flowers — Page 202

Flowers. And A Sigh.

July 28, 2016 at 9:59 am by Claudia

Greetings from the hot and humid zone! Actually, this might be the last day of this stuff. Tomorrow we have rain on the horizon and then the temps will drop to the eighties. Still hot, but not nearly as miserable as it is now. The skies have been a vivid blue, with big, fluffy clouds.

It’s just too hot to really enjoy it.

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The phlox has really taken off. It smells heavenly around here.

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The new rose bushes are blooming again.

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The liatris is starting to bloom. See the bug flying in from the right?

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He’s landed.

I’m going to extend the book giveaway one more day. If you didn’t read Monday’s book review, be sure to visit this post. I’m giving away a copy of The Branson Beauty, a really neat mystery I am sure you will enjoy. Leave a comment by the end of the day today and I’ll reveal the winner tomorrow.

A confession: As you know, I have a long association with BlogHer/SheKnows Media. Through this wonderful group that supports bloggers, I also have a couple of ads that run on this blog. Occasionally, I am chosen for a sponsored post. (I’m not in the young demographic, which means it has to be for a specific sort of product that works for my age group and this blog.) These posts are always for a product I support and believe in. Quite frankly, I wish I had these opportunities more often, but I am so grateful when they do occur because I get to share something I believe in with you and I get compensated for them.

I don’t want to go through the whole rigmarole again, but I will say, briefly, that without ads and the occasional sponsored post, I wouldn’t be able to maintain this blog. Period. It costs several hundred dollars a year to keep this little space of mine going and, since we freelance and never know how much money is coming in during any given month, the only way I can pay for it all is through ad income and sponsored posts.

However, if you knew how many requests I get on a daily basis to write sponsored posts for companies that I don’t know or have any connection with, to put sponsored links in a post, to let someone write a guest post – all of which I turn down – you’d be stunned. I don’t want this blog to become about that sort of thing. But the occasional sponsored post through BlogHer/SheKnows, a company with integrity that I believe in? Yes, I will certainly do that.

Yesterday, I had a comment on the post from a reader who wasn’t particularly happy with this kind of post. To be fair, she’s a newer reader, and since the last time I did a sponsored post was over a year ago, is most likely not used to seeing this sort of thing. She certainly has a right to respond to a post but I had to delete the comment because this kind of post, which has a giveaway that is connected to the number of responses to the question I ask at the end of the post and where I will eventually have to count those comments when the contest closes, can’t have comments in the mix that are unconnected to that question.

Here’s where I screwed up. It was a tough day for me yesterday for all sorts of reasons, and I wrote this reader to tell her why I deleted the comment. What I should have done was to take a big breath before I wrote her, because I responded in a defensive tone. To be honest, I was feeling defensive, wondering why I had to defend yet again a subject matter on my blog. My skin was a bit thin yesterday. And yes, it is my blog. But I most certainly could have handled it better than I did and when the reader wrote me back, I realized that, and I responded with an apology.

I’m only human. I spend hours and hours on this blog every day, seven days a week. I’m always thinking about what I can share with you. I’m taking pictures for a good portion of the day on an expensive (for me) camera that I bought just for this blog.

The fact is, it’s a part-time job for which I get no compensation. Nothing. Everything goes back into the blog. If I can get a little extra money for all my time, you can be damned sure (if it’s the right thing for this blog) I’m going to take advantage of it.

Keeping all of this in perspective, I’ve had exactly two sponsored posts in about 14 months. Given the fact that I write a post every day of the year, I think that’s just fine. And I hope to have more opportunities in the year ahead. But they might not come my way.

Anyway, I sincerely regret my tone, which was that of a reprimand, and therefore felt the need to explain, once again, this sort of thing to you. Here’s where I sigh. (I’m not exaggerating, I just sighed for the umpteenth time since yesterday.) If you have a problem with this sort of post, that’s fine; just click off the blog and come back the next day. The same thing goes for any post that doesn’t meet with your approval. I surely understand that not every post is a gem or is what you want to read on any given day. I’m not that interesting!

Anything else I could say would merely be a repeat of things I’ve said in the past.

You get to read this blog for free. But it isn’t free for me. It takes time and money.

I love you all and I usually meet this sort of thing with more grace than I did yesterday. For that, I apologize. I’ll do better next time.

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Let’s close with this eastern swallowtail butterfly. He was hanging around the garden for a quite a while yesterday.

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He’s looks a bit worse for wear. He’s lost part of his swallowtail. But it didn’t stop him.

He’s beautiful.

(I have a book review up on Just Let Me Finish This Page. Just click here.)

Happy Thursday.

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Collecting Roseville Pottery: References, Prices & Marks

July 24, 2016 at 10:13 am by Claudia

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The heat continues here in the Northeast (and not only here). I go outside to water the plants about three times a day, then it’s back to the A/C. I end up feeling restless.

I want to share some Roseville Pottery resources and information that will be helpful if you’re considering buying a piece or two. There are sources online that will explain marks and the history of Roseville Pottery. A simple Google search will bring them up.

Reference Books

You know me. I like to research and learn as much as I can about the things I love to collect. So I have books about egg cups, McCoy Pottery, Bakelite and Roseville Pottery. Here are three of the books I consult:

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The Collectors Encyclopedia of Roseville Pottery
Warman’s Roseville Pottery
Warman’s Companion: Roseville Pottery (this is essentially the same as the larger book, but it’s portable.)

I’ve had these for several years and I don’t know if they’ve been updated recently. (Check Amazon.) If they haven’t, the price range you see will not be accurate. And frankly, nothing that wasn’t written in 2016 will be accurate. What these do have are lots of color photos of the various patterns and helpful information as to when they were manufactured and what marks were used.

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I found this handy book last year – you can get it on Amazon and eBay. This is updated every year, so it’s a valuable reference for current prices. It’s simply what it says; a list, by pattern and number, of the price range for each piece of Roseville. This now lives right by my chair in the den. I consult it all the time. Priced at $9.95. Totally worth it.

This booklet, in combination with my picture books, is all I need.

Marks

There’s not a lot of consistency as to marks. Some of the earlier pieces had foil stickers and no incised marks. Eventually they began to be marked “Roseville” with the pattern number below. In 1940, many of the pieces began to be marked: Roseville, U.S.A., with the corresponding number for that piece. These marks tend to be raised. Here are some examples:

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Roseville, U.S.A. 63-8″ – this mark is on the bottom of my pink peony vase.

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The bottom of one of the Clematis pieces. Note the long tail on the R, the slanted, Art Deco-style letters, and the flourish on the ‘e.’

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I know this one is hard to see, but it’s an example of an earlier pattern that has “Roseville” and the number, but no U.S.A. This is on the bottom of my Cosmos vase. That’s because this was produced after 1935 but before 1940. However, the long tail on the R and the tail on the ‘e’ remain the same as what you saw on the other pieces. This one is incised, not raised.

Reproductions/Fakes

As to fakes or reproductions: there is quite a bit of information online about determining whether a piece is a reproduction. After collecting for a number of years, I can usually tell just by eyeing a piece. I do have an example of a reproduction to share with you. When Sonja sent me a few pieces of Roseville several years ago, she included one that was questionable. She suspected it was a reproduction. Here it is:

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This is a reproduction of the Fuschia pattern. There are a couple of things that I see immediately: the glaze on the front and the back has a bit too much variation in color. The other side of this is a darker shade of brown. When I hold it, it doesn’t have the weight and heft of a Roseville piece. It’s much lighter. Roseville was made from the rich clay found in Ohio.

This is, by the way, a much better reproduction than many I’ve seen. Let’s look at the mark.

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There have always been fakes or reproductions of certain pottery lines. They are most often made in other countries and imported to the United States. At some point, U.S. Customs got fed up and ruled that U.S.A. could no longer be part of the mark on these pieces. There are fakes that do use U.S.A., but not of recent vintage.

This one uses a number that is highly questionable. Why? The ‘C’ isn’t part of a real Roseville mark. Maybe it stands for ‘copy’ or ‘China’? There is a mark for the corresponding Fuchsia piece in my reference book: 892-6″. But this mark flips the ‘9.’ As for the lettering, it’s an entirely different style than that used by Roseville. Reminiscent of the style, but quite different.

It’s a nice little vase, but it’s not Roseville.

You have to be careful when searching on eBay or Etsy. Most reputable dealers will list pieces as reproductions, but not everyone does. Some sellers are simply dishonest. Some honestly don’t know that it’s a reproduction. Some sellers will say they think it’s a reproduction, but aren’t sure. As you look and study, you’ll begin to develop an eye for that sort of thing.

I searched for some Roseville on Etsy yesterday and it seems to be more realistically priced at the moment than the Roseville on eBay. If you buy on Etsy, you pay the price listed. If you use eBay, depending on the listing, you get the thrill of bidding. It’s up to you!

I hope this helps, my friends. I’ll be sure to keep you updated.

We’ll close with some real flowers:

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Happy Sunday.

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Quirky

July 21, 2016 at 9:35 am by Claudia

Riffing a bit on this Thursday morning:

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The scent of phlox is everywhere these days as more and more blooms appear. This is David Phlox, which grows very tall and is quite striking in the garden.

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I see photos on blogs and on Instagram of flowers that have been plucked from a garden and are now inside the house in pretty vases. I love these photos, but I am not one who picks flowers from my gardens. I only do it when there is danger of frost or when, in the case of peonies and rain, the flowers are soon going to be on the ground. Or, as I had to do this summer, when Japanese Beetles are about to destroy them.

Otherwise…no.

Why? I’ve been thinking about that. I like seeing the flowers in the garden beds, blooming where they’ve been planted. I like the landscape of plants that I see each day. I put them there for a reason and that’s where I want them to be. I fully realize I am most likely a weird exception in this particular area. The fact is, when the gardens are in full bloom, I don’t need flowers in the house. I can see flowers everywhere when I look out the windows and, better yet, I can go outside and smell them and observe them and marvel at all the splashes of color. They are out there, not just for me, but more importantly, for the butterflies and the bees and the bugs that need them to survive.

Cutting the flowers also shortens their life and I want them around as long as possible.

If I’m desperate for flowers in the house, I can always buy an inexpensive bouquet from Trader Joe’s. But I’m really only desperate for flowers inside when the seasons change; when autumn heads into winter and winter takes over for several months. Or when I’m on the road and a bouquet of flowers makes a strange place more like home.

At times, I’ve toyed with the idea of a cutting garden, but I know what would happen. I’d set up the cutting garden and then I wouldn’t want to cut the flowers. They’d stay where they were planted. So the ‘cutting garden’ would become another garden bed.

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I tend to be this way about things I really like. I want them to remain in their ‘pure’ state. (I determine whatever the heck my concept of ‘pure’ is, of course; it’s all in my head.) It’s a longstanding joke between Don and me. Don: “How about if I add this and this to French Toast?” Me: “Not for me. I like it with butter and syrup.” Don: “What about powdered sugar?” Me: “No.”

Don: “How about sour cream on that baked potato?” Me: “No. I like it with butter and salt and pepper. Nothing extra. I don’t want to mess with it.”

We just went through this yesterday, although in this case, Don agreed with me. We toyed with the idea of making pancakes with the black raspberries and then we realized we like them the way they are. We didn’t want to bake them, or warm them up, or add them to batter. On our cereal? Yes. Maybe a few of them added to some plain yogurt? Sure. But otherwise, we’d rather eat them out of our hands and get that pure burst of taste from the berry without anything else added to the mixture.

All female casts in productions of Shakespeare? Not my thing. All male? Not really, but there’s a precedent for that since the actors in Shakespeare’s company were all male. But that was because women couldn’t do that sort of thing back then. Now, they can. Nowadays, it tends to be a directorial gimmick to change things up. I don’t think Shakespeare needs any gimmicks. Likewise, radical changes in the text – no and no and no. Tell the story that Mr. Shakespeare wrote. Don’t mess with it.

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Oh, I know I’m quirky. And opinionated. I sort of like things that way.

But I’m tolerant as well; if Don wants to add things to his baked potato, have at it, I say. If he wants to add things to his French Toast, go for it – just as long as he doesn’t mess with mine.

He is not allowed to pick flowers from the gardens, however. That’s where I draw the line.

On to other things: I ran some errands yesterday (gathering supplies for the dollhouse build) and I had to stop at Target, where I found myself adding this $23 lamp to my cart.

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I needed a lamp for this section of my desk, which is the section where I work on miniatures. It’s in a lovely shade of seafoam green and the brass matches the brass trim on my other desk lamp.

I like it a lot.

How can it be July 21st already? Summer is passing much too quickly, don’t you think? I’m trying to savor it while I can.

Happy Thursday.

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Flowers. And A Sigh.

Collecting Roseville Pottery: References, Prices & Marks

Quirky

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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