Etsy Vintage Team Blog

I am so excited about the Etsy Vintage Team Blog!  It's off and running and we'll have daily updates!  I'll be doing a little blog feature on china (like porcelain, not the country) tomorrow, so keep your eye out for that!  Here's the link http://www.etsyvintage.blogspot.com/

If you get a chance please check out our blog!  We have wonderful contributors, fun pictures, and it's just a darn cute blog!

While you're at it, why not follow us!?

Thanks so much!

Jen

Dakos (Greek Bread Salad)

Here's what was for lunch today!  Dakos Greek Salad, so yummy and fresh!  This is my husband, Bob's recipe (well, he got it somewhere, he didn't make it up).  I was his sous chef for this meal.  We pretend we're doing a cooking show, and I think this one went well.  If you love the food channel like we do you probably know all of the chefs.  Giada is always having friends over to share in her delicious meals, and I tried to pretend Bob was my friend for our pretend show, but he didn't say anything, so it was a really boring show.  Giada's friends talk.

1 loaf country bread, sliced into 1/2" thick slices
1 C greek olive oil (I used regular olive oil)
Salt & freshly ground pepper
1/4 C fresh lemon juice
1 T chopped fresh dill (I love the smell of dill!)
2 english cucumbers, quartered & cut into 1/2" dice (I used regular cucumber and scraped out some of the seeds)
2 ripe beefstake tomatoes, cut into 1/2" dice
1 red onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
12 oz feta cheese, crumbled (oh how I love feta cheese!)
I also added about 3/4 can of black olives, cut in half (original recipe didn't call for these, but I like the extra flavor and color)

Preheat the grill.  Brush the bread with oil on both sides and season with salt and pepper.  Grill bread on both sides until lightly golden brown. Remove the bread to a platter & let sit at room temperature to get slightly hard.

Meanwhile, whisk together 1 cup olive oil (I def used less), lemon juice, and dill in a medium bowl.  Season to taste, with salt & pepper (I didn't add any extra of this since there was enough salt going on with all the other ingredients).  Fold the cucumber, tomatoes, onion, and feta into the oil mixture and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes (I couldn't wait that long, I was hungry).  The recipe calls for you to spoon the bread into the mixture, but, if you know you'll have leftovers of this, you won't want to do that, since the bread will get soggy.  We just added the bread we wanted to our individual salads.  Garnish with additionaly dill and drizzle with chili oil, if desired (we didn't not add chili oil, but I bet it would be good!).  Serve immediately (geez, they make it sound like an emergency).

Enjoy! (Like how I threw in a pic of my Pyrex!?)

Jen

Happy Labor Day!

I have wanted to run in this area for awhile now, and today was a perfect day for it!  Absolutely gorgeous blue skies and a calm Lake Erie!

I will have more pictures posted on my flickr account http://www.flickr.jenscloset/ -be sure to check them out!

I went up there today with a goal of just having a nice run and checking out the scenery, but after getting there, I knew I needed to get my camera (which unfortunately, was at home); so after about a 20 minute run, I went home and grabbed my trusty camera!

I did a little more running and stopped for these pictures.  What a friendly place too!  I had a nice (but quick) chat with a few people while I was taking my pictures!

These were taken in Bay Village, Ohio (the town next to mine).  I love this town because it has a small town, friendly feel!  Things seem to go a little slower, more relaxed, in Bay!

So get out your camera, take some pictures of your beautiful scenery, and enjoy the weekend!

Happy Labor Day!

Jen

Frame the Lace

I just love vintage lace!  I had this long scarf-like ecru piece of lace, which has several holes in it, but I would never just toss anything like this out!

Even non-creative people like me can do this craft project!  Yes, I consider this a craft project in my little world!

I folded up the pretty lace, stuck it in an inexpensive frame covered with glass, and there you have it!

Jen's craft project!

Have fun!

Jen

Testing Testing!

I'm playing around with the grouping of pictures.  I see such cute blogs and they have groupings of pictures, and I want to know how to do that.

So here goes

VINTAGE HANKIE

I LOVE TWITTER

I can't help repeating myself!  whoa-that's a large font..hold on a sec-

Okay-back to "normal" (the font, not me).

Anyways...like I was saying!  I love twitter!  Put out a request and you have plenty of great twitters to the rescue!  Thanks for all of your responses to my plea for help getting my banner to have a title on it!  Check out http://www.thechinagirl.etsy.com/ .  My daughter, Lindsey,  created my banners for my 1st two shops, but she's  busy woman these days, so I thought I'd tweet for help!

I love this snake!

Thanks so Mary from http://www.arttales.etsy.com/
She not only added my pretty title, but did it in like-a few minutes!

Her shop is so cute-you must check it out!  "Upcycled, recycled, reused"!

Such a cutie!

and by the way, if you're wondering how my shopping detox is going, I did it (well, there's still time left in the day)!  Thursday and Friday were the toughest, since those are the big garage sale days.  Everywhere I went, those garage sale signs taunted me!  But I did it!

Thanks again to Mary for coming to my rescue!  I love my twitter friends!

Jen

Day Three of Detox

Yep! Day three of my shopping detox and I've stuck with it!  I really miss my almost-daily routine, but it also feels good!

I encourage everyone to pick something that's been nagging them like I did and try to go without it for 5 days (okay I'm not talking about any nagging spouses!)! 

I knew I needed to do this and finally did! 

Try my detox idea!

Jen

Detox Time

All this talk about detox got me thinking!  I need to jump on this trend!  People are doing all kinds of detoxing, whether it's a diet detox, alcohol detox, heck..there's even emotional detox!  I knew exactly what my detox of choice would be!

I'm on a week long shopping detox!  It started today and I'm hoping to reach Friday without shopping! 

I need your encouragement and support!

I always have the excuse that I'm shopping for my Etsy shops.  Another excuse (and I'm sure most vintage sellers can relate to this) is that if you miss just one day, you might be missing out on that one perfect find!

Ask anyone in my family, and they will say I have plenty here and probably don't need to shop for an entire year!

So what I'm doing this week is shopping, but only in my own house!  I spent all day Sunday organizing the treasures that I have here, and opening boxes, and finding fun stuff that I completely forgot about!

I'm showing you a few of my shelves.  I purposely did not show a picture of my living room floor.  I'm afraid you might call that hoarder show.

So there you have it! I'm detoxing and feel pretty cool!  Think about what you'd like to detox it and climb on board!

Good luck!

Jen

Fresh Flowers and Milk Glass

Two of my favorite things! Fresh flowers and milk glass!  My thoughtful hubby, Bob, usually buys me fresh flowers every week or two!  I love my latest bouquet!  I don't know what those soft flowers are, but the colors are gorgeous and I love the soft texture!  I usually go for one of my large milk glass vases when I get new flowers.  Sometimes I change it up with one of my colored vintage vases!

Check out the beautiful english hobnail goblets (you can see more at http://www.mymilkglassshop.etsy.com/ )!

Happy Sunday!

Jen

Back from Vacation!

We had a great time on our vacation, but it's always great to be back home!  Although I must confess, I dread another snowy winter, mostly because I'll now be worrying about my 17 year old daughter, Katherine, driving in the snow!

I actually did a little vintage shopping while I was in Cocoa Beach and will be listing these items soon!

I'm so glad that this year I allowed myself one day after returning home, to pack all of my orders!  That gave me a day to unpack and wash stuff and all the other fun things that need to be done after returning from a vacation!

I'll be sure to post some pics of my family in my next post!  I thought I'd add some pictures of my daughter's cookie creations!  Katherine has always loved baking cookies and decorating them!  I know not to even try to help her (she's kind of like a mini-martha stewart, but nicer (sorry Martha).  We have the best sugar cookie recipe from a Mrs. Fields Cookie Book (I'm happy to post the recipe if you want it).  This batch was made for her "mandatory picnic" for Key Club (part of Kiwanis).  I thought that was quite humorous: a "mandatory" picnic!!

I hope everyone has had a great summer...but it's not over yet, so enjoy it!

Jen

ps-also adding a few new items recently listed in my shop!