Antique and vintage finds from this weekend

Hi guys! Today I am sharing a few of my vintage and antique finds from the antique sale last week and things I got at the estate sales this weekend. I pulled this wonderful wooden piece out of the barn on Saturday. It is not ancient as it is on plywood, but the level of shabbiness is AWESOME. This is a large piece. It is either going on Ebay or in Ed's Etsy shop www.theindustrialfarmer.etsy.com ... not sure yet. I had an incident happen in the barn that I am not sure about sharing..it was so awful but looking back, hilarious..but TMI and akkk! Not ready to go there YET!  I was unsure about even telling Ed! I did tell my daughter and she laughed so hard I figured Ed would too (he did)..maybe when I recover from the shame.....

Anywhoo..this is the photo I found behind a print in an antique frame I bought last week. It is large ..16" x 13" including the border. It is of the Columbia Commandery No. 2 ..Knights Templar (Masons) from Washington DC. It has 2 5 cent stamps on the back that are canceled Nov. 2, 1865 Columbus Ohio. I researched and this group was formed in January of 1865. I wonder if this is a photo of them together at their forming? It would have taken a while for the photo to be delevloped and returned to whoever and mailed to Columbus Ohio....hmmm.

I just love old group photos like this. This was the type taken with the photographer with the wooden box camera on a tripod and his head under a blanket exposing the plates. If you moved..you blurred. How far have we come?? It is amazing (yet I still manage to blur photos!) Look at these guys..stovepipe hats, swords and sashes and fancy suit coats.

This banner is how I squinted and magnified and Googled and figured out who they are! Robert E. Lee surrendered in April of 1865 so this was right around that time..the war just ending or if it was taken in January of 1865..coming to a close. It would be cool to know who some of these men were..I am assuming as it was DC..well to do or upper crust men .. politicians and businessmen.

This section is my fav..you can see a woman in a hoop skirt on the top step with a young child fanning herself (maybe summer and not January? The kids aren't wearing coats either) You can see a blur where her fan was moving. The large white things in the back are huge columns. Not sure where in DC this was.

This cutie is being problematic. It is carnival chalkware and was a bank (but the hole and bottom are sealed/resealed shut) I may put it on Etsy..the shipping will  be almost as much as I was going to charge for him if he goes West Coast. Well..maybe everyone is not as cheap as I am! If not he will go in my local booth.

I got these at the first estate sale I went to on Saturday..the one I went to 2 hours early and was number 21 in line! (see last post) I have a weak spot for old baby shoes like these.

I forgot to tell you last post, the lady who was running this estate sale said while they were cleaning out closets and getting things sorted for the sale, they found a shoebox with A LIVE WW2 OR OLDER HAND GRENADE IN IT! She said they called the police and they sent the bomb squad. The bomb dude told them it was very unstable! Yikes!

I was telling this story to a gal that was working at the next sale I went to that morning and she said when she was little, she went over to her friend's house and they had found a LIVE hand grenade that they assumed was unarmed and they took turns pulling the pin and holding the lever down and fake throwing it at each other....holy cow! Guardian angels....These shoes needed laces so I added vintage taffetta ribbon in pale blue...sweet! All these are in my Etsy shop www.hopeandjoyhome.etsy.com.

I found these at sale number 2. They are not my usual deal, but they are so interesting and so well carved I had to get them. The one on the right has 2 faces. I am not sure where they hail from..if they are African or American or Carribbean. I hope they are not some sort of bad luck voodoo thing! The one on the right can hold a candle..it has a roughly hollowed out candleholder spot on top. If you know something I don't know, please share! Not sure what the wood is..maybe mahogany or cherry..it is very fine grained. Not sure how old either but I am guessing at least Mid Century at the newest.

This old ironstone compote came from the Ohio sale. I got a couple lidded tureens too. This one had no makers mark..still very cool! It would look fab with a glass or wire cloche on top. I'm giving this a go on Ebay.

This came out of the barn. It is an antique wooden cash drawer or till. So fab for a coffee table to hold votives or whatnot or as a desktop organizer or for the bedroom to hold keys and change!This is going in Ed's shop.

Now to the KEEP portion of the story! I spied this in a box of random what nots at the Ohio sale. There were several things I liked in it besides this so I was not going to let this one get away! This is a Victorian button string. There are several buttons that came off and were in the box. I was SO excited! I have never had one. (it is not heart shaped, I just arranged it that way for the photos)

It has some wonderful buttons ..this blue one is glass.

Sooooo cool for this button hoarder!

Yummy...

Victorian "Put a bird on it"!

THIS was also in the box. I researched and found out it is a Civil War Army Of Georgia Veteran's medal . It would have had an eagle pinback that it was attached to. Don't think I have that..I need to dig through a couple boxes and make sure before I list it! Sherman was the guy that burned Atlanta and marched through Georgia (Remember Scarlett in Gone With the Wind?)

This is some of what the internet told me:"Army of Georgia Veteran's pin: Silver plated tin eagle with spread wings; a wire ring at bottom suspends a stamped circular medallion with raised portrait of "MAJ. GEN. W. T. SHERMAN" on obverse and raised images of acorn (14th Army Corps), 5-point star (20th Army Corps), Cartridge box in diamond (15th Army Corps), and arrow (16th Army Corps) on reverse. These four Army Corps were part of Sherman's Army of Georgia that marched with him from Atlanta to Savannah on the Atlantic coast and through the Carolinas. These pins can be seen being worn on the left breast of Sherman's veterans at the end of the Civil War.  

These ladies were also in that box. They are staying with me for awhile and may end up as an altered doll or assemblage piece. I may put the red shoes one back together..I think those are her arms!

Too fun!

These are little tin ice cream spoons. I want to stamp them and make them into necklaces...

This last pic is a Rumrill pottery vase I am putting on Ebay. I have only got to one box of pottery so far and I have lots more to share! Stop back! 'Til next time! Julia

Gone Antique-ing!

 Hi guys! I have been MIA a couple weeks. I have BEEN here..just busy! The beautiful piece of machinery you see above is our "new" van White Lightning. We got her on Ebay for $900 and picked her up in KY a month or so ago. She came already named. She was being used by a company that worked for a school district doing their "computer-y things". She has a bit of rust on her nose and ghost lettering on her side from her former decal. She has 2 seats and an extended back end that is HUGE! On the down side the heat only works on high (and not on the passenger side) and it has a high flautin' looking radio that we could not get to work at all. I did Google and there was something about "if you replace the battery (which we did) the radio may need to be reset to work"..boogers.

 So last week Ed got a couple days off work and we headed off to a 2 day antique auction in Ohio. We barely made it out of TN as it started snowing..the kids were off school all 3 days we were gone! (when I say "kids" I am including our 22 year old daughter..I did not leave children home alone!) So we rolled "old school" with me holding a boombox in my lap and in charge of keeping a radio station!

 We got lots of stuff. No we did not knock off a liquor store..that is just the boxes they had. We had more than this, I took this pic tonight. A bunch of boxes have already been off loaded. Some things are already in my local antiques/vintage booth. I pulled 90% of my old items in my booths and I am refilling with "new" things. I am redo-ing some other things in there too and if I can remember to take my camera, I will show you! We got a lot of pottery..Weller, McCoy, Shawnee and more, lots of glass from Victorian and depression to Fenton and Fostoria. We got dishes and some Fire King (they had Jade-ite that I wanted, but there were people there bidding well over what it is selling for online so I painfully had to pass).

 I did get these pretty alabaster lamps..and yes..that IS a potty..I wasn't trying to get that, it just came along with some other things! Last night I was trying to fix an old frame I bought, so I took it apart. Inside behind the old illustration of a girl were and even older illustration of "Daniel Ward's residence in Fairfield Co. Ohio (no clue who he is but it was cool) a colored Currier and Ives print (original) of Robert Burns and his Scottish lass.It had some tears but was what I put back into the frame. The coolest was a large antique photo of a large group of uniformed men on the steps of a huge marble columned building. They had a banner that said "Columbia Commandery No. 2" There were 5 cent stamps on the back that were canceled November 2, 1865. I Googled and found out that they were a group of Knights Templar (Freemasons) from Washington, DC. They had established themselves Jan. 1865. It is very cool and headed for Ebay! I WILL be checking behind the frames of all the other antique framed prints I bought!

 The trip home wasn't as "fun" as going up. We left at 8pm when we finished packing the van at the aution house. Ed drove until we  got through Cincinnati. He is used to going to bed at 7pm and getting up at 2 am so he was tired. I tried to sleep while he drove. I wrapped my eternity scarf around my head a few times to keep my head from bobbing and slung my head in the shoulder strap. I am a Nervous Nellie passenger though. I kept jumping awake at every "bad noise" expecting to find myself in a Mid-air "Bad Boys 2" car roll! So when I took over there was no music so I sang all the songs that popped into my head to keep myself awake! Apparently my caterwauling of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody was not enough to keep Ed awake! About 120 miles from home, the van started doing "A Weird Thing" (can you tell I am not an automechanic?) It would have a "hiccup" about every 2 miles where it would cut out... nerve wracking, but we made it home! Above is some of the depression glass and Victorian glass..tip of the iceberg. I am not generally a glass person, but it was a good price!

 There were lots of salt dips or cellars. They are so cute! Great for repurposing.

I got lots of Blue willow of various makers and ages. Some went to my booth and some is going online.

Ed bought a bunch of Hazel Atlas Platonite Moderntone. It is a 30's-40's dishware.I think it is cute, but it has  not been a strong seller for me previously. I put some in my booth..I think I priced the dinner plates at $5 which is less than some plates you can buy at KMart and Walmart!

I also went "estate sale-ing" yesterday morning (as if I didn't have boxes of glass and pottery all over my living room and kitchen to deal with!) I was up at 5 am and out the door. It was 27 degrees. I was wearing leggings and jeans, 2 pairs of sox,2 tee shirts, 2 sweaters, an insulated hood, a polar fleece jacket, a scarf, a hat and gloves! I was NOT styling! I was driving down the interstate, chugging coffee out of Ed's "Big Bubba" thermos..which is basically a coffeepot with a handle..eating Sugar Corn Pops cereal straight out of the box, daring truckers to judge me! You have to get to estate sales early if you have any hope of getting a low line number. I was there 2 hours early and was number 21! The house was small so they only let 15 people in first. I finally got in..they had cool old stuff, but it was priced too high for me for the most part. That is what I don't understand when people grumble at estate sales about "dealers" being there..It was alright prices if you were keeping it for yourself but I have to be able to resell it! I did score a box of vintage wallpaper rolls in the basement. Off to sale #2. I got more things there even though I got there 10 minutes late..you just never know. I ended up getting film interviewed for a advertising piece the estate sales people were supposedly taking to a conference. I was like, "I have crazy hair and my glasses with the tape on the bow!" The camera lady was all.."You look great!" LIAR!  Oh well!

Today between our grandson and son's basketball games, we went to see a barn some buddies are cleaning out. We got some things there too..more crusty, rusty farmy things..right up my alley! I WILL be back sharing photos of more finds and some pix of things I am doing in my booth. 'Til next time! Julia

McCoy pottery and more

 Hi guys! I am sharing a few pieces of my vintage McCoy (and more) pottery collection today. This, as my husband would say, is the tip of the iceberg! I started collecting vintage matte or satin "white" or cream pieces and veered off into aqua and mint..then yellow..and I even have a couple pink pieces! I think the sky blue one on the left may be Haeger pottery. To me, Haeger either seems to be cool or ugly .not a lot of between ground!

 When my daughter Hope moved out I sent a dozen (or more) pieces with her for her new apartment..and it really didn't make much of a dent!

 I got these out to use as possible photo props for some map covered altered softballs that I made.

            Then I ended up taking pix of just them! This vase is a fav.

I also have a few pieces of this "Capri blue" glass. I am not a big glass collector, but I do love this color! I started altering softballs because, as my daughters played softball for years, we had quite a few old ones laying about. I used vintage map paper and they look like little globes (another thing I collect!)

 These softballs are more pastel and merited an aqua McCoy planter.I love mid century pottery..so much coolness! I keep thinking I am going to plant succulents in this one, but with the exception of one Christmas cactus, I am a total indoor plant serial killer!

This is a favorite bowl. This is older unmarked McCoy. I really like this blue.

I also got another Union Jack pillow made as the one from last week sold. This one has a burlap background and pale grey (new) ticking. I prefer to use vintage fabric but I had this laying around..I bought it for some other project that I have since either forgotten or lost enthusiasm for! I am notorious (at least in my mind) for that..getting an idea and getting all excited to make it, buying the stuff I need then...why did I buy this ticking?? Crafting ADD! I want to do some in white and grey vintage fabric too with this ticking.. maybe some lace added too.

 I had internet problems all last week and this week it is the septic tank..ewww. They finally figured out what our internet issue was, and "the guy" is coming tomorrow to snake our lines...thank goodness. We have water but no drainage so you can bathe and wash dishes if you bail the water, but the potty is another issue entirely! Thank goodness my husband's office isn't far away! SO..hoping YOU are having a stress and problem free week! 'Til next time! Julia

New pillow projects and old apothecary bottles

 Hi guys! Well..yes I know I SAID I was going to be more artsy and less functional..and actually I AM working on a couple artsy things..but I made these 2 pillows the last 2 days too and I wanted to share. I have a vintage supply ...ummm..ok HOARDING issue! I have had these vintage feedsack patchwork quilt top squares for years waiting for "the perfect project". I read someplace (sorry whoever said it first) that you make your best work when you let go of "the good stuff"! As I want to destash a bit also..I realeased these "into the wild"!

 It is actually 4 hand sewn/pieced squares that I seamed together (machine) to make one larger square of pillow size. I wanted to put a heart in the center as it is my favorite motif, so I got out more fabric and just started layering things until I thought, "That is IT!" I cut out a heart shape (just like you learned in kindergarten with paper) and I hand basted the edges under. I added bright red rick rack w/ the sewing machine as I wanted both a scalloped edge, a pop of red and a grounding solid color to bridge the patterns. Look at all those feedsack squares and vintage fabrics..sooo yummy! I wish I had yards of some of those!

 The reverse is some fabulous Jennifer Paganelli fabric that I have also hoarded for a few years. I bought it and it was so pretty I didn't want to cut it up! I actually bought this pattern in 3 colorways..also bright pink and white and white and black.

 I just really liked how all these fabrics "played" together!

 This one is a repeat as I have made a couple previously. I am starting to run low on my stash of unused vintage blue and white ticking fabric. I bought a whole roll a few years back. I sold yards and yards of it and have used a lot of the rest! I hope the estate sale gods smile on me again soon! And no..the tape measure bits are not off center..that is the way a Union Jack is supposed to be! With a last name like "Marlow" I always though my husband's ancestors must have been English, but we found out a few years back they were actually Irish..maybe Ireland via England?

 The red and white check is also an estate sale find..it is Waverly. I added jute/burlap upholstery webbing and vintage fabric tape measure tape. That is also an estate sale find..it was unused replacement tape...it pays to look in the garage and workshop at estate sales! So..while my supplies hold out I will continue making these..or something like them..I get easily bored making the same thing over and over!

 This is what I was working on this week for my vintage Etsy shop..adding groups of antique aqua glass apothecary, medicine, pharmacy bottles. They are so pretty! I love aqua blue. I thought they would be great for altered bottles, for vases..add a cork and a new "old label" (Check out the Graphics Fairy online (Google her) She has fabulous old graphics free to download.

 I learned a lot researching these things. Some said "for consumption" which was the old fashioned word for tuberculosis. My research told me that the active ingredients in one "consumption cure" were alcohol, chloroform and cannabis (pot) and for another one that I had the active ingredient was HEROIN! Holy smokes..they didn't cure TB, but I guess you probably didn't notice or care!

 Some of the bottles were a deeper aqua and some were palest aqua green..I even have a couple dark green ones. Some are unmarked. Some are extract/flavoring bottles, cough syrup, stove blacking,ink, hair balsam..one was even hair dye!

I will be listing more..I have some smaller ones and some larger. A couple look to have been dug, but most are pretty nice. It is fun to imagine where they have been. One thing I have learned selling vintage..sometimes your "stuff" lasts a lot longer than you do! Hope you all have a great weekend! Until next time! Julia

December wrap up..

Hey guys! Where did December go? I have been busy with all the usual December activities..setting my personal bars too high as to what I felt I needed to "accomplish"...soaring high in some aspects and failing miserably in others..mostly pulling through in a half-assed "oh well..that is as good as it is getting!" December is always stressful to me as a mom and a self appointed "person in charge of the Christmas wonderfulness for the family". My loving husband tells me I am nuts and ever so logically "Just skip it if it stresses you out or get the kids to help" Ha! Such a "manswer"! Oh well..another Christmas passed and everyone seemed happy and I can get back to business as usual.

We had our last daughter get engaged just before Christmas making this year "The Year of Engagements" at our house as all 3 of our older kids got engaged this year..causing our 11 year old to comment, "They are dropping like flies!"

The new year brings the usual resolutions..to eat better..to exercise more..and mostly for me, "Just DO it"..to live with courage..to take a leap of faith and use my God given talents and see what happens! I remember in my 20's thinking I was too young for anyone to take me seriously and now, in the blink of an eye I am 50 and worrying about being too old! So This year I say screw it. I am going to make art for art's sake and not worry so much about it having a "purpose" or a use. Yes I will still make pillows and totes and whatnot, but I will also make "art"  instead of looking at other people's work and thinking, "I could do that" ..just DO it!

I also plan to be myself more often. Some days I look in the mirror and see glimpses of the "old me", but some days I do not recognize the person I see..Julie has been lost to Mom, Honey and Nina(Gramma). I had a mini "moment" (episode..meltdown..whatever) in Target while Christmas shopping with my husband and daughter and the boys. I saw a pair of red suede high heeled boots with nailhead studs that were totally the old/inner "me'...but I started justifying them to myself..where would I even wear them? I only go to the grocery store, the post office and church! What would I wear them with? I bet they would make my feet hurt..those are for young girls...So after some moments of "What has become of ME? I am old and chubby and now wearing granny panties instead of "fancy pants"because they looked comfy!" I put them back on the shelf. And Christmas Eve night when I opened a gift from my daughter..there they were! So I guess now I will be wearing them even if it IS only to the grocery store, post office or church! I also need to ditch the granny panties if, while they are comfy, they make me feel bad in other ways! (I also got some lovely Amy Butler yardage in 4 patterns that I am going to have to be brave enough to cut into and make something for ME!)

I plan to baby myself a bit more often..to try not to justify every purchase. I plan also to give more to charities because even though we don't have a lot, we are way better off than a lot of people in the world. I plan to work harder at my business and TRY to be a BIT more organized! When you have several irons in the fire, it is hard sometimes to juggle and keep all the balls in the air..I think I mixed metaphors there..

 These photos have been some wonderful vintage Christmas items I have sold this year....

 ..and some of my own pieces. So as the dust settles on 2013, I step bravely into year 2014..

With more courage, less procrastination, more productivity and more ME! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Holiday season and wishing you all health and happiness in 2014!

Foggy morning photos

 Hi guys! This morning it was foggy when I was taking my son to school. I took my camera and took a couple photos. I love foggy mornings..they are just so mysterious! The fog blankets out the power lines and the ugly. My pix were quick and not that great , but I did have fun playing with them in Picasa. I like making them "landscape-y". I don't consider myself a photographer..I have no clue about camera settings (which you will painfully see on my next post! lol) I do like to "play" with them though.

 I can make them look even dreamier....

 There was rain dripping off the leaves.

 I like the play of the branches against the foggy background.

 They remind me of silhouettes or scherenschnitte paper cuttings. I like the pinkish sky with the mossy/ mustard greens and chocolate brown here..a possible future color combo on another project!

This shade of grey is inspiring my new living room wall paint color. I have photos of the Small Town Christmas night out that was on Saturday, but they weren't as pretty as this morning! Hope you all are having a great day! 'Til next time! Julia