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...

A Three-Estate-Sale Day

A sampling of smalls.

As you've gathered by now, Duane, Linda and I love hitting estate sales on Friday.  Those are generally the best sales on the best day of the week.  Almost all of the big sales start on Friday as opposed to Saturday.  Today we were very lucky to hit a triple.  The first two sales were on the south side of town so it took about a half hour just to get to them.  Sale number one was held at an older house on the water and had very nice items.  I found a lovely handcrafted leather box made in England that has a little age on it.  Linda found another piece, two pieces actually (they're a set) for her Noritake/Japan china collection.  The prices at this sale were fantastic.  The company conducting the sale definitely wanted to get rid of the contents.  The house is already on the market so I suppose that may have been an issue.

One of Bunny's rooms.

The second sale was at a lovely home just off the bay.  The owner had been a woman who was a decorator and antique dealer.  She was known as 'Bunny.'  The house was so beautifully furnished with a large number of items and the rooms were gorgeous.  'Bunny' had excellent taste and, apparently, a large purse.  I purchased a small Halcyon Days enamel box.  I have a collection of these -- mostly given to me by George and other family members as gifts.  The price was very good for this one so I couldn't pass it up.  

Bunny's sun room.

The third sale was very near to where Duane lives so that worked out since we could head to Starbucks for a treat afterwards.  This house was much more modern in style than the two previous houses.  The owner had a nice collection of American made matte white pottery priced to sell so I had no trouble finding one I liked.

Linda and I were very happy with our purchases.  Duane had been tempted by a few items but was a good girl and prefers to wait until she finds something she really likes.

We don't get many Fridays with sales this good so we enjoy them when they come along.

My treasures.

Linda's lovely find.