A Family Visit -- Soccer and the Eastern Market

Bailey in action.

I spent a few days last week -- including the weekend -- visiting my youngest sister, Heidi, and her family.  Washington D.C., as I've stated before, is like a second home to me since that's where George was born and raised.  I couldn't wait to spend time with two of my favorite little people -- my six year old niece Bailey and her four year old sister Taylor.  I saw both of them play soccer.  My brother-in-law, Charlie, is the coach for both of the girl's teams. 

We also went shopping at one of my favorite places, The Eastern Market in D.C.  Heidi and family live in Fairfax so it's not far to the

Taylor & a team mate.

market.  The girls are old enough now to enjoy going and Bailey was interested in anything that I stopped to inspect.  I had told both girls that I would buy something for them if they were good and they both chose necklaces.  I bought a beautiful cotton scarf and actually found a piece of Cathrineholm enamel ware.  I couldn't believe that I was lucky enough to find a bowl at the market.  I've never seen any of these vintage pieces from Norway on previous visits to the E.M. This one doesn't have the lotus design.  Instead it's a beautiful blue/green enamel on stainless steel.  I love it.  It's only the third piece of Cathrineholm that I've purchased.  Both of my other pieces were bought from eBay.

Bailey and Taylor and our 'finds.'  

Here's a close-up of the bowl along with a side view:

My newest Cathrineholm piece.

Side view -- no chips or deep scratches.

  

First Cathrineholm piece I ever purchased.  Lotus design.

My Cathrineholm baking dish.  Lotus design.

These pieces were manufactured in numerous colors and the lotus design was/is very popular and is my favorite.  They've gotten pretty pricey over the past few years, though.  I also have a collection of midcentury enamel pieces scattered around my house so the new addition of another Cathrineholm bowl was such a nice surprise from one of my favorite places to shop -- D.C.'s Eastern Market.  I think my older niece, Bailey, may have the 'shopping' gene for vintage items.  She asked a lot of questions and seemed really interested in my explanations.  Sounds like I may have a future shopping buddy when I'm in Virginia...

Amigurumi 'Peep' Bunny Rabbits

I finished my little gifts for my three nieces  (now ages 7, 6, and 4) for Easter.  I found this really cute pattern that reminds me of the Easter bunny 'Peeps' that you see everywhere this time of year.  They were pretty fast to crochet and didn't involve too much 'sewing' of parts together.  (Not my favorite activity.)  I realized after taking the photo below that I should have sewn the ears a little closer together on the bunnies heads.  I've discovered though that you can play with the ears and make them stand up a little straighter as opposed to pointing left and right.  Since the pattern calls for filling the bottom of the 'body' with plastic pellets, these little guys will stand on their own.  I'm giving one of the hot pink ones to my niece who lives near me.  The other two are flying with me to Virginia tomorrow.  As always, all bunnies will be accompanied by a tube of mini M&Ms.  The pattern is actually called 'Love Bunnies' and it's by Erika Hughes.  You can find it here.  

Saturday sales

Linda's table.

Linda, Duane, and I hit a thrift shop sale, an estate sale and a large yard sale Saturday morning.  We wanted to get to the sale at the Friends and Neighbors Thrift Store first so that Linda would have a chance to nab the adorable pale blue wicker table we saw there last Friday.  Happily, she got it at a great price.  It's a nice size table and she plans to use it in her master bedroom.  Linda and I also both bought a DVD each.  I've noticed that this shop has a nice selection of movies at great prices. 

Next, we hit an estate sale that was entering it's second day.  This sale was in an older section of what's referred to as 'Old Carrollwood' and the items were very nice.  There were two LeRoy Neiman signed serigraph prints.  One of the three tenors and the other was of Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong.  All three of us loved the 'Satchmo' print but, alas, it was beyond our budgets.

Neiman 'Satchmo' signed serigraph.

We didn't end up buying anything at this estate sale although we might have found something if we had gotten there on Friday morning when it first began.  A lot of smaller items had been sold.  The last sale we visited was completely by accident.  We happened to notice it as we were driving back to where the three of us met that morning.  Duane and I saw a yard sale in a very large front yard.  Linda made a quick left turn and we were there.  This lady had a lot of cute small stuff.  Mainly new items that she purchases in bulk because she takes items to children in different countries.  She had just returned from the Honduras.  I found several cool items for my nieces when I visit them next week in Virginia.  Linda also bought some new luggage tags and a book. 

Our small purchases.

We were near a large Starbucks -- hurray, we actually had no problem finding a table -- after we hit the estate sale so we were pretty caffeine-ated by the time we hit that yard sale.  The small items for each of my nieces are a finger puppet, a luggage tag for their school backpacks that say 'Hands Off!' and these cute little 'camera' keychains that make a clicking sound and flash a light when you press the button.   From LeRoy Neiman to tiny 'made in China' toys -- as always -- we never know what we'll find.