Wire Baskets: My latest fetish

You know, I am thankful that I can admit when I have a problem.  I am not sure that it helps the situation, but at least I CAN admit it.  My latest problem is:  I CAN'T STOP BUYING ANTIQUE (or antique-looking) WIRE BASKETS!!  I love them. I love the way they look.  I love the way I can store things in them...pretty things or useful things.  Things. I love things, too.  So it is important that I can store them in something fabulous. I adore the two above from The Pottery Barn.  They're the perfect size for the kitchen.

My most recent purchase of wire baskets were the two great looking ones from One Kings Lane.  They are treasures, and I use one of the larger ones on the kitchen cabinet to hold all of my cutting boards - it works perfectly. 

From Hudson Goods (hudsongoods.com)

I also recently purchased an antique, German apple picking basket.  It's in my husband's bathroom, and I use it to store his towels.  I roll the towels, and it's actually a pretty way to display something needful. 

Another one of my favorites is in our family room holding all of my magazines.  And I have others.  I am just waiting to try to decide what I can use them to hold or display.

And there will be more.  In fact, I just can't seem to help myself when I see one for sale.  I have found a terrific place for finding old wire baskets and other special vintage finds.  If you have a fetish like me, I promise you it will be well worth your time to visit Hudson Goods.  Be impressed.  This is a wonderful place!

Would love to hear about how others use their fantastic wire baskets! 

Happy Tuesday!

Books by Lamp Light?

I saw this on the HGTV website and fell in love with it.  I have a similar lamp that I purchased a couple of years ago at a craft fair, but I ADORE the shade on this one...or the lack thereof. It seems to be an old, wire apple-picking basket.  HGTV has even offered instructions on how to make this cutie.  Click here for a visit.

Enjoy!

Antique Glass Insulators

  

Photo by Patrick Conn, PCONN, Flickr, "Around the House."



 My grandfather was a collector.  He collected everything from old tobacco cutters, to antique scales, to toy metal cars to coal company script.  One of his favorite things to collect was antique glass insulators.  A few years ago, my grandmother took me out to her old barn, showed me an old crate full of glass insulators, and told me they had belonged to my Grandfather...and now I could have them.  My "Granddaddy" was adored by my brother and me, so to inherit anything that had been important to him was a thrill for me.  They were dirty and heavy, but I somehow managed to heave the crate and its contents to my old car.  I still have all these old insulators, and every time I see them, they bring a smile to my face.  I have no idea WHAT to do with them, but they make me smile nonetheless. 

Photo by Julie Green, DestinyCaptured, Flickr

My husband has encouraged me to get rid of them.  I don't think I could do that.  These pieces of glass are a part of history.  Some glass insulators were made as early as the 1850's and used for telegraph lines.  Later, they were used for telephone and power lines.  Imagine all the communications that have passed by these little treasures!  If only THEY could talk!

Boston in the 1860's in front of Old State House.  Notice over the tops of the buildings all the old insulators!

Memphis, Tennessee, 1907, Union Depot. Wow...look at all the poles and all those insulators!

Louisville, Kentucky, 1906, Corner of Fourth and Main.  Here's a nice closeup of a pole with insulators...many, many insulators!

Hemingray Advertisement, 1926

In an attempt to find a creative way to display my antique glass insulators, I discovered on the internet an absolutely WONDERFUL idea!  Pendant lights made from glass insulators!  Below is a photograph of those listed on Remodelista.com.  Aren't they FABULOUS?  Now I won't rest until I can find someone who can turn my Granddaddy's old insulator collection into pendent lights for our house.

I am looking for other interesting things to do with these little pieces of glass.  If anyone has any ideas, I would truly appreciate you sharing them here.  I would love to find creative and wonderful ways of displaying these sentimental collectibles.

Emeralds in the Sky

A booming train derailed the silent night

The fallen poles in skins of moss unroll

A trains conductor pounding rails in-flight

Around the glass, and through the wires control

The rare conductors weren't common names

Those colored jewels, emeralds in the sky

Atop the threaded perch, flamboyant flames

Where mustard yeller insulators spy

A million miles of wire across this land

Converting sounds from golden amber girls

To ears of purple ponies on demand

With pleated skirts a dancing dancer whirls

The hemingrays beside the lost zicme

Between the poles a catenaries sag

Our saddened faces watch a crosses plea

In piles of poles and crosses, raise the flag

Memories wonder through our minds of glass

Our crystal balls of color now amass

In homes of those who wonder why, and as

Memories never fading from our eyes

Our minds release the emeralds to the skies.

~Wesley Willis, 2007

Happy end-of-July,



Wings for my Dream...

If you have followed my blog for any length of time or know me personally, you know how much historic preservation means to me.  It means a lot.  My husband and I were caught up in a battle a few years ago when the historic school house across the street from our home was torn down to make way for condominiums. It was a heart breaking experience, as we felt hopeless and nothing that we did made a difference!  The elected officials in the city had already made up their minds to have the structure destroyed. I will never forget standing in the street in front of the school the day they drove the bulldozer through the front doors. I cried. I cried not only for this beautiful old building, but for all that it had meant to the children who had once learned inside its walls...and for all the people who would never get to see it and for what it once stood. 

Before that sad day when we finally realized that the building would not be repurposed or restored as we had hoped, we quickly went about trying to have some of the beautiful architectural details inside the building saved:  the antique stairwell, the windows, the doorknobs and light fixtures.  The person in charge of the project would not allow us to go in and remove these items. When I asked to remove the old front doors right before the bulldozer drove through them, I was laughed at by the men from the demolition company and the by the developer.

The building is now gone, and what remains in its place is an empty dirt hole.  The developer never finished the project, and the city has seen nothing but heartache over this project. I vowed a few weeks after this happened that I would never be defeated so easily again.  With this said, I know that I will not be able to save every historic structure, but I certainly can try!  And if the structures cannot be saved, at least I want to try to salvage the beautiful architectural details that once made them so special.

I have long dreamed of opening a business that focused on architectural salvage, whether it be repurposed or sold to interior designers, architects or builders to use in other restoration projects.  But with a need to pay bills and support my family, I have never been able to pursue that dream due to financial commitments that cannot be postponed.  Start-up for a company of that type would take a bit of time and money.

Enter DOCKERS.  They have announced a contest called "Wear the Pants Project."  People like me who LOOOONG to pursue their dreams of doing something important and fulfilling can enter for a chance to win $100,000 to get their project started.  CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!?!  How wonderful!  Of course, I had to enter!  I've long had my business plan constructed and just lacked the financial means to follow it.  Dockers is giving one lucky person the chance to do just that! 

So, I'm looking for votes!  I NEED votes!  I would so much appreciate it if those who frequent my blog (and even those who just stop by on occasion) would PLEEEEEASE visit the link below and vote for my plan!  Please give wings to my dream.....I WANT TO FLY!

 CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR PAULA'S

"WEAR THE PANTS" PROJECT ON FACEBOOK!

Thanks to all for your much-needed and appreciated support!



Victory Gardens

As I plant my own vegetables and herbs this year, I am reminded of the old posters of the Victory Gardens that citizens were encouraged to grow during WWII. The images are some of my favorite vintage art even though they portray a time of unrest in the world; they also recall a time of great patriotism. The US School Garden Program also had amazing images of children in the garden. I have many vintage photographs of my grandmother in overalls with a scarf tied around her hair, so the first image reminds me so much of her. She was in her early to mid twenties during WWII and is a wealth of information regarding that era.

And thanks to people like my grandparents, we live in a time when we may garden simply for pure pleasure. I am grateful.

Antique Card Catalog

For as long as I can remember, I have had a love affair with books. Not just books, but libraries filled with books. As a child, I enjoyed going to our small town's library and getting lost in the stacks of books, reading the back covers, having a difficult time deciding which I would check out because I wanted to check out all of them. In elementary school, our class would go to the library one day a week. I would check out the maximum books allowed and carry them home with me. My favorites I checked out over and over again. Many years later, the woman who had been my elementary school librarian decided that Harold and the Purple Crayon should be retired. Since she remembered that this was one that I checked out over and over again, she signed the inside of the well worn cover and brought it to me. Of course, I was thrilled. Now that little tattered book is among my collection of first editions and author-signed books, as it is as important to me as any of those...perhaps even more.

Another thing I loved about libraries was the old card catalogs. I loved reading them! So, imagine my delight when poking through an old junk store, I spied in the back corner under piles of "stuff" a dusty antique card catalog that called out to me louder than if it could speak. I got so excited over this scratched old cabinet with it's twelve drawers that I could barely ask the price of the old man who ran the store. Fifty dollars. He actually said fifty dollars. I couldn't believe it. Of course I yelled, "Sold." and went up to immediately pay him, and I couldn't get it loaded in my car fast enough. It barely fit across the back seat, but it did...as if it was meant to be. When I got home and asked my husband to help me unload the car of a true treasure, he looked at me as if I had lost my mind when he saw it. "Where in the world are you going to put it," I remember him asking. "I don't know, but I have to find a place!"

The photo above is not my cabinet, although this one has twelve drawers. Mine is two drawers high and six drawers wide! I love it!

I believe I know the perfect place. In my new studio. It will look wonderful in there and serve as a great cabinet to hold paint brushes, tubes of paint, pencils, etc. I cannot wait to take the orange oil to it and see how that old wood shines. I bet the patina is amazing. For now, it sits among the other furniture all piled in our guest bedroom awaiting the finish of the remodel. I can't even get in there to take a photo of it right now, but soon....

This will be a project that will touch my heart and lift my soul. I can't wait to see it in its new home.

Old-Fashioned Screen Doors

Recently, my dog destroyed our screen door. I admit, I wasn't sad...or even mad at her. I hate our screen door! We inherited it with our house, and it is the standard, cheap metal with plexiglass door that one sees everywhere. Needless to say, it does not look as though it belongs on our circa 1869 house. I love those old-fashioned, squeek-when-you-open, slam-shut-with-a-spring kind of doors...those with the little curly-cues in the corners are my favorite. So I searched the internet to find one that I like, and I admit I like many! But they are so expensive to order over the internet. The shipping alone will break my budget! So, I am on the hunt for a local woodworker/master carpenter to make me a door. It has to be 85 inches tall by 40 inches wide...that's one BIG door! And, most importantly, it has to stand up to Molly the Mutt and our two cats, Isabella and Hermione, who love to hang by their toes from the screen. Below are a few that I have fallen in love with. Which do you like?


Look at the cute puppy on this one! I adore this!
This photo is from orvis.com.

Doesn't this look so homey and inviting?! Found this photo on thisoldhouse.com

These from Glyndon Carpentry are magnificent! Oh, how I wish I had a double-wide door! :-)

Okay, granted this is not a door to outside...but to a pantry! Isn't it WONDERFUL?!?! This came from the Sugar Pie Farmhouse...whose site you MUST visit!! This makes me want to take down my own pantry door and put up a cute screen door. Look at the embellishments in the corners and the chalkboard paint! What an adorable idea!

I love the cozy look of this porch!!

I found this one on the blog Anderson Daily Photo. This is a great blog. Anderson is a town in South Carolina, and the owner of the blog posts a photo each day taken in the city. Such a great idea! Anyway, isn't this a cute little entry to this cottage?

Here's another screen door used as a pantry door in a cute kitchen. I love the design of this one and its blue color! I think I need to paint mine another color besides white. I found this great picture on the AtticMag website. I love this website that has house tours and historic homes and designer rooms. You should really go for a visit!

...and this little cutie all painted in red I saw featured over at Twice Remembered who borrowed it from CountryLiving.Com.

There are so many designs and styles to choose from. As soon as I have it finished and installed, I will share it here with you. I definitely have a tough decision to make!

My Sesquicentennial Post and Giveaway

This is my 150th post, and I am celebrating with a special giveaway. I will assign each person who comments a special number and conduct a random drawing on Sunday, February 28th, the last day of this month. The winner will receive a special gift box from me containing vintage treasures, art items, and anything else I may think to add to the box. It really is a mystery at this point all that I will decide to include. So...feel free to enter by leaving a comment.

I've truly enjoyed my blog and all the wonderful people with whom I have become acquainted since beginning it. I hope to be blogging for many years to come!

By the way, the sweet little wrapped gift photo above is courtesy of Lilla Blanka. Visit this blog...you'll be amazed at the simplistic beauty and the creativity in using vintage items. Just gorgeous! And while my little gift probably won't be wrapped as creatively as this (although I'll try), it has definitely given me inspiration! We'll see what happens!

Thanks for visiting and following,

Living Room Color Scheme Help!

When Dear Husband bought our circa 1869 home in 2001, he inherited pink floral wallpaper in our living room. Since then, because we have no idea what the wall looks like behind that wallpaper AND because we had other home projects that were higher priority, we simply decorated to match the wallpaper. As a result, our living room rather resembles a bottle of Pepto Bismol. Don't get me wrong...I LIKE pink. I am just uncertain that I like THIS much pink in one of our main rooms. So, I have decided that it is time to address the pink room. But I am completely at a loss for what direction to take with color! We have original, antique yellow tiles surrounding our fireplace, and that is the one thing in the room we cannot...WILL not change, so we would like to tie a color scheme into that. The pink and yellow just aren't working! So, we need YOUR help! Please take a look at the room -- I took a lot of photos of the fireplace so that you can see the colors we will need to incorporate...or MAKE work. And keep in mind that I may purchase new couches, or I can at LEAST recover those that I have. Thanks for your ideas!

I know...the right side of the secretary needs SOMEthing...paintings? Decorative plates?

We can't figure out what this is...cast iron? Or brass? It has a gold-coppery tinge to it. Any ideas?

These creamy yellow tiles are original to the house. These and the fireplace cover will stay. So how do I go from pink to this? And what colors should I put with it? Help!