Granny Sue's News and Reviews: A Catching-Up Post

29°f/-2°C, snow showers early, giving way to light rain occasionally all day. Some areas had ice this morning, resulting in many accidents. A good day to stay home.

I have been quiet lately! Mostly just busy, honestly, and then too tired to settle down to think and write.

Remember my last post, last Thursday, when I shared the various authors' homes I have visited? Well, Saturday morning I was listening to Weekend Edition on NPR, and I'll be darned if they didn't interview a lady who had written a book called The Writer's Room, published by the Princeton University Press. Author Katie da Cunha Lewin visited the homes of writers, and specifically the rooms where they wrote. One of them was the Bronte's home, which I, along with countless other Bronte' fans, also visited, looking for clues to the i spiraling behind their dark tales. So this book is now on my shopping list. Don't i wish I could request a reading copy! But alas, I don't fit the criteria, so I will have to part with some dollars to get it. Oddly, the book was released the same day as I quote my post. So strange.

(I should add to my list that we also visited "Byron's Pool" in Grantchester, England, with my cousin Les back in 2013. According to local lore, Byron often came there to swim. Grant Hester was the site of the series on BBC of the same name, and the walk that the main character often took was the same area where my uncle often walked. We also visited the Green Man pub, featured in the series, many times while we were there, not even knowing about the series at the time.)

So, what have I been doing...let me see. Thursday I worked all day on painting projects and getting more things ready for our booths. The van was full when we went to restock on Friday!

I changed the display window at our Ravenswood location first,

and then changed the table from Valentine's colors to greens,

and sprinkled some new items around. Like this red lamp, that looks for all the world like it belongs in a bordello! I actually had those shades and then abouts year latter, found the lamp which they fit perfectly.

I opened the big trunk finally, and filled it with quilts. Maybe now someone will see it? It's kinda pricey at $375, but it is an antique Chinese traveling trunk from the 1800's, probably brought back by some serviceman years ago. Guessing that as it was found by the lady I got it from near military bases in North Carolina.

I will be re-folding quilts every time I go in, as people always make a mess of them and other linens.

This is a unique charcuterie board that I bought from the lady who made it, but just never used.

I call the second shelf down my "shelf of oddities".

The rocker was in the window, now it displays a pile of linens. I priced it at just $15, as rockers are hard to sell and this one isn't particularly special. But so comfy!

The blue and white teapot is new, but so cool-- it is larger than most, and has a built-in Iinfuser! I bought a dozen of them for so cheap I am embarrassed to say. But, if you would like one, message me and I will sell it to you for that ridiculous price, plus shipping 😀

Lots of junk jewelry. $3 each and hot sellers! It's something the young folks can afford.

Another cool teapot. It has a tiny chip on the spout, but that color! Well, I like the yellow one too.

I painted the green stand last week.

Also painted and decorated these old treadle sewing machine drawers. They're great for storage

We added this "spaghetti glass" set last week, I think. Very mid-century.

We stocked Ripley too, but i was too tired to take pictures. That strong wind while I was in Nashville caused the garage doors that form the back of our booth to bow in badly, knocking some things down and breaking them. The staff moved a large mirror I had up against that door and anything else they thought might get broken, and bless their hearts they cleaned up the mess, but I had to put everything back together again. Quite a job.

We spent Saturday at home (recuperating!), then yesterday we were on the road to a sweet little town called Canal Winchester, just this side of Columbus, to pick up a 1950s dinette set and matching metal cabinet.

The young man selling these was so interesting. He is a member of a moped group that does group trips all around the area. A moped group! Who knew there was such a thing? All of the machines are old, of course, none are fast, so the trips must be a hoot. The place we picked up this furniture was their clubhouse. Hundreds of mopeds in there.

He also owned and drove this vintage pickup,

and this old camper, which he is restoring.

He said this sticker made people smile instead of getting aggravated at him being so slow---top speed is 50 mph!

I thought the furniture would need no work so that we could just move it into a booth, but nope. A bad re-co earing of the vinyl backs and seats means I need to re-tack all of it, and the chair frames need some rust cleanup. But gevreduced the price, and it will be well worth the work.

Afterward we met up with our oldfriend Donna Wilson, who had moved back to her home state of Ohio after 5 years in Florida. Donna and I wrote grants and organized an annual summer series of storytelling events for about 6 years I think. It was very successful and brought storytelling to many small rural communities. But the funding agency, part of the state arts commission, was dissolved after the death of its chairman, ending our long run. I have really missed Donna, and it is so good to have back within driving distance. At 81, she is as wild, funny, and active as ever.