Friday, February 10, 2006

I swear my hands did not fall off

Yes, well, I was right in the middle of posting and almost done last night, when Blogger went down for maintenance. Guess I wasn't fast enough. Anyway, here goes again.

Last weekend my son and I went to visit my youngest sister, Joy and her family in Castle Rock to spend Friday night and Saturday. My husband stayed home. She has three girls ages 9, 7 and 5. My son is 10 so he always has fun playing with his cousins as he is the only child at home. We also took along the girls 12-year-old uncle (my bro-in-law youngest bro). They also have a cute tabby cat named Max, who is almost a year old. This winter has been unseasonably warm. I love winter but I’m glad because I hate driving on icy streets.

The view from the top of my sister's street



Castle Rock is about 25 miles south from my house. My sis is a SAHM (stay-at home mom) and her husband works as a manager at a Lexus dealership. We sometimes joke that they are Mutt and Jeff as my sis is 5'2" and he is 6'3", so their oldest child, 9, is taller than my son, 10.

On Saturday, we did some shopping. First, to U.S. Toy Company, only nine stores nationwide, never been there before. It’s a learning is fun kind of toy store with ready-to-assemble kits, books, arts and crafts and party supplies,etc. even candy. We just browsed awhile and the kids just bought candy and I bought a bag of craft buttons.

The buttons in my own plastic bag.



Next, to Chick-Fil-A and munched lunch on yummy chicken sandwiches and fries. I had a chicken roll. On to Toys-R-Us where there was a 75% off sale. My sis bought a discontinued cute Mattel dollhouse, 5sies, for only $6 down from $25. I bought my son one of those silver, blow-up kind of Frisbees with an alien design on it and I couldn’t resist three DVD’s for myself, 1.99 and .99 each – Betty Boop (Classic Cartoons), Alfred Hitchcock thriller (Blackmail-1929) and a Jimmy Stewart classic (Pot O’Gold).

Lastly, we went to an antique and collectible shop in old Castle Rock, The Barn. It literally is an old 100-year-old barn converted to a shop with old creaky wooden floors and three open floors, you know, just like the Old West. It was a consignment shop that dealers rent a space in.

Front



Another view of the front



Side



When we were leaving and four or five blocks away, I told my sister who was driving, "Wait! We have to go back and take pictures of the outside for my blog"! Wanted to take better pictures than these.

We could only stay a short while as we left the kids in the van watching a DVD. Right off I saw a glass jar of vintage buttons and old marbles, price tag said $15. Decided to look around some more and come back to that later. My sister spotted a countryish French sign as our mom loves French stuff for $10. I saw a box of old clothes patterns for $1 each. I’m going to use them for decoupage and besides they were the wrong size. Anyway, there were sooo much goodies to look at but we had to head on back. When paying for my purchases I inquired about the glass jar of buttons and was told to talk to the manager. I did not want to spend $15 for it so he sold me only the buttons minus the marbles all for $5. (wish I could have had the Mason jar with that price, too).

Across the street from The Barn was this cute little toy store.



Sorry the picture is not so good, took it from the car. Cute turquoise, red and yellow colors. Wanted to go in but was closed. Oh, well next time.

On the way home passed by Castle Rock – The castle the city literally is named from.



At my sister’s house, Max the cat made use of the dollhouse plastic box. You can’t tell from the picture because of white-eye (like red-eye, get it ;) but they are tawny-orangey like.





Zoe and Karleigh playing with the dollhouse.



Just Zoe.



Zoe showing off her Barbie doll.



Karleigh goofing behind Zoe.



Cutey Zoe.



Kids chillin' out.





Some of my fav buttons from The Barn.



Here is an unusual one that said Made In Czechoslovakia on it. The front has a copperish, geometric square and diamond design on it.



The back has two metal hooks – one vertical like a picture hanger and the other horizontal. Made me think that this maybe could be a very small belt buckle, never saw anything like that.



Of course pictures do not do the real thing justice. Or I just take lousy pictures. I think it's the latter.

That evening, my sis and bro-in-law went out to dinner which was unplanned but as the good sis, I said yes to babysit. I can’t recall the name of the restaurant they went to but they brought me back a very delicious small quiche-tart. And on the way home, the boys fell asleep in the car.

Next: Thrift store #1

2 comments:

nico said...

omgosh zoe your neice is sooo cute! i love her eyes and hair...

so thats what castle rock looks like ey... great travel pics! hehe i like how you just had to go back to take pics for the blog... thats the main thing i remember when i forget my camera! haha

i checked your new hairsticks on etsy- they are lovely.

good luck with your new crafting stuff...the patterns for decoupaging sounds really cool! i too have a bunch of patterns that i have not made yet... vintage ones- cute jumpsuits and awsome vintage- 50's style tops....

haaaayyyy... im so impatient coz there are so many steps to follow! eh!! ive only made on pattern. a pair of pants. last summer! never even cut the newer bought patterns anymore...

must be nice to be able to visit relatives!

take care jessica keep posting!

Gina said...

Love the photos.