Rusty hearts, stars and flags oh my!

Yesterday, when talking about the snow and ice, I mentioned that I would have pictures today of the project we were working on in the garage. I know you have been pacing the floor, breathlessly checking your computer every few minutes to see our latest project.

Ok. I'm being delusional.

But, I know I'm being delusional. When you know, you're ok. It's when you don't know that it becomes a problem. But, I digress.

The project is......................................

Rust!

As in rusty stars, rusty hearts, and rusty flags..........

These are cut from old, rusty, corrugated metal roofing that came off a barn.

Some of my long time customers may say, "hey, wait a minute, you've had those before!" And that would be true. We made a bunch of these a few years ago, and had just a handful left. We recently found more of the old roofing, and decided to make more. What you see in the pictures is not even half of what we have....

The ones in the box still need the wire hanger attached. Those are all smaller. We have lots of them still at home that I have to drill the holes in for the hanger, then of course, they need the hanger attached.

I thought I may finish them tonight, but that may have to wait.

Why? Because tomorrow...........THE TAXMAN COMETH!

I better make sure all my paperwork is in order - he probably wants to see everything in nice, neat rows. Nothing delusional. CPA'a probably don't do delusional.

But then, if you have to try to understand the tax code every year, delusional might be a good thing.

Speaking of delusional..........................when I put the above pictures on the computer, I clicked the wrong button, and they ended up in one of Jessica's picture files. And somehow, everytime I went into it to pull one out for the blog, it made another copy of each picture in it. And each time I went into the file, the first picture I saw was this...............

And because it was making copies, I'd see it over and over!

I beginning to think that not only is my son-in-law Brian laughing at me, but he's calling all his friends to tell them how crazy I really am!

Breakfast, Jessica style

I decided to have a bowl of corn flakes this morning, and while I was getting out the bowl, and the spoon, and the corn flakes, my mind started to wander (it's a common problem).

All at once, I realized I was absent-mindedly pouring orange juice onto my corn flakes! I started laughing, then poured off as much orange juice as I could. I looked at the bowl, wondered briefly if I should just throw away the corn flakes and start over, then laughed again as my mind went racing back.....

Who is that in the photo? Jessica, when she was close to two years old. (She's 25 now, where did the time go?) Jessica was eating her cereal, well, in this photo, she is actually feeding her cereal to a little plastic bear. Details, details.

Anyway, see that blue sippy cup on the left? That's orange juice. When Jessica got done feeding the bear, she would do what she did every morning  - she would pour the orange juice into her cereal. Being the unadventurous, boring adults that we were, her daddy and I would put milk on her cereal. She made life a little more exciting when she poured the juice in. It didn't take long for the juice and milk to start curdling. And that's when she liked it!

Well Jessica, it took me many years, but this morning I followed your lead. I did pour most of the juice off my cereal, but then I went ahead and added the milk. Guess what? It was quite good! It added a little sweetness, of course that may have just been because I was smiling at the memory.

While I'm telling stories about Jessica in a high chair, I also laugh when I remember doing dishes as she ate one morning. She was singing, but that was nothing new, she sang all the time. But I slowly realized what she was singing. "There's a bowl on my head, there's a bowl on my head". Oh no! I turned just as she was about to turn her full bowl of cereal over on her head. Whew, that was close!

Big difference

I took a couple photos a few minutes ago of a small cupboard I painted and brought in this morning. I then opened the camera to take out the SD card and transfer the photos onto the computer. Oops! No camera card. That's when I remembered that I had transferred some photos onto our home computer, and I had carefully laid the SD card where I wouldn't forget to put in back in the camera. So much for that plan!

So, I was looking through some photos already on the computer, and thought you might be interested in the following couple of photos.

I opened the store in October of 2002. And, to be honest, I got in too big of a hurry, and  opened before I should have. Why, you ask? Well, because I didn't yet have nearly enough inventory.

Look at all that blank space! And all that blank space.

And look closer - there's so much blank space!!!!

The hay rake is no longer in the store. It was never for sale, it was just a display piece, and a way to take up some room. It now sits in our yard. It was always interesting to see people's reaction to it. They would look at it, then at the door, then at me with puzzled expressions. "How did you get that in here?"

Ahh, it was magic! Or maybe it was that we took it apart, brought the pieces in, then re-assembled it.

Back to the topic at hand:

I tried to find a recent picture taken from about that same spot. This following one was taken in 2008...

Trying to find a blank space. Blank space anyone? Hello, need a blank space!

 

Old Clay Flowerpots

There's something about old clay flowerpots...............

I have oodles of these, all 4 inch and under.

I just love the patina on them.

One look, and you know these have been used.

I normally clean vintage items, but not these.

Well, I knocked off any cobwebs I saw, but I didn't wash them.

The bits of dirt that is sticking to them is part of their charm.



And I'm normally good about not keeping my finds for myself.

But I had lots of these, and I couldn't resist.

I kept out 15 pots & 15 saucers for my porch.

There's just something about old clay flowerpots!