Town House Homestead Tuesday

I know it's been two weeks, but it's been another whirlwind of events. I can't believe that the Christmas holiday is here and I am not ready. Mentally that is. We put up some lights in the window and have dinner purchased and planned. I unpacked some kitchen decorations and small items, but I think it was the idea of just unpacking and repacking the boxes that got to me. What I've done will be enough for the two of us and some relax time may be more fitting. 

So here's some of the events that have taken up our time. First off let me tell you that waste is our pet peeve. Last weekend we got a call from our little sweetheart Emily. We were entertaining a dear friend and her husband who had just returned from California. Just relaxing and gabbing, when the call came. A store near where Emily works has gone out of business. The owners were filling a 40 ft. dumpster with their store inventory. It was already five feet deep with caterer and restaurant quality tablecloths, table skirts, and napkins. Can you see it now?

Well my daughter and our friend from California were off to dumpster dive. They are two of a kind these girls and I and the husband stayed behind so they had more room in the car. Their mission was to prevent as much as possible ending up in a landfill. Emily continued to post for people to come and get what they could, and so they did. She was in the dumpster tossing all she could out to whoever was there to catch it. We have no idea what was left in the dumpster, but this is the pile that came to our home. Oh, and yes, there was a husband who learned something new about his wife. The two girls were enjoying the rush. Most of the items were laundered and packed or on hangers. Some new, some so bad we added them to a rag bag, because all new home owners need a supply of rags. A lot of very heavy polyester and some good cotton.

The pile didn't look like much just sitting there, but we spent the rest of the evening and a few days after sorting and folding and letting any one who wanted pick it over. We salvaged good quality hangers and recycled broken ones. All the plastic laundry bags were also recycled. As of right now there are 11 large green garbage bags of goods headed for donation after the holiday. It wasn't all that could have been done, but these owners could have rented a vehicle and donated it instead of tossing it in a dumpster. Pure environmental irresponsibility to us. 

Now, to get to the giant box/boxes that I left you hanging with on my last post.

Here's what those boxes contained. Yes, a beehive. My daughter has been tending bees for a couple of summers now and the woman who had them isn't interested any more and told her she could have her hives and equipment if she wanted it to use. This was more than a year off for her to invest in, but after the offer came in she couldn't turn it down and ordered her colony for this coming April. This would give her time to sterilize the used hive and get it prepped and also because we thought the colony she was tending had died off. Well, a few hours after she ordered her colony, which can't be cancelled or money returned, she was told that there were still bees in the hive. So now what? The decision was made and the new hive was ordered and it is now in our living room. We need to make room to paint it and prepare it, but our gardening friends have been hired to help with the spot we need to place them and we are ready for the pollinating garden around it. 

Along with the plans for the bees, has been a plan for a garden. Although the bees will be taking top priority this Spring, I have been purchasing good quality heirloom seeds and building my plan. Our gardening friends will help here too. It will be something that will grow over the years. I have to start small for now, but I'm sure I may get a few things in. All of this going on and we've only been at our new home for eight months. 

Winter arrived like a lion. We've had so many white outs, ending up with good amounts of snow and frigid temperatures and I've been trying to keep an eye on our elderly neighbors. This is only to find out that they are looking out for us. It's the golden rule everyone. "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." It is more important now than ever. 

I received a very special Christmas gift from my daughter. This vintage metal desk came early, but I just love it. It is going in my basement pantry so I'll have a place to work. We will be mounting some shelves over it. Just some of the work still on the list. We have come so far in the past eight months and when the bees arrive it will be our one year anniversary here. Can't wait to go back over my blog and see what we have accomplished. It's been fun, exciting, exhausting and a growing experience for us, and every corner we turn we see something else we can or want to do. That's what's been happening at the Town House Homestead. Thank you for stopping by to visit and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Happy Holidays!

It's been very quiet and relaxed here at the townhouse. Ya sure, who am I kidding? Well we've been trying to make it that way. It seems like there will always be stress mixed into the plan. 

So, in keeping this post light, there is a lovely young lady who is still gardening here in upstate NY. This past week she gifted me some fresh rosemary and parsley. Two of my favorites. Being a farm girl at heart I took the chance and started to propagate a couple of very healthy sprigs. I'm trying a green house method and sealed it in a plastic bag because my reputation with propagating rosemary has been challenging to say the least. I am drying a bit for future use, and I made this wonderful loaf of rosemary olive oil bread. It is so good. The parsley has been added to some smoothies and of course this lovely white garlic pizza with tomatoes. I love fresh herbs and I always manage to add fresh vegetables.

Remember this fine collection of thrift store bottles? Well, in my search for pour spouts so I could use them to hold creamers for my holiday coffee, I was led to the Dollar Tree store where I purchased packages of them at 2 for $1 keeping them in my budget. It pays to read reviews on line and get the information we need to stay economically stable and still have nice things.

Here they are all decked out with our vintage tray, Mikasa sugar and creamer, and mugs for Christmas morning. The green holly fabric are home made napkins and I'm sure once I bake some breakfast items, or simply take some out of the freezer, we'll have a simple and relaxing holiday. It is well earned and deserved. We are wishing everyone a great holiday season and thank you for stopping by for a visit. 

Thrift finds

The mission was to go to the thrift store and find one item to be used in an up cycle project. Many dollars and more than a few minutes later, the words from my daughter were "It's like Gramma's house got delivered to the thrift store and I couldn't resist". She was right and we left plenty behind for others but what wonderful fun and finds.

The first find was several cases of canning jars. We kept the pint size jars and my daughter's co-worker wanted the half pints. The timing of this find was perfect. These are two of the vintage table cloths that we chose. The blue with flowers was in almost perfect condition. The gingerbread print one needed, and still needs soaking, but the stains are coming out. 

We found two new vintage Vera table cloths and a vintage terry towel. It was hard choosing some items, but we've already sold one tablecloth.

Here we found some vintage 70s double knit fabric and some Christmas yard good. The bright pink and purple fabric is another tablecloth. There were boxes and boxes of fabric on bolts and yarn, but the baby yarn is all we got and it was only 99 cents. Not shown were some aqua soup/cereal bowls that immediately were cleaned and put to use in the kitchen and of course the original item we went for we did find plus a few more. We had promised ourselves not to bring a lot more home, but it was a great shopping trip and the items were fabulous. Thank you for stopping by for a visit and have a wonderful week. If you need some last minute items for holiday gift giving my daughter's store is having a 40% off sale so stop by and check it out. Here's the link and you can find the shop on my side bar. 

poetcharms.etsy.com

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Holiday Farmer's Market

My younger daughter and I have visited the farmer's market for the past two Sundays to enjoy the holiday celebrations. The weather has been more than wonderful for the northeast, but we sure would have loved a few snowflakes for our visits. 

Oh, the fresh air and the aroma of fresh cut evergreens. There were trees, wreaths, swags, and home made decorations of all kinds for sale. There were vendors selling vintage Christmas, vendors selling roasted nuts, festive foods, cookie waffles made on antique pie irons, apple cider donuts and festive anything you could think of. 

People were dressed in holiday colors to shop and this woman was checking out a farmer's livestock. There were chickens, rabbits, and goats for sale. 

Santa rode in a horse drawn carriage with parents and children expressing their wishes for holiday gifts. Santa was very attentive, but he took a minute to wave to everyone and wish them happy holidays. Children could also decorate a sugar cookie for free as part of the festivities.

This young elf was working her hardest to help sell the family trees. She was in the spirit although she admitted to being quite cold. Her selling spot was shaded, but she hung in there with youthful enthusiasm. This coming Sunday is the final day for this holiday event and I'm not sure we'll be going, but it was so much fun to be out enjoying the holiday at the market before they build all enclosed structures. I will miss the outdoor market, but progress is what it is. Thank you for stopping by and visiting. I hope this brought you a bit of holiday cheer.

The latest thrifted finds.

Exciting vintage ephemera finds from last weeks hunt, but to start some vintage linen napkins.

A bit of a variety, but a bundle of spring joy. 

There was a wonderful pair of red, made in Japan, pillar candle holders and a package of vintage four inch red candles. Lots of Christmas finds this week.

There was this package of vintage ribbons from JCPenny and then some metallic honeycomb ribbons.

This is a large bundle of vintage Christmas cards, tags and foil decorations.

How about the bright colors in these vintage cards. There's birthday, Easter, gift cards and some are new in the box while others are used. Just couldn't resist these.

The best vintage Christmas card collection ever. These cards are as large as nine inches and are so colorful and festive. They are from the fifties and sixties. The quality of these cards amazes me. In this time when cards are not sent as often and mean so little and the art of communicating with them is almost gone, it is wonderful to remember a time when technology didn't rule. 

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week everyone.

Linking to: We call it Junkin

Vintage and fun holiday decorating in our tiny space.

Lately the trend for many people has been to live in small spaces. Not all small spaces are small houses as I have learned. I live in a small townhouse style apartment and space is quite challenging since coming from a large home. Many "things" have gone in different directions, but I am much less stressed about the stuff. This is how we've decorated this holiday season with the vintage mixed with a few treasures and bargain decorations.

At the door hanging on the plant hook is this battery operated candle that came with a bargain garland. Very not decorated is what I mean. I decorated with some Craft Zone ribbons and some dollar store ornaments and as you can see we've had some snow (12 inches be exact) and it made it twice as beautiful.

On the kitchen counter is one of the two cookie jars from a very large collection that was kept and some holiday cookie mix and Grinch pills. LOL. I had to keep something for when the grandchildren came. By the way the other cookie jar is a McCoy smiley face, have a happy day jar that was a gift I received the first Christmas after my first child was born. I couldn't let that one go so I gave it to her since I am now living with her. 

This is our dining room. Room enough for a vintage china hutch, a table and four chairs. On the opposite side of the table is a vintage desk and I use one of the chairs from the table to make this my work space, photo center, shipping center and whatever it needs to be. Most everything my daughter has is mid century modern and been painted to cover the fact that it was actually not in good shape until she painted it. 

She has decorated with Mikasa plates, vintage planters, Santa's, snowmen, Vera cups and saucers, Mikasa Ben Siebel plates and even painted thrift store wine racks and glass racks to match the hutch. The inside backs have been covered with vintage wall paper to cover the holes and damage.

Add to the mixture some vintage Pyrex, a fondue pot and some vintage Lefton made in Japan Holly pieces and we have our decorating done. Simple, colorful and small. Some time Tuesday we will put our tree up and decorate it and then we'll bake some and eat some and be merry a lot and this will be our Christmas. 

OH! Don't let me forget Jax, our mischievous elf who has found his way to an ice cube tray because he was missing the North Pole. Who knows what he'll be up to next.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy your holidays. I may pass on a blog post next week if things get to hectic. MANY BLESSINGS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Holiday Sewing

Sewing projects for the holidays all made from reclaimed fabrics and scraps.

To start, there is a wonderful 34 inch square tablecloth or lap blanket made entirely of reclaimed fabrics and scraps. We cut fabric down to 4.5 inch squares when we can and let them just accumulate until we can make something with them. The holiday colors are so cheery. The folded fabric stars are made of leftover scraps. I make many of these for my family and friends, but this is the first time I've listed any on the store.

This 16 inch pillow is made of new green cotton fabric, but the quilted flower and doily are reclaimed. We try and make good use of our favorite fabric pieces.

This has been our favorite piece of reclaimed fabric and we are still using pieces of it. These are two quilted place mats that are 18x12.5 inches. We had a wonderful time Thanksgiving weekend sewing and folding fabric. We were in our element. We did get some thrift shopping in and we'll be posting the items found at a later time. Please stop by the stores and see what's new. Have a great week everyone.

poetcharms.etsy.com and butterflyplace.etsy.com