The Bear with the Books

"All serious daring starts from within." - Eudora Welty ~~~~~~ I'm a wife, a crazy dog mom, a children's minister, and a Mississippian living on Long Island. I love to cook, imagine that I love to craft and adore books, writing, makeup and fun clothes (in that order). var sc_project=6776307; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_security="601f5e69"; (function() { window.PinIt = window.PinIt || { loaded:false }; if (window.PinIt.loaded) return; window.PinIt.loaded = true; function async_load(){ var s = document.createElement("script"); s.type = "text/javascript"; s.async = true; if (window.location.protocol == "https:") s.src = "https://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js"; else s.src = "http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js"; var x = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x); } if (window.attachEvent) window.attachEvent("onload", async_load); else window.addEventListener("load", async_load, false); })();

[douremember]

Mid Century Home #modern #midcentury #midcenturymodern #midcenturyfurniture #midcenturydesign #midcenturyliving #sergiomidcentury #picoftheday #photooftheday #instagood

[thebearwiththebooks]

Living Room goals

[thebearwiththebooks]

Tumblr....I’ve missed you. 

[thebearwiththebooks]

Evie's First Red Sox Game

Evie’s First Red Sox Game

Last Saturday we took Evie to her very first Red Sox game. Since Joe grew up in MA, he’s a big fan. He even had season tickets at Fenway before we moved. We didn’t know if we were crazy taking a five month old to a MLB game, but we decided we might as well give it a try. We were so glad that we did. She was great!    Really, our biggest challenge was keeping our red headed baby out of the sun. We…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

Celebrating Four Years

Celebrating Four Years of Marriage - a look back

Joe and I were married on August 13, 2011, so on Thursday we celebrated our fourth anniversary. It’s weird now, looking at that picture of our hands. I see my finger with one ring on it, but now, I’m so used to seeing it with two. In four years, we’ve done a lot. We went on our honeymoon, then immediately came home and adopted Chauncey – a wonderful and rewarding decision. Adding Chauncey to our…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

Blueberry Muffins....because Summer

Blueberry Muffins….because Summer

We have our blueberry bushes that we love, and thankfully each summer they provide us with delicious, tart berries to add to our breakfasts or bake into all kinds of goodies.  One of my favorite things to do with them is bake them into muffins, which I think I blog about every year. This year, I baked a standard blueberry muffin recipe from my newish vintage cookbook – The Culinary Arts Institute…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

1960's Dinette Set...That I didn't get

I passed up on a 1960's dinette set for our kitchen. Did I make the right choice? not sure...http://wp.me/p4A1y6-uf

I passed up on this over the weekend: Yeah – it’s a 1960’s dinette set WITH the matching chairs. And yes, the chairs are a floral pattern. It’s a really beautiful, somewhat perfect set, and I passed on it. It was for sale downtown in one of our local consignment stores. I had actually seen it there before, but unfortunately the store’s prices are usually pretty high. Now, though, they are moving…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

Small Attempts at Organization

Small Attempts at Organization

So Joe and I have never been very organized people. Actually, looking back to when I was in college, I was a hyper organized person. I had a daily planner that I wrote in and recorded every single thing I had to do that time. I would block off library time for myself. I was heavily involved in several organizations, and I worked, and I went to class, and I managed it all fine. At some point since…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

Christmas in July: Estate Sale Win

Hitting the Christmas Estate Sale jackpot in July #ontheblog #vintagechristmas #vintage

Last Saturday was bananas. The day started by taking Joe to the dentist for some long needed dental work – a whole bunch of fillings, a crown, and…a root canal. Poor Joe. Evie and I left him there and headed straight to an estate sale in town. Usually I search long and hard for estate sales, look at the pictures of what they have at the sale, etc., before I ever decide to go. I saw the ad for…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

Our Lives Lately

Our Lives Lately - A Weekend with T, winery visit, Greenport and even a doctor's visit

Life moves a lot faster with a month old. Life moves even faster when your significant other is out of town and you have the four month old by yourself for a while. (SO much respect for the single parents out there. You guys are amazing!) First – a haircut. I did this last summer too. In the heat, the long hair just keeps getting pulled back, and I keep getting tired of it. Put that with the fact…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

Establishing a New Normal

Establishing a New Normal

Yes, I am still alive. I know it probably seems like maybe I’m not since I basically disappeared after the Pieathalon. It wasn’t really because I didn’t want to be blogging. A few things just all caught up to me at once. It was my first full month back at work since Evie was born. It was our very busiest time of year at work, with last week really being the penultimate of that. And, on top of all…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

Your Monday Morning Vintage Cooking Inspiration

Get your vintage cooking off to a good start this week - Your Monday Morning Vintage Cooking Inspiration

While flipping through the newest addition to my cookbook collection, I stumbled across this image. The book, the Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook, has some great sections, including meal plans and grocery plans for various family sizes. This image, goes along with the plans designed for a family of three.   So, here we have mom and dad in their aprons. The poor kid appears to have…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

The Second Annual Pieathalon: Red Magic Pecan Pie

The Pieathalon is Here! Check out my pie all the others! http://www.apinchofvintage.com/redmagicpecanpie/

It’s here! It’s finally here! The Pieathalon – the one special time of year when bloggers come together to bake the vintage pies of your dreams. Pizza Peach Pie? We’ve got that. Swiss Pie with hot dogs? Yep, that’s here too. Have you been thinking about trying the Melton Pork Pie? Well, know worries, you can find that during the Pieathalon as well. Last year, I actually got a delicious pie to…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

Getaway to Cape Cod

Getaway to Cape Cod

I’m wrapping up my maternity leave today. Unbelievably, I’ve been off of work twelve weeks now. I was off one week before Evie was born since she came nine days late, and she is eleven weeks old today.  It’s a weird, bittersweet thing to be heading back to work. I love my job, and I thought I’d be dying to go back by  now. And I am excited to go back, to be with my coworkers again and get back to…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

The Pieathalon is Back!

The Pieathalon is Back!

If you were around last year, you will probably remember the awesome and oh so fun first annual Piathalon!  If you somehow missed out, here’s the link for a refresher. Organized by Yinzerella over at Dinner is Served 1972, the Pieathalon brings together retro and non retro bloggers from across the Internet to create some of the most fabulous retro pie creations imaginable. Last year, I actually…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook

Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook

We went to our first estate sale since Evelyn was born this weekend. When I was pregnant I thought that we’d be up so early in the morning anyway that it would be easy to get to the sales. Somehow though, we didn’t get to this sale until almost noon. That meant that we missed out on some of the awesome things we saw in the pictures for the sale, including a mid century chair and  a large…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

Big Changes to the Pinciaro Yard

Big Changes to the Pinciaro Yard

Joe and I have made a big decision. For those of you who’ve been reading since we bought our house, you’ll remember that the yard was a complete wreck in the beginning. If you need a refresher course, check out this old post. 

   That picture was the view from our house when we moved in. There was brush everywhere. Trees big and small took up most of the space. 

Since we moved in almost exactly…

View On WordPress

[thebearwiththebooks]

Retro Ingredient: Golden Fluffo

Retro Ingredient: Golden Fluffo

Sifting thru my retro cookbook collection this week, I stumbled across this, Creative Cooking Made Easy.

   I’d of course seen it before, but I’d never noticed the line at the bottom – The Golden Fluffo Cookbook. 

What is Golden Fluffo? 

Well, you can wander over to YouTube and Mike Wallace will tell you about it. 

Basically, Golden Fluffo was a yellow shortening, that could be used for many…

View On WordPress