It was a lucky kind of weekend

I've been writing Thank You notes since 10 a.m. I'm almost done. I need about ten more but my hand hurts since they're all hand-written. I've been meaning to send them out but unfortunately I get distracted with sewing or video games. Today I bucked up and started writing them. I'm so glad we were able to have so much of our families together in one place. It was really nice and rather rare. Whenever I do something and see a result from it I feel fulfilled. I feel that I actually accomplished something in the day. I clean and cook but it's not the same kind of satisfaction. It's hard for me to be a housewife. I'm used to working from 8am to 5 pm six days a week. I got things done and made orders. Now, I don't really need to clean the house every day since it's just the two of us plus a cat. We don't really make a mess. The mess comes from me cooking. I'm a messy cook and I doubt that will change.

This past week all I did was play video games after I did my chores. I'm really in the NIS series Atelier Rorona. It's an RPG where you're an alchemist and have to meet deadlines to become the ultimate alchemist. I really enjoy the series and can play it through time and time again. You can get different endings and items. It's really fun.

We made a couple of stops at thrift stores. At the first one, it wasn't that great. It reeked of cigarette smoke.Everything was musty,I give it a quick look-see. I didn't see anything. They I noticed what looked like patterns. There were a ton of vintage patterns. There were a bunch from the 50's 60's and 70's. I didn't know how much he would ask for them so I grabbed four of them and asked. I got them for 10 cents a piece!



I really liked this pattern because it's a wrap around dress and has awesome pocket details. I think this will make a lovely summer dress.




I'm always in search of nice casual blouses. I'm a jeans and shirt kinda girl when I'm at home. This seems like it'll be really comfy to wear around the house or while working in the backyard.




This pattern I'm super excited about. I've been looking at summer tops that I can also use to make dresses with. Aren't these tops totally cute.




I'm always happy to find a pattern that also includes the a bolero or jacket of some sort. I really like the look of the bodice. it's kinda sexy.

I really like the look of vintage patterns. I'd like to get some nice quality copies of some of the patterns I have and either hang them in our bedroom or in the hobby room.

The second thrift store we went to was in Carson City. It had lots of clothes and toys but not many vintage things. I was able to find a few things: a table top ironing board, a brand-new cheese grater, and a few vintage books. I was really happy with the ironing board. I've needed one for a while but didn't want to buy a brand new one. They tend to be pricey. It was a done deal except that they only take cash and we only had an ATM card. I had to leave everything except for this little gem.


It was published in 1945 and is in great condition. No tears or major folds. All the pages are intact and in beautiful shape. Best thing: it cost me 40 cents! I know. I had a great weekend for patterns. There are some awesome patterns . I really want to try my hand at making that turban. I don't know if I can pull off the turban look but it doesn't hurt to try. Here's a another picture.

Our plants are doing really well. We need to transfer them to big pots and weed out the weaker ones. My strawberries are doing pretty good. There are about 6 or 7 strawberries growing I can't wait to see if they taste good.



These are heirloom Cherokee purple tomatoes. I may need to learn to can if these are turn into strong viable plants.


And a last note, we bought Ridley a cat tree. We had been noticing that he has been wanting to get higher on his house. We thought about making him a house but the hubby lost interest and we decided to buy on instead. It wasn't too expensive. Cheaper at PetSmart than PetCo.





Here he is bird watching. He really wants to catch them pigeons that come to our yard.


I hope everyone had a pleasant weekend. Until next time, Ta!

Giveaway Heads up

The lovely Carli is having an awesome give away over here Be sure to stop over and take a look at her blog

What I've been up to

I haven't been blogging lately because I've been busy with knitting. Yes, I did accomplish one of my New Year's Resolution. I'm proud of myself. Knitting is so much fun and easy.Once I realized that ALL ( and I do mean all) knitting stitches were a variation of the knit and purl stitch. I was so surprised at how easy it was. So far, I have knitted 3 hats, a couple of scarf and am in the process of making an afghan. I decided to clean out my yarn stash and what better way than by making an afghan. It's going to be a miss-mash of colors but that's okay. Here's a few of the stitches that I've learned This is the checkerboard stitch. It's actually pretty easy and looks cute.
Match Stick Stitch
  Seed Stick These are the two hats I knitted. I used Pattons Pure wool yarn. The coral on is for my mom and the gray one is for my little sister. These were my first hats and I'm pretty happy with the result. I used two straight needles instead of circular needles. I need to buy a couple of the circular needles. I want to make some socks and more hats. I wont this awesome little book on ebay. It looks like it's from the early '60's.
We went also started to grow our seeds in a handy dandy hot house. It's a nice four tier hot house we bought for $30. We're keeping it in the dining room since the winds have been so strong out here lately. There was a winter weather warning a couple of weeks ago. We went to Home Depot to buy some seed and plants, but we couldn't since they had closed the outdoor patio. They were afraid things were going to become airborne and hurt someone. We bought a couple of strawberries, a spearmint and some cilantro. Here are our first seedlings. These are cucumbers. We were surprised that they germinated so quickly but that's kinda neat. Oh yeah, so we bought this cute little cactus because Jesse wanted it. I don't really like cacti because I always get stuck with the tiny invisible spines. You know the ones you can feel but can see. Those drive me crazy. I used to help my mom remove the spines from the broad leaf cactus to make Nopales. Nopales are cactus pads that you clean, cut and boil. They're a little slimy but taste great in the summer with crunchy tacos. To get back on track, so we buy this cactus because it had they cute orange flowers. The flowers were really bright. We bring it home and then notice something funny: the flowers are fake and were hot-glued to the cactus. That was disappointing. I was really pissed. They lied to us and we fell for it. Sunday, we're going over to Jesse's aunt and uncle's house for Easter dinner. We were going to have a nice quiet dinner by ourselves but it's always fun to share a good time and good food. I like his aunt's cooking too. I hope everyone has a funny and Happy Easter. Until next time, Ta!

Some mornings

It being Saturday, the husband and I sleep in late until 9 a.m. I know it's not that late but when you get up at 7 a.m. it's nice to sleep in. This morning the phone rings which is unusual because we don't get phone calls that arly in the morning. I answer it still groggy, just having woken up. Here's the conversation that followed:

Me: "Hello?"
OP: " Hello? Good morning. I'm calling from the San Francisco Casino in Las Vegas.Have you hear of the San Francisco Casiono?"
Me: "No." Although I had. The last time we were there was over 3 years ago and it's a small casino in Old Town Vegas, but I pretendede not to know
OP:"Well I'm calling to let you know that today is your lucky day. Your name was drawn and you have won $2.5 million and a pearly Mercedes."
Me: "I'm sorry what? I just woke up."
OP: "Well go wash your face and wake up! You just won $2.5 million!"
Me: " Okay." Click and i hung up on his ass.

The husband wakes up and asks what ging on. I tell him the details and a few things I picked up on. 1) He was calling from Jamaica. 2) He didn't address me by my name. If I had been in a drawing wouldn't he have had that info? 3) It was a really noisy call. Usually when you get a call from a telemarketer , it's a quiet background. Not the case here, it was really noisy and he was very loud.
The one person calls back and gives him the same spiel. So Jesse asks him
" If you drew her name, what's her name? " OP proceeds to gives Jesse his name. " No, what's HER name?" Silence and CLICK. The OP hung up! Yeah it was a scam. We called the phone company but they couldn't do anything. Jesse put it up on a few websites to warn people. That's all we can do.

To end this post with a happy tone, here's some photos of Ridley using Instagram.






Our cat loves to suck blanket. Since we have him, he sucks blanket to fall asleep. It's very cute.

How time does fly

I must say , I truly love having a washer. Today I'm washing linens and comforters. I'm hoping to get everything that needs washing done this week. We bought an HE (high efficiency) washer without realizing it. We bought a MayTag Centenial top load washer. It's pretty awesome. It has auto-sensing to measure how much water to use per load. In order words, I can't chose a load size. I just load the clothes and hit the start button. The washer does all the guessing work. According to the Energy Star tag it should only cost us $15 to run. A year. Pretty flipping good. I like it. I'm getting used to the noises that it makes. I grew up with older washer machines and used to those noises. It sounds well efficient. So far I'm pretty happy with it.

Jesse and I went to Reno this weekend. I had to take in my rings for their required cleaning. It's was pretty cold out. I think the hight for the day was 41 degrees F. We forgot it was St. Patrick's Day on Saturday. Whoops. It wasn't too bad. We kept seeing a ton of people dress in green. We went to Junkie's. I really like that store. The people are friendly and they have great prices for vintage items. This time around I bought jewelry. I bought a Lucite picture pin, a few stick pins, and a pair of screw back sparrow earrings with pink moon stone. I tried taking some photos but these are the best I


I've been looking at pcture pins and really like them. Unfortunately, most of them are over $45 and I just can't bring myself to pay that much for a pin/brooch. I found this one for $5.00


I really like these earrings. They look like little sparrows with rhinestone accents on the wings. I gave them a quick cleaning with alcohol just to be on the safe side. They were in a bowl with a bunch of other earrings. Luckily they were together so I didn't have to dig through a ton of jewelry.

I've been having awesome luck finding purses that I like. I have been wanting to add a white purse to my collection. I found a bunch online but blanch at the thought of paying nearly half the price of the purse in shipping. We found an antique mall in Downtown Reno. I bought this white purse. I got it at half price!


I also found a pair of saddle shoes. They were made by Pin Wheels. They're leather and are navy blue. I've always wanted a red pair of saddle shoes but it's really hard to find a vintage pair in my size. These are really comfortable and fit to a tee. Just enough room to wiggle my toes. I need to buy some leather soap or something to clean and condition them.


I've also been getting into buying vintage buttons for future projects. I found some really pretty rosette buttons but they were $25 for a card. Granted there were over 30 buttons but it was way out of my budget.I figure the card on the left can be used for a blouse or two. They're a nice honey mustard color with subtle swirls in some of the them. The card on the right I'm going to use to make a shirt waist dress. They're a nice deep green and have a metal shank. I figure if I have some extra buttons I can make a pair of matching earrings.



I had a terrible headache while we were in Reno. To the point where I started to get dizzy. Shopping always makes me feel better but wasn't enjoying it as much. I get really tired and sleepy. I took an Excedrin and felt better. We were going to leave but we decided to go The PepperMill. It's one of the bigger casinos in Reno. It's fun and really pretty on the inside. We were got a few drinks, ate dinner, and then headed home. We don't gamble very much because I suck at it. I always lose my money. I'll make some, I get super excited, and then lose it all.

Just as we were leaving it began to snow. I like the snow but it was scary too. we were driving down th 395 and the snow started to get thick. Then all of a sudden, it got really thick. I mean, Jesse could barely see the road and had to follow the concrete barricade to stay on the road. Other people were having a hard time driving too. There were three lanes of traffic on a two lane highway. Yeah, it was pretty bad. I'm thankful that we have all weather tires on the car. It was scary but we got through it just fine.

I want to make sushi dress using this Alexander Henry fabric. I have a ton of his fabrics without realizing it. I figure I can make a circle skirt or A-line skirt pair it with an off the shoulder blouse and pair it with some nice low heels. I want to knit a few pull overs and some blouses. I have a bunch of patterns saved and a few I want to buy. I just need to learn how to adjust them for my size.

My in-laws and Jesse's grandparents are coming over Memorial Day weekend. I want to have a few outfits done by then. I want to be able to dress nicely whenever we go out. It's been to cold lately, but as soon as the weather turns warm I'm going to start wearing my vintage clothes. I can't wait for spring. I have so many plans.

Until next time, Ta!

Shopping is a thrill ride

Last week we got to new things: a 60" Sharp LCD TV and my Maytag washer. I was doing laundry for 2 straight days. I hadn't realized how much easier life is if you have washer in your house. You don't have to wait for a week or more to wash clothes. I can throw my kitchen towels in for a quick wash. Next I plan on washing all the blankets and towels in the house.
we finally got our TV replaced. Not through Sharp though. They have the worst customer service ever. We went with Best Buy. We bought an extended warranty coverage to make sure things get taken care of quickly this time.

On Friday, I had a doctor's appointment. As usual, I went out to the thrift stores and Joann's. I was able to find some nice dresser scarves, a couple of scarves, a nice black clutch, some knitting needles, and several yards of fabric. I was pretty stoked. I think I got over 10 yards of cotton fabric for under $5. I bought a few patterns and some felt at Joann's. I bought some nice heather grey felt. I saw this skirt and thought it was totally awesome. It's paint by number which I've never seen. I'd buy it but I'd have to alter it to fit me. Here's some photos of my goodies.

Black Clutch


Black Clam Shapped purse
I saw the same purse for sale on Etsy. It paid WAY less for mine.


Red Boxy Purse
I bought the companion to this purse a couple of months ago. The pretty pink one


I've been wanting a train case for the longest time. I've come across a few but they were either too over priced or had parts missing. I bought this train case at the local Antique store and I love it. I need to replace the mirror but it's in pretty good and has the tray. Here's the inside. It had that old, musty smell when I bought it. I stuck a dryer sheet in there for a couple of days and the smell is gone. I would have gone with vinegar but that's a pantry item I keep forgetting to buy.


Oh before I forget. This is the purse my mother in-law gave me for the wedding reception. She used it during her wedding and says it's from the '60s. I really like this purse. It has a really good weight to it and it makes a cool swishing sound from the bead work.


Hats. Oh how I love vintage hats. I've been collecting them on and off since I was 18. I am very picky about the condition and color. I bought these two hats at one of the little thrift stores in town.



I really need to get a way to display my hats. I want to buy a few hat stands and put them on shelves in our room. I've also been looking for a vintage desk or vanity to have in our room. I know Jesse isn't too keen on the idea but he has way more say in the decor than I thought he would care too.

Lately, I feel like restless. I want to start sewing some closet basics. I have a few pattern that I need to alter to fit me. I don't know if anyone else does this but I buy flat sheets at thrift stores and use them for skirts or dresses. I was them thoroughly before using them. I know that they get cleaned before being used, but I feel safer washing them again. I bought these two sheets at the local thrift store where I bought the hats.

I plan on making this into a nice full skirt. I figure if I make a couple of different blouses it can look casual or more dressed up. It's thick fabric so I won't need a liner.


This on the other hand is going to need a liner. This would probably make a nice summer dress since it's light and airy. And it'll go nicely with either my white or yellow hat. Now if I only had a white purse.


We're suppose to go to Reno this weekend. I need to have my twice a year cleaning of my engagement and cocktail ring. It's also suppose to rain/snow this weekend. I hope it does and doesn't. I hope it does because I like seeing the rain or snow fall. I sit and stare out the window and watch the water accumulate and slide down the window. They look like giant tears. I hope it doesn't because Reno gets lots of snow when it rains in the valley. and according to the news, people forget how to drive in the snow. We have all-weather tires and chains but I'd rather not risk it.

My mom is doing a lot better now. She has a new found calmness that I haven't seen since I was a kid. She's a little overwhelmed with running the feed store but I think she'll get the hang out it in a few weeks. She's sounds so much better.She is adjusting to the fact that she's single. for the first time in 34 years. Jesse seems to think she should go out and find a new man. My mom isn't that kind of woman. She's been abused and traumatized for a major part of her adult life. It'll be a few years , if ever, before she starts dating. I hope they can make a trip up here soon. Now that my father is gone (he went to Mexico) they can take a whole weekend to spend with us. I miss them.

I leave you with the latest addition to my ceramic cat collection. Until next time, Ta!

Mi Familia (my family)

As of yesterday my mother is on her way to being a free woman: my father and mom are getting divorced! I am so happy and proud of her. I have been telling her that she needed to divorce him before he completely killed her spirit.

My parents were married for 28 years. For the last 10 years, he had made her life a living Hell. He was physically, verbally, and psychologically abusive towards her and all five of us kids. To be honest, there so much damage to her and us that it's a wonder we are functioning people. I don't abuse drugs or alcohol, I was never a woman of loose moral, and I never had a destructive nature. My brother, Rudy, on the other hand did it all: drugs, alcohol, women, and reckless behavior. Now he's finally straighten out his life and is doing great. He was the one that my father LOVED to hate. And my father does hate him. He tried to kill my brother. My mother was always in the middle. I would beg her to call the cops but she was afraid of what my father would do. He said that if he was ever going to go out it would be with a fight.

My father also had a second family. He brought his whore to live near him. He's been a cheater their whole married life. My mom found out and was devastated. I'm 27 years old and have two bastard half-sibling who are 2 and 4. I just can't accept it. I mean, that whore turned our lives upside down and broke my mom. I know I shouldn't begrudge those children but the sins of the father are the sins of the son. My father was constantly humiliating my mom by asking her to take care of his bastard children. I don't understand how he expected her to accept another woman's children into her home. I mean what kind of message would that give my brother and sister? She never accepted.

The Tuesday after our reception there was a huge blow-out. My father tried to hurt my brother with a crow bar. My brother defended himself and punched him several times. The cops were called and chargers we filled against my father. My mom got a restraining order against him. It finally had happened. Towards the end of last week my father finally agreed to a divorce and other stipulations. My mom and the kids are finally rid of his hateful, demeaning behavior. I hope and pray that this is what is best for everyone. He's leaving the country today. Good riddance.

Sorry if this was a long,heavy entry. I just needed to get things out there. Sometimes things feel like a dream unless I write them down. I'm so proud of my family and their decision to stop the abuse cycle.