Happy April! Random Pics from the Past Week or So

Happy April, friends! Isn't it good to see this beautiful month come around again? It is one of my favorites, with the grass so green but the trees still mostly bare, flowering shrubs both wild and cultivated in bloom, and the birdsong filling the air. It's a time of hope, when we plant seeds and dream for good harvests, when we ramble the woods looking for wildflowers, wild mushrooms and the tasty ramps.It's also National Poetry Month and once again I'll be trying my hand at the poem-a-day writing challenge called NaPoWriMo. You can see how I do on my other blog, Mountain Poet.

Here's a few things we got into during the last week or so. It's time to do a little catching up:
This old cabinet was about the death of us, I swear! It was in really bad shape, so restoration to original was not feasible. Instead we took it shabby but it was a long process because a lot of repair had to be done first. And it's heavy! Oak, of course, at least the frame. The glass is old wavy glass, so cool.

I'd had the mirror for sale for a while with no interest, so home it came for a re-do. It was natural wood and had 4 holes drilled in the corners. I added another hole and put knobs on for hanging things like jewelry, and covered the top holes with a couple pieces of wood trim before painting and distressing. I like it much better now, for sure. I hope someone else will too.

I started painting this set just after I got sick and it really took forcing myself to get it finished. That cold going around kills your energy and my feet were seriously dragging. But now it's done and in our Ravenswood booth. The fabric on the chairs is a coffee print. I asked on Facebook what people thought: the print or leave the white covering that was on them. About 80 people weighed in with opinions and it was a pretty evenly divided crowd. My original intention was to use this fabric, so I stuck with that plan.

Larry tried his hand at making a few primitive ladders, since we're fresh out of the old ones we were selling.

In Marietta, a few coal mining items,

and a white rocker that was also a painting project last month, with an explosives box on the seat.

And then there are always finds!

The three deer in this photo are actually pretty cool. They are from the 40's-50's and made in a California pottery by a designer named Robert Simmons. The largest is about 8" tall. They have names! The big one is the mama deer and is called Dear Me. The next one is called Cry Baby, and the littlest one is called Miss Innocence.

The green dishes in front are Hazel Atlas, probably 1940's judging by the color.

These plates, I learned, are fairly rare. The are by a company called Booth's, made in England in the 1930's and the pattern is Netherlands. It's called "Silicon China" but I am not sure what that means, exactly. Maybe just a modernistic sounding name for the finish?

Metal wall art from the mid-century period is popular these days! I found this, with a companion piece, for $4, and listed it for $110, which is mid-range for the selling price of these pieces. It's pretty big, over 24" long, and will be a challenge to pack.

These bowls are also rather rare. I found none for sale anywhere, and no sold listings on Worthpoint. These are called Tally Ho, made by T.G. Green & Company in Church Gresley, England, also from the 30's.

And cooking! I've been having fun trying new recipes. This one was for herb-roasted chicken, made i a crockpot. While it wasn't exactly roasted, it was falling-apart delicious. I made a rub of salt, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, winter savory and paprika. Then I put some of the onions we dried last winter and a little minced dried garlic into the bottom of the crockpot with about a cup of water (to rehydrate the onions), put the chicken in and cooked on low for a few hours, then on high until the chicken was 185 degrees. Easy and so good! Homemade mac and cheese too. Made for happy tummies.

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