The Advantages of Being Forgetful

A long time ago, I bought some antique fabric scraps because they were blue and pretty. They were too small to use at the time, so I threw them in a box and completely forgot about them. Digging through the box yesterday, I found them and it was like a little Christmas present. They were exactly what I needed to gussy up whisk brooms, and as usual got caught up and couldn't stop. Aren't they just the primmest beautiful little guys? Now I need to head straight back to the pot of pumpkin paint, I sold every single thing I had done yesterday. Thanks Ebay girls!~

A Pumpkin Preview

Finished most of the pumpkin prims. Here is a preview, to be listed maybe Sunday.

The Witchly Pantry

I've actually been working on fall prims for a while now, just finished the first witchly goods of the season. I also got my pumpkin milk paint in the mail, only ordered a tiny bit to try, and ended up painting about 6 bowls, 2 breadboards, a couple crocks, some tins and would have done more, but ran out of room for everything to dry. I sure hope they look as good at the end as I am hoping!

Family Reunion

It was a big weekend here, the families of Hunan 11 got together for reunion number 10, so many years since we picked our babies up in Changsha. They are all well on their way to becoming young ladies, still love to see each other. I'm on the left in the white shirt. We visited the Herbert Hoover birth town of West Branch. He was Quaker and there is a Quaker village near the presidential library. The photos show his home, his fathers blacksmith shop, the meeting hall and the one room school. That evening, we travelled to Kalona for a wonderful dinner at the Tuscan Moon.

Mine All Mine

These are just a few of the things I keep back for myself. I just love anything in miniature, so little chairs are a must, these are little doll size chairs, just a few inches tall. I also have about a million of the bigger Sunday school type chairs, they are all over the house. Little white ironstone pitchers are so cute in a prim old tote. I bought the antique pantry boxes just so I could paint them for myself, do love the results.

The Mustards are Done

Still loving the milk paint, I did up bunches of mustards this week (and discovered that milk paint does not want to wash off after I splattered myself in my usual painting zeal). I ordered some dark red and pumpkin paint, can't wait to see how they look. Here is the mustard group, I am going to have to get organized and take before, during, and after photos. It starts out plain wood, the paint goes on, it looks dreadful, then the finishing touches, and voila! Perfect aged paint!

My friend Nancy took some wonderful pictures of the July 4th sales, you can link to her blogs at the Rug Cottage and Barntiques on my blog list. The photo of the ironstone pitcher full of flags was at Colleen Frese's booth, she is one of the best primitives dealers in our area, her show booths are always gorgeous, and I want absolutely everything. I stocked up on bowls and breadboards, I swiped the breadboard that the cookies are sitting on in the photo. It was such a long day of antiquing, even my daughter Anna, who never complains, was complaining quite loudly by the end of the day. That poor kid, I picked her up at the orphanage when she was a baby and said "I'm your new mama, let's go find the antique shops." My husband and I strolled her around antique markets all over China, where she was stopped often to have her cheeks pinched and be proclaimed a "lucky baby". I'll have to remind her about that!

Karen's Sugar Buckets

The red and blue sugar buckets will be setting sail for the United Kingdom soon. I just finished the mustard bucket that looks like the blue bucket, so put them together for photo shoot. The milk paint I used looks a lot more primitive than the smaller buckets I finished earlier, this mustard one turned out even better than I had hoped, it looks so amazingly better than the original.

The Originals

It has been raining non stop, making it impossible to get good photos until late this afternoon, so I just have a few things ready for ebay. I love all these in their original state, good early paint and nice patinas. The double rim dough bowl is a huge 18" across, has the best color of age. As I waited for the rain to stop, I broke out the mustard milk paint, love, love, love the results, photos coming soon.

A Fruitful Fourth

What originally started as a group of great antique dealers filling the yard of a farmhouse on the 4th of July, has become miles and miles of shows in towns stretching from Iowa City to Mt. Vernon and we hit them all, starting early this morning. I spent all my profits and then some, had to go to the Bank of My Husband and borrow before the day was through. Here is the table filled with projects and future ebay listings. As you see, breadboards and dough bowls were plentiful, and my husband had a great day as he found 2 early parlor guitars.