Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Vintage from a Fish Market?

 Here's an OLD Butcher's iron store sign from the 1880's, which adorned our front deck.


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So how did I come by this sign? Well, I inheirited it. This was found in the basement of our family's fishmarket.

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Back in the day when the street where the store was first built in the 1880's, no less than a dozen nationalities inhabited the area, all 'fresh off the boat' from Europe. It was not uncommon to have visual signage, instead of printed signage because of so many languages in use. Pretty much, why and where Barber Poles came in to use.

I am descended from an OLD line of fishermen and women. My family was in fishing for at least seven generations on the west coast of Denmark and here in the US.

My great-grandfather brought his entire family over in the early 1900's. Here is one of the last family photos taken before they left the Denmark. My grandfather George appears to be a very tall ten or twelve years old. My great-aunt Agnes was few years older on the left. My great-grandmother was Anne Marie and Great-grandpa was Niels. My little grand-aunt is Gudren.

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They had a comfortable existence in Denmark, a tidy little tiled-roof home, probably a few hundred years old. Those are sand dunes in the background on the left, they lived so close to the ocean. When their village was by-passed by the railroad, what was once a successful fishing hub could no longer thrive since they would be competing with fresher fish in the larger cities.

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The Sweet comfortable family home on a street named after my family.

The family chose to settle in Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan and again fish with my Great-Aunt Agne's husband Peder. This worked for a few years, but in 1922, my great-grandfather (right) and grandfather opened a fish market. Here is their opening photograph. They specialized in smoke fish, the smoker was right behind the store. Though the store has changed hands several times since my dad retired, the company still provides fish and smokefish in Wisconsin and Illinois. Over half of my family moved to the United States.

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On the right table you can see trays of smoked chubs and whitefish from Lake Michigan. My Uncle Peder, continued to fish for quite a few years providing the shop with fresh fish. The small display cabinet to the left was filled with ice and fresh fish. There was no mechanical refrigeration at that time. Ice was delivered regularly and the store had it's own icehouse.

The address is 1028 above the door, the year is 1922. So where does the Butcher shop come in?

Well, my family owned the entire building on the corner, which was actually three shops, and was built in the late 1870's. The second store to the right is 1026, which is shown here in 1946 as a Barber Shop.

Early in the 1950's the Fish Store moved to 1026. My dad worked for my Grandpa starting about then, and later he became manager when my Grandpa passed. 


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During the 1970's the OLD store had a booming businesss and a NEW remodel was in order as the building was almost 100 years old. This is (think GREEN) back when you didn't tear everything down every 30 years, mind you.  My dad tried to clean up around in the basement, which was really gross. (I remember) and filled with a hundred years of odds and ends. Back in the corner he found these two items, the sign now on top of our deck and this long butcher's rack.

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The old butcher's rack, originally hung on the wall with various large meats displayed. This piece mounted on the wall. It actually had a mechanism to make it wider or shorter. The rack had been in that basement since before the 1930's.


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 You can see the original silver paint on the blades of the cleaver, knife and saw.


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 I love the curlicues and the stars along with the spread eagle at the top. The bolts and washers tightened and loosened to make the rack longer or shorter. It measures over six foot in its rusted state.

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  Antique (circa 1889), Bernard Gloekler Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa, meat rack with an intricate bolted construction of wrought and cast iron.
Marked Pat.Pending May 1889

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It was American made by an immigrant for immigrants. I love the eagle. I wonder how it looked in 1889?

Gloekler's made all sorts of ironwork for the food industries all the way up until the 1970's.
Today it is in far from desirable condition, or it would be worth a pretty penny.

While in the basement by himself, my dad fell into an old well in the floor, luckily he pulled himself out...by standing on this last item that was down the well.


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It was the well's pump, here it is complete in all its rusted glory summer of last year. We assume it was the original pump for that store.

We have it working with an electric pump from the pond during the summer. The birds line up to take a bath under the water stream.

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You can see the three dark birds waiting for their turn. Now what could be more OLD, or a REDO.

I'm glad my dad caught a foothold on this pump, and had the strength to pull it out of the OLD well. The date on the pump is unreadable as the rust is pretty deep. I have given up trying to keep it painted white, like my mom did. I REDO by giving it a super spray of sealer every year to hold the rust at bay.

I have had no luck in finding out the name of the Butcher. Such are the tales from a fishmonger's great-grandaughter. Hope you enjoyed the peek into where I get some of my goodies, lol, sometime's by chance and inheiritance.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own or I am in possesion of the originals, 
I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or products used. 
Please do not use my photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. 
Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

Thanks for stopping by, and I will be sharing at these fine parties:

Sandi

 




Monday, October 26, 2015

DIY Barbie Doll House: Week#3 Pt.2- Finally COLOR



AT Last
COLOR!

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At last color----well, here's planning color first anyway.

Wanting to get away from Barbie magenta/pink and purple in all the furnishings and after consulting my daughter-in-law, we talked about a contemporary look with some fun things in a wider color family. Like a real house, and real people.

But, still using as many materials we already have. We both love green, and I had the green and white contact paper which is perfect for the kitchen. The gray tile which looks blue here, is really gray silver which is perfect as appliances and some furnishings will be stainless steel. The gray/silver tile will run through the living/dining room with white walls and the green and teal blue for furnishings and also on the third floor bedroom and bathroom.

The 'hardwood' flooring, brown bath tiles and beiges are on the bottom floor in Ken's man cave.

Barbie's bathroom/closet and bedroom on the third floor will be pink/white in the bathroom, with the pink tiling, and the other fabrics, purple, pink and stripes for the bedroom in the linens and furniture. With the silver gray floor that should work really well. And there will be green touches here also, there are two shades of green in the striped fabric.


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So here is the tiling which is actually scrapbook paper mod-podged in satin directly onto the walls. I used two coats of modge-podge.  There are still a few bubbles here and there, but almost everything disappeared after drying. I used a foam brush and worked from the center out and then quit. Do NOT over work, the paper will not stand up to it. Actually wrapping paper works better, but finding tile prints is hard.

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You can see the bubbles, but they really did shrink out when it dried.

 Here is the last of the pink tiling paper is laid out on the board with the pink paint.

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Here is the bath/bedroom colors again. I mixed the pink on the upper right from old paints I had. Magenta....lol and white and it was almost close to perfect.
 

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One of Ken's bathroom walls. More bubbles, but they do shrink out!



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All three of his bathroom walls and look how the windows pop. We chose beige for the paint. (This is the trim paint in our family room.) So free. I did have to buy some white satin paint as we did the interior of the shed this Fall, by mixing all our light colored old paints together (GREEN) instead of sending them to landfills.


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Here's that tile wall with all the bubbles, dried. It looks great with the hardwood tiled floor-6 tiles at 89 cents each with a rebate.



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I couldn't resist showing the wall cabinets on top of the green and white contact paper. (I did have to use a spray adhesive as the contact paper I've had for years and wasn't very sticky). So it was pressed down twice. I trimmed with the metal square and a sharp exacto tool.

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I think the colors will work well, the appliances will be stainless steel and all metals will be silver.


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Add the white walls in the living room. I may do an accent wall on the stairway wall, 
to break up the white. 


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Here are the walls with the windows, I need to do touch up but will do that after assembly. As there are many things to do yet, that could mess up the walls. I will use a sponge brrush and just dab paint on.

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We couldn't resist holding up the walls to get the 'room' effect. Working on the pieces flat has saved so much frustration. You just have to measure carefully, but we are putting up baseboards and door trim,  and ceiling cove moldings (which will hide the electrical).

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We laughed when we saw this at first,  on the east walls. Neopolitan icecream, lol.


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Here are the white walls and the fabrics for the living room and dining room. I think the stripes may wander into the kitchen too.


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Cutting the floor tiles was way easier than expected. I placed the complete tiles at the front of the edges and worked to the back. I marked with a waterbase marker, and cut with an exacto knife by scoring and bending then another cut. Using a metal straight edge is a must. A rubber mallet is a great tool, I also used a rolling pin to press down the tiles, as we won't be walking on them.


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Really just a few simple tools. The white strip is the woodbase and a wall will go there 1/2" wide. Again these are leftover tiles...so basically free.

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READY to MOVE IN...NOT YET
Next is Week#4
Moldings, Electrical and Wood Trim.
Just like a real house, but WHEN are we going to get to the FUN stuff...????
and then again, the workers aren't union. 
 Plumbing: the toilets are brand new---so there shouldn't be any major problems, but everything else is second-hand or vintage though, or hand made, so there will be lots of DIY posts!



All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or products used. 
Please do not use my photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. 
Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle



Thanks for stopping by and all questions or comments. 




Sandi





Sunday, October 25, 2015

Halloween: SPOOKY not SCAREY, Gramma!

This is my last chance to blog on Halloween decorations.

So, last weekend we decorated the yard with the Grandaughter who is now a very grown up three. She had asked for, "Not Scarey, Gramma," very seriously. So we let her choose from our bins of OLD Halloween to add to our Fall decorations. "No skeletons...and no scarey faces, Gramma!"

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She said okay on these NEW cute, fuzzy Spiders. The OLD spider webs are just about ready to bite the dust, I think this will be their last year. 
They seem to grow out of the shutters on the garage, up the front walk.



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The wreath on the front of the garage got an assortment of gauze bats-Walgreens last year, a sweet witch, a pumpkin light with a (GREEN) solar light inside of it. The pumpkin sticks are OLD new old stock from maybe 1988 when I was doing decor for a Pumpkin Farm, that is now a shopping center. I had a dozen or so stacked in the basement all painted and hubby slammed them on sticks this year and I let him stick them wherever.

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Sweet Witchy is really cute...I think I have had her for quite a few years, and handmade from a craft show.

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These OLD goofy rubber spiders were icky black ones I bought wholesale, maybe 10-12 years ago. A REDO,  I had painted them all with glitter paint, added rhinestones, fur, or lace. I think I sold over three dozen of these silly things, and I have just a few left.

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Greeting at the front walk, is an adorable sign which says Black Cat Crossing...I was already starting to lose the light.


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Here is one of many black cats in the yard under a fuzzy purple spider and web. The cats have green marble eyes which pick up lights at night, Spooooooky!



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At the end of the walk is the Mermaid...with a new REDO eye. she crashed over and busted her insulator eye, so now she has a knob, which I should paint white, so she doesn't look like she was in a fight.

Her delightful spider web scarf and a mask will make her ready for Halloween. Her pet flamingo --is well a pet. 


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Here is Grandaughter with Grampa at the Pumpkin Farm....she thought that this was really cute. I can't wait until she sees what Grampa came up with for our yard.

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How cute is this SPOOKY TRAIN, even with the crabby ghost....I hope she loves it, and a 3-year old, doesnt' understand what RIP means...I'm going to put something over the skeleton face, Maybe a big red smile and google eyes.


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At the bottom of our new stairs....an OLD Halloween sign and a light up spider. Grandaughter gave her okay on all of these, she only halted a bit on the NEW 'grimace' pumpkin on the left from Goodwill.

 Letting her picked out the decorations....was fun and she helped with all the pumpkins and lights. For a three year old, she was very patient when the lights didnt' work, and was fascinated in collecting all the small pumpkins falling off the lights!, lol.


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The peachy striped pumpkin was the Fairytale Pumpkin that grew up in the tree. It still hasn't turned completely.


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Another spider on this OLD ceramic Jacko-Lantern. I will change the chalkboard for the trick or treaters next week. 

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 The pumpkin cage got a PINK Hairy Spider with googly eyes.


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 I moved the floral arrangement in the enamelware coffee pot to a more sheltered area...
a bronzey spider is nesting in it.


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Inside a few more glitter spiders here and there and the spider netting.
A pic with without flash and with.

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I love the fabric on the table, I think it is Debbie Mum and has a border of Jacko-lanterns. 
I've had it for years.


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More SPOOKY netting and another ...playfoam spider web on the lampshade, was declared not scarey. Mr. Scarecrow came in from outside for this shot.

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On the right side of the buffet, a gourd jacko-lantern. I've had these for years. I use colored flicker lights to give the illusion of candles.

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I love the texture of the natural gourds. 


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I have no idea where I got these great napkins, but they were very cheap--Walmart maybe.
Here's the pumpkin lit, I did put down a gauze net spider web on the counter, otherwise I left the middle of the buffet the same.


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I do have a few tiny glitter spiders somewhere in the workshop---I will look for them tomorrow.


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My Mini Mantle with a bit of gauze, to make it SPOOKY!
I don't like moving everything away and try to work around our everyday items.

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The witch is from AVON from my daughter-in-law last year. It has fiber optics and blinks so cute lit up. The pumpkin is from many years ago...a bit of netting and the spooky-creepy glitter---dollar store sign from this year...and another OLD glitter spider, just the same color.


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I had to start using the flash as the short days, are cutting the light early now.


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A Vintage (REDO) cardboard cutout hangs in the front window. You can see the low sun, filtering through the trees. I love the way the curlicues in the glass window are echoed in the pumpkin/cat print.

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Next picture without the flash---came out Sppooooky...with no alteration? I was really starting to lose the light.....then........


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YIKES!...then this happened in the next picture, uh----oh?

And nothing after that would take a pic, without smudging and schmearing~~~sooooo
I guess CUTE~SPOOKY can get ***SCAREY~SPOOKY*** after all???

*~~~MaurRAHA~HaHaHa~Ahahha~hha~hhahhaaaaaa!

~HAPPY HALLOWEEN!~



Thanks for stopping by, and I will be sharing at these parties:

 Sandi