Thrifty Finds ~ Vintage Aluminum Coffee Pots

*These are Currently for Sale on My Selling Blog*
Click on link below blog title. :)

 

Aren't old coffee pots cool?  I just love the odd shapes and sizes - from unibodies to double deckers - single servings to multi cups.  :)  I was bringing up some of my collection the other night from the basement.  (Just trying to weed out the ones with no guts to use for tole painting or birdhouses.)  They were still sitting in my front room when one of my son's friends came over to visit.  These beauties were the hot topic of conversation.  He informed me that in the dorms at the University, there are students still using these to make coffee.  Duh...I honestly never thought of brewing with them.  My mind is on crafting and displaying vintage items.   Apparently these pots are coveted by some students for making not only a good cup of coffee but a strong one, too.;)  Who knew?  That brought back some old memories of coffee brewing on a camp stove.  *sigh*   

The conversation soon turned to a German student who had a coffee pot that made espresso on the stove top.  As the description of the pot began, I said, "Wait a minute."  I ran downstairs and brought up these three Italian manufactured coffee makers, which were in my "what in the world is that" pile.  I was informed that the largest one was identical to the German student's espresso pot.  (Okay, had I taken the time to flip the small one over, it was written "Lil' Espresso" on the bottom.  How did I miss that?... Oops!)  Mystery solved.  I always wondered what these pots were used for.

They unscrew in the center where there is an area for the espresso grounds.  Water is put in the bottom, boils its way back to the top holding tank where it awaits the happy consumer as highly caffeinated espresso. :)

We talked about the plastic coffee makers, and how times have changed.  The fact that these aluminum bodies are still around as the landfills are collecting the modern ones.  My son commented how a person could even recycle these for the aluminum.  I'll be keeping an eye on him around my pots! ;)  Ahhh yes, the times are a changing.  It was so nice to hear of young people using vintage items. 

So, I had a lesson in the art of making coffee and espresso. (Made me wish that I drank coffee!)  My son's friend lamented over how much one of these would cost if you could locate one in a camping store.  Since the odds of him are pretty low to be attending any flea markets or garage sales in the near future, I let him pick any pot he wanted from my entire collection.  He was a happy man!  He emailed my son a picture to his phone with the caption "Show this to your Mom :)".  It was a picture of a cup of coffee with sugar and cream freshly made from his new/vintage aluminum coffee pot.   How sweet is that! :)

Hope and The American Cancer Society

While looking through last weekends photos from the campground, I felt the need to do an individual post about a special event that they hosted for the weekend. As many of you know, the American Cancer Society hosts Relay for Life. Last year, the permanent campers took turns walking every hour. This year, there was a bake sale at the barn and The American Cancer Society donated "Hope is Greater" tshirts to be sold. All the money collected from both sales were donated to The American Cancer Society. I personally would like to thank those people who took the time to bake the wonderful items that we purchased last weekend and years past. We appreciated the opportunity to buy shirts for our family. This is a great cause with a lot of heroes working behind the scenes donating of their time, energy, and money. But most importantly, our thoughts and prayers are for those whose lives will be touched by this disease in the future, those who have survived this disease in the past, those who are currently battling to live through it, and for those we have lost along the way. It is a cause near and dear to many.

There was a brief prayer, a reading of names of those afflicted by the disease past and present, and a short speech by one of the attendees with her hopes that those afflicted will get a second chance as she did. Then, these balloons were released for those that we love, and those we will always love, with a reminder to remember that this is the month for Breast Cancer Awareness . Isn't that a beautiful representation of hope?

Now, we were ready for our walk.

I know this photo is a little dark, but I wanted to show this lane of the campground. It was a small segment that represents how all of the roads looked that night. They were all lit up with luminaries donated by The American Cancer Society. These luminaries bordered all of roads through the campgrounds. Some of the luminaries had names of donors on them, and all lit the way for a walk to remember, always...

HOPE... That says it all...

Fall Camping

One of the top ten things for my family to do in the fall is take a weekend and go camping. The chilly air, warm campfires, geese flying over, and fall colored leaves encompass the beauty and wonders of the season...

Oops! Maybe I should have checked with the weatherman first. We arrived at our destination Emerald Acres Campground on October 7 and departed on the 10 th. During our stay, the daytime temps hovered in the balmy (at least for this time of year in Illinois) mid 80's. Makes you want to pull that lawn chair a couple of feet more away from the campfire doesn't it? ;0) But don't worry, we had a fun time as always; even though, we were a little over dressed, and my husband managed to come down with a full blown cold on Friday. I swear there is nothing worse than a summer--ah,er--warm fall cold!

As for those flocks of geese majestically honking while flying over head... Who needs them? These big guys decided they would fill in for the weekend.

Apparently these turkeys did not want to share their campsite with me and my camera!

We were winners on the best part of fall-- the gorgeous display of leaves. We had a beautiful little maple at our site. It was shedding its leaves all weekend and was almost bare when we left. The colors were amazing everywhere!

Another bonus of a warm weekend was a trip to the barn on Saturday night for a banana split! Strawberry, pineapple, and chocolate toppings with coordinating ice cream (vanilla w/ the pineapple) wedged between two halves of banana, and topped with whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry. A Masterpiece!!

It certainly was a wonderful get away, but now I must get back to business. I need to get busy with the last remnants of food preserving, and there are boxes/barrels of gourds, shelves of flea market/garage sales finds, and cupboards/picnic baskets full of fabric that need to transform into special gifts. Isn't fall just the best time of year?!? :0)