Finishing up my Tropical Cottage Living Room

I'm almost done with this part of the living room.

I bet you thought I would never finish.

So I googled the name on this lamp. It still has it's label. 

I had trouble figuring out the name, 'cuz it looked like

Gordey.

But the great thing about Google, is if you don't have a clue.....

(meaning, if you are clueless.)

it suggests other options to consider.

It kept trying to tell me, what I really wanted to look up was:

Cordey.....

Sooooooooooo..............

I toodled around the internet, and found a Cordey figurine that still had its label, 

and it matched my lamps label!!!!!

soooooooo.........I looked up info on the company, and this is what it said:

It was founded in 1942 and produced stuff until the mid century.

Sooooooooo....

This guy is actually older than I thought.

You've probably noticed that my bird theme flows over onto my lamps.

YOU IS SO SMART!!!!!

Another Bird Lamp!!!!!

I know absolutely Nothing about this lamp.

So you have been saved from having to read a lot of boring @#$.

I have a collection of sardine boxes. This is the only one that is metal.

It's silver plate. Just one more piece that I'm not polishing.

On the back wall of my living room, by my drafting board, i have a wall full of palm trees and tropical birds.

The guy from ebay that sold this to me was an IDIOT!!!!!!!!

When he shipped this picture, he didn't protect the glass properly.

It came with the glass in broken shards that tore up the watercolor in the top right corner.

WELL!!!!!

I loved the feeling of this piece, so I took it to my local framer who mounted the artwork on a paper board as close to the color of the painting as possible. 

Then......

I used chalk pastels to color the new board, trying to match the color of the clouds.

To finish off the repair, I actually grabbed some dirt and smeared it around on the paper.

Then I had it put back in the frame with new glass.

I think I did a pretty damn good job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the GREAT things about ebay, is getting to see such a wide selection of stuff you'd never run across if just antiquing at your local stores.

You also get to see just how much of the same crap is out there!!!!!

I was looking under artwork for "Tropical Birds", and came across this pair of oil paintings. 

I felt like I had scored this amazing rare find!!!!!

ONE OF A KIND, I tell ya!!!! ONE OF A KIND!!!!!

After buying them, I kept looking for "tropical bird" paintings, wanting to fill up my walls.

WELL, much to my Surprise I not only found the same pair again, but AGAIN!!!!!

They must have been mass produced in a painting studio around the Victorian era. Nice to know that poster art has been around a long time.

I have NO stories about these three paintings, soooooo

just look at them.

I keep this magazine rack by my drafting table. I use it to hold my drafting supplies. I think I am very clever!!!!!!

While I'm talking about my drafting table...............

Let me show you what I'm working on now!!!!!

I'm redesigning my laundry room.

It's going to be my next project!!!!  

That squiggle to the right is me.

I always draw a stick figure in that is my height, so I can check the scale.

That's when I realized that it would be hard to reach my library books in the top wire wall basket. But I liked the way it looked there, so I ordered another one from Ballard Deign, and drew it in freehand at the bottom.

This is where I will hold my library books, so I don't forget to take them back to the library!!!!!

I don't know if I will have time to renovate the laundry room this winter, or if I have to wait till next year. That's one of the disadvantages of living 6 months at a time in a place. It can take me that long to figure out what I want to do next.

This is one of those walls that looks bare with nothing on it.

YET has absolutely no purpose. Sooooooo....

I just stick stuff in front of it that looks pretty.

The ship is a flower frog!!!!!

It was made in Czechoslovakia and imported to the US probably sometime in the 30's or 40.s

(or 50's)

It's stamped with the importers name:  Erphila.

The bird is an older chalkware piece, probably made around the turn of the last century.

Being a classy babe.....

Along with my finer collections.....

I have me some Florida SOUVENIR plates!!!

I use them on tables to act as coasters. 

MIX YOUR STUFF UP FOLKS,

MIX YOUR STUFF UP!!!!

And, LASTLY!!!!!

Here's a photo of some of the pillows I sewed with my own little hands out of vintage barkcloth.

Hope you enjoyed my Living Room!!!!!

Now, on to the next space!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Majolica, Paintings and Ebay...OH MY!!!!

Hiya folks!!!!

I'm writing in a different size font today.

Please let me know if this is too small, or if this is a better size to read.

There are so many different contraptions people use to read blogs, 

that I don't know what size is best.

With that being said!!!!

On with talking about more stuff!!!!

When we last left our heroine, we were looking at the tschatchkes in her living room......

OK, that's as long as I can refer to myself in the third person......

When I stopped Fridays blog, it was because blogger was having fits, and typing right off the page. 

So I will continue at the point I left off.

In order to look super smart, I have been googling all the stuff I'm showing you.

So it looks like I know what I writing about.

AND I JUST FOUND OUT SOMETHING REALLY COOL!!!!!

The dish shown in the photo above, as was previously stated. is majolica.

OK, that I knew.........

What I didn't know (or I may have known at one time, and have forgotten)

(that is starting to happen, more and more)

(It's not 'cuz I'm old, it's 'cuz I know SO MUCH STUFF there is no way I can remember it all!!!)

OY, where was I?????

Oh, yeah, it's majolica, but it's English majolica.

Then the Americans got in on this pattern, and started making some.

The American pottery is called Etruscan, and has a stamp like this on the  back.....

The American pottery is not as common, and tends to be more colorful.

I have four pieces of it.

Who Knew???

Here's a close up of the Etruscan.....

OK, enough about majolica, 

I'm getting bored, so you probably are too.....

Next!!!

Lets talk about my white and turquoise collection.

What's really weird, is that this stuff is from America and England also.

The American pottery is called Catalina, and was made in California from 1927-1942.

It's the stuff with the white outside, and the blue inside......

Looking at this collection, I could have sworn I had more Poole Pottery,

(the blue shell with the white inside). 

But I must have been thinking of what I found for my client and friend, Connie.

So.....

Connie.....

See how I put you first???????

Anyway, not that any of you really care, but Poole Pottery is from England.

I know......Big whoop, right?????

Some vases.....

A bowl.....

Some more vases.....

A console bowl.....

Generally.....

If you group enough of one type of thing together.... it forms a collection...and can look pretty cool!!!!!

I really like this vignette.....

I think it has a lot of humor.......

and besides.....it's pretty!!!!!

The ceramic parrots are from Germany.

They were produced in the Karl Ens Volsktedt factory.

Sometime between 1890 and 1972. 

I don't know when, don't ask ME!!

Continuing the parrot theme.....

I found this GREAT!!! oil painting from some place in Europe, I can't remember where.....

Of course I bought it on ebay.....

'course, I could say I got it in my extensive travels.....

BUT I DON'T LIKE TO TRAVEL...

because....then I'm not home.

And I LOVE BEING HOME!!!!!

(I want to sleep in my bed with my pillow!!!)

(My family and friends think I'm set in my ways)

(HA!)

OY, where was I?????  

Oh, yeh... My stuff...This oil painting....Of some parrots....

It's flanked by a pair of Cuban watercolors that I just love.

The frames came this way, all chippy and wonderful...

Gawd!!!

I can't believe how much there is to share with the class!!!!

This is turning into a really long post, so let me end here.....

And I will finish up this room, next time.

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         It's so very cheri