collecting — Page 53

Tiny Treasures

September 19, 2011 at 10:40 am by Claudia

Two of my former students won Emmy awards last night. Jim Parsons won his second Emmy for his great work on Big Bang Theory and Abraham Higginbotham won for Modern Family – he is a writer and producer on that wonderful show. Truthfully, both of these guys were favorites of mine who also became my friends. Couldn’t be prouder of them. I just talked with Jim today. Though, wait a minute, I don’t think I heard my name in the acceptance speech…. hmmm.

What do you think of Gladys? Gladys is either a salt or pepper shaker. She was part of that wonderful package of goodies Vintage Sue sent to me. I am so taken by anything that is tiny. And I love this particular style of figurine with the rosy cheeks, cupid’s bow mouth and vintagey look. I believe Miss Gladys is a maid and it looks as if she just took a visitor’s hat.

This guy was also in the package – another salt or pepper shaker. Love, love this face.

What is it about teeny, tiny, miniature things? They call to me. I have little things like this all over the house. Of course, I have my dollhouse and all the miniatures that go in it, but the little things that I’m talking about today aren’t that kind of miniature. They’re not to scale. They are just wee little treasures that pop out here and there amongst all the ‘big’ things around the house. They are unexpected pleasures. Are you a tiny treasure lover?

Speaking of tiny, I used the macro setting to get this photo yesterday:

He’s spun his web in my rose bush. Amazing.

Have a great Monday.

A Want Ad

September 12, 2011 at 12:01 am by Claudia

Since I have a somewhat captive audience here on the blog, may I ask a favor? If you ever see one of these bowls in your travels, please grab one for me.

This is my atmospheric mood picture.

Or maybe I decided to write about this later in the day when it was very cloudy out. I’ll leave it up to you.

I bought 4 of these bowls from a wonderful kitchen store in Woodstock several years ago. Unfortunately, 2 of them broke. I’d like to say it was all Don’s fault, but truth be told, it was due to my own clumsiness. I tried to replace them but the ladies at the shop said the manufacturer wasn’t shipping them anymore. The stamp on the bottom of the bowl says ‘Kiss That Frog.’ So, a couple of years ago, I did a Google search and contacted them. Unfortunately, they were only for sale on a wholesale basis – and I didn’t need 100 of them.

Here’s a view of the both sides. (Pardon the annoying intrusion of our binoculars in the upper left of this photo.) Isn’t the design lovely? As you can see, I’m just about to settle down with some ramen noodles.Yes, it’s true. Apparently, I’m reliving my studio apartment days when ramen was a quick, cheap meal. It still is, I’ve found.

If I had my way, I’d have about 8 or 10 of these. That way I’d have some back-ups. Because I do break things.

These bowls make me happy. Just think how happy I would be if my dear readers found some! I’d reimburse you, of course. Just file this image away in the back of your head and maybe some day you will be walking around a shop and (cue choir of angels) there it will be. You never know. Stranger things have happened.

Clean-up, Rearranging & an Anniversary

August 30, 2011 at 5:00 am by Claudia

I walked outside today and noticed this heart – made by the relentless rain hitting the gravel next to the porch. A perfect heart – isn’t that amazing? It made me smile on this day after the hurricane.

We moved into this house 6 years ago today. Part of what sold us on the house were the 4 large trees in the front of the property: a shag hickory, a weeping willow, a sugar maple and a catalpa. We deeply love these trees. To hear cracking and groaning as limbs were ripped from them on Sunday was heartbreaking. Each of the trees lost one or more branches; in some cases, large limbs. The sugar maple suffered the most. It is the tree that sits the closest to the house. You see it in every photo of the garden or the porch. We are very sad. Don was so upset last night that he had to write a song about it.

Clean up has started. We are grateful for a friend who came over with his chain saw today. That was an enormous help. There is still much to do. There has been terrible flooding in our area, with damage to crops and homes.

We are very lucky that the house was not hit by a tree. Everything seems even more precious to me. Early in the day, before all the devastation happened, we decided to rearrange the furniture in the living room. Long story short: we moved everything around in several formations but ended up putting it back in almost the same position. It really doesn’t work any other way. These little changes have made things just a bit cheerier today. We ended up moving some tables into new positions:

The dollhouse sat on this coffee table – it’s now on a smaller table and the coffee table is in front of the sofa in the den. It almost moved into the living room, but we couldn’t imagine the living room without the round oak coffee table.

We decided to take away the white table that was next to the piano, moved the piano over 6 inches, and now the yellow chair fits perfectly in the space.

On another note – the bowl on the left was in a photo a couple of posts ago. Some of you mentioned how much you liked it. It’s not McCoy. It’s a pattern called Orange Tree by Homer Laughlin. I found these at an auction a few years ago and I love them. This pattern was made in the 1930’s – 1940’s. Here’s the mark on the bottom of the bowl if you’re interested in searching for some of your very own Orange Tree bowls:

Happy Anniversary MHC.

Go hug your trees today.

Tiny Treasures

A Want Ad

Clean-up, Rearranging & an Anniversary

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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