Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Warning Code Red

Today is the last day for my giveaway.


A
BIG
thank you
to all my followers including my newest ones!

To my current followers; make sure you comment on my giveaway post
 if you would like to be entered.

For my new followers, if you found me via another follower, please
comment and give the name of the blog that sent you to me.

Again, thank you to all!

Prim Blessings to everyone
Janice


Monday, January 30, 2012

Monday Montage

This week is a hodge podge.
Hope you enjoy.

An antique medical scale.
This would have had a wicker basket on top to weigh babies.

A wood sugar barrel.

Close up view

Blue stripe crock bowl.

American Cutlery scale.

Green stripe ovenware bowl.

Early 1920's youth chair with some early sewing baskets.

Warm Winter Blessings everyone.
Janice





Saturday, January 28, 2012

Color Trends

Color trends come and they go.
Pantone LLC publishes its the color of the year annually.
Below are the last five years of the colors they have chosen.

 

Blue Iris (2008)

 

Mimosa (2009)

 

Turquoise (2010)

Pantone Color of the Year 2011: Honeysuckle
 

Honeysuckle (2011)

PANTONE Tangerine Tango Journal
Tangerine Orange (2012)

Now I am not much into these color trends,
 and being the prim person that I am,
these colors do not really turn me on.

But it did get me to thinking....

I just bought myself a new "OLD" Quilt
The colors in this quilt...

Are almost similar to the colors of today.
These colors are just faded from many washings
and was well loved...
so I guess I should retract my first statement. lol
Apparently I do like these color trends!
Just worn loved ones...

This pattern is called the Dresden Plate

Prim Colorful Warm Blessings to All
Janice








Thursday, January 26, 2012

Friday Fun Facts

Not so sure if these are fun facts,
but thought the sentence was catchy anyway :o)

A local radio station in my area does these facts,
and I thought they were interesting,
so I thought I would share.

Maybe I will do this as a weekly thing...
Here are five facts for this week.

1.  You will eat two spiders in your lifetime.
All you spiders out there, I am putting you on notice...
stay away from me...

2.  You will spend 7 years of your life in the bathroom.


Now if I had a bathroom like this, I would not care if I spent 20 years in it.
But of course I would have to prim it up a bit!

3. In Medieval French,
if a woman was caught having an affair,
she had to run around town naked
until she caught a chicken.
Really...a chicken?...that's worse than Lady Godiva on the horse.

4. Teddy Bears and other toys kill more people than real bears.

Now how could this cute little guy kill...
my guess..he is a choking hazard.

5. This sentence:
The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog
Uses every letter in the English alphabet.
I know you will check to see...I did.

(guess that's why they use red foxes for hunts..they are not as quick..lol)

Blessings to all
Janice



Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Help ~ What Is Wrong With Blogger

What is wrong with Blogger???
Now when I visit some of my favorite Blogs...
I cannot Comment.
Or I only see pictures of other Bloggers
 who have commented and I do not see the actual post to read.
And then with some I get a white screen....

Arghhh...what has happened?

Is anyone else having these issues too, or is it just me?

I thought it was because of my dinosaur computer at home,
but this is still happening on the new computer at the store.

HELP ME PLEASE
I do not want to miss out on whats happening with you all.

On another note:
This was what our yard looked like on Saturday.


Today all of the snow is gone.
It rains ~ snows ~ rains and snows...so strange.

Wish it was like this outside though.

This was on the dinner cruise Bob and I took last Summer.

Blessings to all,
Take care
Janice















Almost Hit A Bambi

Last Wednesday driving home along the river
around 8:30pm or so, out comes this deer.
I slammed on my brakes doing 50 at the time as it ran
across the road just in front of me
heading towards the river.
My purse goes flying off the seat...so does the craft bag.
At the moment I did not care about picking up the contents from the floor...
at least I did not hit Bambi.


Go back about 7 years ago,
 driving on the road that runs parallel
to the northern end of the state land near me,
I again almost hit a deer.
That time however, the buck stopped in the middle of the road
blinded by my lights and just stood there.
I was able to stop just in time... however he was literally in front of my car.
He was so close that I could count the points on his rack.
He was an eight pointer.
Some of the guys that I work with
told me that I should have hit him just for the rack.
I however was glad I did not hit him.

Has anyone else out there ever had a near miss of hitting an animal?
Or have you been unfortunate and hit one?
Curious to know.

Blessings to all,
Janice

Monday, January 23, 2012

Monday Montage

Today's montage is the goodies
that I added to our store for St. Valentine's Day.

Prim hearts in shades of reds and pinks.

Prim lady holding her kiss candy which reads ~ Be my Valentine.

Luscious red velvet hearts.

Sally Mae black doll with her cookie with glass beads for the sprinkles.

The Love Guru.
(one already sold)

Cupid Peppermints.
(Two sets of three sold)

Bob made these wood signs in 2008.
I found two up in the attic and brought them to the store.
(One already gone)

Bee Mine honey bee with packages of conversation hearts.
(Only had one bee...gone)
(Plus only have two bags of these hearts left)
The hearts are packaged as a set of five.
Colors with hand stitched writing 
Yellow ~ Kiss Me
Green ~ Hugs
Pink ~ Sweet Heart
Purple ~ Be Mine
Peach ~ True Love 

Vintage Valentine Candy Box.

Hope you enjoyed my early valentine treat!
We had 4 inches of snow overnight
Wishing it was Spring...
Monday update..going to rain today...guess I got my wish somewhat...
Spring weather today, snow again mid week.
Strange weather indeed!

If you are interested in purchasing any of these items
just send me an email.
(Things are going quite fast
As I just these out on Saturday)

Take care everyone
January Blessings!
Janice











Wednesday, January 18, 2012

My First Giveaway For The New Year

Yep you heard it right..
my first 2012 Giveaway.


Cupids Peppermints
The candy you fall in love with

There will be two chances to win a set of three peppermint sticks.


These peppermint sticks are handmade by me.
The paper wrapper is also my own design.

First chance to win: Be a current or new follower and comment on this post only.
All comments will go into a drawing to win a set of three peppermints.
Drawing to be held January 31st, 2012.


(sorry, my camera was acting up)

Second Chance to win: If you bring over a new follower,
you will be entered into a second drawing for another chance to win a set of three peppermints, plus an additional surprise Valentine handmade item made by me.
The new follower will be entered into the first drawing. 

(you must comment on this post to let me know who the new follower is,
so that I can add you to the second drawing)

Second drawing to also be held January 31st, 2012.

Good luck to everyone!
For my followers who also shop at our store
Back Porch Antiques,
I will be bringing in all of my Valentine goodies in this Saturday.
There are limited quantities,
 but I will continue to add goodies through the end of the month...
just depends on how much sewing time I can get in. lol

Take care!
Janice






Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The Snowdrift and our GTO

For most of the day today here in Michigan it rained.
However later in the afternoon it changed over to snow.
It was blowing so hard that it reminded of something that happened
to our family in the Winter of 1970.
I was 12 at the time of this story.

This particular weekend, we were going to spend Friday night with my gramma B
 Saturday night with gramma H.
Instead of the family car, my dad decided to drive the Pontiac GTO.
Not sure why he would want to take a sports car in the middle of Winter
on dirt roads that get very snowy, but he did.

It was late Saturday afternoon, and it had been snowing most of the day.
We had had already spent the night at gramma B's farmhouse.
My dad kept watching it snow all day waiting for it to stop
so that we could drive to my gramma H's house.

Finally had stopped snowing just as the sun set.
I remember my parents getting into a mini spat because my mom
wanted to wait until morning to go over to my other gramma's house...
 dad insisted that he was driving over there that night....
after all it had stopped snowing.

It was about a 20 minute drive to my gramma H's house.
I was more afraid of going over the two plank bridge in all of that snow...
but that bridge is another story....

Now usually my dad drove the back roads to get to my gramma's house.
In Winter he played it safe and stayed onto
as many of the paved highways that he could.
Another reason I wondered why dad took the GTO?
  
Well we were 1/2 mile from my gramma's...
and there it was.

This huge snowdrift in the middle of the road up ahead.
My dad stopped and got out of the car to assess the situation.
When he got back into the car, he told my mom he could get through it.

Now mind you, not only was I in the car along with my parents, but there also was
my sister (7), my brother (4) and our family dog Blackie. 

So my dad puts the car in reverse for about 500 feet or so...
and he stops.
He tells us kids to hang on...
don't know what we were suppose to hang on to?
But I grabbed Blackie and hung on to him.

All of a sudden, my dad floors the car
and we start going through this snowdrift
like a snow grater with its blade down would.

There was snow flying on each side of the car
Snow in the front.
Snow in the back.
There was snow everywhere.
It was actually pretty cool...
all except for my mom yelling at my dad to STOP!!!

At the time, I did not know how far my dad tried to drive through 
that snowdrift...
But he gave up and stopped..
and we were stuck in the snow....and we had to walk the rest of the way.
My dad carried my sister through the snow.
My mom carried my brother.
I carried the dog.

Needless to say, my gramma was quite shocked to see
us coming into the house as we all looked like snow folks ourselves from walking
in the blowing snow. Even Blackie looked white.

Being out in the boonies, my dad was not worried about the car
and it was left in the snowdrift until morning
Dad would call his classmate who owned the tow truck business
in town to get the car out then.

When daylight came, we bundled up once more,
and walked back to the car to wait for the tow truck.

Ironically, my dad only had 2 more feet to go
and he would have made it through that snowdrift.
Can you believe it?

My dad and his classmate Tom decided it was best to shovel a 2 ft path 
so my dad could drive back to my grammas, then to pull the car out the other way.
Once the car was dug out, we drove back to my grammas laughing
how my dad almost made it through a snowdrift driving a GTO...

I liked it cause we were stuck at my grammas farmhouse for 4 more days...
until the real road grater and not a GTO plowed the road.
Plus I got out of school. LOL

Take care everyone...
and try to stay out of snowdrifts if you can!
Janice  

Monday, January 16, 2012

Monday Montage- Shades of the Season

So I was thinking of re-vamping my Monday Montages a tad bit.
Personally I associate certain colors for each of the months.
This color scheme helps me tweak my home a bit...
and if any of you are like me...
moving things around makes you feel
 like you are in a different room!
Bob hates it though...lol

Once a month for this year of 2012
I will feature my Shades of the Season for my Monday Montage.

For the month of January my color scheme is
Winter White and Blue.

One of my kitchen cupboards


Winter white pitchers




A Victorian era dress


An antique 1856 blue and white coverlet



Vintage enamelware



Finger loop enamel candle chamber stick on a vintage windmill patterned quilt.



This 1940's beauty is currently for sale in our store.


Some blues and whites in my 1800 carrier on my blue Cobblers bench in the back room.

From left to right ~
Back row ~ Early linen blue book with an OLM snowman, Chopper,
Children's Blocks and a Blue Sarsaparilla Bottle

Front Row ~ Flow Blue plate with Blue Creamer, Jack Frost Box
and some faux Blueberries.

How do like my color scheme for this month?

I chose these colors as we are in the season of Winter...
With winter comes the Winter White Snow and it
always gives me the Blues.  :o)


New Years Blessings to all.
Janice














Friday, January 13, 2012

Does anyone out there like Friday the 13th

I have a girlfriend who is so superstitious about Friday the 13th
that she will not leave her house on these days.

She is now retired, but when she worked with me
she always either took a vacation day or sick day and stayed home.

Is anyone out there as superstitious as she is?

For me this day is no biggie...
just another day out of the week.
Now if you have ever been to a hotel that has 13 stories or more,
they do not have a 13th Floor...just a perception.
How would I know that you ask...

because I am afraid of heights..lol...so yo won't find me in a high building.
Good thing I do not live in New York or Chicago...or any other big city  :o)

Now there was someone I knew that loved when Friday 13th came around.
To be exact, it was when March 13th was on a Friday.

You see, my gramma B was born on March 13th, 1911.
She loved it when her birthday fell on a Friday!
Although my gramma B is no longer with us,
I always look every year to see if March 13th lands on a Friday.
the next time it does is 2015...so cannot wait!

Happy Friday 13th to each of you!

New Year Blessings to all
Janice





Thursday, January 12, 2012

The Love Guru

Definition of Love ~
A profounding tender, passionate affection for another person.

Definition of Guru ~
An intellectual or spiritual guide or leader.

Put them together ~
You get the

LOVE GURU

Tell me what you think everyone?

Love Guru is 12 1/2 inches tall by 12 1/2 inches from wing to wing.
He sports a red velvet heart in his lightly aged diaper. 
He can either hang on a wall or be placed anywhere you would like,
however he will not stand alone.
This is not to be used as a child's toy as his diaper is held by rusty pins.

I will be placing a few in the store next weekend,
but am offering one for sale to my blogging friends if they wish to purchase.
The cost will be $25 which will include shipping.
Unfortunately this offer can only be for my USA bloggers at this time.

If you would like to purchase 
Love Guru
kindly send me an email.

He will come to you signed and dated by me. 


PS ~ We are suppose to finally get some of that white stuff
you get in Winter around here.
Our rain is suppose to change over to snow overnight
with 2 to 4 of that white fluffy stuff by the afternoon.

New Years Blessings to all
Janice







Monday, January 9, 2012

Monday Montage

Tonight's montage is a full circle tour of our back room.

First, I would like to tell you how this room came to be.
many moons ago, Bob and I wanted to start a prim shoppe.
After much research,
and knowing a few folks who had opened shoppes in their homes,
we decided to make a visit to our local township office
to find out if we could do open a shoppe in our home.
They gave us the green light and told us to come back
before we opened so that they could inspect.

The room we decided to do was an enclosed porch with
windows completely surrounding three walls and a door.
There was also a door to the main part of the house.

After many months of removing walls, windows and even raising the ceiling,
we began to fill it to the brim with prims.
We scoured the state for primitives, I created many crafts,
we bought cases of candles wholesale, reproduction early lighting,
 potpourri and even specialty popcorn.

Bob and I were so excited when our little shoppe was finally completed!
We decided to name our business
Back Porch Primitives.

The day finally came to go back to our township to get the inspection....
well they turned us down for a business licence.
We were devastated.
Supposedly, the person who told us we could have a business out of our home,
thought we were going to do an internet business...
which was not true at ALL.
The township then told us we could just have as many garage sales as we wanted,
even thought we are only allowed 2 per year...
how generous of them we thought.

Well we did not let that deter us.
We rented 1000 ft space in an antique mall in Marine City.
The owner of the mall let us build a real porch using real wood and
we added an awning and built a window to our little back room of the mall.
We even stenciled Back Porch Primitives on the window.

The owner was not real thrilled about having prims in his store.
He told us they did not sell, but we insisted that we were going to
bring prim lovers to our mall.

Well we succeeded and ended up being his top dealer after the first month
of moving in...and continued to be his #1 vendor until we left...true story.

Now we own our own mall in the same town,
but changed the name to Back Porch Antiques.
Our first love is still prims,
but we do purchase many other antiques for our store.

So here is where it all began.
Just now it is our back room.

Looking into the room from our kitchen.
We took the door off and added a pocket door and a screen door.
Notice where I hung that checkerboard?


This is the screen door.
We found it in a barn that an antique owner had.
She sold it to us for $15...
I think she either felt sorry for us or thought we were crazy,
as we told her we were going to hang it in our house.
I have a hand of tobacco hanging from it currently.

Does anyone notice that I forgot to take one Christmas item down? LOL
Plus I still forgot to remove the price tag..what a dufuss.
I moved the brown cabinet over to add a new...
Primitive Bench.
This originally was an early farm hand bed, but someone added the seating to it.
This is the other item I kept from Bob's mother lode.
What do you think?


This cabinet I am not too fond of.
When I find one that I really like...out it goes.
The 15 gal crock is where I keep my stash of craft patterns.

The shelf towards the ceiling holds a portion of my tobacco tin collection.
I started collecting these before I met Bob.
Neither of us smoke, so folks think its odd that we collect these.
In this room, we also have a Mail Pouch thermometer and
a Mail Pouch barn signed print.
I crocheted the lap afghan on the chair.

I keep my sewing machine in here so I can watch TV and work.

This small cabinet holds my glass coffee jars.
I love the colors and graphics of these old beauties.
The white long johns actually came from a fellow antique dealer.
He was showing us his renovated barn
 and I spotted these in the rafter...and I had to have them. :o) 

Full circle looking back into the kitchen.


A couple of my snow folks.
The one on the left is a Sweet Peas Primitives pattern.
On the right is my own design.

Another snowman I created.


Little Ace kept following me around, so I had to take his pic.
But by the time I decided to take his picture, I think he got mad at me.
What do you think?

Well, this has been a long montage,
and I hope you enjoyed the full circle tour.

New Years Blessings
Janice