August Break

Do you feel the pressure to post?

Yeah me to at times.

It's summer and we all have a million things we're doing.

So I'm participating in

Read about it here!
at Susannah Conway's blog

Ok hopefully I'll be able to participate everyday

We'll have to see.
Little behind starting on day 5.

Showing only one picture is hard for me.
....coming  from the girl that will show 8 photos of the same thing.

So I will have to practice restraint.

I stayed home later then normal yesterday before coming to work.

I just had to clean our bathroom.

Mostly around the tub where an asparagus fern

had shed it's leaves. I'm usually pretty good with it.

See I dry plants out too.

No worry it's still fine.

Anyways it had made a mess all over the tub surround and you know

one thing leads to the other.

So I rearranged things.

It's not finished all the way and neither is the whole bathroom but it's much improved.

Ok off to visit my friend Ginny at her shop.

After being open since 1992 she's decided to close her shop

but still keep her website.

Sad but I think she's making the right move.

She's having a big sale to move some inventory this weekend if you'd like to come.

Check her website HERE

Address

Waterside Antiques
109 E. Main Street

Clinton, Ct

860-669-0809



Halloween.... again???

Are you sick of Halloween pictures yet??? I know!!!

Just a few more pictures to tie you over til next year. This was me getting ready for a little get together. Same costume as last year but this time without the mask I had painted last year. Boy was it hard to eat or drink with that mask!!!!

but I think there was no risk of me starving:)

I went as a puppet and hubby was supposed to be the puppet master. He never dressed up this year....what a party pooper! Just as well I'm the one who has to fix his make-up every year. The man can not put eyeshadow on!!! :) Well ...maybe that's a good thing! This was the mask I wore last year so I tried copying it. I bought some liquid eyeliner to do the thinner lines. I assumed it would be easy to find liquid eye liner......but I learned the hard way it isn't. Took 3 stores to find some.

The night was perfect for trick or treaters. Warm and the rain held off til midnight. By the time we got there they had run out of candy and had to turn out the lights. Too bad.... my favorite
 part is seeing the kids in their costumes.

Last year we sat on the stoop passing out the treats and I think we even went to a few houses trick or treating.....

I never want to grow up!!!!!

Just a few views of Ginny's new kitchen that was completed last year. It looks so much bigger now with no extra sq. footage added except the ceilings been raised and a new huge palladium window installed. It was great before with it's charming unfitted cabinets. Every time you'd go to visit it would look different. Joe, her husband would sell it at his auction and then replace with something different. Wouldn't you just love that???
You can't do that with fixed cabinets but they got tired of the old drawers that were hard to open....you know how that goes!

Their house is dated 1785 or around there built by a sea captain. It's dimly lit but they like it that way....more like the way they would have lived in the 18th c.


There house is furnished in primitive and classic Early American style and lends itself well to decorations for Halloween and the Fall season.

A few scary monsters around the house that night!

Some of her collection of Christine Crocker dolls
She keeps these out most of the year except at Christmas time.

In December 08 issue of Somerset Magazine Christine was featured with some of her dolls. A wonderful story about her growing up on a farm and learning to sew and make things for herself with what ever they had around the house.

You may remember seeing this cloche in the article about Christine in Romantic Home in the same month. A old paper candy container. The soldered pendant is made by her friend Cathy Penton. Another one of my favorite blogs to visit and I know many of yours. Wouldn't it be the perfect gift presented that way?

Well I guess that's about all the scary things you'll see til next year ( threw in the last couple just for balance).

I still haven't put all my Halloween decorations away.
Maybe orange,black and white will be my new Christmas colors this year...
haha!!!

More Halloween

Ok Laura this ones for you. I thought if you saw it in it's natural light you'd learn to love my scull and bones in this chandelier!!!

I think it adds that elegant look I was looking for. I bought it in Salem, Mass. one year when we stayed up there during their Halloween festivities. A big time of year for them. The town really gets huge crowds and the costumes you see are incredible.

I'd had this garland for a while but didn't like that the only way you could use them was vertically. Imagine how thrilled I was when I used them here finally after keeping them in the box year after year!

In my last post I showed you the mantel in Black and White but I thought you might want to see it in it's natural state. Not too orange!

My favorite pieces are from Bethany Lowes - Dee Foust Design and Nicol Sayre when she was licensing with Midwest. It's too bad she didn't renew her contract with them. I love her work but I'm sure they came out nothing like the prototypes she send them.

This is one of her witches. The green face I could do without but it's the hoop wire petticoat that I really like on her. Sorry I didn't take a picture of the whole doll.

This really isn't much of a Halloween picture except for the faux pumpkin. That was taken the night we got all new halogen bulbs and I was testing out how the light looked in pictures. Pretty bright! Blinding actually but I prefer the whiteness of it. Helps to have dimmers!

A little fabric bat bought at Ginny's a few years ago.

See.... not scary!

A better view of Cathy's doll from the previous post. Bothered me that you couldn't see what a sweet face she had. She's not scary either...though the dust on her is. I like decorating better then cleaning.

Don't be frightened by the green walls either ! Yes... the girl who always shows you all her white things does have a room all full of color. And I don't mean wimpy color!!!!!

I'm breaking you in slowly. I feel like you'll all leave me if I give it to you all at once.

Baby steps!

I'm thinking of painting it this Winter to....... you guessed it

WHITE! I may need your help with that decision when the time comes!

*****

Thanks for stopping by.....hope

you all have a wonderful week!

Carole

Waterside Antiques Halloween Open House Preview

Tonight the Witches are out!

Don't be scared we won't bite!

We may pick your bones......but we'll give you a comfortable place to Rest in Peace
Come and see our little doll house

Don't mind my friend in the washroom.

He's harmless!

********

Come back soon and see more or visit

Waterside Antiques website HERE

Little Works of Grace

The other day I received a package from a new blog friend Laura from Little Works of Grace. I found her beautiful blog thru Christine Crocker~ an 18th c. reproduction dollmaker who many of you may have heard of. Her website is called the Pastoral Dollmaker. Her daughter Katie ~ from Sparrows Cottage is also very talented. They both have the most beautiful blogs that will inspire you and make you feel like your walking into another century when life was calmer and simpler. Laura's blog is much the same and you will fall in love with her images and her works as well as her gentle way of seeing the world.
I should also mention that I would not have ever known of any of these wonderfully talented women if it wasn't for my good friend Ginny who first bought one of Christine's dolls. She's very familiar with real antique dolls since she owns an antique store full of primitive early american. She had never seen any modern dollmaker make them as well as Christine.
Well.... we'll have to get into that another time when I can show you her lovingly restored home and her doll collection........

I have a package to unwrap!!!!!

I wanted to wait until I got home to open it. It was so nicely wrapped with care. Simple but elegant.....

I love the little tag she added and the silk ribbon....from my favorite ribbon maker ~Midori perhaps??? I am a bit of a ribbon nut and just love good ribbon. Excuse the dry old hands I get this time of year. I'm really not that old just my hands are...lol

Laura had posted her "little workes for sale" and I wanted one of everything til I saw the journal she called "The Farmers Wife"

I thought " I have to have it"

How appropriate since the name of our gift shop is The Farmers Wife.

I was thrilled when I saw it. It was even better then the picture and the best part was that it was made by Laura herself. The farmer wife cutout was beautiful coated in beeswax to protect her.

As soon as I put the book on the bed Nigella came running to see what I had come home with. Paper is her favorite thing in the whole world well except for tuna juice....no not tuna... just the juice! are there other cats out there that just like the juice? I had never known of one that didn't eat tuna????

Nigella was trying so hard to be a good girl and listen to Mommy but she just couldn't help herself....

and had to give the farmers wife a gentle little pat.

I guess it's her way of saying welcome!!!!

One thing I've learned is that she's pretty stubborn and I might as well let her have her way and get it over with. I knew she'd be gentle....

Then she just gets bored and rolls over and goes to sleep.....like all good kitties do.

Thank you Laura for the wonderful journal that I'll treasure forever!

Nigella loves it too!!!!