Best Friends, Antiquing & a very Good Man

My best friend from 7th grade, Shirley, came for an overnight visit yesterday - she arrived in the morning and we chatted away and caught up.  She is very important to me, as she's my oldest friend that I've kept an ongoing relationship with.  I love her dearly.  Makes me think of the old camp song I learned in Girl Scouts.... "Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold."  She's pure gold to me.  Shirley and her husband live in Seattle and both love antiquing and have a very nice collection of Depression Glass.  Now they're venturing into vintage pottery.  She'd been visiting her brother and they'd spent 5 hours the day before antiquing in Aurora, Oregon.. an old town full of antique shops.  We decided we'd go out to lunch and then to check out an antique mall nearby in Troutdale.  The first thing we saw was this chicken dish.. but she put it back and so I said "If you don't want that, I'd like it."  So she gave it to me.  We were both thrilled at the reasonable prices!  I have been wanting one of these ever since I saw the collection of Hen, another of my favorite bloggers at Hen House.  So, now I have a start to a new collection.. and it's so appropriate with the fact that I have chickens, right?  

Before Shirley and I headed out.. we sat on the deck and watched hubby as he puttered away mounting the freshly painted trellises he'd bought and painted for me.  Of course there was some touch up painting needing to be done...  There was much decision making on where to put them... this way.. or that?  And you know how a project goes, he had to tighten up the gutter first, then clean it out, then mend a dent in it where a limb had fallen when we had the dead maple removed in front of it... I also ripped out a bunch of Deadly Nightshade that was growing on the bush on the left of the shed.. doesn't he have pretty legs?  LOL

Up on the ladder.. oh dear.

Of course he had to let the chickens out and collect the eggs..

He was glad we two girls left... peace at last! :-)

We had a delightful lunch at Francis Xavier restaurant, Shirley had a fresh grilled salmon salad with fruit and greens.. and I had a salad with shrimp on it and some prawns.  Yum!  Above you can see another "find" at the antique store.. little vintage salt and peppers of old pop bottles.. they're only 4 inches tall or so.

And I just *had* to get this small vintage brass lantern with the original thick glass chimney, it still has the wick and was only $18!!

Another shot of my chicken covered bowl.  Do you know what these were used for and called?  I am not sure.

Now.. for the ta-dah of the trellis installation.  The bummer is that hubby had to trim off all the old growth on the white clematis as it was a big ball of dead vines inside of it... so if you remember the pretty white flowers in the last post.. those are GONE.  What is left is some leafless pruned vines.. oh dear.. do you think they're make it?  On the right, hubby planted the 2 other purple clematis that were in the pots.  Hopefully next summer will bring two lovely vines on either side of the shed.  Now to get the bag of potting soil and the recycling bin of toys re-located.. :-)  Then to work on the inside!!

My other vintage find.. this sturdy little stool - I envision crocheting a colorful cover for the top - inspired by Lucy at Attic24.

Last find at the antique mall.. this crystal Eagle.  I thought, how appropriate that I find this on the eve of one of the United States of America's biggest holidays.. the 4th of July.  We celebrate our forefathers Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, which was mainly to free ourselves from being taxed and have the ability participate in commerce as we saw fit.  There are parades and festivals and fireworks all over the country.  Tomorrow we're taking our 2 littlest grandsons up to the Corbett 4th of July parade where there will be horses, floats, marchers, kids on bikes and ponies and lots of vintage cars.  Stay tuned for photos!!

((hugs)), Teresa :-)