I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Monday, November 4, 2019

Out and About : Thrift Shop, Other Stops.


Good evening! My goodness, it is a bit chilly, what the heck is going on! Must I wear legwarmers with my shorts now?


A couple weeks ago my friend B came down for a day of thrift shopping and dinner. We had the best time! Beautiful weather, light traffic, and an early start made a big difference in where we could go and what we could do.

We went to the nearer [tho not close] of the two big thrift shops. My mission was to find plaid shirts for next year's big sewalong with Lori/ Humble Quilts.I love it that she has told us the pattern way in advance and I had so much fun looking for potential plaid shirts.


First my total haul: all the shirts, plus the cute never worn turquoise baseball hat---embroidered with a pineapple, how cute. I always need summery hats, so snapped this up for one dollar.


I also found the Susan Branch Christmas book. I had planned to resell this copy, but my copy is not in great condition, so I'll keep this one instead. There were other good books that I passed up---one a picture book of collectible vintage aprons! So fun! Another all about the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, which so brought back memories of watching the big balloons from my office windows, when my kids were very small. However in the interest of No Clutter, I didn't buy those books, though I wish I had.

Then the shirts! This store sorts by size and then by color, which made it easy to focus on the XXXXLs in colors of interest. This store stocks very good brands, Ralph Lauren, LL Bean, J. Crew, Old Navy, T Hilfiger, Nautica.

Neutrals with red or robin's egg blue.


This is the pattern, by Brannock and Patek, though this specific quilt is Jan Patek's 25th anniversary quilt. She just completed her 5oth anniversary quilt , so this design, and the book, are 25 years old. But still wonderful and beautiful





Love the design, especially the folky border. Doesn't it look FUN! But I do not want a brown and orange quilt, so first off is the challenge of recoloring.


My paint chips grabbed in a rush at Ace Hardware another day.


My friend that day, L, was in a huge hurry---No lingering! I will sort colors and make up my color board as I go on with the gathering of fabrics.


This was one of my thrifted finds, a Ralph Lauren women's blouse in linen, size 4, too bad--kinda tiny, but beautiful. Note the general colorway, plus touches of creamy white; red and dull purple juxtaposed.




I used it as the initial recoloring inspiration, thinking greyed robin'd egg blue, deeper Prussian blue/ warm reds,



note these two treasures; the red plaid is enormous, from Sean John. It was quite dirty with a spill down the front, but a good hot wash fixed that. And the stripe is a beautifully faded tomato red, handwoven? India cotton.



_mustardy yellows---one is above with the brown plaids, unusually nice solid, slight twill. Plus soft sage and  pickle greens, [these are stash pieces].


shades of dull purples, from my swap box, from Mary Ann C., not shown


black plaids and stripes for the borders.



Note the folk distinctive stripe used on two of the coxcombs. This shirt is for my version. It is a clearer, slightly turquoise Prussian-y blue in real life.




I'll be shuffling and mulling colors for awhile!

Another note, the backgrounds of the central motifs/ coxcombs: it is medium toned, with the first of the petals contrasting lighter. A clear distinct contrast is very important there, must watch values carefully, I noted to myself.

black polka dots!





Hmmm.

I thought about using either muddy grey or soft aqua grounds, or both, as seen here. From Pinterest.

Pinterest photo

But I don't know if I'll like that. Another choice, here, is this print I love, a remainder from the Fabric Mill. I pulled it out to back A Amish but then, no? Save it. It's coppery mustard with sprigs of lavender and turq, plus dense picotage in black. [Too brown?]



I'm still mulling A Amish's backing and binding, too.



One of the best things, B brought me one of her antiques mall finds, a gorgeous black chintz with tomato red and cream flowers. Lots of yardage---10? to be the backing of Coxcomb. What a great find, lovely 100% cotton, not too heavy.





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After thrift shop we stopped in our fave big Marshall's. This was the only thing that caught my eye. A sewing tin.


Too big, too drab. I left it. And! Someone stole B's shopping cart, filled with her carefully chosen and tried on finds. How mean of some stranger or stock person. I think in the end she found nothing at all to buy, but she's a good sport and great company, so I/we had a fun day.


Then dinner, we were starved! Thriftng is hard work,lol. The Mexican restaurant is a little rundown looking these days, but oh my the food is wonderful. We had the signature fajitas, hot sizzling plates on a chilly night. However, a strangely displeasing thing happened at the end--now I love their food but it is a LOT especially a lot of meat. I always eat just half the food and take the rest home. I  have recently read that it is now considered rude and gauche to ask to take out one's leftovers? Is that true? This is the second time I have asked for my food to take home, and the server simply flung a paper bowl, like a fries basket, on the table by my food., instead of taking it to be wrapped for takeout. There was no lid, no cover, no bag, no utensils for me to messily scoop up the fajitas. I had to dump everything into this dripping brown fries bowl and wrap it in a plastic bag from my coat pocket.

Is this the restaurant's way of saying no to ''doggy bags''? The server was quite rude, too. Next time, bring my own Glad box and spoon? Stuff myself and leave the rest? Is it truly rude now to ask for one's leftovers?

Final insult, our coupon wasn't good! "Cash only", she sniffed as she scooped up our credit cards. Hmmm.

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In other notes, I couldn't upload to Blogger since the Halloween storm but wanted to share the oh so cuteness of my dear dog walker and Mo. She was dressed all day for Halloween in a great sherpa fleece jumpsuit that was an Oscar the Grouch costume [Sesame Street]. "Scram!" And she dressed Mo in his tiny witch's pointy hat.


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Here is the somewhat garish blue green mercury glass pumpkin---lighted up. I had never lit any of them as the little LED lights inside use so many AAA batteries, which I never have. But lighting up this one sure did improve it.


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The storm that night was quite frightening. I had bungeed and tied things down but couldn't get the umbrella out of its very heavy base. I instead tied and bungeed the whole table, thinking it was fine for 30 mph winds. The winds! Hurricane force maybe---locally, I am guessing 65-70 mph winds, off the ocean. So loud! Mo woke up and barked at the ceiling, then would run to the deck and bark there. [Mo never barks inside, at night, in bed]. Then the wind forced the table on the deck all long the the length of the deck, like walking it along. I didn't dare go out to  secure it better, truly didn't know what to do. This lasted from 2 AM to 7 AM, we were up all night, mostly. One of the worst storms I have ever experienced here at the beach, even H Irene was less terrifying.

But in the end, all was well and the storm blew off to Connecticut to visit blog friend Julie, and I think Pat in upstate NY got hit with high winds too.

But at least no snow?

more soon.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

These photos are for B. I have suggested this shop with the beautiful salads and soups as an alternative to eating out.  Maybe some hot garlic bread and nice wine?  The lettuce, spinach, arugula is under the toppings.




















13 comments:

  1. That's a fabulous shirt haul. The colours are going to be a treat together - you always add a clever, original, unexpected dash which is so exciting.
    The Fabric Mill and Kauffman fabrics are very special, the sort you never tire of looking at.
    It's unusual to see Mo 'underdressed' for the festivities. Those two sure won't get lost in the mist as we joke here! Penny

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  2. I think you've accumulated a great array of fabrics to go with that lovely blue focus fabric. I think that restaurant is well on its way to shuttering its doors with the attitude of its wait staff. Her tip should have been as minimalist as her attitude. Since when is it rude to take something you've already paid for? The amount of food that is tossed out in this country is a disgrace, considering the level of hunger so prevalent in other countries around the world, and parts of this one if truth be told. We got a few flurries in the air after last week's storm but mostly torrential rain along with the high winds. Snow is coming later this week though.

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  3. Gosh, what a great haul you've made--love that dusky bluish rose-patterned shirt--a lot!!
    You are really brave to take on that LH pattern, I think. It looks really difficult to me...your paint chips are a wonderful grouping of colorways for it--will be looking forward to seeig it come together...
    Yes, your winds definitely said"Come on, let's go and blow Julirose about a bit"!! Without power for 18 hrs...ugh!! But we survived--up all night also--no sleep makes for cranky boys and girls--I can attest to that!!
    I wish we had some good Flea Markets around here...I will try out our local Goodwill to see what they have...
    We have been told that Thursday into Friday will be a snow event--maybe--?? As ong as i don't need to travel or shovel i am good with that...
    Mo looked so cute in his witch-ey hat...
    hugs, Julierose

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  4. The 25th anniversary quilt is going to be an exciting make for you. So special. Love the different shirting prints that you have picked out. I can't imagine seeing any of these prim. look quilts without a handful of plaids and stripes. Just doesn't seem possible!

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  5. Your thrifting day looks like it was fun and productive! I bet it was nice getting an earlier start too. You found some great colors! I can never quite 'see' the quilt in different colors but I've always liked what you come up with. Quilts are a lot different than clothes - those I can handle!

    The storm sounds pretty scary. We did get a sprinkle of snow but it didn't stick around - although it may snow on Thursday again. That early freezing weather kind of killed off my hope of pretty fall leaves - came just as the leaves were starting to turn pretty and now they're mostly just dead and falling. Darn!

    Mo's walker looks like a fun person, and she and Mo looked cute! And the pumpkin was pretty all lit up!

    Thanks for sharing, as always, and take care!

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  6. I love that black chintz!!
    I really like seeing your method of choosing fabrics. I like what you've pulled so far.

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  7. YOU paid for the food, you should get a doggy bag! That employee needs training! or firing! Love your ideas for the next quilt!

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    Replies
    1. I agree but apparently it is a new restaurant ''thing'', that doggy bags are now considered customer rude manners. Of course the polite thing to do would be to say so or have a little note on the menu, ''We Do Not Accommodate Doggy Bag Requests." The bill was so minimal, despite the deliciousness of the steak fajitas, that I went ahead and tipped my usual NYC 25%, like 6.oo? I couldn t bring myself to be rude too.

      lizzy

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  8. You had a productive thrifting day! The hat is very cute. I wish you would have purchased the vintage apron, and Macys Parade books, too. Maybe next time buy, then resell after you've had some time to look through them. Cool that you can replace your copy of the Susan Branch Christmas book.

    Awww, your dog walker is committed! That's just too fun.

    Regarding your restaurant experience, speaking as a server myself, I am almost insulted when customers don't want to take their leftovers with them! Makes me wonder if they just didn't like the food, and also I hate to see food go to waste. I sometimes have people say that they don't eat leftovers! I happen to LOVE having prepared food in my fridge. So, I don't know what the heck was going on at that place. I might be tempted to keep going there just to annoy them. Oh, and I did have a customer that brought her own Glad container with her. I thought it was cute :) I think she was trying to avoid using Styrofoam and being wasteful.

    Thanks for the pic of the lighted pumpkin. I was curious how it looked.

    Kel

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  9. I'm not as well behaved as you. I'd mention to my friend, (within earshot of the rude waiter) that I supposed we'd better find a more accommodating restaurant for next time... Or agree too share an entry next time. Good food isn't the only thing you expect from a running down restaurant. There is also social media... offer to critic the experience. Word gets around about rude treatment. Better luck next time.
    Hugs

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  10. I love your thrifted shirtings - such a great idea to have a real focus when shopping for those. That black chintz, what a treasure and will make a perfect backing (with leftovers to use in future quilts). Your Halloween costumes are a hoot!

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  11. Wow!! That sounds like quite the storm. Yikes! I hate big wind. Well, I wouldn't eat there anymore. So nasty who knows what they might do to your food. Out here it is just fine to ask for containers. In fact the staff always asks if they see food on your plate if you need a box. Love all the shirts you found. Since we can't yard sale anymore, we're going to start hitting up our thrift stores. 😊 Kit

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  12. Phew! I am exhausted with all the wonders of this blog post! Absolutely great plaid finds. Heck no on the request for a container (too old fashioned to say doggie bag?!) - hah! You paid for it, its yours madame...ha ha. Too snooty if you ask me. If restaurants start treating customers like that, they will surely lose business. So glad you had a good time with your pal. Blessings to you and Baby M.

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