Gathering Dust

The Return of the Lusterware, What Was in the Box, & What's for Dinner

 

In my last post, I showed a box of smalls from my great Friday auction.  I think this is my favorite piece from the box- it's a really small celluloid pin back- the flowers and sentiment are so nice.

Also in the box:

 

Assorted silver- some sterling- besides spoons, there are also two nail files and a button hook.

 

Another thing I love- old pocket watches- doesn't matter if they work or not.

 

Good thing I just ordered some silver polish.  I like Simichrome- I think it's German- I order it through a seller on ebay.  You can also use Simachrome to test for Bakelite.  You put a little dab of Simachrome, which is pink, on a Q-tip, and put it on the surface you want to test.  If it's Bakelite, the polish will turn yellowish gold. 

 

These celluloid pinbacks are from the Missouri State Board of Health- each with a year in the center.  The words around the edge are birth registration, hearing, vision, diptheria immunization, teeth, throat, small pox  vaccination, nutrition and posture.  I'm guessing they were probably given out in schools.

 

I used to think these rhinestone and enamel pins were kind of cheesy- but when you put three together, I like them.  Since I have three, that's a collection, and I'm going to try and get some more.  I'll try and figure how many you have to put together to make them look REALLY GOOD.

 

Unfortunately, a little trip through the dishwasher didn't do much to improve my pink luster bowl.  But at least the inside is clean enough for this equally damaged doll to live inside.

 

I took advantage of the nice weather we had today and took my pictures outside.  My mother in law (Nana) always likes to see pictures of her grand dogs.  Its hard to get them both in the same picture and reasonably still.

With their backs to each other, they kind of look like two dogs not speaking to each other.

Another outside picture- mmm- dinner.  Since we could only find one skewer, we had "deconstructed" kabobs.  If you watch TOP CHEF, you know what I mean about deconstucted- they are always taking ingredients, putting them next to each other on a plate and calling it "deconstructed". 

Line up cheese, lettuce, ground beef and salsa on a plate and you have a "deconstructed" taco.  Line up a wiener, a bun, a blob of ketchup with a swirl of mustard running through it and you have a "deconstructed" hot dog, line up a toaster and bread and you have "deconstructed" toast.

...and in the foil packet- potatoes boiled in vinegar from a recipe in the current Martha Stewart Living magazine.  They were interesting... might have been better if the potatoes had been directly on the grill- a deconstructing faux pas.

And the winner of the Victorian scrap giveaway is Diane at Saturday Finds.   

Can This Bowl Be Saved? I Heart Pink Lusterware (and Auctions)

  

Wow...another great day at an auction.  This bowl was the last thing I bought from a kind of grimy shelf in a kind of dingy basement. It's kind of a mess, but I know that at one time it was BEAUTIOUS- and it was only $2. 

Two dollars is what I paid for a Diet Limemade at Sonic on the way  home and then spilled before I could drink it - so, easy come, easy go.  The bowl is  soaking now- we'll see how it turns out.

Another pink goodie- this vintage vinyl billfold with ballerinas- and inside-- a 1950's calendar and...

 

...a coupon for an Arthur Murray Dance Lesson.

 

Maybe I'll wear my lace "glove-ettes" to my dance lesson. I don't really know what these are called- they're like gloves that only cover from wrist to elbow. Remember those fake turtleneck- dickeys?  These are kind of like a glove dickey.

 

Anyway, they'll also be lovely to wear as I eat caviar with my "new" old mother of pearl caviar spoon.

 

I'll be sure and let you know if the caviar tastes better when you use the correct utensil.

(But don't hold your breathe waiting to find out.)

 

Some old sewing packaging with great graphics.

 

When I go to the moon, I want to ride a needle.

 

Another fun thing- a sales sample Knox hatbox.

 

With a tiny little hat inside.

 

A tiny little hat that your dogs will only wear for about 3 seconds.

 

This box says "Stag- fine writing paper...for Men".  I wonder what will happen if I try to use it?

 

I got a box lot of smalls, too.  I haven't really looked through them yet- I'm "saving" rummaging through them as a reward for getting some other work done around here.

 

Thanks for all the comments on the last post- it's nice to hear from so many people.  Comments on this post count towards the drawing for the Victorian scrap, too. I'll pick a winner on Sunday night.

Help! "I'm Drowning in Victorian Scrap" Giveaway

 

Words I never thought I'd say- I've got too much stuff- or at least more than I can use in the foreseeable future- so I'm having a giveaway. The scraps in the scan above and the scan below.

Leave a comment on any post between now and Sunday May 31 and I'll pick a winner on Sunday night.

I do feel obligated to let you know that most of this scrap isn't perfect- some has been cut from albums and I even had to soak some of it away from its construction paper album pages- and some pieces have a slightly blue tinge because the dye from the paper leeched onto the scrap.  Those Victorians apparently hadn't heard of archival adhesives. But- this is still a fun group for crafting.

 Speaking of crafting, here a few things I'm working on.

I've been using images from the Logomachy CD that I got from Mary.

 

Speaking of Mary, she'll be showing her wonderful collages and ephemera books as part of the Curious Sofa Insider Art Show as part of the Prairie Village Art Show this weekend.  Check it out if you can.  

 

Something New on the Landscape

  

Look what I found in my tree...

Ok, I didn't find it, I put it there- but look at it- isn't it great? 

 

Of course, I mean the hanger.  It's Italian and has a Florentine label on it. 

Memorial Day weekend isn't known for great junking, but I managed to find a great sale in a very large, very full, very nice house yesterday.  It was so good that I had to go back today for half price day and I brought Karla with me.

  

I didn't take pictures of a lot of my finds- but even though it's only May, I loved these snowflocked Christmas ornaments. 

 

And doesn't that Italian candlestick look like a nice match for the hanger?- Both Italian gilt.

 

Speaking of Christmas, check out these Shiny Brite Santa mugs in the original package.  I immediately thought of Barbara the queen of vintage holiday decorations.  (Barbara, I only paid $1.00).

  

The sale had a lot of religious books including Bibles and much by Mary Baker Eddy and much Christian Scientist literature.

 

I bought this 1897 Bible because of the letter inside it. 

My dear boy this Bible is a Christmas present from your mother.  Please read it when you have time and on Sunday read it.

After the estate sale, it was still early and we had "time" to spare, so Karla and I went to visit Carol at her shop  Raised in Cotton.

  

Lots of the stuff I love- rusty, chippy and tarnished.

 

Too bad I didn't take more pictures of all the cute displays- but Karla did- here's Carol helping Karla with her new camera- and I got a picture of that.

On a completely different subject, I've been meaning to mention a new blog that always makes me smile.

My Life By Buster

Buster is 5 month old dog that lives in New York City.  I'd like to think that if my dogs had blogs, they would be equally entertaining. 

 

Knitting, Making Your Own Cookbook & How to Waste Time

 

I finally finished knitting this baby blanket- its a pretty simple checkerboard kind of pattern, you only have to be able knit 4, purl 8.  I'm going to try a full size lacy afghan next.

 

I'm a recipe clipper and saver from way back.  I started my own cookbook notebook in a three ring binder in high school.  I didn't cook that much, I just like having the recipes.

I still like to clip recipes, so I decided to keep them all together in a scrapbook.  I started with a journal I bought at the Andrew McMeel warehouse sale.

Andrews McMeel is a Kansas City based publisher/distributer for gift books, calendars, cookbooks and other gift type items.  They used to have a big warehouse sale every year before Christmas and sell stuff for $1-$5.  It was great to get a cart full of stuff before Christmas for less than $100 that you know you would have paid $400 for anywhere else.  I haven't been to a sale in years, but I still have a backlog of journals.  But that is off the subject...

I glued  sets of two pages together to make them stronger and then just started sorting some of the recipe clippings I had. 

 

Its a chance to play- the background on this is some handmade paper and star stickers that I probably wouldn't have used in the things I usually make.

 

This recipe is from Rachael Ray's magazine- a sandwich that only has five ingredients- really easy- but I still haven't tried it.

 

I haven't tried these seafood recipes yet either- but I'm kind of getting a craving for shrimp...

 

For recipies that come on cards (front and back side)- I glue down a clear cellophane envelope and slide the recipe inside with a ribbon in the corner, so its easy to pull out.

And if I never pull it out to cook it- oh well, its fun to play with paper...

And here's another way to waste spend time.

 

 

Aren't they pretty?

And-I've added some fun flea market type things to my Etsy Shop.

 

I Ain't Afraid of No Cobwebs

 

So much of the time, at an estate sale, the best stuff- at least as far as I'm concerned- is in the basement.

 

Today I went to a sale in a sprawling ranch house- the upstairs was FULL of Oriental pictures, Oriental vases, Oriental chairs, Oriental EVERYTHING- not exactly the look I'm going for in my booth at the Country Antique show I'm doing in Jun.

   

But the BASEMENT was a different story- sure things were, well...dirty and I brought more than one cobweb up the stairs with me- but I got great stuff- and I've got a hose in my backyard.

So the stuff in the top pictures turned into this.  A primitive shelf...

...made from fruit crates.

 

A frame that looks a lot better when the plywood back is taken off.  You can see the top of the formerly cobweb filled LARGE wire basket at the bottom of the picture.

 

Another wire thing...

 

And some cabinet cards- I've started to look at the BACKS of cards because sometimes they're prettier than the actual portrait.  Like this one with a flourishy logo and the word "artist".

But I Want to Go Outside

  

I had another fun auction with lots of trips to the car last night.

 

But that also means lots of stuff to sort.

 

But its such a nice day here in Kansas- temps in the 70's, not much humidity.  I want to be outside in my garden.

 

This is my garden so far.  My Dad grows all his plants from seed and I begged a tomato, pepper, basil and parsley from him.

This is on the deck where hopefully it will be easy to tend.

 

Maddie loves to be outside and will usually find a place in the shade.

 

Buddy likes to check everything out.

He found something he likes so much that he decided to roll in it....great...there may be a bath in his future.

 

I did bring a small box outside with me to dig through.  Lots of beads and rhinestones.

 

This is all I managed to sort before the sun and a little breeze had me dozing in that lawn chair....

Auction Box Lots

 

At last night's auction, I had to make five trips to the car to get everything in- now that's the measure of a good auction.

My best buy was five flats of fun stuff- I haven't had a chance to go through all of it, but these are some things that caught my eye.

 

Linen large letter fold out postcard folders- love the graphics.

 

This is my favorite- the caption says "Twelve Good Reasons for Coming to Miami Beach".

 

This is a border crossing at Tijuana- it doesn't look like they're doing any health screenings.

 

I really don't know anything about pipes except they can be very collectible.  As I was carrying out some of my boxes, I ran into an antique dealer friend who used to work at a tobacco shop.  He took a look at my pipes and identified some of the woods in the pipes- the white bowl in the upper left corner is Meerschaum- which I guess is really good.

He told me it was desirable because it the smoke was cool.  I wondered what made smoke cool- was it psychedelic colored?  Did it come out in shapes like genie coming out of a bottle?  Did you hear Jefferson Airplane music as you puffed?

No- he meant cool like temperature.

That was probably more about pipes than you had any desire to know...

 

No auction box lot would be complete without some OLD paper- this is a 1900 Standard Oil receipt, a 1902 deed and an 1886 letter- I think it's a love letter, but I can't read the handwriting.

 

And on a completely different subject- I got these yarn flowers at an estate sale.  I'd love to try and make some with a silk yarn blend- does anyone have any idea how they're made?

 

Another auction tonight- WOO HOO!!!

Old Roses and the Weekend Warrior

  

It's occured to me that I'm kind of like a weekend warrior when it comes to blogging.  I try to get in as many posts as I can on the weekend and then I'm quiet during the week- mostly because I really don't do anything that interesting.  

Do you want to see the tax forms I filed today?

I didn't think so.

  

But I do have what I think are some exceptionally pretty floral images that I got at the flea market on Thur. 

(You can click on the first three images and they'll open in a new window.  You can then right click and use "Save As" to save them to your computer.)

The first picture is the inside of a velvet autograph book.  The book is falling apart but velvet & roses together made it irresistable.

The second image is a scan of some "maybe" barkcloth fabric.  It has texture, but its not the horizontal texture that I usually think of with barkcloth- but anyway I think the colors are beautiful.

 

This image is the cover of a book that I got at an estate sale.  See the white mark in the middle of the pink roses?  That's where the price tag was- a piece of masking tape right across the cover. 

So- if you're having an estate sale, tag sale or rummage sale, please don't put tape across a surface that will take off the finish when you pull the tape.  I've seen the same thing with games and metal tins- the value is significantly reduced because of poorly placed tape.

 

Speaking of estate sales, this is a peek at some linens from the sale I'm helping my friend Lucy set up.  It will be May 15-16.  If you're in the Kansas City area and would like to be on the email list for the sale, email me using the link at the top of the left column and I'll forward your email address to Lucy.  An ad for the sale will also be in the Kansas City Star.

Run for the Roses- Kentucky Derby Party at the Antique Mall

 

Mission Road Antique Mall, where I have my antique booth, was built on Woolford Farms, the home of the 1938 Kentucky Derby winner, Lawrin.  Every year on race day, the antique mall hosts a big open house party as a tribute to Lawrin.

Dealers go all out with horse theme displays.  This one belongs to my friend Carol Barta- also known as Carol Jean the Garage Sale Queen.  I've posted about Carol before- she's had an extensive career in film- everything from a U2 video to a movie called "Bloodthirsty Cannibal Demons".

 

This is a French horse in the booth of my Miss Frenchie's friends Gwen & Teri.

 

Mint Juleps are the traditional Kentucky Derby drink, but I don't know how to make them, so I served Peppermint Patties in my booth.

 

But if you looked upstairs, you could find the real thing.

 

I couldn't resist another picture of dolls.  If you saw my last post with the picture of the sweet dolls, you probably think its terrible that I'm making one of those "nice" dolls hang out with these delinquent dolls.

But the delinquent dolls have good pedigrees.  The one on the left is tin - I believe she's called a Minerva doll and is from Germany.  The doll on the right is NOT a transvestite as one friend suggested.  She's a French boudoir doll who's in need of a little makeover.

 

Here are a few more pictures of some treasures that caught my eye.