This Buds For You

So this is the little tease I showed you yesterday when I asked you to guess what else I had bought while thrift shopping.

Drum roll please . . . .


It is a cool retro Budweiser lampshade!!! The King of all lampshades!!!


And it's not just an extraordinary lampshade, it's a hanging lamp complete with the cool faux gold chain!!!

I know, I know. You're thinking "Yeah, that's pretty ugly"! Or maybe "Has she lost her mind"?


But you know when I saw it sitting on the shelf at the thrift store I felt a sense of nostalgia toward it. It brought back memories of college nights and bartending days.

So it's either the coolest thing I have ever bought at a thrift store or the stupidest thing I have ever bought at a thrift store. And believe me, I have been going back and forth on this one.


Now what I need to do is get it set up in my husband's garage/man cave ASAP or else it might up end like the deer head incident. In the living room. You can read about that fiasco HERE.

And I don't think my nostalgia for my younger days is going to mesh well with my current decor style when I come down off of my thrifting high.

Well, maybe I could use it in the dining room?


No, it's definitely a man cave sort of thing!

Thrift Store Silverware

Thank you all for your wonderful comments on my last post. I really appreciate each and every one of them! When I started my blog I had no idea how many beautiful and supportive blogging friends I would meet. You guys are amazing.

Well, I spent most of Thursday running around doing some thrift store retail therapy in honor of my Mom. She loved a good sale, so I thought it was a fitting way to spend the day.

I mapped out some thrift stores on the opposite end of town that I never venture to. I love going to a new thrift, because everything is new to me.

And I may have hit the motherlode.


One of the thrift stores had silverware marked at 4/$1.00 in big old bins. I normally avoid those bins, because there are too many cooties to be had in sorting through items that had previously been in someone else's mouth.

But I glanced in a bin and saw one creamy handle poking out of the top and it was enough to make me forget my germaphobic nature. Besides, I carry a big old bottle of Purell in my car.

I grabbed that piece and then started searching for its friends.


It's made by American Cutlery Company and I am not 100% sure, but I think it's bone handled!!!


My husband thinks they look more like Bakelite rather than bone, but it doesn't smell when you rub it. (You're supposed to be able to tell if it's real Bakelite if you rub it and it smells like formaldehyde).

And in the same bins I found these silverplate serving pieces. And basically if it's silver . . . it's going home with me.


Oneida Community Tudor Plate in the Queen Bess pattern (1946).

On Replacements.com a tablespoon goes for $11.99 and a casserole spoon goes for $19.99. Not that Replacements.com has true values, because they are trying to make a profit after all, but it gives a rough idea of what their value is.


At another thrift I found this tin colander.


One of those "Hey, it's only 90 cents, so why not" purchases.


And I don't normally do teaser posts (don't you hate when bloggers do that as a marketing tool?), but I couldn't resist just this once.

Take a little peak of something I picked up at the thrift store. Can you guess what it is?


And no, I won't be drinking it later tonight!

A Year Of Memories

Well, it's been one year since my Mom died. I have alternated between dreading this anniversary and wishing it would just hurry up and get here.

And now it's here.


In reality though, my Mom left us a long time ago. She had a form of dementia similar to Alzheimer's.

The last few years were hard on her. You see she had watched my Grandmother be ravaged by dementia in the 1960's and my Mom was always petrified that she would get it too.


And she was right to be scared of it. It is not fun.

In her last year or so of life it was a crap shoot as to whether she would know who I was when I went to see her. I used to pause before I came through the door of her nursing home, wondering which Mom I would see that day.


The one who greeted me by name, proudly introduced me to the nurses and asked me about my son.


Or the Mom who stared at me like I was a nurse coming to take her temperature.

I could see the difference in her eyes when she looked at me. No joy that I was there. No spark of recognition.

Oh crap, it was going to be one of those days!


On those occasions I just carried on my conversation like she did know who I was. Hoping that at some point in my one sided conversation something inside her brain would make the connection and she would snap out of it. She never did.


I would cut those visits shorter than I had anticipated and fumble for an excuse as to why I had to leave.


But it's been a year since she officially left us. I think about her every day. I probably always will, because your Mom is your Mom even if she doesn't remember that that is who she is.

My Mother's Dream Home

I found this scrapbook in my Mom's hope chest while cleaning out her house when she moved into the nursing home.


I never had a chance to discuss it with her, but it appears to be a school project from the mid 1940's where she is supposed to describe her dream home.

She got a B+ on it.


I'm pretty sure she didn't write this poem, but it seems fitting for the scrapbook.


Other than the blue linoleum, one of the first things I noticed in the entryway is the white harp chairs. I've never seen them made in anything other than a mahogany wood color. Must have been a little trendy to have them painted white back then.


I like the teal blue wall color in the living room area.


I'm thinking those cabinets are the metal kind. And it looks like the counter is linoleum with a metal edge.


The idea for a bathroom in the master bedroom must not be as new as I thought.


The thing that I noticed in the boys room is how large it is and ...


the map used as a window shade. A great idea that I might steal! Sort of Pottery Barnish.


The little girl's room is very girly and very pretty. It reminds me of the Brady Bunch girl's room.


There's even a guest room in the attic.


I find it amazing that there are four bedrooms upstairs, yet so little actual living space downstairs. We're used to a living room, family room, etc in this day and age.


This scrapbook allowed me a little look into my Mom's hopes, dreams and expectations as a young woman.

I will tell you that very little of this dream home ever came to realization.

She didn't get the white picket fence. She didn't get the bathroom in the master bedroom. She didn't get a lot of it.

But it is still nice to dream. You have to have your dreams!

I am linking to Colorado Lady's Vintage Thingie Thursday, My Romantic Home's Show and Tell Friday and Common Ground's Vintage Inspiration Friday.

Versa Fold n Roll Table

A few months ago I bought this vintage Versa Fold n Roll table for $5.00 at a church rummage sale HERE. It's sort of cool because you can transform it into a couple of different variations of itself.


Some people thought I should spray paint it or refinish it, but I'm pretty much of a chippy sort of girl.


I like my vintage items au naturale I guess.


So I just cleaned it, waxed it up and left it in all its rusty, "I've had a hard life" glory.


It makes the perfect display space in my office.


She looks pretty good all rusty and chippy I think.


I am linking with A Stroll Thru Life's Table Top Tuesday.

BTW - you will notice that I have no other blogs listed on my sidebar besides three photography ones and three vintage image ones. This is not by design. Not at all by design!

Oh no, I bought my own domain (houseofhawthornes.com) on Saturday so I could be all fancy pants and in doing so my list of blogs I follow vanished from my sidebar.

I'll save you from my whole rant on the subject, but right now I am just waiting patiently for it to reappear. They tell me it could take up to three days.

Introducing Ben the Guinea Pig

Debbie is having a pet party today and I couldn't let my babies miss out on this opportunity to have the spotlight on them. Because it's never about the animals around here. They never get any attention! Yeah, right.

Well let's see, you've met Sheba the Shiba Inu before in this post HERE:



And Otis the shelter cat in this post HERE:


So I thought I'd introduce you to Ben the guinea pig today. Besides, I didn't have a link for his sidebar photo, so I thought it'd be a good chance to make one.

We've had Ben a couple years. Back when we got him he was about 1/4 the size he is now. Such a cute little thing.


But he likes to eat. And eat. And then eat some more.

So now he's quite the hefty little piggy!


My husband built an outside cage for him so he can hang out with us in the yard during the summer months.


He's never out there long, because I'm paranoid of snakes or hawks getting him. But it gives him a chance to experience a little freedom.

I potted him up some parsley so he could have his fill of it when he's tired of eating plain old grass.


Nope, he's not spoiled at all!


Go on over to Debbie's party to take a look at some other people's family members pets showcased there. There's a bunch of pugs, some real dogs (hee hee), cats, a hedgehog and other critters.