Funky Jewelry from Spare Parts!!

I have been collecting bits and pieces of vintage jewelry for several years now.  Last fall I put about a dozen necklaces together that I sold in different venues, or gave as gifts.  When a friend came to the mall with a bridesmaid's dress of a friend of hers looking for a necklace similar to one I had made her, my stock was pretty depleted.  I offered to try to put something together to match her plummy purple dress.  This is the resulting venture.

The main medallion is actually two, one on top of the other.  The one item I had that was just the right color,  actually started life as a link in a Chico's watch band, but it was just not big enough to carry the starring role. But placed on top of a large vintage broach with the same color scheme, it was perfect. Unfortunately the broach had no way to be hung, and was in turn placed on a filigree piece.  A pair of wonderful flashy earrings took on the supporting role, flashing back alternately in the plum we wanted and also in the lime green that had became the accent.

Another pair of earrings, with similarly flashing, but smaller stones, completes the transition to the chain.  Plum and lime glass beads, along with some silver fittings, make a nice finial drop, and the matching earrings.

Here we see the complete ensemble.

Emily Margaret Perkins Talley; Psychology B.A.!! YEAH !!!!!!

Well here's Emily's cheering squad, all ready for the BYU commencement to commence ... Emily's niece Kim represents her Mom Emily's sister Ashley et al.  Ben represents himself and came bearing gifts, and lots of love even though another engagement (we can always wish) meant he had to leave before actually seeing Emily walk!

Sam was the official saver of seats, which was greatly appreciated, as it turned out that traffic coming south was a nightmare.  Scott and Grandpa Perkins got caught coming down and made it just in time to see Emily walk .... They were pretty sad about missing the speeches too!

Ben Entertained Kim by doing some of those 'hold the camera and take a picture of yourself' pics. He is always good for a good time!

Scott and Grandpa didn't make it until after Ben had headed  out for his date, and Trevor and Nell and family didn't make it until after graduation.  Still we all had fun getting together and celebrating the wonder of actually seeing our first child walk in a College Commencement ceremony.  As when Trevor graduated he chose not to go through all the pomp.  We now have two of our 10 children who have graduated from College. Emily's degree is in Psychology and she plans to go back later and get a masters, or better in Linguistics, her first love.             Sometimes we wonder why our children are so reluctant to get done with school, then we remember the example that we set in our own College Educations.  I graduated while pregnant with my eighth child, and Scott graduated after our ninth was born.  Hmmm, I guess they see higher education as part of living life. Which really isn't a bad thing, is it?                                                                  

The Woman of the Moment!! Yeah Mrs. Emily Margaret Talley!! Psychology BA

Here Kim presents her with the flowers and the candy lei that Ben brought for her.

And here is the graduate at the Pizza Oven with her sweet husband, for whom she will play the supporting role in two weeks when he graduates in International Business from the U!

 A celebratory congratulations kiss ... for the girl who suffers from morning sickness all day long and who was worried that she might have to run out of her commencement!  But Super Girl overcomes once more!

It is fun to remember that I was pregnant with her when I graduated from college!  Maybe that is what made college so important to her, hearing lectures in vitro? (I actually got pregnant with her when I was doing my student teaching in third grade, so maybe not....)

 Here are some pictures of the celebration!  Lots of fun and laughter, especially with four of our active and hilarious grandchildren there to entertain us while we waited for the food to arrive.

                    Sam seems quite entertained watching J. Scott, Kim and Eva Jean don't you think?

                                            And Trevor's wife Janell, just takes it all in stride!

     Here's Grandpa Carlo ready and willing to throw his support out there for his grandchildren at any time!!  (The funny thing is that we realized that all five males in our party were oldest sons.... interesting, eh)

And here we are the whole party (excepting Eleanor who is snoozing just outside the picture bounderies.  Thanks everyone for coming to celebrate our Emily!!  We love you all!!

And here is the whole bunch of us, seven Perkins, two Talleys and a Hall!!

WANTED: "Over-the-top" Central Hall Table

Making the most of what you have! 

 So if you were wondering how one comes to want an 'over-the-top' central hall table, I will tell you, but first I must tell you about my amazing friend Marci.  If you are a regular reader of my blog, you already know that Marci is a relentless decorator, whose mind is always going a million miles an hour, and her hands are not far behind.

Marci currently has the most amazing black and white living room with a very few gold accents.  One word sums it up, 'Glam'.  About a year ago I realized that I was finding excuses to drop by Marci's just so that I could lovingly gaze at her living room decor.  I finally decided it was ridiculous, especially since I live an hour away.  I asked Marci, who is generous to a fault, if she would help me add some similar charm to the parlor of my historic Victorian home.

I started working with Marci, along with my limited budget, putting together pictures from Magazines that I liked, and doing some shopping for necessities like a new rug to tone down my Victorian Floral Carpet, and gold fabric for draperies to punch up the elegance factor.

 Eventually Marci told me that I was going to have to spend some real money. YIKES!  She said that I needed a center piece for the room in the form of an 'over-the-top' central hall table.  This table should be very, very ornate, and it should be finished in gold leaf, or a gold leaf paint.

I checked antique stores in the area, including the one I work for, without finding a suitable table, though I did send a couple of pics to Marci of hopeful candidates, none of which made the cut. 

  I finally turned to the Internet, and found that the moderately fancy tables I saw there were ridiculously priced.  And even those did not have the elaborate style I wanted.  At this point I realized that when and if I did find such a table I was going to be into it a couple of thousand dollars, and since I DO like my husband to like me, I decided that perhaps he and I could collaborate and make one.  I started the hunt through my spare parts in my garage.  When I saw these charming cherub wall brackets, I wondered if they wouldn't make good legs for my desired table.  They were made of polyresin and had been purchased at my antique store from a junk dealer, as they had been salvaged, and still had some monstrous amounts of glue globs.

Next I needed a top, and found a set of fancy shelves that I had bought from my friend Bruce at the Antique Mall.  They were probably originally the two ends of a dining table, that had once had leaves that inserted between them.  They were bigger than we needed and had to be cut down the middle to take out the extra length, and since I knew I would always have lace on the table the resulting seams wouldn't matter. 
 

Once we placed the legs on the tabletop, we knew that it would not be tall enough.  Then after seeing a picture of a two tiered table in a magazine we decided that we could add height by adding a bottom 'shelf' with another set of legs.

This would require a decorative shelf, and I remembered having bought the bottom panel from an old piano at a local thrift store.  It too had to be cut down, and then Scott routed the edges.



 Next we would need short feet.  I also had an awful old ottoman that I had bought from a garage sale just for the feet.  My husband said it took the strength of a Greek god to wrest the legs from the stool, but they were perfect. (and now I have proof that I am married to a Greek god type!)

 Unfortunately, after we put the table on its base, I bumped it, causing it to sort of twist, which snapped one of the resin 'legs' in two.  Oops.  Now we knew the legs were not strong enough, and we needed another support system.  I had a partial set of legs from a turn of the century five leg oak table.  We added one in the middle for support, and it does its job resolutely, while letting the little figural cherubs charmingly get all the credit!!

So below we see the completed table, after a coat of red paint to make the overcoat of gold leaf paint glow rosy.  I love the eclectic monstrosity.  It comes from pieces of five different pieces of furniture.  Its style is all over the map, but I find it charming.  After all the Victorians mixed and matched too, just not in the same item.

The final price tally on the table is this:  Table leaves for top = $30, set of cherub wall brackets = $40, central leg =$5, bottom shelf = $10, bun feet from ottoman =$5, red spray paint $1, pint of gold leaf paint $10, for a whopping total of $101.00, labor gratis. (Thanks Sweetie)

And as I said, I always keep a bit of lace or two or ten on the table, so that its lovely elements just peak out at one.  Thanks for coming along through the process, and a special thanks to my amazing husband who loves building, and doesn't mind the crazy direction my mind often takes him.



The 35th Annual Primary Children's Hospital Benefit or Back to the 70's!!

Yes, its that time of year again.  Once held on April Fools day for a reason.  The Primary Children's - KSL Radiothon's culminating event.  We have attended since 1993 when Scott was first asked to fill in for Ken Macey, the then CEO of Macey's Food Stores here in Utah. 

Its a wonderful cause and it became 'Our' cause.  Every single dime donated to this Radiothon actually goes to support charity care at the best Children's Hospital in the west.  In the early days, the Radiothon AND the culminating 'Celebrity Dinner' were held in the KSL offices.  But for the last several years both have been held at the hospital.  If you read my post about the radiothon, you know that children from the hospital come into the radiothon along with their parents and tell their stories.  The kudos to the hospital they bring are just awe inspiring.

So here you see Scott and me with two of our daughters.  Rebecca (child #9) and Emily (child #8) pose in their 70's finery.  Scott is wearing a tux that belonged to his father in the 1970's  which he wore in Barbershop Chorus competitions.  (Can you tell that Emily is expecting, but not quite showing?  She is having a girl and is naming the baby Rebekah after her little sister, how adorable is that??!!)

Here we see our friends Randy and Barb, just back from the hors D'oeuvres buffet along with Radio personality Grant Neilson of 'Grant and Amanda' fame.

Briahnna with her husband and my son, Davin.(#7)  The word on the street is that Bri is the daughter-in-law that I handpicked, as I got to introduce her to my son, knowing he would be smitten, and he has been, ever since.

This is my son Ben (#6) with his sister Emily (#8) showing off her amazing 70's eyeliner.  She definitely missed her true generation!!

This is Nell, she is a professional photographer (and probably struggles with having an untrained, photocrapper for a mother-in-law).  She is shown here with her adoring husband, my son Trevor (#5) BTW Nell does absolutely wonderful things with her camera, and I could not have hand picked a better addition to our family ;-)

When the invitation asked us 'what we were doing in 1977' Jeff and Robin went literal and came as characters from the life altering movie that came out that year.  (See I don't even have to tell you what they are dressed as!)  BTW Jeff and Robin won a wonderful award for wearing this costume, the only couple in our group of 7 couples to win this year.  If only our friend Jenn had made it, she wins EVERY YEAR she shows her creative face!  Part of Jeff and Robin's award was a box of 'Asian Chicken Helper' ... who knew the 'helpers' had gone international?

Scott found a kindred soul at the dinner.  This gentleman actually won an award for wearing his sherbet colored tux! (No Asian Chicken Helper for us :-(  )

Here we see my son Trevor (#5) with his hero Greg Wrubell.  Greg is KSL's sports caster for BYU.  Let's just leave it at that.

I forgot to mention the shortest and cutest member of our party.  Meet Elias, he is Davin (#7) and Bri's baby.  Isn't he adorable in his retro plaid?  My friend Barb was just one of several of us who took turns laying claim to him during the two hour long dinner and program.  Such a sweet boy!

And last, but definitely not least, we see Lee Pocock and wife.  Lee was one of the two people who conceptualized the KSL-Primary Children's Hospital Radiothon back in 1977.  A few months ago, while cleaning out closets his wife ran across the outfit he wore to the first Celebrity dinner.  Here he sports his Pendelton Wool pant set.  Please note the matching cuffs on his jacket sleeves.  (His wife said, "No one could throw out a Pendleton.", and I am inclined to agree!)

If you are local to the Intermountain west, the Primary Children's hospital has probably touched your life for good at some time.  Watch for the Radiothon next Spring and make a generous donation, it just feels good!!



Reinventing through Marriage

In the antiques business we often refer to furniture that has been pieced together from parts of other furniture as a marriage.  Of course married pieces don't have the same value as original and intact antique furniture, but they often have a charm all of their own. 

This is the story of a marriage.  The back splash that was eventually wed to this turn of the century chest of drawers was a find at an auction, an orphan, if you will.  It was probably off of a large English dry sink or wash stand, as the English used marble this way.  The dresser is one that I found, and purchased at the end of the day, at my own flea market.  The other dealer didn't want to drag it home, and hardwood furniture, this one is mahogany, is a lot to drag.  When I gave into the reverse haggling, I got a great deal and a project!

This is the completed piece of furniture.  It sold this week at Treasures Antiques for $179.99 and has a new home.  A happy ending for an unwanted chest and its orphan companion, wouldn't you say?

In this picture you can see the lines of the chest and the splash.  They both have curvy lines, but are void of other decoration.  Besides the fact that the size was right, this is the main reason I put them together.  The orphan splash waited at least five years for the right base to come along.

This is the chest of drawers as I purchased it.  My husband had to cut a new top because the veneer had issues.  The fact that it was painted didn't matter, since married pieces need to be united, usually, by paint.   

Here is a close up of the splash in its original condition.

I love being able to salvage items that are essentially useless in their current condition.  I like to use oil base paint on the reinventions, because it has a harder look, like old paint you see on vintage furniture.  Oil base paint IS messy, and I have learned to just throw out my brushes after using them (which is OK because the little natural bristle brushes I like best are cheap) but the resulting finish is so much more durable. 

An Antique Show For Fun and Profit!

This past weekend was another one of those weekends, where I start out wondering about my own sanity (as I do the set up) and end up in a good mood. (as I count the money!)  Here we are at the end of set up last Wednesday, ready for the show to start Thursday, running through Saturday.

In this picture we see a doll, an unusually small electric fan, a shoe form, and a brown suitcase, as well as s snippet of a silver loving cup, all of which sold at the sale. 

This picture shows our 'toy' area.  I do the show with an easy going man named Bruce with whom I work at the antique mall, and who also comes and participates at our Flea Market at my historic house in Payson.  He is great to work with and I have learned a lot about what to bring to antique shows from him.

This is another area of our booth.  Of course I love to decorate, so there is actually some appeal for me in setting up an antique show booth.  Bruce pretty much lets me arrange the displays, even his stuff, and is even gracious enough to tell me that he appreciates me doing it.

The other thing I love about antique shows (aside from the money) is the lovely people I get to see.  Its like having a party without having to clean the house, send invitations OR make food!!

These are dear friends Cathy and Fred.  Cathy is also a vendor at my flea markets, and specializes in 50's linens and geegaws.  Fred found an amazing hand calligraphied bird with flairs in the fly leaf of this old text book.

Jennifer and her daughter Bronwyn came too.  I got to show Bronwyn my very, very favorite booth at the antique show.  The booth belongs to a doll collector and she has absolutely amazing dolls!  Bronwyn agreed and got to discuss her sock monkey collection with Karen the proprietor.  If you love good quality dolls, don't miss the next antique show up in Ogden, where Karen will next be showing her wares.  BTW Jennifer is also a vendor at my Flea Markets.  She makes amazing junque jewelry, fabulous crowns and usually has fun and interesting vintage items to sell as well.

Now when it comes to old friends these two are just the best.  Michelle and Wendy used to have a booth at Treasures Antiques, which is where we met.  Wendy has done my Flea Markets too, but that was in years past before she repented of being an antique dealer.  See, these girls are living proof that there is LIFE after dealing antiques.

Terry is a good friend who lives in my neighborhood, she is also a collector, though I haven't been able to persuade her to sell at my Flea Market, its not for lack of trying.  Terry and her husband Steve once shared an antique buying trip back to  Pennsylvania with us.  What a blast that was!!  Good times. (and oops, camera shy Bruce is in the background of this picture!)

And here are Kim and Marcy.  Both of them bought items in that first closeup pic.  Thanks girls!!

And last, but certainly not least, here are a pair of Beccas who came to see us.  Becca #1 is Bruce's daughter and Becca #2 is my daughter.  What good supportive daughters we have!!  (Bruce's Becca brought her boyfriend, and my Becca brought her son Titan :-))

So all in all it was a great show.  Lots of hard work to be sure, but very satisfying in the long run, and yes, we are signed up for Walter's Fall show!

All Austen All the Time - Part Two!!

Yes, Siree Jane!!  This past week, I got to live the last of the 8 days of Austen, and add another couple of events!!   On Tuesday I spent the day getting my tax information ready for the accountant!  Hours and hours of number crunching can only be made palatable by a spoonful of sugar so to speak, and in this case that meant three Jane Austen adaptations!!  First of all I watched the BBC Production of Persuasion with Amanda Roote in preparation for seeing a stage adaptation that night, next it was the A&E version of Emma

with Kate Beckinsale, rounding out the trio with the classic 1940 Pride and Prejudice with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier.  Good Stuff!!  And I hardly noticed all those numbers tumbling by!!

 

That night it was off to the BYU adaptation of Persuasion by Melissa Larson.  My friend Jennifer works with the Stage Management team at BYU as a facilitator, so it was natural for us each to take our favorite tween to the show for a double date!!  Here we see my Granddaughter Kim with Jenn's daughter Bronwyn as we caught one of the actors, Brock Kannan (Mr. Elliot)  back stage during intermission.

Here are the lovely girls again, including the lovely Jenn in front of her office!! Triple adorable, if you ask me!!  Then it was back to see the rest of the play. 

I have to admit I was taken back a bit at the beginning of the play.  I confess to being an Austen purist.  In my opinion, an adaptor is welcome to take her works apart and put them back together again, however they like, as long as they don't add new material that takes a direction not intended by the author. (OK, I confess to liking the 1940 P and P, though it does take liberties, but that is just because I first saw it and loved it before reading the book!!  And it IS a classic in its own right, true?!?)

This is why I got my back up for a minute, but it took about five minutes to realize that though Larson had pulled Austen apart, and done some distillation, emphasising the humor, she really had not 'messed' with its integrity.  I love this version, though I found it laugh-out-loud funny and acerbically sarcastic, I believe it was true to Austen's intent.  The characters were charming, though it took a bit to get used to the 'flash backs' played by another set of lovers.  The fleshing out of their early love story, which predates the narrative in the book, of necessity, had to be built from a fragile web of references from the original story line but it was believable and cut from the same cloth, which I felt actually enriched the story.

I also want to mention the cool stage 'gadget' that added nicely to the flow of the play.  Imagine if you will a ring shaped band cut out of the stage.  The center of the stage moves independently, so that the ring itself revolves, bringing a new section into view, set up for each change of scene.  This invention made for quick scene changes and made the play, which requires fairly frequent changes of 'drawing rooms' for the most part, to flow smoothly.

And here I am with the adaptor herself, Melissa Leilani Larson! 

And if seeing this wonderful play once was a great experience, seeing it again, amidst Jane Austen admirers truley enriched the experience.  I snuck out of the antique show a couple of hours early on Thursday (thanks to having an agreeable business partner in Bruce)  to attend the same play, this time with the Jane Austen Society of North America, (JAsna) the Utah Chapter, which was formally organized just last summer!  It was fun to sit next to a 30 something woman who's two children are both named with an Austen influence, MacFayden (the surname of the actor who played Darcy in the most recent movie adaptation) and Elizabeth for every one's favorite Austen Heroine. 

This is a picture taken of me after the play with Aspen Anderson, the President of the Utah Chapter (center) and her treasurer, when we met for the first time, this being my inaugural JASNA event.  If you are interested in learning more about JASNA, you can contact Aspen at austenfans411@gmail.com

To round out my ten days of Austen, my daughter Becca and daughter-in-law Nell decided to watch the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice at our 'girl's night in', last night at Nell's house!!  Becca is a huge P and P fan, and I PROMISE, it was her suggestion!!  I, of course, did not argue the point!!  :-)  What a lovely Austen focused season for me!!