Belton on a Benjamin

hey y'all,

here we are on a lovely sunny monday! it's like a sauna outside but will i complain?! i. shall. not.

because after all that rain and flooding, it is sooooo wonderful to see the sun shining again. don't care for the humidity. hate it, in fact. but as i said, no complaints. oh hell. who am i kidding?! what's the use in TALKING about the weather if one can't complain about it?!

so ... saturday was a beautiful day for junking. and believe it or not, it was the first time in ages that all three of us (my junking pals) went out for a grand junking adventure.

first things first. we made a quick pre-stop at chick-fil-a drive-through for a bite of breakfast. here's the exciting video of that little experience.




first stop: cindy of chipped to perfection so kindly and sweetly invited us to rummage through her collection of junk ... er ... treasures in her garage. she'd just bought out the end of a yard sale and also had loot she'd purchased while on the world's longest yard sale trail.



we spent a couple of hours with her ... digging, laughing, sweating, digging some more. whew! she had LOTS of boxes with LOTS of goodies stuffed inside them! as she said in her blog, it's great fun to be around other junkers. because they. get. it. kindred spirits. thanks again for inviting us. we had a blast, cindy!







our next stop: an estate sale in belton. lovely house. shady yard and street.



not much inside. slim pickings. i guess the sale had been on for a couple of days.



but i did spy this sweetie sitting on the floor:



she's so sweet and pretty and precious. why was she still there?! i don't know! but i'm glad she was. because now she's mine.

while in search of another sale, we just happened to pass this cool old chevy.



what the what?! naturally, we had to stop and make a huge production. because that's. what. we. do.

i pulled up into the driveway (brazen, i know) and parked right next to the chevy. we hopped out and started clicking away with our iphones and cameras.

"over here! take a picture of me with the car!"



"okay, now take one of us pretending to get in the car!"



"now take one at this angle!!"



"let's get IN the car and take some pictures," the foolish one said (i'm not naming names on my pals).

"NO. way! the police are probably on their way right now!" said the voice of reason (that would be me).

we kept looking toward the owner's house, thinking that surely they were growing weary of us gawping at their antique car.

sure enough, the owners came out to greet us. no baseball bats. no guns to shoo us away. no police call either. instead, they had big ol' grins on their faces as they walked toward us.

as it happens, they get this (crazy women making ga-ga over their car?!) all the time, so says owner mark pittman. he's so proud of his collection (yes, COLLECTION) of antique cars that he showed us another one in his garage.



his wife valeria assured me that mark was thrilled to show off his cars. he even unlocked his aqua baby and let us play inside for a bit ... and took pictures of us as well! what a great sport!









thanks again to mark and valeria pittman of belton for allowing us to enjoy and share your passion for vintage cars. you made our day!

mark and valeria pittman pose with their 1954 bel-air turquoise chevy ... thanks guys!

last stop: another sweet couple, mark oler of belton upholstery) and his wife, who used to own hosanna house in belton were having a sale. they've closed the store but were selling out the last of their inventory ... half off.



i picked up a couple of vintage pearl strands and earrings. but my big purchase of the day was this gorgeous antique piece of wood. not sure what to call it because it used to be a bench in a train station (location and further history on it is being investigated).



according to mark oler, a dealer in salado bought it for $300 and promptly whacked the legs off and made it into a huge mantel piece. so i suppose that's what it is now. however, i'm happy with my current mantel (or am i? hadn't really thought of it) so i'll be using it elsewhere. am thinking above my dining room windows OR above my large, long sofa.



this baby is huge. and heavy. someone who knows something about hanging heavy things will have to help me. naturally, i plan to paint it. nice and shabby. then i'll have this awesome large shelf to put a bunch of my shite on! woohoo!!



so, how much did i pay for this yummy hunk of vintage oak? first correct guess (in comment form) wins a prize. for reals!

other than the Lunch Situation, it was a perfect day. in a nutshell, we had to bail on a mexican restaurant because the chips were tasteless, the salsa (salsa salsa salsa!) was incredibly inedible and the queso was cold and lumpy (ack!). when the server came to take our order, i (being the head FAG) had to break the news to her that we were leaving.

we paid for the drinks (but NOT the queso) and took our leave. fortunately, we had spotted a nearby mr. gatti's and had our fill of pizza, salad and waaaay too many sweet cinnamon breadsticks.

so all's well that ends well ...

fantastic friends, terrific treasures and magical memories to last a lifetime. or at least until i forget ... heh heh.

love and hugs,
terry lee