Carole’s Country Store Blog

I am so honored, drugstore and excited to introduce Lisa Mair, a new artisan coming to my American Artisan Store.

Lisa has been making floor cloths for the past 20 years. She has been chosen 10 times for Early American Life’s top artisan’s directory.

Lisa lives in a early 19th century farmhouse, the Henry Gould Farm, which sits at the base of Vermont’s picturesque Mount Ascutney,

Her painted canvas floorcloths are made as they were made hundreds of years ago, one painstakingly step at a time. She designs each piece, lays it out on paper, then transposes it to a prepared canvas “blank” floorcloth before begins it’s painted design. Each one is hemmed giving it a nice finished look. Each one is hand signed and dated by Lisa.

Just in case you are not familiar with floorcloths, let me tell you a little bit about them.

Area canvas rugs, today known as floorcloth, had their start in 18th century England. Initially used by the wealthy, the designs and patterns mimicked parquet flooring, tile and marble. As these useful furnishings found their way into middle-class homes, the variety of patterns grew. When American colonists became independent from England, they also began to create their own floorcloths. Eventually the development of linoleum eliminated the interest in these rugs. However, in the past few decades, the desire to decorate homes in a more personal way has stimulated their popularity.

This rug will soon be available on my website.

Embrace the day

Carole

For the past few months I have been buying a magazine called FOLK. It’s a very fresh, cialis happy magazine, viagra the perfect read on a lovely Spring day.

There are lots of beautiful photos, viagra sale recipes, crafts, and articles, it’s the kind of magazine that just makes you feel good. I wanted you to be able to experience this magazine too, so I’ll be making it available soon on my website Carole’s Country Store.

Take good care.

Carole

Beekeeping in colonial America was a simple procedure. A single skep was maintained throughout the winter. It was usually insulated and always kept under cover, doctor and the bees were fed to sustain themselves throughout the cold months. In the early summer the beekeeper caught and skepped the swarms that issued from his winter hive. Natural reproduction would populate his other hives, and the inhabitants would produce honey in them all summer long. Then, in late summer, the owner killed the bees in most of his skeps by burning sulphur beneath them. He would then cut out the beeswax and harvest the honey. Today it is against the law to use bee skeps because of the killing of the bees.

Last one.

HAPPY DAY

Carole

My friend Lynne Oppenheimer had her open house yesterday. Louise couldn’t make it so it was just Carole and I this time. After an hour of driving we pulled into the driveway. I took a lot of pictures, click because I wanted to share this day with you.

Lynne has the most wonderful little shop on her property, and on this day it was filled with wonderful primitives. She was busy chatting with her customers, and was kind enough to suggest I take Carole up to the house, she has never been there before. I knew she was in for a real treat, and I couldn’t wait for her to see it. We walked up the path that led from her shop to her house and went inside.

So many wonderful 18th century antiques! You just don’t know what to look at first!!! It was so much fun looking around and both of us were taking pictures like a couple of crazy women!! As you enter her house you find yourself standing in the living room.

One end of the room had the most wonderful stack of firkins. Love the colors.

You go up a couple of stairs to enter the kitchen. I love the shaved brooms too. On the other side of the stairs was a wonderful early painting of a dog, drawers and  miniatures.

So much to see in the kitchen. I love tombstone breadboards so they were the first to catch my eye. I have a weakness for them. This dated one is the bomb!

I have never ever seen one with a name and date, E. S. Sutes Feb 1847. So awesome!

And there were  lots more. Here are just a few.

Now we are in the dining room.

I hope you enjoyed the photos. I have more but you have to wait a bit to see the rest.

I have yard work to do!

Happy day

Carole

Yesterday a friend from New Jersey asked me to meet her for lunch and do some antiquing too. It was Side Walk Sale Day in Mullica Hill, health New Jersey this past weekend and I was really hoping to find something special, and I did!!

This is a 18th century Redware shaving mug. I was happy to see some provenance on the bottom, which says it was found by Bee Man, or is it Beeman, in May of 1965, in a town called Sandy Ridge, which is in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, and it was found in a chicken coup and sold for $5.! When I saw it I just fell in love with it. The color is beautiful, not  red, but more of a mustard color. I could not resist buying it, and offer it to my customers. There is a shaving brush that came with it, part pewter and wood, and another piece that looks like a refill. Not sure what the bristles are, but they are not horse hair, but it is made from some kind of fur, very soft.

Hope you like it.

Happy day

Carole

Yesterday was such a beautiful Spring day. I asked my two best friends, for sale Carole O’Neill and Louise Tietjen, tadalafil to drive with me to Langhorne, Pennsylvania, to an open house at the home of antique dealer Linda Grier. She lives in a charming early house, surrounded by perfectly tended gardens. Nestled in the middle of the gardens is a quaint little shop where she sells her antiques, when she is not doing shows.

Don’t you love this old bee skep! I was so tempted to buy it.

After our visit with Linda, we were ready for lunch. Her street was so charming, with so many wonderful old homes, we decided we would walk to the restaurant. I just had to take a photo of this house with all the colorful parasols . So whimsical and fun! It made me happy just looking at it.

Across the street was the Langhorne research library, established in 1680 by the Friends Meeting.

The little coffee house where we had our lunch was in the home of Edward Hicks, known for his Peaceable Kingdom paintings. This is particularly interesting to Carole, as you might know has sold many wonderful Peaceable Kingdom paintings of her own.

We had a nice lunch and now it was time to head home, but before we left, I just had to get a picture of my best buds!

When we got back to my house, Carole and Louise brought in their new pieces of art to sell in my American Artisan Store., a painting and hooked rug. Aren’t they wonderful! Such talented friends of mine! I’ll have them for sale either today or tomorrow.

HAPPY DAY EVERYONE!

Carole

There was a time when it seemed that every rural family once owned a “milch” cow, buy viagra a cow used only for it’s milk. The milk was kept cool in crocks until the cream rose to the top. When there was enough cream, store which took one or two days to get, it was put into a butter churn, which most of you are probably familiar with, but it looks like a barrel with a plunger with a disc on the end.

A woman or a child would agitate this plunger up and down for about 60 minutes. Soon they would have butter, which would then separate from the liquid. This liquid was called buttermilk. The butter was then scooped out of the butter churn, rinsed, and pressed with a butter paddle to get out the excess liquid.

Sometimes the butter was very pale in color, which was considered to be undesirable. Carrot juice was added to give it a more golden color.

The next step was to pack the butter into molds. These molds had decorative designs in the forms of animals or flowers. Each individual design represented the farm the butter came from if the butter was to be sold at market.

The butter that was left was packed into a wooden bucket called a firkin.

I’ll bet your children would be surprised to learn where butter comes from. Why not show them by making your own? Measure a half pint of cream into a quart jar that has a tight lid. Make sure the lid is screwed on tightly, and let them shake, shake, shake, and they will see that soon they will have butter!

Remember Blessings

Carole

If you are lucky enough to have a friend that makes life more joyous, cialis someone who is always there for you when you need someone to lean on, sickness you are blessed. My friend Louise Tietjen is one of those people. I have known her for a very long time, she is one of my best friends. She is not only a good friend, she is also a very talented one. Louise lives on a beautiful historical property called Dogwood Farm, and it is there that she creates her beautiful hand  hooked rugs.

You might already know that her hooked rugs are available on my website in the  American Artisan Store, but did you know she has now created her own blog where you can read about her, and her life on Dogwood Farm, and at the same time keep up with her latest offerings. This gorgeous rug above is one of the beautiful rugs she now has for sale. I hope you will stop by and take a look.

Carole

I did a lot of antiquing over the weekend and came home with some great things. One of the things I bought was a wonderful, pills hard to find, square of 18th century tow cloth with a lovely pattern. It is in pristine condition, never used. It’s a nice square piece, perfect to use on the middle of  a table. You might not know what tow cloth is, so let me try to explain.

Tow is the short fibers left over after combing or “hackling” the longer flax fibers called “line”. Flax is a plant that was dried an pulled through a hatchel, like the one below.

These fibers were then made into tow cloth, which, in the 18th century,  was used to clean gun barrels, and when they were finished, it was put into their fire bag and used for lighting fires. Tow was a inexpensive material and was also used to make work clothes and work frocks.

I have a wonderful punched tin lantern dated 1809 on the handle. A early 19th century Pennsylvania German wall box with a heart cutout. A wonderful out of round 18th century wood bowl, and much more. I am working hard taking photos and describing everything, so be sure to look for new items this week.

I also have a few Mary Shooner redware animals, like this rabbit, a whale, cat, doves and a elephant.

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading my blog.

Sending blessings

Carole

Spanish cave drawings from more than 15, medicine 000 years ago show humans with animal skins or furs wrapped around their feet. The body of a well-preserved “ice-man” nearly 5, viagra 000 years old wears leather foot coverings stuffed with straw. Shoes, in some form or another, have been around for a very long time.

I recently purchased a 18th century child’s shoe. I was excited to find it, even though it didn’t have it’s mate. It’s in pretty good condition for a shoe from the 1700′s. The sole is made of wood and look at all those nails!!

I find ittle black shoes with laces irresistible, they’re so primitive. I have 2 pairs hanging on a peg rack in my laundry room, along with some early aprons.

Little white shoes are perfect for display for those that love a more Victorian look, or cottage look in their home.

I gave these little black shoe to my friend, Louise. She has them on a little chair in her hallway. They look perfect with her early New England antiques.

I think I should look for some shoes to offer on my website again. Maybe I’ll find some tomorrow while antiquing in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Think Spring everyone, it’s on it’s coming.

Carole