~Tuesday Display Chain~ Bowls

Each Tuesday Misi, of Gable House Musings, chooses a theme and invites bloggers to play along with her "Tuesday Display Chain". This week we are showing off "bowls". 

I am a collector of bowls...big bowls, little bowls...bowls made of pottery, pewter, wood, china, glass...I love them all.  These are a few of my favorites...

~This tiny yellowware bowl was a garage sale find...just .25 cents. Isn't that great? OK, so here's the not so great part...see the spice box it's sitting on? Also a garage sale find...it was $10 and had the original finish-including stenciled drawer fronts. I thought it was ugly, and not that old...so I gave it a prim finish. Can you say young and stupid? Saw one just like it (before condition) in an antique shop for $150. *sigh* OK, moving on...~

~More garage sale bowls. Are you sensing a theme? My entire house is decorated in early garage sale.~

~I found this set of nesting yellowware bowls at the thrift store, four of them for $20. The two largest ones are pictured here on my $1 corner thingy. I think it might actually be a plant stand, but it works for me.~

~Red hutch full of primitive goodness~

~You guessed it...garage sale. Hutch, $50. Loading it into a minivan by myself, priceless.~

~Rowe pottery bunny, and a piece from my Dad's baby dishes, surround a wooden bowl filled with gourd eggs.~

~A redware bowl from Turtlecreek Pottery, a favorite gift from my Mother in love.~

~Wooden bowls rest on a dry sink.~

~A HUGE yellowware bowl from my grandmother. It measures 14" in diameter and makes a fabulous punch bowl.~

~An old trencher takes center stage in the buttery. The woman I bought it from said it was hand carved by her great-grandfather. I know...how could she sell it?~

~Vintage Pyrex, colorful and fun. And no, this photo isn't staged. I bake outdoors all the time.~

 

Not my style, but still...one of the prettiest bowls I've seen. 

It seems to me that one can never have too many bowls.

See the other Tuesday Display Chain participants at: http://1890gablehousemusings.blogspot.com/

Until next time...

Peek-A-Boo~Tuesday Display Chain

Each Tuesday, Misi of Gable House Musings, chooses a theme and invites bloggers to play along with her 'Tuesday Display Chain' by featuring items from their collections. This week Robyn of PrimLish chose a theme in keeping with the Halloween Spirit. The theme this week is Peek-A-Boo.

Primitive lovers everywhere understand the need to hide away all those pesky modern conveniences that take away from the rustic ambiance of our homes. I admit, when we lived in the farmhouse, I camouflaged everything from the toaster to the cat inside of crocks and under wooden crates. These days my small appliances are tucked away in the "appliance shed" built specifically for that purpose. Now I'm more about finding attractive storage and hiding clutter.

The buttery measures 8' x 13.5' and basically covers the entire back wall of our kitchen. It provides great storage and also creates a fun space to display a multitude of goodies. On one side, decor items that are currently out of rotation are stored in the lower cabinet behind the curtain...and on the other; I keep lights and props for taking photos.

And in the middle section...

We keep the dog food out of sight, but still easily accessible. You can't fool Murray.

And speaking of Prim Dog Murray...

He hides his toys in an old firkin.

And situated conveniently next to the front door...

This little five drawer cabinet houses dog leashes, harnesses etc. (Sensing a trend yet?)

Paper clutter is one of my pet peeves. I detest "piles". Mr. Kattywhompus solved my problem with this Craiglist purchase last year at Mother's Day. My "vintage" Habersham Plantation secretary has drawers and cubbies aplenty. Now ya see it...

Now ya don't.

In the living room I hide books, magazines and rug hooking supplies in the dry sink next to the sofa.

 

Things I use are close at hand, but no piles!

 The little drawer is perfect for stowing hand sewing supplies.

This boxy stagecoach trunk is the perfect place to store my bulky rug hooking frame, along with bags of cut wool "worms".

Trust me...it's in there-under the linen background.

And last, but not least...nope, not a breadbox.

I no longer have to search for light bulbs, specialty nails or fasteners. I keep them at my fingertips...ready to hang a picture or change a bulb.

I hope you've enjoyed today's Display Chain. Hop on over to Robyn's blog  to see the other fabulous contributors! 

Until next time...

Tuesday Display Chain

Each Tuesday, Misi of Gable House Musings, chooses a theme and invites bloggers to play along with her 'Tuesday Display Chain' by featuring items from their collections. The theme this week is "Make-Do."

In my grandmother's day, when folks had a need, they'd look around to see how they might "make-do" with what they had. It was a common practice for people to pass down or patch clothing, fashion a needed tool, or share what they had with a neighbor.

I can't count the number of times I heard Gram recite the old saying, "Use it up, wear it it out, make it do, or do without."

As I was looking around our home, I realized that we "make-do" with a lot. Almost everything, has had a previous owner...or two. Rather than running around photographing every stick of furniture in the house, I thought I'd share a few favorites.

A litter of goofy sock cats, stuffed with rags.

 

 We've all made at least a couple of these pincushions, haven't we? Both of these started with candlestick bases.

 This old blue bench serves as a coffee table in front of our craigslist sofa.

A make-do apothecary, made from old crates and cheese boxes.

And speaking of my gram...she made literally hundreds of teddy bears over the years. These from my childhood, are my favorite "make-dos" ever. Their "fur" is made from cast off winter coats. I can remember Gram allowing me to cut the cardboard that lined their footpads. The large bear, was Papa of  "The Three Bears"...Baby Bear is wearing his second skin-because I wore the hair off his first. Momma Bear now lives with my cousin.

I still have Gram's original pattern...she made bears in three sizes.

I wonder how many of her bears have survived?

Baby Bear

I hope you've enjoyed today's Display Chain. Hop on over to Misi's blog to see the other fabulous contributors! Until next time...

Uncle Louie's Apple Cake

A butcher by trade, Uncle Louie enjoyed baking in his spare time. His 'Hint of Mint Cake' was known all over Starke County as the cake to beat at North Judson's annual Mint Festival. He also came up with what we affectionately call, 'Uncle Louie's Apple Cake'. Every year at Thanksgiving, Uncle Louie presented each family with an apple cake. We looked forward to those cakes all year. Even when he was well into his seventies, he was baking thirty cakes for each holiday. Uncle Louie has been gone for over twelve years. We bake this cake every year at apple time, in memory of Uncle Louie.

 Uncle Louie's Apple Cake

 3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 large eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup apple sauce

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 cups of diced, unpeeled apples

1 cup chopped nuts (Louie used walnuts)

Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Blend oil, eggs, apple sauce and vanilla, then stir into dry ingredients. Stir in diced apples and chopped nuts. Bake in an ungreased 9" x 13" pan at 350 degrees for one hour and 10 minutes. Great topped with vanilla ice cream or a bit of whipped cream.

Please feel free to share this recipe with your friends and family...and tell them they have Louie Ball to thank for the best darn apple cake they've ever eaten.  

Until next time...

Rainy Saturday

Today was the day Mr. Kattywhompus and I were to go to The Hill Climb in Newport, Indiana. But when we woke up to rain this morning, we opted for sleeping in and a day at home instead. While Mr. K watched a movie with our boys, I decided I'd tackle a few of the endless small projects I have sitting around the house.

Like many of you, I have an affinity for anything with lots of little drawers or compartments. Today I thought I'd show you what I did with two of my recent finds.

This first piece is one I found at an estate sale. Most things at this sale were a little pricey so after a quick peek inside, I headed to the garage. I found this hanging on the wall, filled with nuts & bolts, and a $10 price tag hanging from one of the knobs. Of course it caught my eye because of all the drawers...but what really fascinated me was that it's made entirely of old wooden cheese boxes and packing crates. Then there were all the funny mismatched knobs...

This is what it looked like after a good scrubbing, but before hubby repaired the bottom drawer and I replaced the missing knobs with old spools.

I also stained the little red knob so that it didn't stick out like a sore thumb.

Even with all its flaws, I think it's a fun piece...which goes to show that one man's trash is truly another man's treasure.

And speaking of treasure...take a look at this diamond in the rough.

I bought this spice box at a local shop for $16. Again, the rows of little drawers got to me. Because a number of things in the store were painted this exact shade of blue, I suspected the paint job was pretty recent and would be fairly easy to sand down.

I was right. It had been painted with a latex paint and a light sanding was all that was needed. As I sanded, I kept waiting to see the crack or repair, the reason someone had painted over the old finish. But as I finished the last drawer I realized that this spice box was in perfect condition. Someone painted it because they liked this color. I'm just glad they didn't like lavender or fuchsia.

Here's a picture of the spice box after sanding, a coat of Briwax, and a good buffing with a soft cloth.

 

As you can see, I left some of the blue paint.

I'm pretty happy with the result. Briwax is a fantastic product, don't you agree?

Isn't it amazing what a little elbow grease can do?

It's suppose to frost tonight, so Mr. Kattywhompus picked the rest of our butternut and spaghetti squash. And he dug the carrots. I suspect he's hoping I'll bake my granny's carrot cookies...and I just might.

I love all the crazy shapes that real carrots come in. I'm so lucky to be married to a man who brings me vegetables. As it turns out, I don't mind that we stayed home today. And the rain...really is quite lovely.

Our view from the front porch late this afternoon. Some things are almost  too good to be true.

Until next time...