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!

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,



In Your Easter Bonnet

Judy Garland and Fred Astaire in Easter Parade

In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it,
You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter Parade.
I'll be all in clover and when they look you over,
I'll be the proudest fellow in the Easter Parade.
On the avenue, Fifth Avenue, the photographers will snap us,
And you'll find that you're in the rotogravure.
Oh, I could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet,
And of the girl I'm taking to the Easter Parade.
        ~Irving Berlin



Easter ushers in the season of rebirth and renewal...a celebration of the resurrection of nature and, most importantly, our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Growing up in a wonderful, Christian home, the Easter Sundays of my childhood are some of my fondest memories.  As a young child, I may not have fully understood the significance of the day, but I knew enough to understand it was a celebration of Jesus and His sacrifice for us.  It was also a day to be with family, to feast on wonderful, traditional food, to get dressed up in new, spring colored clothing, to wear my white shoes for the first time since the end of the previous summer, and to marvel at the brightly colored Easter eggs and all the wonderful chocolate treats and special gifts my mother and grandmother would place in my Easter basket.  My beloved "Granddaddy" would always bring me a beautiful corsage to wear to church, and I could not wait to put it on with my pretty spring dress.

But one of my favorite things about Easter Sunday (call it the girl in me) was seeing all the beautiful hats the ladies of the church would wear on that special day!  My grandmother always had beautiful hats and gloves to wear to church, but on Easter Sunday, she would always wear something extra special.  This may have been the origin of my fascination with hats and, especially, Easter Bonnets.

As long as I can remember, I have loved hats - so much so, that I have a collection of beautiful, vintage hats displayed on a coat stand in my home.  I have many others in boxes in closets or displayed in the top of a Victorian trunk in one of my guest rooms.  I adore them.  If I could get by with it, I would enjoy wearing a hat every day! 

Easter bonnets are top of the list for me as far as hats go...right up there with the beautiful hats women still wear to the Kentucky Derby...but those are for another post.  In celebration of the upcoming Easter holiday, here are a few photographs of a few gorgeous Easter Bonnets.  Enjoy!

Have a beautiful day!

A Guest Room Transformed

A little over a year ago, we were still operating a bed and breakfast out of our house, and the plan to grow our family still seemed a bit distant. But in September, we closed the B&B and began the transformation of one of our Victorian guest rooms (you can see photos of it HERE) to a nursery.  Since we were uncertain if we would have a boy or girl, we chose bedding that we felt would be appropriate for either, although now that it is in the room, I do feel that it gives the nursery a more feminine feel.  It was important to us that we stay true to our decorating style and not create a room that felt as though it belonged in another house. We tried to be mindful of the house's 1860's architecture and history and create a room that was eclectic, fun and appropriate for a baby...and on a budget! 

While we still have things to do, here is the nearly finished project.  We feel that our little boy won't mind the flowers that are a part of the current bedding scheme, and by the time he is old enough to notice, we will have found something boy-worthy in a vintage airplane or train or other motif.

This crib is only one of two new pieces of furniture that we bought for the room. We purchased it to match an existing wardrobe and dresser that we already owned.

The rocking chair below is the only other piece of new furniture that we purchased.  My husband and I painted the pictures that hang on the walls.

I previously owned the Beatrix Potter plate, bunnies and books.  We also borrowed this lamp from another room to use on the table beside the rocking chair.  The little desk belonged to my husband before we were married.  It has a green leather inset on the top.

My mother-in-law made the cross stitch picture of the Bremen Town Musicians many years ago and gave it to us to use in the nursery. I think it looks as though it was created especially for the space.  Most of the childrens' books belonged to my husband and me when we were children, although we have added (and will continue to add) more books to the baby's library.  Can you guess which of us donated the Star Wars pop-up book to the collection?  :-)  Hint:  Not me.

I bought the sheep artwork from an artist on Etsy, and the Easter egg compass and basket came from Victorian Trading Company.

I have owned this rocking horse for years and thought it would look cute in the nursery while the baby is not old enough to climb on it.  Of course, it is not a toy, so it will have to be removed from the nursery as the baby grows.  We will not want to tempt him to try to ride this guy.  We will be on the look-out for a more appropriate rocking horse as our son grows older.

 

The alphabet sampler is one that we owned. I thought it worked well for now behind the rocking chair.

The pillows in the rocking chair were borrowed from another room in the house.

I have also owned the antique school desk for many years. I think it adds a nice vintage touch in the nursery.  The bear is handmade by a shop owner in town.  The vintage wooden blocks were picked up by me at yard sales, antique booths and auctions over the years. I must have dozens of them.

This wardrobe (I know there's a better name for this piece of furniture...what is it?) belonged to my husband growning up. It has a matching dresser, which does double-time as a changing table.  We purchased the crib to match the wood of these two pieces.

As you can see, we used a lot of what we already owned to decorate the nursery. While we will want to change the decor to reflect our son's interests as he grows, for now it seems to work.  Tell me, does it looked pulled together from years worth of collecting?  Does it feel hodge-podge?  I'd love to get your thoughts!

Thanks so much!

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.

The Art of Paul Sawyier

"We're made so that we love. First, when we see things painted, things we have passed perhaps a hundred times, nor cared to see....they are better painted -- better to us...God uses us to help each other so, lending our minds out." ~Paul Sawyier

"Summer Moon"

I have long loved the beautiful artwork of Kentucky artist Paul Sawyier, known as the River Artist due to his amazing images of the Kentucky River. Sawyier (1865-1917) was an American impressionist artist choosing to work mostly in watercolor. He is best known for his paintings of the Frankfort, Kentucky area and New York City.

Having grown up in Kentucky, I have been fortunate to have seen Sawyier's work all my life, and a few years ago even more fortunate with the purchase of two limited prints that now hang in our master bedroom. Sawyier's is the the kind of work in which one can get lost, forget that you are not actually a part of the painting, forget that you are on the outside looking in rather than being a part of it.

The University of Kentucky's art museum has two of Sawyier's paintings and often sells prints of some of his work. If you are ever fortunate enough to be able to visit an exhibit of Sawyier's work, you will, no doubt, become enamored with it as I have. Anyone with a love for impressionism will find the work of Paul Sawyier among some of the most beautiful ever created.

"Yesterday's Summer"

"Jamaica Bay"

"Singing Bridge"

"Springtime on Elkhorn"

"Tanglewood"

"Coolkenny"

"Perfect Water"

"Lover's Rain"

"After the Snow"