Fresh Cut Friday

Join Wordless Wednesday for some wonderful images.

Welcome to Fresh Cut Friday hosted by Rose Vignettes

Fresh cut from my rose garden - 'Gemini' and 'Spice Twice'

I appreciate your visit, please come back again soon.

Fancy Hats

The French Cupboard with Gypsy Brocante and Counting Your Blessings

are hosting Vintage Black Friday again today.

Please drop by with your link-ups to something black and vintage!


I'm also joining Cindy over at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday.
It's the 1 year Anniversary edition!

These are vintage German peasant hats from Bavaria, worn mainly for special occasions

and on Sunday strolls along country village roads.  Women and girls were still wearing

these in the years after World War II, but they first became popular around the turn

of the twentieth century.

The backs.

Some were fairly simple, but most had lace and silk ribbons in addition to the

woven metallic threads formed over a wire frame.  They look rather like peacock's

feathers as they fan out over the back of the head.  Mine have been in our family

since the early 1950s and I treasure them.

Thanks for coming by to visit, hope to see you again next month for another

Vintage Black Friday.

Split Personality

Welcome to another edition of Tablescape Thursday hosted by Susan over at

Between Naps On The Porch!  Time to show off your tablescapes and favorite dishes.

This vintage tablecloth has a split personality with one half of it providing

a negative image of the other half.  It is printed with wild thistles, which could pass

for artichokes that have gone beyond their prime picking time.

Fiesta is shown in Chocolate dinner plates, Ivory luncheon plates, the new Paprika salad plates,

and Shamrock berry bowls.

Flatware and stemware from Home Goods, votives from Michael's.

Napkins from Home Goods, napkin rings from Bed Bath Beyond.

The little piggy butter dish has had a broken ear for about 20 years, but he is still

most welcome on our table.

This wooden scrap bucket makes a great place to discard the artichoke leaves.

The new baking dish recently released is shown in Paprika below.

Last week's Strawberry tablescape included the smallest of the Homer Laughlin vintage "Apple Tree" bowls, here it is shown in a larger size in the color "Pumpkin."

This little wooden pitcher is holding fresh basil and tarragon from the garden.

My "Fiesta Rooster" came from Home Goods. Although he is not authentic Fiesta, he 

fits right in with his colorful outlook on life.

New Prep Bowl set that brings the baking bowls available to 5.  Shown here in Marigold and

Shamrock in the images with the Tangerine disc pitcher.

The iconic Fiesta disc pitcher in Tangerine.

Thanks for coming by again this week for another Tablescape Thursday!

Spool Knitting

I'm joining Vintage Thingies Thursday over at Coloradolady this week with a blast from my past.

I made my first spool knitter as a Brownie from some nails and an empty large wooden
thread spool.  The shape of a wooden thread spool isn't always the best for little hands
and makes the craft a little more difficult to execute.  When I was about 8 years old, Santa
brought me a spool knitter that fit my hand perfectly, used cotter pins instead of nails and
she still works just as well 60 years later.

Spool knitters have been known by various names over the years, knitting nellies,

knitting nancys, knitting knobbies/noddies, and knitting spools. Today's spool knitting

looms are often referred to as round looms.  This type of knitting goes all the way back

to the time of the Vikings when a bone or piece of wood with two pegs was known as a 

lancet and was used to make strong cording.  In later times this type of cording was used to

make horse reins from leather strips.

The resurgence in crafting projects in recent years has brought renewed interest
in spool knitters and many new versions in different gauges are available.
Here's one that is semi-automated and has two different sizes of spools included,
plus a handy hook.  The size of the knitted "tube' is dependent on the diameter
of the "spool" and where the "nails" are positioned. With the advent of some
of the new knitters, many patterns beyond the basic stitch I learned are available.

And here is my spool knitter from all those years ago ..... all the knit doll clothes and blankets and chair pads for my dolls have disappeared, but the knitter is still here.  Somewhere around here is my square loom for making "potholders".  My mother's kitchen drawers were always well stocked with potholders made on those simple looms and they lasted forever.

She was made in Germany by Strick and each of the different designs
had a different girl's name (usually, although there were some male characters).

My 5 yo granddaughter was completely perplexed that I didn't know what
my knitting was "going to be".  The concept of just knitting a long tube
was something she was having a hard time grasping. :-)


Thanks for stopping by again this week for Vintage Thingies Thursday.

Alphabe-Thursday Letter B

I'm bringing back this post from last November to help celebrate Alphabe-Thursday Letter B

over at Jenny Matlock. What do you have that begins with the letter B?

This is really a celebration of Sapphire Fiesta, but Sapphire doesn't begin with the letter

B ..... so we'll just go with BLUE begins with the letter B.

Vintage South of the Border tablecloth is called "Fiesta" by Simtex, with Post 86 Fiesta in Sapphire, Lemongrass and Scarlet.  Flatware is "Masquerade", a licensed Fiesta accessory pattern, glassware by Pfaltzgraff, napkins from Tuesday Morning.

Hope to see you again next week for the letter "C"