New Header for November

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend.  The weather was superb here in the south with lovely fall days, crisp blue skies and the sounds of leaves swirling in little dust devil tornadoes on the street payment. My windows are open wide with lots of fresh air coming in.  As dusk slowly closes in on the day, it gets, as my husband likes to say, "a little nipply outside" and that means warm throws on the feet at night and the toasty comforter on the bed for sleeping.  Getting ready for trick or treaters as well.  Got the urge to change out my header and am jonesing for when I will be back in water (last week of December) and remembered the photo I took of my son's first tropical dive. 

He had just certified in the cold waters of the Atlantic off the coast of North Carolina and my fiance (now husband) and I thought he might enjoy a quick trip to the Bahamas to dive with us.  He was game and we all met at the Freeport Airport in the Bahamas and once settled into our rooms, we hit the waters.  The dive location was in Port Lucaya and was called "The Aquarium" as it was a shallow dive of about 35-40 feet and would have lots of fish/coral life.  Well it did not disappoint and I watched as my son was engulfed with brilliant Sargent Majors and Yellow Tails.  He was hard to find at times and was enjoying this first tropical dive with all of its colorful fish and corals.

So I cropped the photo and thought it made a nice header for my blog.  It makes me smile to see another family member get certified and enjoy the sport as much as my husband and I do.  We now have most of our family members certified and it is always a joy when all of us dive together.  On a "crowing note", I submitted this photo to the Atlanta Journal/Constitution newspaper the following spring when they held their photo contest for things you did over the summer.  I won an Honorable Mention in the category (animals).  I was quite honored and pleased that I made honorable mention as over 5,000 photos were submitted and this was my first submission.   I guess the judges saw the same joy in the photo that I did.   Have a wonderful week all.  Sea Witch

Road trip - Carlton & Comer, Georgia

It was a lovely, fall Saturday so my honey and I took a day trip to Carlton, Georgia.  After reading Sassytrash's post called Visiting Jimmy I had to make a trip to Carlton and see the great chippy items he had.  Sassy was correct, Jimmy Poss is a delightful man who loves vintage...and his shops, yes shops were filled with grand architectural pieces. 

It looks like Jimmy bought up all of historic Carlton and filled the sidewalk with treasure for sale.

I love this giant Pure gasoline sign, especially all of the bullet holes in it.  Folks love an available target.

Jimmy had one of the largest selections of chippy, painty fireplace mantles that I have ever seen in one location.  It is a restorers dream.

My favorite mantle for its brilliant turquoise color.

Main room of  first store front.  Filled with treasure as far as the eye could see. As you move deeper into the shop you will find rows and rows of old doors, windows, finials, columns and wood.  Lots and lots of antique boards from old homes cut from Georgia pine.  Some of these boards appear 12 inch's in width.  Glorious.  If I was restoring an old home, I would make this place my first stop for antique salvage.  Oh, and outside, he has stacks of slate from slate roofs.

Wonderful porch chairs in every paint color imaginable.

Love this old bank tellers cage that is in one of his buildings which was the town bank. 
 

Another building filled with treasure.  Jimmy truly has everything you need if you are restoring an antique home.

Everywhere you look there is something, right down to kitchen sinks and claw foot tubs.

I came to Jimmy's to find chippy treasure but instead, found some great vintage clothing pieces so that is where my most of my budget went.  I get weak in the knees with vintage/antique clothing and love to wear it.  When I ran an antique mall, I would wear it everyday...it was so much fun.

Hilarious vintage garter belt and front panel girdle from the 1940s.

Magnificent and wonderfully crushable pine green velvet opera coat.  The look and cut of an Edwardian lawn coat, but the hem seaming gave it away as an item from the 1940s.  Just lovely.

View from the back of the coat.  Edwardian detailing with frog closures.  Coat is just too small for me or I would have kept it.  I love velvet coats/cloaks for their look and their comfortable feel.

Too cute, a pair of vintage toddler's long johns (circa 1890s) right down to the drop seat over the tush.  I love old underclothing...I think it is such a great equalizer of men and women. We all have to put our panties on at some point no matter how much we may or may not own.

A pair of adults long underwear in knitted wool.  Flaps for the front and the back and the crotch separates for a comfortable squat along the trail.  Circa 1890s.

Nice Edwardian cotton batiste nightshirt for a man.  Will display this in my Victorian booth for Christmas along with a top hat.

I love old dictionary's for their period slang and language use.  This was in from 1934.

After a few hours at Jimmy's looking at all of his treasure, we decided to grab lunch at the local cafe in Comer, called Maggie's. (Comer is just a "mile" away from Carlton or "a piece down the road" as they say here in the south). 

Cheerful and welcoming, the front has pretty bistro tables and chairs outside, a chalkboard with the day's specials and folks coming and going.

It had warmed up by noon so we chose to eat inside rather then in the afternoon heat.  Tables were set with pretty red fabric tablecloths, a mixture of comfortable oak chairs and the sounds of a cafe.  A broad menu for both lunch and dinner and Maggie's speciality was beer battered fish and her onions rings.  My honey loves home made onion rings and put Maggie to the test. 

We both opted for the house Patty Melt Sandwich on rye with grilled onions and a slice of melted swiss cheese.  HEAVEN!  Grilled to perfection and yes, the onion rings were freshly cut sweet onions deep fried in a delicate beer batter.  I almost had to wrestle my husband to the ground to return home with me rather then stay for the next dinner bell.

I had the house fries which were from thick cut potatoes and fried to perfection.  Huge garlic dill pickle and I thought about remaining for the next meal as well.  There were home made desserts to select from and the carrot cake almost had us order, but we were stuffed to the gills with the portion size of the lunch so we will have to make another visit if we want dessert.   Maggie's is worth a day trip just for a good meal. Welcoming, local wait staff and good food at reasonable pricing, Maggie's should be included on your trip through this part of Georgia.  Make it a stop if you are taking a drive to look at our autumn leaves.  You won't regret it. I always have to walk after a meal to get the digestive juices moving...thanks dad...I do this in your honor as this was your habit following a restaurant meal.  Found two other antique shops in downtown Comer and came away with more treasure.

Lovely aqua blue/turquoise blue anything...it is the sea witch in me.  Nifty old cigar tin and a McCoy planter from their butterfly collection.

These planters always look wonderful filled with found objects like sea shells or soft handspun or your best vintage mercury glass Christmas ornaments or bead garland.

We slowly worked our way back home from an enjoyable Saturday.  Got home in time for my honey to catch the last quarter of a football game and I cleaned and prepped my finds for my personal collection and the booths.  Hope your weekend was as enjoyable and blessings to you and all those you love. Sea Witch

Costumes for the Raviolis

The costumes have arrived at the raviolis houses so I can now post a few pictures of what I sent.  I should be receiving photos of them in those items around Halloween and will add those later.  To recap, about 3 weeks ago I received a call from my 5-cheese ravioli in NY.  She called to "put in her order"...her words...for a Strawberry Shortcake costume.  I know when I've been given marching orders for a costume, so off to the fabric store I went.  Since it is cold in upstate NY during Halloween, I had to ensure that she would be warm as she went from house to house with her family. 

Couldn't find wide green and white tights so I made the fabric by sewing green and white strips of fabric and then cut and sewed the pants for her to wear under the strawberry shortcake dress. Top it off with a strawberry type hat and you have Miss Strawberry Shortcake. Yes,Kit Kat, I added the sparkles to the strawberry on your shirt as you asked.  It is such a bright and cheerful costume, I hope she enjoys it.

Now, never one to pass by really cool fabric when I see it.  I fell in love with this hologram fabric at the same fabric store.  I'm thinking, wouldn't this make the coolest Ghost Princess dress.  So after I constructed Shortcake, I went and made this ghost princess outfit.  I love it, right down to the black netting with holagram ghosts and a silver veil to wear.

 This princess gown makes me laugh.  I can just see sweet Kit Kat wearing the veil and pretending to spook her mommy in the kitchen and her daddy in the study as he writes papers for his Masters degree.  WWWOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Can't forget the twin raviolis.  They will be dressed as Pebbles and Bamm Bamm.  Soft fleece and bones for her hair.  Will keep the little ones warm as I have fleshtone tights and tan polo's for them to wear under the costumes.  Don't want chilly twins on this night either.

 

 My Aurora raviolis did not request costumes but Miss Lili is doing her book report on Helen Keller and it must be delivered orally.  So she asked if I would make her a Helen Keller skirt and apron, just like the one in the movie, "The Miracle Worker".  Of course I would and she will look terrific in it.

As long as I had the sewing machine out, I figured I might as well whip up some flannel PJ bottoms for the Aurora ravs.  Fell in love with this soft, flannel spider camouflage...perfect for the twin boys.  I added an orange and a black t-shirt to the mix as half the fun about wearing PJs if you can were them to just hang around the house.

Oh, and the monkey PJs...for our budding gymnast who swings on apparatus like the little spider monkey that she is.  Added a soft polo the color of the pink monkey cheeks for her comfort as well.  This is sewing that I always enjoy, making costumes and clothes for my raviolis. 

Have a wonderful Tuesday.  Sea Witch

Hutch Redo

Busy week, busier weekend and so the remaining months of this year go.  Seems everyone is busy and pushing their use of time to the limit.  Had install issues with some new software and spent half the weekend fighting those.  Finally got it installed and now can work on a website for colleagues.  Hit one of my favorite haunts for treasure and found a few nifty things and a  beautiful hutch hiding under a nasty brick red paint.

 I needed a piece for display and this red hutch has so many possibilities.  A little white paint as a base, finish it with sand dune (a lovely sand color) and then sand key edges and you have a totally different look.

 Yup, this is the same hutch.  I love the final outcome and boy does it hold a lot of items.  It looks great in my main booth filled with some of my recent purchases.   And now some treasure I found this week.

A Hummel plate that I will send to my daughter-in-law who collects Hummels. A pair of Sacred Heart Jesus and Mary pics from the 1950s and a great give a way bowl that is marked on the back, Ware Drug Store.

Wonderful, early Hull buttermilk pitcher in that marvelous shade of aqua...I'm keeping this baby.  Lovely milk glass Hobstar pattern bowl, Pan Am Exposition souvenir plate...milk glass with kitties, 1910; and a neat 1909 centennial plate. 

The famous holographic Jesus that was found in most New Jersey/New York dens.  Terrific aqua frame.

Lovely vintage leaded stained glass piece.  Nice cathedral glass insets.

Wonderful vintage bride dress. Circa 1940s

Some of the milk glass pieces I have found over the last few weeks and that terrific transfer ware turkey platter.

The Amber Sandwich glass pieces are perfect for autumn tables.

 Just one more look at that hutch.  It just look so different with the new paint job.  Have a great week and blessings to you and those you love.  Sea Witch

Weekend Treasure & cracked headlight.

 This was a very busy weekend for the Sea Witch.  In fact, I'm almost feeling glad to be back at my 8 to 5 gig just to get some rest. LOL.  This lovely fall weather has me running all over the place but had lots of chores on my list of things I must do before Monday.  The big to do were the Halloween costumes for my NY raviolis and the book report costume for my Aurora ravioli.  And as long as my sewing machine was out, I whipped up a few other things for them as well.  Pictures to come tomorrow. 

On top of the sewing obligations, my desktop finally went belly up.  Six years of hard labor and it said, no more, I'm done.  It was cheaper to by a new desktop then fix the old, so I spent the other half of the weekend setting up the new system, transferring files, etc.  It's never fun doing this, but the new Windows 7 is a joy to work with.  Truly makes a computer a plug n play system.  Windows 7 is very stable and installs most drivers automatically, connects you to  your existing DSL connection and router and you are off to the races.  Only had to download one printer driver for my old HP laserjet 4000.  That old workhorse just needed the universal driver and we were in business.  Saturday, ran errands and found a few treasures along the way.

Nice silk, top hat; lovely quad plate bowl from the 1900s; pretty silver plated water pitcher that is screaming for holiday red flowers; vintage cookie cutters, pretty little ruby flashed glass cup with the name "Minnie" etched on it and a huge, milkglass footed bowl.

 

Sweet vintage EAPG toothpick holder and a marvelous EAPG celery dish with a little sun purple cast to it.  Paid $1.00 for the celery dish...I did joyful cartwheels back to my car.

Sweet little wooden doll with hand painted face, lovely antique pearl jewelry box and a nice, Late Victorian black velvet bag.

To die for transfer ware turkey platter. Just a tiny, little flake along the upper edge and considering its age and use, I consider the flake a mark of age and noble bearing.  This was another bargain and I just couldn't resist it.

Nifty, vintage fan; a marvelous glass chopper with handle and a pretty silver plated compote.  I love to fill these with antique Christmas ornaments and garland. They are always so festive and sparkly.  So not a bad haul if I do say so myself.   Booths are selling items well, this is the time of the year when the big sales tend to pick up.  Oh, and that cracked headlight...well here it is:

A customer had dropped an antique doll I had in one of my booths last year.  Destroyed the doll head so I took it apart and borrowed an idea from another blogger and repurposed it into a cracked head light.  I know, I know, it's kinda creepy but that is why I like it.  Besides, it is a wonderful nightlight for the Halloween decorating.  Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.  Sea Witch

Why I like nuns and other stuff.

Having been raised a Kosher Catholic (nobody does guilt like me) I always found a marvelous paradox between the rules of man set down by both religious institutions and the joy of humanity that both also delight in.  I came across this photo early this morning and laughed out loud.  Only a group of nuns, in what looks like habits from the order of Sisters of Nazareth, would gather in their sisterhood and say, let's go sit on the leggy stools for lunch.

What a lucky photographer to come upon such an opportunity.  You know they giggled all the way back to the convent and frankly, I would love to have joined them all for lunch.  You know the conversations would have been memorable.

I have been adding Halloween items to my Victorian booth each weekend and each time I return, more have sold.  Nice problem to have, but it seems I will never get the booth completely tricked out in the Halloween mode because of it.  Here are a few photos (all enlarge by clicking on them) of what I have brought in:

Changed the dress form out to a lovely black, silk taffeta bustle skirt.  Unfortunately, this is strictly a display piece as it has shattered in many places.   The jewel in this display really is the lovely late Victorian white blouse.

Parlor table all tricked out with a ghostly display. 

  

Closer view of the table and its contents. 

My framed witch pictures have flown (yes, it's a very witch statement to make) out of my booth.  Of course, the lovely gold frames are a standout as well. I filled antique mason jars with vintage prints and dried roses and then trimmed them off with fall florals and ribbons.

Marvelous vintage carnival glass vases...also known as funeral vases look wonderful next to this great Art Nouveau print of a witch in the full moon.  

My wall of Victorian witches and ghosts.  The three pictures are Goodwill frames that I added Victorian prints and photos too.  I then added a few muslin ghosties and a lamp candle to the Stairway to Heaven shelf and now have a nice little wall of Victorian haunts.

Full shot of the taffeta skirt and blouse.  Traditionally, the blouse would be tucked into at the waist but I wanted to show the complete blouse for the interested antique clothing collector. 

This Victorian blouse is a beauty with lovely french seaming, lace inserts and lots of tiny gathers.  Mother of Pearl buttons on the back collar and hooks, eyes, and buttonholes down the back and at the cuffs.  This garment was sewn for a woman of means and she would have needed her personal maid to assist her into it.

Whether it be black magic, black Victorian clothing or black habits, may your day be one of joy and laughter.  Sea Witch