I love rummaging through junk (hoping to find treasure :)  If time permits, I would be hitting garage sale, yard sale, estate sale, moving sale, multi families garage sale, flea market, church thrift sale, second hand stores, and any other kind of old used items sale on the weekend !

 

 

I like them old things.  Simply because they reminded me of the past.  They hold so many memories (or not, if they were in storage most of their life, but I like to think they were well used and loved).  Many reminded me of my childhood.  Especially those 4 wheels roller skate. 

Every time I see them, they would transport me back to the first time I learnt to skate.  It was a late 80s' early summer morning.  My mom was sitting on the porch, my grandma was in the kitchen, and I was out side in the garden.  I was wearing a hand-me-down white button up dress with tiny green, yellow and red bouquets of flowers.  I was sitting on the garden's paved walk way, soaking in the sun, breathing in the smell of the fresh cut lawn and getting ready to take my first step on the skate.  I stood up fell flat down !  I don't know why I remember that day so vividly.  Perhaps it was a very good day.  Perhaps because it was my first experience of the west (roller skating)  during my first week in Canada.  I was finally united with my grandma and all my aunts.  I miss my grandma and my aunt Sarah very much.  I wish I can talk to them again, hug them again.  Memories of those who passed on are sweet and painful altogether.

 

So back to vintage stuff !!!  Used, old, items are the things of the past.  They age with time so they're bound to smell a little funky !  Do you notice that ?  or is this just us ?  My husband's sensitive nose can't handle the musty smell.  5 min. in a store and he feels the overwhelming need to rush outside for fresh air.  For him, antique or vintage shop conjures up images of old dead people, corpse to be exact.  Needless to say, he doesn't enjoy this kind of outing very much.  Also because I spend an unreasonably long amount of time (his words) in each of this store.  My husband doesn't understand that I need time to dig through these mountains of stuff.  That's what fun about it !  And I need time to think, to reminisce, to smile at the thought of the life it lived !  ah...look at that vhs player ?  oh and the hand crank egg beater, rotary phone...old times, good times.

 

Here are some pictures of my recent visit to Waterfront Antique Market and Auction in Lynnwood, WA, USA.   Each vendor decorated their own stall and set their own price.  It was very neat, clean and interesting.  You dig and pick out what you want then bring it up to the cash register to pay.  You can't haggle because the vendors aren't there.  Some are cheaper than others so you have to check out each stall.  I wish we have something like this here in BC. 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REPOST from ourbestbites.com

 

 

Easy Cupcake Frosting and Filling

 

3 tablespoon Flour

1/2 cup whole milk (I use half whole milk & half coconut milk)

1/2 cup real butter (I use unsalted, but salted was recommended for better taste)

1/2 cup granulated sugar (I use organic cane sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or other flavor if you wish.

 

Instructions:

 

Whisk together the flour and the milk. Heat in a small sauce pan on medium heat.Whisk continuously until it starts to thicken. Let it cook, while stirring, until you can start to see the bottom of the pan. Smash any flour lumps with a rubber spatula to keep mixture smooth.

Keep cooking mixture until it resembles thick pudding, almost a paste-like consistency.

Put this mixture in the fridge and let it cool completely, it’s fine if it stays in there long enough to get chilly, you just don’t want it warm at all. As it’s cooling, feel free to stir it occasionally to speed up the process and keep it from forming a crust on top.  When it is chilled, you can move on to the following step.

 

NOTE:  I don't have a stand mixer so I used the hand held one !  it's a bit tiring and time consuming but the result is excellent !  sooooo fluffy, light and amazingly good !!!

 

 

It an electric stand mixer, beat the butter and the sugar for a minute or two until well combined and fluffy. You’ll want to use the whisk attachment on a stand mixer, not the flat paddle. Then while beating, add in the thickened milk mixture and the vanilla. Beat to combine and then scrape down the sides. Don’t be scared. It’s going to look like a goopy mess and kind of lumpy and separated like this:

 

But you just wait. It’s gonna blow your mind in a few minutes. Beat on med-high until it comes together and becomes light and fluffy.  It can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes.

 

It will transform from that sloppy mess into something gorgeous, fluffy, and incredibly light and silky.  If the time has passed and it still looks like a hot mess, just keep on beating and it should eventually come together.  Feel the mixture between two fingers to see if the sugar granules have dissolved; if not, just beat a little longer.

 

Use it to fill or frost cupcakes, cakes or other pastries. You can’t go wrong putting this on just about anything :)

 

Frosts 12 cupcakes, lightly.  I almost always double it.

Repost from onelittleproject.com.  Go visit her site for some easy diy projects and crafty ideas.

I made different color poofs and hang them from my ceiling fan !

Tissue paper pom poms, also known as tissue paper balls, or tissue paper poofs.

You can get tissue paper at the dollar store, 20 pieces for $1.  So that’s two large tissue paper pom poms per pack making each one only $0.50.  For the medium size, 1 pack will yield 4 pom poms.

How to Make Tissue Paper Pom Poms:

Count out a pile of 10 sheets of tissue paper and lay them flat:

Fold the end in about 1″ to 1.5″ and fold it accordion style (fold, flip over, fold, flip over, repeat):

Continue to fold it accordion style:
  

Until you have folded the whole thing:

It doesn’t need to be perfect.  The tissue paper is pretty forgiving:

Fold it in half to find the center:  

Wrap a wire around the middle (I used dollar store jewellery wire):

And secure it to hold everything in place (Note: This would be a good time to attach thread or fishing line if you plan to hang it):

Round the edges of both ends.  The shallower the cut, the shallower the “petals” of the tissue paper pom pom will be:

So now you should have something that looks like this:

Take one piece of tissue paper:

And pull it away from the rest of them:

Continue pulling apart the layers of tissue paper:

The layers will start to look like this:

Once you finish one half, pull apart all the layers of the second half:

Fluff up all the layers until you get it into a good ball shape:

Then hang it from the ceiling with some fishing line and you are good to go!



Eigensinn Farm Pork Steak with Green beans cooked with speck and garlic scape at Haisai restaurant in Singhampton on Sept. 6, 2013.  (Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail)



KAT TANCOCK

Special to The Globe and Mail

 

In March, I attended a food-photography workshop in Sicily with Béatrice Peltre, author of the cookbook La Tartine Gourmande. The true value was in watching Peltre work: endless adjustments and retakes, extreme pickiness when selecting produce and the patience to keep trying until the shot was right.

Martha Stewart, one might think, would know all of this, with her extensive media experience and general air of OCD. And yet her Twitter feed of late has had the look of being hijacked by a half-blind toddler. The images, collected and spread far and wide by BuzzFeed, range from out of focus and badly lit to earning comparisons to the origins of penicillin and the contents of certain bathroom fixtures. Not a good thing.

Food photography, for all the derision it receives, isn’t easy, especially when shooting with a smartphone. Here’s how to do it right.

Don’t use your flash: “The best food under harsh lighting conditions won’t look appetizing,” says Vancouver photographer Joann Pai. “Never use the flash on a smartphone.” If it’s dark, look for external light sources, such as candles or a lamp. In daytime, shoot near a window, with the subject out of direct sunlight.

Don’t stop at one: “You’re never going to get it on the first shot,” says Vancouver photographer Shawn Taylor. “Try the same thing with little tweaks: lighting, where you place the focus, exposure, angle.”

Think about angles: “For me, the best angle is top-down,” says Pai. “It gives you a chance to style what’s around the table.” Taylor agrees, and says that trying different angles is key to getting a creative shot. “45 degrees is boring because that’s how you see your food when you’re sitting at the table.”

Don’t centre everything: “The fact that we can move the phone quickly to what we want to show is really empowering,” says Peltre, who suggests playing with cropping and what appears within the frame. Pai is a believer in the classic rule of thirds, placing the subject one-third of the way in from the photo’s edges. “I like to place my subjects off-centre.”

Don’t post straight online: A little adjustment of your image can go a long way, whether it’s via a photo-editing app (see sidebar) or just an Instagram filter. “When you’ve got bad light, sometimes the filter fixes things,” says Taylor.

Apps to try
Joann Pai suggests thinking outside the Instagram frame when shooting with your phone. Here are her three essential apps:

ProCamera 7 (iOS, itunes.apple.com)
Use this app to control camera functionality while taking photos, including manually adjusting shutter speed, focus, exposure and white balance – and displaying live ISO and shutter-speed data.

Snapseed (iOS, Android, Chrome, snapseed.com, itunes.apple.com)
Adjust ambience, brightness, and more in this mobile- or Web-based photo editor that’s been owned by Google since late last year.

VSCO Cam (iOS, itunes.apple.com)
Pai likes this app for its filters, which she prefers over those in Instagram as they’re more food-friendly. “Filters should alter the mood of the scene but not take away from what the food actually looks like.”

 

 

GET $10 OFF $40 WITH CODE tracycollin

*new customer only*