The Nile

This weekend the Hub and I drove North a bit to Historic Niles, which is basically in Fremont...but seems to be worlds away. Niles, as far as I know it, is comprised of one main street with about 8 Antique Shops all lined up in a row. There are a smattering of other shops and restaurants sprinkled in there, as well. I usually drag my husband to the bead shop, Kiowa Rose (actually, he goes quite willingly, and he even helps me choose my beads and pays afterward!). Kiowa Rose is one of the few places I can get Vintage Lucite beads aside from a Trunk Show or a Bead Show, plus, the inside of the store is stunning. I don't know how to describe it. It's like a magical place, like one of the shops at Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. You just have to visit for yourself. Apparently, Charlie Chaplin shot a movie there...not in Kiowa Rose, but in what it once was.

Aaaaanyway, this time I dragged (again he went willingly) my Hub to Niles for the Antique Shops. I was really on a hunt for something specific, but hey, if I found some other cool old thing, I was in the mood to buy that, too. We parked down at the far end of the street and started off at the first store. Actually, technically, the first store was closed, so we started with the second store.

I was really looking for some old colored glass vessels, the size of juice glasses. Juice glasses would've worked, too, but I would hate to break up a set and buy just one. What I want to do is use some of my soy wax and pour some soy candles into the vintage glass vessels. I just kinda got the idea one day...I thought it would be cool. I'm not sure if I'll scent them or not.

So anyway, I didn't really find anything in the first or second stores. Then I found something in the third store, but it was more than I was willing to pay. I didn't find anything in the next couple stores either. By then, my Hub was hungry. There had been a kid out on the street hawking menus for a restaurant just off the main street called, "The Nile". They pretty much serve Salads, Sandwiches, and a Soup of the Day. I was really iffy about going there, because I can't eat sandwiches, most soups, and most salad dressings (gluten!). But my husband was kinda gung-ho, so we sat down at one of the tables in the otherwise deserted restaurant. My husband had to shout a polite, "hello!" to get someone's attention from the back.

The waitress/cook took our order. I was specific that I didn't want any croutons on my salad. We repeated it twice. I thought that should be sufficient. You know what's coming. Our food came, minus my hub's soup, which had to be re-requested (again, we're the only ones in the restaurant), and there were copious croutons on my salad. I went to the counter and unfortunately had to shout to the back of the restaurant. They acted like they never heard me request a salad with no croutons, but took my salad back. I specifically told her I can't eat croutons.

I was brought a clean salad and we finished our lunch in silence, because by that time, I was testy about the choice of restaurant and what I was eating. I got to the last few bites of my salad and unearthed a crouton. My temper flared. I guess the cook simply rifled through my salad and removed the croutons from the original salad instead of bringing me a new one (something I could've done myself!). When you are GF, you really can't even eat something that has even touched gluten. I don't think I did an adequate job at communicating to the cook the reason I couldn't eat croutons. Maybe I need to go deeper next time. I think the misunderstanding was partly my fault, but I still stormed out of the restaurant.

Luckily, cute antiques can quell my temper. I wasn't hot for long. We hit some more shops, but I still didn't find just the right vessels for my project. Bless my hub for sticking with me through all those shops. By the second to last shop, he was hurtin'. But something cool had caught my eye. It was a huge tool chest from 1935, with 4 drawers. Almost all the drawers had dividers in them. It would be perfect for bead organization. The only catch would be: where do I put it when I get it home? I have no place in my studio for a piece that weighty and large. In the end, we decided we'd think about it, and it ended up staying in Niles. If I'm still thinking about it by next weekend, I might make my hub take me back and see if it's still there. It really was super cool.

Bead-wise, I've just finished a steel-blue Vintage Lucite necklace, and should be starting a new one in the next couple days. Collage-wise, I've just finished a collage with a Marriage/Engagement theme and am working on a collage with a Rain theme. I also have a Mermaid collage that seems to be done, but I'm not sure if I'm happy with it yet, or not. I was really excited when I was working on my Marriage/Engagement collage, because for the first time since I've been working with Mixed Media, things started to come naturally for me and I felt really at home. It only lasted for a few minutes, but I know it's just the beginning. I'm starting to feel like less of a beginner.

So things are going great. We've got a wedding and a birthday party to go to this weekend, and we've got a medium-sized overhaul of our yard going on, so things will be pretty busy through to next week. One thing I forgot to mention was that my husband kinda messed up the car last weekend, so it's in the shop for 2 weeks and we've got a rental. He was just driving through the parking lot at the mall and non-chalantly hit 2 yellow poles. And he calls me a crazy driver! If there's a bonus to any of this, I guess it's fun to drive a different car for a few weeks.