A bit of history

I am really proud of this purchase. The quarter sawn oak is just beautiful!  The blacksmith (aka furniture re-finisher) has decided he really wants to remove the shiny varnish. It will eventually be sanded and sealed with a satin polyurethane finish.

When we got it home and unloaded, look what we found on the back of it!!


I then sent an email to a friend (Hi Esther!) who is on the historical committee in Fulton. She referred me to Barb who is  the curator at the historical society.  


So I sent Barb an email with photos of the chiffrobe. Here is her reply: "You have a beautiful piece of furniture. I find the Martin-Herndon-Taylor business listed in the 1919 Atlas. It had been the Dutton-Herndon firm in 1913. In 1926, Martin was out of the group and the name was changed with another partner Blattner. It was located at 9 West 5th. The building is still standing."


That makes this piece real close to being a hundred years old!  Amazing to find the tag on it. This week on the Antique Roadshow on PBS, the Keno twins talked about how much more valuable a piece is with the original tag. 


I sure hope the seller didn't see that show. She might just want to come back for more money!

Goodbye old friend

Goodbye my favorite toaster.  

You served me well for over 42 years.

 You became my friend as a wedding gift from my aunt Betty and uncle Wimpy (god rest their souls). 

But today as much as I'd like to blame you for the loss, I can only blame myself. 

Note to self - do not leave the toaster on and leave the house for 45 minutes! 

The wires are toasted. Pun intended.

 It was so hot when I came in the paint was bubbling off. The toast inside was in ashes. 

As much as I hate parting with my toaster, I hate it even more parting with my beautiful counter top.

It was then that we had no choice but to open windows and blow the inside 73.9 degree, smoky air out, and pull some 104.1 degree air inside.

Excuse me now, I need to finish toasting my bread using my camper toaster. 

Baked chicken wouldn't be good without made from scratch dressing. 

Tuesday's at Grandma's

Today's lesson is in pie making.

We then get to enjoy our work. Which one first is the question? 

Blackberry or Lemon from scratch for you?

Another auction . . .lots of pictures

Today we traveled about an hour and a half from our home for an auction that advertised a "blacksmith shop."

All that was spent from our account was $5 for a tap and die tool, and $3 for a hamburger and hot dog. It was however, a fun day in the country, I will let the pictures do the talking.

Let's walk through the front gate to the house. . . 

This was what I'd call the back of the house, but it had the only exterior door. Notice the dark cabinet?  It was a very unique corner cabinet, very primitive!

A silk quilt, reminded me of a crazy quilt. It sold for only $30.

Maybe a neck tie holder?

An electric washing machine!

Sweet!

More sweetness!

Wordless . . . 

More crocks and a coffee box labeled Meyer Bros.  We have a bigger box with the same stenciling.

A very unique horse with real fur!

Thousands of fruit jars. Well maybe not quite that many.

God bless our home.

Can you read this?

Does this speak country or what???

Awesome oil chandelier.

An 1899 book and more!

I wonder how old the kids are now that sat at this table?

Now that would make a lot of butter.

I am so hungry for some apple butter now.

Any guesses on what this is?


It's a ballot box, a very early ballot box I would say.


As for the blacksmith items, I took just a few pictures . . . find them here.

Some of my latest finds/buys

Last Thursday we got a call at 9:15 AM from our friend Jerry that works at the Habitat Re-sell it shop. He knew we were looking for some cabinets to put in our garage (our canning kitchen) he said they had just gotten a load in.  We quickly hooked up the trailer, fastened the granddaughter in her car seat, grabbed the check book and headed to town. All within 10 minutes of his call. 

When we arrived at re-sell store, part of the cabinets had already been purchased. We waited to see what was left. 

This is what we ended up with. $200 worth of oak cabinets. They had no counter tops, but we said if we had to, we would just cover the top with plywood.


The blacksmith and I unloaded them and he quickly went to work installing them.

On Saturday we first went to the Farmer's Market and then decided to go to the builders leftover supply store. In one of the far back warehouses we found counter tops, weeds and all. It was a price we couldn't pass up, $30 for two tops. 

This is what we now have right outside the mudroom door. It's 12 feet plus of nice solid oak cabinets. They have the cleanest drawers, a pull out cutting board, and the inside doors have roll out drawers on the bottom. The tall cabinet with the roll top door is an added bonus, even Bentley, the black lab approves.

At the same Habitat store I found this awesome recipe book.  It has many pockets and tabs. Now if I can just find the time to print off my recipes. 

Last Wednesday I stopped by my favorite resell it shop (those church ladies always have good stuff). There I found this Cappuccino maker for $5. The one I have been using daily (okay sometimes twice a day) was slowly wearing out. This one is like having Star bucks vs. McDonald's coffee! I only wish it was white to match my other appliances. But for the better taste, I will go with the color.

I also couldn't pass this colbalt blue oil lamp up for $4.50

Last, I will pick this up on Friday. It's solid oak. I found it on a sell/swap page on facebook.  What a bargain at $300!!!!!!!!!!  I can't wait for Friday.

Pin cushion exchange

Tuesday night was Missouri River Quilt Guild meeting. They were having a pin cushion exchange. If you wanted to participate, you brought your pin cushion in a brown paper bag, making sure your name was on the inside.

This is the one I made.  It was stuffed with poly-fil. 

I also made a few for some of my eggxactly special quilting friends, such as Alvyne (who is blogless and was my guest last night), my long arm quilter Brenda (who is also blogless and almost computerless), Gerry @  GerryART, Nancy @ With thread in hand, Claire @ Two Draft Mom, and her Mother in law (these two were a no show). It was fun seeing their faces when they opened their little brown bags.

This is the one I won. It was made by Betty. She told me afterwards it was stuffed with walnut shells. She had seen us pinching it at the table while trying to figure out what was in it. Most of us thought it was rice. She says if you use walnut shells, buy them at the pet store as they are much cheaper there.


One of neat stories of the night was a pin cushion made into the shape of a mud hut in Africa.  It had a tag on it by the maker Betty, about being raised in a mud hut. It was an inspiring story to see her come such a long way. She will add much to the organization. I for one, can't wait to see the fabrics in her quilts. 

Yum, Yum

Saturday we didn't sleep in. We headed to town to the Farmers market. My cousin Kitts had been telling me on Facebook she would have fresh butchered organic chickens. 


The market had lots of organic meats, grains, and produce. You could even get a 10 minute chair massage there. I don't know what that had to do with going green.

Sunday Kitts made the local newspaper!  Now I knew organic meant high prices. But I wasn't ready for the sticker shock, because I didn't do the math when I saw they were $4.00 a pound, and they weighed at least 4 lbs. You do the math, I just can't bring myself to say what two 4 pound chickens at 4.00 a pound added up to. 


Let's just say we were going to eat high on the hog chicken.

So for Father's day we invited the neighbor son and family over for dinner. Two fried chickens were on the menu. 


Now could we tell a difference in the chicken?  You bet your booty we could. I noticed right away when I cut it up, there was no fat layer under the skin on the thighs. There were no dark bones. There were no bloody joints. As for the taste . . . there is no comparison. It was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!


So if you get a chance, go for the organic, fresh, never frozen, chickens. If you are local you can purchase it on Saturdays at the Lincoln University Farmer's Market.

My week of visits with old friends

First, let me say my friends aren't old, and neither am I!  It's just that I got to see a lot of friends from long ago this past week.

I had brunch with Carol and her sister Sherri at Panera's on Tuesday. We girls go waaay back. We were neighbors, and Sherri and I were school buddies from first through ninth grades.  (I then moved away from the neighborhood.)  Sherri was in town, visiting from North Carolina. 


Now I don't  know what you think about the quality of the above picture, but we think it's darn good!  Especially since it was taken by the 3 year old in the next picture!

Yes Ms. Lizzie joined us too. She enjoyed her white milk and M & M cookie, every crumb of it.

This is another picture Lizzie took. It's my kind of picture, blocking Grandma out! Sherri kept telling her to move her finger off the lenses. She would do it until she hit "click" button. 

Thursday night I went to the street fair downtown. There I ran into Mary.  I think this picture (that I stole from her Facebook page) reminds me of "Queen Mary". Mary was another one of our classmates. Sherri and I went all through grade school with her.

I also ran into sisters Rose and Rita from the same neighborhood. I spent so many days and nights are their house. They went to the parochial school, but Rose and I are the same age.

I also ran into Cledis and his wife Clarine. Cledis and I were in the same high school class. GO Cole R-V Eagles!


What an awesome week! Life is Good!

Tonight's blog

I received this today from my friend Scott. Scott reads my blog all the time!  Thanks for your support Scott!

We got MAIL

Remember this? 

It started out looking so innocent.

Nice gift wrapping, suitable for any occasion.

Okay maybe pink and blue would have really given it away!!!!!!!!!!!!


Yes we are going to be grand parents once more. We will be adding baby McCranie to our brood come December!  December 31 in fact!


The opening celebration was done via web cam with both sets of Grandparents unwrapping matching gifts. Grandparents Mc and Grandparents T, were ecstatic.


Congratulations Rusty and Sarah, we love you guys and are looking forward baby Mc!