A Gift of Black and White Bird Plates

 

I received a very sweet package delivery last week. It was a gift from blogging friend, Sue, from Rue Moufettard. She had seen my post on the black and white bird plates in my kitchen hutch and knew that I was on the look-out for more. Well, she went shopping at her local Tuesday Morning store and came up with two more plates for me!

                                                                                                                                                

 

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Tuesday Morning stores must have been selling a variety of patterns of this manufacturer’s china. Our local stores didn’t stock this style of bird plates, but if they had, I would have bought them along with the other two patterns I found.  I just love them and agree with Sue, who felt that they looked a bit like parrots. 

 

 

 

My two bird patterns look like these. The plates that Sue sent to me are such a nice complement to the four that I already had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The hutch was originally dressed like this.  I removed the cow creamer and butter dish, as well as the green turkey plate and moved the Target birdies to a new spot.

 

 

 

 

 

The new patterns were placed on the back wall of the buffet top. I added a wicker demi-john on top of some of the plates for a little texture. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My white tureen took the place of the green turkey plate and white platter in this little cubby.

 

 

And the bird salt and pepper shakers were moved to the top shelf.

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Isn’t it just amazing what the blogging community brings to the table?  I really appreciate Sue’s generosity. She’s just such a giving person and that trait was very much evident in the recent party that she held at her new home for a crowd of neighbors and some fellow bloggers. You can read about it here.  Thanks again, so much, Sue! I love my new plates.  

                                                                                    

 

 

 

A Trip to Tipp With A New Pal

My newest blogging gal pal has turned into a real life pal!  I met Kathy, from Creative Home Expressions, while visiting her blog via a party link, a few weeks back. She had mentioned in a previous post that she had recently moved to Ohio from Long Island.  I, being the nosey one, wrote and welcomed her to the Buckeye State. Long story short…. I determined that she must live fairly close to me and just came out and asked where she lived. It turns out that she is only a short hop, skip, and a jump away from my house! 

I asked her if she’d like to meet in person, and once she determined I wasn’t a stalker or some crazy person, she agreed.  After getting to know each other over breakfast and an excursion to a local resale shop, we both agreed that we had “clicked.”  She asked our server at the local Bob Evans Restaurant to take our picture together, but Kathy wasn’t real satisfied with how she looked in the photo and I thought I just looked like a fool!  Anyway, she nixed using any of the shots of us. We both brought our cameras along on our  most recent outing on Thursday, but guess who took absolutely NO pictures? Yup-  neither one of us!  So everyone will have to wait to see us together at another time. IF we can both agree that we look beautimous together in the same shot!!

Anyway, we took a trip up the highway to Tipp City to shop at a favorite vintage shop up there, Past Perfect. I wanted to show her where I usually find my goodies when I’m not traversing to all those barn sales in central Ohio!  Past Perfect held its holiday open house last Friday and my favorite booth was a bit sold out of merchandise ( I have to tell the truth and say that I helped contribute to that state!), but Kathy was still able to find a few things to buy. She just posted her treasures, so pop over and see her!

 

After she bought her things, we meandered over to an antiques mall that I haven’t frequented for a couple of years. I wasn’t shopping for anything particular- I just wanted to let something catch my fancy.  Lately, I’ve been fascinated with rolling pins. What?  Rolling pins?!  I don’t know what the attraction was, but there was enough of one to convince me to buy five of them!

Now, don’t ask me how I finally got that top pin to balance on top of the others. It took some doing!

 

 

I plopped my purchases into an old crock that I found at a church sale last year. It was one of two that were included in that amazing $50 purchase of my vintage goat cart.  Into the mix, I included an old wooden masher that I found for $3 at the barn sale a few weeks ago.

 

I’m calling it a masher, for lack of anything better to call it. I’m sure that there is some technical term for it, so if any of you can tell me, I’d be happy to have your input.  I recall my grandmother having something like this that she used with one of her conical strainers. She often made choke cherry jelly and she pushed the fruit through the strainer like a sieve with a wooden tool that looked similar to this.

 

I  guess what I loved about these old utilitarian pieces was their worn patina. There are nicks and stains in and on them that could only have come from repeated use in the kitchen. I found all five of them in one booth and they were priced very reasonably. Kathy and I had seen some others in another booth, but I really didn’t want to shell out $14 for them. The one piece pin that is to the left of the green-handled one cost me only $5. The rest of them all have attached handles and were $4.

 

I’m betting that, at one point, this handle was bright green. It has since faded to a lovely and variegated light green color, due to use and cleaning.  And as far as cleaning goes, why do some people soak their wooden tools and cutting blocks in water?

 

The red handle on this pin is still quite bright, which says to me that it didn’t get as much wear.

 

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It was a fun excursion for Kathy and me. We hope to get to Columbus real soon to visit the Heritage Square Antiques Mall, where my blogging buddy, Polly, has a booth. I haven’t seen her things for a while and need to make the trip. And since the White Cottage shop is only about 40 minutes from there, maybe we can hop up to Newark and see if Cyndi has added any more eye candy to it.  It’s going to be a busy shopping season!! 

 

 

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Classic Black and White

 

After a couple of weeks of seeing green and rust in the kitchen hutch, I decided to change the décor last week. I needed a simpler and  cleaner color palette to work with, and in my book, there’s nothing more classic than black and white. So out came my new bird themed dessert plates from Tuesday Morning. I could only find four at the store near me, so I should probably check out another location to see if I can at least find four more.

 

There were two designs and I was lucky enough to find a pair of each.

 

 

 

 

 

I placed each one in front of a white Gibson dinner plate.

 

 

Then I brought out some black bowls to complement the layered plates. Bessie the Bovine still holds her place of honor in the middle of the shelf. 

 

 

Here’s a close-up of her in another setting.

 

 

 

 

For a bit of color, green goblets from the Christmas Tree Shop were added in. They tie together well with the green Bordallo Pinheiro plate on the middle shelf.

 

 

 

The turkey plate was layered over a small tin platter embellished with little roses. I have a similar plate that I use in the spring- it has a bunny rabbit on it.

 

 

 

The Target birds are came out to play once again. They are such a versatile pair of fine feathered friends!

 

 

The buffet top holds my newest white addition- I finally found a cow creamer! It’s not vintage- in fact, it was a $1.99 find at the CTS. I’ve been looking for one for months- who knew I would run into one when I was least expecting to? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This cream bottle came from a booth at the Rural Society show a few weeks ago.  Another bargain at only $2.00!

 

 

It’s placed off to the side of the crazed soup tureen and the small ceramic hand.

 

 

More treasures from the Rural Society show came from my friend, Pam’s booth. I love the simplicity of these old faucet handles. 

 

Here’s the simpler, less cluttered looking hutch now.

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I have to admit  that I am chomping at the bit to start decorating for Christmas, already!  The bug bit me last weekend when I was shopping at the White Cottage in Newark. You can see that post here.  Every year I say that I’m going to start earlier so that I can really enjoy the fruits of my labor and not rush around so much. So often, by the time I get out all of the decorations and put up all seven trees, I can only savor it for a week or two.  This really IS the year for starting early!!!

 

 

Please visit the following parties to see some great inspiration!

                       

White Cottage Wonderland…

 

We went on another Friday outing last week and enjoyed a fun day of looking at vintage items. The adventure began in Granville, Ohio where we had hoped to find lots of industrial and other goodies at a barn sale. Unfortunately, the sale was not what it was last year. I came away with only a few finds that I’ll show in a later post.  The goodies had already been well picked over by 8:45, when we arrived. And the sale was to have opened at 8:30…. Something tells me that some early, early birds and the HGTV representative shopping in the barn found their way around really, really early! There were numerous piles of “sold” furniture and goodies outside the entrance to the barn when we arrived. Oh well….

As we continued to roam through the barn making sure that we hadn’t missed anything, the husband and I met up with Debby, my fun blogging friend from Newark. We shopped for a while longer before being led along the back roads of the area, only to arrive at a small mom and pop restaurant where we had a yummy and inexpensive breakfast. Then it was off to shop at the White Cottage, a small yet wonderful shop in downtown Newark, Ohio. I was in heaven with all of the shop’s holiday pretties and goodness!!!  Debby, why haven’t you led me there before?!

 

This was the entrance window into the shop. Now that I see this photo I’m asking myself why I didn’t think to ask how much that teacart was.  Well, to be honest,  I didn’t even anything in the window until we were leaving. And since the husband was anxious to be on our way back to Dayton, I didn’t go back inside the store.  Next time, he may just have to wait for me!  Like he doesn’t already….   

 

 

It was a sea of white in here! I had forgotten to put the memory disc into my new camera so I had to borrow the husband’s Blackberry. Because of the lighting, I should have used a flash for some of these shots- but I do not know how to fool with his phone. I am technology impaired when it comes to those things… I use the simplest of phones to call people and I don’t text often. Too much trouble on a keyboard that isn’t QWARTY.  So, despite the fuzzy pictures, I hope you enjoy seeing this shop.

Look at all of these pretty white things! The owner of the shop is Cyndi Neal and she is assisted by merchandiser, Janet Clayton. It was a wonderland of white and bling, let me tell you.  Prices are very reasonable and affordable and I could have bought waaaay more than I did if  I had been on my own and under no deadline to get back home. That SUV would have been full!

 

The table in the picture above was topped with silver, faux mercury glass, and cloches. Love those pedestals and the white feather trees.

 

 

Check out the paper underneath it all- I bet someone could recreate the same look with some large stamps of Frenchy scroll….

 

 

I bought some of these faux mercury glass ornaments. Don’t these look yummy in the old rusty urn filled with trim?

 

 

There were cloches for sale throughout the store and they were NOT  expensive. I believe that the highest price I saw for their largest one was well under $40. This pearly encircled bottle brush tree just shone under glass!

 

 

I sure wish I had some old shiny costume jewelry to decorate a plain Styrofoam cone. This one is simply delicious! And look at those white ornies on the silver tray on the right. Wow!

 

 

Yup, that is yours truly reflected in the mirror. Had to put on my specs to see the husband’s phone. It sure is heck to have to use reading glasses- what has happened to my body? Going somewhere in a hand basket real darn fast, that’s what!

 

 

Oh my word, how amazing these white pinecone candles smelled! I had the scent on my hands the entire drive home. Luscious….

 

 

Wouldn’t these skates look pretty in a winter vignette?

 

 

And this wicker sleigh could be the basis of a wonderful display, as well.

 

 

A simple arrangement of old trims on a silver pedestal makes such a nice statement.  I think I need to hit some thrift stores to see if I can find some.

 

 

Have any old keys laying around that you can tie to a string of jute? They would make a great little banner to hang on a cupboard, such as this!

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Hope you enjoyed my little tour from Newark and the White Cottage! I am so glad that Debby took me to this little shop. I would go back in a heartbeat, but a two hour trip just isn’t in the works any time soon.  Sure wish southwest Ohio had places like this for me to shop.  I might have to venture down Cincinnati way looking for some. Wonder if my Cincy blogging friend, Pam, knows of any? Guess I need to shoot her an e-mail- it would be a lot closer, since I’m only 30 minutes from the most northern suburb of Cincinnati.  I’m off to get some “real” work done. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow and the yard needs to have the leaves blown into the street again… And then there are all those leaves in the stream that need to be cleaned out…  And the tent from our weekend party that needs to be put into the garage….  

 

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