We celebrated Little Boy Blue's FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!
And all the newly minted 1-year-old wanted to do was climb the mountain of presents to get to that colorful twirly gig decoration thing! With his laser-like focus, he succeeded by the way :)


In other weekend news,
I sparsely
fall-decorated
the dining room.

I put together a quick
Halloween
table centerpiece....

This is a real Gerbera daisy.
I paid $10 for it but the florist said it would bloom for three more weeks....

Look at those cute votive holders!
I think I can use a couple of them at Christmas time too.

WHO????
WHO are you looking at???

Okay,
now see these INNOCENT turkey salt and pepper shakers?
They don't hurt a soul! Gobble, gobble.

But Vinny has decided they are enemies and must be hunted and destroyed
every ding.dang.day!
I CAN'T KEEP ANYTHING NICE AROUND HERE!!!

Did ya notice this handmade Halloween booklet on the table?

You open up the booklet and each page is a campy, quirky Halloween themed page.

And
this is the last page.
Well, I changed up the display on the vintage Record Player/Radio/Short Wave Radio console too...

A closer look at this season's tabletop display....

This is my collection of vintage drink stirrers back there.....

And a few wine stoppers given to me as gifts....

When I got out of the antique business 5 years ago, I made certain to keep this funky barware.

These stirrers are so fun to pick up and check out...

A lot of these are from the 60's Vegas casinos and hotels.

And this shaker is just too cute.
Course the top is missing.
The top is ALWAYS MISSING off these vintage shakers!

And I can't help it but I do love this vintage aperitif glass...silver and black with that art deco stem.
LOVE!!!

Oh by the way, remember Vinny The Turkey Hunter?
He also likes to destroy expensive wrap paper on the dining room table.

"You want me to do WHAT? Get off this wrap paper? No way Jose."

"Here,
if I act cute, will you leave
me
the heck
alone?"

Finally I was able to wrap the baby's present! This is the front side...

...and this is the meticulously wrapped back side.
I think I should have ironed that wrap paper before using it.

Oh! Putting this vase away for the season, but isn't it soooo pretty? I am mesmerized by bright, shiny, colorful things.
Seriously, all people ever had to do over the years was give me a marble for birthdays and Christmas and I would have been satisfied.
Shhhhh, we won't tell them that though. All Laura Ingalls Wilder wanted was a stick of sugar too.
So anyway, on Sunday Tim and I jaunted over to the Amanas to visit the shops, it was such a beautiful weather day!

My Main Man,
Stud Muffin,
Hard Worker,
Money Maker,
Person Who Will Eat My Unfortunate Cooking Mistakes,
Person Who No Matter How Much He Eats Never Puts On A Pound And That Is Sooooo Not Fair,
Dad Who Is Never Allowed To Say "Bratwurst" Again Like Chris Farley Per His Kid's Orders,
Good Looking, Studly Grandpa Of The Coolest Little Boy Ever.

We only went to three or four places.
Look at that blue sky, will ya!

Tim likes this shop because they have lots of manly man antiques, you know, boring stuff like toys, signs, and sports memorabilia.
I'm KIDDING!! It's not boring
if you're a dude.
Actually I know the owner and he's so nice and his stuff is super nice, TOP QUALITY! His stuff is rare and hard to find and it goes for top dollar because of that rarity and condition.

I do loves me this collection of animal milk glass plates though :)

Now how many times have Tim and I walked or drove past this house and did not realize it was full of antiques..an antique shop!
The answer is A LOT!
They need better signage.

Looks like a house and that antique sign on the left is hidden by tree branches by the way.

Cute display by the unassuming front door.
Heck, we didn't know what to expect...we didn't even know if we were going in the right door.
Yup, we were in the right place!
This is the beautiful, primitive side....
And this was more within Angie's budget....

BOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course I loved this place!!
It was two houses and two stories put together!

Oh my gosh, I thought long and hard about several of these pieces, but one can only have so much crap in their house.
And I STILL have a lot of crapola in my house.
But I wanted those textured planters on the bottom right. The green, yellow, red and aqua ones. That's all.

I
became
distracted
by this other
stairwell full
of old jugs
and crocks
and bowls.
Okay, last boring antique picture, I promise...

And it's not even that exciting but I did pick this black and white deco-looking bread box up in Stillwater, Mn a few weeks ago.
Don't know how I'll use it,
I just know black and white is hard to find in bread boxes.
This looks more stylish than most vintage bread boxes.
Okay, true to my word, no more boring antique pictures!!!!
Gotta get back to work now anyway.
Imagine that...I've been blogging when I should be working!! Okay now I'm really going!
Stay warm for those who are in the areas with the cold front coming in...have a good Thursday night and we'll talk to ya soon!