Martha's Attic

In my travels of hunting for vintage items, I have found a lot of very nice old, chipped, cracked, and broken plates. I ran across several sites where people were making nice pendants out of these old broken china pieces. I loved the look, so, I have been working at my own china charms. I have even opened an etsy shop -SecondTimeisACharm.etsy.com where I sell some of these pendants.

I realize flower frogs come in many different shapes -people, animals, artistic shapes, and more -but I just love the ones that are clear glass. I have been running across a few in my travels and have started purchasing the ones I find. I don't have a large collection, but it's growing! I have always loved heavy clear glass, and these seem to fit that perfectly. I just found this one, it is perfectly flat on top, it has writing on the edge that is very hard to read. It looks like -Pat. Jan. 31 1905, there are numbers 8_419 maybe, the second number has been chipped off and the others I cannot make out exactly. But that date is very interesting. It's interesting how each one seems to have it's own color of glass.

My oldest son and his girlfriend are currently living in Alaska. He had decided that he was going to give her a ring in January when they came home to visit. His grandmother had given him a ring years ago, so he had me secretly send that to him, he had the diamond reset in a beautiful ring, and sent it back to me. He didn't want to take any chances that she might find it and ruin the surprise. He had recently gotten a fancy new phone and Kara had told him she would like to have one, so he told her he would get her one while they were home, (this is part of the story). He brought home the empty box that his phone came in. While home he put the ring box in the empty phone box and I wrapped it for him. They went out to eat with a group of friends, (she said later, she wondered why he was making a big deal out of giving her a phone). He took the wrapped phone box with him and gave it to her while at the restaurant. I think she was surprised! Yay!!!

cognomen n. 1. The last of the three names of a person among the ancient Romans, denoting his house or family. 2. A surname.

Sometimes I have to make the very difficult decision on whether to keep an item that I really love, or to go ahead and sell it to someone else who will also love it . These are some items that I decided to put in my etsy shop for someone else to adopt them. One of my "most" favorites, a beautiful pill box made in Italy with a wonderful victorian style picture on the top. The glass covering the picture is beveled, and there are additional details added to her hair and dress. A lovely old Russian Icon, I believe it has been well loved. I just absolutely adore this bookend! I just wish there were two of them. A young child sitting on a stack of books, inside a book, reading a book. An old "Tootsie Toy" metal doll house stove. The oven door really opens! I was tempted to keep an eye out for an old doll house and begin furnishing it. A beautiful old piece of Crown Ducal- Springtime from the early 1900's. Petalware by MacBeth Evans Glass Co., depression glass fr...

I was taking some pictures out of the window, trying to get a good shot of the birds in the snow this weekend. I thought these turned out well. I was trying to get the male cardinal, but he just wouldn't stay still. The last picture I was messing with in Photoshop. I feed the birds all winter so we have a large group hanging around.

megrim n. 1. A kind of sick or nervous headache. 2. A fancy; whim; esp., in pl., lowness of spirits; "the blues." I'm messing with an old 1925 dictionary --- it doesn't have "migraine" in it.

I found some wonderful Butterick, Delineator patterns from the 1920's. I had seen the Delineator magazine before, but I didn't realize the two went together. So I did some research -Ebeneezer Butterick made the first graded sewing pattern in 1863. It seems before that, they were all the same size. Making it difficult for the home sewer to size her pattern. Around 1865 the Butterick family started printing patterns. In 1873 they started publishing the Delineator magazine -originally it was intended to market the Butterick patterns -it quickly grew into a general interest magazine for women. This magazine was published from 1873 until 1937, becoming the premier women's fashion magazine in the U.S.

patten n. Any of various kinds of shoes, as a wooden shoe or clog, or a kind of overshoe, that raise the wearer off the ground.

I have always had a thing for crows. Could come from when I was young and my father shot one. So I immediately freaked, made him climb down the hill and get it. It was still alive, so I intended to care for it, the only other thing I remember is it pooped on my shirt. Ah, childhood memories.....

Recently I went to an estate sale nearby, and in one of the closets were several ladies hats. I myself am not a hat person, I do not look good in hats, even my children laugh at me. But I saw this cute little black velvet hat. I think it was the stem sticking out of the top. I just had to buy it. So, if you don't have daughters and you don't wear hats -you put it in your etsy shop and hope someone else will appreciate it. I did look up the designer -Hattie Carnegie. She lived from 1889-1956. She started as a milliner and owned a shop in New York called Carnegie -Ladies' Hatter. Later she opened a dress shop on the Upper West Side of New York, then a boutique near current Saks Fifth Avenue. Her dress designs were worn by many famous women, Lucillie Ball modeled for her in her early days. She designed hats, clothing, and colorful costume jewelry.

So, I'm dreaming of spring since we have 10 inches of snow on the ground, and thinking about spring made me remember something that happened last year on a warm spring day. A beautiful warm day I decided to head south to a small town with several antique shops. Enjoying the warm beautiful day I go into the second shop -just ahead of me are two women and a child, they are greeted by the owner and head left, I am greeted by the owner and I slowly head towards the right and back of the store. I can spend hours in one good shop and I like to take my time and look. A short time later I hear the women and child leave the store, then I hear another woman come in and she spends some time talking to the owner, and then she leaves. Just after she leaves I hear the door shut again, I just know this was the owner going out. So, at first I thought she just went out to check something posted on the door or in the window, then - I hear the dead bolt lock! I rushed to the front of the store, but s...