collecting — Page 16

Easter

April 1, 2018 at 10:18 am by Claudia

If you celebrate this day, Happy Easter! If not, Happy Sunday!

Our particular Easter day is cloudy and windy and, yes, we’re supposed to get snow tomorrow. Nothing momentous, and it will melt quickly, but we’re told we might get up to an inch of the stuff. Though it is April 1st, March still seems to be ruling the weather, with colder days this coming week.

This will be a short post (Don and I still haven’t decided what our plan is. Neither of us wants to travel, it seems!) Yesterday, was gloriously sunny and my mood lifted. Today? Maybe not so much.

I found some more egg cups. I’m so used to seeing them in the kitchen that I forgot about them. These are newish and were a gift from my dear friend (through blogging) Judy.

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

I love them so much, they won a place on the little shelf that lives below a kitchen cabinet. (Right next to Stella.) And they always make me smile.

Have a lovely day, dear friends.

Happy Sunday.

Always Collecting

March 31, 2018 at 11:04 am by Claudia

Glory be, the sun is shining. It’s been a ‘gray’ situation around here for a number of days, so this is most welcome. Just the kind of day to recycle! (Kidding.)

Actually, I do have to recycle today, but you know I like doing that kind of thing. It’s very satisfying to sort things and toss them into large dumpsters.

Don and I are still trying to figure out which one of us will be traveling. He might come here. I might go there. We’ll see. I’m doing much better – still coughing, but not nearly as much as I was.

I found two more egg cups (I know there are more, but I took a couple out of the rotation for a bit and now I don’t know where I put them.)

On the left, a vintage Hankscraft double egg cup, which I love because it reminds me of Art Deco, and on the right, a pretty little egg cup in beautiful spring colors. Both of them were sent to me by Judy, a reader of this blog. The blue and green egg cup normally sits on a table in the den and holds a yarn needle that I use from time to time.

I went to a local antique shop and ended up buying some ironstone butterpats. Why, you ask? I’m not quite sure. I don’t collect ironstone, but butterpats have long intrigued me. They’re sort of the perfect collectible if you are short on space – in the same vein as egg cups and miniature pottery. They’re old and have lots of crazing.

This is the clearest of the Grindley markings. Some are very faint.

Also discovered yesterday – a small Wallace Nutting. I was taken by its size and the lovely autumn scene, hand tinted by one of Nutting’s staff artists.

Isn’t it sweet?

Written on the back:

Dec 22 – 193? It’s either a five or a seven.

I’m not sure where I’m going to hang it. It should be part of the wall of Nuttings that is gradually taking shape here in the office. There are three Nuttings there at the moment. The other is downstairs, hanging on the big white cabinet in the living room.

The collecting gene is strong in me.

Don told me that all the musicals on Broadway are singing something from Oklahoma! tonight during their curtain calls. Today is the 75th Anniversary of the day that groundbreaking musical opened on Broadway – March 31, 1943. I love that musical. I coached the National Tour several years back. It’s extraordinary.

The cast is singing The Surrey with the Fringe on Top. What a lovely tribute. The American Musical wouldn’t be in the form it is without Oklahoma! It changed the shape of American Musical Theater.

Happy Saturday.

Egg Cups and Rabbits

March 30, 2018 at 10:20 am by Claudia

I heard the peepers last night. If you’re not from this area, peepers are tiny frogs that sing (called chorus frogs) in the early spring. Our neighbors have a smallish pond near the road, where a bullfrog resides, and as I walked upstairs last night to go to bed, I could hear them through the window. Oh, so lovely! And a true harbinger of spring. If you’re interested, I recorded them and the results are on my Instagram post from last night. Hearing them call to each other is magical. There’s also a little bullfrog in there, as well.

Eggcups, final edition. Let me say that I’m sure I’ve left some out, in fact, I know I have. But most of them have been displayed on the blog this week.

Some of these eggcups live in the china cabinet in the kitchen – the rest live in the cabinet in the den.

Starting from the left, a transferware, flow blue egg cup that I found in a shop – no markings, so I have no idea how old it is. The one in the middle (don’t you love the smile on that duck’s face?) was given to me by a Teresa, a reader of this blog. This was made out of what was called a Holland mold and hand painted by someone with the initials LH in 1958. He or she did a great job. This is one of my largest egg cups. On the right, a Delft egg cup, marked with the number 28. A gift from my mom.

A goose egg cup (one of my favorites) that I found in an antique shop. It’s marked: Sarreguemines, France, with the letter A. It has a lot of crazing, so I’m venturing that it’s fairly old. The next egg cup is one I found in San Diego at the shop, Vignettes. I love the colors. The wooden egg cup is one of a set of four sent to me by Barb, a reader of this blog. The darling chick egg cup was also sent to me by a reader – Judy.

Okay, in looking back through my blog to identify the names of the readers who so generously sent me egg cups, I see a few I’ve left out. Just have to find where I’ve ‘placed’ them. So I’ll be showing a few more tomorrow!

I posted about this next item on IG because my sister doesn’t do Instagram, but I had to hold off on the blog until the package arrived at her door, which it did – yesterday. Two years ago – yes, two – my sister handed me her Maggie Rabbit pattern/kit and asked me to make it for her because she didn’t have the time. I brought it back home with me.

And it sat.

I was eventually consumed with guilt and needed a project – I’m finding it hard to concentrate on anything lately, I blame my need to read about Trump and his crimes – so I pulled it out. I have to say it was incredibly satisfying to make and I felt a calm come over me that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. (Since November 9, 2016, as a matter of fact.)

Here she is, Meredith’s Maggie Rabbit:

I found myself talking to her when I was making her. I was the kid who talked to my stuffed animals and my dolls and I still do.

I even brought my Maggie down from the bedroom to keep her company.

Mere’s Maggie is on the left, mine is on the right. I did a better job with Mere’s; having one already under my belt helped. This is a kit from Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy, and it came with the pattern, felt, fabric, embroidery floss and yarn. She still makes the pattern, but no longer includes the supplies. While I was posting it on IG, a former student of mine named Michael, who, along with his husband, is a new father to a lovely little baby girl named Everly, said “I want one for my girl.” And he does. He also said that ‘”Aunt Claudia has to deliver it in person.” He lives in Los Angeles.

So I’m hanging onto the pattern and I will order the necessary supplies.

The best thing was that I knew Meredith would be completely surprised because she had most likely forgotten about the kit. She had. She was, I’m happy to say, thrilled to receive her Maggie. Just in time for Easter.

Happy Friday.

Easter

Always Collecting

Egg Cups and Rabbits

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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