White Ironstone Finds For A Christmas Table

I pulled out my Quaker Lace table cloth to layer under this vintage 1950's Christmas table cloth.

 

I realized that they both needed pressing...DARN! So I put a large, folded several times, heavy  cloth down on the table and pressed each one on the table. My table is not the greatest so I didn't have a lot of worries I'd do it damage. I'm not saying this is how it should be done but, it worked really well.
 

The newest finds are the platter it's just a simple squarish-oval. A Mid Century coffee pot marked USA. Some references say that it's restaurant ware...it's home ware now!!! And those pretty doily's.

 Just realized you can't even see the top of the platter!!! But here's a shot of the back. Loved that it's named Snowhite~~~

A pretty ironstone bowl with pink roses and a blue ribbon. I just filled it with glittered pine cones and glass ornaments.

The Salvation Army had about eight of these  petite sauce boats. I limited myself to just one. At fifty cents each I probably should of got two!

I also just found the silver wire and capiz shell cross while out junking. Capiz shell is so hard to resist...it whispers to me..."take me home". The shell actually comes from the Windowpane Oyster, which is edible, but valued more for their pearls and translucence shells

Picked up several boxes of those glittery snowflakes last year, so they will be popping up here and there in my decorations. I'm liking them on the table with the aged music sheets.

This little Angel is from Germany and I found him several years ago.  I think it's the most sweetest of figurines. 

 Every time I look at him (he stays out all year in my bookcase) with his hand to his heart at the wonder of the child before him, I always have a rush of sweet emotion.

Got this huge candle several years ago while out junking. It had several layers of a cellophane type wrapping, so I didn't know that it was broken in half and it was literally hanging by a wick! So I had to get creative in order to salvage it. The vintage page was the folder for the music sheets and is of a heavy weight paper so I thought that it would work well. I aged it some more and just modge podged it on.

Added a couple of different widths of lace and tied on the big button with aged rayon seam binding. 

 

 Used two sizes of small dishes layered with a doily and set the candle on top and propped up a snowflake. And here's my Fitz and Floyd Christmas Geese shakers from my previous post.

These pears were such a great find. They're ceramic with metal stems and I believe they were rather high end. I found them while out junking...they were offered as a set, you got the six pears and a glass bowl for one price. Of course it took about a half bottle of Goo Gone to get all of the tape residue off of them. They had secured the "set" extremely well!

Just layered a doily under the pears to add pattern and interest. Two of the plates are French Haviland and two are White Mist, Staffordshire England

Since it's mostly just me, when I have a meal, I move things over and pop down a place mat . I can have my table and enjoy it too!

~~~Thank you for popping in

Happy Hunting and Gathering~~~

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An Angel To The Rescue

I sure hope this works!

I have a hawk trying to  get the rest of my chickens. It's already gotten an adult chicken.  Probably was what chased off another and hurt her neck, apparently some nice Texans found her on the county road, they inquired at a couple of neighbors who did beak counts and said it wasn't theirs.  They couldn't just leave her hurt and injured along side the road. I was away on vacation and clueless till my daughter called that one was missing. Thank you for rescuing her, I hope she is doing well in her new home.

Between bobcats, racoons, a fox or two, neighbors dogs, nice Texans and now hawks, I'm down to penning up what's left of my chickens in a wire covered coop 24 hours a day.  

So much for the idea of free range chickens!

Thought I got a pic with all four chicks, I think one is hiding between Broody and Poppy. See the one by the post? LOL ~ They put their heads in that space and think they are hidden from view.

Now this darn hawk is harassing the rest of my poor babies. Like I said, I've been keeping them cooped up in a totally enclosed pen. So that brazen hawk comes down and tries to get at them through the wire. Broody, my only Barred Rock left out of eight, tried to protect "her babies" and somehow injured her leg. She's  just now getting back up on it and rather woobly with it.

I say "her babies" because she went all broody near the end of June and was trying to hatch out the wooden eggs. Tried taking her off the nest, taking the eggs away, but nothing worked. The last failed attempt of taking her off the nest she just went over under the Hazelnut tree, fluffed her feathers, sat down and looked at me with a look that said "fine, don't want me to sit in the coop, then I'll just sit here". So I picked her up and put her back on the wooden eggs in the coop.

Ke sara sara? Not exactly~~~

With very little research on the net, I set off to the grange to obtain, three day old, chicks to put under her.  The girl helping us took me aside (had the G'kiddo's with me) to explain that everything you read on the net isn't necessarily true (good to know). One of three outcomes could happen. 1)not interested in anothers offspring. 2)interested enough to peck them to death. 3)Oh good! the wooden eggs finally hatched...yeah I'm a mama!!!

 

Mama? Yes baby?

And then the strangest thing happened, Poppy, the only remaining hatchling from the six I bought in March (raised in the laundry room bathtub), started acting like a baby chick and wanted to be under Broody also. And even stranger, Broody, who days before would chase her away, now let her sit with her and "her babies".  And Poppy is a wonderful big sis, sharing select morsels with her little sisters!

Sorry about the detour ~ back to the main topic!

Again the net to the rescue! Went online to see what I could find to chase the hawk away. Fake snake...NO! NO! NO!  I don't like snakes, fake or otherwise! Fake owls don't seem to be working either.

Then I found this at Farmhouse38
 

 Isn't this cute! She has really good directions for constructing this gal.

Now this idea had real possibilities. So I got to thinking at what I had on hand to achieve something similar and to hopefully keep the hawk away.

Okay, this has a basic human shape and all I had to do was pry it out of the weeds. It also has a round base that makes it easier to move around. It's only about 3 1/2 to 4 feet high.  So keeping this in mind I went to find something to put on it.

Raided the G'kiddo's old dress up drawer and found a sparkley white, gauzy, floaty dress.  With wings. A blue sparkley, floaty, gauzy, very long vest. A trip through the garage provided a round mirror, wire and cutters.

I dressed my mannequin ~ scarecrow ~ Angel in the sprakely clothes.

 

 Wired the mirror on for a face. Draped the vest over the bow as a head scarf that billows ever so lovely in the breeze.

Voila!

After finding that the wind breeze knocked her over I had to add a brick for weight.

And again ~ Voila!

It's been a few days since I started this post and I'm happy to report that the brazen hawk has not been seen. I  move the Angel every day so monsieur hawk does not get wise to me!

I'm now letting the small brood out for late afternoon hunting and pecking adventures. Supervised of course!!! I have to lock up three cats and Lily and sit with my small brood for a half hour or so, but it's nice to see them out and about. And I'm also happy to report Broody's injured leg is coming along nicely.

Sharing with the following:
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Thanks for popping in~~~

Happy Hunting, Pecking and Gathering!!! 
 

New Guy in the Garden

I'm ever so pleased to introduce you to, My little European Golden Boy !!!

Isn't he head to toe adorable?

I stopped in at Black Cat Antique Mall and this little guy was pretty much by himself in a booth space. I was ohhing and ahhing over him when Q (the owner) said, "do you want him?  I'll need to catch the booth owners they're just leaving with a load and he didn't fit"  After a quick curb side conversation I paid the adoption fee of $45.00, and brought him to live at my house and keep me company.

At 27" inches tall I could tuck him in anywhere, but I chose a place where I can keep an eye on  him ~ whether I'm inside or out.  Placed him on this big cement round that was already in the ground and level. Just had to do a little trimming around his shoulders and head on the bush behind him.

One of his previous "parents" painted him gold ~ I was planning a makeover that required dry brushing him with white paint, but changed my mind. I kind of like how the gold has turned green in the crevices.

 Isn't that the sweetest face ever?

His little hat with that wonderful feather! 

And his faithful puppy ~ sitting by his bare feet!

 Just off my back deck is a path by the pond to the upper level.

See him there in the back above the stairs?  

Years ago I removed part of the brick wall and made this stairway up to the upper level, but it's rather narrow ~ so off to the left is a rusty, but ever vigil, Guardian Angel, that has kept the way safe for lots of little feet for many, many years!

 Now I have somebody else besides the cats and chickens to talk to when I'm having my morning tea.

Welcome to my garden Henri Luc!

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~~~Thank you for popping in~~~

Happy Hunting & Gathering!!!

Got A Few Things Done

Here are a few things that I was able to get done from my last post.  

Before

After

What a difference! The bookends turned out fantastic!

Before

After

 You can hardly tell but the one on the left he's a terra cotta color.  And here he is all chalk painted, touched with gold and waxed. I always enjoy making these little guys over. Sometimes after waxing I add just a bit of real blush powder (with a cotton swab) to add a hint of color to the cheeks.

A few of the picture frame skeletons...remember that blue one?

Before

After

Way better now! Those purple painted spots from the before pic bled thru so I had to scrap off the paint, really easy the chalk paint adhered to the purple and it just sort of popped off when I scraped at it. 

This is the paper in back of the previous frame pic. It's the Time Traveler Collection "Love Affair" Prima Marketing Inc. Just picked up yesterday at Memories of Time, my local, well stocked scrapbooking shop.  It's gorgeous...be great for Valentines Day projects or just any romantic, sentimental project.

Before

I left the inner liner in and just painted. I've ruined a few frames trying to get the sections apart. Never thought to paint the whole thing. Unfortunately the large dark one in the back turned pinkish from stain bleed through...got to fix it.

After

I really liked how beautifully they painted. I also waxed with clear wax, even the fabric colored liner.  Grey frame just got spiffed up with wax. The more ornate one shows some red that was under the gold.

Here's the desk with the broken pull.

Before

 Much better...but was sort of pain to accomplish. Got the pulls off EBAY, somebody else wanted them as badly as me. Crazy spendy!!! But they were the exact maker and style number that I needed.

After

And having said that...they didn't fit!!! 

At first that is. 

The replacement ones were for a flat front and I needed to fit a slightly curved front. They wouldn't lay flat and I disliked that noticeable gap. So I heated them (almost a boil) in a pan of water and VERY GENTLY shaped them with a pair of pliers. Heating sort of helps prevent the metal from snapping into and it also cleaned them very nicely! I used tongs to take them out of the water and an old towel to hold them. I also used a brass brush on them it helps to polish very nicely.

After

After I got the new ones put on I thought the single drawer pull needed "beefing" up a bit. This one is larger and has more gold to match with the others.

The desk is finished on the outside, just need to line the drawers with pretty paper. It's headed to the shop Monday morning!!! 

~~~Have a wonderful weekend~~~

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My Salvaged Treasures

Thanks for popping in!!!

~~~Happy Hunting and Gathering~~~