Monday Montage

Being tomorrow night is Halloween and I will not be my computer,
I am featuring Monday Montage today.
My treat for you all!

The History of the Feather Tree

Feather trees began in the mid 1800's brought to the USA by German immigrants, because cutting live trees was banned to save German's forests.

President Theodore Roosevelt increased their popularity by ordering feather trees for the White House one Christmas instead of live trees to preserve our own nations evergreens. 

Feather trees have become quite collectible and are sometimes called
the Nuremberg Christmas tree because of their German roots.

 Others will say they were the first true artificial Christmas tree.

 Branches were made from a series of wires wrapped with real feathers

 then attached to a wooden trunk, which was then secured to a painted wooden base which was either square or round.

Sears Roebuck introduced the feather tree in their Christmas Wish Book in the 1920's.

They offered their feather trees from two to thirty inches. In later years they ranged as high as eight feet. They also introduced hand blown glass ornaments and handmade candles. Sears also offered their feather trees with electric lights once electricity came around. 

Now I have always wanted my very own antique feather tree.

After many years of searching, I finally found one last year after Christmas. 

These trees are getting harder and harder to find, and because of their rarity are not cheap.

This little beauty is from the late 1800's.

Those with the round base such as mine are older.

It measures just a little over 2 feet but unfortunately has lost its berries.

Each tip should have had a red berry.

My feather tree is not as big as I would like it to be, but we all have to start somewhere.

However it fits perfectly our slanted desk.

Now I am on the hunt for ornaments.

This silver acorn is the only ornament I have at present.

It measures 2 inches high.

 

I also purchased some vintage silver candle clips complete with off white candles.

 

However they are too heavy for this little tree.

So this gives me an excuse to find a bigger feather tree. LOL

Now on my craft side this past week, 

I created another type of tree, along with a few other items for our store

 that I will share later in the week. 

I have named this snow character who is holding his favorite tree 

WHITE PINE

After our state tree.

Well back to creating ladies.

Don't get into too much trouble tonight on

ALL HALLOW"S EVE!!!

A Wicked Blessing to all

Janice

   

Santa's Workshop

Not that I could replace the one and only St. Nick and his original workshop.

Because my workshop is not making toys but fabric goodies.

Nonetheless, my workshop is full of activity.

Only I do not have little elves helping me out.

Although, a kitten named Ace thinks he is helping me out when he grabs

 an end of fabric and starts playing Tug o war with me. LOL

 I have Christmas fabric everywhere.

Wreaths and garlands hiding in the spare room away from Ace

who thinks that these items should be chewed on.

Never enough time to get everything done that I would like to.

Bob and I are also doing an antique show in two weeks,

so trying to get ready for that as well.

If you are in the neighborhood of New Haven, Michigan

the weekend of November 5th and 6th

Stop in and see us for our BWADA Fall Antique Show

We will be set up in the gym.

57700 Gratiot Ave., New Haven MI  48048

Sat. 10 to 5 and Sun. 10 to 4

Admission on Saturday is $4.00

Free admission on Sunday with a cash donations to toys for Tots

or a brand new unwrapped toy.

Help our Marines make sure no child goes without a Christmas.

So, below are a few things that I have been creating for our store.

Victorian Santa's all in a row.

Some very Nosey Snow Men with wool scarfs.

Peppermint sticks

Made by Claus & Co.

Snow Mittens that I am currently working on.

More to come.

Heigh Ho Heigh Ho...its back to work I go.

Autumn Blessings Everyone

Janice

Monday Montage

For this weeks Monday Montage I am featuring our living room

Spotlighting our Pumpkin Pine pieces.

Our pumpkin pine cupboard showcasing my recent find

An 1800 children's glider horse.

The horse was missing the saddle, so I draped an antique coverlet over.

Slanted pumpkin pine desk.

In front of our couch is our newest pumpkin pine piece.

This is a blanket chest.

It's a little too high for a coffee table.

I am in the process of cleaning out another smaller chest

that I have behind the couch that is too heavy to move

 (too many of my favorite prim magazines are in it) LOL

Once that is cleaned out, I will place the blanket chest behind the couch

and move the smaller chest in front.

Ace decided to pose for me in his favorite chair.

I thought I could get a better picture of him,

 but he decided to start cleaning himself as I snapped the pic.

Although this piece is not Pumpkin Pine

it is one of our favorites.

This is an 1896 piece that came out of a post office in Aurora Illinois.

A late 1800's stagecoach chest sits on top.

Another angle of the post office cabinet.

I love all of the cubbies!

Hanging on the door is an early 1900's mail bag.

I hide my Christmas fabric in the bottom part!

Thanks for visiting part of our home.

Believe it or not,

I am dragging things out for Christmas now.

Plus creating new items.

In two weeks Bob and I will be re-decorating our store

for Christmas, so I have to get moving....

Autumn Blessings Everyone

Janice

Collecting Marbles

This past Wednesday our BWADA (Blue Water Antique Dealers Association)

 featured a marble collector.

Grant is from Freeland Michigan and has been collecting marbles for the last 15 years.

Limestone Marbles

 Circa 1700

These marbles were actually made from limestone and are gray in color.

Primarily used for a ship's ballast or in cannon shots.

Clay Marbles

Circa 1800

Clay marbles were usually left in their natural state, but some were dyed beautiful colors. Unfortunately the dye would wear off and you were left with the original natural state. These marbles were both German and US made.

The natural colors are not as valuable as the dyed ones.

Glazed Clay Marbles

Circa Late 1800's

Bennington marbles lovingly known to collectors as Bennie's are either brown or blue. Fancy Bennie's had some color.

 If you can find a green or pink one these would be worth around $15.00 each.

Black & Whites

Circa 1800

These early marbles were used as voting ballot boxes.

Easily distinctable as they are not totally round.

Crock and China Marbles

These marbles were baked in an oven. A design was added, and then baked again.

Because of this process, the color is not throughout.

Agate Marbles

These are true stone marbles and were polished using sandstone grindstones.

Glass Marbles

Circa 1800's

These were blown and cut off the tube with scissors.

The largest of these are 2 inches in diameter.

Some have animal figures that were inserted in them,

such as bunnies, bears and people.

These figural glass marbles can be quite pricey and may sell for up to $600.00 per marble. 

The ones pictured below are lattice glass marbles.

These range between $150.00 to $200.00.

Steelies that we all consider marbles, are not really marbles at all.

These are really ball bearings. However there were steel marbles made. 

They were hollow and always marked with an X on them. 

Mica marbles have actual gold mica flakes inside of them.

Lutz marbles were hand made from the late 1800's

Popeye marbles have the letter S in them. If you can follow a straight line from top to bottom that looks like the letter S, then you have a Popeye. the reason why these were called Popeye's is because they were given as a prize in the Popeye boxes.

Corkscrew marbles have a continuous line going around from top to bottom that looks like a corkscrew, but these marbles have nothing to do with wine.

Moonies are white. How to tell if your white marble is a Moonie is by holding up to the light.

 If the marble turns a orange tint, you have a Moonie.

So now that you have a few ideas of what some of the marbles are like,

maybe you might have some that are really worth something.

There are many more types of marbles out there, like Cat's eye's and Flying Crows.

If you would like to learn more about marbles,

let me suggest this color guide book that Grant recommended to all of us.

The Pictorial Price Guide to Marbles by Robert Block.

Good luck to all of you who may have some marbles in your house or

maybe those who might want to start collecting.

It really is a fascinating world of antique and collectible items.

Autumn Blessings

Janice  

All Hallow's Eve

It was a dark rainy windy night driving home tonight, with the wind blowing the leaves into the road in all different directions. Driving along our mighty river can be a challenge especially on these types of nights where there are no lights on the road except for a car headlight or two. Even the river itself is eerie and dark, unless a freighter is out there. 

As I was driving home it reminded me of a story my dad had told me about a Halloween prank he and his older brother did once. My dad grew up in the time when Halloween was in its infancy, and Devil's night began as a tradition of pranking others...not burning houses down...they had fun just fooling people.

Let me set the scenario for you all. You see my paternal grandparents owned a 350 acre dairy farm and my grandfather's brother  (uncle Billy) owned another 350 acres across the dirt road from my grandparents farm where he raised sheep.

Well one Devil's night, my dad and his older brother Ken decided to play a trick on their uncle Billy. Some folks try to tip cows, but my dad and uncle wanted to tip over an outhouse. So they traipsed over to their Uncle Billy's farm and tipped over his outhouse. Well, unfortunately their trickery ended up really getting them in trouble, as their Uncle Billy just happened to be inside the outhouse doing his business at the time they decided to tip it over...and since they were the only kids in the nearby vicinity, uncle Billy knew exactly where to find them boys...once he got cleaned up of course. 

Their trickery cost them a weeks worth of cleaning out the sheep barn...so they ended up literally in deep do do, if you know what I mean. 

My dad always laughed when he told this story..with the moral of this prank being "Do not go about tipping over outhouses as you might find yourself in deep you know what in the end"!

So tell me ladies, do any of you have any Devil's night pranks that you may have done. I would love to hear about them.

Remember it is only 10 days (nights) away!

Wicked Blessings, Janice 

Monday Montage

How quickly a week goes by.

This week is just a Hodge Podge

of items currently in our store.

Hope you enjoy.

An old phone with no numbers to dial.

An early 1930's model ship hull with two ship portholes.

1893 John Philip Sousa Framed Print

Set of 6 antique sailboat regatta racing flags.

Vintage Lucky Strike Cigarette Tin Sign.

Late 1800 Shaker Measure

Budweiser Beer Tray

Blue Enamel Pitcher and Orange Box.

Autumn Blessings Everyone

Janice



My Goodies

Well its been a crazy week for me.

 Being sick earlier in the week put me off my schedule somewhat.

Ace is settling in to his new home...and making Bob and I laugh on a daily basis.

It took a couple of days for

Tanner

And our Peeps

To warm up to the little guy.

They both agreed...he was too dang cute not too!

Up next. I won some goodies from Lil Raggedy Angie awhile back that I wanted to share with you all. Thank you again Angie!

This adorable brown teddy.

When Mikayla comes over she is gonna love this little bear.

This star mat also found its way into my decor...

Love them all Angie! Thank you again!!

The next goodies that came in the mail were from Shirlee.

Amy from Bumble Bee Lane

hosted a great Harvest Swap and Shirlee was my swap partner.

These are the wonderful items that Shirlee chose for me.

A wool pumpkins pillow. 

These cute pumpkin votive holders.

This crow and sunflowers found a home in my pitcher.

How did you know Shirlee that I have a tart warmer. LOL

The ones you sent me smell yummy and I have been burning them every night!

What a little cutie this one is too!

A ditty bag.

Harvest boxes.

Pumpkin sign.

Candy that did not last long. LOL

Thank you again Shirlee.

Also a big thank you to Amy for hosting this swap.

Its the first time I have participated in one.

Will definitely have to do it again!

Autumn Blessings everyone

Janice

And The Winner of My

Scavenger Halloween Giveaway is....

No One

Just pranking you all again.

This will be fast because I am still under the weather.

I woke up twice in the middle of the night to Ace

giving me kisses all over my face.

Then when I really had to get up at 6:30am

I felt achy and my stomach hurt real bad.

I called in sick and went back to bed until 9:00

Only had fruit and chocolate pudding all day.

Well enough of my bellyaching.

I had Bob draw the name so as to be fair.

The winner is...

LIL RAGGEDY ANGIE

( I was gonna post a pic of the winning name, but too sick. Sorry.)

Congrats Angie!

Send me your address

backporchprimitives@yahoo.com

A big Thank You to all who participated.

Autumn Blessings

Janice

Monday Montage

Hello Ladies, What a nice weekend we had here in Michigan!
Bob and I had friends over on Saturday night.
Dinner consisted of pizza and beer on the dock.
Then Bob built us a nice bonfire and we drank a few more beers 
while watching the stars come out and we all enjoyed a perfect Autumn evening.

Even saw a few freighters go by.

For those of you waiting for the winner of the Halloween scavenger hunt, I am going to make you wait one more day...I know; I said October 10th,
but I forgot today was Monday Montage.

Tomorrow night I will announce the winner, as I want to devote that as one post....

...PS That final clue was just a Halloween Prank by me!
It really was not a clue, but it was amusing to see you all post pictures of what
you thought the answer was, so BRAVO to you all.

Well on to today's montage.
Today I am featuring a few dolls. 

Early 1900 Wood Peg Doll

A Vintage Island Doll

1940's Composition Doll

French Composition Doll

Even though this is not a doll, I wanted to show you this cute little guy.

1920 French Mohair Teddy

This last doll is my favorite.

Circa 1871

 

 

Wax Head Doll

Who at one time was very much loved by this little girl.

The little girl lived in this fine house.

(That is not a ghost in the doorway.)

It's the little girls momma dressed in a winter outfit.

Well that does it for another Monday Montage.

Come back tomorrow when I reveal the winner

of the Scavenger Hunt.

It is between the four ladies who were posting their pics almost daily.

Autumn Blessings Everyone!

Janice