A Crock Surprise

See the crock on the left that says Enterprise? I have had it for a couple months or so in the shop. It was sort of hidden under a table.

I bought several crocks yesterday from a customer, and decided to display them all together in a new spot. When I reached under the table to pull out the Enterprise crock, I noticed it has something white all over it.

It was on the inside, but even more on the outside. Crystal like, and practically covering the whole thing. It looked like salt, but I wasn't sure.

I got a wet paper towel, and wiped it off. I got up my nerve, and tasted it, barely touching my tongue to a spot on my hand that had touched the white stuff. Yep. Definitely salt!

You can see a crack in the crock toward the top by the letter S. My guess is that this crock was used to make sauerkraut, which was made by layering cabbage and salt.

The salt must have soaked into the crack, and as the crock sat there under my table, it oozed out. Or grew. Or did whatever salt does.

It's a bit of a mystery to me. Why exactly did it happen? Did it only happen because the conditions were just right? What were those conditions? Will it happen again?

I guess time will tell!

Gossip bench

Are you old enough to recognize this?

 

I admit that I am.

 

It's a phone bench, AKA gossip bench.

 

Back in the day, before cordless phones and cell phones, most homes had one phone. Imagine! And that one phone was either attached to the wall, or had to stay close to it. I'm sure the young folks can hardly believe that. lol

 

The phone would sit on top of the desk part, the phone book would fit neatly inside. And the person would sit in the seat and gossip chat.

We picked this up at an auction, and I gave it the prim treatment. I forgot to take a before picture, but it was plain brown. The original seat must have gave way at some point. When we bought it, it had the piece of plywood you see in the photo for a seat. But, it was unfinished, just a plain piece of plywood.

This brings back memories of party lines, and long and short rings. And the days before answering machines. I remember many times when everyone was outside, either in the yard or garden. Through the open windows of the house, we would hear the phone ring. Someone would go running to the house to answer the phone. More often than not, the caller would hang up just as you were breathlessly running through the door.

Ahhh, the good ole days.

The 70's cupboard

I bought these 2 book cases at an auction. I know you're looking at it, and saying, "I only see one piece". It's actually 2 pieces, stacked on top of each other.

They were plain jane brown. And very 1970's looking.

I dubbed it the 70's cupboard.

And when I called it that on my facebook page, a friend from high school said, "what's wrong with the 70's?"

Why nothing, nothing at all!

We both graduated in '80. The 70's were some good times.

But the bookcase/cupboard? The 70's weren't doing it any favors.

I wasn't sure anything I did to it would help. I didn't want to put much more money in it.

I found a can of sorta bluish/greenish paint in my paint stash. I put one coat on the whole thing, then went over all of it with the orbital sander.

A coat of wax, (or was it varnish? I forget now what I did) and it was done.

Not bad, but I still wasn't sure anyone would want it. It got a decent response on facebook, but I still wasn't sure about it. I didn't bother putting a price on it, thinking I would just use it for display purposes.

Then someone sent me a message asking if I still had the 70's looking cupboard. "Yes I do", I said.

And within a month it was sold.

Shows how much I know about what people want!

Trash to treasure pumpkins

It's been a busy summer! Again! Between the summer harvest and the shop doing very well, (thank you!) I haven't had much free time. I'm trying to squeeze in some fall crafts. 

A good place to do that is with some trash to treasure projects!

The two square ones are the ends off a large crate.

The one in the middle is a slab off our sawmill.

While I was painting pumpkins, I grabbed a couple old chairs........

Pumpkins are one of my favorite things to paint!

And to eat!

Love pumpkin pie!

A painting under the dust

I don't know anything about this painting. Who painted it? Is the scene depicted real or in the artist's mind? Was it painted for the artist's own home, or maybe as a gift? Was it sold?

We'll probably never know the answers. But, this painting has a completely different story to tell.

I bought it at an auction. It was filthy. Covered in dust and cobwebs. So much so, that I couldn't even really tell what the painting was.

I had bought it for the frame. Once I got it home, I picked it up to take the picture out to throw away. But, I started looking closer at the painting under the dust.

I could see potential. I wiped off what dust I could with a dry rag. Ah yes, definite potential.

I carefully cleaned the frame with a damp rag. The painting was still too dirty, so I actually used a damp rag on the oil painting as well. With a very light touch.

I'm sure there's a proper way to clean an original oil painting. I'm sure a damp cloth isn't it.

But, it worked.

As I was cleaning it, I thought about what a shame it was that this beauty ever ended up in a shed, or basement, or barn, or wherever it had spent enough years to accumulate so much dust.

I'm going to throw some advice out to whoever will listen: If you don't want something anymore, sell it. Or give it away.

Someone will want it. Someone will enjoy it.

I've bought some pieces this summer from a few different folks who had more vintage pieces than they could use. Pieces they liked, some were even family pieces. But, they simply didn't have room for all of them.

When they called me, they said they didn't want to just store them away, they wanted someone to enjoy them.

The painting has already sold to a man who bought it for his living room. I hope he gets years and years of enjoyment out of it!

Quilt treasure

We bought this quilt at a recent antiques auction. There was a note on it that said it was made in 1869. By a 9 year old girl! Her name was also on the quilt, but I won't include that for privacy reasons.

Can't you just see the girl working on this, with her mama sitting beside her, guiding her and teaching her? It makes me smile.

I seldom buy for myself at an auction. Just about everything goes to the store to sell. But not this quilt. It's a keeper!

A Quiet 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!

It's quiet here today. Brian & Jessica decided not to make the trip home to WV since they are going to the beach for a few days soon with Brian's family.

Kevin & Katie are spending the day with her family in PA.

George was supposed to have the day off, but ended up working a double!

We planned to go to fireworks last night at Oglebay Park in Wheeling, but those plans fell through.

George & I had hoped to go to our favorite fireworks show tonight in downtown Wheeling, but as I said, he's now working. And besides that, it's raining. And thundering.

I did grill some burgers for our lunch before he left for work, but I burned the burgers. We were able to salvage them, but they weren't the best we've ever had by any stretch of the imagination.

Does it sound like I'm complaining? I'm really not. We've had lots of great 4th of July celebrations in the past, and Lord willing, there will be more to come in the future. And I'm truly thankful to be living in this great nation, today and every other day of the year.

So, for this year, at our house, the chickens ended up with the biggest celebration. Any day they get watermelon is a day to celebrate!

And we still may get to see fireworks for the 4th. They are supposed to have them this Sunday night in Moundsville. Though I'm not entirely sure that will happen either. The fairgrounds there along with the surrounding areas had some severe flash flooding a couple nights ago. A baseball tournament had to be cancelled at the last minute. So maybe there will be fireworks, and maybe there won't.

But if there is, Kevin and Katie would appreciate it. It's not every one who gets to see fireworks for their first anniversary!