Seven smalls I saw at Sage
Posted: October 12, 2014 Filed under: Craft, Fun Finds, Sage Farm, Vintage pottery | Tags: McCoy pottery, Quilting, Sage Farm, yellow is a happy color 2 CommentsPart of the fun of going to Sage Farm is seeing how the best dealers merchandise their stuff. I always try to look at that. It’s a free education if you pay attention!
But a few smalls always catch my eye, too. Here are six of them from last weekend’s Sage Farm show. 
First, a McCoy iris vase displayed with other pottery. I don’t care that it’s McCoy, I just love the flutey shape, and the yellow. Because yellow is a happy color. (A vase identical to the green one behind the yellow McCoy is sitting on my mantel right now!) 
An almost-rusty steel window screen displays vintage postcards. Wouldn’t this be great in your kitchen for recipes and notes? Too bad rust isn’t my thing. Now if I found a white enameled steel version . . .
See the other goodies I found!
I finally got my own tool box
Posted: March 16, 2014 Filed under: Home and Garden, This Old Row House | Tags: vintage tool box, yellow is a happy color Comments Off on I finally got my own tool boxWould you like to see what I got for Christmas? Yes, Christmas! (blush! blush!) It’s a vintage carpenter’s toolbox. Every woman should have her own toolbox. I’ve wanted one for years.
The kids thought I’d paint it. Absolutely not!
Maybe it was a school shop project way back when. (Do kids still make things like this in shop class? Do schools still offer shop class? Or home EC?)
My kids thought I’d want to paint it. Find out what I did
It’s not a party without penguins and a leggy blonde
Posted: March 13, 2014 Filed under: Lurayville, Renovation | Tags: Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, dining room, vintage sideboard, yellow is a happy color 3 Comments
Well, we’re back.
That was a long ten days, that was. The flu fairy came to visit. Everybody’s better now. That’s all I’m saying.
Last night we hosted a potluck dinner to celebrate a committee that BluesRay’s been chairing for nine months, who have now successfully finished their task. A dozen people came.
It was the first time since we’d started renovating that we’d let anybody in the door who wasn’t family or close friends or a contractor. I cleaned for three days. It’s amazing how paint cans and brushes and tools and extra doorknobs can spread themselves thin all over the house. Just like plaster dust.
And there is nothing like the threat of “company’s coming!” to induce a panicky rush to tidy it all up. We can’t have anybody thinking that we’ve been actually living in a renovation project now, can we?
Placesettings: winter wake-up with steel-cut oats
Posted: January 24, 2014 Filed under: Placesettings, Pyrex & Fire-King, Recipe, Vintage tablecloths | Tags: Catalin flatware, Fire King, Lu-Ray Pastels, vintage restaurantware, vintage tablecloth, yellow is a happy color Comments Off on Placesettings: winter wake-up with steel-cut oatsWe woke up to a bright and sunny, if very cold, morning today. After half an hour outdoors with the dog, we warmed up with piping hot bowls of steel-cut oats and strawberries.
I started with a bright tablecloth of daisies in red, yellow, and green. That’s a lot of wow for only three colors!
Then there’s a yellow Lu-Ray plate. Because yellow is a happy color, of course. The really old Sterling China bowl is perfect for oatmeal because the thick hotel china holds the heat.
I like steel cut oats a lot, they’re filling and they warm you right up on a cold morning. But I don’t like standing over the stove stirring them for thirty minutes till they’re cooked. Most mornings I have better things to do to get everyone out the door to work and school.
So I cook oatmeal the lazy way: overnight in a crockpot. Easy!
Completely non-Christmas fabulous find
Posted: December 4, 2013 Filed under: Decor, Fun Finds, Lurayville, Not gonna change a thing! | Tags: Color, vintage furniture, yellow is a happy color 2 CommentsI drove by the thrift shop yesterday on my way to the fabric store to pick up a couple dozen jingle bells for my sewing students’ next project.
Am I ever glad I did!
Actually, to back up a country mile in this story, I didn’t drive right by the thrift shop at all. I stopped there before I got to the fabric store, even though it meant taking two left turns on a busy road, which generally I try to avoid.
Because the fabric store always has dozens of jingle bells and if they ever run out they can get more in a jiffy.
But if I miss something marvelous at the thrift shop, well, I’m never going to see it again.
This is what I didn’t miss. Read the rest of this entry »
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dish sisters vintage home and housewares 