Birthday Weekend Excursions
Not so long ago, my sister and her husband flew in for a weekend visit.
It was my sister’s birthday weekend and my birthday was right around the corner so we decided to celebrate our birthdays together. I’ll confess that I sometimes feel like I’m not the best hostess. I don’t plan a lot of activities for my visitors. I can guarantee you that the house will be clean. I’ll have a nice, clean bed for you to sleep in and the food and drinks will be delicious. As far as planning fun stuff to do in our town, I fall a little short. The fun stuff for me is the visiting and catching up on each other’s lives. This time I was ready. I put a little thought into a few activities that might be fun and keep us active and we could still visit. I wanted it to be a memorable birthday experience for my sister. And with the pandemic, we’ve all been kind of cooped up over the past year, you know? You have to consider what clothes and shoes your visitors have brought with them and what the weather is going to be, etc. The weather did not cooperate with the outdoor activities I had planned. Fortunately for me, Amy and Brian had a pretty good idea of what they wanted to do. They wanted to just piddle. Well, of course, piddling is one of my favorite sports!
Pid · dle
/ˈpidl/
To waste time, to dawdle.
We got up when we woke up, sat and stared with our cups of coffee and caught up on each other’s lives. We took some walks and we did some piddling. We talked about how browsing antique and consignment stores would be fun so we came up with a plan of hitting most of them during their visit. I don’t know about you guys but being able to just waste time and dawdle is not something I’ve been able to do very much lately and that’s a shame. I’ve got a full-time job, a blog to write, a family to feed, a body to take care of, a house to take care of, a new fluffy kitten to love on – I'm swamped! 😊 So, taking a few days to just relax and not be scheduled and go treasure hunting was so good for my soul! There’s a lesson in this – I think we probably all need to piddle a little more often. We need to unplug from the computer and devices and just get ourselves centered. So, let’s get into our piddling adventure!
What were we looking for on these adventures? My sister set up a beautiful mini bar in her study and had sent me a picture of it the week before they flew in. When I saw it, I was inspired. I didn’t have all of the pretty things that she had for her mini bar, but I had some pretty things of my own. I set about gathering things to create my own little mini bar. The cool thing about the mini bar is the way the bottles reflect in the mirror in our dining room. Even though the items I had around the house for entertaining were not purchased with setting up a mini bar or bar cart in mind, to my delight they all worked together really well. I had a gorgeous silver tray that I had gotten from Pier One about 10 years ago. My boss had given me a lovely ice bucket and a wine bottle holder many years ago and they all worked together. My sister has been planning this mini bar for a long time and for one of her birthdays, I got her a cute Kate Spade decanter with etched polka dots. On this trip, she was on the hunt for a more masculine looking decanter to balance out the very feminine Kate Spade decanter. And, let me tell you, she was going for Dynasty-level glam. You know the kind of Dynasty-level glam I’m talking about, right? The Alexis tossing a drink in Blake Carrington’s face kind of glam! Ha! Well, I loved this idea! I once had a lovely decanter, but sadly it had gotten broken during one of our military moves. With small kids around at the time, I didn’t worry about replacing it. I decided a decanter or two, even if they are empty would complete my little mini bar.
My sister was also on the hunt for a deviled egg platter. Any Southerner worth their salt is going to have an egg platter or two. How else can you get the deviled eggs to the get together? Oh and there will be deviled eggs! Getting those deviled eggs to said event is a challenge without an egg platter. I think any proper Southern lady needs an egg platter. I have Dolly’s beautiful egg platter that is milk glass with gold trim. We were hoping to find a similar one for my sister.
I had a few things on my list. I was on the hunt for a large lamp with a big, fat base to go on the entry cabinet by my front door. I also wanted a decanter for the mini bar and a second egg platter.
The first store we went to is called The Clothes Lion. It is located on Nashville Road in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This is where I take all our clothes when I clean out a closet. They accept in-season clothes from the whole family which was great for me as the kids were growing up. They also sell booth space so there are antiques and various treasures and whatnots to be found. My sister found a lovely clear glass deviled egg platter here.
Our next stop was Consignment Corner. It’s located on Indianola Street in Bowling Green. This place doesn’t look very big, but once you get in there, it goes on and on. On the first floor, they have everything arranged so that as you go from room to room, there is a theme. I really liked that because I didn’t really want to spend any time hunting for sofas or chairs or tables. I beelined for the dish room and then the lamp room. As soon as I walked in the lamp room, this brass lamp caught my eye. It didn’t have a price, shade or harp but that didn’t deter me. I walked it up to the front counter and asked if they had a light bulb and a place I could test the lamp. I also asked the price - $5! I tested the lamp and it worked! Here’s a sneak peak of my $5 lamp.
I’ll do a little DIY on how I took this $5 lamp from sitting lonely and dusty on a consignment store shelf to fabulous with very little effort.
I also found some cute little blue dishes. One of them is completely bizarre and funky and just makes me laugh. I decided it would become a little bit of unexpected humor in a gallery wall I have planned.
Next stop was Consignment World on Broadway Avenue. It’s literally right across the street from Consignment Corner. Each of these consignment stores have their own little niche. Consignment World sells large items like dining tables and chairs, sofas, dressers, sideboards, mixed in with accessories. Well, as I was walking through the rows of dressers my sister called me over. There was a grouping of decanters on display. I got this one for $19.
When shopping for decanters, you want one that has some weight to it. And of course, no cracks, chips or major flaws. An antique decanter is probably going to be made of leaded glass. You can tell by tapping on it with your fingernail or a spoon. (Who carries a spoon around? Ha! Maybe try using a key?) If it’s leaded crystal or glass, there will be a little chiming sound. With glass, it will be a shorter ping and the decanter will probably be lighter weight. You need to be careful about storing drinks in leaded crystal. The lead can leach into the liquid the longer it sits in the decanter. So, if you plan to fill your decanters, use a cheap liquor that you don’t plan to drink or put something you drink frequently, such as red wine in it. That way your drink will not be sitting and soaking up lead that will then be ingested. No, we don’t want that! Why not fill with water? If you fill your decanter with water, condensation will build up and it will just look sweaty and messy. No, we don’t want that either!
The next day, we went to Grandma’s Attic on Nashville Road. They relocated late last year and somehow, I had missed that fact even though I drive by their new location to and from work every day. I had to call and find out that they had moved right under my nose. Ha! Grandma’s Attic is the perfect name for this place. You will find everything from full sets of china to old ginger jar lamps to vintage rugs.
Fortunately, my sister and I were fairly focused on what we were looking for so even though we were browsing and piddling, we didn’t get too sidetracked. We found several deviled egg dishes, but then we spotted a green one! Neither one of us had ever seen a green egg plate and so we snagged it for my sister. We brought it home, washed it and used it the very next day!
Next stop was Lulu’s Fine Home Furnishings on Broadway Avenue. My sister was especially excited about going here because her sweet little Yorkie is named Lulu. Of course this place was going to be great!
Isn’t she the cutest?!
And because this shop is called Lulu’s, we decided pictures in front of their sign were an absolute must! Here are a few pictures before we went in. My brother-in-law loves to keep snapping pictures when we aren’t ready and I have to say, some of these photos turn out to be my favorites.
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Here we are in front of Lulu’s excited for the treasures we are about to discover!
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Janie: Hold on while I fluff my hair
Amy: I’ll use this time to knock out a few squats
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Janie: Were you doing squats just now?
Amy: Just a few….
Lulu’s definitely has finer home furnishings. The owner is a designer. She has beautiful designer light fixtures that are hanging on display for purchase. Everything is artfully arranged at Lulu’s. They have a unique way of enabling you to see how certain items would look in your own home. As you can imagine, they are also the pricier of the consignment stores in this area. We found matching decanters for only $14 each up on a shelf in the last room we went in. This decanter had just the shape my sister was looking for and I knew I needed at least one more decanter so we decided to get matching ones. Sisters! We love having matching items because we don’t live in the same state. Somehow it makes us feel closer in spirit knowing that we both have something alike.
We then stopped across the street at The Junkery on Broadway Avenue. The Junkery was nice, but the vibe didn’t fit what we were looking for on this day. For anyone out there shopping, check them out if you are looking for unique pillows. They had some gorgeous pillows and when I’m styling a room, I’ll be going back. They have lots of furniture and other items like mattresses and wall signs.
The next day was Amy’s birthday and we decided to head to Flealand’s antique shop on Three Springs Road. As the name implies, it is a huge flea market. On the weekends, the entire market is open and weather permitting, vendors are set up outside as well. I had to make sure that I was back home to accept a delivery of a little surprise I had up my sleeve so we stuck to browsing the antique shop. This trip was a major score for both of us. Amy found a brand spanking new egg plate that was exactly like Dolly’s! So, if you’re keeping up, Amy now has three egg plates! 😊 She WILL be the one bringing deviled eggs to the next family get together! Ha! I found a few more blue plates, some crystal ashtrays that I’m using for coasters and a glass egg plate. Little did I realize that it was exactly like the one Amy found on the first day – again sisters! Ha!
Once back home we had a few things we needed to do to get ready for our evening. We had a banana pudding to put together and a delivery to accept.
The surprise delivery was a lovely charcuterie board from the Cheese Queen of Bowling Green. The Cheese Queen of Bowling Green, Rajna Bulut, is a charcuterie board caterer that creates and delivers boards to your door. She caters to any number of guests and I have to say Rajna is an absolute delight. She has a beautiful sense of style and our charcuterie board was not only delicious but a true work of art!
Rajna was able to accommodate some special dietary needs by supplying us with gluten free crackers and we were able to try some new cheeses and combos that none of us had ever tried before. The fig preserves were so good with the cheeses!
If you find yourself needing a charcuterie board for a special occasion or just because, check Rajna out on her website at cheesequeenbg.com or on Instagram @cheesequeenbg.
My sister is the banana pudding queen so we found a pretty trifle bowl I bought from Pampered Chef a long time ago and you can find here.
Amy put together the most epic of banana puddings – four layers people – that's pretty impressive! I found gluten-free vanilla wafers on Amazon which I will link here.
They were incredibly delicious and I will be buying them again! I felt a little guilty that my sister was putting together her own birthday dessert, but she's the master so why stand in the way of letting that goodness happen?
Amy was excited to try my spatchcock chicken recipe so I put together my first three recipes that we debuted here on the blog. My son and his girlfriend were also joining us for dinner. I decided I better cook 2 chickens and it went a lot smoother than I expected. We all enjoyed our dinner and then got into playing some bananagrams around our large coffee table. Bananagrams is one of our family’s favorite games to play! If you’ve never played it, it’s a fairly inexpensive game that you can find here. After a round or two of bananagrams, we were ready for that banana pudding and the gift opening.
On our final full day together, we had the most relaxing day! The weather was beautiful so we went for a walk in our neighborhood. Amy had shipped a package to me that she wanted me to open early for my birthday. Well, this gift brought tears to my eyes! It was beautifully framed sheet music of “How Great Thou Art” - a hymn that is near and dear to both our hearts because it was near and dear to Dolly & Bud. Amy had gotten one for herself from Etsy and so she and her husband decided I needed one too. Hopefully, this will help us both get our hearts started off right every day.
