Thanksgiving Preparations

Wesson Oil:  For Making Good Things to Eat.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  Are you making your holiday menu and checking it twice?  Wouldn't your well-used kitchen utensils store prettily in this vintage stoneware holder?

I think so.

Here's the listing:

Wesson Oil Stoneware Crock

1938 Osage County, Kansas Household Guide

I've been away from the "Blog World" for most of the summer.  I feel like I'm a seasonal blogger and a seasonal homemaker.  :)  Yesterday I started in the living room with some redesign and massive cleaning.  My husband walked past me and said, "I like it when you're in the cleaning mood.  It makes me happy." (Trust me, he keeps the house clean and if it wasn't for him-well, let's not delve into that!  Ha-ha!)

I'm now in the mood to write about some wonderful finds that are in my Etsy shop.  After all, the holiday season stretches before us and gift-giving is the perfect excuse to peruse the wonderful finds on Etsy!

From early Spring to late Summer, I'm in the mood to be outside which includes attending farm auctions and spending time at the Lake of the Ozarks.  This year, however, I haven't made it to too many auctions.  For starters, it was SO HOT!  Secondly, my health has been a little on and off.  I have something called Systemic Mastocytosis, which can rear its' ugly head at any time.  In the past few months, it's been hanging around so auctions and blog writing have went on the back burner.

I do, however, have lots of vintage goodness to list yet and I've been busy filling up my Etsy shop, which you can access to the right of this blog.  That's the wonderful thing about selling antiques online.  My hours are mine to work with!  :) It works for me greatly.

So, now that explanation is out of the way, I want to show you a delightful find that is currently in my Etsy shop.

This Household Guide is from 1938.  That, in and of itself, is incredible, but what takes this over the top are all the vintage advertisements including Blue Ball Canning Jars and Coca-Cola.  The book is from the Fairfax Farm Bureau Unit out of Osage County, Kansas.

Look at all the incredible reads:

Old books like this offer a wonderful time-travel opportunity; to peek into 1938.  Books can also be used for art projects.  I took the Blue Ball Jar advertisement and made fabric at Spoonflower.
(Click the link below)

Spoonflower Blue Ball Jar Fabric 

You can find the book here:
(Click the link below)
1938 Osage County, Kansas Household Guide

Hotsie Totsie

Oh boy, has it been hot in the midwest!  So much so, I haven't been pounding the pavement much scooping up great antiques to offer to you, my treasured customers.

Auctions have been put on the back burner because of the heat but before the furnace started up in full-force, I attended two terrific auctions.  I crazily woke up one morning at 2 a.m. and drove 6+ hours to Cozad, Nebraska to a farm auction and I was not disappointed!  I found some unusual pieces like this antique stove board:

Isn't that divine?  I've learned that stove boards were put near the wood-burning stoves so that ashes and embers wouldn't set the wood floor on fire. This one has an air of Frank Lloyd Wright, don't you think?

This hand-painting was definitely a must-have when I saw it.  You can just imagine this hanging in a Nebraska farmhouse in the early 1900's:

I also scored this very old suitcase with the original owner's name:

I listed the suitcase on Etsy and it sold right away to someone who moved to the West Coast from Nebraska.  This is one of the reasons I adore selling antiques because many people buy items that give them good, wholesome memories.  :)

The second auction this summer was in Green Ridge, Missouri at a lovely antebellum home situated far from the main road on a plat of land with beautiful, formal gardens and charming outbuildings like this chicken house:

I really wish I had taken more pictures that day, but I was so enthralled with the antiques and vintage items being offered that I took my time there instead of taking pictures of the glorious location.  A former antique dealer lived there and did it ever show!  The only other photograph I took was my stash at the end of the auction, which was on a very hot day:

I'm hoping to get the box you see on the left and the rugs underneath listed on eBay and Etsy this weekend, so keep watch!  I still have other goodies to be listed, but if you haven't checked out my Etsy page lately, please do.  There are many goodies for you to look at while keeping cool in your air-conditioned abode.  

Grasshopper Kettle

Would you know what this is without having looked at the title of the blog?

I saw this piece at last weekend's farm auction in Missouri.  It was terribly hot in the middle 90's and humid, so when the item came up for auction, I was sitting in the air-conditioned car trying not to die.  :wink:wink:

My husband had the number card and stayed back.  We never discussed this piece, but when I finally went back to the auction, my husband grabbed this and handed it to me.  I have to say, he is getting my eye for unusual primitives.  I asked him what it was and he said the auctioneer told everyone it was a grasshopper kettle.

Neat-o, if I do say so myself.  I have it listed on Etsy:

Vintage Grasshopper Kettle

Vintage Adirondacks Campy Goodness

Instead of watching American Idol this evening, why not escape to a faraway place?  Want to know one of my escapes?  I love using these search words "Vintage Adirondacks" for Pinterest, Etsy and eBay.

I love the lodge-camp type decor and Moonlight Cocktail Cottage has been decorated in quite a bit of that vintage style.

Here's a link to the campy goodness on Etsy:

Vintage Adirondacks Etsy

Filling Up the Shops

There are lots of new items in the Etsy shop you may want to check out like this clock:

Wouldn't it be perfect for a photography / movie prop?  It's quite large and wonderfully rusty!

Mr. and Mrs. Oink are looking for a new home:

I couldn't resist photographing the pair on the old feed sack that reads, "American Extra Heavy." Just the way we like our pigs before they turn into bacon but don't worry Mr. and Mrs. Oink-you two are safe from becoming breakfast.  :)

Just this past weekend, I found this tackle box at the farm auction.  It was full of tangled fishing wire and tackle, but I emptied it out and cleaned it up and now it can be repurposed for a great industrial piece to store remote controls or your mail and keys by the front door.

A few new items coming out of my sewing room include this set of flour sacks-turned-bowl filler ornies:

My favorite windmill photograph was printed on fabric at Spoonflower and made into a pillow:

And finally, an old photograph taken of a fishing cabin at the Lake of the Ozarks was also printed on fabric at Spoonflower and made into a pillow:

Click on the Etsy banner to find these items and more!  Our shop on eBay also has a few items currently running.  Several more items will be listed soon, so keep checking back!

Simple Chair Makeover and Pig Pillow

We have an off-white wing-back chair at the lake cottage.  I'm not positive why I thought off-white was a good idea at a place where we play hard and come in dirty and often have to wait around for vacancy in our one bathroom to change a wet bathing suit.  Needless to say, we're often sitting in the chair making it dirty over the course of 7 years.  Awhile back I placed a crocheted vintage bedspread on the back of the chair but this year we needed something more.

I thought about making a slip cover for the entire chair and I still may but until then I wanted a quick fix that could be changed out quickly and washed.  Since I've been at the cottage for the past 2 weeks getting it ready for summer and sewing my little heart out for the shop, I had several feed sacks on hand.  I decided to grab one of my favorite worn feed sacks and tucked it into the seat.  I then draped over a vintage feed sack pillow cover over the top of the chair.  I love the look!

Now I need to figure out what to do with the arms.  Maybe I'll just wait until I can make a slipcover because arm covers often shift and look terrible after someone's been sitting in the chair.  This, though, was an extremely easy makeover that gives the chair a completely different look that matches perfectly in a casual lake cottage.

Speaking of casual, I made this pillow yesterday:

We went to a farm auction outside Florence, Missouri Saturday.  It was hot and very humid but we still waited till near the very end because there was a stack of vintage feed sacks that I had to have.  I was tickled when I won the bid!  After coming home, the sacks needed a good soaking before washing.  After they were cleaned, I took this one out of the batch and sewed it to a delightful vintage red floral fabric in the envelope style.  Inside is a large, thrifted feather pillow that is included.

I really do like all the stains on the front because I feel that adds authenticity to the piece.  In fact, when I cut open the feed sack, even after washing, straw fell out!  :)  That's about as barn fresh as it comes!

Wouldn't it look adorable on the wing-back chair?

It is, however, listed for sale here.

Portraits: A Slice of Life

She makes me swoon, this one.  There are many, many black and white portraits and photographs out in the antique marketplace that I rarely stop in my tracks to view them.  But this one, oh this one had me at hello.

I mean look at her hair piece just for starters.

That took some time to affix it perfectly, wouldn't you imagine?  And her corsage, do you suppose she made it herself or did the photographer add it later?

There are so many lovely elements to this piece.  Her expression is serious:

I wonder what was on her mind at this very moment?  I see just a hint of a smile at the corners of her lips. Her smile lit up a room, I'll venture.

She was found up in northern Missouri at a farm auction and in the southern part of Missouri, I discovered this family photograph taken out on the farm:

See the outhouse out back and the tin roof on the porch?  How about the clothing, do you study these things?  I do.

I just couldn't pass by this piece, either.  Both are available in my Etsy shop.  The link is to your right.

Kansas Farm Auction=Three Words That Make Me Smile

I know where to go to find the deals!  Drive at least 3 hours west outside Kansas City and there ARE deals to be found!  But even more than that, check out the pretty road I drove down to find the auction:

What's that large structure coming up on my left you ask?

Why, it's an awesome abandonment!  I swooned and swooned some more.  Luckily, as you can probably tell by the first photo, traffic wasn't heavy, so I pulled over and shot this home with my iPhone.  I wanted to explore the inside, but I don't go to abandonments alone, so the iPhone from the car window had to do. But I know how to return to this place, so maybe sometime in the future I will be back with my husband and good camera in tow.

Over the hill a piece I came to the corner where I needed to turn:

And let me just say that this was the best auction I had ever been to in my entire life.  I was saddened to hear this was the 2nd one as the 1st one was just 3 weeks prior.  I talked with a couple who told me they were at the first auction and only had competition with the salvage junkers.  This auction had a few dealers so the prices may have been at tad higher, but I thought they were extremely reasonable

Lots of great farm junk like the photo above.  If I had my husband with me and the truck, I would have bought a lot more!  But, as it was, I found the holy grail of my existence:  a windmill vane on its' original stem:

The second good piece of news is that it actually fit in my Chevy Equinox with all the seats down!  It's going to kill me to put this up for sale.  I'm still sitting on the fence about that one.  If you know me well enough, I *adore* old windmills. Here's a blog post from just a little while ago:

Windmill Love

And if that wasn't enough, check out the signs I had to leave behind because I didn't bid on them:

Everything sold for pretty much what I considered bargain prices.  Even though I stayed the night at a Super 8 with a horrible mattress and woke up with back pain, this auction was worth it!  My car was filled to the gills with great farm items!

And even greater is that I explored another part of Kansas.  It was an utterly delightful Saturday and one I can't wait to repeat!

Back in the Kansas Saddle. Again. And Again. And Again.

I am a glutton for punishment.  After perusing the many auctions this weekend in both Kansas and Missouri, I found one in Kansas.  Didn't I just mention in the last blog that I was going to focus on Missouri auctions?  Yes, yes I did.

However, this one looks like a scene right out of American Pickers.  See for yourself:

Doesn't that make your heart skip a few beats?  I'm driving 4 1/2 hours to get to this auction which means I'm going to spend 2 nights in a town 20 minutes away.  :)  If this auction goes high then I PROMISE I will attend the Missouri auctions only.

That is until the next Kansas auction comes along that offers hoards and piles of primitives.  Then I might have to try again.  And again.  And again.  Kansas is in my blood.  I can't help it.