Spring Cleaning and Gardening

I should be doing spring cleaning and thinking about gardening, but the house remains a mess and the garden covered in leaves. I am making lots of pretty primitives to make up for it though, these are some garden and laundry goods.

Gatherings Comes Through Again

I got to visit the spring open house at Gatherings in Anamosa this weekend, and, oh, was the shop full of the best of the best as always. I re-filled my masher box, got some great bowls and the mostest gorgeousest bread boards. My husband bought an amazing original blue paint bucket, wait until you see~! Today, we stopped in Marion and I have some really nice prims that need a paint job, they will arrive soon. I did get another of those unsolicted emails, someone cyber yelling at me for painting a bowl. Honestly, you would think I had snatched food from the mouth of a starving orphan rather than just prettying up an old bowl. I am fortunately getting much better at just hitting the delete button and not answering the critics!

Pollyann's Bowl

I got this bowl from Pollyann's when I visited the Unidome show, isn't it beautiful? The green turned out just right.

Some of the Early Prims on the Way to Ebay

A Day at the UNIdome

About a million years ago, my friend Anne and I loaded up the truck and drove to Cedar Falls to a giant craft show at the UNIdome to sell our wares, so long ago, I could carry big boxes of crafts without my knees creaking). This weekend, I made my first trip back there since, to be a shopper at a giant antique show. At first, I was a bit disappointed, booth after booth of stoneware crocks and shockingly expensive china, halfway through, I started finding some wood, thank goodness, then really happy to find Polly Anns from Mt Vernon (I know why she was having a good show, great prices, great merchandise, I'm sure the shoppers were like me, "Oh thank goodness pretty things that don't cost $500 per item!", plus she had a whisk broom and wood bowl, exactly what I wanted), then at the very end we found Colleen Frese, and oh, did she have the primitives we all need! Wait until the sun comes out here and I get my photos done, you are going to love them. In the meantime, these little bread boards are going in the store tonight.

That Crash You Heard was My Computer

Lost my computer for a bit over 24 hours, seems to be back with one little problem, all my photo files disappeared, so I had to take all new for ebay listing, which is taking me an agonizingly long time to do. I have pretty new things all ready, some sneak peaks here. The Kalona Antique Company in the church in Kalona has the best new dealer! All prim people are going to want to check it out, completely after my own heart, she has crocks and wood kitchenwares galore. Right now, her booth is in the basement, she says she is moving upstairs soon.

A Few Pretties

We got 10 whole minutes of sunshine today! I grabbed the camera and did some quick photos. Here are a few springy pretties. I got the basket at Amazing Grace in Amana, I think I paid more than the ebay market will bear, but isn't it just gorgeous? Still deciding if I can part with the child's ironstone pitcher, one of my collecting passions....The little eggs are the first of several sets I need to paint, oh, I really need to get to work!

The Dough Bowl Pile is Replenished

I actually ran out of smaller size dough bowls recently, didn't think it was possible! Fortunately, the Kiwanis antique show was this weekend, really disappointing in some ways as there was lots of china and glass, very few prims. The good news was there were 6 dough bowls stuck under tables all lonely amidst their sparkly counterparts, and are now safely home with me, some already buttered up with my latest milk paint concoction, others awaiting their color fate. I also found a few bowls downtown at Artifacts, the mostly 50s store that will sometimes have a primitive tucked away here and there.

Recovering from Taxes

This is the first time I've ever sent my taxes off to a preparer instead of using the turbo tax, I swear, it is more work to organize it for someone else, but the tax laws are getting so out of hand, I can't trust myself to know all the rules anymore. You wouldn't think a tiny business like mine would be so complicated!

I am slowly getting my work done, I have a special bread board to do today for a customer who has been very patient with me, lots of tins to cover and definitely need to break out the yellow and green paint again, it really brightens the place up, and apparently everyone is SO ready for spring and some sunshine.

I just finished these lovely feedsack pillows, have some more in the works that I will be able to do at a lower price, the graphics on these were so wonderful, I paid extra. Polly, I got the chicken sack at your store, doesn't it look great?