Loulou Downtown

Thrift Store Finds

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Loulou

Seems that Nick and I have a new little routine going on and I like it. It goes like this … he drops me off at a great thrift store (Value Village), goes off and does some shopping/errand running of his own, and then comes back to get me at a predetermined time. Last time we did this, I had an hour to shop. This time I stretched it to an hour and 15 minutes.

So here is what I got, spending a total of $19 (about $22 after tax). That is 12 pounds (14 with tax) for my UK friends.

The most exciting find of the day for me were these 6 perfect Duraline Hotelware small bowls, made by the now defunct Grindley Pottery of England. The pattern is called Carnival and these babies are rare! All Duraline dish wear is date stamped on the back, so I know these were made in 1984. And since, as the name Hotelware suggests, they were meant for use in hotels and restaurants, these types of dishes usually show quite a lot of wear. But not these ones. They look as though they were never used at all. A real score for $3.99 for all six. They were scooped into my cart asap and a wee happy dance was done. Ok … the dance was done only in my head.

Next up was another piece of perfect Duraline Hotelware, this one being an oval plate, which I believe was called a Chop Plate, in its time. This one was made in 1987 and cost me $2.99.

It goes perfectly with the small bowl, right? I can picture some of Nick’s baked Springrolls being served in this set-up, with some dipping sauce on the side. Too bad there was only one of them.

Over one aisle I practically leaped on this vintage Pyrex casserole dish. I was just searching ebay for one of these divided ones, so we can reheat two types of leftovers in one go. What I had bookmarked to my wishlist was much more expensive than the $7.99 I paid for this one, which came in perfect shape with absolutely no chips or sharp bits and only a small amount of scratching to the charming bird pattern on the lid.

Then I picked up this cute juice glass because I liked the primary colour tulip print. I thought that maybe it could be one of those vintage glasses known as ‘Swanky Swigs’, which used to be sold with jelly inside them, but upon researching it when I got home I realized it’s not because it’s a half inch too tall, and the jelly glasses had a rim/lip around the edge, to which the original lid would have been attached. No problem though, as I still really like the glass and it was only $.69.

Once again, with my limited shopping time allotment, I had spent too much of my time in the housewares area. But, hey, I have a real love of vintage dishes. But with about 20 minutes left I moved along.

Over at the shelves where they have stationary and related things I found an origami set that contained a book of instructions and a pristine stack of thick beautiful paper. I have been surprised in the past by how expensive origami paper is, so I was happy to find these 60 sheets with a variety of patterns and corresponding solid colours on the back, plus a pad of smaller papers (called tea-bag paper in the world of origami. News to me.) I’ll try some of the projects in the book, however will probably use most of the paper in my card-making.

While in that area of the store I was approached by a woman who wanted to talk. And I am always one to talk to strangers, so took some of my precious shopping minutes to hear what she wanted to tell me. I was glad I did because it was interesting.

She was a writer and told me she often went to the thrift store for inspiration for her stories. She felt she had found just that in what she held in her hands. She had found a nice journal with a lovely cover. Carefully written on the first page was a female’s full name and the sentence, ‘In this book I will write all about my new life’. I think you probably know where this is going. Yes, the second page was completely blank, as was the rest of the journal. Apparently this person’s new life hadn’t happened as she had anticipated, or if it had, it was not anything she chose to write about.

After a shiver of goosebumps, I went to the check-out desk. My time was up.

Thanks very much for your visit. Have you found any cool thrift store finds lately?
xo loulou

Posted in Thrift Store Shopping | 5 Comments

Bird Spotting : Another New-to-Me Visitor

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Loulou

I can’t say if I am seeing new kinds of birds that I’ve never seen before because I have begun to look for them, or because there are more of them in the city these days. No matter, here are some pictures of another bird I have never seen before.

This tiny fellow (I think he’s a he because of his colours) dropped over to our tree a couple of weeks ago, and hung out for one afternoon, and one afternoon only. I guess he was passing through Toronto while migrating further north for the summer.

When I began trying to identify him I thought he was a chickadee, mostly because my parents used to have them in their yard further north, so I knew they were tiny like this one. But then when I looked at pictures of chickadees I saw that they all pretty well seemed to have a black cap. This one didn’t have that.

So I kept looking and happened upon a really neat site that allows you to add distinctive features of a bird you have seen and then it narrows down the options, until presumably you have identified your bird. The site is called WhatBird.com and is found here. Using that I think I have determined that this bird is called a Flycatcher.

Does anyone know enough about birds to say ‘yay’ or ‘nay’?

Regardless of his lineage, he is pretty cute though, right?

Thanks for taking a look,
xo loulou

Posted in Animals | 4 Comments

Getting the Herb Garden Going

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Loulou

One day a few weeks ago while riding in the car (going to the thrift store, if you must know ;) I noticed a couple of handmade signs on the side of the busy city street, that said ‘Garden Center’ and had an arrow pointing somewhere behind the buildings.

Then last week, burning with curiosity to see this pop-up garden center had me suggesting that we fore-go our usual annual shlepping of small herb plants home by foot from Kensington Market, and instead drive over and see what was hidden in that mysterious niche.

The turn off of the traffic filled street took us to a narrow lane-way, (from Dufferin, north of Queen somewhere, on the west side, for any Toronto people looking for it). We drove along this for a minute or so, keeping our eyes peeled for plants. Then suddenly the lane opened up to a surprising small industrial park back there. And placed out in the parking lot behind a building that appeared to usually sell construction supplies was an excellent variety of very healthy plants.

It was a Tuesday when we went, so I didn’t expect it to be overly busy, but I also didn’t expect to be completely alone out there. In alone, I mean there was nobody in sight, not even someone watching over the lush array of beautiful plants.

So Nick went into the building and found some men working on something construction related. We were told to just start loading up a rolling cart and someone would be out to ring up the sale. Such a great shopping experience, being able to take our time and look at all that they had. (Ok, I should be honest here and say the only ‘we’ part in this exercise was Nick driving, rolling the cart around way too quickly, and loading the stuff into the car. Sure, he likes the herbs a lot when they are available to add to his recipes, but the planting and growing part is my thing.)

For years the only edible plants that I have ever grown myself were a variety of herbs. And I’ve only ever done so in a potted garden rather than putting anything into the ground.

Then last year I added some lettuces which we really found fun to have, (although truthfully, we could have gotten a bunch of freshly grown lettuce easily at the vegetable market that would have yielded the same amount as did my plants over the whole summer.) But, if you’re considering growing lettuces in pots, go for it. Once you’ve transplanted your starter plants (I don’t grow from seed), they basically just take care of themselves. All you have to do it water them regularly. They’re easy and they look pretty too!

So having had success expanding my repertoire from just herbs, this year in addition to lettuces, I decided to once again add a new ‘crop’, and selected two varieties of Swiss Chard. You might recall in xxthis post, where I talked about eating chard for the first time only last fall, so here I have gone to trying it for the first time to growing it myself within a year. I am adventurous like that. Go garden girl!

Care to know what herbs I planted? These are all ones I’ve grown for years so can attest to their delicious flavour and ease of growing in pots.

-Oregano : I went with two starter plants this year because it’s a favourite and gets used up, so I doubled the quantity. Both were put into the same pot.
-Basil : like with the oregano I got two plants but I put each into it’s own pot. Once I get things organized out there I might use these two matching pots as a decorative element. There are lots of kinds of basil but after trial and error over the years, we prefer the large leaf variety which is what we got.
-Parsley : we got two plants but two different kinds, flat leaf and curly leaf.
-Mint : we went with spearmint this year. mmm Mojitos.
-Thyme
-Chives
-Rosemary
-Tarragon

In past years I always did a pot of Sage too, but we hardly use it so passed on it this year. It grows really well though, if you want to try some yourself. We don’t bother with dill or coriander although I’ve tried them in the past, but found they both bolted (which means to grow way too fast, turn to seed, and then die), so don’t do them anymore. On the lettuce front, same goes for Arugula. And last year I tried some Savory but that was like planting $2 into a pot of earth and waving goodbye to it. It died right away.

To plant your herbs: Select a pot that’s about 8 to 12 inches across (as small pots = more chance for your plant to dry out. I used a few that were smaller because I ran out of larger ones, but will be potting them up soon). It is important that there is a hole (or holes) in the bottom of the pot for drainage. First lay a scrap of newspaper into the pot covering the holes before adding your soil. This will keep the soil from running out the holes but still allow the pots to drain properly. Then add some potting soil (that you buy at the garden center in bags) to the bottom of your pot. Remove your starter plant, and the soil it came in, from its little pot by squeezing and turning it upside down catching it with your other hand. Press it down into the soil and fill in with more soil, but only to the same level that the soil originally came to. Press down and around so there are no air pockets, and then water well until you see water come out of the drainage holes.

Then just plop them in a spot that gets at least two hours of sunshine a day and keep them watered. Note: if you have a wooden deck, do not put the post directly on the wood without a saucer or try underneath, as it will rot the wood. (Trust me, I know this from experience ;/ … it will ruin your deck.) If you have some decorative pots that don’t have drainage holes, just plant the herbs into another pot that fits inside your decorative one. You may have to lift your plant and drain the water that collect in the bottom from time to time though.

So between all the rain, I finally got all the plants transplanted yesterday. I still haven’t set everything up nicely out there yet but hope to get it looking all nice and homey soon.

A note about that crazy vine out there … I planted one small plant hoping to cover an unsightly bit of fence the first summer we were here, and to say that it was happy with where I placed it is an understatement. That single plant has now grown to surround our whole deck in beautiful greenery (and has tried its best to also grace our neighbours with its goodness, much to their chagrin … they are not fans of Mightly Vine, so I have to keep it trimmed on their sides.) You (read ‘I’) never know what will do well in the garden and what will not. I certainly never expected this to happen. I was so new at gardening back then that I have no idea what the vine even is but it gets little berries on it that turn purple in the fall. Nick tasted one at his own risk last year and said they were very bitter. Anyone know what it is?

First harvest …

Best helper in all the land …

So there is the state of our outdoor living space at this moment in time. Have I motivated you to try growing your own herbs and/or lettuces in pots?
xo loulou