Hidden treasures

Here is the church

Here is the steeple

Open the doors

And see all the people

Did you do this when you were little? I remember my mom teaching to me, and then when I was all grown up and had my own little ones, I taught it to them.

I was reminded of it recently when we were out "picking" and found this:

Isn't it a pretty cabinet? I would have never guessed what's inside: Open the doors and there's a...

television!

How cool is that?

Actually, the story gets even better. This was in a barn on a customer's farm. She and her husband moved back to the farm after it had sat empty for 10 years. The farm had been in the family for 200 years, and is filled with keepsakes. They have restored the house, updating it, but keeping it's original flavor intact. It's absolutely beautiful.

The house is filled with family antiques, but, it's just not possible to keep everything. At some point, the first TV the family owned got moved to the barn.

When my customer showed the TV to us she saw that there were a couple boxes stuck in the back of it. After much tugging, we finally worked them loose. The boxes turned out to be 2 more antiques! An old radio, and an old record player. Both with the wood box frames.

Talk about hidden treasures!

Excitement filled the air. How fun!

One of the rooms in their house is a music room, and is filled with records & CD's. I'm sure by now the radio & record player have found places of honor.

Well, you don't run into that kind of hidden treasure every day. But if you have little ones in your life, be sure to teach them about those hidden people right inside their very own hands.

Precious memories!







Country Life = Fern Determination

I've always admired big Boston Ferns on a front porch, but I've never bought one until this year. Last Saturday in fact. I knew just where I wanted to put it. A little table behind my two rocking chairs.

 

This may seem an odd spot to take a picture of it, but I was looking out the door on Sunday morning, and kind of liked the perspective. So, I snapped a photo.

 

It was pretty windy on Sunday morning, but that is a protected area. Or so I thought.

I came home after church to find the fern on the floor. Upside down.

 

I picked it back up, and sat it back on the table, then went in the house for lunch.

I heard a thump.

It was back on the floor.

 

So, I found an old kettle, put it on the table, and then placed a rock inside the kettle.

I set the fern in the kettle.

 

Kettle. Rock. Fern.

We're good now.

 

Monday (today) it's still windy. No problem.

I went to town. Came home. Glanced at the porch to admire the fern.

 

It's on the floor.

Upside down.

With the kettle on top of it.

And the rock.

 

Ok then. So it's not a protected area.

 

George said, "just keep it on the floor".

But I bought it to put on the table.

 

Where there's a will, there's a way.

I just haven't found it yet.

But I will.

The antiques are off the trailer

My last post showed a trailer full of stuff from an auction. What was in that trailer? Let's see:

A sink/washtub from a dairy. I put this out on the floor, and within a couple hours it was sold. She is going to plant flowers in it. How pretty that will be!

 

Lots of enamelware. Notice the tall stack near the back right. I'm not sure what that is? If I take the top two pots off, it becomes a double boiler. But it all seems to fit together, so what would that be? Triple boiler? Quadruple boiler? Hmmm.

 

 

Gallon jars. The cardboard box they were in said Coca Cola on the side. It had dividers in it, and the jars fit perfectly, so it seemed to be their original box. There's no markings on the jars though, other than 1 gallon. I threw the box away. It was a filthy, nasty, mouse poo filled mess. I like antiques, but I do draw a line!

 

 

Miscellaneous junk! You never know what you'll find when you start digging down through an auction box! If you like rusty & crusty, then this table is for you.

 

 

More rusty & crusty! Oh the flower pot possibilities! In fact, some of this has already sold for just that purpose.

 

 

A hillside plow, and plow points. The hillside plow has already sold. Yep, you guessed it - for a flower bed!

 

 

Porch posts. I'm always wishing I had porch posts for sale. Last week, I bought some from a customer. Then I bought more at the auction. I've got so many now I can't get them all out on the floor. When it rains, it pours!

 

 

Basket lids and rug beaters.

 

 

Tall bushel baskets. I didn't know what a tall basket would be used for. It seemed like any produce you put in it would be crushed. I turned to facebook for the answer. Apples, potatoes, corn and green beans were the top answers, with green beans probably getting the most mentions. Thanks for the help guys!

 

 

Tractor seats. Lots of people like to buy these and turn them into stools.

 

 



Washtubs. Again, great for flower beds. See the small pot in the front? It's handmade. You can see the welds on all the seams. It's heavy too. I'm sure it has an interesting story, if it could only talk.

 

 

Wagon wheel hubs. The big one in the back is fragile, as in the spokes want to fall out. But come on, how cool are they?

Wheel barrows. The first one has the desired metal wheel, but is missing a handle. If you lay it on it's side though, and fill it with flowers as if they are spilling out of it, that won't be noticeable.

Wood boxes. I couldn't believe how high boxes were selling at the auction. Many were selling for $40 to $70 each! I had to be patient, and finally the price came down. Whew!

 

 A large wheel, probably off a hay rake. It's about 53 inches tall.

There was some other misc. things I didn't get pictures of - a couple mirrors, some half gallon jars, and a Hoosier cupboard that needs some TLC. I'll take a pic of it when it's ready to go to the shop.

In the middle of working on all this, we bought more stuff from a few customers, so it's been a very busy week!

Can I sleep now?

Auction finds

It's been busy around here the past week, & this week looks to be busier yet. I spent last Monday & Tuesday in the woods. Me & the Weedeater vs. Multiflora Rose. I won, but with a bit of a battle scar. Poison Ivy. So far just a spot or two. Hopefully it won't spread.

It was a busy week in the shop, and I was excited to get some old porch posts from a customer:

 

Another new item in the shop is the 4 old oak chairs that used to be Jessica's:

 

 

Two have already sold, which means of course that as of right now, there are still 2 left.

 

Continuing in the chair department, I also put these out last week:

 

 

One of these has already sold, and I may get more of these in this week.

 

I also put lots of smalls out on the floor from an auction we went to a couple weeks ago. Last Saturday, we decided to close the store and go south to Reno, OH. An auction was being held there to sell off the estate of a blacksmith/farrier/collector. I felt like crying when I was talking to one of the auctioneers. The auction was held on the farm, and the auctioneer told me that the man was over in the house, completely unaware of what was happening outside. He has Alzheimer's, and would be devastated if he knew his belongings were being sold.

 

You might ask, didn't his family want any of it? Believe me when I say, if he has kids, (I don't know), they could have each taken enough to fill their houses, and there still would have been enough to sell. A huge collection. The man had been following the auction circuit for 30+ years, and must have bought at every one he attended. Antiques hoarding.

 

Example:

 

 

Old insulators. They said there were 5000 of them! They sold them by the box, and most sold for $10 a box. A real bargain. But that was the only bargain of the day - prices were high!

 

George had hoped to buy several blacksmith tools. There were lots to bid on. The man had as many blacksmith tools as he did insulators, and then some. But they sold sky high.

 

It was a 2 ring auction: George and Kevin stayed with the blacksmith ring, while Katie and I stayed with the miscellaneous ring:

 

 

There was a little bit of everything. All old. All dirty. A day for old clothes and leather gloves. And patience! (If some of those people who wanted the same things I did would just give up and go home, it would make my job much easier! HA!)

 

 

Look, more insulators!

 

Every junkin' trip we have made lately is proving the same point: Prices are up. We are going to have to raise prices in our shop, or give up on antiques. We're not ready to give up, so...... prices are going to have to go up. We'll try to keep them as low as we can, but between us having to pay more, and high gas prices, we have no choice.

 

We blame the higher prices on TV shows like American Picker. Also Pinterest. More ideas readily available to everyone means higher demand. We see people at auctions paying more there for something than they would on the same thing in my shop. Example. There were lots of wood boxes. A box that I would sell for $25 was getting bids of $30 to $40! It's not just auction fever. We see the higher prices everywhere we go.

 

 

In the end, we managed to fill the trailer. But when the cashier told me the total, I about fell over. We try to keep track as we go, but there were times when the auction was moving too fast to keep it all written down.

 

It rained yesterday, so I just left everything on the trailer. But today, it all comes off and gets a good cleaning. Then it will all be loaded back up, taken to the store, put in inventory, priced, and then displayed.

 

Lots of work!!! But for those of us with a junking soul, it's worth it!



 

 

 

 





Country Life = The town mouse and the country mouse

George & I went to VA over the weekend to visit our daughter Jessica. On Friday evening, we had dinner reservations at Zaytinya, a Mediterranean restaurant in DC. The food is served mezze style, which means it's served on small plates that are meant to be shared. We couldn't pronounce anything on the menu, but we sure had fun sampling all the (expensive!) food!

As we rode the Metro, and walked the streets of DC, I was reminded once again of the very different lives our children lead. While we were dining on lamb in a fine restaurant with Jessica, her brother Kevin was back home on the farm, feeding goats. And chickens. And cattle.

Full disclosure: this photo of Kevin is a month or so old, before spring (and leaves!) came.

But obviously, I couldn't take a photo of Kevin feeding the livestock at the same time I was in DC with Jessica.

I have a zoom lens, but it doesn't zoom that far!

 

On Saturday, we drove out to Luckett VA, where we hit the antique shops. Jessica found these 3 chairs at a fun shop called On A Whim.

 

 

It wasn't too difficult to get them in the back of our Kia Sorrento, but it did get a little trickier when we added a couple more things at Luckett's Store, another great antique shop right down the road.

 

Meanwhile, back home, Kevin and his wife Katie were making their own purchases......

 

 



Three little pigs!

 

 

And their buddy!

 

When we were done shopping, Jessica took us to the quaint little village of Waterford, VA, which is a National Historic Landmark.

 

We spent some time at the old Waterford Mill. It was a gorgeous day. Sunny. Comfortable.

 

 

And rather breezy, as you can tell by my wind-blown hair.

 

Meanwhile, back home, Kevin and Katie were not having as lovely of a day. Their new pigs were not feeling the love. Nor the cooperative spirit. Katie dove headfirst after an escapee pig. Kevin dove into the ground when he tried to jump over the trailer hitch after an escapee goat.

 

I have no idea why they didn't take pictures of the chaos they found themselves in the middle of - I'm sure they would have been quite entertaining. heehee. Katie has a blog post planned on their adventure - watch for that on her blog about their farm life.

 

 

Saturday evening, Jessica showed us her office at Marymount University in Arlington, then we went to Dancing With the MU Stars, a fun dance competition featuring students and staff at Marymount.

 

Katie sent George a text about the baby pigs that said, "Kevin says that behind cuteness lies the devil's soul".

 

On Sunday, while we leisurely attended church in VA, Kevin & Katie tried to attend church back home. But the experiences of the day before had left them so tired and sore, that they didn't quite make it.

 

George and I started the long drive home. Jessica arranged her new chairs in her condo while she waited for her husband Brian to get back home after his weekend away.

 

Kevin & Katie - who are bound and determined - added 2 more animals to their growing farm:

 

 

Two very friendly dairy goats named Calypso and Willow. What beauties!

 

From the time Jessica visited New York City as a young teen, she was intrigued with the city life. She and Brian have lived there for a few years now. It's been quite an experience for her, and we're glad they had that opportunity. They don't plan to live their whole lives there though, and will probably find a spot in Suburbia one day, with a yard to garden and tinker in.

 

Kevin has known since he was a little boy that he wanted to be a farmer, and he has absolutely no interest in the rat race his sister lives in. He looks forward to the day when she leaves that life behind, so he can visit her without having to face the traffic nightmare that accompanies city life.

 

The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse.

 

Brother and Sister. The Best of Friends.

 

We're blessed.

 

 



More trash to treasure before and afters

Ready for more before and after projects?

This bookcase is nice and sturdy. Well made. Rather heavy. A nice solid piece of furniture. It just left a little lot to be desired in the looks department.

I don't prime furniture when I'm repurposing it if I don't have to. More time. More expense. And, I usually want the old surface to show through after sanding for the primitive look. Primer defeats that purpose.

But, because of all those stains on the bottom, I decided I better forget the primitive look on this one, and prime. Who knows what those stains are. This was probably in someone's garage. I sanded them down well, then primed.

 

I decided on neutral tan with an off-white for the inside. But, the white looked a little too stark.

 

 

So, I dry brushed some of the tan on the white. I think that softened it up a bit. Hard to tell it's the same piece of furniture!

 

How about one more? 

 

 

I had already taken the drawers out of this dresser before I thought to get the camera. I could have put the drawers back in for the picture. I could have. I should have. But I didn't.

 

This was a case where I definitely wanted the old surface to show through. This is a perfectly primitive piece! So, no primer. Just the same tan paint that I used on the bookcase.

 

I love, love, love how it turned out! If I had room in my house for it, I would have been very tempted to keep it.

 

But, I don't. So.... it's now in the shop, waiting for a new home.

Oh, what a little paint will do!