"Fleaing"...from the rain!

Mom and I managed our ways through the mighty Ocean Grove flea market before the skies opened up midday. And yowsers, did they open up! (Of course, the sun is now shining at 6:30 p.m. That figures.) I didn't find any super bargains at the market or the yard sales around town (Has inflation taken its toll on "fleaing"? Or are people delusional over what their stuff is worth? Yup; I think that's it.) but I managed to make a couple of happy purchases.

I'll post my finds later, but I wanted to share some of our day (unfortunately, the gloomy weather made for not-so-bright-and-cheery photos).

I see this vendor around a lot, and her piles of old kitchen stuff always crack me up. If you placed every item splayed across her tables tip to tip, I think the product line would stretch for 10 miles.

Loved these colorful lobster floats, and two for $25 didn't seem terrible (I've seen them around here for a lot more).


"Super primitive" is how I'd describe this piece! But the children's Hoosier-like cupboard was awfully sweet.


Happy painted signs -- all on pieces of random salvaged material.


Such a great little vignette of stuff, and if you look in the upper right corner of the photo...

...WOW. I'm not sure what you'd do with this, but as my mom pointed out it would make for one heck of a ring holder.

I love old suitcases, and these dandies were super cute. Not sure if you've seen the end tables Anthropologie made from vintage cases (I couldn't find a picture online), but with some inexpensive hardware (think wood spindles or salvaged table legs simply screwed in to 2 x 4 mounts underneath the case) you could save yourself, like, $300!

Lastly, this charming vendor has a store called Candy's Cottage in nearby Asbury Park. And...is that the wire display I coveted when I saw it on Please Sir's blog? Pretty much! Unbelievable...I'm suddenly finding all kinds of postcard displays.

Fabulous Find

This past week we visited a table at Pottery Barn that’s a contender to “replace” the one that never arrived (the saga I ran through in a recent post). The “Harvest Table” they had on the floor also served as their clearance table, so M. and I had to clear it off to check out the surface more closely.

As we were clearing the merch, we found this…

…which now at home with my vintage Ocean Grove postcards! I was just looking at a peach of display over on Please Sir’s blog, and Diana was kind enough to point me to an earlier post with some other options. I’m not even sure where it will ultimately wind up in my home, but it’s kind of cute. And, with apologies to Minnie Pearl, I’ve left the price tag hanging.

(And, yes; I plan to remove the price tag.)

Run, don't walk.

The Ocean Grove Giant Spring Flea Market is this Saturday.

If you are remotely within travelling distance of this extravaganza of flea, consider a road trip. The NJ Transit train to Asbury Park gets you within walking distance...and spares you from trying to park (no lots; all street parking. And it's a touristy beach town on a down day, so it's a nightmare Giant Market day.).

As with all shows of this type, it's a bit hit or miss. My guess is there will be more than one "peddler o' the tube socks" and a fair smattering of crap in the mix. But last year I got this little teak table at the second vendor I stopped at for $15.

The guy wanted to unload it because one of the legs was "gnawed by a small animal of some kind" (his words). I told him he should have said, "it's got interesting patina." Patina's a good, trendy buzz word to use for things like peeling paint and unremovable stains, so why not use it to describe a little animal nibble? In any case, his lack of HGTV vocabulary was my gain. I love this little table, and I got it before Shore Chic came to be! So now it's got a happy home two blocks away from where I bought it (and not shoved in to a corner in my apartment).

I'm also told by my friend in Bradley Beach (the next town over) that it's Town Wide Yard Sale the same day in her happy hamlet.

Oh...my...glorious shopping day. Need to rest up...

Happy Memorial Day!

We dressed up our dear old house for the holiday by giving her some fancy bunting trim.

And, wow -- I think all that complaining and putting up with bad weather has paid off. We were rewarded with a beautiful weekend. We fired up our new grill and spent time with friends, which was a treat (the weekend was almost project-free! Though we did make it to Pottery Barn to buy that table I mentioned in my last post. It will be here next week. Huzzah! Oh, and we hacked down another spooky half-dead tree.).

We just got back from the little Memorial Day parade that ran through Ocean Grove. I love that we've landed in this little Rockwellian town.

Take time to remember what the holiday is all about by remembering the veterans who gave all for us, and by thanking and honoring those among us who have done so much.

"Table" Rasa

tabula rasa NOUN: pl. (tab-u-lae ra-sae) The mind before it receives the impressions gained from experience.

table rasa NOUN: (tey-buhl ra-sae)The table that is still missing from our dining room, four months after ordering it.

OK…I tried. I tried to stay away from mass market retail stores for large purchases. Really. I think it’s important to support local businesses in these days of proliferating strip malls and megastores (not that I don’t love me some Target, but you need to mitigate by supporting the little guys).

M. and I decided to combine our living and dining areas into the living room (more on that later), which required finding a round, 48” dining table. We wanted something solid, something non-veneered, and something with a pedestal bottom so we could jam another person or two around it. So we went with our very specific list of requirements to a great local furniture store (who will remain nameless since this saga takes an ugly turn). They had the perfect table, even had a lovely hammered top, and it would be delivered in two weeks. Yay!

That was in January.

To make an extremely long and somewhat annoying story short, I sat home not one, but two Fridays to accept delivery of the table. And not once, but twice no table -- and I had to call the store to find out what happened. They never called me to say, “Whoops! Sorry you blew your whole day waiting on us!”

After a couple of subsequent calls (by me, of course), turns out the manufacturer kept sending them tables that arrived warped. They really couldn’t say when the manufacturer would be able to ship, and what condition it would be in, so they recommended a different table. It cost more, but they’d be happy to eat the price difference to pay me back for my troubles. Great!
That was in March.

I think what was most annoying is that over these past four months, they called me twice (and both times it was only returning my calls!). Any other time I called I was greeted with, “let me call you back in 10 minutes” or some other brush off (in fairness, I’m not so sure it was a brush off, or a complete inability to conduct business). And nada. M. brought up the perfect analogy – it’s like the fabulous Monty Python “Cheese Shop” sketch. “You are a cheese shop?” is asked to the owner who has not a single cheese in stock. It’s like, “You do sell furniture, don’t you?!”

So this week I called them for the last time. To cancel my order.

I found this table from Pottery Barn that is now the likely contender. It’s veneer, but a textured one that’s, “built to endure daily family dining.” So surely it can endure M. and I and our rowdy guests:

Plus, it has a leaf and the more we think about it (especially now that we’ve had a chance to live in the house a bit) we could use the flexibility of having a larger table when we need. I think it’s a winner?

It’s a bit more than I wanted to spend (I’m thrifty, after all) but at the end of the day it’s a major piece that we hope to have for a good long while. Plus, our chairs only cost about $50 each brand spanking new so I feel a little better.

I guess the moral of the story is: As much as it’s good to embrace the new little guy on the block, sometimes you just have to go back to old trusted friend for what you need.

And today, I baked.

Another bad weather day (seriously, this is getting ridiculous) made it hard for me to get motivated. An early afternoon visit by my mom and her friends bearing gifts of apron and potholders (thanks!) inspired me to ditch other home improvement activities in favor of turning leftover zucchinis into bread.

Donning my new apron I took a combination of a couple of recipes to see what would happen. I love to bake, and go at with the bravado of a mad scientist…substituting, rejiggering, making things up, etc. -- all while leaving a path of kitchen destruction in my wake.

Anyway, the bread is pretty darn good if I do say so myself:

(p.s. If you look closely, you'll see I printed and framed one of my photos I first mentioned in this post :-)

Here’s how to make the magic happen:

1-1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1-1/2 cups spelt flour (I highly recommend incorporating spelt flour into your baking projects)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 ¾ cup sugar (I use organic unbleached)
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3 large eggs, or eggs substitute equivalent
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup applesauce
2 tablespoons vanilla
4 cups grated zucchini (loosely packed)

You could add nuts, but I only have pignoli right now. And that’s too odd for even me.

- Grease and flour 2 loaf pans (mine are 9”), and preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Whisk all dry ingredients together in a bowl to fully incorporate.
- Beat eggs, oil, applesauce, sugar and vanilla in a separate bowl.
- Add dry mixture to wet in slow batches and blend well.
- Fold in zucchini (I find a rubber spatula is best). Add nuts at this point if you’re using.
- Divide the batter between the two pans and bake at 325 degrees for about 60 minutes turning pans at the 30 minute mark.

That’s all there is to it! A delicious (and somewhat healthy) way to avoid housework.

Art I Heart

Last week M. and I cruised through the Ocean Grove Music & Art Festival. More crappy weather (I actually ate oatmeal for breakfast today. Not because I love it, but because I was freezing!) kept the outdoor fair a bit low key, but a good number of intrepid local artisans still set up shop.

We picked up a photo by Michael J. Colarusso. Not only is he a super nice guy, his photos are beautiful and mostly shot on the Jersey Shore. Using filtering and light exposure, the shots are really spectacular with rich color and an almost multidimensional feel. We had a tough time choosing one, but here it is:

It’s completed the little entry vignette quite nicely:

(Sorry for the dark photo…taken with flash in daytime “light.” See aforementioned crappy weather.)

Also in the scene…

-- Great little table purchased at the Antiques Center of Red Bank. Not super old but under $100 (hard to say exactly how much…was lumped in a $400 total purchase that included a fabulous dresser you will meet at a later date) and a perfect fit for the space.

-- Glove form mom bought a couple of months ago at a Fishs Eddy warehouse sale for $3. Still kicking self in rear for not going with her. I epoxied the form to a stained wooden block (M.’s smart idea) to make it a sturdier perch for my sunglasses and such.

-- Small sterling silver footed bowl was my great grandma’s. My mom recently gave it to me when I admired it (re: practically stuffed in my pocket) as she was reorganizing her kitchen. After a good polishing it looks better than my mom ever remembers, and is the perfect size to catch my keys.

-- The wooden glove box is the best story. Bob, the vendor who sold me the table it’s on, gave it to us as "a housewarming gift" (his words). I am not kidding. Tucked it under my arm as we headed out the door. Bob rocks.

-- The orchid is faux, and knowing how many people dislike both “orchid” and “faux” separately, they must want to spontaneously combust at the combination of the two.

It's sew easy to fall in love.

I want to add a punch of color to a bedroom that’s looking awfully beige, so I hopped on over to Etsy tonight to look for some pillows. I know I should be learning to sew “unsupervised” at a faster pace than I am (well, I should at least take the sewing machine a friend lent to me out of the box) but it seemed so much easier just to cruise the crafts and support someone a little more motivated by the mighty Singer than I am.

To me, pillows are a quick, inexpensive way to change the look of a room and can be swapped out as the season (or your mood) dictates. And Quiltification had everything I needed under one tidy little online roof. I was kind of hooked as soon as I read Quiltification Charlotte’s bio to learn she’s, “a paleontologist by day and a crafter by night” from Liverpool, UK. How fabulous!

Better still, she sells covers only so I can easily swap out and stow in a dresser drawer. “No fuss, no muss,” as my mom likes to say. Here’s the eye-poppingly-good covers that are working their ways across the Atlantic to my bedroom:

Seeing Double

There’s a lot of great things I’ve found on blogs.

But happening upon someone with the same, fabulous mid-century lamp found in grandma’s living room that I (and dad before me) grew up with? Impossible, you say?

Imagine my surprise when Courtney at Nesting Instincts featured this lamp in a post celebrating green:

It looked suspiciously familiar to me, since this is one of two next to my bed:

I mean…the fact that there are more than two of these lamps out there is pretty crazy to me. The fact that I stumbled onto one online is a hoot!

I became owner of my lamps when we were cleaning out my grandma’s house a couple of years ago. There wasn’t exactly a line ahead of me to claim them, but I loved them. They remind me of my childhood, and they’re in the background of many holiday photos (with their original, nearly three foot tall, nubby-textured shades, they really couldn’t help but appear in pictures!).

(I’m not sure what I love more, the lamp or my aunt’s polyester, wide-lapelled leisure suit with poofy sleeves circa ’72. That’s a tough call.)

My friend scored amazing white drum shades for me at Target for under $10 each ($9.88, as only the oddly precise pricing of Target sale items can be) giving my “family heirlooms” a new life. They’re still in my apartment and I'm not sure if they’ll make it to Casa Shore Chic, but I couldn’t help but mention my blogland discovery!

Picture Perfect

OK, maybe not perfect…I’m by no means a professional photographer. But I wanted to add some “local flavor” to art in the house, so I decided to hit the road (well, the boardwalk) with my camera. Here’s the three finalists, and I have to say – I’m pretty happy with them! Our guests may soon find themselves sleeping under the façade of the old Asbury Park Casino (where Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love once ran through, and his Sandy is set), or the restored bas-relief work on the fabulous Paramount Theatre.

Have a favorite?

Mellow Yellow

Cottage Magpie is a fun and colorful blog that invites readers to participate in a monthly color challenge. The result is a veritable blogland scavenger hunt through homes around the world, with everyone scouring for objects to match the color palette of the month.

This month’s color challenge is yellow, and I wanted to play along. Since we’re new to this (both the house and the blog thing, for that matter) I wasn’t sure I was up for it. We don’t have a lot of stuff of ANY color in place yet, but “the hunt” made me see there are fabulous yellow finds that make me feel all warm inside. Warm like a sunshiny day. Sun…Yellow…Wow, this post really is coming together!

A couple of my favorite yellows are found in housewarming gifts from friends. One very talented friend has taken up pottery, and when I unwrapped a box to find this inside I felt like we hit the friend jackpot. This was the very first bikini piece D. made (she since has made enough to fill a Jersey Shore beach on a Saturday morning in August) and I’ve admired it from the first time I laid eyes on it. To be gifted with it was beyond cool.


This fabulous bowl was another gift from friends. I’ve vowed to visit the store it came from in Highland Park, NJ, called Through the Moongate. Any store that’s proud to feature Fair Trade products is also a friend of mine.

Throughout our home there’s some fantastic stained glass, and the featured color is almost always yellow. Not original to the house (in fact, perhaps even older), these pieces were salvaged by the previous owners and given interesting new homes. This window is on an inside wall in our (yellow!) bathroom, softly filtering in light from the next room over.

And here’s a window in our living room:

All the rain this past month (enough already, Mother Nature!) has really helped my newly planted garden along. I took this shot this morning of some of blooming annuals.

Last week M. and I went on the Asbury Park House Tour. How wonderful to see these vintage gems rising up on the long-neglected beach blocks of Asbury Park. We are so happy to be watching the transformation of these homes before our very eyes. Here was the bouquet of sunflowers in the entry of one participant’s meticulously restored Victorian home last Sunday:

I can’t think of a better way to welcome someone into your home!