Liberty Antiques Festival

Hiya Sweeties! Happy Wednesday to you! This morning we are busy little bees, getting my mom packed up and ready to head to the airport. We’ve had a nice long visit, but it’s always a bit hard to say goodbye. Luckily, it won’t be too long before summer is here, and we’ll be packing up ourselves and heading to California for our annual vacation.

So while Mom is finishing getting ready, I’ve been going through my photos from the Liberty Antiques Festival last Saturday, and thought I would share a few here with you.

Many of you know by now how much I adore old, rusty funky junk, so it will come as no surprise that the Liberty Festival is a much anticipated event in my house. Twice a year, around 375 vendors come from over 20 states to set up their tents in an old field in the tiny town of Liberty. There are 100 acres on this farm, and it takes all day at a very steady pace to see most of the goods. I’ve gotten sunburned, near heat-stroked, completely exhausted, and this year half-froze, but I wouldn’t miss it for anything! From a distance, the Liberty Festival is not much to look at……..

………but, boy, is it ever filled with good schtuff!

Here’s Mom, smiling at the camera!

And here’s my buddy, Kathy, who loves old junk just as much as I do.

Oh, hello! Here I am, having a great time…….wish you were here!

So…..what did I bring home with me? An old chenille spread, in the wedding ring pattern, for my bed. And this lovely junky egg basket.

Which will be great for putting more schtuff into, don’t you think? I haven’t had time to play with it yet………oh, but the possibilities!

Now it’s off to the airport I go. Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you all have a wonderful day!

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Blowing Rock

Hi everyone, and happy Saturday to you! Hope your weekends are off to a wonderful start. We had a load of mulch delivered on the driveway this morning which mean a whole lot of work and sore muscles are heading our way later today and tomorrow. I’m thinking I may have to come up with some excuses as to why I’m “allergic” to mulch. Poor PopPop. I don’t know why that guy comes to visit us!

Today I wanted to share some photos with you of our adventure to Blowing Rock last weekend. After all the hemming and hawing, we did pack up and head to the mountains, and it was a really nice time. A bit cold, yes, and a bit past the peek autumn color, but beautiful still. Here is scenic downtown Blowing Rock, a charming little town filled with bed and breakfasts, restaurants, and shops.

Some of the shops.

Wouldn’t this be a lovely place to stay?

From downtown we headed to Blowing Rock park.

The scenes were breathtaking, even past the peek of color. Above Nik’s head, you can see the famous Blowing Rock of Indian legend.

Of course my kiddos had to climb the rock.

One for one more photo, here is my little devil, all dressed for Halloween trick or treats.

For those of you interested in following along on the Handmade Holiday Blog Hop today, here is the list of participating blogs.

Clearsnap – http://clearsnap.blogspot.com/
Spellbinders http://www.spellbinderspaperarts.com/Community/Blog.aspx
Hampton Art – http://blog.hamptonart.com/
Zutter – http://binditall.blogspot.com/
Graphic45 – http://g45papers.typepad.com/
Donna Salazar Designs – http://donnasalazar.typepad.com/
The Twinery – http://www.thetwineryblog.com/
Authentique Paper http://authentiquepaper.blogspot.com/
Jan Hennings – Glue Arts http://papercraftpleasures.blogspot.com/
Kim Sonksen – Donna Salazar Designs – http://kimsonksen.blogspot.com/
Jamie Harper – Hampton Art http://www.jamieharper.typepad.com
Jenny Suchin – The Twinery http://www.suchins.blogspot.com/
Heather Conklin– Authentique Paper http://goldiecar.blogspot.com/
Gloria Stengel- Graphic 45 http://gloriascraps.blogspot.com/
Christine Emberson – Spellbinders http://hope-chances.blogspot.com/
Julie Overby – Spellbinders http://joverby.blogspot.com/
Julie Ranae Murray- The Twinery http://juliesopenwindow.blogspot.com/
Mary Dawn Quirindongo – Clearsnap http://mypinkmexico.blogspot.com/
Lea Sanders – Zutter http://leasanders.wordpress.com/
Tara Orr – Graphic45 http://eachmoment-onlyonce.blogspot.com/
Patti Milazzo – Glue Arts – http://pattimilazzo.blogspot.com/
Emily Lanham – Authentique Paper http://createserendipity.blogspot.com/
Jessy Christopher – Donna Salazar Designs – http://www.teacherjessy.blogspot.com

I’ll be back tomorrow with my Blog Hop project. Until then, I hope you have a wonderful day!

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Wilmington Revisited

Hello everyone! Hope you’re having a fabulous weekend. It’s been beautiful here these past two days, and nice and quiet, too. On a lovely day like today, I thought it would be nice to take you visiting with me again, to show you the second half of my girls’ weekend away to Wilmington last month.

As many of you know by now, I absolutely adore going antiquing, and Wilmington is a fantastic place for treasure seekers like me. Top on our priority list of places to visit was Castle Street, a quaint shopping district dedicated to antique and vintage thrift shops. In an area of about 2 square blocks, there are 9 stores to visit, and of course we hit them all.

One shop was even housed in an old church. I loved the wooden ceilings and the stained glass windows. Such a fun place.

After spending most of the day in the New Castle Antique District, we headed towards the riverfront area. And got a much needed pick-me-up at Port City Java, followed by more shopping along Front Street.

Afterward was a fabulous dinner at Fish Bites, Wilmington’s second-highest rated restaurant. The highest ranked restaurant we hit the night before.

What a wonderful time we had. If you are ever in North Carolina, I highly recommend a visit to Wilmington. And if you come, I’ll pop up and join you!

Thanks for visiting with me. It’s always more fun to have YOU along.

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Our Christmas Gift

Look at what Santa brought us for Christmas this year.

I can’t think of a more beautiful or special winter’s gift.

And neither can this little one.

Santa brought many other gifts, too. The best for me was the gift of family.

and we all got a bunch of fabulous loot, as well.

Yes, Santa was VERY good to us!

I hope your Christmas was wonderful and magical, too! Was Santa good to YOU?

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Santa Cruz

Hello everyone and happy Sunday to you! I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! I have had a lovely one, and right now I’m doing a little reminiscing.  I finally sat down and loaded my photos of the big California trip onto my computer, and have been going over my pictures.  What wonderful memories! I was wondering if YOU would like to take a little tour of my college town with me. I had my camera along, of course, and I’d love to bring you along, too.

The Rio theater was one of the first sights I saw driving into the city.  I had a job here in my college days selling popcorn and concessions. It was a movie theater back then, but now the Rio is a theater for the performing arts.

If it looks old-timey to you, that’s because it is.  The Rio opened on June 12, 1949 with a cycloramic one theater screen seating 938 guests. Big stuff, back in those days.

Our first stop was a visit to Caffe Pergolesi for a bit of coffee. Caffe Pergolesi is the “Oldest” Coffee House in Santa Cruz, residing in the setting of a grand old 1886 Victorian house in the heart of downtown, Santa Cruz.

We grabbed a seat outside so we could enjoy the views.

As most of you have noticed, the large black lettering on the outside of the Victorian house the Caffe Pergolesi occupies, has the name “Dr. Miller”.  Dr. Miller was a successful dentist around the turn of the century. He decided to build and live in an establishment that would serve as his business and home. In doing this he built this beautiful Victorian home where the first floor served as his dentistry practice and the second floor served as a home for his family. Dr. Miller had a successful dental practice and home for his family and clients for many years.

Now that we’ve had coffee, are you ready for a little shopping?  Let’s hit the Pacific Garden Mall then and see what we can see. There are LOTS of interesting sights on the mall. Interesting and unusual. Santa Cruz, after all, is a college town, and rather a free-thinking one, too.

It always feels like, somebody’s watching meeeee……..

Now that we’ve done a bit of shopping on the Mall, how about lunch at one of my favorite places?

Love, love, love Erik’s DeliCafe!!  They still had my all-time favorite sandwich, too, the Pilgrim’s Progress.

And they still serve their drinks from jelly jars.  I always loved that, too.

After lunch, we toured the Mall some more and then hit the beach.  And the evening found us haunting one of my old familiar places…

Denny’s for a Grand Slam Breakfast for dinner!

It’s a college thing!

That cutie-patootie is my good friend, Jon, from my Rio Theater days. Thank you, thank you, Jon, for making my time in Santa Cruz so special.  And thank YOU for coming along with me!

June 12, 1949, with a live radio broadcast on KSCO of the 15-minute dedication ceremony. Then theater patrons enjoyed a double feature of “Song of India” and “Law of the Barbary Coast.”

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Day is Done

It’s my favorite time of day.  The house is quiet and calm, and I’m enjoying watching the last bits of sunlight filter through the windows. What a sweet and peaceful feeling.

This is my favorite room in my house. I call it my sun room.  I’m guessing you can see why.

I’ve been cleaning. Vacuuming and washing and dusting.  Perfect opportunity to do a little re-arranging in my favorite room. Although I hate to see them go, I’m thinking it’s time to put up the 4th of July goods and move onto something new. I’m thinking Fall is just around the corner. I’m thinking I’m ready for a touch of Fall.

The leaf dish and ceramic squirrels were my grandmother’s.  They just came home with me from California, and I wanted to share them with YOU while the sunlight was working its magic.

Oh, here’s someone who wants to say hello.

Crissy wants to wish you all a very happy weekend.

And I do, too!

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Best Job Ever!

I do believe I have the best job for me possible.  How lucky am I that I actually get paid to take photographs and blog for one of my most favorite places on earth?? And be still my heart, because look at this……

Halloween has arrived at Garden Supply! And I was there to capture it all on camera. So how about taking a little tour with me?  We can see what’s new together.

EEEEEEK!  I am seriously in love! And my pocketbook is in serious trouble.

Because how can I NOT buy some of this stuff?? It’s not physically possible!

If you’re anything like me, and you’ve fallen in love with something you’ve seen, and you NEED it, and you MUST have it, never fear.  Just contact the friendly folks at Garden Supply via the blue link above, and they will mail it to you. Swearsies!

Oh, and tell them Audrey sent you!

Before I go today, I have one more fun share for you. If anyone is looking for ways to incorporate their child’s artwork into your scrapbook pages, ScrapStreet Magazine has a wonderful article for you in this month’s publication. I am honored to have a page included that is very special to me. It showcases some of my sweet Nik’s art from a time several years ago when she really enjoyed drawing. And I smile every time I see the Webster’s Pages papers I used from one of their very earliest collections back when I was first asked to join their team.  Very special memories, indeed.

Thank you so very much, ScrapStreet! And thank YOU all for stopping by!

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We Celebrate

Today has been a very wonderful day in our house.  We’ve had reason to celebrate.

With a little ice cream. Special request.

Because somebody very dear to me has gotten his braces off today. And I am so excited to share his new smile with you.

I hope you have had a happy day, too!

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Downtown

Yesterday we had a fabulous day here in sunny California. Mom took us on a visit to one of her favorite places, and I have fallen in love with little downtown San Mateo.

What a quaint and charming place to shop and dine.  I loved walking the streets taking photos and window browsing.  I could so image owning a small home around the corner from such a place.  How I would adore that.  Think I would never leave.

Of course we had to stop and get a little ice cream treat in one of the shops.

But mainly we came to go here.

We’ve been lucky enough to have my daughter’s best friend visiting us! Aren’t these two girlies the cutest?

These buildings have the most amazing detailing and architecture. Don’t you love the patina on the old metalwork? I took a few photos inside, too.

This little gal caught my eye.

But I think Crissy would be jealous.

I will miss you, little San Mateo.  Can’t wait to visit you again!

So what about you?  Are you a downtown kinda gal, too?

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Just a Day

Hi everyone and happy Tuesday to you! I hope your weeks are off to a wonderful start. We are having such a fabulous time here in California, at the home I grew up in.  We haven’t been doing much of anything or going anyplace fancy, and that is just the way I like it. There’s just no place like home!

I’ve been taking tons of pictures, of course!  So today I wanted to share with you what we’ve been up to in the past day or two.  Hope you don’t mind a few photos!

Mom and I went antiquing here.  What a beautiful, upscale shop this is.  One of the nicest antique stores I’ve been in for a long, long time. The prices were a bit too dear for my pocketbook, but if you’re looking for quality antiques in the Bay Area, you must check this place out.

We’ve discovered some new games out at the old homestead. Some new old games, that is.  This antique Carrom board belonged to my dad’s family growing up.  It is a double-sided board with lots of different game pieces and lots of different games one can play on it. We tried a couple of games, our favorite being a finger-shooting game quite similar to billiards.

Glammie kicked our butts.

But I was starting to make a comeback.

Mom and I spent a morning together here picking out flowers for alter guild duties this weekend. What a gorgeous market and bakery this is, and as an independent local shop, one of my favorite types of stores to support. If you’re in the market for quality specialty foods and wines, go check them out.

So the weekend found us at church, arranging flowers for the alter. I do love her sweet little church. The Spanish Mission style is so reminiscent of California architecture. Makes me feel like I am home.

Ah, but it’s good to be home!

Thanks for letting me share a day or two with you. I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to, too!

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