Flea Market at The Englert and Christmas Lights

 SO I got the tree up and was really debating if it was worth it to put on ornaments.

Meanwhile, there's a flea market downtown in Iowa City at the Englert Theater. 

Bean and Dilly and Darling Daughter loaded up and we went to check it out. It was cold out!!! And our driver parked about a mile away.....

But we made it.

The theater is really beautiful-a real gem of a vintage theater.  Actually the flea market was more of an art market. Lots of crafty folks with their work for sale. 

The vendors were set up all over the place, in the upstairs bar reception area, downstairs in the dressing rooms and on the stage!

See how pretty the theater is? This is the view from the balcony.  We all had some good looks. but didn't buy anything. SO we also had a dinner plan, but couldn't get a table until later, so we went out to the dam to drive through the light display there.

I had never been out to this annual display, and it was fabulous!

Every kind of light is on!

It costs $10 for a car load to drive through, and it's worth every penny! The funds raised go to the local hospice program. 

It was a great night out with the family. I love spending time with my kids-the available time always seems hard to come by and doesn't last long enough-I'll take all the minutes I can get with these guys!

I'm Still In November!!!

Ok, so real fast, THe holiday gift box came! I love that even as a retiree, I still get the box!

There was a nice assortment of product.

And the gift was a charcutere board. Cute!

Dd and I tried out a new restaurant in the area, it's called Chicken Salad Chick. It was delicious!

Dilly even liked it, but he was not a fan of pickles today.

I went out and dug up the Canna bulbs. They are out in the garage waiting for spring.

I picked up Ben and we went to the Odd Mama's flea market in CR. We didn't buy a thing!, Then we went over to the Record Sale in Hiawatha.

I just laughed when we went in the door, there are all these guys flipping through box after box of record albums. 

I saw this little gem.

Who knew there were instructional records!??

And there's this little guy.

Now I think I'm done with November, December is coming right up!

I knocked my Weekend To-Do List Out!

 So, I got a lot done on Sunday!  I've been wanting to get this quilt on Freddie, and I did-more about that later....

I was wanting to get this little dress done too. One of Darling Daughter's co workers has a niece that is in the hospital and she wanted a cute dress with access to the shoulders to allow her care providers easy access to her port.

 I love this tie shoulder dress, I remember my younger sister had one in this pattern when she was maybe 3 or 4 years old.

Anyways, I hope the dress fits ok and she get through with her treatments FAST!

And then almost two weeks ago, I ordered a new part for the weed eater. Our Dewalt weed eater had the guard fall off. Look at this picture! The old one is sitting on top of the new one! WOW! I think that's a big improvement! The little screw holes lined up perfectly, so now we're ready for my gardener to go!

I also got the bedroom carpet vacuumed-I mean really! See Ringo sleeps on the floor in there and he sheds like no other. I swear I had a hair toupee on my carpet.  I didn't take pictures of that...too much information! 

Plus I got laundry done too!

On Saturday I went to Cedar Rapids to Odd Mama's Flea Market. 

It was a beautiful day! A little breezy, but nice! Lots of booths were set up and I had a great time browsing!

Lots of stuff to see!

And one picnic basket came home with me. It's a beaut isn't it!

So A good weekend overall!

Labor Day Weekend Labors

 

Not really labor, but I went to the Labor Day Flea Market out at the Johnson County Fairgrounds on Labor Day Monday. I've been liking the looks of these metal picnic baskets for awhile and picked this one up for only $10

I also got a couple of pieces of that green jadeite that my darling daughter likes so well. I got a pouring bowl-or whatever they're called and also a D handle mug stowed safely in my lucky flea market bag.

There's a Facebook group that I see quite a bit-they are all gaga over this Pyrex stuff. I can do without any more of that kind of thing.

On Sunday it was Family reunion time. We had a very small turn out-only about 7 people, plus Mom & Dad and me.

It was nice to get together and visit once again. I was fine with the small turnout in light of the covid still going around.

Selfies with Mom are always good!

Hubs was home canning tomatoes. He's a sucker for anyone giving away produce and one of his legion pals gave him two boxes of tomatoes. Thankfully he gave away one box to another legion gal!

I had to locate the cans and the canner pot to get him set up. I'm thankful I keep all the canning jars and we had enough-I still picked up a couple of boxes of pints when I saw them at Menards.  They are a little bit hard to find in stores around here this time of year. 

Well I guess we're all set just like the pioneers with our pantry stocked with home canned tomatoes.

Des Moines Road Trip

 So Lovely Jean and Uber Son loaded up and we headed to Des Moines to go to the "Largest Craft Show In Iowa!"...That's what the advertising said.  But first we stopped at the flea market, which was also at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Honestly, the flea market was free, and lots more fun. There is always something interesting to see there!

 But since we paid $6 a head to go see crafts, we did go see crafts. There are these big signs posted inside the venue, saying not to take photos. I didn't actually SEE these signs until I had already taken a few photos, so well, you know...here we go! The biggest trends, I think......

 Signs. Signs made of wood, boards, metal, windows, you name it there was a sign for you. I also saw several booths that were selling quilts and fabric items. I was surprised to see the kid sized quilts made from a panel were going for $45 and up. Sorry, no picture..I wasn't trying to be bad....

 Jewelry made from recycled materials. Like silverware, and lots of bracelets and necklaces and earrings made from found items, like watch parts, little keys and knick knacks.

 I snapped a photo of these cool wooden banks made from post office doors, and the guy there told me I would get in trouble for taking pictures. Nice guy and very cool banks! Unfortunately, they were a little out of my budget priced at $60 each and up.

The absolutely best part of the day...Tasty Tacos! I had never been, but Jean & Ben had been here lots of times. Look at this tray full! They make their flour shell tacos with the tortilla lightly fried, so it's crispy and delicious! And look at those flour tortilla nachos! My hubby makes them for me at home because no place around here serves them this way! I can't wait to go back here!!!