Guys, the past week has been exhausting over here on the east coast.  I feel like I went to sleep in PA and woke up in CA and then took off for FL.  When in fact I haven’t been travelling at all.  Mother Nature is totally rocking our world. 

I experienced my first earthquake.  That was weird.  Everyone was talking about it and I honestly thought there was just a low flying plane.  Oops. I kind of missed it.

Just 2 days later, I think, (it’s all been a blur) we were frantically advised that Hurricane Irene was headed straight for us.  If I never hear the name Irene again I will be happy.  Sorry if that is your name.  Nothing personal. 

I digress. 

Irene was obviously going to hit the coast and hit it hard.  So we dropped everything last Thursday and drove 2 hours southeast to the beach house in Cape May.  Actually we paced in circles first because we didn’t have experience hurricane proofing considering we live in PA and not FL as I mentioned. 

Here is where the comic relief comes in:  In a panic I threw some things in a bag on our way out the door.  A baseball hat that I easily haven’t worn in 6 years.  One pair of socks.  A ski jacket shell because it had a nice hood (btw I don’t ski).  Hiking shoes.  Camera.  Glasses.  Mascara.  I mean honestly what kind of natural disaster was I going to combat with that gear?  And in case you’re wondering, I wore none of them other than the mascara of course.

We stayed 24 hours.  Just enough time to secure any objects that could fly through a window I suppose.  Moved all deck furniture inside.  Considered boarding the windows but eventually decided against it since we are a few blocks from the water.  Looked at trees and willed them to stay put, rooted in the ground.  Waited in line for gas.  Observed what boarded homes by the water looked like.  Scary.  I’d never seen that first hand before.

Once we returned home to PA, we basically went through the same routine and I put the baseball hat, ski jacket and socks away.  People stocked up on non-perishables.  I stocked up on DIY project supplies. (More about that later.)  And then we waited.

Irene came to town Saturday night, just as she planned.  There were a few moments of panic .  Quite frankly the meteorologists scared the crap out of me.  I got the ski jacket back out again.  Just in case. 

We waited for Irene in the basement for a little while because of the tornado warnings.  She showed up there too.  Just a few inches of water.  The wind gusts were frightening at times.  I am summing up the events because you may have experienced it for yourself anyway.  Eventually we went to sleep and the storm broke by Sunday.  Overall, we were extremely lucky to just experience minor flooding and only a couple of hours of panic.  We didn’t even lose electricity!  We are not sure about the beach house yet but we’re hoping for the same outcome or better.

So that was a really long introduction to tell you that I wasn’t able to make any weekend estate sales or the like.  I think most sales were cancelled but luckily I picked up a few cool vintage finds early last week before all of the natural disasters struck.

I have never ever found vintage seltzer bottles outside of a retail store. I am thrilled with the graphics and condition. 

They are all local. 

NY & NJ.

Plumbing swag seems to be hot right now.  Fortunately my dad is a plumber so I have been bugging him for some plumbing junk.  Old fixtures, handles, pipes, etc. to upcycle into I dunno what.  Unfortunately he hasn’t given me anything cool yet.  I took matters into my own hands and found about 2 dozen old handles for just $3! 

They’re so colorful.

And crusty.

I’m planning to make these into hooks or something.  For now I will just file them away with other future project paraphernalia.

Notice that these finds all have something to do with water?  And then we got hit with a hurricane.  Coincidence? 

Did you survive the wrath of Irene?

Linking to:
Southern Hospitality
Her Library Adventures
House of Grace