SHE CHARMED ME..........

                She has a little pout going on...................

Probably because she had to get her hair curled

within an inch of her life, and put that checkered dress on.

I bet she hated getting dressed up and having her picture taken.

This was fun to make because most

of the "charms" were gifts

from friends.

Besides the coins I included a crucifix from Lourdes ,

religious medals, watch fob, vintage bits of chain,

old steel cut links, rosary beads, Baltic amber,

and of course the old tintype of "Smiley".

                                                                    

Slim Pickings.....

This was about the most interesting find from this weekend,

some sort of Masonic  plaque.

A cigar box and some tins to feed my

obsession.

The tag on these said "Asian chess pieces"????

They all come apart and I think are

destined to show up later as part of "something else."

Weird, but I couldn't resist them.

                                                                       

I found this hat form,

thought it would fit the fencing mask

I bought a while back.

Not really, a bit small,

"making do" until a bigger one comes along.

Sales are just starting up around here,

Felt good to get out and rummage about!!

How about you?

Did you find any treasures this weekend?

                                                                              

Memento Mori

Victorian mourning piece......or memento

This Victorian hair piece is one of a group of similar pieces I bought.

In rough condition, it was actually a brooch.

The pin was broke leaving just enough metal to fashion a ring or bail.

I paired it with a piece of old watch fob, part of an old rosary,

some antique faceted black beads,

a religious medal,

and some other bits and pieces.

Unfortunately as I was working on it,

the hair moved a bit  in the case.

Can you tell?

Soooooooooo.........

It's off to the jewelers with it. I think she can take the glass off ,

which needs to be cleaned anyway,

and reposition the hair.

At least I hope so, cuz I really like  this piece!

Fingers crossed!!!! 

                                                                                                      
                                                                             

COMBINING..............

Some of my favorite things..............

Torquoise, African trade beads, 

Victorian mourning hair watch fob piece,

Old fishing gear.

And this wonderful  ceramic amulet that Steph

made and sent me .

I kept everything simple and let the amulet

have the attention it deserves.

                                                               

Thanks For All The Inspiration!!

OK, is this a bit better??.................

Still grey, but a dark charcoal,

sanded it a bit.........

put some wax on the top.

Maybe needs darker knobs?

A work in progress................

I need to find something to hang under the turtle shell

for better balance.

It will be fun to fill this out over time.

Thanks for all your suggestions!

It really helped to motivate me.

                                                                      

#1 Auction Rule..........

PREVIEW.... PREVIEW..... PREVIEW!!!!!!!!

OK Jan, here's the story:

(at risk of a little personal embarrassment)

I wasn't planning on going to the little auction that I sometimes go to,

and at the last minute thought....housework or auction??

I am so out of here!!!

So against my better judgement, and going against my number one rule...

I didn't preview anything, and yes, still got a bidders card.

A bit into the auction all of the sudden I hear the auctioneer say

"pie safe"!!! What???

Something I have always wanted.

From where I was sitting it looked pretty good,

punched tin sides, screen doors on the front.....yum!!

When he asked for $50 I shot up my card.

$50 for an antique pie safe...are you kidding??

Happy dance!!!

The fact that no one else seemed to be bidding should have been a clue to me.

I only live ten minutes from the auction, so I went and paid for it

and told them I would be back tomorrow with my truck to 

pick it up.  

The next day I go back to help the guy load it up and got my

first good look at my "treasure".

First of all it pretty much had only three legs.

One of the legs was all but gone from rot, and the other three

weren't all that much better.

Trying to act like I knew that all along, no big deal......

I proceeded to help load it into the truck.

When we attempted to lay it on its back, the back

 totally fell apart.

It was one of those pieces of furniture where the back sort of all fits together?

 I am sure there's a name

for that type of construction, but I don't know what it is.

And I am sure it works good, before termites have had their way

with pretty much the whole piece.

I thanked the guy for helping me, couldn't even look at him,

 and got the heck out of there.

CRAP!!!!!

So, I'm driving home, and in my mind i'm  going........

well, I can probably get something for the punched tin,

(this was when I still rented space at antique store) 

I can take the doors off and sell them, the knobs were cute,

get the picture?

But the first order of business was to get it into the garage

and well hidden under a blanket with something piled

on top of it so my husband wouldn't see it.

The first chance I had I gave it a good cleaning.

I decided it was pretty far gone but maybe I could use it for storage?

IF I could get it put back together that is.

So.......first I cut the legs almost totally off.

Not that I had a choice......

Then I got out the nail gun and piece by piece nailed it back together.

But there was a lot of rot and termite damage. A lot!!!

Ok..... I can do this, right?

Off to Lowes for some wood rot filler junk.

I had never worked with this before and I really don't want to again.

I got the areas filled in, let it dry and tried to sand it.

Yeah, right.

Sort of lumpy and bumpy and yuck!! And hard!

Deciding that this was just going into the garage to hold supplies, I decided to throw a coat of

paint on it . I mixed up some mistints I had bought cheap

at Lowes, and started painting it.

Somewhere in the middle of painting it......(fumes??)

I decided that if it was going to hold my supplies

for making memory jugs, maybe it should look like one as well?

So all the places where the lumpy filler was,

I just covered with stuff I had been saving for art projects.

And actually, I don't think it turned out too bad.

It has sort of grown on me.

And by the way.....that pie safe is now rock solid!

I need to repaint it this summer, I never expected it to end up in the house so

it still has the paint I made from mixing several colors together. 

What color would you paint it?

A darker gray? Black?

I tell myself it's a piece of folk art, but then I say that

about my rubber band ball too......lol

So there you go Jan, that's the story .

(I put a link to Jans blog , Gracies' Cottage, up above.

Jan's an antique

dealer that probably always previews........

and has the best "stuff")

                                                                      

                                                                
                                                                

                                                                   

A Crants For Ida Estelle

Since this is not a traditional crants, in that I made it in 

memory of a much younger girl, I took a few liberties. 

I attatched a small frozen charlette doll to one of the gloves.

Down through the center I hung two white leather gloves,

and a vintage handkerchief.

One glove has the doll and Idas name....

as well as her date of birth and date of death.

The other glove has a sweet poem .

Be always ready no time to delay

I in my youth was called away

Great grief to those that's left behind

But I hope that I'm great joy to find

(I copied this from a crants from the 1700's)

Wax flowers from an antique bridal headpiece

 in the center of the rosettes.

I attatched a small religious medal  and a button

from a childs high button shoe.

(like Ida wore)

OK, let's meet Ida Estelle Walster:

Ida, with her Father , Charles Lloyd Walster

(my grandfather)

Ida, with her little brother Harry,(my Dad)

I'm disapointed..... in this picture they have on the sweetest high button shoes

but they don't show.

(there was one more sister and five more brothers to follow)

I don't know a lot about Ida. She was the first born child

of Charles Lloyd and Edith Carolina Walster, my paternal grandparents.

She was named after both of her grandmothers.

She died when she was five years old. I have heard a couple of different

accounts but think it's safe to say she had a brain tumor. She was taken to 

a hospital in Seattle, a distance of over 30 miles. I am not sure how they traveled,

but at that time there was a train depot in Maltby and they may have traveled by train.

It had to have been an ordeal.

Ida did undergo brain surgery (remember this was in 1927) 

She survived the surgery, but briefly. 

I do know she liked to draw and apparently was fairly gifted for

a child of her age.

She lived her short life on a dairy farm,

and I think was happy and very much loved

with extended family also living nearby.

Lets take Ida her crants.

This is Bear Creek Cemetary

in Snohomish County,Washington State.

This cemetary dates back to the late 1899

or early 1900's. It is still in use today.

A view of the simple country cemetary.

This has been an interesting study for me,

I don't think I am quite done with crants.

(You can see my previous post for a brief history of crantses.)

(crants is the singular, crantses is the plural)

Some pictures for my family:

Maltby Community Church, as it is today.