New Corner China Cabinet

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a local auction and bought several pieces of furniture in addition to all of the little goodies I normally get. As many already know, I am a china hoarder. I needed another place to display it, and the dining room needed another taller piece to balance it all out (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). I do not know the age of the "new" piece, but I'm thinking 1930s (or 40s). I love it and my second fave set of china can now be on display for me to enjoy every day. I took pics of both cabinets along with some closeups of the two sets of china.

The first set of pics is of my 1940 china cabinet that was bought new by my step-grandparents when they were first married. (Papaw Deno is still kicking it and will be 95 this Christmas Eve eve.) The china is from New Wharf Pottery (Stoke-on-Trent, England), which was in business from 1878 - 1894. The set is anywhere from 118 - 134 years old. I think it is older, because the pattern is not named/numbered, and I cannot find a picture of it anywhere except for a plate in a different color (which did not help me at all).

 The only pic I found of this pattern was unofficially dubbed "Mallow." What a find!

Below is the new corner cabinet, and it now holds my Tressemanes & Vogt (Limoges, France). I do know the pattern number and exact date for this set (TRV321, 1907). I just love its class.

Here is a cool little tutorial on making ghost lights.
Ghost Lights

Firewood

What fantastic weather we had today in our part of Ohio. The 72 degrees was perfect weather for hubs and our farmer friend to stack wood. Our friend brought a load down last weekend and another one today which ended up being almost a cord and a half. We already had about a cord and a half from last year, so hopefully we will not any more until well after the first of next year. It just depends on how cold it it gets.

Etsy, Here I Come!

After much thought over the months and loads of encouragement from friends and family, I am going to open an Etsy shop. I was going to wait until after the winter holidays, but was advised to do so before Christmas. I had been dragging my feet about the whole thing due to fear of the unknown. But after much researching and discussion with experienced, like-minded people, I became a little more confident of the undertaking.

I plan on selling vintage "farmhouse" goods mainly from the U.S. and Europe. Occasionally, I am sure I will have items from other countries. (For example, I have some post-war Noritake "occupied Japan" plates and bowls that I will be listing, as well as a lovely hand-crocheted 1970s bed coverlet from Mexico.)

Right now I am busy with the business end (ha!) of it all.....getting all the right licenses and forms filled out, setting up the shop, learning about SEO, etc., etc. I'm mentally exhausted, but so excited at the same time. So hopefully I will be mostly ready by October 1, 2012 :)

Guest Bathroom

I started the guest bathroom (the one I usually use for now) back in March, 2012. I had taken some before pics, but they mysteriously have disappeared from our camera. I did find a picture of it when we first looked at the house with our realtor in November, 2010. There was a lot of peeling wallpaper with pretty purple flowers, blue cabinets, and a broken shower head. (I went to take my first shower in it and it fell off!)





Now it is September and I finally found a mirror that I liked at an auction this past Saturday. All that is left to do is complete the towel rack pallet project I found HERE, buy a rug and towels, and frame some antique artwork for over the throne. This is how it looks so far....

I painted the vanity top with chalkboard paint (it's sort of thick) and then sprayed it with satin poly. I made the outer shower curtain from burlap. The walls look darker in person and are colonial gray from Valspar.