My Primitives Failure

I have a longtime favorite seller on eBay.

Her primitive style is just so ---well, primitive! I am always inspired to simplify, to celebrate the mundane , the  drab, the old, after a tour through her eBay store.

So this year when she began showing "Pie Plate" dried sunflower heads, I was hooked.

Charmed. I loved how they looked, the texture, the simplicity.

I bought a batch of, I think, 7 or 8...

They came beautifully wrapped, truly the size of pie plates!---and moldy. Even squishy.

It wasn't her fault! I rescued maybe five. Dried them on a wire in the sun. Inspected daily for insects and varmints....

In her Maine house with crisp fall nights and breezy days, a wood stove---sunflower heads probably dry beautifully.

At the beach they shrivelled and grew grey mold of mammoth proportions. They exuded a weird odor!

I hung them outside from the eaves in the sun, hoping the survivors would dry. Finally they did...and the little flock of sparrows that lives in my yard loved every kernel....

Dare I suggest, in the future : faux...?

love

    lizzy 

gone to the beach...........

Flea Market Finds

handmade old prim Camel cooky cutter

 Oh boy, I got all involved with pumpkins and stuff and never showed off my recent-est flea market treasures.

So here goes....

Lots of little things, mostly for Christmas crafts. Won't these chandelier crystal drops make amazing icicles?

I also do reverse decoupage on some of the flat ones....

I use vintage images like these. Great postcards! See, even some turquoise skies there?

And vinatge jewelry...

Some to re-utilize:

Some to maybe sell...?

Don't these look just like tiny cupcakes? So cuuute!

A few autumn-toned Staffordshire transferware plates for my collection...

I especially like this black plate...I think it is very old---pre 1840?, note the makers mark and decorated reverse.

I also love all its cracks and nicks and chips...for myself, the shabbier the better, though I just KNOW I am supposed t buy only pristine. Investment, you know. (not!).

Big flea market Sunday! I am looking forward to the drive through the marshes and then the parkway with hopefully colorful leaves!

love

                lizzy

......gone to the beach

Quicksand?!?

Hi! Phew, I made it home...a scary experience at the beach: quicksand!

Who knew? [more on that in a minute...]

We had a bit of a storm and some beach flooding yesterday, the sun came out and I rushed home to walk on the beach. The flooding meant I had to walk along the dune edge quite a ways west to find a shallow place to cross to the waterline---where I was just sure treasure lies, lol.

I found a place with shallow-looking water, mostly just wet sand. Took a careful step...and sank into the sand past my knees! Cameras went flying, hat too. And of course my second foot followed to try to save my balance but no...I plowed head first into the wet sand.

Here's my only audience!

Not a human soul for miles. Luckily I was able to extricate the second foot and then scrunch over to dry sand and get to safety. But it was frightening. I'd have been there for a long time before anyone missed me.

Amazingly my cameras survived. These photos are from my binoculars with the integrated digital camera. It was totally soaked and sand-encrusted but I think it survived, the shakiness of the pix is my hands shaking after I got home! I got this camera when they were very expensive. Now you can but them at CVS for $29.99. I think I am going to get a backup, love it for bird pix. 

And yes this did happen to me once before...I took one of my kids---age 3 or 4! stupid!--- on a snowy beach hike, and sank through the snow into quicksand. That was worse, because my boots stayed in the sand and I had to walk home in the snow and ice with one sock and a bare foot! My kid was fine, of course. (We found my hiking boots that next summer in the sand...).

No more storm hikes for me with out leaving a note. 

 love

     lizzy

              gone to the beach.......