Gone To The Beach: 2013/10

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Haunted Spirits

Happy Halloween!

I've noticed a weird and strange trend in blogland! People who put up their Halloween decorations right after Labor Day are , yawn, oh so bored with the whole Halloween schtick. And they are proudly taking down their jack o'lanterns already! Now! Before the holiday. Isn't that sad?

As you know, I start my fall decorating on Columbus Day...and I only put out the Halloween things a day or two before Halloween. Then I put them away right afterward. This keeps them fun and fresh and cute, not tedious. But, you know, that's just me...."live in the now".
Today I have a few pix---and two very cool links, so, enjoy! BOO!

Below: I've had this guy since college!

Wonderfully odd photos by novelist Neil Gaiman here Did you look? So haunting.

more spooky stuff! be sure to scroll down.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach

Monday, October 28, 2013

Halloween Kitties - Vintage Quilt

click any/ all photos to enlarge for details...

Hello! What a gorgeous, perfect October Monday it is! I hope it is nice where you are too? Tomorrow is one year since Hurricane Sandy tried to sweep us away. We've been having power failures all weekend, as if the power company wants us to recall just how cold and dark things can be.

Anyway! This quilt: I keep seeing it on Pinterest, probably a photo saved from when I had it listed for sale on eBay quite a few years ago.* I wanted to post more pictures of this amazing and adorable treasure. Maybe I'll even figure out how to get the pix up on Pinterest, wish me luck!
www.pinterest.com

Brightened photo....quilting shows less...

Details: purchased in NYC, many years ago, from a very well known dealer/ historian. Yes, it was very expensive! Her tag is marked "1940's. Tennessee". It is all hand appliqued with tiny whip-stitches. The little faces are embroidered. It has stunningly beautiful hand quilting, with even tiny stitches. The original pencil marks, for the quilting, still remain; it has never been washed or used. Oddly I was sure it is signed, with a handstamped name, but I cannot find the name now. (Too bad...!)Very tiny, narrow black binding.

I always think of the kitties as black, orange, and pink, but there are quite a few colors here: burgundy, lavender, two shades of tan, two blues, as well. [light spots are glare from lighting.]

again, photo is lightened....

I love how the faces are all the same, but each kitty has its own expression!

(I am not sure the date of this quilt is correct. It does not look like a war years quilt to me. Perhaps 1930s? Certainly safe to estimate 1920-1950? I'd love to have another expert opinion.)

Quilting. almost like spiderwebs?

*Ebay: Well eBay can be discouraging. I was thrilled to sell this quilt to a woman who seemed as enchanted as I am with the quilt. However when she received it, she was very upset that it has "stains"! It took me awhile to find the marks, though I do admit they are there. What does one do? Wash the quilt to remove a few tiny pale dots? And remove all the old markings and pristine unused-ness? I took it back, gave her a refund...and never listed it again. [spots, below]

Happy Halloween

love

lizzy

gone to the beach

Friday, October 25, 2013

More Colorful Fall [part 2 of home tour]

Hi again....I won't ramble on today. This is the rest of my little cottage---dressed in its Autumn finery!
The blue bench in the entry hall no longer holds a huge basket of beach towels.

A favorite crock. Not antique but I love the chickies.

and a blue bread bowl from Maine filled with sweet scented cinnamon sticks and star anise"

I also love these light-up pumpkins, in distressed mercury glass. And my NYC crock filled with Chinese Lanterns.

Baby Boo

with my mother's (from my aunt?) crystal candy jar, filled with absolutely necessary Reese's Cups and candy corn.

Shells and a doll quilt with a Massachusetts late 1800s cheddar quilt folded behind.

Drieds in a prim old bowl, on the table...

My unfashionable but beloved yelloware bowls....

And the autumn hued transferware. Most is 19th century or early 20th. Though not as valuable as some of my very old blue transferware pieces, I prize its oldfashioned charm.

Sepia pansies! With long ago-dried orange and clove pomanders...

Next week I will add the gaudy Halloween stuff! Just for a few days?

(Then out come the turkey platters! OMG! Another favorite collection I keep hidden in a drawer in my bedroom. Shhhh.)

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Colorful Fall - part one

Hi! I know many of you decorate your home for fall...and some of you do nothing much at all. My mother, always chic in a classic way, could fill a crock with hydrangeas, toss an old quilt top on the table, light a bunch of votives, and her house looked wonderfully autumn and inviting.

I am ambivalent. One of my favorite blogs, A Beach Cottage, is showing adorable baby blue [painted ] pumpkins this week! here
Of course she lives in hot summery Australia, so...? But then my quilt-loving, antiques-collecting soul wants traditional: orange! Rustic...a little prim? Colorful!

Last year we decided we got too tired of the orange pillows by December,

and so I did an Autumn of stormy grey, indigo, browns, blues. Prophetic, as we sure induced a Storm, and had little time to enjoy that color scheme. This year I treated myself to store bought pillows, ordered from One Kings Lane. Sophisticated ikats, not home-spun. Ha! They went to Pennsylvania instead of The Beach.
I was so sad.

www.onekingslane.com [obviously cannot recommend]

Out came the orange stuff:

I will probably move this quilt [old blocks, finished by me] to the dining room table next week, just for Halloween. I am afraid the old blocks may fade if allowed to be in the sunshine for too long...

Not a pumpkin was left in the stores this week! How is that possible? I used what I have....

In photos the rooms sometimes look a bit bare, but my family is not fond of clutter. (They'd love Sarah's baby blue and white Halloween.) And they don't really like the quilts but tolerate them since they must,lol.

I love old transferware china [English Staffordshire]and as the seasons change I display different colorways. I love mixing a few old mulberries and purples with the traditional browns and polychromes....[below]