Antique Roadshow and White Elephants

Hello!  I wanted to share with you some fun things we did yesterday at the Portland Women's Forum meeting.  At one meeting a year we bring a vintage or antique thing we own and tell the story behind them.  We got to see many really neat antiques and hear some great stories.  I took this basket and told this story.  My grandparents owned 480 acres of farmland in Oklahoma where they grew wheat and raised their own cattle, chickens and hogs. They had 6 kids, 5 boys and 1 daughter.  Grandma had to raise a LOT of chickens to feed the family and to provide eggs for all those breakfasts and baking she did.  She rose early to make breakfast and as soon as everyone was fed and everything was cleaned up, she began on "dinner" which was their big midday meal.  Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, more biscuits and whatever vegetables she grew and canned.  I found this egg basket in the old chicken house in 1990 during a visit "home" to Oklahoma to visit relatives.  I love this oak splint basket.

I also took this wonderful vintage ATLAS "Strong Shoulder" Mason jar - it's only 3 3/4 inches tall and has an old Zinc lid with a slit in it so you can use it for a piggy bank.  Isn't this a treasure?  It's supposedly from the 1930s.  

Here is the Zinc lid with the piggy bank slit.  :-)

We also have a "White Elephant" sale at each meeting to raise funds.  One can look around your home and find something to donate and take it there.  New member Hazel has brought some fun vintage jewelry, the dress clips I got at the last meeting and now this fun old pin I got for a dollar.  :-)

Another new member, Chris, brought in this basket.  I snapped it up $12, and only then did I notice the logo on the bottom - "Longaberger".  These are made in America and are quite collectible.  I checked the value on google and I got quite the bargain!  It's called the "Morning Glory" basket.

I love the little porcelain tag on the basket.

I got this artsy crystal bird which I recognized as a "spooner" which holds spoons.  $2.

Here it is with a large serving spoon in it, it's a silver plated Navy spoon used in the WWII Navy Ships in their dining rooms called "Ward Rooms".  I also have a pretty complete set of the porcelain dishes which are white with a cobalt blue strip around them and a tiny blue anchor on each piece.  :-)

This neat book is full of vintage postcards.. for $1!

These will be fun to send out to friends.  :-)

Aren't these fun?

When I took the egg basket down to take it to the meeting I found this painting I did while living in Louisiana when we first got married.  They had Cardinals there of which I am so fond.

I snapped this of the Snowdrops in our front entry.. there is a dense carpet of these.. I love them!

Do you collect antiques at all?  If so.. what do you collect?  I hope you have a wonderful weekend.. it will be quiet here as Kristi and the boys just pulled out to pick up Travis and head south on I-5 to California and Disneyland.  Lucky kids!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)