My Latest Antiquing Finds and a Sneak Peek

Since my return from Canada I have been busily preparing Halloween dolls and ornaments for my first foray into the craft show world, coming up in October. So I have many new creations in the works, but most will be held aside for the show for now.  I do have some wonderful new antique show and shop finds to share though – some will become part of my show display.  I found all of these pieces up in Canada.  I would have brought back even more items, but my parents beat me to a few of them… when we go antiquing together, we always seem to go after the same items!

antique show and shop finds

I would also like to share a sneak peek of my September 1st offering for Early Work Mercantile – she is a very primitive and scary witch.

Early Work Mercantile September sneak peek

Check back next week to see more of her!  I will try to squeeze in some new Etsy offerings soon too.

It’s Not Easy Being Green

The canning continues in my backyard garden center… and despite the copious amounts of pickles that my cucumber plants have been producing, my husband has decided that he hath not enough cucumbers for his brine. He has therefore been attending our local farmer’s market each weekend to buy up all of the small cucumbers for sale there so that we can pickle them, too.

Behold the gallon jar.

gallon jar of cucumbers in brine

I would also like to introduce my newest primitive folk art creation – a Halloween frog witch doll, created using a fun Soft in the Head “Frogette” design. She is ready to cast spells and enchant hearts. Available in the Old World Primitives Etsy Shop now.

primitive folk art frogette doll

SOLD, thank you!

And finally, an upcoming vacation notice – I will be on vacation August 8th – 15th. All orders received by 2:00pm EST on Friday, August 7th will ship before my vacation begins. All orders received between August 8th – 15th will ship on Monday, August 17th.

Primitive Folk Art Witch Mannequin

April 2012 Update: due to the tremendous response that this item has received on Pinterest, I am once more offering this creation for sale in my Etsy shop.

My newest creation this month is a primitive witch mannequin make-do that can function as a spooky pin-keep or a unique addition to your primitive Halloween decor. This piece is 21 1/2″ tall, and was created using a Hudson’s Holidays pattern. I enjoyed getting to use some of the beautiful 19th century reproduction fabrics that I recently purchased to create this witch mannequin.

primitive folk art witch make-do pin keep

primitive folk art witch mannequin

Crows, Canning, and Collecting Antiques

After a weekend spent getting most of the windows in our home replaced (and moving everything in each room out of the way… and then back into place again… and then cleaning up the mess), I finally had time to get a new primitive crow doll that I finished making last week listed on Etsy today. She is 19″ tall including her witch hat, and was handmade by me using a Veena’s Mercantile pattern.

primitive crow doll in a witch hat

SOLD, thank you!

The canning of all those pickles in my last post has also begun! I’m boiling the salt water for jar number 3 already, which I will add to a jar stuffed with pickle cucumbers, fresh dill from our garden, garlic, and horseradish root to make Polish style cucumbers in brine.

canning cucumbers in brine

Once the lid is sealed, we ferment them for 1-2 weeks, and then open and eat! We’re already eating jar #1 – delicious! (Or shall I say, bickering over who gets to eat the last pickle from the jar… after which my husband drinks all of the brine.)

And finally, I went antiquing last Thursday at the Chester Antique Mall, and have some photos of my finds to share. I set out wanting to find a piece that could function as an end table for next to our living room couch, and that is exactly what I came home with. I also found a fabulous lopsided, slotted iron spoon to add to my collection.

antique pine trunk

antique pine trunk

primitive antique spoon collection

Vintage Style Chenille Halloween Ornaments – and Photos of my Gardens!

I just added a new set of 3 vintage style chenille  Halloween ornaments to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop. Each Halloween ornament is handmade of chenille and hand cut vintage Halloween images printed on card stock.

Halloween folk art chenille ornaments

I also added this new set of Halloween ornaments to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop last week.

Halloween folk art chenille ornaments

And now I have some garden photos to share – what a difference our new raised beds with great quality soil have made this year! We are using organic and/or heirloom seeds and seedlings, and absolutely no pesticides or chemicals. No fertilizer has been used yet, but we’ll add some of the organic compost that we are creating in our backyard Earth Machine composter soon.

my garden - July 2009
My orange bell pepper plants are so happy and healthy this year! I can’t wait for them to get ripe.

my garden - July 2009
Does anyone need any jalapeños?? I didn’t realize these plants were going to be so prolific – in a couple more weeks, we’ll be swimming in them!

my garden - July 2009
This row of red and white onions were planted from seedlings, and they are extremely happy. I made the mistake of planting snow peas right next to them and THEN reading that snow peas don’t like to be next to onions, but they are still steadily producing nonetheless.

my garden - July 2009
These are my onions planted from seed, after thinning, with my herbs behind them – dill, basil, parsley, and cilantro. I went a little too crazy with the cilantro.

my garden - July 2009
Grape tomatoes – I picked and ate a few after I took this shot.

my garden - July 2009
The biggest cluster of tomatoes I have ever grown – 9 and counting!

my garden - July 2009

my garden - July 2009

my garden - July 2009
Help, help – the pickle cucumbers are coming! My husband is a pickle fanatic, so we planted 23 pickle cucumber plants this year. The canning might begin this weekend or early next week.

Halloween Goodies & Kutztown Folk Festival

Can you believe it’s just about July already? This year has just been flying by. I have been busy working on new creations lately, and just finished updating my Early Work Mercantile Shop for our July 1st update. My offering this month is a primitive witch make-do, which I created using a Kentucky Primitives pattern.

primitive folk art witch make-do

SOLD, thank you!

I also added a new set of 3 vintage style chenille Halloween ornaments to the Old World Primitives Etsy Shop, and will be adding a bunch more Halloween ornaments (both chenille and cloth) soon too.

vintage style chenille Halloween ornaments

On Sunday I also had the pleasure of attending the Kutztown Folk Festival in Kutztown, PA for the first time and I enjoyed it so much, I can’t wait to go back again next year! The festival included over 200 crafters both selling and demonstrating their crafts, and the quality was just amazing. There were SO many things that I wanted to buy! It was hard to stick to my budget and leave with just a few small goodies, but it was really fun and inspiring to see so many high quality crafts. There was also a quilt barn filled with over 2,500 handmade quilts, many of which I wished I could bring home with me too. We also sampled lots of yummy food and drink including the homemade fudge that I am snacking on right now, looked at the many exhibits, listened to some live folk music, and watched a thatched roofing demonstration. A few of the pictures that I took at the festival are below.

Kutztown Folk Festival

Kutztown Folk Festival

Kutztown Folk Festival

Kutztown Folk Festival

Kutztown Folk Festival

And finally, a big thank you to everyone who voted for my extreme primitive black cat doll in the Etsy Americana Decor Voter Poll! She was featured in a Storque post announcing the voter favorites and is now included in the Americana Folk Gift Guide.

Primitive Folk Art Ghost Doll

Just listed on Etsy – a spooky new primitive folk art ghost doll, ready to haunt a house near you.

primitive folk art Halloween ghost doll

SOLD, thank you!

She is made of lightly stained muslin and cheesecloth, measures 22″ high, and was created using a Kentucky Primitives design. Float over to Etsy for more photos and a full description.

Rebecca – An Early Style Primitive Folk Art Doll

Today I have decided to pull myself away from my gardens long enough to introduce Rebecca, the newest addition to my Old World Primitives Etsy shop. She is an OOAK cloth doll with a face sculpted from Paperclay. She is entirely hand painted, antiqued, and sealed. Rebecca’s early style outfit was inspired by my fascination with the Amish of Lancaster, PA and their old-fashioned way of life.

primitive folk art doll

primitive folk art doll

And now it’s back out to the gardens for me.  This year my husband and I created two raised beds in our backyard, inspired by the great success our friends Dawn and Bill have had with them (and how delicious everything they grow tastes – we just got our first sample of the season at another amazing BBQ in their back yard last night).  With some advice from a recent article in Early American Life, we now also have raised beds of our own – filled with 4 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, pickle cucumbers, orange bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, red and white onions, snow peas, strawberries, dill, parsley, garlic chives, basil, and cilantro.  Many more veggies will be added in the late summer for a fall crop.

Early Work Mercantile Grand Opening!

Early Work Mercantile is now open for business! Before I head on over to browse through all of the other talented artists’ goodies, I would like to introduce you to my two new offerings that are available now in the Old World Primitives Early Work Mercantile Shop. Both dolls were created using Netty LaCroix designs.

First is Hester – she is an extreme primitive folk art pioneer doll.

extreme primitive folk art pioneer doll

extreme primitive folk art pioneer doll

My second offering is a spooky extreme primitive black cat doll.

extreme primitive black cat doll

For more information about each of these dolls, please come and visit them over at Early Work Mercantile. I on my way over there myself right now!

Extreme Primitive Black Cat + EHAG Prize!

I was planning on making an Uncle Sam doll as my next creation, but I couldn’t resist squeezing in a primitive black Halloween cat first. This extreme primitive black cat doll is wearing a witch hat and was created using a Netty LaCroix design. He is available now in my Old World Primitives Etsy shop.

extreme primitive black cat Halloween doll

SOLD, thank you!

In keeping with today’s Halloween theme, I also received a wonderful package in the mail today. I was the lucky winner of a set of curious Halloween ornaments handmade by Iva Wilcox in EHAG’s Frightful Fête 3rd Anniversary Giveaway. I was so surprised and happy that I won – and when my package arrived, I discovered that Iva had also tucked in a beautiful signed, limited edition ACEO Halloween print as an extra. Thank you so much, Iva, for brightening my day with these lovely goodies!

giveaway award from Iva Wilcox