Antique Corner Cupboard and New Years

Right before New Years Eve hubs and I went to an auction and bought a cupboard.

Not that we were planning to or even going for anything in particular.

It was a spur of the moment decision.

 I did mention to him that this auction had antique firearms.  

Hehe, I knew that would catch his interest and sure enough he wanted to go! 

But what surprised me most was how much other stuff caught his interest.  

 While I had quickly looked around and settled into my seat to listen to the auctioneer,

hubs was walking around checking everything out in great detail, 

 then coming back to me to ask did I see this thing or that?  

 He was on a hunt and it turned out he was interested in anything bronze.

 Statues that is. See him looking down over there??

 He was checking out these cute Corgi dogs, a bronze statue by artist 

Elizabeth Leary Strazzulla of Orleans, Massachusetts.

And then he asked if I had noticed the enormous life size Indian and eagle statue.

WHAT?? Why in the world do we want or need that I wondered?

  Where is that going to go?

In New Hampshire at the lake, he replied....

ok... well I guess I could try to imagine it....

and that was only the beginning.  

We would have to wait for it to come up and then bid on it,

and hope it wouldn't be too high.  

I had noticed things like this old tin weathervane which I could imagine

going on the top of our not yet built barn/garage. 

I guess one gets attracted to things for whatever reason....I was 

still processing his attraction to all the statues.

Then I rounded the corner and saw it. 

 The enormous and old corner cupboard. 

 The listing said it was "an important early 18th century 

cabinet" and it certainly was important looking to me.

It looked very old, with lots of carvings and the interior 

was painted with a turquoise color that was appealing.

I can bet Martha has cabinets like this in her homes!

I thought to myself, no one will want this thing.  Its too big!!

We will get it for the lake house!

 So I sat and waited for a few of our items to come up on the auction block.

Finally the big cupboard was up!!

Hubs whispered... Oh please. Don't.

 I continued to lift my paddle until I won.

Oh yes!! I won!! 

And that was that. It was coming home. 

 We went home with all the big things, 

like the Indian statue (bronze but painted white).

And some French barstools, and an antique fish service, 

some big blue and white transferware platters.... 

 And the enormous cabinet!!

 When we checked the measurement of the cupboard I was nervous to see that the cupboard 

was the same height as our ceiling. But it fit like a glove, with the help of our son Justin.

It was meant to be...for now. It belongs at the lake, and in that house our ceilings will be 

a foot higher, so it will fit without any worry at all.

 We bought a few tables, a game table, a dresser, the corgis, 
and another crazy big statue too....

This pretty demilune table with gorgeous carvings came home with us.

Y,a we bought a lot of antique stuff!! And it was sooo much fun!!

These are full size bronze statues out of a Malibu CA estate that someone painted.  

Why my husband wanted these is something I can't answer, but I can tell you it was

very funny when he was bidding on them.  At least I thought it was funny! 

I whispered to him, we are going to be known as "those people" when our neighbors

at the lake see these things on our property.  Haha. I will do my best to hide

them in the shrubbery or behind trees. 

 For now our auction treasures are in our Massachusetts home, waiting for the lake.

Its been so much fun to fill the cabinet with my antique collections

of majolica and transfer ware into the cabinet.

 It was all part of what turned out to be a very fun way to ring in the New Year. 

Before we headed out, I learned how to saber the champagne,
which means cut the neck off the bottle with a "saber" or knife.
You use the back of the knife blade, not the sharp part.

It cuts it clean off!!
 There are a few secrets, and one is to put the champagne
bottle upside down in the ice bucket to freeze the neck first. Then reposition the
casket around the cork to above the bottle ridge neckline, and as you cut it off,
to move the saber up the bottle along the molded glass line of the bottle. 
 It was thrilling!

We had reservations to enjoy dinner

in Boston's historic North End with our youngest and a good friend,
 then headed to Ciao Bella in North Square next to the Paul Revere house
to meet Justin who was working to celebrate some more.

 We capped the night off with more champagne and oysters.
What a treat!

In closing I hope you all had a nice New Years Eve.

We usually spend NYE low key, so this was especially fun and memorable.

 Wishing all a great 2020!! 

 Our family looks forward to many changes this year. 

Building a new home and then moving to the lake 

as our youngest (who, might I brag, just got straight A's in his first senior term)

graduates from Boston Latin School and then heads off to college,

leaving us as empty nesters for the first time. 

The next phase of life has arrived for us Chalmers!

Cheers!!

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Blueberry picking, pie and antiquing at the cottage

 Our lake cottage is still a place we don't use very often because there

is no electricity or running water....but there is a beautiful lake 

with blueberry bushes. We visit most every weekend and our son

noticed the branches were loaded with ripe tiny blueberries.

It was a cool day for summer, so swimming wasn't at the top of our list.

We got right to picking blueberries so we could make a pie.

These are what are referred to as high bush blueberries. They are way up off

the ground, and our "bushes" are so old that they are like thin gnarly trees.

 Our cups were filling quickly as the three of us happily picked away.

 They are tinier in size than most of the cultivated varieties you

get in the supermarket. We needed five cups to make one pie.

 recipe here

The next day I looked for recipes and found a good one at Sally's Baking Addiction Blog.

"Simply the Best Blueberry Pie' recipe, used a cute method to make the top crust using 

cookie cutters.  Sally used stars while I used a vintage heart shaped cutter for the top crust.

 Since we had less than the six cups the recipe called for, I used a smaller

quiche style dish instead of a larger pie dish. 

Finish the crust with an egg wash and into the oven.

Absolutely glorious!! 

Served with Brigham's Vanilla ice-cream, this is 

a very rare summer time treat!

While we were at the lake, I visited my favorite antique shop in Northwood, NH.

Parker French Antiques, which has two shops, side by side. 

I took some phone pics and shared on my Instagram stories.

 The marvelous painted trunk was still sitting there. It may be overpriced, as it 

would have come home with me long ago....

 A set of 4 botanicals in a blue and white fabric matte caught my eye.

 The lower level of the shop has a zillion pieces of artwork, many originals.

 This old French Trumeau style mirror with a tinted print at the top and a delicate gilded

frame with a lot of detail was very pretty and dirt cheap.

 Our 17 year old son loves fishing and he had never heard of creel baskets. Even Reeve has begun

fishing with her dad and mom and she caught her first fish this week!

 These baskets are used by decorators for lodge homes in the
 mountains and by lakes and are sought after in good condition.

The smaller basket has a leather strap and buckle in the shape of a fish head. 

I might have to back and get it and stick it under the Christmas tree!

"An angler's creel is designed to function as an evaporative cooler when lined with moss
and dipped into the creek to keep the catch chilled.  Caught fish are inserted through a slot
in the top which is held in place by a small leather strap. " Wikipedia

Fancy chairs mixed in with old rugs and anything one can imagine.

A very old lawn sprinkler in the shape of a tractor. This thing will roll along as it waters

the grass.  Just a bunch of cool old stuff. I love looking at old things.

 Antiquing has always fascinated me as I love the beauty that antiques and vintage items

have that modern day housewares and home goods do not. 

 If you are curious about the cottage and the land that surrounds it, it is not very pretty.

After suffering tremendous tree loss and having to remove many trees and dig up stumps and 

cut them into logs and haul away, the yard is barren except along the shore area. The snakes of hay

protect the water from silt run off into the water.   We hope to be able to build next year, but for now

we will enjoy what it has to offer.  

Piper has discovered how to swim without being spastic.  She used 

to flop around gulping water but now is perfecting an elegant dog paddle

 and really enjoys getting in the water. She is standing in a cove that was created when

a stump of a giant tree was ripped out of the ground!  

Thats the latest from our little slice of heaven by the lake.

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Antique Wall Cabinets and Gingham Dollhouse Roof

Picking up where we left off on our last visit, I mentioned I had

rehabbed two vintage wall cabinets for the house. And I am pretty sure 

I talked about my Gypsy picker who carries the cool stuff I love.

 This is the photo she sent me showing me the cabinet 
and the Florentine chest of drawers.

Was I interested?

Um....no doubt about it! Of course I was!!

The wall cabinet was a bit dilapidated, with flaking red interior paint and a 

thick coat of gold paint that was bubbling right off the surface.

She told me it had been left out in the rain once or twice....

no matter to me, I knew I could "restore" it so it retained its

old world glamour.  Mind you these paint issues were not the original

paint that had started deconstructing, they were paint jobs applied

by either my Gypsy girl or a previous owner. 

 I scraped off the failing paint to reveal the gesso undercoat that all of these Italian pieces

have.  A huge wall mirror that was hung on this wall was promptly taken down and 

the sadly worn arch top cabinet was hauled into the room. 
 YES!!! I was in LOVE.

 A coat of Jolie's Paint in Swedish Grey 
was applied over the sides, top and door surround,

to cover up the gaudy hardware store gold paint. 
 To keep the old vintage look, I left

the rest of the exterior as is, even the exposed gesso bits. 
The interior was painted with Jolie's Eucalyptus (a grey green)
to hide the red and done so in a scrappy fashion so some of the white undercoat

was still visible so it wouldn't look like a freshly painted piece. 

After hanging it, it clearly still looked too new. 

It needed to be aged so a coat of clear finishing wax

mixed with a bit of dark wax did the trick.

 The old Italian/French cabinet had much to love about it.

The colors look beautiful with the Bosphorous Toile fabric 

on my chair.

 This is "my spot" in our living room. The old bench holds 

all the books and magazines I am reading at any given time.

 Less is more when filling up a wall cabinet.

Some art I have had for 20 years took the top shelf,

alabaster bird baths took the center shelf, and the books I brought 

home from Versailles from an old book store share the bottom shelf 

with my peg legged lamb.

Ahhh the grillwork with the pretty florettes!

Definition of Florette:

1.  A small flower 
2. The mythological Roman goddess of flowers  

 The broken arch top of the wall cabinet mimics the 

secretary which also has a broken arch pediment. The

room is coming along nicely, with the updates in furniture

and colors.  We are in love with that squishy lilac sofa!

And lastly, here is quick shot of the only dollhouse work done lately.

Reeve's little cottage got a blue gingham fabric roof.  Which made me 

think, why can't real houses have pretty roofs like this?

Next I will add the gingerbread trim to the gables and possibly install

the staircase.  She is a bit rough with the house, so I decided not 

to go to the trouble of glueing on one million cedar shingles only

to have her pick them off one by one. In the end it came out quite cute.

I decoupaged the fabric on with ModPodge and when it dried I lightly

sanded it to give it a soft feeling.  Next up will be the last item I

got from my Gypsy girl....which I turned into the most fabulous

medicine cabinet for my bathroom!

Visit Jolie Paint here!

Maison Decor readers will get 20% off orders over $200

using this link: INF-AMYMAISONDECOR

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