Ponchatoula Birthday Trip

Click on the photo to see a little album of photos of my finds in Ponchatoula. Needless to say, Friday and Saturday were lucky, lucky shopping days for me!

For my birthday on Saturday my honey Dave and I went with my sister Dee and her husband Normand to Ponchatoula for some antiquing and flea marketing. It was a fun and relaxing day. The guys had a great time checking out all sorts of oddities while Dee and I mainly focused on the girly stuff. Dishware, glassware and lovely books and serving pieces. We ate a delicious lunch at Paul's soon after arriving in the strawberry capital of the south which is Ponchatoula's claim to fame. For those of you who don't know ... its located between Baton Rouge and Hammond and just a short drive off of the main highway. Next weekend is the Strawberry Festival and its a wonderful event. Check it out here: Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival. The downtown area is full of adorable gift shops and beautiful shopping opportunities. We trekked down to the Fresh Market as well and picked up some snacks to bring back to the kiddos. We also found a strawberry vendor who offered us a taste of his wares and Dee and I each bought a flat. The vendor was hilarious and asked where we were from, afterward he made a little joke about Avery Island and said he'd travelled there in the fifties for the first time and that he'd been back there a few times.

The magnolia cups and saucers with the pretty aqua rims and a subscription to Southern Lady were birthday gifts from my sisters Dee and Robin and my parents. Thanks to all of you for making my day special, I love you all so much! The cups/saucers match a platter and serving bowl that I fell in love with in the same pattern. I definately will be on the lookout for more pieces, the color is divine and I adore them.

The soup tourine matches my china, I didn't have this piece and finding it for under $15 was awesome! The Fostoria azure blue June center fleur de lis handle tray is my favorite new serving piece! It will go nicely with my china! I can't wait to use it, I think its the perfect size for bacon wrapped chicken tenderloin stuffed with cheese and jalapenos and broiled with Tabasco Pepper Jelly on top! The RECIPE can be found HERE on the KitchenMirror, a blog I contribute to with some of my favorite YaYas! I found a copy of Life magazine with Henry Fonda on it in the character from Mr. Roberts the movie. This is Dave's all time most favorite movie EVER! I'm going to do something fun with it when we move into the new house. I have a plan for the little saucers that involve party gifts of biscotti! I included a photo of the ripe strawberries we bought in the flat... minus what I managed to eat off of the top of the flat every time Dave opened the trunk to put my treasures inside! I found an old copy of "What Katy Did Next" published in London by Blackie and Son Publishing, written by Susan Coolidge. Books with my name in the title are a rarity and its nice to have this copy (I didn't photography the book). I'm going to be on the lookout for the other two Katy books by Coolidge as well. There's also a bottle of strawberry wine we picked up at Paul's. Can't wait to give it a try! I had a super birthday, good enough for me not to even worry or care that I'm one year older ;) Thanks Norm and Dee for coming along, entertaining me and Dave with all your antics and sharing my special day. Topping the day off with that yummy supper at Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro was the icing on the cake!

I picked up a copy of the old Doris Day classic with Jack Lemon "It Happened to Jane" at the book store ... we'll have a movie night with Dee and her family soon! Gotta start planning the menu!