Prairie Sisters Perfection

The Prairie Sisters Show at Metra was a huge success.  Those girls really know what they are doing down to the last detail. 

Colorful pennants, flowers, and hand made signs greeted shoppers at the door, and smiling cashiers handed out baskets containing treats.  Booths were colorful and stocked with shabby chic and repurposed items, along with antiques and upscale "junk".  The temptations were numerous and reasonably priced.  Needless to say, we left with our arms full.

"Junk Hunks" were available to assist with loading of large pieces.  A ticket system was in place to mark items sold and ready to move.

 According to our vendors who participated in the show, many booths sold out to the bare walls, so when the Sisters return later this year for a second show, I'd recommend getting there early--and don't hesitate if you want something because it will likely disappear before you can return for it.  The only complaint I heard at all was how crowded the show was and how difficult it was to see anything in the booths.  From what I've been told, the Sisters are considering expanding into the next room to create more space to alleviate this issue.

Great job, Prairie Sisters--you are a welcome addition to Billings' antique offerings.  We are looking forward to seeing you again in a few months.  (Shows are scheduled in western Montana later this year.  Go to the  Sisters' website for more information:  www.theprairiesisters.com  )

Baskets

Baskets are great tools for display in the home and for adding a touch of warmth to any setting.  They are one of man’s oldest inventions, dating back thousands of years.  Baskets were used by Sumerians to bury their dead, and traces of baskets have been found in Egyptian pyramids.  The Bible mentions baskets several places.  Early baskets were made for practical purposes, but it’s interesting to note that even in early times, basket weavers were creative in the weaves they invented.  As trading and travel became prominent, different weaves made their way across the world, resulting in a number of beautiful patterns that we use today.

            Baskets are made of a variety of materials, including grasses, fibers, pine needles, cloth, and even newsprint.  Some of the methods today include coiling, splint weaving using flat materials like reeds, canes, or vines, and round fibered weaving.

            You can use baskets for decoration or for practical purposes in your home.  Layer a variety of baskets above your kitchen cabinets.  Use them to hold magazines, newspapers, or kindling in the living room.  Nail a flat basket with its back against a wall in the bathroom and add rolled towels or toilet paper. 

A basket with toiletry items in a guest bedroom will make company feel welcome and at home.

You can also nail a basket to any wall to act as a frame for other objects or use baskets on a desk to hold paper, cards, or objects like seashells or rocks you’ve picked up during your adventures. 

 Baskets in cupboards in the kitchen or laundry room make it easier to keep small objects together and organized.  Add baskets under the bed for extra sweaters or linens storage.

You can even use baskets in your garden shed to hold seeds, sprinkler heads, or flowers and herbs that you’ve gathered.  One of my favorite uses for baskets is to combine several small gifts for a friend in a festive setting.  They make a colorful, fun present for any occasion.

            Baskets can be found at most thrift and antique shops for nominal prices.  Try adding some to your décor this spring!

Sources:  Linda Herbert, "Basket Beginnings" and Helen Polaski, "Short History of Baskets and Basket Making"

Collecting Flower Frogs

    

     Florists use floral foam today when arranging bouquets. Before foam was invented, however, flower frogs were used to achieve beautiful, airy arrangements. Flower frogs are made of metal, glass, or ceramics and actually date back to the Persians in the 13th century when side spouts were made on vases.  

  “Glass-disk frogs are flat on the bottom with a recession on the rim and were designed to sit on top of a matched vessel. Footed, domed frogs were meant to be set at the bottom of a vessel. Metal frogs were designed to sit at the bottom of a vessel and were not meant to be seen.”   

     Originally called flower holders or arrangers, flower frogs were first used in the United States in the early 1800’s. The devices peaked in popularity in the 1920’s and 1930’s, at which time over 20 companies manufactured a variety of styles. After the Depression and World War II, the making of flower frogs rapidly declined and ceased altogether after the invention of florist’s foam in 1954.

Flower frogs are still functional, of course, but today collectors have come to appreciate them as ornaments, and they are highly collectible.

     Before 1870, flower frogs were so common that many manufacturers didn’t mark them. Most glass flower arrangers were part of a set including a bowl or vase, and the markings were more likely found on the larger piece instead of the frog insert. Higher end manufacturers including Heisy Glass, Cambridge Glass, and Davidson Glass did mark some of their flower frogs, but not all of them. Marks increase the value of the frog, but even unmarked frogs, especially rarer colors or styles have notable value.

     You can display flower frogs in cabinets, arranged on a wall or table, or in the garden.  Glass frogs make great pen holders, and you can use metal frogs to display pictures, recipes, or business cards.  If you love gardening, consider using flower frogs to add color and interest to your outdoor collections.

Source: Yoest, Helen. “Flower Frogs”. Country Living, 2012

Something Old, Something New

         I recently helped a bride-to-be and her mother select antiques to enhance their vintage wedding plans.  They left with a car full of quirky pieces that the bride planned to incorporate into her home after the wedding.  Their visit made me start imagining a vintage wedding setting that would be easy to design.  Here are some ideas that you can use if you want to incorporate “something old” into your wedding.

·         Create letterpress invitations to set the tone.

·         Layer your table settings.  Start with a plain cream cloth, followed by large pieces of burlap that can be ruched at the corners and top with a lacy antique tablecloth or doilies that have been stitched together.  Use mismatched white chairs or rustic benches for seating.

·         For your centerpieces, create height with crates turned upside down.  Place milk bottles in chicken wire baskets to hold garden bouquets.  Sprinkle homemade confetti across the cloth.  You can make confetti by cutting small hearts out of old sheet music or books that have fallen apart.  The crates and confetti may also be used on the table for the cake display.  An old store tabletop scale is a great accent for holding homemade mints or other treats.  Seating assignments could be made from tea stained tags.

·         Wrap your bride’s maids’ gifts in burlap tied with jute.  Attach a piece of costume jewelry on the middle of the bow.  You can also add costume jewelry to bouquets and corsages.

·         Wrap a wire with rusty patina around the top of Ball jars, creating a handle.  Add sand or pebbles in the bottom and a small candle.  Hang at various heights from tree branches and light at twilight.

·         Hang long lace curtains from a pergola or from a wire strung between trees to create a wall if needed.  Place a shabby chic white buffet or harvest table in front of the curtains if desired for the ceremony. 

·         Old doors can be used for a variety of displays.  Attach hardware at the bottom of the doors to make them free standing.  Tape family pictures all over one door to show the bride and groom growing up.  Paint blackboard paint on another door and use chalk to write out table assignments.  Attach a light fixture at the top of a door and a shelf mid-way to hold the guest book and pen.  Three or four old doors hinged together could form a backdrop for the ceremony instead of curtains.  Doors placed on saw horses become display tables.

·         Hang vintage quilts over fences for color.  (Protect with a sheet underneath.)  An antique pickup with quilts in the back could also be parked off to the side to hold gifts.  Think of the photo opportunities here!

·         Make wedding signs using barn wood and white paint to direct your guests to the site.

·         Set up nostalgic lawn games for guests including croquet, bocce, or washer toss.

·          Place a vintage suitcase on a table, opened, with the letters C,A, R, D, S cut out and attached to a ribbon strung across the inside of the lid.  You could spray paint the outside of the suitcase a solid color if needed.

·         Set washtubs or copper boilers full of flowers, branches, or greens around the site.

 There are lots of ways to create a vintage look for your special day.  You’re on your own for the “new, borrowed, and blue parts, however!

Ten Ways to Use Old Windows

     We are a throwaway society.  If an object is broken or worn, it goes in the trash without thought.  There is a movement, however, back toward the mindset of the Great Depression when people reused items over and over again.  One of my favorite old objects to repurpose is a window, regardless of pane condition.  Most of us have a stack of old windows leaning against a wall in a shed or garage. 

Here are ten ideas to give them new life:

1.      Adhere photos behind the panes and use the window as an unusual collage frame.  These look great on the wall or on an easel for a wedding or graduation display.  If the pictures are too small to fill the pane, back with decorative scrapbook paper to add color and style.

2.      Hang the window from a beam or ceiling to divide a space.

3.      Build a box along the bottom of the window, hang from an outside wall or fence, and add plants.  I recommend placing a plastic liner inside the box to prevent rot.

4.      If one pane is broken, add a branch, greens, flowers, and other enhancements such as seed pods or a nest to create a floral display.  Hang on a wall.

5.      Build an end table, using the window as the table top.  You could build a shadow box-style table top by adding a wood bottom to the table top.  Place hinges and a handle on the window resting on top, and you can open it to place different items on display inside the table.

6.      Use the window as a cabinet door by adding a handle and hinges.  If you have several matching windows, you can create an entire kitchen island or several cabinets in a laundry room, kitchen, or bathroom.

7.      Paint the panes with chalkboard paint.  Add a box to the bottom of the window for the chalk. 

      Broken panes?  Add cork board and create a message board.

8.      Like to garden?  Use the window as the top of a cold frame for early spring starts.  Cold frame sides may be made from wood or hay bales.  Add a handle to the window for easy access.

9.      Build a potting table and use the window as the back above the work surface.  Add hooks to the tops or sides of the windows for tools.  Add a box across the bottom for seed packets.

10.  No glass left at all?  Add chicken wire to the back of the window, hang it from the wall, add tiny clothes pins and use the window as a jewelry display.  It’s great for keeping necklaces untangled and earrings paired together.

Be sure to wear gloves when working on your windows to avoid injury from splinters or broken glass.  Be cautious of old paint as well, in case it is lead-based.  Once you start looking at objects in a new light, you will find yourself repurposing all kinds of things.  It may be windows today, hubcaps tomorrow!

 

A Vintage Green Thumb

     Spring is just around the corner, and if you are like me, you have started to receive seed catalogs in the mail.  It’s time to dream about sunshine, soil, and flowers!  One of my favorite gardening traditions is finding interesting vintage pieces to repurpose as planters on our patio, in my gardens, and as window boxes.   Flowers can be a perfect accent if showcased in an unusual setting.  Here are some ideas that might liven up your garden spots:

·         You can literally create a “bed” of flowers by burying an old headboard and footboard in the garden and planting several bright flowers as the “quilt”.  A lacy iron headboard is perfect.

·         Attach wire baskets to the front handlebars and behind the seat of a vintage bicycle.  Line with basket liners from a garden center and fill with flowers and draping greenery.  For a colorful statement, spray paint the entire bike, including tires, a bright color.

·         Take the seat out of an old chair and balance a pot of flowers in the hole.  The chair can sit anywhere you need an interesting accent.  The chair will look great with chippy old paint or with a fresh coat of bright color.  You can also hang chairs/pots on fences or walls to add flower power.

·         Use a dented, aged washtub, copper boiler, or bathtub as a planter.

·         Does your old canoe or boat have holes in it?  Place it in a border, fill with dirt, and then add a flower garden!

·         For an interesting potting “shelf”, paint old dresser or kitchen drawers, then hang on a wall or fence with the handle pointing upward and the back of the drawer against the wall.  Set pots of herbs or flowers inside.  Use several at varying heights to create a vignette.

·         Find three old garden implements with long wooden handles approximately the same height.  Arrange them in a tipi shape in the garden with the handles pointing upward.  Tie the handles with twine and anchor the iron parts with tent or awning pegs to keep it from blowing over.  You now have a bean or sweet pea tower.

·         Make a trellis out of an antique screen door.  Again, a fresh coat of paint will brighten up an old piece and make your plants pop against an outdoor wall.

·         Nail several brightly colored children’s rubber boots on a fence and fill with soil and flowers.

·         Upend an old wheelbarrow in the garden with the handles pointing upward and mound soil in and around it to make it look like the soil is spilling out.  Plant flowers in the mound.

·         Attach a window box to the bottom of an old garden gate and hang on a wall for a fun flower display.  Add salvaged items to the front of the box like old faucets, door handles, or keys to give it visual interest.

        This year I’m adding an antique Emerson seed sorter with metal gears to my patio.  Nasturtiums and vines draping over the weathered red sides will look great.  What’s hiding in your garage or shed that could achieve new life in your garden? 

Soup for a Winter Sunday

It has snowed six inches in the night, and the clouds are low and gloomy this morning.  Frost lines the windows, but the fireplace is snapping merrily inside, and my craft room is full of projects for the day.  I'm going to make one of our family's favorite winter meals for supper:  baked potato soup.  Pair this with warm biscuits dripping with butter, and winter won't feel so dreary!

Baked Potato Soup

Ingredients:
12 slices bacon
2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
7 cups milk
4 large baked potatoes,  cooked and cubed
4 green onions, chopped
1-1/4 cups shredded cheddar or cheddar/jack cheese
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper

Steps:

• Place bacon in large, deep skillet.  Cook over medium heat until browned.  Drain, crumble, and set aside.
• In stock pot or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat.
• Whisk in flour until smooth.
• Gradually stir in milk, whisking constantly until thickened. 
• Stir in potatoes and onions. Bring to a boil, stirring often.
• Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. 
• Mix in bacon, cheese, sour cream, salt and pepper.
• Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted.

This will yield six generous servings.  Yum!