Back in Business!

Coming home from vacation involves a lot of emotions....sad to leave being in "another world" for ten days.....of warmer weather!......glad to be home in my own bed......sad that there is no food in the house.....glad that my daughter invited us to dinner tonight.....EXHAUSTED.....wondering if vacations are ever relaxing....glad the pilot knew what he was doing.....sad to be doing a lot of laundry.....very mad to come home to a 46 degree house because our furnace wasn't working.....glad for emergency furnace guys.....$140 later.....

This soothing picture helps a little bit with all that.

I am excited though to be back and to get back into blogging and my Etsy shops. I left them both open while I was gone and so I was treasured alot.....many other sellers used my items in their Treasurys....to see some click here....NaNa's Treasurys and here The Button Lady's Treasurys. If you are not familiar with Treasurys, they are a way for Etsy sellers to spread some love and give some promotion to other Etsy sellers by putting different items from different shops in a themed block of items.....they are fabulous, to say the least. And so I missed the Etsy community of Teams and Circles and buyers (come back please!) and sellers, mid-week blog blitz's, twitter and facebook.

I will be adding new items to NaNa's Things and just jumping right back into things as soon as possible.....or when the laundry gets done....whichever comes first....

AnnMarie :)

Vacation and My Valentine's

Yeah! Vacation time is here!

Myself  and two Valentine's of mine (my husband and son) are off for a much needed time away....10 days to be exact. I wanted to let you know a few things for while I am gone regarding my Etsy shops, The Button Lady and NaNa's Things.

I am open now and shipping items out until FEBRUARY 10TH.

While I am gone I WILL BE LEAVING BOTH SHOPS OPEN! You are welcome to browse, favorite items, shop and even purchase an item. Just know that I will not be shipping out again until  FEBRUARY 23RD.

I also will not beable to respond to conversations in my Etsy shops till FEBRUARY 23RD.

I will miss Etsy and all the interaction there is everyday!

Valentine's Day happens to fall during the time we planned our vacation.......so,

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are two more Valentine's.....

My grandaughter Chloe

My granddaughters Chloe and Cassidy

Do you have a Valentine? Or more than one?

AnnMarie :)

Found Treasures in My Own Attic!

So, as my blog title implies, I am a vintage junkie...have been for over 30 years. I am also a pack rat and find it very hard to part with my things.

It is a big deal to me that I opened a shop on Etsy purposely to sell some of my things.....I admit, I have had sellers remorse when something is sold and I have to send it away. But I get over it pretty quickly because I have more to sell and there is a whole world out there of  vintage waiting for ME to buy!

I recently went up into my attic looking for things to put in my NaNa's Things shop on Etsy and I was amazed at what I didn't know I had! I have lived in this house 16 years and it has a full attic and basement. Perfect for me because when I moved from my 1900 farmhouse, I could KEEP all my stuff that I wasn't going to use right away. The memory fades after 16 years and so it was like a treasure hunt for me when I started opening boxes and finding things. The pictures are of things that I found and that I am working on
adding to my shop to sell. Consider this a preview of  NaNa's treasures to be found on Etsy.........

I lived in Williamson, New York in the heart of apple country and I actually lived in an apple orchard with an orchard lane on one side of my house. It was all very cozy, country feeling and there were fabulous gift, antique and thrift stores around that I visited often. Not there anymore, but my favorite was The Leaning Barn in Marion, NY. Anyone remember that quaint store? I always came home from there and all the others with lots of treasures.

My house reflected my love of vintage, primitive, antique and country things.....

An old flour sack I had hanging from a cupboard....

Graniteware, tin, Mr. Sheep and 2 cowbells.....where did THEY come from!?!

Some punched tin wallhangings, a fabulous oval frame and a Mirro

cookie press set in its' original box.....

There is so much more to be found in the attic and each has a memory and a story attached to it for me. I have enjoyed them, loved

displaying them and having them in my surroundings for many years. Now I pass them on to you.....

Visit NaNa's Things and check back often as I work through getting all of these things listed.

See anything you like?

AnnMarie :)

Mmmm.......Comfort foods

Even with the unpredictable up and down weather we are having in the northeast (50 degrees today), it is almost February and the time of year that we are all craving comfort foods. Beef stew, meatloaf, oatmeal cookies, homemade mac and cheese, chili, lasagna, roasted chicken with mashed potatos and gravy, chocolate chip cookies............

The recipe for this mac and cheese to come in a future comfort food blog.....for now I want to share a recipe that I have been making for 20 years or more. It is from the cookbook Applehood and Motherpie. From cover to cover, this cookbook is one fabulous recipe after another. I have never found a bad one. It's subtitle is "handpicked recipes from Upstate New York" by The Junior League of Rochester. My copy is quite old and taped up but you will never get it from me! I don't think it is even in print anymore. You may beable to get one at a garage sale or thrift store if you are fortunate enough to live in Upstate New York!



The recipe is for Chicken Herb Pie and it is SO good. It serves 6 people, or if you live in my family of 3, it is gone in one sitting.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

 generous quantity of pastry for 9 or 10" pie ( use Pillsbury all ready pie crust)

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/8 teaspoon thyme (don't leave this out, it makes it!)

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup light cream

2 tablespoons sherry or white cooking wine

2 cups cubed cooked chicken

1  10 oz. box frozen peas, thawed slightly

                                                                     1 pound can sliced carrots, drained

Use 2/3 of pastry to line pie plate. Reserve the rest for a lattice crust. In a large saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Blend in flour, salt, pepper, and thyme. Cook over low heat, stirring until smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat. Add broth, cream and wine and mix well. Return to heat, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil, and boil for one minute. Remove from heat. Add chicken and vegetables. Mix well. Fill pastry shell with mixture.

Add pastry lattice on top.....

                                                      and bake till browned, 35 to 40 minutes

If you want to serve more people, use a 9 x 13 inch pan, double the pastry and use 1 1/2 times the chicken and vegetables.

Enjoy!

Are you hungry yet??

          AnnMarie :)

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Today is my Birthday! Usually I am not looking forward to it at all but I must say that it has started out pretty good for being 8 a.m.!

My husband took the day off of work and handed me a birthday card to open first thing this morning.

Inside was a Day of Pampering all scheduled for me.....he is such a romantic!

I am going to Salon Enza in Penfield, New York for a Rejuvenating Facial AND a Relaxation Massage.

 His boss' wife highy recommended the salon and a particular girl that works there.

That girl had the day off but is going in just for me.....I feel special already....

Then it is off to Le Bon Vie restaurant which is an upscale, quaint fusion restaurant......what shall I wear?!

Later, my husband, children, son-in-laws and grandchildren will be here for cake and ice cream.

The cake, Deluxe Carrot Cake from Applehood and Motherpie cookbook,

 will be made by my daughter Jena.....yum! It is decadent.

Have a wonderful day! I plan on it!

AnnMarie

The Sharks are Back

We have come full circle. What goes around comes around. There is nothing new under the sun.

These phrases came to mind when I was thinking of what I wanted to write about a basketball game that my husband Frank, son Michael and I went to last Saturday. I went prepared with a camera and took all kinds of pictures in anticipation of having a new blog post.  The basketball team is a local team in little ole' Rochester, New York in the Premier Basketball League. Their name is what made it all click for me.

They are the Rochester Razorsharks. We have sharks in our life again.

Just the word "shark" used to send my son into a panic. He developed an unexplainable fear of sharks when he was just a tadpole himself going to preschool. He could not hear the word shark, see pictures of a shark and especially could not even look at water in a tank or on a movie screen. We had to leave a Veggie Tales movie (he LOVED Veggie Tales) because it started with a scene underwater in the ocean.

We tried to shield him as much as possible from anything sharky but, unbeknownst to us, we ended up making the biggest faux pas in that area. Frank and I decided to go on a trip to Cape May, New Jersey because we heard it was a quaint, oceanside town known for its' Painted Ladys (Victorian houses painted in the colors of the era). We drove the 6 hours to get there only to discover that their town mascot was...........dun dun dun dun

a shark!

We walked into a gift shop and there was a huge shark hanging from the ceiling...kinda like this...except the ceiling was a lot lower in the gift shop!

He screamed from his stroller. The card rack had pictures of sharks on all the cards! He screamed again. Most of the storefront windows had a shark something in them or painted on them.....I think it was some kind of celebration for their mascot that weekend! It was not good.

As he grew up we removed pictures of sharks from any books he got, we changed the channel quickly if a shark appeared on the TV, and we did not talk about sharks.

Fast forward to 2012 and he is 13 years old. He is so much better about the whole shark thing but still refuses to go on the Jaws ride at Universal Studios when we go next month....darn! Frank and I really want to check that out!

So how come he has no problem with the local basketball team having "sharks" in their name? He can sit at the game with this on the one end of the court....

Directly in front of us was a clear image of a shark on the phone....

Even the girl doing the stats had her hair done special that day with a shark fin dyed blue on the top of her head...

No problem for Michael!! His mother was half eaten by a shark named Finley....no problem!

He could even watch Finley dance with the other teams' mascot.....

Ah, well, the game was fun, the Razorsharks won and we had a nice family day. He had the day off from school for Martin Luther King Jr. Day so I took him to another Razorsharks game that day and he will be going this Sunday with Frank again. Can't get enough of those RazorSHARKS....go figure....

AnnMarie  :)

Hearts and Love and Friday the 13th

It is Friday the 13th but that doesn't bother me at all. You see 15 1/2 years ago I chose the
13th as my wedding day in July and it has been a blessing ever since. On our honeymoon to Italy I discovered that the Italians consider 13 as their lucky number so I bought a gold 13 charm for my bracelet that I still have and cherish.

We all know that next month on the 14th is the day of Love, Valentine's Day. My husband is not much for Valentine's Day. And with all the craziness the retail arena has added to it, displaying all the red merchandise right after Christmas, has made me not much for it either.

My husband and I don't need a nationally recognized holiday once a year to celebrate our love anyways. Ever since our wedding day, for the past 15 1/2 years, or 186 months (!), we have celebrated our love and wedding day on the 13th of each month. Today is one of those days. We give a small gift with a note expressing our love. That gift could be a candy bar or a bracelet. A box of Twinkies or a new pair of jeans. This morning I received a 6 pack of Pellegrino sparkling mineral water. I gave my husband a new pair of pajama pants....Iron Man. Perfect gifts for each of us!

Next month we will exchange something else on the 13th and we may or may not recognize the 14th. On that note I know there are alot of people that just LOVE to give LOVE on Valentine's Day. I wanted to make something to put in The Button Lady shop on Etsy just for that, so I sat on my couch the past few days handstitching these versatile hearts to help celebrate the day. 

This is mauve velvet with very unique shades

 of pink vintage buttons.

Looks right at home with my girls....

For those of you that love purple and red....a white felt heart embellished

with vintage buttons, red stitching and a purple bead chain.

Hang it from a doorknob for a Victorian look....

Blue and white is so soothing....

carved floral buttons add a shabby chic feeling

Hang a heart on a cupboard....

or a bedpost.....

Here is your true Valentine heart in red and white.

It is made of  red embossed felt

and looks great on a mirror....

Is it Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's Day?

 This heart will work for either one....

It can hang on a chair year round....

or add to an antique lamp



All of my handstitched hearts are nice additions to any room in your home to give it a shabby chic, Victorian or just a unique look.

If you give a gift on Valentine's Day to your Mom or sister, your babysitter or best friend, these hearts express love to her as well as giving her a year round handmade gift.

They can all be found in The Button Lady shop where there are more pictures and ideas for each heart.

How do you celebrate Valentine's Day? Do you give gifts to your extended family or just to your significant other?

Love to you from my handstitched hearts to yours........

AnnMarie