Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Nonnie's Sewing Machine

Last post I showed you my mom's sewing machine. This post I'll show you her mom's sewing machine. 

My grandmother who we called Nonnie. My grandsons call me Nonnie too in honor of her. It's a Singer Treadle sewing machine. 



It was manufactured in 1901 so it's a true antique. My grandmother was born in 1901 so obviously she did not buy it new! She probably bought it when she came here from Italy and got married. I don't know what year that was. 

It's in decent shape for its age. The cabinet could use refinishing. 


Side note: I remember holding on the machine with my feet on the treadle and bouncing up and down! 

The rawhide cord that connects the treadle to the wheel is broken beyond repair so it hasn't worked in many, many years. Probably since my grandmother stopped using it because I can't recall my mom ever using it! 

All of the drawers still have a lot of her sewing materials in them. 

A lot of threads which I'm sure are no good anymore. 


An old cosmetic case, a Tropicana Hotel patch, an old electric bill from 1963, and what remains of the rawhide cord. 


Several packages of seam binding, an awl and some snaps. 


And a couple packs of matches, one from Bonanza restaurant, (does anyone remember that restaurant or I think it was a steak house?) and one from Salem cigarettes, a little sewing kit that advertised Wonder bread and some attachments for the machine. 


I have been trying to find some cord to replace the broken one. I would like to oil this baby up and see if it still sews!  I don't see why it wouldn't. 

It's definitely a family heirloom and will pass on to Shauna when I'm gone. She would be the 4th generation to own it! 

That's it for now! 

Until the next time take care and thanks for stopping by! 

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Random

When we were on our cruise in January we were in a little store in St. Maarten and Rich wanted to buy some Pepsi. He picked up several bottles and when we got to the cashier we noticed there was a $25 minimum on credit card purchases. Since we were a little short of that we needed to purchase something else. I saw this little bracelet hanging there and thought it was cute with a little palm tree on it. 


So we bought it and it brought our purchase to over the minimum. We paid and went on our merry way! 

I wore it once or twice during the cruise and it wasn't until we got home that I really looked at it and noticed that the little charm wasn't exactly a palm tree. 


But a marijuana leaf! Oh well, that's ok. I could take it off but I think it's cute so I'll still wear it occasionally!

This is my mom's sewing machine. 




It's a Singer Featherweight 221 and she bought it in 1957. She used to sew clothes for us all the time and one time she sewed us matching pantsuits for Christmas! Plus many pairs of jeans were altered on this machine. Pant legs tightened to skintight and panels added to bell bottoms to make them bigger! I mean, it was the 70's! 

I took it from my dad's house after my mom died. It had sat in a closet for 25 years and then in my closet for another 20 years. I took it out a few years ago, cleaned it and oiled it and it sews like a dream! But it and the case had a pretty musty smell. 

Lately I've been trying to do some small sewing projects, and the musty smell was giving me a headache. So, I googled how to get rid of it. Several hours in the bright sunshine and a thorough wash with baking soda and water and the smell is mostly gone. 

I won't show you my sewing projects because they are pretty bad! 

Here's Maxwell and Levi practicing their kicking in their backyard pool!



They have their faces in little floaties and the pool is filled with water balloons! They know how to have fun! 

Until the next time take care and thanks for stopping by!




Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Family and Tawas City

Earlier this week we took a quick overnight trip to Tawas City MI to visit with my brother Tom and sister in law Debbie. 

It's always been their dream to be snowbirds and once they both retired last year they made their dream come true. 

They spent from last October until the end of April in Myrtle Beach, SC and from May until October this year they are in Tawas City, MI which is a city on the East side of the state on Lake Huron.

They bought two 5th wheel campers, one for down south and one for here. 


They have it perfectly set up for everything they need!

We stayed in a cute little motel about 2 miles from where their RV park is. 

Our room was at the very end. It was on the Tawas river. 


This was the view from the front of our room.  

In the morning I took my usual daily walk. 


Only this time with a beautiful view of Lake Huron and the sunrise. I wish I could look at this every day when I walk! 

On Tuesday after Tom made us a delicious breakfast we walked all around downtown Tawas City Of course I didn't take a lot of pictures! 

I did snap a pic of this though.


Hunters can drop off deer heads for testing for chronic wasting disease and bovine tuberculosis. My brother opened it but there were no deer heads inside. 

We took a long walk down the pier and asked a kind stranger to take a picture of us. 


It was so nice to visit with them! They will be down in a few weeks for a family event and I'm sure we'll get together again before they head back south in October. 

In the meantime on August 1st we will be heading up to Lewiston MI again this year for our annual family vacation. This time hopefully Chris will be joining us! 

Until the next time take care and thanks for stopping by! 

Sunday, June 29, 2025

Random Photo Dump


Since I haven't been to any estate sales lately I thought I would do a phone photo dump. 

This is Max the cat, not to be confused with Max the grandson!


He's 18 years old. His favorite place to lay is the top of the recliner. 

This is Coco. 


She's Max's littermate and so she's also 18 years old. Her favorite place to lay is on top of the loveseat. 

Because of their age they don't groom themselves very well, so they are both a little raggedy looking. We try to brush them but they don't tolerate too much of that! 

We've had 7 cat's total in our life. These two are the last remaining, and although they both are in fairly good health for their age it won't be long before we will be a cat free house. 

Not looking forward to the heartbreak but it is what it is. 

I often drive to downtown Plymouth for my daily walk. I love to walk the neighborhoods with all the houses, new and old. 

These signs have been popping up all over. 



There is a church that is wanting to build 17 townhomes, 3 single homes and a new worship center on their property practically in the heart of DTP. It would increase the traffic on the street significantly and it's close to two schools. 

The neighborhood is fighting it, but it may already be too late to stop it. The Plymouth powers that be have dollar signs in their eyes! 

I thought this little sundial was cute in the middle of the landscaping. 



Now I want a sundial! 

Someone was drawing in the sky by Shauna's house. 


It's been a long time since I've seen that! 

Lastly, Brad's mom Sandy took all of the Lego flowers that she has built and put them into one big vase. 


Isn't that pretty? The picture really doesn't do it justice. I think I would put it on a bigger table though. 

That's about it for me right now. Work is great as usual. Love the residents, deal with the co-workers and try not to pay too much attention to the administrators! 
LOL! In the end that place is no different than any other corporation! 

Next week we are going up to E. Tawas to visit my brother and sister-in-law. 

I'll tell you all about it next time! 

Until then take care and thanks for stopping by!


Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Estate Sale




I really need to come up with another title for these estate Sale posts! 

Anyway, this is the second one that I went to last week. Here is the house. 


I took this picture off of Zillow because it shows the location better than any picture I could take. The house was ok inside, the location was crowded but gorgeous! 

Oh, and it sold for a mere $1,495,000.00!

Anyway, like I said the house was nothing special inside, but they did have some nice decorations for sale. 

I liked these pretty mirrored decorations. I know there is a name for them I just can't think of what they are. They were $85 for the set. The table they were sitting on was $275.

This was a pretty baby grand piano. 

It's exactly like the one at work. They were asking $9,000. 

I loved these pictures. 


They were $200 for the set. 

This sink was not as grand as the sink in the last post. 

But if you know me you know I love a sink at a corner window. If I ever would build a house I would have the huge sink from the last post in a corner with a window! 

It's a little hard to see but this cake stand had flowers etched on it. 


Very pretty and they were asking $35 for it. I was tempted but considering I rarely make a cake it pretty much would just be another thing to store! 

This was a custom-made clover shaped ottoman. I've never seen anything like it before. 


They wanted $1,000. I wonder if they ever sold it.  Also, they were asking $275 for the tea set sitting on it. 

I think this is a spoon rest. 

It was solid glass and very heavy. I think they were asking $20 for it.

I thought this decanter was interesting. 

Made out of a solid rock. They wanted $110 for it. 

This was the view from the walk out basement. 


I did not buy anything at this sale. 

Although I enjoy looking at beautiful houses I need to venture further out to more rural areas where the houses are older and have more character! 

I am getting tired of looking at million-dollar houses!

Hopefully the next estate sale post will be a little more interesting!

Until then take care and thanks for stopping by! 

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Estate Sale and One More Thing

 Back again with another Estate Sale. 

This is the house. 


It wasn't for sale but Zillow valued it at over a million dollars of course!  



I loved this sink! Look at the size of it!


Each side was the size of my single sink! 

This is the garage, 


It was actually really nice for a garage! There was another one next to it where I'm sure they parked their cars because this one was too nice to park a car in! 

There was this ugly fur coat. 


Each little square had a different kind of fur in it. Tsk!!  I wonder how many animals had to die to make this thing!  Sickening! 

I liked this little tray with the bird on it. 


And I liked this mirrored waste basket. 


It was marked $15. While we were walking around, I saw a lady carrying a mirrored tissue holder and I was bummed that I didn't see it first! I would have bought that! 

My favorite part of the house was this staircase. 


It was gorgeous! I love a wrought iron railing on stairs! 

I didn't buy anything at this sale. 

In other news. A deer gave birth to a fawn in the field next to where I work.


I thought at first she was sick because she was laying in the middle of the field in broad daylight but upon zooming my camera I could see the fawn on the right! 

I guess it was born in the morning, and she laid there until about 4:00pm and then took her baby into the woods! 

That's it for me for now. Heading to another Estate Sale today so hopefully its a good one and I can tell you all about it! 

Until the next time stay safe and thanks for stopping by! 



Thursday, June 12, 2025

Prisons and Other Things

Last post I mentioned that the Meijers is being built on land that used to be a farm prison. I thought it would expand on that a little. 

The Detroit House of Corrections, or what we affectionately used to call DeHoCo, was established in 1860 in the city of Detroit. Eventually, due to overcrowding in 1919 the city purchased 1,000 acres of farmland from Northville Township and Plymouth Township and built a farm prison. The prisoners actually were housed in tents before the buildings were built! And yes, prisoners would escape but the area was so rural that they really didn't get far!

Anyway, here's a diagram of where it used to be:


The black circle was the prison land. The red circle is where I live now and the blue mark is where the Meijers is being built. The top half of the black circle was the prison buildings and the bottom half was prison farm, where I guess the inmates grew fruits and vegetables to feed the prison population. 


In 1979 Detroit sold the land to the State of Michigan and it became the Western Wayne County Women's Facility.  

Soon the area started to become more populated with houses and restaurants. Before the prison closed for good the only building left was the one at the bottom of the picture. There was a big walking track and I remember when we would go to dinner at one of the restaurants, we would see the girls out walking the track! 

In 2004 the facility closed down and the land was sold back to Northville Twp and Plymouth Twp. This is what it looks like now. 


Now it's restaurants, houses and condos, a Home Depot and soon to be a Meijer! 

**********************

In other news, I have no idea what to make of my azalea plant!  I guess it's not giving up yet!


It's getting blooms in the circled areas! This is the goofiest plant ever! 

Yesterday was the boys last day of school for the summer. Brad always goes with them for drop off on the last day.


One day they will grow into their back packs! 

That's it for now. There haven't been many estate sales lately and I have been too busy to go anyway! 

I hope to remedy that soon! 

Until then take care and thanks for stopping by!


Nonnie's Sewing Machine

Last post I showed you my mom's sewing machine. This post I'll show you her mom's sewing machine.  My grandmother who we called...