How Wrecking the Car Made the Winter Hours Decision Easier

We've decided to close for the winter season.
Reason? Freezin!

Seriously.

George has wanted me to close for the winter months every year, and I never have. This year I'm going to listen to him. Like I should have listened to him the day this happened:

That was the day in 2008 when he said I better not go to town, the roads were too bad. And I said I had to go, it was 5 days before Christmas.

I'm not too proud to admit he was right. I slid on the ice, hit a tree, took out a fence, sheared off a gas meter, and totaled the car. By the grace of God I wasn't hurt, and also by the grace of God, the gas lines underneath the sheared off gas meter didn't blow up, which would have also blown up the house I almost hit.

It wasn't a good day.

And I never did make it to town to open the store, even though it was 5 days before Christmas.

Anyway............when he again suggested I close for the winter, I decided to listen this time.

Partly due to snow conditions, partly due to high heat costs. This old store building is hard to heat. If I had it warm enough to be comfortable, I wouldn't be able to afford it.

So...starting next week, the store will be closed. We will re-open sometime in March - the date will be announced later.

However - there may be days here and there that I do open. I'm going to be spending January and February in my workshop at home. We'll also be out antiquing when the weather cooperates. So, there will be days when I'm bringing new merchandise into town, and I may open those days. If that happens, it will be announced here and also on facebook.

The plan is that in the spring, I'll have LOTS of new stuff. New craft stuff. New old stuff. (you know what I mean).

And another clearance sale upstairs - date announced later.

Thought you might like another view of the car after the accident. Yep - I managed to destroy the rear left and the front right.

And the underneath. That hole you see is from the sheared off gas meter.

It wasn't a good day.

We're still open this week - 10 - 4:30 thru Friday, and till 2 on Christmas Eve.

Some things that are on the floor now will be transformed/rehabbed/refurbished by spring. Others will go into our spring clearance sale upstairs. If there's something you've seen in here you're dying to have just as it is now, come in this week and grab it.

And also, during the winter months, if you think of something you really want, just shoot me an email, or contact me on facebook. George goes thru town most days going to work, and we can work out something.

Thanks for understanding.

Oglebay Festival of Lights

I've been too busy to blog......but that's probably ok, because you've probably been to busy to read it anyway! Tis the season.

We're pretty much done shopping, and just about done wrapping. The house is decorated. (Too bad it isn't clean yet.)

We and a few thousand of our closest friends went to Oglebay Park in Wheeling, WV Saturday evening to see the lights. Beautiful! It's one of the biggest light dispays in the country.

This is Cinderella going to the ball, one of my favorite displays they've had for several years. A new favorite is the ferris wheel and carousel. We didn't take pictures, tooooooo many cars to stop and snap pics. We may try to go again on a weeknight when it's not so crowded.

Kevin and Katie went with friends a couple weeks ago...this is a pic they took that night in front of the Mansion Museum. The "flower" gardens of lights around the Mansion and Carriage House are incredibly beautiful.

Shhhhhhhhh....don't tell Katie I lifted her photo from facebook!

Ornaments Make Good Memory Souvenirs

No photo today, but an idea........

Everywhere you go that is a place you want to remember - buy a Christmas ornament. That's easy this time of year, but even in the summer, if you are in any kind of tourist/vacation spot, you can often find ornaments.

As the years go by, and you decorate your Christmas tree, you will have a tree that is full of memories.

I wish I had thought of that when George & I got married. We do have a tree that's full of memories. But not memories of places we've been. That would be a fun trip down memory lane.

Or, I wish I had thought of it when Jessica & Brian first got together. They started dating on senior trip to England, Ireland & Scotland. Wouldn't it have been fun to have ornaments from overseas!

Better late than never. I did think of it in time to suggest it to Kevin's girlfriend Katie. And they did buy their first ornament together at the Oglebay Festival of Lights in Wheeling, WV.

I normally don't sell Christmas items other than Christmas time. But I think next year I will keep a few ornaments out year round, in case someone visiting Moundsville is doing something similar, and they want to add to their collection.

Fur Boards decked out for Christmas

The 3 triangular shaped pieces are old fur boards.

They were used for stretching pelts.

I love the shape and patina of them,

and I think they make a great shape for

primitive snowmen.

The piece on the far right is an old barrel stave.

The old fur boards are also a great shape for Santa.

I'd much rather paint on old wood than new.

The character of the old wood brought on by the passing of time

is something we can try to recreate, but it's just not the same.

Ornaments

I took these photos at the end of the day on Saturday.

I sold lots of ornaments last week,

so you can imagine how much fuller they had been before the photos.

What kind of ormanents do you use on your tree?

How many trees do you put up?

Oops, this photo didn't turn out very well.

The little plate ornaments are great on a mini tree.

Or just hanging on a hook year round.

We call these Jo Balls.

My sister Jo Ellen (Jo) makes them.

Jo makes Balls.

Jo Balls.

We're very glad she has a good sense of humor.

 

Snowmen

This time of year, snowmen tend to take over.

 They show up everywhere!

On suitcases.

And wreaths.

On sleds (seems appropriate)

And baking pans (appropriate? well.........whatever)

I painted some on glass bulbs.

And some on old barnwood.

How about some on railroad spikes?

These make great stocking holders.

Some show their pride in WV.



Others just kind of hang out.

Just chillin'...so to speak.

And some just looooove to play.

More are coming...

after all, it's not even December yet!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I started thinking last night about what I'm thankful for. What I'm most thankful for is probably very similar to what you're thankful for.

Family, friends, decent health, jobs etc.

But I also started thinking about "the smaller things".........(in no particular order)...........

Weather forecasts
Sure, they aren't always right, but they give us a decent idea of what to expect. I'd hate to not have them at all.

Fleece blankets
I slept under one last night. As in - I was on top of the covers, with a fleece blanket on top of me. Ahhh! Soooooo cozy. Who came up with the whole sheets idea anyway? When it's cold, fleece is the way to go!

Variety in food
We're always thankful for our food, but do we really appreciate the variety before us? I often think of the Israelites in the Old Testament who murmered and complained when God graciously provided them with manna from above. Did it always taste the same?

Soft kitty cat fur
Billy's coat hasn't been it's healthy self for awhile now - his age is showing. But lately, it's soft as can be again. We think he snuck off and indulged in a spa treatment. The bill will probably come any day now.

School concerts
And the fact that here locally, they are still allowed to include religous music. And more often that not, it brings the most feeling from the singer, and the most appreciation from the audience.

Smiles and Laughter
Need I say more?

Woodstoves
I don't feel warm till I feel the dry heat that comes from burning our own wood. And Kevin is making some extra money which he needs by selling firewood to other folks who use woodstoves.

Running water...and Indoor plumbing
Need I say more?

Memories
Of my parents. Of George's parents. Of other loved ones who are gone now. Of our younger days - as kids, dating, our wedding, our babies...who grew up much too quickly.

Telephones
I'm really not a phone person. But I'm so thankful I can just pick up the phone and call Jessica who lives 5 hours away. I can't imagine the days before phones. It would be so hard to be separated from your family by miles and miles and miles if you knew you couldn't talk to them.

The country life
Not that there's a thing wrong with living in the burbs. Or a town. Or a city. But country is the best choice for us.

I could go on. And on. And on and on and on.

But, I'll stop here. Beyond the "biggies", what are you thankful for?

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

It's the day before Thanksgiving.

Are you spending your day baking?

Not me. Not today. I'm cleaning.

We're having Thanksgiving at our house this year.

I'll bake pumpkin pies first thing tomorrow morning,

but today, I'm trying to find the furniture under the dust.

Where does all that dust come from?

It's amazing how dirty your house can get while you're not looking!

We have an interesting phenomonon in our house...

The dust in our kitchen is red.

We have no idea why.

When the kids were little, we mixed up lots of kool-aid,

so we thought that was the red dust culprit.

But...

we hardly ever mix up kool-aid anymore.....

and the red dust is still there.

Nowhere else in the house, just the kitchen.

Should we be concerned?

Well, anyway...if you're baking today...happy baking!

I've got a BooBoo

This is what happens when you throw a chunk of wood on a wood splitter, the wood slides just a bit and smashes your finger between the wood and the hard metal of the splitter. And this was with leather gloves on.

Let me tell you, this took my breath for a couple of minutes. Throb, throb, throb.

We usually enjoy splitting firewood, but yesterday just wasn't one of those days. Several things went wrong, including my BooBoo. And to add insult to injury (literally!), we had to finish in the rain.

I tried to type on the computer last evening, and it hurt too bad to do much. It feels much better today, though the nastiness factor in how it looks will probably stick around for awhile.

I really think this should get me out of doing dishes, don't you?

Salvation Army bears

In Moundsville, it's Christmas when the Salvation Army bears come out to play.

The bears are decorated by many volunteers,

then they are placed in several store windows for display for a couple weeks.

I have 15 in my window,

and I display them on a sled filled with presents.

The pictures are taken through the glass,

which explains the reflections etc. you can see.

Later, they will be collected again,

then given to needy children at a Christmas party.

The volunteers do an amazingly creative job dressing the bears.

It's so much fun to see them, and I am honored to

be included in displaying them.

If you get a chance, stroll down Jefferson Ave. and take a peek!

During the Christmas Parade on Saturday would be a great opportunity.

The Parade starts at 2:00.

We will be open from 10 - 4, longer if needed.

The weather is supposed to be chilly, but beautiful!

Hope to see you at the parade!

Recent auction finds

These are a few of our recent auction finds...

This old dresser is pretty, but unfortunately, the top on the right side is broke.

Not sure how hard it will be to fix, because one section is warped.

We're selling it cheap due to that.

Old radio case, the "guts" have been removed.

On the floor beside it is a press - a sausage press I think.

Old farmhouse table - red top with white legs.

Or, if you prefer, how about one with a white top, and red legs?

Who can tell me what this is?

It's a sheep shearer - one person would turn the crank,

while the other would shear the sheep with the knives

that would have been attached to the wand part.

When my dad was a boy, he was the cranker.

Who can tell me what this is?

Seriously, can anyone tell me?

We don't know.

I thought the auctioneer said, "baking table", but now I don't think so.

The metal top lifts off and inside is 2 compartments.

Look closely, at the bottom of each compartment is a drain, or spigot.

As if it held liquid.

The farm had been a dairy, so maybe it's for holding milk?

On the front of each compartment, it says IDEAL.

I did a quick google search but didn't find anything.

UPDATE

Thanks to a Facebook follower, I now have the answer....

It is a washtub and was used in a dairy.

Not for milk (whatever possessed me to think that?)

For water...for cleaning.

Thanks Jane!!!!

Headboard stocking holder

Let me apologize for the terrible pictures - I'll explain. This is a rather big piece, and I didn't think to take a picture before I put it in the display window. It wasn't easy getting it there.

The next day I decided to get pictures and put it on my blog. No big deal, or so I thought. I'll just get pictures through the window. Well...........that didn't work so well. I just kept getting reflections. And because it was rather hard to get it in the window to begin with, I didn't want to take it out for pictures.

Hopefully you can at least get the idea. I turned an old headboard into a Christmas stocking holder....

Across the top, it says "and the stockings were hung....". Under that are cut nails to hang your stockings.

The sign hanging on it says, "No Mantle? No Problem! Santa will find your stockings on this!"

The headboard is old and primitive looking - just right for a country home. I painted the front barn red, painted the lettering black and also splattered black all over it.

We're not all lucky enough to have a chimney and/or mantle, so............here you go! A cool place to hang your stockings!

And don't worry, if you want to buy it, I will gladly get it back out of the window.

I have a couple more old headboards - what do you think? Should I make more stocking holders?

Kids do the Darndest Decorating

I should hire some little girls..........a couple little sweetpeas did some re-decorating while their mommies shopped this week.

I know you can't tell a whole lot about this photo, so I'll explain it. The background is an old enamel table top, and the price tag in the middle is for it. I'm using it beside the counter as a way to display magnets. While mommy paid for her purchases, her girl kept herself busy rearranging the magnets. Note how neatly she arranged them around the price tag.

The next day, another little girl disappeared in a corner while mommy and grandma browsed. When they called for her to leave, she came walking out from that corner, pushing an old baby doll carriage...in which she had placed a snowman...

I liked it so much that after they left, I just pushed it on out to the display windows. Come on...how cute is that?

Little boys have their moments too. A couple years ago, 2 young boys were doing lots of giggling while their mom's were at the cash register with their backs to their son's antics. I was watching them out of the corner of my eye, and could tell they weren't doing anything serious, but I knew they had indeed done something.

I discovered their mischief the next morning. They had taken all the little resin birds off a table, and put them in a bird cage. Well duh, where else should little birds be?

I very much enjoy the children who come in. Most are well behaved - getting the stern warning from the adults who are with them..."DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!!!"

And I have to smile to myself when the little ones look up at mommy or daddy and say, "How come YOU can touch stuff?"

I've been lucky - I hear stories of how destructive kids can be in stores, but I've had very little trouble with that. There was one group of middle school age girls who shoplifted (religious items!). And the little boy who suddenly threw up all over the carpet in front of the counter (which explains why there's a rug there now - the stain didn't come out!).

But overall, the kids who come in are great. This past week I've been giving leftover mini pumpkins away to the kids. I love to see their face light up when they hold their very own pumpkin, and it's just the right size for their little hands.

Store scale

We picked this scale up at an auction this past summer. Talk about heavy!!! It's rusty as can be, which depending on your perspective, either adds to it's charm or takes away from it.

I've been wondering how it would look painted. I keep visualizing either red or white.

Last night, I was watching an old episode of The Walton's on tv. During a scene in Godsey's Store, I realized Ike Godsey was standing in front of a scale just like this one! I wanted to say, "Ike, please move over! I want a closer look at that scale!"

It was white - and pretty as could be. Since that particular episode was set in the mid 1940's, I'd say that's the era my scale is from.

Now when I watch The Walton's, I'll be keeping my eyes peeled during scenes from Godsey's Store. I want to see that scale again!

Splitting Firewood and Halloween

Happy Halloween to you! Do you have big Halloween plans? Our Halloween plans are.......um......well......OK, we have no Halloween plans this year. And we're fine with that.

While lots of you may have been dressing up for Halloween parties this past weekend, we were splitting firewood. Lots of firewood. We told Kevin he may have to quit answering his phone - every time it rings, he gets another order. Just kidding on not anwering his phone, we're glad he's getting so many orders. And, we're happy to help him out. A friend was testing our new splitter, and he said to me, "I bet you never thought you'd be splitting firewood." On the contrary, I love splitting firewood, and have since I was a teenager.

By the way, if you're looking for a splitter, we highly recommend the Splitfire wood splitter. It splits in both directions, and has a hydraulic lift to help lift the logs and act as a work table. It's more expensive than some, but worth every penny. I should have taken a camera, but we were too busy for that.

Back to Halloween - we live back a lane (the one in the picture at the top of the blog), and rarely get trick or treaters. In fact, it's been several years since we've had any at all. Every year, I buy lots of candy just in case, then we end up eating all of it. Since we are trying to lose weight instead of gaining it, I decided this year not to buy any candy. So.......we are hoping we don't get any trick or treaters!

But - if you are taking your little ones out trick or treating tonight - I hope you have as much fun as we did when Jessica and Kevin were little! Lots of good memories of those days!

My OOPS Moment

When digging around for stuff to paint snowmen on, I ran across an old baking pan that was black, with white specks. White specks like snow! Hey! That would be fun to paint on!

So, I did. I painted a snowman on it, added a couple words, 4 stars and some snowflakes. Good enough! I took it, and several other things outside (in the cold!) to apply some spray varnish. I sprayed everything else first, and in doing so, emptied the can.

So, I ran back inside to get another can of varnish. I grabbed the first one I came to, and started shaking it as I went back out the door. I did notice the can was shaped a bit different at the top, but I just figured it was a new style of can, and didn't think anymore about it.

As soon as I got back outside, I started spraying the snowman painted on the black baking pan. I made a few sweeps across it before I noticed something odd. The clear varnish looked dirty. Actually, the clear varnish had a definite black tint. OH NO! I stopped and looked closer. The clear varnish I was using wasn't clear varnish at all! It was black spray paint!

Well, too late now...........I had no choice but to keep going. I sprayed a light coat of black over the whole thing. It actually worked out rather well.........now it just looks like the snowman was baked on. VERY baked on!

Look closely at the snowman, and you will see the black "smudges". And those star in the corners? They were gold before.............well, before My Oops Moment.

The moral of the story? Put the caps back on the cans before putting them away. You see, I had used the can of black spray paint before - but I didn't put the cap back on. And, when I put it away, I put it with the spray varnish instead of the spray paint. OOPS.

Christmas Preview

The weather forecast is calling for flurries this week!

Aack! It's not even Halloween yet.

Well, as much as I would like it to still be early summer...

it's not.

Time marches on, Christmas is coming...whether I want it to or not.

So.............

A Christmas preview is out on the floor.

It's actually been out for a few weeks now,

and I'm quite surprised at how much of it has sold already.

I've never had Christmas out this early before,

I guess that has been a mistake in past years!

I was hunting around for a tree topper,

when I thought of this small red pip wreath with stars.

What do you think?

Barnwood signs and firewood

We had a very busy weekend at our house!

To make a long story short, we worked on firewood and putting a water line from Kevin's house to the chicken coop. Neither job is complete yet, but both have a good start.

If you live in the Moundsville, Cameron, Wheeling area of WV, and need firewood, let me know. Kevin is selling it by the truckload. Sorry, he can't cross into OH or PA with it. There's laws against that!

In between those jobs, I cut up a large pile of barnwood that was sitting smack dab in the spot where the water line was going to go. What will I do with all that barnwood? Well........

Lots of it will become WV signs. I have several other ideas for it as well. Now....I just have to find the time to work on it!

Antique umbrella

How cool is this?

We picked up this old umbrella at an estate auction. It's made from...are ready for this?...paper!
(Guessing it was a sun umbrella, rather than a rain umbrella!

How old is it? Well, in my best estimation, I'd say REALLY old! It's brittle, yet much stronger than you would expect. It will almost open all the way, but I'm afraid to push it. As you open it, you can hear it protesting, so to speak.

I pushed it open as far as I dared, then put a clothespin on it to hold it open. It's hard to see in the picture, but up in the furthest recesses, there is some whitish mold. I have no idea how to clean it without damaging the paper umbrella, or the skinny wood bracing.

This close-up shows the Japanese writing on the inside. Or is that Chinese? I'm going with Japanese.

Whatever..........I just know it's a really cool treasure!