Dating an Item by the Patent Number

There is a great resource out there for all of us who collect antiques or other collectible items. It is a page put out by the government that dates when an item was patented. click on the Title to go to the page. It usually has the plans that were drawn out and submitted too, although you need Adobe to view them. It has been a great help to me and I thought I would share that with all of you too!
Other pages that help with this too are: http://www.bottlebooks.com/patentdater.htm
and: http://www.mwtca.org/mwpat.htm
Check it out!

State Wrestling And Hitting Goodwill

Well last week was a week of getting ready for state kids wrestling in Topeka Kansas and I didn't get much done with my store or anywhere for that matter. It is always fun to go watch your kids do their sports or other activities but in the back of my mind is usually a little voice that says " Hey, I wonder if they have a great antique store or second hand store that I can slip off to between bouts.
I can always find someone who will know where there is a good store to visit. This time was no different. I found a great Salvation Army store just down from the expocenter where my son was wrestling and got a couple fun things there and then on the way home I found the Goodwill store that was just a couple of blocks from my exit to go home. There were a couple great Disney Lithographs I got there, now all I have to do is the research on them.
My family thinks I ought to just go to these events and relax and enjoy them. But for me, they are 10 times more fun if I can sneak away for a few moments and find a few collectible things to take home with me. Besides, it will be another whole year before I get to go to Topeka again, and I you can't miss the opportunity to scavenge the stores in someone elses home town!

THE MOTHER OF ALL GARAGE SALES

And so it starts! It is that time of year I guess, but it does seem to be a bit early to me. This last weekend, March 5th my son and I traversed to Lincoln Nebraska and did what is called

THE MOTHER OF ALL GARAGE SALES

It is held every year around this time and you set up the day before and sell the next day.
Logan and I got in the pickup and hooked up the NEW Cargo trailer I just invested in, and drove the 3+ hour drive to the land of the Cornhuskers! (GO BIG RED). We got there about 11:00 am and set up for the big day & it took us ALL DAY. I can fit a lot in a 10 x 30 foot booth space. Logan kept telling me to quit, but you know, there was room for "ONE MORE ITEM" I just know it was the thing that was going to sell! It did take us all day and by 7:00 that evening we were bushed.
After shelling out the fee for the booth, I really didn't want to get a motel room too -- so, we decided we were just going sleep in the pickup and the trailer. MAN OH MAN OH MAN OH MAN!! IT was COLD!!! Logan slept in the trailer, I slept in the pickup and was just tolerating the chilliness when about 3:30 in the morning Logan knocked on the window of the pickup. He scared the bejeebies out of me!! The poor boy was freezing, shivering his tail off! He climbed inside, we started the pickup and warmed up, shared our blankets and made it through the night until 7:00 am when the we needed to go get our booth ready.
We had a great day. My 18 yr old son was a trooper! and we had fun. I met some great people, you just can't beat the flea market group. We help each other, and if we don't have what the customer is looking for, we usually can steer them to someone who does. It is a fun thing to do, and it helps fund our antique addiction that we all seem to have.
That night, Logan drove home(it was soooo nice) and I told him, that this was going to be a memory for me to cherish. A memory of time spent with my 18 year old who will be leaving in the fall for college and a new life.

Sister to Sister!

This is a great email I got from a gal that found some great jadite in my shop. This is what it is all about, it is the Joy in the find, the FUN, and how exciting it is to find that special "something" for that special person, Like a SISTER!

Brenda,

Last night My sister and I got on Yahoo Messenger and as usual I was bossing her around and making her update her computer etc...
She is the mom of a 13 year old boy, works 12 hour shifts at a paper plant ( Half nights, half days). Has 4 beautiful Maltese dogs and is trying to get the courage up to divorce her husband. She is my only sister and my best friend. I tell you all this because after I bossed her around for an hour, she said this is the first time we have been online in almost 6 months and we can't even look at milk glass and jadeite.
So I typed in ruby lane, we looked till we about went to sleep. She kept saying I love those saucers, that can't mean 20 for all can it? So I had to convince her you had to be a member to get that price. So she wouldn't try to get them. God forgive me!!!
Then I wrote you.
I want you to know that your store made me and my sister really happy last night. We are 700 miles away from each other and haven't seen each other in over 2 years. This will make her screaming happy.

OH just a side note ~ you don't have to be a member to shop at my store! lol. Thanks for the GREAT email L!

What did Your Parents use the butter paddle for?

Remember when, years ago, that items weren't always used for what they were meant to be used for? Like the cream can I wrote about earlier, it was used many times for an extra chair for company, or in my home I have a 35 gallon redwing crock that doesn't make sauerkraut or dill pickles anymore, it is used instead to hold afghans in my living room for those chilly Kansas nights.

Lon, my husband, always tells the story of the butter paddle. Now a butter paddle should always be used to make butter, right? Raised in the sandhills of Nebraska, 23 miles from town, Lon, his sister and brother and of course the neighbor kids - who lived just down the road- could raise a little Cain ever once in awhile. One particular day, they must have raised more Cain than normal for Lon's Mom to get her dander up. It might have been the day they wove electrical wiring through the hammock, hooked it up to the battery and shocked his cousins and sister, or maybe it was safety pinning his little brother ( who was in those cute little footsie pajamas ) to the bed when saturday morning cartoons were on. Or maybe it was trying to fly off the barn with 2 pieces of tin attached to their arms -- they were sure that they could fly. Whatever the reason was, their Mom had had ENOUGH. OUT came the butter paddle, and their shiny rear-ends got a spanking with the working end of butter paddle & I'm sure that butter paddle stung a bit, don't you think??
The next day, they snuck that old ANTIQUE butter paddle out of their Mother's kitchen and dug a hole , I mean they dug a DEEP hole, and buried that Butter Paddle! It wasn't until the next time they were due a licking that she missed it, and then she was really upset, I think it was her Grandmas, by that time the kids couldn't remember where they had buried it.(So they Said!)
Antiques have had many different uses. -- What was your butter paddle used for?

Vintage Valentine Cards

Vintage Valentine Cards This was a wonderful place I came upon that has many pictures of vintage valentines. They are beautiful. -- You can click on Five4us
for some wonderful vintage cards to buy, or click on the above link to view some very special mechanical valentines, and honeycomb valentines. There are some Beautiful ones there, I wish I could see them in person!

Gifts of Vintage Valentines

This is the time of year we think about Love and our sweethearts. But years ago the giving of Valentines was a regular art form. It was a source of entertainment at that time around the late 1800's to early 1900's to collect and display a collection of postcards and trade cards in the parlor for your visitors to sit leafing through the album while they visited. The old ones were so special, such detail and vivid coloring Such as this one with the little lamb that is in my shop.

Cooking With Grandma

I grew up down the road from my grandparents, and one of the things that my Grandma and I did together was cook. Those old spun aluminum pots and pans that made everything taste so good. My first attempt was scrambled eggs and I think all my family had to eat my scrambled eggs 2 or 3 nights in a row because I was so proud that I could cook something. In those pans we made popcorn balls at Christmas and candy like fudge or divinity. We cooked chicken feet and a hogs head for head cheese. We made homemade noodles and roast pork, we had potato dumplings and we made some frogs legs. There are things that we made that were interesting and things that we made that were divine! But it wasn't the cooking that she taught me so much as the moments we shared in that small kitchen up the road from home. My Grandma and I have a bond that is very special. Over that kitchen stove, cooking in those pots and pans, we made more than homemade bread, we made memories. Years ago, I told my Grandma that one day I wanted to have those pots and pans for my own when she was finished using them. This last Christmas, when I was home, she gave me some of the bigger pots that she didn't really have a use for anymore. So I took those old cooking pots home, and I cleared out the cupboard of those newfangled pots, and I replaced them with these that I had gotten from Grandma. Everytime I take them out I think of her. Every time I use them, they bring a memory. And, Everything I make in them just tastes a little bit better!

Halfbakery: Crushed Ice Maker

Halfbakery: Crushed Ice Maker
Here is just a crazy site with half-baked ideas, but fun to look at scratch your head and go hmmmm.

Gooseberry Pyrex Bowl