Jack-O-Lantern Envy

When my siblings and I were kids (a long, long time ago) we looked forward to Halloween as one of our favorite holidays of the year. We didn't go all out decorating the outside of our house, but we took the costume creation veeerrryyy seriously. We loved thrift stores, and are artsy-fartsy, so we could always be counted on to pull out some fun ones.

One of our favorite parts of the celebration, though, was the carving of the pumpkin. That's right - ONE pumpkin. Singular. There were three of us for many years, until our baby sister was born, and we all had to share a lone pumpkin. My mom and step-dad created a competition between the three of us to come up with a design for the annual jack-o-lantern. They would pick one. 

For the only pumpkin. 

You get what I'm hinting at here, right? How much does a freaking pumpkin cost??? I saw them for $7.98 today at Wal-Mart... and of course they'll be cheaper in a week. Would it have killed them to buy THREE pumpkins so that we could each have our own??? It wasn't something I thought of until I was buying pumpkins for my own kids... then I discovered I was annoyed. I have no problem buying one for EACH of my three kids. 

Call me Mrs. Moneybags.

But you know, I'm a mature adult. I've moved on. ;-)

Creating jack-o-lanterns are one of my kids' favorite parts of the weeks leading up to Halloween as well. We pick out pumpkins at local pumpkin patches, cover the kitchen island with newspaper, and commence hacking. Some are scary, some are funny... fat... tall... we are equal-opportunity hackers. 

What are some of your favorite Halloween traditions? Home-made costumes? Haunted houses? Bobbing for apples at the block party? Do tell!

I'm linking this post on day two of the Arkansas Women Bloggers' BLOGtober Fest here. 

Go check out the rest of the awesome posts!

First!

Have you been growing impatient with the lack of chicken chat on Junque Rethunque? My apologies... it hasn't been intentional. I simply have not had anything newsworthy to share. But today... today is big. It's Tuesday's Treasure, straight from the nesting box... isn't it sweet??

Having six chickens, it's difficult to say who this little brown package of awesomeness belongs too. But we can rule out Bernelle... she's an Amercauna, so she'll lay blueish-white eggs. I'm pretty sure that Claudia's eggs will be a little lighter... she's a Plymouth Rock, and they usually lay light brown eggs with a touch of pink, and this one looks pretty much straight up brown. So, it's got to be from Pearl, Virginia, Lela or Katy.

I've been waiting patiently for a month or so now, knowing it was getting close to time for an egg to show up. It's been fun watching the girls grow this summer. They are all so big! I have yet to put a permanent roof on their coop (it's been so dry this year, we have made due with some plywood and plastic tarp.) But it's going to get wet and cold soon, so it's time to put the finishing touches on before it's too late.

I remember gathering eggs with my grandmother when I was a little girl - and I'm so excited to share  that experience of knowing where our food comes from and what it takes to sustain it with my son and grand-daughter in our own back yard.

What are some of your childhood memories that you're recreating as a grownup?

Happy fall, y'all!

Handmade Goodness

This post is the first in what we're going to call "Tuesday's Treasure". It will be a weekly post focused on something special we did or found or made over the previous weekend. This one is a week behind but we'll be more timely in weeks to come. 

Labor Day weekend is sentimental for us. It's the annual date for a local craft show called the Clothesline Fair, which was the first craft show that we participated in together. Erin was knitting bracelets out of thin-gauge wire and adding sparkly beads, I made Snowfolk, and our mom was wrapping wine glasses with wire and beads and making lamp and ceiling fan pulls as well. We called ourselves "6 Hands". We're clever like that.

The second year we participated was 2008, the year that mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It happened the Monday night after the fair. We watched her struggle with balance and mobility all weekend, and she ended up in the emergency room after falling when she returned home. It was devastating, and it has tainted that weekend and the enjoyment I get from the fair ever since.

This year, however, we had a new reason to be excited about the Clothesline Fair - our booth at Summit Hill Cottage Shoppe! We signed up to work at the shop on Sunday, and on Saturday morning we went out to spruce the booth up a bit and take a stroll through the fair.

G-Man went with us, and was fairly well-behaved. He always has to jump on some vintage tractors...
I wish my grandpa had lived long enough to meet him, and teach him to actually operate one of those things.

I lucked into a free piece of pottery when I pointed out a broken bit to the potter, and was happy to chat with one of my favorite local artists, Temple Skelton Moore. My son talked me into a bow and arrow set made from pvc pipe (it's cooler than it sounds), Erin bought a lovely handmade wooden spoon/scraper for her kitchen, but the only purchase I made for me was to replenish my supply of handmade face cloths. I get at least one every year, and have had a few for several years now. They are made from cotton fibers and have held up through washing machines without any fraying or loose knots. They are simply awesome.

It's a treasure that I get to enjoy every day.

Seller's Remorse

A few weeks ago my sister and I (have you met my sister? She's awesome!) had a spectacular and exhausting estate sale at our mother's house. My grandfather built the place, and mom bought it about five years ago. She died last fall, so we've had the house on the market and need to get it sold. Before that can happen though, we needed to get things cleaned out. We've spent time out there over the last year going through the things in the house, cleaning out cabinets and closets, and deciding what's going to be kept and what's not. It was a long, but not as emotional as I expected, process.

In the end, we spent a couple of long evenings tagging and organizing and staging the things that were going to be sold, and had a line of eager buyers queuing up outside when we opened the doors Friday morning. By the end of the first day, almost all of the large furniture pieces were sold and gone. The second day all of the remaining furniture sold, except this dresser and a few antique beds. I think we had them priced right - the challenge is to sell full-sized beds. Most people seemed to be looking for queen-sized.

We can post what's left on our local Craig's List, but I may just store the beds until I have guest rooms to put one or two in. And the dresser may come home with me as well. We'll see... I already have several things set aside to keep, including this table. It was in our house since I was a kid, and it's perfect for a corner of my living room. I'll cover it with picture frames full of smiling faces of my family.

Even with the things we're keeping, I keep thinking of a few things we sold that I wish I had kept. There was this gate leg table, for example. I had no use for it and no idea where I would use it, so it was priced and sold. Then I saw a spread in the October issue of Country Living where a very similar table was being used as the breakfast table in the kitchen and thought "dammit! I could have had that table!" Not to mention, I'm sure the price we put on it was a bargain. But we wanted to get stuff out, not make a fortune.

Then there was the dining room table my grandfather built, which I didn't get a picture of, unfortunately. It had a narrow middle-section, two large drop-leaves on either side held on with piano hinges, and mortise-jointed legs. I remember hearing conversation about the hinges when I was younger, how they were difficult to do well and how great the table turned out. And we sold it. I do appreciate that the man who bought it was also a woodworker like my grandfather, and he seemed impressed to hear that my grandfather made it. That's how I took his reaction, anyway. I just have to keep reminding myself that I really do have enough things he made to share with my kids someday.

At the risk of being annoying, I took the time to tell the stories that went with particular pieces as people bought them. Like the little bucket with the nut cracker and pick set that set on the fireplace since forever. It was always full of walnuts and pecans, and my grandfather sat next to the fireplace and ate nuts in the winter. I considered keeping it, but 1.) I'm far too lazy to eat nuts out of the shell; and 2.) have enough other memories of my grandfather. You just can't keep all the Things in an effort to stay connected. It's an easy mistake to make, but my sister and I made a promise to ourselves early in this process to let things go unless we truly loved them, and/or we would be able to use them. Neither of us need more stuff. She's been better at keeping that promise than I have.

We were really pleased to see several things go to people who appreciated their history and their ownership. One of my grandmother's cousins bought a chair that had been in an upstairs bedroom for years. Turns out, according to another family member, the chair was a gift given to my great-great grandmother in the 1920s. They were thrilled to find out it was a family piece, and we were happy that it stayed in the family. A couple of bakers' racks that my grandfather built also found good homes. One to a young couple who are also cousins. He used to mow my grandparents' yard and spent some holidays at the house. When he found out his wife was at our sale he told her to get something my grandfather made. The other went to a woman who worked with my mother and went to church with my grandparents.

Life goes on. Things find new homes. I've got to find room for my new stuff...

Crafty Memories

I was out at my mom's for a bit today and found a box in the shop that was full of fabric and a smaller box of clothing patterns. I pulled a of the well-worn envelopes out of the smaller box, and found a little time capsule of sewing. There was the peasant skirt and blouse from the 50's that my grandmother made mom when she was 10. I'm not sure if this is the same outfit, but it's another handmade bit of loveliness created by my grandmother in any case... how adorable was my mom!?

There was also my prom dress, dresses that mom made for my girls, the dress she made for my sister's band formal, Barbie doll clothes from the 50's, the cowboy vests she made out of faux leather for my brothers in 1974, the dress and blouse she made for me when I was part of the chorus in my high school musical, Oklahoma! 

These patterns mean more to me than her jewelry or keepsakes. They are symbols of the love she had for her kids. She loved us through the time and effort she spent making these things for us. I'm so glad she kept them.