's, another group of "kids" at the house, and a huge pot of chili.

This is half the chili, keeping hot in a Crock Pot.

Alida made the chili, using the Silver Palate recipe that I love, and she took this picture, too.

Multi-talented, that child. 

Howard and I escaped the madding crowd, and lit a fire in the parlor.

So, it was a little fire.

 That brings us to today.  Saturday, January 7th.

Christmas is over, and the season of Epiphany began yesterday.

Our Sunroom tree is slated for de-decorating this weekend, and the

long trip to the curb.  It will end its illustrious career as mulch for the county parks system.

The Parlor trees are faux,

so as my sister-in-law Doris says, "They can stay up pretty much . . . forever!"

 But they won't.  I'll peck away at them this week, and the house will lose its glimmer and glitz,

and be a Plain Jane once again.  That's OK.  I think it's time we started decorating for Groundhog Day.

Any suggestions?

I hope you all had the merriest of Christmases, and I wish you all the happiest of New Years.

May 2012 bring us joy, purpose, friendship, and uneventful weather!

God bless us, everyone.  -- Cass