What is it? Auction Finds

34°f, about 1.5°C. Mostly clear all day with a few clouds, and light wind drying up some of the mud. Snow still lingers in shaded and north-facing areas.

Today was a sorting and cleaning day as we unloaded the van and sorted out our auction buys.

I worked on this cool old box first, cleaning off paint splatters. That is always a challenge, trying to get the paint off without destroying the finish. It took a while, and then careful retouching with a dark oil to get it to look decent again.

This trunk also had paint splatters and a couple places where it has been hit with spray paint. 

The lock is pretty cool, but we don't have a key, unfortunately. 

This took more careful work to get it cleaned up and retouched. My hands and nails are a mess, but I think the trunk came out pretty nice. This one is probably early 1900's, judging by the style and hardware.

I won a bucket full of miscellaneous kitchen utensils, some of which (cheap knives and plastic stuff) will go directly to the thrift. There were a lot of good vintage things, though, and these 3 that have me scratching my head.

Any ideas what they might be used for? I haven't searched them yet on Google Lens, so I hope I can find answers there---unless one of you can te me their use.

Any guesses as to what this is?

Inside, these paddles are turned by cranking on the handle. 

If you guessed tabletop butter churn, you'd be right! The handle has lost its wood part, and the churn needs one board repaired, so we have a little work to do here too.

Those were the best finds, except for a dresser that is still in the van. We did get a few things for ourselves at this auction: a used air conditioner that works great, to replace the very old one in the workroom, an electric pole chainsaw for pruning our fruit trees, and a box full of extension cords and surge protectors. Because who ever has enough of those?

I experimented with banana bread today. I had 2 overripe bananas and some strawberry yogurt that needed to be used up, so I dumped that in with the bananas, used a little less oil, and no milk. I also added some chocolate chips. The bread came out great, but I can't taste the strawberries. It's mighty delicious though. 

Tomorrow we will take the ornamental windmill that Larry assembled to one of our booths, and 2 end tables I finished sealing with polyurethane today to the other location. So it will be an easier day, and that's fine with me. 

Until next time, friends.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Slow Saturday

19°f, about -7.5C this morning. And not snowing for the first time in several days! Mostly cloudy all day, warmed up to 37°, a regular heat wave. 

It has been just a nice day, one of those where nothing big happens, and nothing much is on the agenda. 

I talked to my oldest son this morning, who was sitting on a beach on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands! This son is a quiet guy and doesn't often think to call and let me know what's going on in his life---my sister actually sent me this photo of him on the front page of her local paper (she just lives one county over from him). He's the guy on the right.

Did he think to send this picture along to Mama? Of course not, but in his defense, as president of his bank he is often in the paper for various community things. Still, I am always happy to see pictures of any of my crew.

When he asked what we had been up to, what could I say? We really haven't been up to anything worth talking about. Just the ordinary stuff of our usual life: coping with the weather, dealing with the dogs and the booths, etc. The only thing I could think of that was halfway exciting was getting 3 new chickens! How pathetic is that.

It made me sort of wistful for the old storytelling days, when I was so busy, either researching,  recording CDs, traveling, teaching, and what have you. But then I remember how tired I would be and how I longed for some extended time of doing absolutely nothing, and I settle back in my chair with my book or phone very contentedly.

So what did we do today? Well, let's see. Larry took the dogs for 2 long walks, and worked on a couple furniture repair projects. I did the usual cleaning, sorted laundry, sorted out the totes we brought home from the booths,  cleared up clutter, cleaned some silver, did my exercises ....and that's about it. How boring. And yet, somehow very satisfying.

And since I did nothing photoworthy, here's a few pics from the booths yesterday. At least I actually did do something Friday! And we had a nice lunch with a couple friends, and stopped to chat with our neighbor Dave on the way home, so it was a good day.

A seated Buddha, and part of a Ouija board thingies that we found in a table that came from a Masonic Lodge in Marietta, Ohio.

Hard to see in this photo but that is a handmade dragon mug, so ugly it's cool.

I brought in a few pictures I had planned to hang in our bedroom, but changed my mind. The top one, hard to see with the reflection, is probably from the 30s and is a version of the "courting couple" often seen on china and in art prints from the 30's-50's. I really liked the white on black one. It's a mixed media collage.

I added the vintage Kodak camera to this shelf. Old cameras are pretty popular, both with young people who are into using them, and for decor use.

A grouping of vintage small wallets and bags. These were part of an auction lot that included one other not pictured here, which was a really nice needlepoint bag, probably from the 1920's or earlier.

I didn't think to take any pictures at our other location, so that will have to wait until our next visit.

Tomorrow is auction pickup day, so we'll be over in Ohio again. Always a fun time, seeing what we won, and maybe I can convince Larry to take one of the many back ways to the auction house. 

Right now, I am going to finish my cup of Constant Comment tea, and enjoy this lovely fire.

(Re-did the mantle with some of my Niagara Falls stuff, which I seem to have accumulated.)

Stay well, friends.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Ice, Baby

18°f this morning, -8°C, light snow, but clearing to partly sunny and a high of 32°f (0°C)

We were out and about today, because we needed to pick up milk from Maddie the milk girl (she has the loveliest milk from her Jersey cows, a bargain, I think, at $6 a gallon.  All that beautiful cream!). And since we had to go out, we took a few totes and stocked the booths. Not that they really needed it; with the cold and snow this past week, no one is doing much unnecessary shopping. While I love what we do, I am well aware that vintage and antique stuff is not required to live, so weather has a huge impact on sales.

It was worth going out just to see the icicles on a cliff along our road that never disappoints in wintry weather. 

This first photo though! Look at that face! The Ice Man cometh?

I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but the icicles extend back into the cavity under the rock shelf.

These others I liked pretty well too.

Same face one, just more distance away.

I like the way these kind of cascaded down the hill.

And the long range view. Larry knows I love these, so he obligingly stopped to let me take photos. We stopped in the middle of the road, because there isn't that much traffic on our road, as you can see by the tracks, and everyone knows I'm the weird old lady who takes pictures of everything.

Icicles excited me even as a child. I could not wait to get outside and break one off to lock, like a popsicle. Lord only knows what dirt and other stuff might have been in the ice, but I'm still kicking so I guess it didn't hurt me. One thing I miss these days is Jack Frost on the windows. Doublehung windows keep that from happening now, I suppose, but oh how I loved those icy ferns and fancy swirls that disappeared at the puff of a breath. 

A warming trend starts tomorrow, so our little bit of snow will soon be gone, and we will be back to the inglorious mud. Muddy boots, muddy dogs, muddy porch, ugh. Still, it will be nice to see the sun again. It has been quite a while--in fact I can't remember our last sunny day.

Til next time, friends!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.