I've Run Out of Shelves

I guess I threw myself into work a little too well, currently having trouble getting to the computer amidst the giant pile of stuff to list, shelves for organizing all full, so the floor is the new holding shelf. The mustards and browns turned out beautifully, buttermilk next, but I had better do listing before painting or I'll never get out of this room!

The Mustards Are Almost Here

Mustard milk paint group done, just need it to quit raining on me to finish my pictures. Here is what I have so far.

In the meantime, I keep hearing the voice of Chandler Bing in my head "Could this weekend BE anymore depressing?" I wasted Friday driving down to the Kalona Fall Festival, usually a rather wonderful little gathering at the Kalona museum town, lots of antique and crafts and pumpkins for sale, pony rides for the kids(around a real corral, not the poor little guys tied to the wheel), and best of all, church lady pie and chicken and biscuits. Well, this year, the ponies were not there, the antique dealers were not antique dealers at all but yard sale hopefuls. The pumpkins looked sad, crafts had a lot of doilies in evidence and THE CHURCH LADIES WEREN'T THERE! A store owner told me they had raised commission on the vendors and the churches couldn't afford the cut in addition to the high price of buying the supplies, so they brought in these rather horrible fried food carnival vendors, it smelled so bad!

Saturday we wasted driving to Cedar Rapids. I decided I have gotten spoiled, lately it seems I walk into a shop and great primitives just fall into my hands. This day, not a wood prim in sight, not a bowl, not a spoon, not so much as a rusty old tin. I felt a bit like a two year old who got her Barbies taken away!

Today, I'm just working, take a few pictures, clouds open on me, run inside and list, run back out in between cloud bursts....

A Day in Amana

We went to the Amana colonies for a beautiful, if a bit overcast, fall day. The shops always have wonderful prims, these little lovelies I found at the Smokehouse Square. I just started work on a ton of stuff with a new milk paint I ordered called chocolate brown, it promises to be a new favorite. With fall coming, I'm just loving the color of the earth now, just makes me feel cozy and ready for winter fires.

Back Home and Back to Work

The memorial service was very healing, I got a big hug from her mom and an assurance that everyone knew how much we meant to each other. Everyone agreed that our dearest memories of Kathy all start with her everpresent smile and end with how she made us all feel so special. I met with classmates I haven't seen for years and reconnected with a dear friend that has been suffering over the summer from chemotherapy, I know we will stay connected, not going to let that happen again. Thank you so much to everyone for your very kind words, it all did me so much good.

I am very tired from the trip and am throwing myself back into work, always good to have my hands busy. I should have some pretty pictures and good thoughts tomorrow.

Thank you all again!

The Best of Friends

In high school, I spent a good deal of my time at my friend Kathy's house. I came from the disarray of a large family and marvelled at her very private bedroom that was all girly and wonderful. It was the only place I ever "stayed over" that I felt completely comfortable in. Kathy was the big reason why of course, one of those truly good souls--I don't think I remember ever seeing her angry and she certainly never did a mean thing in her life. After high school, we moved far apart, got married, raised our families, seeing each other often at first, then impossible as the miles got too far. Finally, she moved and I had no address for her and communication stopped, but I always thought about her, my first really close friend. It was the biggest shock of my life to hear that she died this week, never knowing she had been ill. I will be driving to her memorial service tomorrow, hoping she knows I never forgot her. To all my blogger friends out there, thanks for letting me share, and maybe give your best friend a hug for me.

Long Weekend in the Car

We drove to Clarinda this weekend, then insanely decided to drive down into Missouri, so I spent about 15 hours driving in 2 days. The good part was the antique malls were absolutely packed with great stuff that may take me forever to get cleaned and painted, all sorts of unusual primitives on the way! The Brass Armadillo in Des Moines, usually a stop for a few items, stuffed the car full, they had so many new dealers. One had some amazing flour sacks, still in my to do pile. Here are some I had already, just finished pillowing them.

Remembering

I was in the car driving all day listening to the re-broadcast of the 9/11 news, always a hard thing to hear and re-live. I just wanted to thank Karen in England for her very kind email, made me go back to counting blessings instead of tragedies. It made me remember my mom, who said the good always outweighs the bad.

The Primmity Prim Cabin Collection

I had an early disaster in my quest to dress up these early early originals. My vision, stain yards of cheesecloth and feedsacking, stencil and stamp to finish. I carefully followed the directions on the Rit dye package and everything turned out horribly wrong, not a good deep tan at all but a muddy yucky mess. I went straight back to coffee and walnut ink and beauty of the primmest succeeded. I just love everything in this collection, torn between wanting good sales and not wanting to part with it! The big apple bucket will be $78, the firkin with lid $98, without lid $75, tiny apple seed bucket $28, shoes $48, and the tiny bread board with the flour sleeve (I just picked that up at Gatherings recently and added the sleeve and spoon) is $48.

A Few More of My Favorite Galena Places

Provencale is a lovely store run by a couple from Provence, they are so nice, always have candy for my daughters, and send us recipes by email. The Galena Peddlery sells teas and herbs and antiques, it smells so good!

A Day in Galena

I finally finally remembered to take my camera with me on my travels. This weekend took us to Galena, the most beautiful town on earth. It used to also be antique mecca, now just fancy boutiques, but still a lovely place to visit. The horse in the window of the diagonal building is one of my favorite things. I also love the Dowling House, oldest home in town, and one old standby remains, the Galena Cheese House, wonderful gourmet and wine shop. The last photo is the place it all started for me in the antique business--over 25 years ago my husband and I opened our first booth in the Main St. Mall, now a hotel.

A Fine Mess

A few years ago, Martha Stewart allowed her show to film her very messy office, and ever since I have breathed a sigh of relief over my own disorganized work space. I do wish I was fibbing that decorating my own house often gets short shrift, but here it is, the proof! I have antique ADD, all excited about a project that I start, then oh, dear, look at that cute thing over there and what could I do with it! Sooo, my sink is always full of tins and bowls that need a scrub (always surprised at how many dealers miss that simple act of just taking the dust off), the shelves always covered with ebay stuff that needs a photograph, then there is the pie safe that we don't have room for, so it sits in the middle of the living room, its moving ropes still tied around it and it makes a handy place to put the ebay stuff. My couch usually covered with fabric, or as now, the freshly laundered feedsacks awaiting their fate...

Antique Insomnia

I went to Kalona yesterday, it was supposed to just be a quick trip to Barntiques to restock, but Nancy had some wonderful feedsacks and spice tins and the bowl I've been coveting and finally bought--I got all inspired and just headed on down the road to Sisters and the Kalona Antique Co. What a good idea, because everyone had stocked up on prims, and between Nancy's feedsacks and the great early prim buckets I found, I got this idea of wrapping up the buckets with stained feedsack and cheesecloth--we'll see how it works. I could not get to sleep, bucket visions swirling around, then I started thinking more about the feedsack pumpkins and what I want to do there, then had a dream about making pillows with pockets full of clothespegs--who dreams about clothespegs, I ask myself. In the meantime, I'm also off on a Christmas tangent, here are some old tin things that just looked so pretty on greenery...

For Karen Who is Never Surprised at How Long it Takes Me to Remember Things

Karen, the box is a really good one, stamped on the bottom and everything, masher is handmade and prim, tilts a bit and is a kid size, I think about 7" long, but it is upstairs and I am downstairs...