Black & Orange

Debra at Common Ground is having her fabulous Vintage Inspiration Friday party again this week. The optional theme is Fall and Halloween Tables which I had totally intended to do. I have been making plans for this since she announced the special theme a few weeks ago and dreaming up what I was going to show.

But alas, real life reared its head this week. My son has been home sick from school ALL WEEK and I have been working hard at keeping him happy, comfy and occupied.

Then I found out that my childhood Halloween was tragically cut short for no good reason (you can read about it here) and well, I have totally lost my mojo and just didn't have the energy needed to put together a table that didn't involve paper plates.

So instead I thought I'd take a quieter, slower paced route and just show you a little black and orange for the Halloween weekend. What is more inspiring than black and orange?














Enjoy your weekend and eat some candy corn for me!

I Was Lied To

Tonight my son is going Trick-Or-Treating. Don't even get me started on why towns schedule Trick-Or-Treat on October 28th rather than oh, let's say Halloween.

Photo courtesy of Country Living Magazine
Anyway, you would think I would have all sorts of awesome stories of my Trick-Or-Treating as a child. Doesn't everyone?

Well, no. As a matter of fact, I don't have very many memories of Trick-Or-Treating because I grew up in a small town in Ohio.

Photo courtesy of Country Living Magazine
Back in the 1960's some kids somewhere in this country had been given apples with razor blades and needles in them for Halloween and our small town in Ohio and a lot of other towns in the area stopped having Trick-Or-Treat.

Yes, they outlawed a long standing tradition because the world was a big bad scary place back then.

Photo courtesy of Country Living Magazine
No more full size candy bars. Yep, they didn't even make snack size candy bars back then, you got the full sized ones when you went out on Halloween. OK, you also got homemade popcorn balls and pennies, so it wasn't all Halloween nirvana.

This whole thing happened when I was around 6 or 7, so I really only have a few years of Halloween fun that I can remember.

Photo courtesy of Country Living Magazine
When I decided to do a post on this subject I started Googling it trying to find out when the razor blade and needle incidents occurred, what town it was in, did they find the culprits, etc. Thought it would be an interesting story.

Photo courtesy of Country Living Magazine
Well, you know what I found? The majority of these needle and razor blade stories in the 1960's were hoaxes.

They cancelled my Halloween memories because of a hoax!!! Are you kidding me! I want my childhood back!

Photo courtesy of Country Living Magazine
Who would steal Halloween from this sweet child?

Photo courtesy of Pam's Mommy
Guess I can gain some comfort in the fact that my parents didn't have to waste money on silly Halloween costumes, jack-o-lanterns or candy bars. Yeah, that was one benefit of the whole thing (insert sarcasm)!

BTW, I didn't need Picasa or Picnik to add sepia tone to my photo, it was already there. It was popular at the time. Along with the pixie haircut.

Wind Storm

Like a lot of other places in the Midwest yesterday we had horrible, scary weather. They were tracking its approach on the local news stations all morning and were warning of possible tornadoes that could be associated with the storm.

It was quite windy in the morning, but you sort of become blase about this sort of thing in the Midwest. They always warn you that things are going to get bad, but then the tornado never hits you and you just sort of ignore the warning sirens after a while.

I won't be ignoring them anymore.

I noticed that the sky was getting darker and then it started to rain a little. Then I noticed the martin birdhouse in the backyard was blowing around quite a bit (and it's on a steel pole). I opened the front door so I could see what was happening out front (stay away from windows and doors!!!) and just about then a huge rush of wind swept by the house like I've never seen before. It was powerful and was bending the trees almost to the ground. I have been in storms before and seen wind blow severely before, but this was different.

Next thing I know, one of the gourds that I had in the iron basket by the front door flew past me and one of the rocking chairs jumped off the porch and landed in the bushes. And when I say jumped off, it's not like it scooted across the porch being blown by the wind, it literally was picked up and dropped in the bushes.

The super duper heavy wind lasted maybe 30 seconds to one minutes at the most. And then it went back to its normal windiness that had been happening all morning.

I was a little shocked that it was over so soon and started to see if we had any damage.

In the backyard a bench was blown over,


my Black-Eyed-Susan vine and pumpkin in an urn were blown over


and one Hawthorn tree was split.




In the front yard the porch was blown around a little.


The rocker was in the bushes,


my mum was knocked over,


wreath knocked down

and generally just a lot of leaves and debris sitting around.

So I thought we had pretty much escaped the ordeal in good condition.

And then I walked around the garage and noticed this scene down the street. (I took this with magnification, so it's not quite as close at it looks).


It's a cinderblock building that used to be used as a farm market.

1/4 mile from our house a tornado may have touched down. Crap!


And then while watching the news they had stories of a horse farm 1/4 mile on the other side of that farm market that had two barns demolished.

This morning the National Weather Service confirmed that it was a tornado. A small one, but still a tornado.




That's a little too close for comfort for me. The next time there's a tornado siren blowing you'll find me in the basement.

And I won't come out until the rainbow appears.


Linking to A Southern Daydreamer's Outdoor Wednesday.

Mixing Bowls

On a recent post I showed you a McCoy pitcher that I bought at a thrift store for $1.91. Although I thought that particular pitcher was ugly, I normally love the look of McCoy. I think it's the the rich colors and the glazing they used on the pieces that attracts me. I love the mixing bowls in particular.

These are some old mixing bowls that I have displayed on top of my kitchen cabinets.


They are 99.9% for looks, because the old ones aren't food safe anymore and the newer ones are well, dusty.

This green one is a McCoy bowl. I bought it for myself for my birthday a few years ago. I found it on eBay and was so excited when the bowl arrived. I washed it immediately and had it sitting on my breakfast bar waiting for it to dry. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my cat looking at it and then quickly stepping into it and trying to curl up and make a bed in it.

This bowl is probably 6" wide, so his butt didn't begin to fit in here. It tipped over, fell on the floor and broke into 5,000 pieces. I cried.

No Otis, I don't know what you were thinking either.

I glued as much of it together as I could, but there is still a hole in the back. That is what started me putting my bowls on the top of my kitchen cabinets. You can hide a lot of problems up there.

These are newer bowls made by Fioriware Pottery, but they have a vintage look to them.

This is also a Fioriware Pottery bowl. Fioriware Pottery is located in Southeastern Ohio which is where many of the more famous pottery makers were located - McCoy, Shawnee, Hull, Watt, Weller and Roseville among others.

These are newer bowls, but unmarked.

These next three bowls are older bowls, but I am unsure of their manufacturer.

I love the designs on these types of bowls.


Oh, and I almost forgot, I have one of these mixing bowls that is a McCoy. I use it a lot, so I don't put it on top of the cabinets.

It's part of a set that would have other different colored banded bowls with it. This is the only one of the set that I have though.


What do you like to collect? Do you use them or just look at them?

I am linking to Colorado Lady's Vintage Thingie Thursday.

Trick-Or-Treat For Unicef

When I was at Toys-R-Us today I noticed UNICEF Trick-or-Treat cardboard boxes at the checkout.


Although I remember a few kids trick-or-treating for UNICEF when I was a kid, I never really knew what it was about.

So I researched it today when I got home. The history of UNICEF's Trick-or-Treat campaign per their website:

Good ideas often have humble beginnings. Such is the story of "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF," which started in 1950 when a group of young trick-or-treaters went door-to-door on Halloween with their pastor in Philadelphia. At each door, they not only opened their bags for candy, but held out empty milk cartons to collect coins for children in need overseas. They collected $17 and sent it to UNICEF. The result was much bigger than those children ever imagined.

Today, Halloween means more than candy, costumes, ghosts, and goblins. It means vaccines, clean water, and improved nutrition for less fortunate children. It means educating our children about the importance of multi-culturalism and community values. "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" is a full-year program that provides youth leadership opportunities even after Halloween.

Since 1950, "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" has been responsible for bringing new meaning to Halloween. Through the years, the children of the United States have raised more than $119 million to help build a better future for children around the globe.


So when trick-or-treat night comes around, don't forget to have some change ready by your door so you can help out the kiddos who are trick-or-treating for a cause.

Fall Thrift Storing

First of all, I survived Chuck E. Cheese and actually had a good time. It was not super busy (on a Saturday afternoon???), so it was sort of fun to play the games and drink a few beers hang out with the kids.

So back to the original theme of this post, I had an interesting day thrifting on Thursday.


I found this newer pitcher which sort of matches some other pieces that I have bought recently from Home Goods.


It has a distressed vintage look and was $1.91.


I thought this might be a shrimp cocktail bowl, but when researching it I found that it is probably a caviar server.


You would put ice in the silver bowl and caviar in the glass bowl.


This only cost $2.92 and was very heavy. Not sure if it's silver plated or sterling silver, but based on its weight I am leaning toward sterling.

Since I have so rarely (as in like never ever before in my life) eaten caviar, I'm thinking of using it to keep chip dip cold.


And I bought this extremely homely pitcher for $1.91.


It's a mottled brown and green leaf and grape design.

So why did I buy it if it's so darn ugly?


. . . . . It's a McCoy!!!

I have never found a McCoy piece in a thrift store before now.

Right now on eBay these pitchers are going for between $7.00 (for a chipped pitcher) and $45.00 and on Etsy there is one for $49.99 and one for $115.00.


For now I will hold onto it and see if it grows on me. And if it never does (chances are pretty good that it won't) then I can sell it on my Etsy shop when I get it up and running.

Although the McCoy piece was pretty cool to find, my favorite purchase was this soup tureen for $2.92.


I've been looking for one with the matching ladle and plate for a while now, but had never seen one in a thrift store before.


And strangely enough I had just commented to Donna at Sugar, Spice & Southern Life last week that they were too expensive at the antique stores.

Does that ever happen to you? You talk about something in blogland and then next thing you know you run across one. Maybe it's my ESP working again.

I am linking to:

Debbiedoo's Garage Salen Party
&
Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays