Fred and Ethel have come to the shop..........

I loved Fred and Ethel of the " I Love Lucy " show.......and 

they look like a "Fred and Ethel"........don't you think?

I found these two just as I was about to leave a vintage shop.

I just happened to turn around and saw them lying on a darkened shelf.

( click on photos for a better view)

Fred has some break issues. His plaque has two broken corners and his beak is a little chipped.

What draws me most to pieces like this is the paint work on them.

Ethel is in beautiful shape. No chips or damage.

They are both wall planter pockets........probably from the 40's........maybe?

I just wired Fred with some stout wire and hung him and Ethel on the wall of the kitchen area in my vintage shop.

They filled this empty space on the wall perfectly. And they make my kitchen area look like a vintage country kitchen.  

on another note

Do you often find that you have some kind of beautiful linen or item that has been stored away, but you really would like to use it.............but  cant think of what to do with it? 

I have ..............

such as  this beautiful vintage crocheted piece hat I have had  for years. I is hand crocheted..........perfectly......I love it for the pink and white colors.

and for the sweet crocheted flowers in the center............

also for the fact that my dear friend Bell made it many years ago.

The door to my vintage shop has no curtain........so I thought that this piece would be a lovely curtain.

However, it was about 4 inches too short.

I also have had these cute crocheted squares in my stash.........pink and white.........

so I stitched them together and added them to the bottom of the large crocheted piece..........

and I ran a small curtain rod through a few of the top loops of the crochet.........

and it turned out to be a beautiful crocheted curtain for the shop door! I think Bell would really have liked this......don't you think??

Now...........do you have any planters that you have hanging around??

Do you name objects that you love?

What do you do with crocheted items to make them usable?

I would love to hear!

Wishing you a very happy Easter!

 For a wonderful Easter dessert recipe

, vising my cooking blog by clicking onto this link

My Country Kitchen 

Three very old quilt tops have been waiting for my needle

to stitch them into quilts for the bedrooms. 

Through the years that I have had them, they have been moved from one room to the next, folded like this to decorate.........then I moved them out to my vintage shop. But looking at these every day as I stitch.........and recalling the lovely lady I once knew who made these.........all by hand...........I know I need to spend at least one day of the week quilting them.........don't you think?

Bell was a dear friend of mine, who also had a little antique shop. I would spend hours at her place, helping her to clean, organize and display her wonderful items. One day, I found these quilt tops in a box.

When I told her how beautiful I thought they were, she gave them to me, saying that she no longer had the desire t quilt them. 

Bell was frugal and was not the one to go to fabric stores to purchase fabric for quilting.

There are all pieces of clothing or linens that she had through the years of raising her family, back in the 40's.

And now, starting this week, I am going to take time to start quilting them. I will show you my progress as time goes by.

Also, the spring weather has awakened my gardening side and I have been planting and decorating with flowers. I love this netting fabric,  and it makes a great hold for soil in decorative baskets. 

(click onto photo for a better view)

Also, I found the perfect vintage picture for my shop. The main theme in my vintage shop on linens and dishware is roses. And I want an nostalgic and old look to the shop. 

This is an old window, with 

real roses........dried and  arranged and then framed in it

. It was once someone's treasured bouquet of pink roses. 

It even has the baby's breath and leaves. 

I wondered who it once belonged to, and the lady I bought it from (who was around 85) told me that it had belonged to her sister who had recently passed and that it had been framed like this for many years. She was not sure of the significance of the bouquet. 

Now it is hanging in my shop

and is the first thing to be seen as I step into the door. It will be a "staying piece, not for sale"

It looks as if it belonged here all along.

Now I wonder.............

Do you have any special bouquets or flowers that you have kept over the years?

How do you preserve yours?

Do you kept pressed between pages of a book..........or do you have them in a seal jar..........

or perhaps you have displayed like this?

I would love to hear! 

An Update on my last post about Enid Collins handbags

As most of you know, I just posted about Enid Collins and her handmade handbags...........just realizing that I have actually had one in my possession all of these years..........and not knowing how special it was.

You can read about this and Enid Collins in my previous post.

This weekend, I went out on a picking adventure and to my delight, found two more Enid Collins handbags!

( you can click onto photos for a better view.)

Isn't this beautiful?? As you will read in the previous post, she named each bag with a different name.......

this one is called Floral basket. As you can see the "Collins" brand mark is on the bottom part of the bag as well and can also be found on the inside.

It  has a long strap to it. 

This is one of the popular wood bottom and leather strap kind. 

the name and brand are on the back of this one. This one is called

Les Fleurs.

Here is the one I have had for many years. The strap actually unsnaps and can be longer.

It is called Soft Touch. 

Now they are in my vintage shop and look so pretty! Don't you think?

How about you?.........do you collect vintage handbags?

What is your favorite?

I would love to hear!

Enid Collins.............the jewel in handbag designers

 Enid Roessler grew up in San Antonio, Texas . She then met and married a sculptor, Frederic Collins  and they  moved to a Texas Hill Country Ranch immediately following World War II. Both were craftsmen. Enid had studied costume design while working for a fine arts degree at Texas Woman's University. Frederic was an engineering draftsman whose hobby was animal sculpture.To help out with finances, Enid opened her first shop in 1959.

Combining their talents, they made some leather handbags, all hand-dyed and stitched, with ornamental brass closures sculptured by Frederic. The living room of their ranch house soon became a leather workshop as they filled special orders for friends and supplied the small shops at nearby dude ranches.A dress-designer friend suggested that they submit samples to the handbag buyer at Neiman-Marcus. They did--and to their great delight an order for $500 worth of handbags and matching belts followed. This was the beginning of Collins of Texas.

Soon the two of them could not fill all the orders, so additional workers were hired and trained, one at a time. More working space was require, so they rented a workshop in Medina, a tiny village of about 350 people. As the business grew, Frederic and Enid became more specialized in their individual contributions to it.

The leather handbags which they made were a seasonal item, and it was the search for styles which would enable their operation to keep busy all year around that led to Enid's creation of the decorated totes and wooden box bags that were to set fashion trends in casual handbags.

The designs all had names,--each told a story--each had something special or personal that the prospective customer could relate to. Some of Enid's classic designs are "Money Tree," "Road Runner," "Night Owl," "Carriage Trade," "Cable Car," "Sea Garden," "Love," and many more. There are currently 100 designs in production in the two Collins of Texas factories.

As the business grew, the need for a less expensive item became apparent, and Enid came up with the idea for a handbag made out of a wooden box, painted and jeweled. Acceptance grew slowly for such an original concept of fashion accessory. When it was copied, or in the terminology of the trade, "knocked of," by a New York firm, it received the boost it needed, and the wooden box bag is now a classic. There are many imitations, but no more copies, as all Enid Collins designs are copyrighted.

I have had this bag in my collection of purses for over 30 years..........not realizing that it had the Collins logo and name on the outside and inside. I just thought it was pretty and kept it all of these years. I recently found and article about these wonderful purses and the native Texas lady who made them and  remembered this bag in my collection. I am always delighted to be surprised by finding out about each piece I find as I learn the unique history or origin that it belongs to. This purse  looks to have never been used. Yes........it will be for sale in my shop. 

How about you? 

Do you remember these bags?

Did you own one are did your aunts, mothers, or grandmother's own one?

I would love to hear!