Fiesta

Antiquing Finds

December 7, 2019 at 11:13 am by Claudia

I drove to a local antique shop yesterday; a little treat for myself after a tough week. I chose this shop because my friend Sydney, of Fox Run Antiques, had posted on IG a few weeks back that she had some putz sheep in her booth there. Sydney has booths at three shops I frequent, and her booth at another shop is where I found the egg cup cubby cabinet. Sometime I will walk around the cottage and note the items I’ve found in her booths. There are several.

By the way, I took photos of a few of my favorite items in the shop, which is called Clinton Shops, and they’re on my Instagram Stories for another three hours or so.

When I first found her booth, I didn’t see the putz sheep, and I was ready to kick myself as I thought I’d waited too long. But then I found them in a small glass cabinet. I stood there for the longest time, looking at each one, examining every detail, contemplating which one I’d eventually choose. I walked away. I came back. I walked away again. Then I made my choice. It was this guy:

He’s so fluffy! And he has his original bell.

He has a sweet face. Often, vintage putz sheep, which are quite fragile, have some imperfections or damage. There is missing paint on one of the eyes. The ends of the ears have broken off.

That just makes them more precious to me.

Sometimes the coat is matted after years of use, but this one isn’t.

As I said on Instagram, the problem is that I want to rescue them all. I was surprised by how many were still there. They need a home! I can’t afford to rescue all of them, but maybe a couple more? This is the way I am, as you know. That’s why I have two rescued dolls sitting on top of the cabinet in the office. I couldn’t bear the fact that they didn’t have a home.

Even if I rescue more of the sheep, I’ll feel bad for the ones I leave behind. I guess I’m a little crazy that way.

Here he is on the shelf. You’ll note that the sheep on the left is newer – you can tell by the look of the wool used for his coat. I’ll take a picture of the entire shelf later today. Right now, all the sheep are lined up, but my dream is to have a whole flock of them, filling up the entire shelf.

I got a few other treasures, all of them $10 or less.

Another putz house. I love the front steps! This one has a back stamp on the bottom:

Manufactured by the Dolly Toy Company, Tippecanoe City, Ohio. That company started out as the Dolly Folding Kite Company in 1923. Then it became Dolly Kite and Toy, and eventually Dolly Toy Company in 1951. They started making these houses and indeed, whole holiday villages, in 1952.

I long ago sold my collection of Fiesta. I retained several pieces at the time, pieces that I couldn’t bear to give up. Lately, I’ve been missing my Fiesta and earlier this year, I acquired a compote from one of my readers – the exact same design and color I used to have back in Cambridge. Yesterday, I spotted the vintage salt and pepper shakers in yellow – only $10 – so I grabbed them.

I’m only interested in the original colors – the original line – not the more recent lines. I’m a purist about Fiesta. Of course, I can only buy smaller pieces. I only have so much room here. That gives me an idea: I’ll share pictures of the pieces I didn’t sell back in the nineties. A future post!

I’ve just started collecting butter pats in the past few years. I have maybe 11 or 12 of them, but this is the first transferware butter pat that I’ve found. I love brown transferware and this is a lovely design. It was only $3! Butter pats are a great thing to collect if you live in a small space and have limited room. (I think I spy a potato chip crumb on the pat!)

A lovely couple of hours at the shop. I’m so glad I took the time to visit. An antique shop and/or a book shop are my favorite places to grab some quiet ‘me’ time.

I also put up the outdoor lights yesterday. I love them.

I’m taking it easy today, as I’m really exhausted. I think I’ll hang out here and start to decorate the dollhouses.

Happy Saturday.

Chair Exchange

June 9, 2019 at 9:48 am by Claudia

The catmint is going strong with beautiful purple/lavender flowers. I have a lot of it in the big garden bed. It blooms from mid-spring to early summer. It’s usually full of the sound of buzzing bees.

My other spirea is now filling up with these beautiful pink blooms. It lives at the far end of the porch and shares that space with the Annabelle hydrangea. Both bushes, which I should have planted much further apart, are huge.

A gorgeous day yesterday and another one today. I did some weeding, and watering – outdoor and indoor plants – washed the sheets, vacuumed – that sort of thing. Today, Don is off to work at the Farmer’s Market. It’s been very slow, portrait-wise, for the past two days, so let’s hope today is more productive for him.

A couple of weeks ago, in anticipation of the sofa arrival, Don and I switched out some tables. Then, after seeing a photo of these chairs in my former apartment in Cambridge, he brought up the idea of using them in place of the four mismatched chairs we’d been using. I’ve been pushing for them to make an appearance in the kitchen for years, but he wasn’t interested before. This was good news!

We wanted cleaner lines in the kitchen. There’s a lot going on in there and we wanted to eliminate too much busy-ness. So, Don exchanged the four chairs for these two, which were living in our storage space.

You can’t tell from this photo, but they’re really beautiful. The wood is highly polished mahogany. I found them in a tiny little used furniture shop in Cambridge, MA, over 30 years ago. They used to be in the offices of Mass Mutual, an insurance company, and they have the metal tag on the back to prove it. I used them in my little dining area in the Cambridge kitchen.

Taking a picture of an old, darkish, snapshot is never easy!

I’ll try to get a good shot of one of the chairs today, so you can see the beautiful finish. When Don brought them back to the house, I spent the better part of an afternoon cleaning them. It’s so good to have them back! Since there’s rarely anyone but the two of us here, why not use them? And they’re incredibly comfortable. Since I will no longer let Don eat while sitting on the new sofa, we’re actually sitting at the table more often. The chairs, with a nice wide seat, are perfect for a big guy like Don. They’re substantial.

I was sitting in one of those chairs when my friend and colleague at Boston University, Annette, ran downstairs to comfort me when I told her that my brother had just died. Annette died last year – far too soon.

There are memories, both good and poignant, in those chairs.

Okay. We both woke up way too early today. Let’s just say it was before 5 am. I’m going to try to stay in the moment until I can sneak a nap in later in the day.

Happy Sunday.

Friday Thoughts

March 29, 2019 at 10:03 am by Claudia

Can you tell I’m enamored of this combination of yellow Fiesta and yellow/orange tulips?

They were made for each other.

I pulled out my big girl camera yesterday and started shooting closeups of the flowers that are scattered around the house. A sure sign that it’s spring. I’ve been using my iPhone almost exclusively during the winter months because it was easier to grab on the fly. But now that things are blooming and/or starting to grow outside, the big girl camera will be used much more often.

It’s rainy today. Not a lot of rain, more like a very light rain. I’ve been watching all the birds gather in our back yard. Robins, at least three blue jays, little sparrows…everyone taking advantage of damp earth and more readily available food.

I saw Henry yesterday! He made it through another winter. I can always tell it’s Henry because he’s large and overweight and moves more slowly than the other groundhogs. And he was eating on the grass where he always dines. I snapped some pictures but I was using the iPhone and he was far away, so they’re too grainy. But it was our old friend Henry. I’m glad.

That Sleepy egg cup? I’m not sure where the seller is getting his information, but the price seems to be based on the prices some of the egg cups went for pre-eBay. We’re talking at least 20 years ago. In those days, they were very hard to find, so they were more desirable, and priced accordingly. I have a friend who has a vast egg cup collection and he has the entire set of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He bought them long ago and paid a lot of money for them. He has no regrets – it’s always about the thrill of the hunt. But he never paid that much. Almost four hundred dollars? Not hardly. I’m going to send him a screenshot of the auction to get his reaction.

I’m not sure what’s on the docket for today. We did take our first trail walk yesterday and it felt really good. We stopped by the paddock where Ashley and Pliers used to live and said a few words in their memory.

Happy Friday.

Antiquing Finds

Chair Exchange

Friday Thoughts

claudiahillsparks

Lambs Like to Party

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