Zinnias, Tomatoes and Monday Musings: Vintage Love times Two

Happy Monday! I’m back. Today is the second edition of Zinnias, Tomatoes and Monday Musings. Today’s topic: Vintage Love times Two.

BTW-Thanks so much for the feedback you shared with me in the comments of last week’s first edition of Zinnias, Tomatoes and Monday Musings: The Start of Something New. I love reading your thoughts and learning a bit about each of you.

Zinnias, Tomatoes and Monday Musings 2.19.24

Zinnias, Tomatoes and Monday Musings is a peek at retired life in our country home and garden. Each Monday I share a favorite story (this week’s topic is Vintage Love times Two) and a few highlights from the previous week. Plus, what Bill and I have been doing at home, in the garden and out & about. I also share some of what’s on my weekly to do list and calendar as I look forward to the upcoming week.

Vintage Love Times Two

On Saturday I decided to pop over to a junking friend’s vintage shop in Glencoe. The shop is small, open sporadically and has great prices. Bill noticed an announcement on Facebook that the shop, ReTreasure on Main, would be open for a few hours on Saturday, so I jumped in the car with cash in hand to see what I could find.

And I found these beautiful red toile wingback chairs that I am affectionally calling Vintage Love times Two. As soon as I spotted them, I knew I loved the fabric (red toile!) and the price, $75 each. Plus, took a seat, discovered they were very comfy and knew they would be perfect in my foyer. So, I quickly handed over the cash, loaded them in the car and headed home.

When I arrived home, Bill unloaded the new-to-me chairs and placed them in their new home, our foyer. I added a pop of blue with a throw and a blue velvet pillow. Then quickly took some photos while Midge checked out the new chairs.

BTW-I was so excited that I snapped this photo before I dusted the chairs or bothered to remove the laundry from the stairs. Hope you’re ok with a little real life!

Now that I have my inspiration pieces for the foyer, I’m ready to start on my foyer art gallery wall project.

I shared with you in a blog post earlier this year: Retired Life-Home Projects Ideas and Plans for 2024 that I would be creating a gallery wall for this space. My plan is to incorporate artwork that I already own AND add new pieces focusing on some of our favorite American artists like Edward Hopper, Grandma Moses and Andrew Wyeth.

Zinnias and Tomatoes

Let’s chat zinnias and tomatoes (aka my flower garden and Bill’s veggie garden). It has been mostly really cold lately, lots of mornings drinking coffee fireside. But we’ve also had a few gorgeous afternoons that include a lot of spring garden dreaming.

I took advantage of the warm weather one afternoon and pulled my containers of tulips out of the barn and placed them on the porch steps. Fingers-crossed that I get lots of blooms this summer. And Bill has been prepping the garden for planting and doing a little clean up.

We are also in the process of starting lots of seeds. Mostly vegetable seeds, a few herbs, plus lots of wave petunias. If you’re interested in starting seeds, I’ve linked some of our favorite seed starting supplies here and will be sharing more details in an upcoming blog post.

Monday Musings

Last week was busy and fun. Bill and I celebrated Valentine’s Day with homemade heart shaped pizzas and spent the day in Tulsa Friday attending the Tulsa Vintage Show. I also met up with my girlfriends Sunday night for our monthly pool party chat (we all met one another at a 6am swim class years ago at the university).

And I squeezed in my usual pool time, walks with Midge, plus time to write here on the blog. Did you catch Sunday’s post? The Best Flowers for Beginners and First-Time Flower Growers

Valentine’s Day

The heart shaped pizzas were a success as was staying in and celebrating Valentine’s Day at home.

We make homemade pizza every few weeks. You can find our pizza dough recipe on my Instagram feed. It’s so easy and so good.

But this was our first time to try shaping the dough into a heart. Basically, we each made a circle out of the dough and then split the top with knife, shaped the dough a bit and called it good.

I loaded my pizza with lots of veggies. One of my favorite vegetables on pizza is yellow summer squash. The first time I had it, I was in Spain on a school trip with my girls. It was incredible.

Tulsa Vintage Show-The Vintage Love is Strong

The annual Tulsa Vintage Show is always a hit. I truly love looking at all of the vintage collections and talking with the experts even if I don’t come home with a carload of goodies.

This year I passed up a beautiful McCoy piece that I was priced fair but more than I was willing to pay. Now the challenge is to find the same piece at a garage sale or an estate sale.

I also fell hard for this neon chicken! I never knew I needed a neon chicken but now I do. After a bit of searching, I found the same one online and lots more. Now I need to decide where to hang it, what size fits best and which one needs to come home with me. I also need to convince Bill that we need a neon chicken, after all I’ll need his help hanging it.

I did come home with a gorgeous basket perfect for collecting garden veggies this summer. And I picked up a small piece of vintage artwork.

After we had thoroughly explored the show, Bill and I headed to lunch. We tried a new Mexican restaurant in Tulsa, Noche. It was sooooo good. I can’t wait to go back.

The Week Ahead

I just finished planning my daily agenda for the week, and the week ahead looks like it will be a little less eventful than last week. I don’t have ANY appointments this week (beyond swim class) until Saturday.

But that’s ok, my home could use a little TLC plus I have so many ideas for the blog that I need to get them organized onto paper. Starting with a list of favorite recipes to share, including recipes we use for our garden goodies.

Saturday’s Plan-More Vintage Love

Bill and I are heading to Tulsa again Saturday. This time to attend the Tulsa Flea Market.

I love the Tulsa Flea Market, not to be confused with the Tulsa Vintage Show (which I also love) that we attended last week.

Both events are at the Tulsa Fairgrounds, but the two events are very different. The flea market has much better prices than the vintage show and the booths aren’t typically as organized which makes items a little more difficult to spot.

But the junking is good! I can’t wait to see what we find this Saturday.

My Daily Agenda

• Swimming! I always schedule swimming on my agenda. This week I’m planning to take Water Zumba classes on Tuesday and Thursday at noon plus swim laps during open swim Monday (and possibly Friday).
• I plan to volunteer at Our Daily Bread Tuesday afternoon as a shopper. Bill will be there, as well, he currently volunteers 3-4 times a week.
• I, also, just texted a friend about meeting up for lunch this week since my schedule is fairly open. She has had an Etsy shop for years and I need to pick her brain a bit. I’m thinking about opening mine back up very soon.
• And, of course, there are a few of my favorite things that never make the list, but I do daily…like take a walk with Midge, enjoy my morning coffee, share on Instagram, read my latest library find and just relax as HOME.

That’s it…for now.

Thanks so much for sharing in the second edition of Zinnias, Tomatoes and Monday Musings: Vintage Love times Two.

And if you missed my first post of Zinnias, Tomatoes and Monday Musings: The Start of Something New. I’ve linked it here.

Cheers to retired life, and as always, happy gardening!

x Penny Pennington Weeks

Previous Editions

Zinnias, Tomatoes, and Monday Musings: The Start of Something New, 2.12.24