Tag Archives: shopping

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The last Notch drive and a little shopping.

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Heading back to the resort for the last time it looked like there was a hole in the sky…

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And before long we were approaching the Notch.

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These signs are on both entrance sides to the road and it took me a few minutes to figure out what they were talking about.

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TT’s won’t fit?

How odd.

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As we entered the Notch, rain. I swear the mountains make their own weather.

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Godzilla barfing?

No, just falling rocks.

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Not sure if you can tell from the photo, but the road is positively pink. Vermont has the oddest color tar in places. Perhaps it’s mixed with Ben and Jerry’s Strawberry Shortcake…?

Since our neighbor was caring for Lord Dudley Mountcatten… as well as feeding the fox and deer.. a thank you gift was required. This meant dragging my husband shopping and you know if it isn’t antiques he isn’t happy.

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A bottle of local Vermont wine…

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And some Vermont chocolates were perfect, but then I lost the husband in the store.

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You knew he’d find something vintage, right?

He actually collects these old gas station oil bottles and was thrilled to find a complete set with the holder. He was less than thrilled to find they were being used as decoration and not for sale.

He was so grumpy about that he wouldn’t let me go back and purchase this special maple syrup.

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Which in hindsight was probably a good thing…

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Because as soon as I saw they had various Dog liquor I wanted one of each.

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But at nearly $200 for the pair it’s a good thing they were under lock and key.

😬

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Vermont… lovable and quirky.

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At times Vermont feels like another world. The pace is slower, the air is cleaner and we didn’t see a single McDonalds or Dollar General the whole time we were there. Talk about refreshing.

The residents are independent, hardy New England stock and while that might be off putting to some, it just means you have to dig a little deeper to find the sense of humor lurking beneath.

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Like this farm store where they welcome you with pumpkins..

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And provide some interesting alternative modes of transportation.

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Think Santa’s sleigh… but with cows.

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Everywhere we looked? Something made me laugh.

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Good to know. Thanks.

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Yes, it’s a trash can.

Nothing funny there, but…

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A trash can you’re not supposed to use? Funny.

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Nothing funny about the subject, but I laughed all the same.

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I really wanted to buy this tee shirt. But apparently so did everyone else because there was only one left, size extra small… and to be honest I doubt I was even born that size.

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Etsy, I hardly knew you.

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A few years ago I was mindlessly cruising the internet and discovered Etsy. There are some fabulous jewelry designers selling on that platform and I fell down the rabbit hole quite quickly. Falling can be dangerous, not to mention expensive… so I make a point of avoiding it now.

Until Facebook decided I needed to go back and purchase this rather strange assortment of items.

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Um… no.

If I can’t have an authentic mummified head from the Ptolemaic dynasty? No fully toothed polymerised head will do.

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For the love of all that’s holy, no.

What the utter f*ck!

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Interesting, but alas we have already built our man cave bar. For considerably fewer thousands.

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All season cat shelter?

It’s a Rubbermaid tub with holes. I’ll pass.

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Sure. Nothing could go wrong here.

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Support your carefree jumping youngster with two eyelet hooks that are already splitting the wallboard.

No problem there.

😳

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Punk be pricey.

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I’ve always been attracted to steampunk. Equal parts creativity and recycling, you never know what kind of design you’ll find. And then there’s the sheer weirdo factor. Who doesn’t love that?

So when Facebook popped up with some Etsy suggestions I was intrigued.

Until I saw the prices.

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Damn.

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Punk be pricey.

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And Lord knows I love a good ray gun as well as the next girl…

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But I could hear my checkbook screaming no! from across the room.

Or maybe that was my husband.

Tough call.

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They also can’t spell possibilities correctly, but you get the idea.

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Food and fashion are a bad mix.

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Some things naturally go together. Cookies and milk? Of course. Macaroni and cheese? You know it. Gin and tonic? I’ll bring the limes, cheers!

But fast food and shoes?

No.

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Clearly Madison Avenue was on a 6 martini lunch that day.

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And if that’s not stupid enough?

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Crocs – Ugliest. Shoe. Ever.

And I live in Maine, home of the L.L. Bean boot.

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KFC Crocs?

For the love of God, why.

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Finally, I scored.

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On our drive home from the mountains the other day, I got lucky.

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I finally found a man cave appropriate crate for my albums! No, I’d never heard of Holihan Brewers but neither did I care.

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They existed.

They brewed beer in Massachusetts.

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And that was good enough for me.

Okay, the crate wasn’t in the best of shape….

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But after a lot of elbow grease, scrubbing and oiling…

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It didn’t look half bad.

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And then there were three.

I’ll need at least 3 (probably 4, possibly 5) more.

I wonder if I’ll live that long?

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A flea market bust but a brew pub win.

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My husband heard about a large flea market in Fryeburg , Maine… and since the 90 minute drive did not deter him, over to the western part of the state we went.

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There was indeed a flea market, but that’s the only good thing I can say about it. Yes, there were a few antiques scattered here and there… but mostly it was tacky new merchandise. Like this:

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Clearly Barbie has reached menopause age.

It was hot as hell that day with no breeze whatsoever and that made me cranky. The only thing that made me smile?

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Martian chauffeurs.

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After a few fruitless hours of my husband searching for treasure and me searching for shade, we left empty handed. And since it was well past lunchtime and I’d worked up a terrible thirst.. there was only one place to go. The penultimate brew pub.

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If you don’t know where it is, you’ll never find it… tucked away down a narrow wooded residential road, alongside a golf course in a quiet town near the border of New Hampshire called Lovell .

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The barn is the pub, and there’s outdoor seating as well.

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If you’ve never heard of Ebenezer’s? Good. That means more beer for me.

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But if you live in New England, chances are you know this award winning shrine to suds. A visit there never disappoints.

To be continued….

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Bar treasure.

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If you know anything about Guinness, you’ll know they had a fabulous ad campaign back in the day.

Their first ad was published in 1794, their first tagline introduced in 1929. In the early 20th century, doctors thought the brew had medicinal properties and promoted strength. Until the 1950’s Irish mothers were told to drink Guinness after giving birth because of its iron content. Guinness is good for you! remained the slogan until a random trip to the circus drew inspiration from the performing zoo animals.

It’s these advertisements that became synonymous with the brand, and this collection of vintage coasters I found at an antique store.

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The perfect addition to the Barn Mahal man cave bar.

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There were even a few Christmas themed ads.

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And if you recognized the famous toucan on the bottom right….

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It might be because our original poster was one of the first things we ever hung in the man cave.

🙂

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The perfect gag gift.

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Because sometimes you have to suck it up, be embarrassed and buy the tackiest item in the store.

I think I’ve mentioned my husband has an old friend who… how shall we say… has a rather low brow sense of humor. And when we run across lewd, rude and crude items while shopping? He always comes to mind.

So when we spotted this nut cracker on our recent antique excursion, we knew we had to buy it.

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Carved out of wood and shaped like a woman’s legs…

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It’s surely every man’s worst nightmare.

And look…

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It’s anatomically correct.

🤣

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