Thursday, December 31, 2015

Ringing in the New Year

Dear Friends,

Can you believe that another year is coming to a close?! 2015 has been a year of great struggle and great accomplishment in my own life. Without going into too much detail, I will say that it takes years to recover from abuse. That said, I am the happiest that I have been in a long, long time. I feel very grateful for those who have lifted me up and given me confidence to move forward with my life.

Now, my latest millinery pin.



I am surprised at how many hats I have sold in the shop! In fact, hats are some of the best sellers! Ladies love them. A flower on a hat is especially pretty.



Along those lines, I was thrilled to find this amazing hat rack for the shop. It seems to be just as vintage. as some of the hats in the shop.



This pretty vintage pin is another recent find. Oooooh, I sure had to wear it at least once. You know. To test it.

Finally, I want to wish everyone a wonderful and prosperous 2016!! May all of our dreams come true!



Enjoy this day!

Lynn

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Try Cottolene

Good morning, friends!

Found amongst the antique papers and ephemera was this pretty little face advertising Cottolene, a cooking oil that was offered as a substitute for butter or lard. It was supposed to be healthier because one did not have to use as much to get the desired result in cooking.



Another ad, found on the web as a copyright-free image, tells about how it extends life.



Hmmmmm. I doubt it. It was made from two waste products, one from the cotton industry and one from the meat industry: cotton seeds and beef tallow. These lovely images are late 1800s.

Enjoy this day!

Lynn

Monday, December 28, 2015

Cheesy Egg and Bacon Cups

Dear Friends,

I think we are perfecting this recipe! The first time it was excellent. The second time it seemed even better.



Cheesy Eggs and Bacon Cups

The bacon is cooked before it goes into the baking cups. The first time we followed the recipe 100%, but the second time we let the pan sit in the oven, with the oven turned off, for about five minutes before we served. The eggs were still runny but the whites were a little more done. That is fried polenta on the side. Yum!

I have to do better about staying gluten free. I have been cheating mightily and I have itchy patches above both elbows. Not good. I know better, but I do it anyway. I guess you know what my New Year's resolution will be! Honestly, it is just so hard to avoid it!

On another front, I have been scanning more old photos. Check out this great old photo at the piano. I wonder if she was singing. Or just standing there talking. We will never know, I guess. And nothing written on the back.



Must run now. Preparing for a new week. So thankful for a new day! I hope everyone is doing well!

Enjoy this day.

Lynn

Saturday, December 26, 2015

The Day After Christmas,

Good morning!

Peeps, I am so excited about being in my little store all day! Today will begin my after-Christmas sale! And I will begin looking to springtime and ways I can ready the shop for that beautiful time. Yes, I know we still have winter to get through but this is the time to plan!!



The image above is from an early-1900s scrapbook I recently purchased. Such sweet images! I keep trying to picture the (young?) lady who kept it. Seems the older I get the more I love such things, so maybe it was not a young lady.

In other news, Vlad and Lucy had great fun with everything Christmas. Vlad is getting huge, peeps!



Lucy is daintier and more refined.





For you cat people, I have a question. It is my opinion that Vlad and Lucy know EXACTLY what they are doing when the TV comes on. They realize that we actually look at it, so they sit right in front of it. Right?

Enough for now. I am ready for spring. Sigh.

Enjoy this day!

Lynn

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

My Dear Sweet Friends, I won't bore you with lots of talk. I know everyone is busy with last minute details. I will share a collage of recent shop photos.




I wish everyone a safe and merry day!

Lynn

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

A Plethora of Pins

Dear Friends,

First of all I might as well tell you that I originally typed "dear fiends" -- typo yes, but thankfully I caught it. Not a good way to start a blog post. Second of all, "plethora" (as I am sure you know) means an excessive amount of something, which this is really not an excessive amount of pins, but I might lure in some Google traffic from people wanting the definition of plethora. They won't stay long, but I am in that kind of mood.

Or maybe they will.

Anyway, I had not made a large batch of pins in some time, and it felt really good to do 15 at once and then display them in the shop. Joy! Oh they look so pretty! Here are some of them.



They are neatly hanging on vintage paper cards on a spinning rack.



Another pretty thing at Sidetracked is this tree! I found it at a thrift store awhile back. I could tell it was fabulous underneath, but someone had basically used it as a spool for their Christmas lights! Yep, about 12 feet of lights came off of this tree. It took some time but it was worth it! It is such a pretty display!

A recent visitor to the shop said the shop was "delightful!" And I just sold two pieces of my altered couture!! That is both rewarding and nerve-racking at the same time. I am always careful when I make something; I like perfection. But I worry over unique items that they won't be this or that, that they won't live up to the expectations. But I am slowly adjusting to being a business owner. I am learning to be confident in what sells and I am making policies to give people some wiggle room when they buy something. You know. A return policy.

Well. That is all from me tonight. I am tired. Went to see the new Star Wars. It was good!

Enjoy this day! Lynn

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Christmas at Sidetracked

Dear Friends,

Just dropping in to share some photos from the shop right now.



Actually, the old transferware dish sold this afternoon. I loved that piece. I would have loved knowing exactly how old it was. To my mind, it sold to the most unlikely customer! A couple of men on motorcycles stopped by on their journey to Virginia (imagine riding in this cold weather!). They were both bulky with outerwear. One of them went to his motorcycle and came back with a trumpet. He serenaded the caboose with "White Christmas" and I sang the words I knew. After the song, they shopped. I wrapped the dish up snuggly for the ride.

Peeps, I highly suggest you open your own stores for these kinds of unpredictable events.



Mama, I know you would love this enamelware coffee pot!



The deer piece had such a lovely silhouette and yet the colors were not right. It looked chintzy. Enter spray paint. Kerpow!



There are quite a few pieceS of my altered couture in the shop now. I especially enjoy making bags. I like to just start with scraps of fabric that appeal to me and see what happens! I just made a new bag the other day that I need to get photos of. Folks, the countdown to Christmas is really here. Not many more shopping days, but I can see this most recent bag selling. I have also made over a dozen brooches for Christmas and to fill special orders. Those are curing as I type. I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season! Enjoy this day! xoxo Lynn

Friday, December 18, 2015

Baby, What A Hat!!

Dear Friends,

I purchased a new printer yesterday and I am working my way through my collection of vintage photos and postcards for my online shop and for Sidetracked. I just love these old pictures! I am enchanted with the fashions. I love to look at the furniture and plants and architecture and vehicles in the pictures as well. You get the idea. That said, just look at this baby's hat and at this lady's stockings!


So sweet!  I wish there was something written on the back. A name or a date or anything. I hope everyone is having a good day and staying warm. It is chilly here today. But at least it feels a bit more like Christmas after all the warm days we have had. 

Enjoy this day!
Lynn

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Oh my dear peeps, Adventures never cease. The shop brings delight to me, and this week especially it brought some visitors who just made my heart sing! A beautiful young couple came in. The man had a kitten snuggled into his zipped-up jacket. He made sure it was okay with me to bring the kitten in. Of course!! Bring the kitten! As it turns out, they saw a kitten on line, fell in love with him and then drove from New York to pick this kitty up!


This kitten may look like a typical black and white at first, but it is long haired! Look at the beard! I found myself so drawn to this sweet couple who were so well mannered and polite. He bought her a hat. The more I looked at him the more he reminded me of my oldest son.



I told him how much. He said he'd like to see a picture of my son. I did not have one at the moment but I did text him the pictures I took of him, his pretty girlfriend and their new kitten. Fast forward to today when my big boy Daniel came by to see me. I told Daniel the story. He could see the same resemblance. So we had fun taking a quick picture of Daniel and then putting it side by side with our visitor's picture.



Can you see it? I then enjoyed texting the picture to my visitor and telling him about his NC twin. He called me "NC mom" and wished me Happy Holidays. I don't know. Maybe it is just me, but I love thinking of the fact that there are so many good and kind people in the world. This evening I did some shopping for the shop. What fun. Oh peeps.

Enjoy this day! Lynn

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

A Tin of Treasures -- Buttons

Dear Friends,

What better job could I have than shopping for a shop?? I ask you, peeps!!  And I shop everywhere. Auctions, resale, thrift, personal estate sales, new retail, and I want to  figure out exactly what I need to do to be able to buy certain things in bulk on the line. You know, things like tights. Awesome sauce. Today is such a beautiful day. On my lunch break I went to a little vintage jewelry shop downtown and got a vintage brooch for Christmas.



Getting back to shopping, however, I recently happened upon a beautiful Christmas tin.



It looked vintage, which is good enough in and of itself, but then I gasped when I opened it.



Oh yes, this is coming home with me.

I cannot wait to go through these buttons and pick out the ones that will go on some of the creations I am working on presently. Well, better run for now. A lot of work to do. Would you be delighted to find an old tin full of buttons?

Enjoy this day!

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Long Altered Linen Vest

Happy Tuesday, friends. Just popping in with news from the homefront. Been sewing! Today's creation is a fun, long, white linen vest.



 It is embellished with vintage needlework pieces and handmade floral print rosettes.



 I love making things like this! And I think people love looking at them in the shop.

 I have recently installed a second clothing rack in the shop. One rack is full of mostly white and cream colored pieces. Lots of dreamy items that belong to woodland fairies!!

These sorts of romantic things have always been my weakness!

Darling darling little fairy girl!





Must run for now! Is everyone getting ready for Christmas? I came across some cinnamon sticks the other day! I love that smell! Brings back so many memories of Christmases past.

Enjoy this day! Lynn

Monday, December 14, 2015

Good Monday Morning and a Vintage Hat

Dear Friends,

Here it is another Monday! Seems like the older I get the faster they roll around. The predicted rain has started falling here, getting harder and harder. I can hear it on the windows and the rooftop. There is something both wonderful and depressing about rain. I love the sunshine and bright sky. But being inside a cozy little home and listening to the rain outside creates a sweet feeling of safeness. I like to work on things at my craft area when the weather is like this.

Business goes well, and Saturday was a lovely day. I love meeting my customers! There are so many personalities that wander into the shop. Tend shop -- It is what I was meant to do!

I have purchased another lot of old postcards. There are so many treasures in these stacks of vintage communication. I have also purchased an unusual lot of vintage photos which include scenes from old movies with big-time movie stars. There is a photograph from the Wizard of Oz!








I have not decided what to do with the photos I purchased. I want to make sure they are handled as they should be and assigned the correct value! How interesting they are!! Must get to work. Just on a quick lunch break. Enjoy this day! Lynn ps -- hello to new visitors!

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Thoughts from today, December 10, 2015

 Dear Friends,

 This is awesome! I am feeling like this blog will be more like an actual journal after all. It is so much easier to post on blogger as opposed to the way I was doing my WordPress blog on a hosted site. I had to transfer photos to the server and then point to them with their URLs. But enough technical talk. I am just thankful that I have my iPad and a new blogging platform.

I talked to my sweet mama on the phone at least twice today. She is the author of a blog called Henny Penny Lane. Together, while on the phone, we visited a blog in her blog list. It is the Quilted Nest Blog. What a lovely place! I was looking at recent posts there, but then went back to one of her old posts and found this...


Her original post is here


Be still my heart! I have an ugly train case that squealed to me from the corner when I saw this post. May I say it already has its first coat of Rustoleum 2X Heirloom White, one of my favorite all-time tools. I will be sure and post pictures when it is done. Oh, it will be in the shop. Business continues to grow. My daughter has helped me some in the shop. I love meeting the people who come in. I mean, every single peep has a story. And I am open to hearing it. Here are a few pictures of the shop today. Oh, and some sort of fungus or mushroom that I saw growing at the base of a tree. I have a lot of vintage postcards in the shop. The one below is featured upsidedown in the collage (brilliant me). I love the pink! The roses are from a bouquet that I dried.

I never did get the Rosemary potted up today. Ding dang it. But tomorrow!! Yes. Tomorrow. Enjoy this day! Lynn

Not All That Glitters

Good morning!

 Sometimes I wish that I could just let loose here and tell you everything I've been through. But I know it's not right. Some things don't belong on a blog. In addition, I believe grace demands that we move on and allow others to move on as well.   I am a work in progress and I have learned a lot in the last five years about forgiveness and patience and how much we don't know our own hearts at times.

 I did a search on Google for images attached to a mother's journal, to try to gather up some images that I don't have in my own possession at the moment. As you might remember, I have had two computers to die in the last five years. Both of them have hundreds, maybe thousands, of images that I need to retrieve when I have the time and money to take them to someone who can take care of that.

 I guess on the bright side I won't be contacted for greenhouse parts, but on the other hand I lost my post about the little portable greenhouse. It had garnered many many comments and had become a resource for people buying that particular greenhouse. My post about Hashimoto's thyroiditis is gone. My post about skincare is gone. Onward and upward, however!

 It was like a trip down memory lane to see some of the outfits and hairstyles that Google has stored in its archives! Maybe you will remember some of these photos that I leave you with. I am busy working today, but plan to use my lunch break to pot up some rosemary for the shop. I will take pictures. I have been busy making a grapevine decoration for the staircase as well.  Stay tuned!









I am definitely going to start a new skincare post. I will also do an updated post about my Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Things change as I age. Of course! Enjoy this day! Lynn