Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Bonus TWA & Southern Airways Collectibles


 More "bonus junk" from the on-line auction pick-up last week.
I bid on three boxes of misc dishes, because I spied two
jadeite mugs in the mix.  It turned out that there were a few other
hidden gems in those three boxes.
I uncovered six shot glasses from Southern Airways --
dating from  1956-1969.

 Two small metal TWA serving dishes.
Probably 1970s.

 Made by Oneida.

 A bunch of TWA Swizzle Sticks from different countries...

and swizzle stick propellers from TWA.
All will be going on ebay.

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Easy Tips To Determine Desirability of Vintage Levi's 501 Jeans


One of the "bonus" items (something in my "lot" that was not in auction pic or description)
 I received from the local on-line
auction that I picked up last Thursday was a vintage pair of Levi's.
They were very dirty, smelly but washed up well.  And I knew from
a little prior experience that they could be good.

 There are a ton of things to look for when establishing the 
value / age of a pair of vintage levi's.  First is the little red tag.
If it has a capital E, you are on the right track.
If the word LEVI'S is only on one side of the tag
(like mine) then you are doing even better.

 There is a window of time where there is a "diamond"
stitched on the bottom of the arcuate (wing stitch on pocket).
Check!  But the other back pocket of my jeans it is too worn to see it.

 Selvedge inside watch pocket. 😖
Not on mine, so I am a little confused.
Width of watch pocket,
and sometimes COLOR of watch pocket is a factor as well.
 Selvedge on seam instead of stitching.  Check.

 Concealed rivets.  Check.

 Centered back belt loop.
It would be better if it were a little to the left.
And it would be great if they had a leather Levi's patch.
And it would be fantastic if there was a cinch.
But then I'd probably be selling these to a museum.
Instead I'll be listing them on ebay,
I hope they will turn out to surprise me twice in a row.

Update:  The jeans sold for $689!

Friday, July 27, 2018

Vintage Christmas In July


The continuing saga of local on-line auctions.
The above photo was about all I had to go on --
"LARGE ASST OF CHRISTMAS ITEMS".
I gambled, and won the lot for $6. 
I had to haul all of the above and other items I won out of the basement
and drag / pack in my van on a very hot day.
It about did me in.  I had driven several blocks when I saw the 
"door ajar" light on.  No biggie.  I went several more blocks before
I realized a side door was all the way open, which I pulled over and closed.
Chock it up to dehydration brain.  I went quite a bit further before
realizing the opposite side door was also open.
I finally made it home, drank some tea and went to work sorting.
Because the trash comes on Friday and I wanted to get rid of the excess.

 So in the clear light of morning here is what I kept
from the large Christmas assortment.
11 boxes ornaments, not super old --
but definitely sellable.

 This is the best item,
a color wheel for aluminum tree.

 Old nativity.
Love the cow.

Hard plastic snowman and churches,
which are musical.
I will do future posting on some other items I brought home from the auction.

Monday, July 23, 2018

Whining, Japanese Beetles, God & Paint Therapy

Some periods of life are just hard. Hard.  Can't get around them, have to make it through somehow.  Hard.  We're going through one of those.  Long and hard.  I thought our northern house would have sold by now, so now I am hours away from my husband (and grandbaby!) babysitting our Victorian house.  He is job hunting in the new location and I have put almost all my money-making "junking" ventures on hold during this transition.  Which means we are cash poor.

Nope, I am not done whining...  The temps and humidity this summer (since June!) make it feel like 100 degrees almost every stinking day.  Our northern house hasn't seen any rain in weeks.  Lots of grass is dead, some trees looking bad, and I am watering almost every morning.  I have started to collect "gray water" during the day to water potted plants.  So I was watering this morning and I noticed Japanese beetles eating my crabapple tree (probably the photo "frame" of flowers you are looking at on my blog right now is a photo of blooms from that tree).  Japanese beetles.  Argh.  So gross.  So discouraging.

 Must go to Home Depot and spend money on JB traps.  (I think God had a plan). I picked up two, and wandered to the paint department.  I had kind of been thinking about painting our china cabinet.  We bought it back around 1986 from a little old lady whose husband had made it for her.  We paid $75, which was a lot of money for us.  I was thinking that for our Ozark house I wanted something older and more primitive to put dishes in, but frankly that is not in the budget right now.   So I was perusing the paint samples, and found a lovely shade of gold by Behr -- Romanesque Gold.  I pulled the trigger and bought a quart.

I dragged the china cabinet on the back porch, did a "primer coat" with a white chalk paint.  Then a coat of the gold with a little of the white chalk paint added (to kind of layer colors.)  And then a coat of the straight gold.  During these three coats my nerves began to calm.  I began to count my blessings, and remember the joy and peace God grants me while I paint.  God is teaching me all sorts of lessons during this season of my life, and sometimes I lose sight of that.  It is EASY to see the hard, and much tougher to see the good.

I have a few more stages left before I finish the china cabinet (stay tuned), but today was a good start. And I am feeling better. By the way, the vicinity of the beetle traps looks like a Alfred Hitchcock horror movie "The Beetles"-- apparently the bait really does work.

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Edwardian Dress


 I bought this dress a few months ago,
and tucked it away in a "future ebay sales" drawer.
I have been on an ebay sabbatical --
balancing getting the "new" house ready and 
taking care of the "old" house.

 But then there were the van repairs --
and I managed to sell a few things on ebay
to help the checkbook.
This sold for $31.

 This is my favorite detail of the dress --
the tucks and lace.
So sweet.

She found her way to someone who will treasure her,
and I have a van that runs.
Win. Win.

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Guest Bedroom At The "Old House"


 We had another open house today,
so the house looked as pristine as it ever was going to.
Good opportunity to snap a few pics for memory's sake.

 All of the pics in this post are of our guestroom.
We had a bit of an ocean theme.
This is a great original print,
the colors in it are awesome.

 It has a great sitting area,
I'm trying to remember if I ever sat there
during the 30 years we owned the house.

 An original oil painting.

Bookshelf made to fit that little nook,
but we do plan on taking it with us.
In fact, it might be the next thing I take down south.
You can see the parquet floor at the top of the landing.

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Pallet Tables For The Ozark House


 Saturday we had a very exciting delivery at the Ozark house.
We were fortunate to meet Shawn and his wife as they were 
bringing a piece of pallet furniture into a vintage shop.
I ran after him because I thought it would be perfect for our pantry space...
but it was just inches too big.  Still, he was kind enough to say that
he would build one to my specifications....and one became two.

 The first table is for the laundry area.
I just love it.
I never had a folding / sorting area before.

I had already purchased the tubs,
in preparation for this moment.

And I had been saving this pop opener for such a time as this.


This is a photo of the area before we took down the weird 3" deep
tiny cabinet that once was in the "pantry" area.

Here is the area after removing the cabinet
and putting the pallet pantry shelves in place.
  He built a triple shelf to exactly fit that strange space.
It will be our microwave and coffee station on the top,
and have important storage underneath.
The kitchen is so tiny, which makes this little "pantry"
super important.  Can't wait to get it set up.

Friday, July 13, 2018

Butterfly Bash At The Ozark House

It had been about three weeks since I had been down
to the Ozark House.  Every time I am there,
the season of life seems to have changed.

 This time it was a "butterfly bonanza".
This type of butterfly everywhere you look.

 There might be a season for this butterfly,
or maybe the nearby sunflower fields.

 Plus even some of perennials that I planted early
this spring are attracting some butterflies.

 The oregano that I planted seems to be a favorite.

 This little oregano bloom had three butterflies on it.

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Master Bedroom At "Old House"

I love our bedroom, but as you know, our house is on the market.
Our bedroom in our "new" house will be very different,
so I want to remember this one. 

 Standing in the middle of the room, this is the east wall
I have enjoyed the cheerful color,
and I always hung my favorite antique gold frames on this wall.

 Northeast corner.
I did the specialized paint on the walls.

 Original OLD Longpre print.
I will have to find a place for it at our new house.

 Our queen size bed will be heading to the guestroom
at the new house.  I had to buy decorative pillows for the
bed to help "stage" because I am not a decorative pillow person.

I love this dresser.
It is like a piece of folk art.

I would love to know the history behind it.
Well, we had some people look at the house yesterday,
that seemed pretty interested.  
So I am crossing my fingers.

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Primitive Old Doors At The Ozark House

While I have been doing general up-keep on our northern house
(waiting for it to sell), my husband has been hard at work at our Ozarks house.

 The upstairs only contains the master bedroom and bath,
we wanted it to be a "cat-free" zone.  How to do that?
The stairway is right off of the tiny kitchen, and we didn't
want the kitchen to appear even tinier -- having a heavy door to the upstairs.
So this was our solution -- an old screen door.
My husband replace the screen on the bottom with
pressed tin ceiling tiles (in case the cat with claws gets any ideas.)
Perfecto!

And my husband thought that the "milk shed" needed a sliding barn door.
And somehow, he made that happen!
How cool does that look?

Friday, July 6, 2018

Local Folk Artist From The 1940s

I participated in an on-line auction a few weeks ago,
(see post here on my auctions wins).

 One of the things that I bid on, but did not win was this "altar".
The photos from this on-line auction service are always bad, but I could tell it had
some age on it, and that someone was very creative.  Not only do the
local on-line auctions have rotten pics, but their description was just "altar".
Nevertheless, I was very drawn to it .... and bid a whole $8 just to "bookmark" it.
But when I found out my grandchild was going to be induced on the "pick up"
date, I let the bid slide and someone bought it for just $12!
Well, it could not be helped.

One of the items I did win was this tiered shelf, made by the same artist.
AND I had a magazine from the 1940s with a page about the local
woodcarver artist.  Self taught, mostly made everything with a pocketknife.
The most interesting tidbit: it had a photo of the altar in the article!
It talked about how many hours it took him to carve the altar.
By this time I was sad I had not bid more, but life goes on......

Until I am talking to a friend of mine about the altar.
He asked the name of the guy, and I actually remembered.
He already owned several pieces of folk art  done by this gentlemen,
and was very interested in hearing more about the altar.
Then I showed him the 1940s magazine article...
besides showing the altar, it had a photo of the artist working on a 3D picture.
And this friend OWNED the carved picture!
So, I sold him the magazine and gave him enough info about the
on-line auction to get him started in tracking the altar down.
Happy Ending  -- this last pic is of the altar tucked safely in his basement,
awaiting a few minor repairs (with the magazine sitting on top).

Blue Hearts & The End Of My Blog

Early on during the corona virus, I did this project. When we put scalloped wood trim on the guest cottage door, we had some of the trim ...