Hey! You! Bird!

Yeah, you!

Your hair is funny lookin'!

No adolescent grackles were harmed during the taking of photographs for this blog post. They don't know how funny looking they are.

Excellent Advice

Subject of an email in my spam folder:

"Use mind to improve your fang"

Who knew it was so simple? Look out for my improved fang.

The Christie Classic Antique Show, May 2009

On Saturday we went to the Christie Classic Antique Show. Held twice a year in a beautiful conservation area, it's one of Canada's largest outdoor antique shows. we have been going for many, many years. We have attended on bitterly cold days, when the vendors huddle under antique quilts if they have them, and on days so hot that anything you pick up to look at sizzles in your hand! We take a potluck picnic lunch and make a day of it. It's always interesting and always fun. This year we had really nice weather, not too hot, not too cold. The attendance seemed to be very good and people were buying! There are approximately 300 dealers, spread over 10 acres...and there must be at least 1,000 tables crammed full of goodies just like this:

One of my favorite booths, these dealers always have beautiful items, particularly lots of fascinating smalls.

A wonderful Victorian cushion top in pristine condition:

Their showcases are always full of the most wonderful things!

One of the show highlights for me was this booth crammed full of vintage textiles!

It belonged to two sisters. Barb Griffin can be found Saturdays and Sundays at the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. Bev Munkley sells at Lakeshore Antiques in Niagara on the Lake. They have spectacular taste (meaning they like the same things as I do!)

A mountain of chenilles:

An adorable 1920's print:

Best chenille bathrobe EVER!!!

A pristine quilt with sweet 40's fabrics:

Piles of flawless unused vintage fabric:

It was very difficult to be in this booth while on such a strict budget!

Monika Mclaughlin Antique Jewelry allowed me to photograph this exquisite Victorian micro-mosaic brooch. True micro-mosaic, you an barely even see the individual bits of glass:

An enchanting romantic Pairpoint lamp, I can just imagine this as a starting point to decorate a room for a young girl. A RICH young girl.

Magenta Silk, ruched ribbon and beaded fringe, oh my! A great 1920's standing lamp.

A grand Mason's pink transferware set. Love the unusually shaped tureens. Seriously, this was a steal at $650.00.

Mom and I thought this would make a nice jewelry box/bead cabinet. It was only about 6 feet tall.

Something available to enhance any decor:

Opalescent glass AND cherries!

I fell head over heels in love with this 1940's patriotic black cat. Note that one eye is a lightbulb, functional courtesy of a battery concealed in his tummy. Why? I have no idea. I really wanted him but I resisted his allure.

For the elegant picnicker, an English picnic set c.1930, complete with pansy chintz china. Sigh...

An unusual pair of Victorian miniature banner screens:

A charming booth, I later saw a woman carrying the aqua ladder:Many dealers go to a great deal of trouble to make their booths look beautiful:

A tempting table of lace and frills:

Victorian baby shoes, doll stockings and doll portmanteau:

Delightful 1920's graphics:

Another beautifully arranged booth:

Stop and have tea with Teddy!

It was a wonderful show and a really pleasant day. I can't wait until fall to do it all again!

Er's Heavenly Wisteria

Visit to the Past

I was able to visit the past on the weekend, courtesy of General Mayhem's' Medieval Village. He built it as a class assignment (with some help from his Dad!). What a great job they did! There is a church, a manor house, a peasants house, a windmill, which works, and a well which also works. There's a bake oven, a bakery, a tailors shop and and enclosure for cows. If you notice that the cows are "resting" it's because of a serious jostling with an anachronistic basketball. These things happen!

MOO Review

My Moo mini cards arrived today and I am VERY pleased with the quality. The color printing is rich and beautiful and the colors are accurate. The finish of the cards is ever so slightly matte and the paper is thick and sturdy.
I'm glad I added the $5.00 case to the order, the cards wouldn't fit so nicely in my regular card case.

It was so fun to pick and choose my images!

I'm very impressed with the high quality, reasonable price for a novelty item, and the fast service! I highly recommend them.

My sticker books are on their way from the UK, I'll post about them when I receive them.

Bird Set Free

A mixed media pendant:
Copper, brass, fine silver, sterling silver.

Text from a Victorian song book, tinted with watercolour, waxed, covered with mica.

Freshwater pearls, drilled seaglass from our beach, one of my lampwork glass egg beads.

Ring, Gardening, Squirrels

I was given this great piece of glass a few years ago by one of the instructors in the hot glass shop at Red Deer College in Alberta. The class were making some kind of complex hot roll-ups with the ends pinched off, and this was one of the ends, slumped in the kiln. I've always thought it was just the coolest piece of glass. In the last few years any smallish object that I see goes through the mental "How can I make this into a piece of jewelry??" filter, so I drilled a hole in this, and made the ring base with PMC3 (you can see the base a few posts below when it came out of the kiln). The rivet was fired into the thick PMC disc so it's extra secure. I like it! It has a wonderful contrast of texture and the darker stripes of the glass are transparent. It's fun to look at and to wear!

It has begun to feel like a proper spring finally, and we "gardened" all day yesterday. I put that in quotation marks because most of of our gardening is in big flowerpots on our deck. The yard is huge and mostly meadow, and full of bunnies and butterflies and the thought of cutting it back to make flowerbeds is overwhelming. Pots on the deck is just right.

We planted Chalon Watercolor pansies, sweet peas, heliotrope, mignonette, stocks, nicotiana and nemesia for fragrance, cosmos, petunias, nasturtiums and marigolds for color, and thyme, oregano, basil, mint, dill, Italian parsley and catnip for flavour! (Kitty says Mmmm, catnip!!) Our chives and rosemary overwintered (the rosemary indoors). This weekend I'll plant the morning glories, Shirley poppies and four-o-clock seeds.

It looks so pretty out there now, with the dragonfly twinkle lights on. Unfortunately I can only get one string to work, I spent far too long switching out bulbs on the others before giving up in exasperation. Not a job for the end of a hot grubby day.

So had a couple of visitors yesterday morning and I was so happy that they dropped in again in the afternoon and I got to see them. Obviously siblings, they were very playful and cuddly together. In fact the black one crawled on top of the grey one to take a little nappie in the hot sun. Their back legs are really long so they have the funniest walk and they are still just a bit uncoordinated in an endearing baby way. They were insanely cute, and completely unafraid of us. I know that unafraid baby squirrel=lunch for a predator, so hopefully they get some street smarts soon. But in the meantime, holy cuteness, Batman! "I am no bigger than a bluebell!!"
Come here so I can put you in my pocket and feed you tiny peanuts and keep you!!