I think I’ll welcome the new week by sharing one of my vintage finds with you. This beautiful tin recipe box is one of my current favorites:

Found in an amazing, seemingly never-ending thrifty antiques mall in Mitchell, South Dakota (right down the street from the Corn Palace!) in the summer of 2004. I fell in love with it right away and it’s housed my favorite recipes ever since. The index card dividers that you see below came with it and also the recipe for Bicentennial Cake that was clipped from a newspaper and taped to its cover. I haven’t made it yet. Truth be told, it sounds kind of horrible, what with all that food coloring. Regardless, it will forever live taped to the lid of the box.

Here’s the recipe, complete with original typo. Makes it more authentic, no?

Bicentennial Cake

1 package white cake mix

Prepare as directed on package. Divide batter into three equal pats. Leave one part white. Add blue food coloring to another part and red food coloring to the third part. Spoon alternately into pan size 13x9x2 inches. Bake as directed on package. Serve with whipped topping.

Happy Bicentennial!

Today is my 31st birthday. How can you tell it’s different from other days? Well, I’ve not only taken a hot shower, but I’ve also put on makeup AND dressed nicely. This kind of trifecta is only possible on special days, birthdays included. I’d show you a picture to prove it but I’m shy.

Having a quick, romantic lunch with my sweety (modern version of quick, romantic lunch: we sit at the same table eating yummy sandwiches while writing blog posts on our laptops. sweet. romantic. swoon.), and then I’m off to have a manicure/hot stone pedicure for my birthday treat. Woo hoo!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday. I will be back with a vengeance tomorrow and will hopefully be able to share some exciting news. Something to do with shopping. Something to do with vintage goods. Something I’m really thrilled about.

Until then….

I started a club when I was about 7 years old called The Chicklets. We were really cool. Basically, I invited some friends over, gave everyone a box of Chicklets gum, and proceeded to jot some club rules down. I have no idea what those rules were anymore, but I’m sure they were something like this: “I, Tonya, am president of the Chicklets. You are not. You may play one of these boring roles that will answer to me (vp, secretary, treasurer, etc.). We will meet at my house once a week and do whatever I want to do. Any questions? End of meeting.”

No great surprise, but I think there was only one meeting. We still called ourselves a club, though. And chewed gum.

Welcome back. I trust we all had a nice Labor Day weekend? It was gorgeous here, the perfect “end” to the summer.
Neil spent a lot of time killing brain cells while staining our deck and I spent an equal amount of time avoiding those fumes with Dash in-hand. Let’s see… what else? We had a great, totally unplanned barbecue with some good friends. Rowdy with all of us playing croquet, horseballs, and attempting to ride a unicycle. There was much wine and there may have been cigars. I’m not sayin’.

Also, you might have noticed I added these little chicklets under each post so you can share with others at Del.icio.us, Digg, Technorati, and others. What do you think? Is it overkill? Are they too big? Do you even care?
I haven’t made up my mind about them yet so I welcome your feedback.
Thanks friends!

You know the best part about freezing fresh blueberries?

The sound of them rolling around on the plate like little blue marbles. Try it.