bubbledog blog

merry christmas

Wishing you and your loved ones a very happy holiday!

mid-week crafternoon

I was lucky to have the day off from work today and my friend Gina came over to visit with her two girls Bea and Lily.  Whenever possible, I love to get together with them because Bea and Lily have an amazing appetite for crafting.  Today's activity was making t-shirts with fabric crayons. I hadn't done this since the eighties and they came out much better than I remembered!  Bea made a rainbow (enhanced with lots of jewels), Lily recreated a page from an Elephant & Piggie book (enhanced with lots of jewels), Gina made a Jack-O-Lantern (though she tried, she could not escape adding lots of jewels after the insistance of her daughters), and I made a happy cheeseburger (which just barely managed to escape the be-jeweling process). 

rehoboth beach

We just got back from an amazing trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Since I live in NJ, you always hear about the beach because people love going to the Jersey Shore (which in most places is not like the TV show of the same name).  We thought of going to Wildwood or Cape May, but I am so happy that we chose Rehoboth because it turned out to be a great choice... it was cute town with lots of things to do, the beach and boardwalk were beautiful and really clean, and the restaurants (always my favorite part of a vacation) were awesome!  I would highly recommed checking it out if you haven't been.

One of my favorite things to do when I am down the shore is to check out old signage.  That was actually why I had considered going to Wildwood... they have the most amazing old motels and motel signs.  Rehoboth couldn't compete with Wildwood in that department, but I was very fond of these two beauties:

Though the restaurants that I ate at were all great, my favorite part of the trip was snacking on all of the fattening foods that you are not supposed to eat in between meals!   Thrasher's French Fries had excellent fries and, should you choose a large, you could enjoy (literally) a bucket of fries.  We almost made a daily trip to The Ice Cream Store.  Their ice cream was amazing and there were tons of flavors to choose from... if you couldn't decide, you could spin the "Wheel of Indecision" (on right) to help you out.  On way home, we stopped at The Fractured Prune and got hot hand-dipped donuts.  I cannot stop thinking about these... they were so good.  The donuts are made right in front of you, hand dipped in the toppings of your choice, and then delivered to you piping hot.  We had a lemon glaze, cinnamon and honey, maple glaze, and of course... sprinkles.  I want to go back NOW!

twas the night before christmas...

...and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except me... taking pictures for my blog!  I'm very excited for Christmas this year as this will be the first year that we will be hosting Christmas at our house.  We've spent the entire day today cooking & prepping the food, cleaning the house, and tweaking the decorations.  I really hope everyone has a good time tomorrow!  Here are some pics from my house... we're exceptionally proud of our garage sale score of an old "happy holidays" wooden cut out (missing the "s" though).  It was the perfect mantle piece for us!

Of course, to get all this decorating done, you need a lot of help... how could I have done it all without help from Poppy the Christmas elf? At 13 years old, she was patiently posing for this picture, but if she could talk, she would be channeling a Lethal Weapon style Danny Glover, "I'm getting too old for this s#!$"



         HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

the perfect fall day

Fall has always been my favorite season, but year after year it seems to go by in the blink of an eye.  Add to that the fact that so far this year, I have either been working on the weekend, or it has been unseasonably hot, or (more than likely) it has been raining and dreary.  So, I was pleased to have the perfect fall day today...

The day started off right with some delicious apple cider donuts from Solebury Orchards. They were given to me last night and I was afraid they might not be as fresh as they would have been yesterday, but no problems there... they were amazing!  Next my partner and I headed to the Golden Nugget Flea Market which was PACKED with vendors and shoppers.  I found an amazing set of Pyrex Friendship pattern mixing bowls and decided to treat myself to them!  We headed to Lilly's On the Canal for lunch in Lambertville where I had my favorite cubano sandwich.  After returning home from an afternoon of shopping and eating, we got to spend some time with our dogs while procrastinating on doing anything about the sea of leaves covering our yard.  The day will be completed with endulging in some homemade chicken tikka masala for dinner and then cuddling up with the dogs for as much tv as possible.  Ps - it was also my birthday :)

green

After going back and forth about a million times about color choices, my house has received a much needed painting!  I really fell in love with this green color (Sherwin Williams - Rural Green), but painting a house green in the middle of the woods seemed a little strange to me (I'm not trying to completely camouflage it or anything).  Anyway, I stuck with my guns and went with the green and I really like the end result!

cape crusaders

I just got back from a short three day vacation on Cape Cod.  It was actually five days, but I don't know if the day of driving on either end should count as "vacation" time.  I've never actually been to any part of New England before, so it was nice to finally see what I have been missing. 

While there, I was only in the towns of Provincetown and Wellfleet.  Though very different from each other, they were both cute, small towns.  Provincetown was bustling with people, shops, and restaurants while Wellfleet was quiet with a small downtown area. 

The highlight of my trip was the day we rented bikes in Provincetown and rode from the center of town out to Race Point Beach where the harbor meets the ocean.  The water, though c-o-l-d, was very clear and a perfect blue-green.  The bike ride was awesome and there is an amazing paved trail for you to follow through the dunes.

Somehow, I managed to do a bit of shopping while away... I always mange to find time for that.  We went to a flea market at Wellfleet Cinemas in the drive-in lot (still regretting not going to the actual drive-in) on Sunday and managed to snag a couple of cool items including the cast iron squirrel nutcraker in the pic below.  Even better than that, while riding around in Wellfleet, we happened upon a couple of garage sales... one of which was "all you can fit in a bag for a buck!"  Among other things, I got this Bartons Almond Kisses tin at one of the garage sales.  It's nothing really collectible, but rather something I remember my grandmother having when I was younger and I had to have it! 

I did some real "retail" shopping as well.  They had lots of stores with decorative home items.  Everything was kind of pricey, but they also had some smaller items that weren't too bad.  I found the ceramic birds in the pic above at a shop called Roots in Provincetown. 

Prior to going way, I had been searching for some cool sneakers for the last couple of months.  I'm really picky when it comes to sneakers and always manage to find something that I don't like.  Well "thank you Cape Cod" because I found a great pair of Pumas while away.  Finally!  They weigh almost nothing and though you might think that the yellow and silver would be obnoxious, they are actually rather subtle when you have them on. 

 

arts & crap

arts:
I was able to meet up with my friend Laura on Thursday and get a sneak peak of the new art school that she is opening up in Flemington, NJ.  I actually met Laura a few years ago through her etsy shop and I am a big fan of her work.  The Art Studio is a really cool place in an amazing space in Flemington and I wish her all the best with this new venture!

crap:
Following the visit to the art school, Laura and I stopped in the Five Below in Flemington.  I had never been in one before, so I was a bit skeptical with the stop.  Well, twenty dollars down the drain later, we were leaving the store.  They had a lot of stuff that you don't need to buy, but man... I just have no will power.  The cash register area was loaded with cool erasers, funky candy, smelly pens, and all that kind of stuff that I can't resist.  My favorite find were these giant robot erasers... there were four different designs and it was an internal struggle for me to walk away with just two of them!
   

yo-yo grandma

In her free time for the last year or so, my grandmother has been working on a yo-yo spread.  Just about everywhere you would see her, you could catch her hand stitching these little yo-yo's.  After making over a thousand of them, she started to ask me for measurements for a daybed in my guestroom and I learned that this spread was going to be a gift for me.  Yesterday, she brought the finished product to my house and I am in awe of her craftsmanship.  It is impeccably crafted and absolutely beautiful.  Too bad the daybed is located in the downstairs guest room and in all of its 1960's wood panelled splendor.  She's quite an industrious woman... if only I could get her to do demolition and drywall work too ;) 

bubblicious chocolate mint gum

A quick word about the scan... if there is a god of vintage wrappers & packaging, his name would be Jason Liebig.  Jason is one of my flickr contacts and he has an amazing collection of scans that you could spend hours and hours looking through.  The Bubblicious wrapper above was cropped out of this original scan.

I had to blog about this wrapper because I nearly fell off my seat when I saw it on flickr.  I think I chewed this Bubblicious Chocolate Mint Gum non-stop from the fall of my 7th grade year until my freshmen year in high school.  I used to buy it at a little corner store with my friends as we walked home from school.  There was something about the fall weather mixed with the taste of the gum that made me blissful (as if I was in one of those old Peppermint Patti commercials).  

Unfortunately, right after becoming addicted to this pasty-green sugarfest, my family moved from New Jersey to Texas and this gum was nowhere to be found in San Antonio.  Maybe it was a regional thing?  While I was in Texas, my Aunt Donna would ship a box (like two dozen packs) of this gum to me periodically throughout the year.  I would hoard it in my closet and ration it for the next few months... luckily, the rest of my family thought it looked gross and wouldn't even touch it. 

Whenever I was missing living in NJ (or when we would be celebrating Christmas in Texas with our air conditioning on) this gum was like a minty reminder of my old home, my old friends, and holidays back in NJ.   I wish they still made it... I am sure that trying it would be a nostalgic rush!