Treasures, and Up and Running

I hope everyone is doing well this week! I've been busy as a bee this week, but I'll tell you more about that later. But, I haven't shared anything from my home with you in quite a while, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite treasures with you. All but the first one are from my dining room, and this first painting is at the end of my hallway so you see it as you are walking down toward the bedrooms.


This is a real oil on canvas painting. My mother worked to earn it at an antique shop owned by some friends of hers, and gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago. It was painted by a Mrs. Hardy, and is an old farmhouse with quilts for sale hanging on the porch. I love it, and always remember my mother when I look at it. I cried when I opened it, because I couldn't believe she'd worked for those ladies just to get it for me because she knew I loved it.

I just recently rearranged my china cabinet, and added this corn stove set. I remember my paternal grandmother having this on her stove from my early childhood. I believe it's McCoy and if so, valuable, but to me it is priceless!


I have a thing for anything clear glass or crystal, and especially clear glass pitchers and cream and sugar sets. I bought this cream and sugar set at a yard sale for about 50 cents years ago.

The little glass tray in the background was my mothers, and she just gave it to me last year. It was one of the last gifts she received from HER mother. It's clear glass, but the roses and leaves are colored. The glass goblet on the left-hand side is one of a set of six I bought at an auction. They have a cut leaf pattern scattered around the glasses, and the six matching plates. I bought them all (six glasses and 7 plates) for $12 - amazing!

This next treasure was a Christmas gift from my husband about 8-10 years ago. He bought it at an antique market, and thought it was a teapot, but I think it is probably a 'chocolate set'. There is a tray, pot, two cups and saucers and cream and sugar.

I believe it is bisque, and is by Royal Vienna. I've never been able to find another one like it to get a decent idea of the value.

This punch bowl also belonged to my paternal grandmother. It has 12 cups and the glass ladle. I don't remember ever seeing it as a child, but when we cleared out her home, I set claim to it. A few years ago at a local antique market, I saw one just like it but with the addition of the glass tray that goes underneath that was priced at $350. Once again, to me it is priceless! At Christmas I fill it up with Christmas balls.

This is a print by Butch Hodgkins of a church in Cades Cove, Tennessee. We've been to this church numerous times, sat in the silence for a while or walked around the graveyard. It's such a lovely place! I saw the print at a shop in Rugby, TN but didn't like the frame, so later I got online and found a copy of the print and had it framed to match my dining room. I also have a print of a farmhouse by him on the other wall, but couldn't get a decent picture of it.

Another treasure from my mom. She can't really afford to buy me the gifts she would like to, and feels I do so much to help them that she should do something to repay me. I've told her many times I'd rather have some of the treasures, and now she is giving me things from time to time.

This churn, I believe, was a wedding gift to my parents in 1950, and is in great condition. In summertime I have it setting on my fireplace hearth.

That's all the treasures I have to share for today, so now let's talk about my activities the last couple of days. Monday and Tuesday were spent crafting and getting things ready to open my Etsy shop, and today I made pics and stocked the store. It is now up and running!!! You can go to my shop by clicking on the items listed in the right hand column.

I have 29 items for sale, with many lavender sachets, some buttons and eyelets, and one vintage recipe box. And I'll be making more as time goes by, so . . . . . shop on!

Talk to you soon - blessings, Becky

The Estate Auction - finally!

Last Saturday - day of the estate auction - dawned sunny and hot! I was excited, so I left earlier than I needed to, thinking I might find a yard sale or two to check out. I found one, and it was a bust, so I ran by my parents house for a few minutes. I promised my mom I would take her to run a couple of errands later, so I knew I couldn't stay too long at the sale.

When I got there, after parking out in the cow pasture, I found the desk and got my number and headed out to look over the goodies. Before I'd gotten started good, I heard my name being called - I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was anyway.

You see, when I got out of school, I didn't hang around my home town. I worked in 'Atlanta', I had apartments in 'Atlanta', I married and lived in Norcross and now my current home well north of 'Atlanta'. I live 25 miles from my home community where my parents still live. As a matter of fact, their 59th anniversary is this month and they still live in the same house they built and moved into when they got married.

So, although I've been 'around', it still seemed strange to have someone calling my name. It was Peggy - a lady I'd known all my life, she married the older brother of one of my high school friends, and in fact if I remember correctly, she was my Sunday School teacher once - or maybe it was MYF (now UMYF), but that was lifetimes ago! But I chatted with Peggy and her sisters until the auction began.

They started with pots and pans, tupperware, lamps and moved on to the big furniture. The box lots of linens (what I really wanted) were set back and I could tell it would be ages before they got to them. Besides, at noon they were going to go inside and sell the really big furniture, appliances and then out back to sell the car and tractor. I couldn't wait that long because I'd promised my mother I'd be back.

So as the items sold - quickly- that auctioneer (Jeff Dobson and Associates, Jasper, GA) knew his stuff and he and his team moved those items fast. I bid on a few things, but had a budget, and they all went out of my budget. I knew my time was running out, because I didn't want to stay for the stuff from the house or the car and tractor. Finally, out came this . . .


I love benches! I love anything that is practical, utilitarian, actually USED for something. And I'll just bet that Horace built this bench for Florence years ago. It isn't in great shape, but I loved it, so I waited. A couple of people bid, then the bidding slowed, so I jumped in. (By the way, I just love bidding at auctions - it makes you feel so empowered!)

And I got it! For a whole $20, that bench is mine, and will soon be sitting on my tiny back porch to be used for sitting, foot propping and probably a place for a magazine and a cup of coffee. I want to make a couple of cushions for it, too. But first I need to clean said tiny porch from top to bottom! After vacation.

Anyway, I think it's lovely, and I can't wait to get 'her' settled into her hew home.


I especially love the old paint - gives her character, doesn't it!

So, that's my purchase from the estate auction. I hope Florence would be proud that I bought something of hers and will enjoy using it and remembering her. I know I'm happy I got to go and get a treasure.

I came by the old house on Wednesday, and they were putting up a for sale sign. That house has been there as long as I can remember. I even hit their mailbox once when I was in my early driving days and made it crooked. I sure hope whoever buys the Clark's farm will honor it's heritage.

Thanks for visiting today! Blessings, Becky

Past + Present = Fun Future

It's time I told you a little about myself. At least about my earlier days. When my parents married they moved into a new house that was ready and waiting for them - newly built just for them. It was two bedrooms, one bathroom, eat in kitchen and living room, and a front porch. They still live in that house today - almost 59 years later - although it bears little resemblance to that home of 1950.


They also had a chicken house that provided a source of income for them. My dad was a truck driver, and while he was on the road my mom took care of the chickens.


I came along in 1952. (An only child for 6 years, and the first grandchild on my father's side, so I was spoiled!) We had a gorgeous collie named Rexland Prince of Hope, and he was my playmate, my toy and my protector. When my mother went into the chicken house during the day, and if it was a nice day, she would leave me on a quilt in the yard and tell Rex to watch me. Even when I could only crawl, Rex wouldn't let me off that quilt for anything. If Mama had to go into the chicken house at night, Rex would accompany her and stay in the feed room until she came out and then go back to the house with her. Rex would never go into our chicken house, but he died from wounds he received after being hit by a car, on his way home from raiding a neighbor's chicken house! I will never forget Rex, and I'll never forget the night he died, and how hard my parents worked to save him.


(Note - that's really pink, not orangey pink as the picture shows! It's a somewhat sunny day, but it's still hovering below 30 and I didn't want to take all these outside!)

In March of 1958 our chicken house was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. Back then we didn't have a local fire department and the county's forestry service crew came out and dug trenches to keep the fire from spreading, but that was all they could do. My mother was pregnant with my baby brother, so she and I laid on the bed in the back bedroom and watched the activity. An almost 6 year old could have been scarred for life by such an event, but we laid there and she talked to me and told me what the people were doing and why, and explained it to me in such a way that I was never frightened. That is a special memory to me to this day. And my brother was born about 2 weeks later, but then that is another story altogether, and one I probably won't tell about on here.


(Don't you love the purple cherries!)


Anyway, we didn't have much, and for most of my childhood, many of my clothes were made from chicken feed sacks. My mother lovingly removed the stitches from each one, washed them in her old wringer washing machine and hung them on the line to dry. One of my very favorite dresses was made from a blue and white checked fabric that my mother made for me, and dressed up with frilly white lace.


A few years ago, my mother finally broke down and gave me two large black garbage bags full of fabric. Some was purchased fabric, but much of it was the chicken feed sacks. She knew that they wouldn't hold any special memories for my brother since the chicken house was gone before he was born. I pulled out a few of the pieces of treasured fabric to use for picnic tablecloths and such, but the bulk of them were put into newer plastic bags and stored in our attic. Until this past Sunday. We were putting some Christmas decorations up there, and I threw down three medium sized bags of fabric. Yesterday and today I have been washing and drying each piece and folding them to store in my studio/office closet.


You see, that chicken house, the feed sacks and the burning of the chicken house are a big part of who I am, and until now I haven't been able to bear making anything from, or parting with them. But I've had a revelation. For those memories, I am the end of the line. I don't have any children, my brother never knew that part of our family life, and his sons probably don't even know it ever existed since that space had become garden space before they were ever born. So now I am ready, and excited to start making some new things from the old, and share them with others who will appreciate them. I've been making a few pincushions and lavender sachets from some smaller pieces, and now I am ready to begin in earnest.

(The yellow and blue ric-rack are printed on, not sewn on, and don't you love the little cowboys and cowgirls???)


So that brings me to the future part! That part of my past can be made into something special in the time (as in time on my hands) that I now have (my present) and make something for the future. And I'm happy about that, and more than a little excited. Of course this is going to involve me re-learning how to sew, but I think that will come in time, and I've got plenty of that these days!

The pictures you've been seeing above are bits of those special pieces of fabric. I also have this stack . . .


. . . of curtains from our home when I was a child. All of them are made from white feed sacks, embellished with all my Mama could afford - ric-rack. Some have pale green, others a brighter green and yellow, some with lavender and some with blue. I'll be using these in projects in the future.

This is the only colorful one remaining that is still in 'sack' form. I doubt I'll ever be able to take those stitches out. There needs to be at least one left for posterity, don't you think?

And these are still in sack form, too, and several of them are made of what I call 'diaper' fabric. Very soft and absorbent, lol! I'll probably keep one of them intact, but the others, well, who knows what I'll make from them!

(A lavender sachet made from the hem of one of the curtains, with a couple of buttons I added.)

Now I've told you a little about my childhood. A very special part that few people know about now, and I'm so glad I've shared it with you today!

(A pincushion I made from a scrap of the blue and white - the same as my favorite dress!)

So, what from your past do you have stuck back somewhere, something that you can make into something better for the future? Maybe fabric like me, or maybe pictures from long ago, or a piece of furniture you can refinish, or maybe just your memories that can be written down or recorded and passed along to future generations. I know there's something lurking there that you can turn into something special!

Blessings friends, Becky