Good morning!  I can’t wait to tell you all about when I took Grace back to college this weekend.  But first a little update on the day so far.  It’s snowing, for one thing.  I have a boy home with the flu, for another.  On a scale of 1-10 my mommy-burnout meter is at about a 6. . . .so thank goodness there was no snowday today or it would have shot up to a 9 I’m sure.  I plan on a quiet day with Caleb, four cats, and the dog.  Caleb is snuggled up with Parker at the end of the couch, wearing a flu mask.  He looks much better this morning, although his eyes have a sad look to them, which is what prompted the doctor to do the flu test on Tuesday.  He is looking out the window.  He feels sorry for the birds,  digging in the snow for birdseed, which we have run out of.  He assures me that I can leave him at home while I go get more.  “They depend on you,” he reminds me.  And there goes the snow plow, rumbling by.  Sherlock the orange cat is sitting on the windowsill also watching the birds (he doesn’t care what they eat as he would rather eat THEM) and our two black cats (adopted in December) are chasing a marble around the room like little spitfires.  How two cats can make so much noice is beyond me. . . . . .

Grace and I left the house Saturday morning at 6:15, she was rather annoyed as I had said to her that we would leave at 8.  But I could not sleep anymore so I woke her up and we drove away from home.  It was very cold, quiet and as dark as night.

We arrived at Joanna’s house around 11:45 and we headed out to a few shopping destinations.  The first one we went to was a shop/antique store in a building on someone’s farm property.  The owners sell new items, with unique older pieces mixed in everywhere, so exploring was very exciting.  I bought some new kitchen towels that I really love because after washing and drying them the hems around the edges did NOT curl (which I hate), I bought a vintage salt-cellar, white with a hinged wooden lid, and a few other odd and ends.

We LOVED the big heavy teapots on top of the wooden stove in the shop.  This place was full of women shopping and we were very impressed that although it was out-of-the-way, it was apparently quite popular and visited by groups of enthusiastic customers.

It was such fun to include Grace and Chloe, our two beautiful young daughters, with us for the day!

If you would like to visit this quaint and lively shop it is called Feick’s Vintage Finds (click link for more information)

It was almost an hour drive from Joanna’s house but totally worth it!  I would go again in a heartbeat.

On down the road to another antique shop.  This one was called “Apple Wagon Antique Mall.”

I found an amazing beveled mirror framed in a grass green wooden frame (old) and a fiesta tripod bowl in persimmon (first time seeing one of them!).

Other things seen and noted:

Mortar and Pestle used to mix paints (old) that Joanna snatched up (she bought two on this day).  Joanna has a great artist’s eye for things and knows just what she loves and what she would do with the items she sees, color, art, etc.

Grace saw this shelf of goodies first. She called me over and then said, “I won, Aunt Joanna!” because she was proud of herself for finding the first fiestaware of the day.  The tripod bowl is not in the photo because it was already in my hands.  I think what I’ll do is an instagram post of some of the things I bought.  I was very tempted by the dark green small plates (6 dollars each) but I was trying to be a good girl and to be honest I already have a stack of like 15 small plates (but none of them are dark green.  sigh.)  Some of the shapes here are not fiestaware.  They are made by the same company (HLC) but from a different line called Harlequin.  The colors are similar but even the feel of the plates is different.  Harlequin is much lighter in the hand.  Some fiesta collectors end up collecting harlequin as well.

Vintage Button collections— made me think of my mom— but these were a little out of my price range.  Aren’t they lovely?  We would display them right up on the wall and admire them daily.

This is just one of the reasons why we love antiquing.  It is a huge source of inspiration.  Don’t you just want to find an old family black and white photo and put it into a bottle now?  I know I do. . . . . .

This whole place was a treat to visit.  The prices were encouraging and negotiable, and there were many unique things to see.  Not to mention the homemade cookies and coffee-free to anyone who needed a pick me up, which was definitely us by that point!

The beautiful hands of the woman who totaled up our purchases.  They even used a very old cash register that dinged when the drawer opened.   This is one of my favorite photos of the day.

The girls each bought a red-covered book.  Grace bought Robinson Crusoe and Chloe found a copy of Black Beauty.  2 dollars.

As we drove Joanna kept saying, “LOOK at the beautiful mountains!”

We drove to the middle of the town of Tunkhannock, PA for the final shop of the day and coffee.  There was also an amazing mural Joanna wanted a photo of, and as it was St Patricks day, the green was very fitting.

“The Old Store” was small and cold yet I found a pristine round fiesta platter for only 4 dollars (in “Rose”)!!!

She was right about the mountains……..

What a fun day we had all together with our girlies.  I’m just so deep down thankful.  Chloe is 13 and Grace is 18 but they got along like two peas in a pod.  Like sisters.

A quick walk down the road, Joanna treated us to lovely drinks (I had a hot chai tea latte) in a warm ‘n’ cozy coffee shop and then we took one last photo before heading back to her house for pizza.

When I sent this photo to my brother he thought of stained glass windows.  (he’s taking a class and making his first one). . . . .

Thank you for a wonderful day, Josephina!

Tomorrow I will share photos from Sunday and what we did on that day together before dropping Grace off at college.