In Need of a Name

Every weekend I have been creating Fall items for the store.

This weekend I made up more cats, witches

and a one of a kind doll.

I am so exhausted from working full time.

Deciding what inventory to take to the store.

Cutting fabric, sewing, painting

and embellishing that after I created this dollie....

I could not think of the proper name for her.

WOW..I'm getting tired just typing. LOL

So my fine bloggers...

I am in need of a name.

I trust with all of your comments,

that you all will be able to assist me this small task

so that I can send her off to our store with a proper name.

So here she is.

Introducing.....

?????

For those of you in the shopping vicinity of our store,

Bob and I will be re-vamping the store Friday night

and we will premier our Fall collection of both antiques

and prim crafts for our customers starting Saturday.

If you get the chance, come on out

and enjoy some fresh made goodies on us!

Back Porch Antiques 

550 Broadway

Marine City, MI  48039

Look forward to what you all think I should name this little lady.

Please hurry, as she will be making her debut on Saturday.

Take care everyone

Janice 



Monday Montage

Can you believe Summer is almost winding down.

Here by the river, the nights are getting a little cooler,

Bob and I decided to have a bonfire on Saturday night.

The familiar stars were shining bright and we

even watched a few freighters go by as

their lights reflected a sparkling glow on the river.

Had a few friends over, and told them when a freighter was coming.

We can hear the soft rumble of their engines long before they come into sight.

I hope everyone else enjoyed the weekend.

Hopefully all of my blogger friends on the East Coast were spared.

4 Million folks without power is an awful lot and I pray that

they get their power back on soon.

Well on to another Monday Montage

This week I an featuring a few bottles that I have around the house.

This is a very old 1800's embossed Medicine Remedy bottle

The embossing on the side reads-

Blood & Liver Syrup

Ewwww...not sure if I could take this medicine

This one is embossed on the back which reads-

Blood Rheumatism Remedy

The original paper label is just awesome!

They sure liked making medicine with blood in it didn't they...

This Briar Rabbit Molasses bottle is my favorite for my Fall decor.

The label is orange with the face of a rabbit.

An early beer bottle and a 1951 Vernors Ginger Ale bottle; both from Detroit.

The glass on the Wegener's Beer bottle is pretty thick.

This is Bob's favorite bottle....Jack Daniels.

One of my milk bottles that I use as a vase for my handmade prairie flowers.

This Jack is an old favorite.

Hope you enjoyed the bottle tour.

Until next time.

Take care everyone

Janice

A Rug Hooking Tutorial

Good morning everyone, I just wanted to stop by for a quick post to let you know of a wonderful tutorial going on over at Margie's blog.

http://www.hungryhookprimitives.blogspot.com/


Margie will be teaching us how to make this.
Plus she will be hosting other giveaways.

Rug hooking is like quilting in a way.
By choosing different colors, you get a totally other look.

 

So hurry over to Margie's blog and learn how to create this fine rug.
I will see you over there!

Take care,
Janice

Waving the Green Flag

Yesterday after work I made the small trip up to Sanilac County to pay my respects to the antique friends that were unfortunately killed in a car accident earlier this week. Its been a long time since I have been to that particular funeral home and was unaware that they built a new facility west of town. Thank you Dee for pointing me in the right direction. If any of you plan on taking a shopping trip to Sandusky Michigan, Dee has a wonderful shop there called Denise Kelley Antiques.  Her shop is in an original Sears & Roebuck mail order house which was built in 1930 and you could purchase these homes from their catalog.

Before going to Dee's house, I stopped at another antique shop in town (Sandusky Antiques)that was still open and wouldn't you know I had the owner Greg measuring my car and this primitive door to see if it would fit in my car....thankfully it did, but he had to tie my trunk down. I'm sure some folks might have thought it was a little odd for me to be pulling into a funeral home parking lot with a door hanging out of my trunk...the things we antique dealers do. LOL

Afterwards driving back to my mom's house...I decided I was going to stay at my mom's for the night instead of driving home...so before going back to my mom's house...for some reason I decided to make a stop at the cemetery where my dad, grandparents and great grandparents are buried in the family plot. My great grandfather John who married his cousin Rosemary was born in 1851. I started wondering what it would have been like living over 150 years ago...

Well that lasted about a minute or so, because I could hear thunder in the distance...and I hate storms more than my favorite dog Boots did..

By the time I reached my mom's house about 5 minutes later, there was a tornado warning for the town just south of her and the sky looked ominous to say the least. Thankfully no tornado touched down.

Later in the evening, mom and me, we went to dinner and watched some TV. My parents built their house in the 1980's. It is a 3 bedroom ranch, with each bedroom having its own color theme. Blue, red and pink. My mom sleeps in the blue room. My brother refuses to sleep in the red room anymore because he claims there are spirits in there. I do believe in spirits, however I have never had an issue sleeping in either the pink or blue room until last night.

I was in the pink room and something woke me up in the middle of the night. As I opened my eyes there was a person waving a green flag at me...I tell you ladies, I have never gotten out of bed so fast in my life to turn on a light. Once I turned on the light the person disappeared. Fearing that this image was still in the room, I turn on the dresser light and turned off the main light, but I laid in bed for about a half hour with my eyes wide open...I realized I had to get up quite early int he morning to drive back towards home and go to work, so I slept with the comforter over my head...I tell you, this had me really freaked out....

Once at work, I decided I needed to find some kind of meaning for the waving of a green flag...I needed to get some answers as to why all of a sudden I had this experience. I did find that waving a green flag denotes getting out of danger, but what danger was I in?

If anyone has an explanation or can possibly tell me why all of a sudden I am seeing spirits at my mom's house now...please let me know. I was so upset, that I did not even want to tell my mom, for fear she might be afraid of her own house....and this happened in a different room from the one my brother is afraid of...

Look forward to your comments on this one.

Take care everyone,
Janice

The Cane Man

Our small antique family here in Michigan mourns the loss of two of our members; Dane (54) and Polly Frost (55).

They went to meet our Lord Sunday morning in a freak car accident and will be missed by all who knew them.

Dane was a craftsman who in my opinion was the best dang chair caner I had ever met. For those of you not familiar with the art of caning, another word for this is called seat weaving.  See example below.



Polly was usually seen by Dane’s side on weekends, but worked for the town of Sandusky as their finance manager.

Bob and I first met Dane and Polly at an antique show held in Sandusky Michigan three years ago. I was fascinated by his caning technique and kept watching him throughout the weekend as our tent was set up in front of his area.
I went over and talked to him and he gave me some of his business cards and I told him that I would put them in the store and recommend him to everyone I knew who needed any caning done.

That entire 2 day weekend, Dane would work his magic weaving patterns and designs into many chairs…making them come alive again, while most people would have just thrown them away…including myself.

 Bob and I last saw Dane last three weeks ago at the Civil War Days at the Sanilac County museum. He was working on a chair as usual and explaining to folks what materials he was using. He even had a bucket of wood strands in water within reach as he said these had to remain pliable until they were used. I stood there again watching him create his own type of magic.

Again, I saw Dane two weeks ago on my weekend antique trail hunt. He was set up on the grounds of another antique dealers shop along with Polly. I waved to them in passing as they were talking to another customer and I told Bob when I got home that weekend, that the next time we see Dane that I wanted to have him fix my great grandmothers caned chair that I have stored in the attic as it needed to be re-caned.

Unfortunately, this will never happen now….and it saddens me to think that two wonderful folks are no longer here with us anymore.  

This is one of the good chairs from my great grandmother. Circa 1875. 

The one that needs repairing will remain in my attic now.

I guess God needed you more than we did down here, cause now he has one of the

BEST

Until we meet again Dane and Polly.

Take care everyone,

Life is so short.

Janice

Monday Montage

A Civil War Remembrance 

Its hard to imagine having to go to war against my own cousins.

 However, I remember my dad telling me that his grandmother talked
about having relatives  fighting each other during the Civil War.

A war that even though lasted only four years...

lasted even longer in the hearts of those who lived through it.

Today's montage is civil war life, courtesy of the Sanilac County museum in Michigan.

Tent Life

Inside

Most of the comforts of home

Uniform

Women were out there..some even became soldiers

Cannons

Soldiers who fired the cannons became deaf.

Depending on what side of the cannon you were on,

was the ear you became deaf in.

The demonstration we were given that day

was only a third of the charge...

I even had to hold my ears because it was too loud.

What a horrible way to lose your hearing,

nonetheless there were those who did.

The re-enactors actually were cooking their meals over an open fire.

                                                 

Abe Lincoln himself

Confederate soldiers getting photographed

Michigan Civil War Soldiers



Take care everyone,

Janice







Farm Life

Spending Summer's and weekends at my grandparents farms

was an experience I will never forget.

Don't get me wrong, there were days I hated it...

Like cleaning out all of the barns, and then scrubbing the floors with bleach.

(Gramma H did not want the milk inspector to find one cobweb or a dirty floor anywhere)

Or having to pluck the feathers from geese and chickens for dinners.

(Gramma B used all of the feathers for feather pillows and down comforters) 

I also hated Gramma B's Bantam Rooster...

he was a little guy but would peck at my ankles every time I got near him.

I would not have minded plucking out his feathers and eating him for dinner! LOL

Farm life was not that easy; as I had daily chores to do, but I would not have traded it for the world. My parents' home was in the suburbs, so every chance I could get on the farms was a treat to me...really I loved it!

Gathering eggs daily, baling hay, shucking beans and corn.

Feeding the cows, horses, sheep, ducks, geese 

Rhode Island Red chickens and Bantams.

and of course the barn cats.

Also cannot forget about Boots (eskimo dog) & Snoppy (collie)

They lived on my gramma B's farm.

Gramma H had Holsteins and Black Angus cows and calves sometimes.

 Leghorn chickens, barn cats and Shaggy (collie)

All had to be fed daily....but these were chores that I enjoyed.

Great uncle Billy raised only sheep.

He was my grampa H's brother.

His farm was directly across from my grandpa's.

The best part when chores were done,

the rest of the day I could do whatever I wanted.

Climb on a horse and go for a ride.

Read a book out in a field on a sunny day with a piece of Timothy grass in my mouth.

Get in the go cart and take a whirl wherever I wanted to go.

Play in our very own playhouse!!!

Such was the simple life of FARM LIFE...

These pictures were courtesy of the Firestone Farm at greenfield Village.

You may notice the train in one of the pics.

Unfortunately, the farmhouses and barns of my grandparents are no longer.

Take care everyone,

Janice

Yester Year and Today

First I want to thank all of you for following me these past five months...yes it has only been that long. LOL In this time, I have met some very talented ladies along the way who make me laugh, and inspire me. For those who comment, and even those who do not...just knowing you all are out there keeps me going. And even though I cannot comment back to all of you...Bob already thinks I am a blog-aholic; I want you all to know that I appreciate each and every one of you very much! Now will you ladies find me eight more girlfriends so I can give away this Santa and pillow...cause I want to have another freebie for Halloween....LOL

I decided to start bringing out some of my Halloween prims, and I wanted to share this witch from the past. Her body is entirely made from crushed bay leaves and lavender and she smells wonderful even still.

I cannot take credit for making her.

 I actually bought her from another antique vendor who had it in her booth.

So yesterday Bob and I went to Greenfield Village. This was the date that our antique club was all suppose to go, but everyone seemed to bail...but since we each already had the day off planned,  we went anyway...and what a picture perfect day it was.

For those of you who are not familiar with Greenfield Village, it is a 600 acre museum that Henry Ford (the car maker) started to preserve history. It has a total of 80 actual homes in which most were painstakingly taken down in their original places and re-built, and other historically accurate ones. It also has the original Firestone (tire maker) farm which is a real working farm, along with Model T car rides, an authentic train that you can ride and an Omnibus, which is a wagon pulled by a team of horses. Located in Dearborn Michigan, if you love history than make it a point to spend a few days...I say a few days, cause they also have the Henry Ford museum and that will also take a day to go through. It took Bob and I all day to walk the Village and we did not see it all.

Anyway, I was in awe when I saw this in one of the homes. take a look.

A historical wool penny rug!

 Each wool square is made up of 25 pennies.

Then sewn together to make a rug to fit an entire room.

There is at least 500 pennies in the small section from the previous pic.

Imagine working on this...

Now this is what I call a PENNY RUG!  Whew.

My last pic is something from today.

Well actually a few days ago I made these up.

What every witch needs.

Her Evening Wear...

Dang camera getting fuzzy on me.

The tag does read Evening Wear.

Take care, everyone

Janice

Wynken Blynken and Nod

Three more of my newest characters for your enjoyment.

Well, back to creating. Hope you enjoyed this mini tour.

These characters told me to hurry up and send you their pictures.

They are quite the boastful ones and definitely not camera shy.

Take care everyone

Janice



The Ward House

These next pics are from the Ward House.

This house was built in 1881 in Peck, Michigan right after the great Thumb Fire

which devastated Sanilac County, parts of Huron, St. Clair and Lapeer Counties in Michigan.

Its been told that the fire was so loud that you could hear it a mile away.

Sailors on Lake Huron could feel the heat 2 miles out on the lake.

 The fire was said to have been faster than a horse at a full gallop.

My great grandparents John and Rosemary Husson 

were spared from this unbeleiveable force of nature,

along with their farmhouse, land and outbuildings. 

Unfortunately thousands of folks were not so lucky,

and almost 300 lost their lives to this wild fire.

A similar fire of the same proportion hit the west side of the state too.

It was a time where lumber was cut at an alarming rate

and no one realized at the time that a time bomb was waiting to go off,

because even though the logs were being put to good use,

the leaves and unused portions of the trees were left.

One lightning strike would start a massive, deadly fire.

And it did.

The Ward family was lucky to have survived, but lost their home and animals.

This is their home that they rebuilt.

Love this corner cabinet. 

A women's work was never done.

Part of the bedroom.

The ladder went to the attic.

Don't you just love this blue wains coating and door.

The color was original to the home.

Two more pics before I go.

Something I decided to start collecting

A guest speaker inspired me at our antique club meeting.

 I found this 1896 Green Milk Glass Hat Pin Holder.

Add one 1800's black mourning hat pin.

And so starts my hat pin collection.

Take care everyone,

Janice

Monday Montage

Of course this weeks montage is going to be about the goodies I was able to find on the antique trail. I had fun finding treasures along the way, but was disappointed that the towns of Port Hope and Harbor Beach did not participate in the trail on Friday...

Bob said that Marine City was hopping with activity with both the antique trail and the towns Maritime Days Festival...and our sales reflected it! We simply love our customers and we love talking to new customers along with our regulars and was glad everyone was able to make it out this weekend, even though Sunday it rained all day and the outside was a washout.

In our store, we decided to have a sale where if you purchased $25.00 or more in merchandise, you had a chance to pull a ticket to receive 10, 15 or 20% off your total. We also had one ticket that was a $100 shopping spree on us. Although no one won our shopping spree, we had many lucky winners of every percentage category.

Well on to the pics. Hope you enjoy.

This mid 1800 handmade child's chair in original dry red paint.

The chair will go into the store,

but not this cutter quilt underneath.

A hand of tobacco which I already hung on our screen door.

I simply love the smell of this.

This black screen door goes from our kitchen to our back room,

and really swings open and shut.

It reminds me of the screen doors that both my grandparents had

on their farmhouses...I can hear them slam shut as I write this.

This vintage linen laundry basket will be store bound.

Along with this blue transfer ware bowl and pantry box.

This dry blue paint tool box probably won't stay long in the store.

Plus our customers love old school reader books and civil war items.

Even though this is not a prim item,

this Tole ware magazine holder caught my eye.

Loved the simple look of this plant table.

These items were all purchased at different places.

At the time I did not realize there was an egg theme going on. LOL

Milk glass egg holder, vintage egg poacher and vintage paper egg carton.

The 50's canister set is a complete set of four.

I have many more items, but not enough time to show them all.

However the cream of the crop, coupe de ville, best find of the trail

 this year...which I may keep for myself...is this beauty.

This 1800's children's glider horse.

Even though the saddle and right stirrup are missing,

this horse is still a beauty to me,

as these are getting harder to find.

The last one I saw at auction,

however someone did such a terrible job of re-painting it,

that I did not even want to bid on it.

Close up of the head.

I sure wish this fella could talk.

Imagine the look and the glee on that young child's face

when he or she saw this toy for the first time.

I know that my own grandchildren's toys would not be in this good

condition in the next hundred years...as we have become

a throw away society I'm afraid.

Take care everyone,

Janice