Venerate Vintage

Last week I was trying to use a patriotic quote each day on my IG account and FB account. I would put the quote with some picture I had previously taken. I found the quote you see below and knew instantly it would go well with a flag picture. Then while looking through my files for a flag picture, I came across my fireplace mantel from last year and knew one of those pictures would work. 

All that hullabaloo leads me to the point of the post: This long vintage piece of patriotic fabric I was gifted some 20 years ago. In our Kansas home, the front foyer was decorated in reds and blues and vintage flags and campaign buttons. One of my daughters had a best friend whose mother owned a cute little shop. 

 One day my daughter's friend brought me the long piece of fabric from her mother's stash. She assured me it was okay with her mother that I have it. I loved the piece, which I knew was old when I got it 20 years ago. I found out years later that the girls mother probably did not okay the gift I was given, but also probably never knew it was gone. I have loved it for 20 years. In our home in Kansas it was draped above the stairway window. (To which I cannot find a picture.) At our home here, I have used it several different ways.

 A few years ago, I used it to drape my mannequin-body 'Lola', dressing her up for the summer with the garland. I pinned it using an antique broach. 

 Lola sat in the upstairs hallway in front of a collage of patriotic pictures. It was a perfect place for Lola and her vintage banner. 

 Last year I used it to drape our 6 foot long mantel. I twisted and draped it until it looked natural like one might find on an old gazebo or podium. 

 The fabric, some type of vintage cotton, is a mix between a rough linen and a fine burlap. It is rather stiff and that makes it easy to drape. I have actually washed the piece before. (!!!!)

 It washed up just fine. Just like many old things, it is hardy and ready to serve for many more years. 

 There are some faded spots in it, but they were there when the fabric became mine and I think it just adds to the beauty of the piece. 

See how the piece wrinkles easily like a linen would? It makes it perfect for draping. 

 This year the vintage fabric served yet another purpose. One of my sons is engaged and his wedding date is the 4th of July...2015.  We set out to take some engagement pictures around our little town. I knew there was a place downtown that had an antique fence with a rock wall in front of it for sitting. I knew the vintage banner would be perfect to be subtly seen behind the 4th of July couple. And it was. 

The purpose of this long-winded story about a vintage piece of fabric? Chances are if you are reading this, you too are a lover of all things vintage. Use them. Use them in many ways. Use them all the time. It is not doing you any good boxed up and put away. Enjoy the vintage that is in your life.  

What do you have that you need to put to good use? 

SUPER Simple Savory Summer Strawberry Pie!

 Honestly, this pie is so simple to make that I feel embarrassed even sharing it. I have the feeling that I was the last person in the world to even make it. Or try it! 

 My Hubs has longed loved this pie. If we were every anywhere that it was offered, he chose it. I looked at it (quite wrong by the way), like it was some kind of congealed blob on a crust. But last week I opened up my freezer to get something out and I saw two Marie Callender (deep dish) pie crusts still sitting there.....Like they had for months. It has been my mission this summer to get rid of some of the things that are sitting in the freezer. So I cooked up the pie crusts. I also had plenty of strawberries, so I googled up strawberry pie recipes. The recipe (formerly known as the) congealed blob came up many times. So I figured why not? 

 Since I had everything I needed I and had already cooked two crusts, I made two pies. For the Hubby, mind you.....Except that I tried it. 

 And I could hear the Hallelujiah Chorus! It will now be my go-to pie in the summer. I put on Instagram  that it takes me longer to blow-dry my hair than it did to make those two pies. That is a true statement. Well we enjoyed one of the pies and shared the other with some deserving people. (They probably think I worked all morning on making it!) Even though I know I am the last person in America to make this, I will share the recipe with you. No doubt you have all ingredients sitting in your kitchen! Enjoy!!!

SUPER SIMPLE STRAWBERRY PIE

Fresh strawberries (one large container can be used for two pies)
Deep dish pie crust (I used frozen and it was great. And if you are making one you might as well make two!)
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
4 Tbs. corstarch
4 Tbs. strawberry jello powder (one small box makes two pies)

Prepare pie crust according to directions. Let cool slightly. Add strawberries (cleaned and trimmed) to the pie shell.  Combine water, sugar, and cornstarch in a saucepan. Boil until thickens. Add the jello and stir like crazy. Pour over strawberries into the pie crust. Refrigerate. We added whip cream when serving. 

I told you it was easy! 

Linking with:

Wow Us Wednesday

Metamorphosis Monday

The Scoop

All Hearts Come Home For Easter

 For Easter we hosted 24 adults and three children between the ages of 1 and 2. And it could not have been a better day. I worked hard to have the house be ready for the guests as well as having plenty of food. In all that, I did not take very many pictures before. You are seeing the afters!  I do have a few food pictures I will post in a day or two though. 

 Among our guests was one of my best friends from my childhood. She brought her two beautiful daughters and her beautiful niece and great-niece who were visiting from Arizona. The niece is actually the daughter of one of my very best friends from childhood. (I wish she could have come from Arizona too! But it was fun hosting her two beauties.) Are you confused now? Well what is important is that the crew not only came, but also gifted me with the beautiful roses for inviting them. Not a bad deal! 

 The bunny parade is from the Meri Meri line. They can be found on Amazon if a shop near you doesn't carry them. The entire line is adorable. 

 Although you can't tell, this table was set with green plates and pastel bunny salad plates. I set three tables, all with different dishes, but all in the Easter theme. Another table had cobalt blue plates and the orange carrots plates. The third table had white ironstone with blue and orange carrot plates (salad plates). You will see them in the last picture. Lots of fun tables.....OH, and I can't forget the kiddie table I set as well. I will try better next time to remember to take pics! 

 This is also my end-of-the-school-year-state-testing-to-the-maximum-stress-season. Because of that, I kept things simple at home. When I come home from school during this testing period I am mentally wiped out. I figured the focus would be on the three cute babies we would have over and not on my decor. And I was right! In fact it is so simple, it is hard to really see what was on the mantle. I'll take you through it. 

 At one end is my all-time-favorite Easter picture. It is of my own five children. They were ages (almost) 1 through 8. I don't think I will ever take a picture I have loved more. 

 This is from 1990, when we still used negatives. Of course I never kept track of something like that. I wish I did. I would love to have this picture in a big canvas. 

 Simple urns that march down the mantle, holding a few eggs. 

 At the other end are a couple of antique Peter Rabbit books I have from the 1920's. The little plush rabbit was one of my daughters. He looks old though. (Possibly well loved!) 

 The simple burlap garland I bought at Target this year for $5.

 You can't beat a bargain like that. 

 This is EB (short for Easter Bunny). He has been hanging out at our family Easter's for 32 years. No lie. He was my oldest son Fielding's on his very first Easter. He has sported the same ribbon around his neck for that long too. If you will notice, he is as big as the wingback chair. I know, I know. Dorky. But after 32 years, we can't leave him in the basement come Easter now! 

 I love this green bunny plate. I have the green cabbage leaf plates to match too. AND...I got them all at Ross. 

 One more dorkism...This little bunny is "only" about 26.  He plugs in and lights up, although we have not done that in years. This big plastic guy has NOT got to come out in the last 10 years or so. But this year I brought it out and put him on our front porch. All three babies hugged that bunny to death. They talked to him, they pet him, they put their arms around him, they kissed him. Apparently he is not a dorky giant plastic bunny in a child's world! 

 Those Meri Meri bunnies come about eight (or more???) to a box. Well worth the investment. This guy was sitting on the entry table. 

 And finally, there was an urn just sitting in my dining room, so I plopped the fake grass into it with a couple of those oh-so-famous-Pier 1 bunnies. There were also several Easter eggs hiding in the grass, but those got "found" very quickly by the toddlers. 

 It took three dishwasher loads for me to get everything washed! I guess I could have washed by hand as well, but I didn't. You can see the green and blue dishes I used as well as the green goblets. I promise the table were pretty. 

I actually got TWO bouquets for hostess gifts! I hit the jackpot. You can see some of the salad plates under these flowers. Lots of fun stuff. But the day wasn't about the simple decor or the cute tables. It wasn't about the painters tape still on the trim in the dining room where I never finished!!  Or the helium balloons still on the ceiling from a birthday party several weeks ago!! It was about family and good friends getting together to celebrate the fact that we are all believers and we know He Lives! It was a wonderful day. 

tcerroC sI sdrawkcaB gnitirW nehW

 ˙pǝʇɐʌɐɹbbɐ ǝq oʇ puǝʇǝɹd oʇ ǝʞıן ʎǝɥʇ ɥbnoɥʇןɐ 'ʇı ǝʌoן ʎǝɥʇ ˙ʇxǝʇ dıןɟ buısn sʇuǝpnʇs ʎɯ oʇ buıɥʇǝɯos ʇuǝsǝɹd ı ɹɐǝʎ ʎɹǝʌǝ ˙ʎɐp sןooɟ ןıɹdɐ ʎddɐɥ

Don't worry. I won''t write the entire post that way. But there are fun things you can do on this April Fool's Day with text! When I was writing the questions for my students, it occurred to me that a post about my letterpress table would be a good one for today. After all, the words on it are all written backwards. 

If you have read my blog before, perhaps you have seen this table. It started out a little forlorn. I had been looking for a good table with a lip around the edge. I knew that I wanted to make a letterpress table and the lip would help keep the blocks in order. 

These are the letterpress blocks. They come in all shapes and sizes and fonts. Just like our many fonts today, there are also many sizes and fonts for letterpress blocks. The different colors on the block are from the ink that has been rolled over them. A lot of times, the red is there to stay (which is fine with me!). To clean these blocks, the printers (back in the day) had a little jug filled with gasoline. It had a mesh circle on top that would press down and a small amount of gasoline would come up through the mesh. The printer would soak his rag with the gasoline and use it on the blocks to keep them clean and gunk free. 

 My family has been in the newspaper and publishing business for almost a hundred years. (There IS a difference between newspapers and publishing by the way.) As a young girl I would see these letterpress blocks used all the time. I began collecting them at antique shows, long before Ebay. Then I collected them off Ebay. I used them for decorating fun, but I was just waiting on the perfect table. Finally, I had it and I poured out my bag(s) of letters one night and had fun. If you will notice, the letters are backwards. They are supposed to be. The word is laid out, the ink rolled on, the paper (or other) set on top and the weight rolled over the paper. Then when you pick up the print, your words are correct. Get it?  

You know the old idiom, "Mind your p's and q's"? Well now you understand what they meant. When building your words or lines, it is easy to naturally put the letter down as we know and see it. (I am the WORST at that!) Therefore the p's and q's could not be mixed!

 As you can see in the pictures, I set up names, places and things that are special to our family. I also put in special numbers. I laid them out and sat them on the table then gathered the extra letterpress blocks around them. There is TAYLOR3 (her birthday day) above. 

 Tim & Lori (above). Yes, I interchanged the fonts frequently. I had to because of the blocks I had. Plus it just makes it more fun. 

 Kelly.

 The SON from Ferguson. Sooners and Wucas. (Well I did Wucas for two reasons: 1. I was out of L's. 2. When my youngest son was little, he said his L's and W's. Therefore that made him Wuke Wucas. :)  Since I had the other letters for Lucas, I figured why not make it Wucas? 

 Yes, I even included our beloved pets. Howie. (We've got them ALL on the table!) 

I flipped the picture, so the words/letters were facing the camera. The arrows are just a sampling of the words and dates that are on there. I did not "arrow" them all. See what you can pick out! (Don't forget...dog is really God!!)

The same picture without the arrows. See how seamlessly the words and dates all blend together?  It's a great puzzle and conversation piece! 

 Notice the really big blocks, like the L and 1?  Aren't the fractions fun? 

 I also have every single type of punctuation in the big size. An ode to the English teacher in me! This could be a comma or an apostrophe, depending on how it was used. Notice I did not put all the filler letters and numbers in the same direction either. I just filled to fill! 

In this picture (in the lower left corner) and the big block in the middle, are advertising blocks. I have lots of old advertising blocks as well. Many of the advertising blocks are brass and can be shined up beautifully.

Believe it or not, I need to start another table. Since I did this one, we had two grandbabies, Leightyn and Behr. One of my sons is engaged as well, so we need to add Tiffani. I thought it would be fun to begin another table, instead of trying to redo the original. I have already begun to store up more letters, numbers and advertising. If you plan on collecting them, be aware, the letterpress blocks are on wood. There are some metal pieces as well, but those were used in linotype machines. I have a few of those as well, but they are the tiny filler pieces.  

Now you know everything you ever (or never!!) wanted to know about letterpress blocks and why the letters are always backwards. Don't you agree it was a great April Fools Day lesson? 

Here is the ugly little table that I got for $10 (along with another one).  

Here it is after I cleaned it up, painted it and made a cute little chalkboard table out of it. It would have been great to keep it just like that. 

But I had all these blocks that needed a permanent home.....

I added some very small casters. Mainly for the effect! 

And I ended up with the table where all the words are backwards! Now you know why! Have a great April Fools Day.  Or as I told my students.....¡ʎɐp sןooɟ ןıɹdɐ ʇɐǝɹb ɐ ǝʌɐɥ

Linking with:
Metamorphosis Monday
Wow Us Wednesday
The Scoop
Furniture Feature Friday