~ 'Tis a Primer on Firkins!~

My friends think I am making up a new 'questionable' word.

I have had several inquiries as to what firkins are. They say with a chuckle ..... 'A WHAT? What is a 'firkin'? Aren't they called sugar or sap buckets?" I submit they are called all of the above. A firkin is described as follows on Wikipedia:

"A Firkin is an old English unit of volume. The name is derived from the Middle Dutch word vierdekijn, which means fourth, i.e. a fourth of a full-size barrel.

The term firkin is currently used to refer to antique wooden buckets, usually with wood handle and lid, about 10 inches (250 mm) high and 10 inches in diameter (about 10L or 2-3 dry gallons in capacity), formerly used to store sugar and other items."

I have a love affair with firkins. Firkins are simple. Firkins are early american art, because true antique firkins were handmade, as was everything else then. Firkins were a necessity, not a want. We have bowls today. Colonists had firkins then. A kitchen and home staple.

I have a couple of firkins, all reproduction, but each one has a story, like all pieces in a collection does. My most 'recently acquired firkin' came at Christmas from a very dear friend. She hand painted this several years ago and wanted it to have a home. Oh, it now has a home - at my house!


The next two are reproductions from my favorite shoppe, Heritage Reflections:


These two stacked firkins were 'finds' that I painted and refinished to look like real firkins, but I still love them:

Firkins are a simple pleasure to me!!!!

I also had a surprise delivery from a dear 'great cousin' in Wisconsin. Cousin Diane has become very special to me because I have only recently discovered her and met this wonderful family member. She follows my blog and sent me a fun Christmas package containing two jewels. The sheep platter in this photo actually stands on a pedestal, but the picture of the sheep was so cute I wanted to tip it on its side so I could see it better.


And isn't this star with a painted bittersweet vine just the best?

Thank you Cousin Diane - from your 'cousinette'!

I have been gone from my blog for too long, but I have had a fun time reading all your blogs! Such creativity out there! I miss them when I can't read them for a while!

I am teaching at a quilting retreat this weekend up in the mountains of Idaho. I will be taking some photos and sharing them with you all as the mountains are beautiful, as is the Bed and Breakfast that the retreat is being held at. New friendships, food, good times...... these are the simple pleasures I am blessed with this weekend.

Blessings on your week!

Shanda

~Tis Simple Things for Christmas~

Please - come in from the cold and visit with me for a moment - take a break from your Christmas preparations and let me pour you a cup of warm hot chocolate. A very heavy picture post for you all this time that I have been promising to share - so enjoy the Christmas Music and visit with me for a moment. If you want a close up of any of these photos, just double-click on it, then hit your Back Arrow to return to my Blog. Enjoy -




My small 'thrift-store' pewter collection -

A pillow I made several years ago -


An antique Santa my mother bought me many years ago when I was a teenager - I hold him near and dear to my heart -

A new Christmas display this year - all wooden 'makeovers' finished by me or made for me by dear friends - some that have passed on this year -

Remember this 'Illinois find' Firkin?




A counted cross-stitch from a pattern found in a 1980's Country Living Magazine -


Our half bath downstairs -

One of my favorite punch needle patterns I have made -



My great-grand parents were married December 15, 1914 and their wedding portrait hangs in our entry staircase -

Our dining area -

View from the kitchen through to the family room -


and back again to the kitchen-


A homemade ceramic ornament from a class I took with my mother when I was a senior in high school. I made a dozen and happy to report 28 years later - none broken!

The tree coming home in our daughter's pickup -


This year our tree is decorated with 'car parts' - long story..........
I hope this season finds you with loved ones. People keep asking me if I am ready for Christmas and I keep thinking to myself, 'Christmas is more than just THE day, it is the whole season. And I guess I am ready, even though my packages went out a little late and my Christmas cards will be received by acquaintances in January, but, I do know one thing - this is Christmas, the time we celebrate the birth of our Savior, in whom I am incredibly grateful and that is really what the season is all about. So Merry Christmas my friends, and I wish the season's choicest blessings to be with you all. In the immortal words of Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one!"

Happy Christmas -

Shanda

~It's the Most Wonderful Season of All......~

What a beautiful weekend! I get so 'reflective' this time of year, as I suppose many of you do. I really ponder the importance of things, and even in the hustle and bustle of this most glorious of seasons, I dig inward. I want to make the season meaningful, for me and others. This weekend we had family for Thanksgiving, I wrote my missionary son a very long letter, and 'putzed' in my home. Yes, everything comes back to home, as it should be.

For the last three years, I have a very special experience on Black Friday. Now I am not a shopper, in fact I detest it. I have one haunt I visit every Black Friday, and I even get to sleep in, because the shop doesn't open until 10 am. This shop is called Heritage Reflections, and every Black Friday they hire a string quartet of a cello, violin, and flute. The three women dress in black formal dresses and play while you shop. I love to shop this day, and this year I bought a bulb. That's right, I bought a flicker bulb, but I must have wandered this shop for a good hour because it felt so quaint. The Christmas decorations were minimal, and in that I mean, greenery and lights only. No blow up Santas, no loud commercialism screaming at you like in a Mall. I feel like I am shopping in colonial America when I am in this shop, like Bob Cratchet from the movie Scrooge. When on the Eve of Christmas as he spends his schillings preparing for his holiday feast with his family, there is a warm gratitude of expression as he scurries through the streets to prepare for the following day. He doesn't stop at ToysRUs, nor is he searching for the latest electronic game. I look forward to this experience every year at Heritage Reflections, and it soothes my soul.

The weeks ahead hold baking, decorating, entertaining, and visiting. On the 8th, an old fashioned Christmas Cookie Exchange along with a book review of Little Women will be held here, and the 11th will bring my 'Finish-It-Friday' craft club to my home from 6 to midnight. Several of my friends are using this time to finish some sewing, crafting, and painting for their gift giving. And on the eve of the 15th, I am hosting the first leg of a Progressive Dinner for 40-50 women, which I am so excited about. I love entertaining for the holidays. From making gingerbread boys, cinnamon rolls, and homemade bread to give to neighbors, along with Christmas music playing in the background while I finish a craft, quilt on a customers quilt, or make dinner in the kitchen, this is Christmas to me. Christmas in the Home. There's no place on Earth I would rather be at Christmas.

Next post will have photos of my home decked out for the holidays and my most requested recipe. Now, if I could just get it to snow in this part of the country.......

Blessing on your Christmas Preparations,

Shanda

'Tis a peek thru Santa's Workshop Window....

The magic of Santa's workshop! This is such a busy time of year for me, but I love it! Knowing so many customers come to me to have their quilts quilted for loved ones and then those loved ones will be waking up to quilts under their Christmas trees in Idaho just thrills me to my quilting fingertips!

This is a VERY short post - please stay tuned during Thanksgiving Weekend, when I will be 'decorating my blog' for the holidays........

Until then -

BLESSINGS to you and your families on Thanksgiving Day!

Shanda

P.S. Homemade is best!!!!!

~ Antiquing and Fall in Illinois! ~

Fall and Pumpkin Fest is alive and well in Illinois! I recently returned from an 'excursion' with my family, and I can honestly say that family time is always best! From antiquing with the girls, scrapbooking with my favorite cousin, and quilting with the favorite aunt, to family eating, parade watching, and all points in between, WOW, the family in Illinois know how to have a good time! I took a quilt I had been working on to my mother, and she loved it. I finished quilting it just 2 nights before the plane was to take off with me and the quilt in it - nothing like the last minute, huh?


Mother loved it, and I enjoyed making it for her.

While in northern Illinois, we girls took a day trip to Sandwich, Illinois. Small town, but FULL of antique shops. Now I don't get much in the way of antique shops out here in the west, but if you talk to my 'favorite cousin', she literally saw me sprinting across one shop in pursuit of an antique coverlet. I didn't end up buying it, but I was so overwhelmed with the 6 or so I saw that day. My first coverlets ever to lay eyes upon, so it was a ah-ha moment for me. All shapes, sizes, and conditions were they in, but I was googly-eyed at all the treasures in the antique shops we visited that day. Kept looking for firkins, some were 'fake' and others were a little out of my price range; I will keep looking.....

Visited the 'Red Geranium' in Sandwich also, and personally, I am making a prediction here that this shop will be in the Quilt Sampler Magazine in the not too distant future. She had a wonderful shop that had both primitive goods and quilting fabrics. OH, TO DIE FOR!!!!!! Wonderful shop! Highly recommended! Still, I kept looking for firkins.......


Went around the corner and there was another intrigue......

This beauty was 'Two Sisters' and since we had two sisters on the trip, my mother and favorite aunt, they got their photo taken......


Also a destination shopping experience! A cute sign met us on our entry into the store....


Bought a wool blanket here for $15, what a deal, saw a few antique coverlets, but no firkins.

Saturday dawned, and went to a few craft shows, and what would happen to be found?


A FIRKIN!!!!! Finally, wanted to find a firkin, and found my version of one, $7! I think this one is calling out for red paint...... It matches my other one perfectly.

Also went to a quilt/basket shop in Claire, Illinois. I get such a kick out of this shop's name:

She had some reasonably priced wool that I was looking for. And I can't tell you how beautiful the burning bushes were back there, along with all the fall foilage. This tree is 'multi-colored.' How does that happen?

And the crowning point of the trip was the Pumpkin Fest Parade. Time for traditional pictures on mother's buckboard wagon, and check out the 150 pound pumpkin my aunt grew:

The sisters:


And the cousins in attendance this year:


I had a good time with family and now back to my real world. Yesterday was spent in my home, where I feel comfortable and love to be domestic. Laundry, a little bit of cleaning, and in general putzing around the house was the order of the day. I did manage to bake a new recipe of glazed pumpkin pecan bread, and it was yummo!!!!

Time to end. Just like vacations, time goes by so fast. But the memories are what we have to get us through until the next 'excursion' day. I am blessed to have both wonderful family members and memories.

Live Simply ~ Simply Live!

Shanda