A cool find...

 

In our trade-town we have a monthly market downtown called Saturdays On State.  (State is the name of the main downtown street).  It's a vintage style market with lots of repurposed furniture, antiques, old west things, Pyrex and even some handmade knitted and crocheted things.  It's a lot of fun and we ranchgirls try to take that one day a month and treat ourselves to a day out shopping and eating lunch out.  This time I scored a really cool 1950s vintage floor lamp.  I spotted it immediately amongst all the other very wonderful stuff, and I just knew I would be taking it home.  The lampshade alone is worth around $60 to $75 on Ebay, but I got the entire lamp for $58.  I felt it was very fair.  It's heavy duty and the fiberglass shade imprinted with feathers looks so fitting in my ranch home.  At least I think so.  

  

The bug-a-boo in the lamp was the fact that it had this ginormous light bulb in it that I was sure could not be found nowadays.  I asked the seller about it and she said she thought I could replace the entire guts of the lamp.  I knew that could be an option, but I thought I'd try to hunt down the bulbs.  Nope.  Nothing.  When I got home I figured I'd order a kit for the lamp, but then FirstBornSon had a better idea.  He said I should try to find an adapter for it to screw into the socket base where the bulb was screwed in.  I found that my lamp had a "mogul sized base" and I needed a "medium sized base" so I checked on Amazon and sure enough, they had an adapter from mogul to medium for about $5.  Easy fix!  I was thrilled.  I share this with you so that if you ever come across a really wonderful, old lamp that has a huge light socket, buy it, and get yourself a $5 adapter.  Easy to fix!

 

 Here's my own little quiet corner where I read and drink my coffee each morning, and sit and reflect each evening.  I set the lamp right next to me to provide a little extra light when I need it.  The log is my side table.  Usually my favorite coffee mug sits there.

It has turned cold here again.  We're just 2* tonight.  Pretty cold for little lambies to be born.  Thankfully we have a good barn that is bedded with a heavy layer of straw that insulates against some of the cold.  But tomorrow is a new day, and it sounds like it will warm up and the sun will shine.  We will take as many ewes and lambs out as we can tomorrow.  It's all going pretty well.

A ray of light...

Up at the sheep barn I was caught off guard when I casually walked through a beam of light shining through a hole in the tin.  It was weird -- kind of like being shot without feeling it, but knowing *something* happened.  I stepped back and felt for my pocket camera and snapped a picture.  Just a cool thing.

Today I rode to town with hubby for some supplies.  He's going to build a feed bunk for the ewes with triplets.  We're going to try to feed them extra so that they can raise their own triplets instead of bumming them.  We'll see how that goes.  It's sometimes hard for a ewe to raise three lambs when there are only two spigots.

While Hubs was running errands, OnlyDaughter, her two Littles, and I went thrifting.  We found childrens clothes for the girls, and I found some fun dishes.  For six bucks I got 4 plates, 4 salad plates, 2 cups, 2 saucers, a sugar bowl with lid and creamer.  OnlyDaughter took a couple plates for her plate wall and I took home the rest. 

 After washing up the dishes, I decided I really liked them.  Initially the sugar bowl and creamer caught my eye, but now the rest of the dishes are growing on me.  After supper I decided to go looking for the brand online:  Taylor Smith Taylor Ironstone, USA.  I found that this style is a collectable  made in the 50s and 60s.  Now that I have these few pieces, I'm going to keep my eyes open for others.  I like this retro look and shape.

 Mint by Taylor Smith & Taylor Ironstone

There is another style that is popular in the Taylor Smith & Taylor line called Atomic and a similar pattern called Cathay that looks like the dishes below.  Again, another very retro look that I think is fun.  I'm going to keep a sharp eye out for this style too.  I love thrift shops, and how much bang I can get from a buck.  It's like the barn -- a beam of light shines onto old, forgotten things, and I see them in a different light.

Atomic by Smith Taylor & Smith