Pickled Hutch Picks

I have a thing for images of women diving. I'm not sure why that is, really, except that they just look strong and elegant, and the idea of diving from so high off a little board or a patch of land is exciting to me (that is being someone who used to back down the ladder of the high dive when I was little). I used to keep a picture of a woman diving off a cliff side in my cube at my old 9 to 5 job. I can't tell you how many times I looked at her, wishing I were her diving and not me sitting in my cube. I think it would be fun to collect images of women diving and hang the framed collection in a bathroom. I could start my collection with this one above from the Pickled Hutch where Lisa has a great selection of old photos. Another great idea for your old photos (or a mix of yours and found photos) is this great idea from SFgirlbybay.

The prices vary, but are about $1-4 each.

Silver sugar, which I'd use as a vase or cotton ball holder in the bathroom. $9

Statue of 3 women with one missing a head, which just gives her more character! $95

The Pickled Hutch is an antique store in San Francisco that I love. Every week I pick three items to post on my blog that I especially like. The Pickled Hutch is located at 2021 Palmetto Avenue, Pacifica, CA. Open Wed. to Sun. 11 - 6. PH 650-359-2000. Ask for Lisa.

Nesting

I've read that all this getting ready for the baby--cleaning things out, making room for new things--is called nesting. I feel like I'm nesting all the time anyway because our place is small, especially compared to where we lived before. Now I have a rule where if I bring something in, something goes out. There's just not enough room for too much stuff. The only problem with this rule is I have a hard time parting with things sometimes, even the littlest, most inconsequential things. Like the nest you see here topping my lady head vase--it's been on this table, then that table, in this drawer, then that. I just move it around. And the little bits of bric-a-brac in the nest, those things Lisa gave me, and they've just wandered around our place aimlessly as well until now. I found a home for both the nest and the bric-a-brac in (or rather on) my lady head vase. She's often empty, without a flowery top, so I made a sort of hat for her when she's not sporting fresh cut flowers. What's on her mind? You know, the important things in life: time, God, and jewelry.

Flea Market Outing

This morning I found a whole bunch of treasures at the Alemany Flea Market, but just came home with a few. I spent most of yesterday attempting to make room for the baby, which means cleaning out the guest bedroom (aka our storage unit / my craft room), which means cleaning out every other nook and cranny in our apartment to store what I take out of the guest bedroom. Basically I just move stuff around and, alas, seem to have less room than I started with. But this process also involves filling quite a few bags to take to the Salvation Army, so we're making some progress though it's slow going. After spending most of the day fussy because we (or I should say I) have so much stuff with no place to put it, I really have no business going to the flea market and buying anything. But I did anyway! (We do need some things, like things for the baby room.) Above is an adorable pull toy for the baby room that I got for $15--it's so cute! I think I may have mentioned that we're going for a vintage look in there, so this will be perfect on the shelf that's going to go above the daybed we're getting. It reminds me of some of the cute kids things I often see at Three Potato Four. We're getting a lead paint test kit to test all the old, chippy painted stuff I've been buying for her room--we wouldn't want to poison her!


For the baby, I got a handful of old kid's books--some for .50 cents and some others for $2.50.


I liked this vendor's stuff--old scales, farming equipment, metal stools, and . . .


this great, old map of San Francisco that I got for $25. My mom bought Paula an old map of New York that was similar to this one for $100, and though it was in better condition than this one, I couldn't resist. I love it. It will go in our hallway. I think I'll have it framed but without glass.


I got this old painted lamp for $10. I've been wanting a new lamp for our bathroom, which has somehow taken on a floral theme so I think it will look cute in there. I just need a little shade for it.


Then do you remember the quilt top I got last weekend, the one on the right? Well, I also liked the one next to it, but didn't get that one then, but it was there today and I got it for $15. When I got home and opened it up, I noticed a price tag. I looked at it, and it said $200! Yikes, I think I got a deal.

Pickled Hutch Picks

I had the summer blues today, but only the good kind--blue sky, blue ocean, cool blue picks from the Hutch for a hot San Francisco day (that's mid-80's around here). Above, a small hobnail vase $22.


Royal blue and aqua enamel pin $6.

A sweet embroidered tablecloth 64" x 50" $45.

The Pickled Hutch is an antique store in San Francisco that I love. Every week I pick three items to post on my blog that I especially like. The Pickled Hutch is located at 2021 Palmetto Avenue, Pacifica, CA. Open Wed. to Sun. 11 - 6. PH 650-359-2000. Ask for Lisa.

Cherry Pie!

The pie was delicious! Andrew preferred this one he made with sour cherries and bing cherries to the one a few weeks ago that he made with just bing cherries, but I think I liked the other one a tad bit more. Just a tad bit though! The recipe came from Cooks Illustrated, and I think it's pretty perfect.

Flea Market Outing

Yesterday I went to the Alemany Flea Market. I woke up really early--4:30AM--and I just couldn't get back to sleep, so at 5:30 I got out of bed. I've never been to this flea market before 9:00, so I was excited to be there with all the early birds. One thing I think I prefer about going later is the chance of getting a better deal. I'm terrible at asking for a better deal, and rarely do, so I like it when vendors just offer up a better price than what's marked. Toward the end of the day it seems people are willing to come down on their prices a little more. This flea market isn't especially cheap (a very small wood aqua chippy painted side table for $87?), but you can find some really good deals now and then, and it's always fun to look around. I just bought one thing, which is now one of my favorite things ever, an amazing vintage fabric quilt top for $20. I love it! My mom's going to help me finish it and then it will go in the baby room. Here it is along with some other fun things I saw.

There's my quilt top! Mine's the one on the right, with a good bit of yellow in it.

Here it is a little closer. Click on the picture to see it larger--aren't all those little prints great?


Ah, a lovely lady. But do I really need another lady painting? I'd like another one, but she looked a little too melancholy for me today, and I wasn't sure I wanted to pay $65, though I think she was definitely worth it. The frame alone was great.


A huge bird cage! Not quite as big as Lisa's, but still very big and it looked really old.


One vendor that I really like a lot always has boxes of stuff in groupings--box of clocks, box of doll shoes, box of doll heads, box of door knobs, box of cars and trucks, box of vintage books, etc. I love looking through his boxes. He was also the one selling the lady portrait that I liked. And he sells re-purposed little brooms like you see in the first picture at the top of this post.


What a great trunk! I want a trunk for the baby room to serve as storage and a coffee table to go in front of the daybed we're getting ready to buy. The trunk was in Mary Millman's space, whose space always looks like a little antique shop. She does a great job arranging things so that everything looks nice and so you can see everything at once. A little decorated corner of the flea market. We got to talking and learned we both love the south! Ah, the south, where it's hot. Call me crazy, but I wouldn't have minded a little hot. Anyway, Mary is featured this month in the Maine Antiques Digest and can be found at the flea market on Sundays or by appointment if you might be interested in her antiques: sfflea@earthlink.net. She also had a great rug, below.

Life is a Bowl of (sour!) Cherries

Yesterday we went to the Alemany Farmer's Market, which is becoming our regular Saturday morning shopping trip. Fresh fruit, veggies, eggs, bread, honey, olive oil, flowers--we can get it all there. And every once in a while we find something really exciting like sour cherries. They are very sour! Andrew's been on the lookout for these for a few weeks now and was really happy to see them at the market yesterday. He brandied some of the cherries for Manhattans, and the rest are going to go in a cherry pie along with some bing cherries we picked up. We'll see how it turns out. Two weekends ago Andrew made the best cherry pie I've ever eaten, using just bing cherries. I think it was the best any kind of pie I've ever eaten, and I can't imagine him topping that, but maybe the sour cherries will do it. Here are a few pictures from yesterday morning.

Pickled Hutch Picks

Yesterday I went to the Pickled Hutch. It's so nice going there now. I didn't think I'd be especially happy about driving the few 10 minutes to the new shop verses walking down the street two blocks to the old shop, but I actually love it. The drive is so pretty. At first it's just regular old highway driving, but just a few minutes before you reach the exit, you go up a big hill, and once you reach the top, you can see the ocean and beautiful shoreline to your right and rolling green hills dotted with houses to the left. And then of course when I get there, I find treasures! It's a nice outing. Here are my picks this week.

Old white metal toolbox. $32.



Wood "ribbon" mirror. I think this mirror is so cute and would be perfect for a little girl's room, above a dressing table or dresser. It's $42. Someone put it on hold after I took the picture, though, so it may be gone now!



Candle holder. $22.

While I was there, Lisa went to Tranquilitea down the street and picked up these petifores. Aren't they pretty? Here they are before . . .


And after! We ate all of them! Wow, they were good. Thanks Lisa!

The Pickled Hutch is an antique store in San Francisco that I love. Every Wednesday (or so) I pick three items to post on my blog that I especially like. The Pickled Hutch is located at 2021 Palmetto Avenue, Pacifica, CA. Open Wed. to Sun. 11 - 6. PH 650-359-2000. Ask for Lisa.

More from Portland

We had a really fun weekend in Portland. We saw a lot in just a few days. We spent most of our time downtown around the Pearl District, on Alberta Street and Mississippi Avenue and the neighborhoods that surround those two fun streets. We loved how Portland reminded us of what we like about Atlanta and what we like about San Francisco. The downtown area, neighborhoods and people reminded us of Atlanta, but then with Portland you have mild weather (unlike the hot, hot, hot of Atlanta right now) and great outdoor diversity with the mountains and river nearby. Here's a bit of what we did over the weekend.


I've heard of Voodoo Doughnut a few times and had to check it out. They specialize in really fun and unusual toppings for their doughnuts. I first heard of it on No Reservations and have since seen it mentioned on a few blogs. Bacon on your doughnut? How about fruit loops? A slice of cheese? Well, I didn't pick anything with those toppings, but the Portland cream doughnut I did have was great and so was Andrew's maple cruller. Check out more pictures and flavors from Voodoo Doughnut here. (That smear of chocolate in the foreground looks really gross, huh?)


We went to a great antique mall called Stars. For the short time we were in the mall, I was in heaven! I'm not very good at judging prices--my mom's the expert at that, and I need her with me to know if prices are good on junk and antiques--but usually I figure if I'll buy it, it's a good price. I'm pretty frugal about these kinds of things, and the prices looked reasonable to me. I really wanted this little blue rocking chair for the baby's room but passed since we flew to Portland.


I did get a few old ABC blocks. I've been wanting some of these!


I just liked this sideboard so I took a picture.


We ate A LOT of good food. Above is french toast from Helser's, a terrific place on Alberta Street. We tried to go to another place Andrew read about, the Tin Shed, but the line was way too long for us to wait on Sunday, so we headed to Helser's down the street. We did try the Tin Shed the next day, but decided we liked Helser's more. We went to a few good places for dinner as well, but our favorite had to be Wildwood in the Northwest neighborhood. It was terrific!


Powell's bookstore is a famous bookstore that takes up one whole city block. Around the corner from the original Powell's is Powell's Technical Books, an exciting place for my engineer husband.


We were in Portland during the Rose Festival. We decided to pass on going to the parade (though we did go check out the floats afterwards) and instead we headed to the International Rose Test Garden. Wow, it was beautiful and the roses smelled amazing! Also the weather was perfect that day. If you like roses, this is a wonderful place to visit if you're in Portland during the spring or summer.


Can you see snow-capped Mt. Hood in the background?


Here's a cute snack spot called Moxie RX on Mississippi Avenue, another fun neighborhood for good shopping and eating. We didn't eat here because we had just eaten, but the sandwiches and muffins looked wonderful. And the place was just so darn cute. It's hard to tell from the picture, but trailer was decorated so adorably both inside and out, and I wanted to wheel it home.

So those are some highlights from our trip! I'm glad we went and would love to go back sometime. Also, if you stay at the Kennedy School Hotel and are up for walking, Alberta Street is close enough to walk. We didn't rent a car and instead just used public transportation, and it worked out great. We just took buses and the light rail and got along fine. Next on the trip list is Atlanta and Edisto Beach in South Carolina. Can't wait!