Gathering Dust

Snowy Friday = Good Estate Sales

Three weeks ago, we had a snowy Friday and there just happened to be a great estate sale.  Today we had more snow- probably at least an inch now, and it hasn't stopped- and I shopped another great estate sale. 

I don't think the two things are related, but I got to thinking, if I had to pick- no snow/no estate sale or a couple of inches of snow and a great estate sale- well, it's a no brainer- bring on a blizzard.

 
This sale was full of all the dumb little stuff that I love- I bought about 30 items, and I don't think any of them was over $10. 

Buster Brown rulers, stained ironstone, German scissors, a well loved stuff animal- and books, lots of books- lots of books that are kind of falling apart, but still cool. 

This is one of my favorite books- I almost passed it by, because the cover didn't really "grab" me, but I love what was inside.

 

Pages and pages of fashion ads from 1930's newspapers.

 

I love the sophisticated deco style of these drawings- reminds me of "old Hollywood".

Here's another "sophisticated" find.

A flip calendar with rhinestones- you don't see those everyday.

 
A box of wooden pencils- I think I'm drawn to multiples of just about anything.

 
  
I pulled out the brown ones, put them in a glass jar- instant still life...or pencil holder for a golf course...

 

I bought this white planter because I'm crazy about the wire frog inside of it.  It's stuck down with that green florist gum. I'm hoping that I can stick it in the freezer (or just outside) overnight and the gum will pop off.
 

Another favorite find was this Victorian wicker sewing basket.

And this ribbon wrapped child's hanger.

Both pieces have just the right amount of shabbiness and wear- of course, I guess that could be said for almost everything I bought.

 

I've listed a lot of my snow day finds in my Etsy Shop- Gathering Dust. 

I have to share a gift from Jeanie.  She knows I love to knit, and sent me this 1937 copy of a Home Arts.  The lady on the cover is getting a "permanent wave"- and knitting at the same time.  I had to laugh because I've been know to bring my knitting along when I get my hair done.

 
 

Even the Mops are Prettier at Karla's Cottage

 
Shawn, Marilyn and I had another fun craft day at Karla's Cottage.  Whenever I bring my camera to Karla's Cottage, I always tease Karla that I'm going to take pictures and do an expose of the "dark side" of Karla's Cottage.  

 
But even the mops are more interesting at Karla's house- my mop is muddy green color, Karla's has a leopard print.

So, instead of the expose, I just took pictures of some things that caught my eye.  Of course, if I took pictures of everything that was interesting, I'd still be there- that's whats so much fun about Karla's cottages- every corner has a special little touch.  Like this bird bath made by Karla with its own permanent birds.

One of my favorite "little touches" is this ldog medallion on the backsplash of the bathroom sink.  It's one of the few things that's stayed the same for as long I've been visiting the cottage.

It's actually a button.

 
Here's a sweet little doll resting in a shoe planter and a scrap of wallpaper with "TWINKLE" (one of Karla's dogs) spelled on it.

While I was at the cottage, Karla helped style and take pictures of my project for an upcoming session of Mary's Artist Class.   If you use sign up for the class, you can use the code "gathering dust" for a $10 discount.

The project is a decorated cone embellished with handmade flowers, tags, tulle and flags- fun for spring table decoration.

 

Marilyn gave me another page for our casual round robin book.

 

I've also gotten some pages from Jewels that are made of fabric.

 
I love to read, and Jewels is a librarian, so I thought the saying on this was appropriate:

"She is too fond of books, and it has addled her brain"- Louisa May Alcott.

This page features "The Girls of Kansas" - from an old KU yearbook.  Perfect personalized pages.
  

When I'm Old...

I looked out the window and saw my old Golden, Maddie lying on the grass, in a spot of sun.  Even though it's kind of  a chilly day (39 degrees), she seemed to enjoy the sunshine, and had found a stick to keep her busy.

Maddie is somewhere between 13 and 14 years old.   We got her in Feb 1999 and her previous owner said she was two years old then- but I didn't know if she had just turned two or had been two for awhile. Maddie has a white, white face, cataracts and arthritis, but still enjoys her morning walk and soft biscuits.  If she wants to get up on the couch, she lays her chin on the cushion and we help by giving her a boost.

I hope that when I'm old, I can be content with a corner of the couch, a  little bit of sunshine and stick to keep me happy.

Maddie is keeping me company will I update my Etsy shops today- here's a peek.

SugarPinkMoon

 

Gathering Dust

 

A Craft Day- FINALLY

 
Karla and I have been trying to get together since before Christmas, but weather, work, fog, freezing temperatures, snow and blocked and icy roads have made it hard.  We finally got together for a craft day yesterday.

 
We exchanged out Christmas presents.  I had to take a picture of my present for Karla, because it was the only one that I wrapped this year.  Most people just got their presents in a gift bag- or some I just handed to the giftee and said "here".

Karla's present from me was some vintage postcards, an old floral box and a PINK knife and cutting board.  The last time I went to her house and tried to cut an apple with her lame kitchen equipment, I just about cut my fingers off.

Karla's present for me was this FANTASTIC apothocary jar.  Inside was the Christmas tree she had set aside for me way back in November.  I'll probably take the Christmas tree out for now and fill it with...buttons?  game pieces? flowers?  corks? candy?  I could probably do a whole post just on filling the jar.

Inside the wrapped present was this hand decorated (by Karla) travel coffee mug.  Karla said "I know you don't drink coffee, but I thought you could use it for tea or water".  I said "I don't drink coffee because I don't have a nice mug like this- now, I'll drink coffee".

My favorite part of the mug is the paper on the side "To a Dear Little Grumbler".  Karla kids that she complains all the time.  She'll whine about something and I'll try to be sympathetic and she'll say "oh don't worry, I'm just being my usual whiny self".   So I'm going to call this my "Grumbler Tumbler".

I had to snoop around Karla's Cottage for new treasures and found a slew of jewelry on one table in the craft room, and a whole table full of cut wallpaper on the another table.

Karla is preparing for a massive listing of wallpaper in her shop in the next few days.  If you want some of the prettiest paper I've ever seen, check it out.  We did the math on it, and figured out that wallpaper is actually cheaper than scrapbook paper.

Karla worked on Valentine's birds- which are also available in her shop.

I had to laugh- Karla was painting the birds and hanging them upside to dry on this spiral plant stand.

I worked on sepia tags using images from my altered tin tutorial from Mary's Artist Class .  Just can't get enough of sepia, cream & black.

 
  
And I used images from Mary's Lovely Ladies collection.  I have the tags on sale in my Etsy Shop- Gathering Dust.

The Antique Show- A Little Bit of My Booth

 
I brought my camera to the antique show this weekend- there were lots of GREAT booths.  My plan was to get to the show a little early- have breakfast- (they serve pastries & biscuits and gravy for the dealers- LIFE IS GOOD) and then walk around, shop, visit and take pictures before the show opened to the public.

 
But I was LATE getting to the show.

I had to make a stop at Target- which was in a large shopping area across the street- we had thick pea soup fog and I got lost in the parking lot.  I drove around the parking lot for a LONG time trying to find Target- you couldn't see the store signs until you were right in front of them.  I can understand how Londoners have walked off of bridges and into the river in a blanket of thick fog.

{Good story, huh?}

 
So, most of my pictures are of my stuff.

 
Julie and  Amy from The Vintage Workshop were both at the show with camera in hand- I'll have to check their blogs to see if they got any good pictures.

 
This is some of my favorite jewelry- a silver sash pin- a lady would have worn this at her waist; carved mother of pearls crosses- one on a rosary with mother of pearl beads; and at the right edge of the picture, a tiny bit of of one of my favorite Italian mosaic brooches.

 

My Dad was a chemistry teacher, and this is a microscope that the school was getting rid of, so he brought it home.  I used to look at sugar, salt & fingernails under it.  I was pretty much done with science as a hobby by the time I was ten.

The microscope sold right away- it is pretty cool.

 An old galvanized scale in front of a lumber yard apron- the advertising on the apron has a four digit phone number.

I did get a couple of pictures of Kathleen Heptig's booth.

 

It was all white, cream, gray and ecru and wonderfully chippy.

 
And a little bit western....
 

 

 

Old Summit Country Antique Show- This Saturday

 
I've already packed, boxed and loaded a lot of my wares for the Old Summit Country Antique show on Saturday- but here's a peek at a few things I got this week.

Cabinet cards- of course- but one thing I like about this bunch is the backs. great graphics and COLOR.

It's too bad some idiot wrote on the back of them - did I say that out loud?

 
Floral hat boxes- maybe not so country, but I still like them.

 
Good old Missouri seed sacks.

 
Vintage Valentines.

An old Currier and Ives print called Little Jane- it shows it age- hard to get a picture because it has that old wavy glass.

I bought Little Jane at an auction, and the clerk must not be familiar with Currier and Ives, because on my receipt it was listed as "Korean Rice Picture".  Say it out loud "Korean Rice- Currier & Ives".

Here's Little Jane with a reflection of lacy curtains across the glass.

I've got lots more good stuff, and the show always has fabulous dealers, so come on out.  It's Sat, Jan 16, 9am- 4pm at the John Knox Pavillion in Lee's Summit (50 Highway & Chipman Road exit).

If you go to the show, make sure you stop by and say "Hi".

Do You Know the Graphics Fairy?

I think almost everyone in "our" blogasphere probably knows Karen, The Graphics Fairy.  Everyday she gifts us with "new" old clip art from her huge collection of vintage images.

I've borrowed lots of images from Karen- my blog banner is one I made digitally using sheet music from Karen and a bird image from Stacey of Flotsam and Jetsam .

 

Every Monday Karen has Brag Monday, giving you a chance to show off art you've made with Graphic's Fairy images.

 

These are a couple of tags I made last year for Valentine's Day.

 
I know I've seen the image of the pierrot around blogland- I'm guessing it's one of Karen's most popular images.

Another group of images I'm always drawn to is birds.

This is a tag I made using a bird from The Graphics Fairy, a scalloped oval from a French dictionary, a snippet of sheet music, handpainted vintage wallpaper and a page of advertising from a ca 1900's magazine.

 
Here's another bird- I layered it on top of the same handwritten sheet music that I have on my blog header.  I haven't made anything with it yet- but if you'd like to, click on it to enlarge it, and right click to save it to your computer.

In the meantime, check out the rest of Brag Monday at The Graphics Fairy.

A Peek In My Cupboard- Antique and Vintage Children's Dishes

 
Reading all of Karla's posts about redecorating and rearranging her kitchen cupboards has inspired me to.....

 ...you'd think I'd say rearrange my own cupboards...but no, it only inspired me to take some pictures.  I don't have any "new" junk to show you, so I'm going to show some of my old junk.

I don't usually show pictures of my house because it's kind of....cluttered...it looks like someone who sells junk for a living lives here...wait, I do sell junk for a living.

I have an old stepback cupboard in my kitchen.  I used to collect blue and orange Universal Cambridge pottery.  I had plates, mugs, egg cups, casseroles, pitches, teapots, even a pottery spoon.

I still have a few pieces- like this pitcher that holds my bakelite handle flatware.

Just FYI- the most desirable Bakelite flatware has two toned handles.

But I'm gradually replacing the blue & orange pottery with vintage and antique children's dishes.  I'm not too picky about cracks and chips- it's hard to find children's dishes that don't have some signs of being used.

 
A lot of children's are almost like a bowl- with a wide lip-  to keep the food on the plate.

 

This plate with a little girl in a field of poppies seems to pretty to cover with oatmeal.

These are milk glass mugs- the one on the left is Little Red Riding Hood, the one on the top has a circus theme and the other two have farm animals.

 
To round it out- Mary Poppins Melamac dishes along with a Little Jack Horner light bulb.