Vintage Thingie Thursday : Vintage Bits and Pieces

Welcome everyone to Vintage Thingies Thursday. If you are new to this party, please take the time to read and follow the instructions for participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday, click HERE. I try and keep things fairly simple, so please make sure you follow the instructions. Please only ONE link per week. Lastly, if you link in, LINK back to my blog, so everyone can see all of the vintage goodies being showed that day. If you don't link back here, they won't know who to visit......thanks so much.

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who read last weeks post for VTT and commented or sent me an email. I was amazed by the amount of emails I received on the research I had done on Mary. So many of you cheered me on, and made me feel not so strange. It is nice to know there are wonderful folks out in this big ole' world who understand and get me and my heart! It is a good feeling because sometimes the people who should be the closest to us, don't really get us at all......just sayin'!


As you guys know, a couple of weeks ago we were in Colorado. While we were there, the guys and I decided to take a drive and do a little treasure hunting.....more like digging in a bunch of junk. Nonetheless, it is a fun thing to do.

First, we stopped at a sight that is basically an old dumping area. I found a old granite piece of something, it was white and had red accents, and if you can believe this....I left it laying there. Now, I wish I had brought it home. I guess I was just not feeling myself that day. As Matt is doing in the picture, sometimes you have to dig to get to the good stuff!!!

After the digging expedition, we headed down a dirt road, and this abandoned house was sitting in the distance. Steve and Matt decided they were going to check it out.

Me, I stayed in the car. I had on flip-flops, and this was not a SHORT distance. Again, not like me, but I was tired and decided to take a few pictures of the surrounding area.

There is no telling how long this place has sat empty.....forgotten.....abandoned. (Matt, I stole your picture from facebook...thanks in advance!!)

Oh, I wanted to be there poking around too, but I enjoyed myself taking a few pictures of the sun setting and the surrounding scenery.

Soon, the guys came back with a few things in their hands. Of course the first thing I asked them was what was inside. Matt told me I was not going to like it....well, that to me meant it was full of goodies!! I asked what exactly that meant. Again, he repeated you would not like it one bit. "Why?!" I rather impatiently asked.

Well, Steve and Matt exclaimed that someone smashed boxes of dishes into bits. "What kind of dishes?!", I asked. Steve just shrugged and said he did not know, there were some pink and some green. Oh, my heart....I thought could they have been Jadeite dishes???? My mind was racing.......no matter they were smashed to bits, were they salvageable??? I quickly asked, "could they have been used as mosaic pieces?" Now, I tell you, ass soon as I asked that, Steve rather quickly stepped on the gas, and said, "no......besides it is a hike and you did not want to make the trek in the first place...now it's dark."

Talk about treasure hunting regrets on this trip.....ugh.....Steve on the other hand I am sure had a vision of me dragging boxes of broken dishes up the hill insisting on taking them home....and you know, had I been there, that is exactly what I would have done......and he knew it, so he sped away rather quickly before I had a chance to get out of the truck and head down the hill!!!

However, he did bring a great old jelly jar glass from the old house. He said it was the only one that was not broken. I love the edging and cut glass on this one, it is so pretty.

Hard for me to imagine that only ONE glass was not broken.....but he insist that is the case. Since he and Matt were in there for a good bit, I have to assume he was telling me the truth! LOL

He also brought me a little white tea cup and I got this piece of a plate. The cup was broken as the handle was gone, and well, so was the plate. He asked if I wanted it, and of course I did.....they are in my flower garden here at home. Reminders of treasure hunting in forgotten places in the mountains, good stuff.

This is a real vintage find and we did not have to go digging around any where to actually find this. During our remodel work, behind one of the walls we tore down in the master bedroom was this bottle of alcohol left in between the walls. It is a glass bottle and of course I wanted to keep it. The cap said .49 cents. I don't really know how old it is, or if it is vintage, but I don't remember seeing alcohol in glass bottles in a very long time.

This is the back, sure is a lot of information the back! Treasure hunting is so much fun, and whether you have to go looking for it or it just happens to find you, the thrill is still the same, over the top goodness!

Have a great Vintage Thingie Thursday everyone!! Stop back by Friday, I'll have pictures up of where we found this little bottle that was in between the walls. I will also have the finished remodel of the master bedroom at our cabin. Have a great weekend everyone!!

Take Me Back Tuesday: Memaw's Summer Cucumber Salad Recipe

Our little garden is yielding some great cucumbers right now, and the other evening, I wanted to make a salad with them. I decided to make a cucumber salad that I had many a Sunday afternoons growing up at my grandma's house. It is simply delicious, especially from the standpoint of taste, but also from the memories it evokes. I'd love to share this simple recipe with you. I have never come across this dish any where other than my grandma's kitchen. I hope you will try this and enjoy it as much as I do.

Peel cucumbers and using the slicer of a cheese grater, slice cucumbers in paper thin slices. (pay no attention to my vintage slightly rusted grater....I love this grater and prefer it over my shiny newer ones.) I used about three cucumbers this day.

Once you have sliced desired number of cucumbers, add about a tablespoon and a half of salt. Stir well and mix the salt well with the cucumbers.

Cover the bowl and let sit on the counter for about 30-40 minutes. The salt will draw out the excess water in the cucumber slices.

when this has set, it should look like this.....drain the excess salted water off of the cucumbers. Add enough real mayonnaise (Not the Miracle whip junk) and about a cap full of vinegar to mix well. If you are making a large batch, adjust accordingly. Salt, lightly and black pepper to taste. For this batch, I added a very large spoon full of mayonnaise and a little over a cap of vinegar. Stir well and refrigerate until very chilled.



Spoon into a bowl or plate and enjoy. This is great left over the next day too, very easy and very tasty. I remember those Sunday dinners so well at my memaw's house. Funny, how I can almost taste the fried chicken, mashed potatoes and "honky" gravy, corn and a green salad with homemade 1000 island dressing and of course this cucumber salad. Those are meals I have never forgotten....my grandma was the very best cook I have ever known.

So many wonderful memories from this very kitchen that belonged to my grandma. That is my Auntie in this photo, we took this picture after both my grandparents passed away, I wanted to remember things just the way they were. Like I could have ever forgotten. I spent so many mornings in this very kitchen as my grandma made homemade flour tortillas and hot sauce to go with fried eggs in the morning. I can remember as a little girl when we would come to visit, there would be cakes or pies cooling on that very counter.....always wonderful food came from this kitchen from a women who loved with all her heart. She always let me "watch" or help in some small way, she was ever patient with her grandchildren, her kitchen was truly the heart of her home. I love how certain foods can take you back to the best of times in your life that mean so much.