Soon To Be Shining Silver and more…

 

 I’m joining this week’s “Show and Tell Friday” blog party at Cindy’s My Romantic Home. Stop over for a visit so you can see the everyone’s interesting items and treasures and read their stories.

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I am an avid thrifter and am always on the look-out for pretty and interesting things at yard/garage sales, not to mention a good bargain.

So when I went to an estate sale last week, I was surprised that I was the only one making a dash for the silver table. I’ve been looking for a silver tray for some time now, so when I saw this beauty, I grabbed it up immediately. I could only wonder who its owner was and how she used this piece. Did she use it during the holidays to serve her Easter ham or the Thanksgiving turkey? One can only speculate….

I have plans to serve my own Christmas dinner on it this year. I know it will look beautiful on my holiday table.

 

This tray is pretty big! Not including the handles, it measures 15.5 “ x 21”.  It’s heavy, too. I placed it on the bathroom scale and it weighed out at 12.5 pounds! But at a cost of less than 80 cents a pound, I think it was certainly worth it lugging it around for an hour while I shopped for more treasures.

 

 

There is a lot of tarnish on the tray and I know that I’ll have to use some elbow grease and an old toothbrush to get into the grooves of all these decorative features. But until I find the Hagerty brand of silver cleaner locally, the tray will remain unpolished.

I just don’t have good luck with the brands of silver cleaner that are readily available in the grocery and discount stores. And unlike some people, I certainly don’t find silver cleaning to be therapeutic therapy! I just want to get it over as soon as possible.

 

Some of you may recall seeing this favorite of mine. It’s an unusually shaped soup tureen that I found for a mere $4.99 at a local thrift store. It’s a perfect complement to all of the white dinnerware and accessory Pieces that I started collecting last year. I usually keep it on my black hutch in the kitchen, but my autumn decor is occupying that space now. For the time being, its new home will be on the the dining room server. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found this $8.99 stool at my favorite vintage/consignment store. It reminds me of the southwest mission style that I grew up with in New Mexico. I love that it has its original leather upholstery and nail heads. I think it is a nice complement to the leather chair in the great room.

 

I use the stool for extra seating when I need it, but this fall it is holding a basket that I painted and filled with bright green hedge apples. I recently discovered that some bloggers call them “Monkey Balls.” What do YOU call them?

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I want to thank Cindy for hosting this party. It’s always fun to have a place to show off our treasures.  Make sure to visit!

 

Take Me Home…

 

It’s Outdoor Wednesday at Susan’s,  A Southern Dreamer, and I’d like to show you some of the scenery that we saw on our way home from the High Point, NC furniture market last week. 

I always enjoy driving through the rolling hills and mountains of Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia during the fall. The air is so crisp and clean, and the trees show off some of their best and vibrant colors.  Mother Nature is truly wondrous in her creations.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did Someone Say Open Bar?

 

I know there were a few of you who were not taking to some of the contemporary/modern accessories and  pieces of furniture that I showed you from last week’s furniture market. But I wanted to show you a couple more things that I thought were pretty nifty.

 

At first glance I really loved this woven leather wine bar. In fact, I really thought about ordering it for myself, until I realized that what I really needed was a piece of furniture that had a place where I could mix drinks and display my crystal wine carafes.

 

It had a reasonable amount of storage space for glassware and wine.  But it didn’t quite fit all of my needs.

 

But this cabinet has the storage space that I need AND a flat surface to mix a drink and set out my liquor carafes.  I’d definitely top it with a piece of  heavy glass to protect the leather top.  I’m just not sure it’s quite wide enough for the niche I’m thinking I would place it.  Hmmmm, I may have to think about this one…  I DID order a cool silvered chest  for the store that might work…

What are your thoughts on these two pieces of furniture? Would they fit your style? I think that they are transitional pieces, but are they too contemporary for your own decor? Too impractical for you?  Tell me what you think about something like this for your own home.  I promise to post some more traditional things next time! 

Boo to You, Too!!

 

 

I’ve been Boo-ed!!!

 

A scary witch and a spooky bat have taken up residence in one of my trees, and they were apparently sent over by Kathy, @Sylvia’s Vintage Daughter.

Seems that the “spook”  has “Boo-ed” me and I have to pass his greeting along. There’s a little Halloween game of tag going around in Blog-land that was started by Toni @ The Tattered Cottage. When you get “Boo-ed,” you pass along your greetings to four friends, then link up with Toni on her blog.  Here’s the poem she sent off to her friends….

The air is cool, the season is fall,

Soon Halloween will come to all.

Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore...

Tricky witches at your door.

The spooks are after things to do,

In fact, a spook brought this "BOO" to you.

The excitement comes when friends like you,

Copy this note and make it two.

We'll all have smiles on our faces,

When we see who Boo-ed whose places.

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I’m sending my Big Bad Boo off to:

Suzie Q @ Rabbit Run Cottage

Sue is a sweetheart of a friend and I’m so glad we are real life pals, as well as blogging friends. Oh, and since it’s her birthday today, why not visit and send her some birthday wishes without the Boo’s! (I wonder, though, if she might like booze…) Oh my, I am bad!

Jo @ Jo’s 2nd Act

A talented jewelry maker, Jo just happens to live in a small town very close to where I live. We haven’t met in person yet, but we will in a few weeks when some of the Buckeye Bloggers get together in Nov.  We have many things in common with each other. Heck, she even shops in some of the same thrift shops I do!  Stop by to see all the pretty things she has made and sign up for her give-away.

Lori @ Family Trees May Contain Nuts 

Lori has a great sense of humor and always makes me laugh, both in her posts and in her e-mails to me. I think if we ever got together and met in person, we would run amok  and create  a lot of havoc among the “sane” people!  Nah, Lori’s not really “nuts,”  she just likes to have fun, like I do. Make sure you wish Lori a Happy Birthday today, also!

Dawn @ A Cottage State of Mind

Dawn lives very close to the town in CA  where my son worked and lived up until this summer. She has graciously offered to meet me for lunch when I fly in to pack up all of his things in storage and have them shipped home to OH.  I always enjoy “talking” to Dawn and seeing all those lovely things she has in that humongous attic in her house. I can’t wait to meet this sweet girl- hope it’s soon.

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Please keep the fun going by following these instructions.

1.  You have 24 hours to work your spell.

2.  Copy and post the Halloween Boo Poem with the instructions for playing.

3.  Pick 4 blogs you enjoying visiting and tell why you enjoy visiting them. Add a link to their blog.

4.  Go to the original BOO Party post at The Tattered Cottage and hook up to Mr. MckLinky. Make sure the link is to your current post and not your general blog address.

Let's see how fast and far this spreads between now and Halloween.

HAVE FUN AND BOO TO YOU!

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More Miscellaneous Market…

 

I wanted to show you some more of the furniture and accessories that we found at the High Point Market last week. I loved the clean, bright looks of so much of these pieces.. Again, for so many, color was still the name of the game.

 

I was trying to get a shot of the inlay on the top of this table, when I noticed the bright green rug underneath it. This color coordinates so well with the bright oranges that you may have seen in my last market post. The green is tempered by the neutral, taupe. Gray is the new neutral, by the way!

 

Here is the same color combination of green and taupe, except that this green is more muted and “dirty.” A secondary gray was also added into the mix. The taupe sofa is sporting a contrasting green welt to tie the two pieces together.

 

 

This dark taupe chair has a little “hood” that looks a bit like a throne. Can you see how well this color coordinates with the orange in the rug and the blues in the curtains?  We did not buy this chair, by the way…

 

 

And speaking of thrones….. What do you think of this chair?  Don’t think it would quite fit in with MY decor.  Would it work for you?  Definitely a custom order piece…

 

Geometric designs were prevalent in many lamps. I loved this one. 

 

 

 

This lamp combined a traditional shade with a more contemporary base.

 

 

I saw a lot of glass bases with colorful shades. Note the color of the shade.

 

 

 

 

This is a retro-design lamp  that is reminiscent of the early 70’s.  I had lamps almost identical to this when we first got married.

 

 

I think this lamp would work well in a room with beach or cottage decor.

 

 

 

I snapped this picture as we walked past a showroom window.It’s a resin antler wreath that would work with a variety of decor styles.

 

 

 

This cupboard unit reminded me of Susan, from Between Naps on the Porch. She recently acquired two pieces similar to this that she wants to use in her her living room.

 

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Well, you’ve had another small taste of the many items that we saw in the vendor showrooms last week. In case you missed that post, you can see it here.  You can’t possibly buy every line of furniture and accessories that you see, but I think we picked up a few new lines that will be good sellers in the store. I’ll feature some of those case good items in my next post.

I apologize for the blurriness of some of these photos. It was difficult to dodge people in the crowd and take the time to set up the camera. I just pointed and clicked!  

Fallin' Into the Season~ re-post for Julia's Hooked on Houses Fall Tour

Many of you who are my regular readers saw this post last month for Rhoda's fall party, but I thought it would also be appropriate to link to Julia's Hooked on Houses Fall HomeTour Party today. I've removed all of the previous comments to make it easier for any new readers.
I know we can all use a little inspiration from each other, so won’t you please click on Julia's button or name to be taken to her party. I’m sure we’ll see many inspiring and gorgeous fall decorating ideas!


Autumn is truly my favorite time of the year in Ohio. We have blue skies; the sun shines warm on your face, and there is a crispness to the air. In short, it is the time of year that feels most like home, back in New Mexico.

I love to decorate for fall with the warm colors of the earth~ muddy browns, bright reds, rusty oranges, mossy greens, and sunny yellows. My front door basket is filled with these colors, as is the metal cloche on the table.

This cloche is decorated with two different styles of dragonflies and it has a base of oak leaves. I created a ball of leaves by taking a large Styrofoam ball and layering it with fabric leaves. Then I “planted” it in a clay pot in the middle of the cloche base. It kind of looks like a head of lettuce or cabbage! I surrounded it with dried pomegranates, miniature gourds, artichokes, and oranges. The dragonfly on the side of the table is a garden ornament.

I placed an old bench in the small garden area outside the dining room and created a simple vignette with pumpkins and a watering can filled with mums.

Three potted mums accent an old section of iron fencing, while pansies and flowering kale add contrast to these mums.

In the front hallway, a vase of feathery ornamental grasses cut from a neighbor’s yard gives some height to a chest placed up against the stairway banisters.

I’ve filled a silver bowl with buckeyes, which are the state nut of Ohio, and I’ve placed a carved, wooden acorn on top of a corrugated silver box.

I wanted to dress up the leaner mirror in the great room, so I fashioned a bundled twig arrangement and added wheat stalks, grass, and some faux gourds. You can see the burlap skirted table and my Halloween cloche in the mirror’s reflection.

Some of you may have seen the following cloches that I showed for Marty’s party, but since they are part of my fall decorating, here they are again…

This is my whimsical Halloween cloche, complete with four candy corn candles, candy corn, and fruit flavored Dots candy. I kept nibbling on the yummy Dots as I put this cloche together. The candy corn that I used to fill the little clay pots, however, was completely inedible. I found it in the pantry, left over from last year’s Halloween candy stash!

Simple gourds, berries, and leaves.

Sunflowers always say “Fall” to me.

Leaves, acorns, dried oranges, and faux pumpkins surround candles on a tarnished silver tray.

Acorn salt and pepper shakers on a fall-inspired tea towel.

Variegated maple leaf candles in a shallow tray filled with dried leaves.

Coffee scented candle surrounded by mini pinecones and pods picked from my side yard.

I’ve placed these amber colored votives in a wooden bowl filled with putka pods, what most people call mini-pumpkins. Scrabble tiles spell out what I think is the best season of the year.

This basket of ceramic pumpkins. miniature oranges, and fabric leaves graces my cocktail table in the great room.

I have been looking for a cornucopia for the longest time. When I spotted this at an estate sale several weeks ago, I grabbed it! It came home with me after I paid a dollar for it. I filled it with glass grapes, miniature pumpkins, and gourds and placed it on the kitchen table. The three wooden spools are perfect pumpkin holders.

A sparkly black crow is tied onto the mini pumpkin to dress it up.

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In this arrangement in the dining room, a green pumpkin soup tureen is the star of the centerpiece. I elevated it on a cake plate and placed it on a charger made out of fabric grape leaves. Then I intertwined the ceramic pumpkins with faux aspen leaves and copper metal leaves.

Lentils, rice, beans, and split peas are layered in the tall apothecary jar, while pinecones, mini gourds and pumpkins fill the others.

I wanted to try another table version, so I used a crystal bowl and two fabric leaf balls to give it a different look. While the crystal brings a touch of elegance, traditional autumn decor gives a homey feel to the table.

Mr. Sullivan gave me this contemporary Waterford bowl about eight years ago. It is chunky and extremely heavy and is so completely different from the traditional patterns that the company is known for.

I created this leaf ball in the same way as the one that is in the metal cloche and I set it on top of an estate sale brass candlestick sprayed with an oil rubbed bronze finish.

I think you can see the bronze finish of the candlesticks in this picture. I started to paint them black, but I really like this so much better.

Prisms dangle off the bobeche on this crystal candlestick.

Same table, but with the corn removed. I think it looks less cluttered.

This display holds three typesetting blocks of fall decor. Before the advent of computers, print shops used these type-blocks to set copy for books and newspapers.

Can you see the details in the leaves, the acorns, and the bundle of wheat?

I have a contemporary media room where touches of silver accent the beige and espresso brown furnishings, so I thought it would be fitting to paint some gourds silver, black, and cream. I created a mottled finish by spraying while a fan was blowing on the gourds.

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Well, I think the interior of the house is almost ready for fall! I hope you’ve enjoyed taking a brief glimpse into how I decorate our home for what we think is the most comfortable season of the year.