Summer Nursery Rhyme Fun!!

Ten Little Monkeys sitting on the couch,

if one falls off then he'll say ouch!!

(or All of My Grandchildren in one place at one happy time!!)

Jackie and Jill went up the hill ... no wait, oh yeah

Eva and Kim, just on a whim

went bowling at Jack and Jill!! Which by the way is NOT on a hill.

Nice Stevie Kew, whose thumb is in view,

no sitting in corners at all,

didn't stick in that thumb,

nor pulled out a plum,

because, oh dang, it was lemon Meringue

and that is the best pie of all!

 Then four MISTER Muffets, all sitting on Tuffets,
were at that great park in P.G.
They just jumped and ran, as fast as boys can,
cause they had the whole afternoon free!!
Yipeeeee!!

Then rub a dub, dub, three 'men' eating grub, a eatin' that old famous star. When what do you think? They were slurping their drinks and saying "What fine boys we are!!"  

              Eva, Eva ballerina, how shall you dance this noon?

 Will you jump up and down, will you smile or frown?

                   Or dance in the light of the moon, the moon,
                              or dance in the light of the moon.
                                        (Eva is on the left)

Ellie, Ellie, Punkin eater, had a cousin for a snack ... when that cousin grows up tall, he might give her a wack! (Elias, Titan and Eleanor)



Provo Historic House Tour!! Or Heaven on Earth!!

Before beginning, I have to give credit where credit is due and thank my friend Julie with whom I work at Treasures Antiques for her passing mention of the Provo home tour.  I usually do this tour with my friend Wendy,but she was out of town this week and I nearly missed it.  Julie's comment came the first day of the show, but I was able to rearrange my agenda to fit in the second day.  Good Times, so Thanks Julie!!

Of course to protect the flooring in the homes we tromp through, footies are a must.  I heard people complaining about putting them on, but seriously, if that is ALL I have to do to tour wonderful historic homes, feel free to 'dork me up' all you want!!

This is the first home we toured.  The decor was fun and international, and I liked the bits and pieces culled from someone's modern version of thier 'grand tour'. 

 I also liked the ethnic prints hung down the hall, and of course the stunning stair case. As you can see the woodwork has been lovingly refinished and was so beautiful. I am sure it was professionally done.

This next house was amazing, it had been built by the same builder that built the first one house we saw, but has a fairly unique history.  Though the home was built in the late 1800's the current owners are just the second to own the home.  How is that possible?  The previous owner, from whose estate the home was purchased was a child of the family that built and first occupied it.  Whoa.

The art in the home was a lot of fun.  The owners had framed and placed their children's artwork on the wall in the living room, along with the art work from a BYU student's final show, and a well known local artist.  (Well I recognized the name when the owner mentioned it, I just don't recall it now.)  What a happy feeling house.

This ancestral picture wall on the stair case is the nicest one I have ever seen.  The matted black frames allow the shapes and sizes of the family portraits to become a part of a new, dramatic black and white composition and I loved it.

I missed getting an exterior shot of the third house, but did get one interior shot.

This was the house of calmness and restfulness.  This bedroom serious beacons all comers. 

This outdoor living space belongs to the house with the restful bedroom, as you might have guessed.

This house is the same style our our own, Romanesque. It had been renovated into offices, but still had some charming details.

The tile work was wonderful.

The stair case and it's stained glass window were both stunning.

The house style of the last house on the tour is one of my favorites.  The 1930's cottage style.

When I saw the door, I really expected to find Goldilocks and the three bears inside, but alas the chairs in the dining room were all the same size.  The diamond paned windows, however, that surround the table on three sides are one of the best features of this house.

This is what the dining wing looks like from the outside.

Alas, this charming old home, though in line with the other homes on the tour, was not participating.  We can only hope that it will be on the tour sometime in the future.  And of course I am always looking forward to future home tours.  The Provo hosted tour is great because the home owners are, well, 'at home', and can be asked for permission to photograph, as you see.

A Chandelier From Spare Parts

This chandelier was put together to save money and to create something truly unique.  If you read the post on my over-the-top central hall table, then you might be interested to know that this chandelier hangs over the top of the 'over-the-top' table.

 In the building of this great gold leaf wonder, we used parts of four different light fixtures, and that doesn't include the countless sources that I needed for the collected crystals with which it is adorned.  I started with a 'cage' style, 5 light 1930's art deco fixture in pot metal.  It had a rather Gothic look about it just perfect for the 'caslte' feel I was going for.  My husband rewired it, which is easy on this period fixture, as the wires are exposed.  Next I added a cherub from a small table lamp, wiring a ring from another lamp to the bottom of his foot. 

 To the right is the cherub, to the left the ring (it had three wires that came to a center washer type thing).

After combining the pieces I spray painted the resulting fixture red, to give a rosy glow to the gold leaf that I next applied.  You can see tiny bits of the red through the gold leaf which gives it an antiqued patina.

 The fourth lamp part I added was another decorative ring set on top of the cage to allow for another row of crystals and swagged crystal chain.  I did not drill holes, but rather hooked the crystals over existing ridges.



I added loops of crystal chains and lots of different crystals from those I had collected, and even some which I had had for sale at the shop.  As you can see all the crystals really added bling and made the chandelier the piece of 'jewelry' that it became as the crowing effect of my French Salon Style Parlor.

Fleaologists Disguised as Farm Chicks for Purposes of Fun and Entertainment

After months of plotting, planning and penny pinching this festive four was off to travel, not only to Idaho, but to Montana and Washington as well, where they finally attended their first, but not their last, Farm Chicks Antique Show!!

Here you see three of our party of four marking the end of the first leg of our journey.  We are Jennifer, then me, and on the right is Cathie, Wendy is behind the camera for this shot.

Of course when you have four junquers traveling together there is no need for rest stops, just junquing stops and we had plenty of those.  One of our favorites was in Butte, Montana where we tried on vintage apparel at Rediscoveries, a wonderful store where we had loads of laughs. 
Doesn't Jenn look fine in the burnt orange 1920's cloche hat? 

Cathie was the only one of our party who could fit in those fun and funky 50's dresses.  Isn't she adorable? After a few more stores, well, really more than a few we arrived in Spokane where a lovely and friendly police woman showed us the way to our hotel.  (long story)

Here we are, off early to the Farm Chicks Show.  Wendy and Jenn wave from the passenger side, while Cathie shows her enthusiasm over the top of the car.

Wendy and I wait in line while Cathie and Jenn found the perfect pull through parking space for the Suburban and the trailer it was towing.

We were back about 20 people in line, but there were two other lines that would go in before us, the early bird ticket holders, and the prepaid ticket holders. Not that we are complaining we just got more chatting time in.

Cathie and Jenn joined us for an hour and a half wait to get into the show.  We spent our time well, visiting with people up and down the line.  I took my camera and took shots of all the cute wheeled carts that many prepared folks were toting.  Here we see Cathie's cart, fitted with a lining made from a vintage table cloth. The talented lady whipped it up in about 20 minutes. Whoa!!

We even found friends from Utah, here we see Cathie visiting with 'Just a Bed of Roses'shop owner Brenda (2nd from right)  http://justabedofroses.blogspot.com/ and Julie (far right) who is organizing Bella's Vintage Market  http://bellasvintagemarket.blogspot.com/ at the Wheeler Farm on July 9th, in which Jenn, Cathie and I are participating, and expect it to be a wonderful show if you would like to come and visit.  :-)

Here are some new freinds.  The charming girl in the pink tutu and cowboy boots got lots of attention.

These cute ladies are from Canada, they were amazingly friendly.  I got acquainted when I went to photograph a fabulous and well thought out wheeled cart.  I will be doing a post on http://fleaology.blogspot.com/ about the fun and interesting pull carts I admired while waiting in line, if you care to see her work of art!!

And now the fun begins.  These hanging 'F U N' letters are just inside the front door.  Cathie and I could not have had our pictures taken thus, with the mob as we entered, but we were able to get this shot later in the day.

Of course many of the vendors dress in fun period clothing.  This lady was nice enough to pose with me as we were so color coordinated.  I was also her customer as I bought a charming little milk glass syrup pitcher which dates from the turn of the last century for my collection.

 

I loved this shelf with the decoupaged pages on the back and figured my friend Marcy would appreciate it.  The mannequin on the right takes decoupage to the level of art.  I thought it was amazingly charming  The dealer had already sold one before I got to her booth, and she had one other that was just as amazing!!  She was taking custom orders for the mannequin of your dreams.  What an artist!!

 

This was my favorite booth of the whole show.  It was so charming and well decorated that just looking at it made me feel rested, which is an amazing thing in the press of the crowd that was attending the show with me. You can learn more about her at http://rebeccaersfeld.blogspot.com/ .

These are a few of my favorite things at the show.  This fun stacked tin 'weddng cake' caught the attention of my companions as well.  We all thought it was so creative.

The French wax doll bust under the dome took my breath away, she was so charming!  And I thought the green house on the right was very clever. 

So all good things must come to an end.  We gathered together in the 'man-cave' near the entrance, and here are Cathie and Wendy guarding my treasures.  Everyone was plum tuckered after 8 solid hours of junquing. 

I think it was Jenn that mentioned that she had feared all of our bright hopes in anticipation of this show would somehow fall short and we would be disappointed.  This fear was never realized because the show was everything we had hoped and more.  We had a blast, and now know what it means to 'shop til you drop'.

Yep, since I was taking pics of our exhausted selves, all I got of my personal rest was a pic of the mixmatched socks my friend Robin gave me for my birthday.  (Boy does she know me or what? )

And don't you love the wonderful arrow that Cathie discovered?  

Perhaps it is the arrow she is dreaming of, which has painted her face with such a smile of satisfaction ...

... And to all a good night!!