Apron Thrift Girl

mid century thrifting

With Dave in England and our house on the market, it makes for a challenging thrift day. We had a house showing planned in the middle of Saturday morning which meant I had to take Cerys, Keiran and the dog thrifting with me on one of the busiest thrift days of the year. No where on any "rules of thrifting" have I ever including dogs & kids on the list. I'm usually a solo thrifter which means I can thrift in peace and quiet and on my own. I nearly had a playdate for Keiran planned on Saturday but that was canceled last minute. Luckily a new bookselling friend of mine, Katie, not only helped me by her husband taking Keiran for the morning, but she joined me to go to thrifting despite the fact that Elffin & Cerys both were joining us. And we had a delightful time together. She's energetic, clever (marks off yard sales on the list after we had been to them) and we shop at the same speed. We are both kind enough to the point where we didn't push or shove to get to the books. And I must admit it was so welcoming to have an adult to converse with after a week of just the children and me.

And while I did search partly for books, my eyes were really searching for anything mid century modern. And I found a few gems yesterday.

 

My first Jens Quistgaard salt & pepper shaker by Dansk.

 

a piece of unmarked studio pottery. It's a strange one but I think that's why I like it.

 

I have some guilt about this lamp. One of the services I offer on my website is a finder service. I locate items that people are looking for. A client of mine just recently added a lamp like this to her "in search of" list. But the minute I found it for her I started wanting it. Or needing it.

 

It's a three way lamp as well. And it fits perfectly in the living room. Sigh......and I do adore it. I suppose the honorable thing is to offer it to her and if she happens to say no I may just have to keep it.

The more I read and research about Mid Century Modern, the more items I seem to spot at yard sales and on Craig's List. I enjoyed going through Retro Renovation's blog roll list this week. I especially loved Atomic Tea Party.  Collecting MCM is somewhat slow compared to shabby chic since anything old and worn can fit into that style. Last weekend when I was thrifting in Seattle, I went to a couple MCM stores and the prices are shocking. They certainly don't fit into this frugal budget of mine. I still learned a lot from visiting these shops. And the drool from my thrifted Free People shirt should wash out.

Some of my favorite Craigslist searches are Retro, Mid Century, Teak, Danish, Denmark & Vintage. What are your favorites?

a chapter closes

After five years of walking through the little gate & arch to Kindergarten, we walked through for the last time. Not only did Keiran have his last day yesterday but it marks the end of our time at our Waldorf School where we have spent the last 6 years. The reason we are leaving is to have an even deeper relationship with Waldorf education. It's made such an impact on our lives that we have made the choice to leave our small school in order to attend a much larger school that goes through to 12th grade. We didn't want to get to 8th grade and have to make the choice of either public high school or sending the children on a ferry by themselves over to the Waldorf High School in Seattle. We wanted the transition from 8th to 9th to be simple and familiar.

Our school has a wonderful tradition of both a sword ceremony and a dove dance. Two little events that mark the end of the early childhood and the preparation to the grades. The children all dress in white for the occasion.

Due to privacy I've cropped this picture to only include Keiran. But imagine 14 children running around in a circle with their doves as their two teachers stand in the middle with their white blankets that create a protective nest like feel. This is especially beautiful to the children who will be leaving the warmth and homelike environment of kindergarten to move up to first grade.

 

The final part of the ceremony is the releasing of the white doves who flew around in circles above our heads for a few minutes before heading to their home. And I admit when they released the doves I got a bit weepy. It was hard to think about leaving.

The children walked back into their classrooms where they were handed their napkin ring of braided wool, they were given their artwork and their drinking mug. I sneaked in some photos of the classroom.

 

The loft.

 

The children in the class who are moving up to first grade each made their own doll. Every doll has a sachet of lavender in the belly which smells delightful.

 

The following day the entire school had an end of year party at a farm somewhat near the school. There were picnics, games, lots of sunshine, horses running in the distance and much conversation among friends. We left with both heavy and contented hearts as we said our goodbyes to our beautiful school community.

ice tea with a twist

Last week the Pacific Northwest was touched by a brief taste of summer. Or maybe a tease of summer. The sun was out, the temperature was hot, and I was very content. I love the heat. We spent every evening out on our tiny little deck in our thrifted vintage lawn chairs watching the eagles get chased by birds and the evening ferry loaded with commuters, come into dock. It was so relaxing to soak up the sun and a perfect addition to this was a cold glass of homemade ice tea.

In those few rare weeks a year that it is actually hot here, I take my jar of herbal tea mix and instead of brewing it for a warm cup of tea, I instead brew it by the gallon. My original recipe for the mix can be found here.

To make it iced, I grab 2 large gallon jars and I boil the kettle with hot water. I fill one of the jars with about 1/3 cup of the dried tea.

Dried tea mix of Chamomile, Rose Hips, Red Raspberry Leaves, Peppermint Leaves & Lavender.

I fill the glass jar half way with cold water from the faucet. I next add the boiling water. I add the two different temperatures to ensure that the jar doesn't break and that the tea is hot enough to make the tea.

Tea & water in jar after it has been stirred. It looks a bit like something out of a sci-fi movie though...

It only takes about 10 minutes to brew with this method. Using a strainer, I pour the jar of tea through the strainer and into the other jar.

I add agave to the tea after it has been strained to give it a faint sweet flavor.

I still remember as a young girl, walking out to our wooden stairs on our back porch to see if the tea was ready to drink. I even remember the disappointment when it was still too light in color to bring in. Of course it was regular sun tea back then but I still loved the stuff, especially with a 1/4 cup of sugar per glass. I drank it all summer long with lots of ice and my favorite twirly straw. I even loved to crunch on the sugar crystals as they made their way into my mouth. I can't think of summer without sun tea and now I have a healthier version drink and to share with the children. Of course as I write this our hot summer has long since disappeared. It's back to warm sweaters in the morning. But maybe I'll still make the tea and pretend that it is hot outside. A girl can dream.

weaving in third grade

I'm sorry I am late in writing this post. I fell sick on Friday with a cold and it knocked me flat. I hadn't been sick in a year which is a rare thing for me. I usually catch anything that am within 10 feet of.  I feel a bit back to normal today. Thank you to everyone who guessed a price for my dining room table. It was amusing to see the variety of guesses. I think only one person guessed correctly and that is actually Renee, the first person who commented. I did in fact buy the table for $100.00. Renee please send me your address and I'll send you a gift for guessing correctly. Well done.

Cerys brought this home today.

Third grade Waldorf curriculum usually includes weaving. My daughter's class started this project by cleaning the raw wool, carding the wool and eventually spinning the wool with drop spindles that they made by hand. They next made a board to weave on and created this weaving with beads and hand felted balls.

 

I think I'm ready to take up weaving now. Surely if my nine year old can do this, I could give it a go.