Rustic Star Antiques.....my new booth!

Hi everyone, I have just finished up my new booth in the Rustic Star Antiques shop! They moved from a small place to a very nice large space in a much traveled area. It is just great!
The mother, Dorothy McDermott and her daughter, Melinda have sat up a wonderful shop full of lovely things!
Dorothy specializes in antique quilts and has many on display throughout the shop. She has Civil War era quilts right up to present day patterns.










Melinda is a talented jewelery maker and does a great job doing shabby chic painting.
I adore her St. Patrick's Day table

display.

This shows my booth from the "back side". I especially wanted you to see the great little oak secretary I have for sale. On top of it rests a mounted emu egg! One can find some very unusual things at Rustic Star Antiques.

Here are Harry and Sally, our mascots, you might say. They sit all day on the sofa, observing everything that goes on. Sally seems a little bit "moony eyed".... I'm not sure Harry returns her romantic feelings!

Quite a couple!

I made up a bunch of corn husk flowers for my booth. I bought packages of dried corn husks, the kind one uses for tamales. I dyed them different colors and while they were wet, I shaped into flowers using wire to secure the petals and wrapped them in green floral tape. A skewer makes a stem. They are gorgeous made into floral arrangements using baby's breath as a filler.

Here are some of my painted pieces. I like to paint trays and watering cans etc. for home decorating.

Here are some country pieces I painted. The cow bells are popular here in Florida "cow country". I don't know if you know it, but there are many dairies here as well as beef cattle.It is definately cowboy land!














Some of the shelves in my booth, where I display slag glass, carnival glass, and various other treasures.

Below is a very old steamer trunk that is very unusual and pretty. It has a drop leaf desk with little drawers inside that are covered in blue velvet with pretty glass knobs.

I did a display of my Florida bird paintings.

Below is a view of part of my booth. The little slant top desk with chair is where I will sit and paint watercolors one or two days a week.

A view of one of Dorothy's beautiful quilts .

Melinda has a nice collection of vintage lamps and hats for sale.

A gorgeous American chestnut table. You know that chestnut wood is about extinct now. This table is really one of a kind!

A view of most of the shop. I will show you some close ups of some of the treasures later. Hope you enjoyed the little tour!




I love antiques and the stories behind them! It is such fun to collect something with history!

Time to plant and Tea Party Scenes

Hi everyone, It is truly a beautiful Spring day in

Florida. This morning I awoke with the lovely songs of many birds and as I sit here typing, I can hear them in the garden chirpping and singing away!

The flowers I bought to plant and to decorate the tea tables with looked really cute in the little baskets I found at the Dollar Tree. They came in various Spring colors and will be so cute to use as gifts for little Spring plants or to decorate the patio tables.

Here are the plants I used in the center of the tables. In a few minutes they will be planted in the garden!

Come on, butterflies!!

The tea party at church for the Seniors (we call ourselves, the Seasoned Seniors, meaning Spicy)

went well. We invited our Youth Pastor and his wife and their twins to join us and here is a photo of the twins at their own little tea table.

It seems the one Teddy bear may have had a bit too much Strawberry Tea.

The "spoils" after the meal of favorite "finger foods" Notice the McDonald chicken nugget boxes.....brought by the twin's parents.

We had a nice crowd and if you enlarge this photo, you might can see the flowers on the table.

I made 70 cups of Strawberry tea and it all disappeared and could have used more!




Happy Springtime! Wherever you are, it is either Spring now or will be soon. Let's be as happy as the birds are!

Ready to plant flowers.....

Hello everyone, I went to the garden center today and came home with quite a few beautiful flowers plus some basil to plant in my garden! I really get carried away this time of year with all the gorgeous flowers coming into the center!

Here they are sitting on my garden bench.

I will be getting double duty out of them, as Thurs. is our Seniors church dinner, so I plan to put them in little baskets and use them for table decorations before planting them in the garden!

I love this white begonia.

The verbena is so pretty.

Petunias are always a favorite.

Dianthus is very pretty this time of year and easy to grow.

And Pentas attract butterflies and do well even in very hot weather.

This is a first for me (sorry my photo is sideways....I just noticed). It is blue Delphinium and I have never tried it, but am really excited as I truly love the color. The girl at the garden center said that is likes to have the flowers cut and just puts out more and more. Is this true? Let's hear from all you Delphinium growers!

It's Spring in Florida!

Hello from sunny Florida and Ten Gables Cottage,

It is definately Spring here.....killed the first snake to come across the driveway yesterday! I will be distributing moth balls around the property tomorrow.

Other signs of Spring are the beautiful blooms coming on. Now is the time to plant annuals and vegetables. In fact, veggies should have been planted a few weeks ago so the hot sun that is coming our way would see them well up.

I have decided not to plant veggies. I have my winter garden now, with lettuce, radishes, cabbage and broccoli. I am going to only plant flowers and wait until Sept. and do a fall garden. Things are a little different in Florida, and soon it will go right into summer and we will get some very hot weather. Plus it is so dry right now that I would have to water all the time.

But many flowers are very trouble free and like the hot weather, including hibiscus, which I have in several colors in my garden.

Pretend that all these flowers are in a very large bouquet and I am sending them out to a BIRTHDAY GIRL.....GENI, in Minnesota.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOMORROW, GENI!! I hope you have a lovely birthday and wish we were there to help you celebrate.

Beautiful Roses and Antiques for my Shop Booth

Hello everyone and I hope you had a wonderful Valentine day! I did. For one thing, I got these beautiful roses and am enjoying them so much. Our church had a big Valentine party and it was so much fun. I will try and get some of those photos on this blog soon!

I am very busy setting up my Antique and Art booth in a shop here called Rustic Star Antiques.

Here are a few item I am collecting from my "stash" to take into the shop.

This old scale.

An old zinc jar lid holding a sprinkling top for a bottle and some vintage buttons.

Some old bottles and various tea pots.


A wooden goblet and an old darner.

I love antiques!!

The Liebster Blog Heart and other hearts

Hello everyone, I was so pleased to receive the Liebster Blog award from Malar at http://mylittlegarden.blogspot.com/ I am delighted to be one of her favorite blogs! Her blog is awesome...take a look. I am now passing this award on to five of my favorite blogs (besides My Little Garden). They are: 1. http://kellboylesgarden.blogspot.com/

2. http://52Flea. blogspot.com/

3. http://keeponthesunnyside.blogspot.com/

4. http://marksvegplot.blogspot.com/

5 .http://www.ellystuin.com/


Hope you will check out all these blogs. They are all very interesting and well done.

I looked aroung the house and found several hearts or heart related objects. Below is a watercolor I did of two perfume bottle that are heart shaped. My brother sent me the perfume as a joke. It is really, REALLY loud and not to my taste! He knew it, too.

The back door heart wreath.

I left up this feather tree from Christmas and decorated it with little hearts.

A heart shaped tea pot!

Candle conversation hearts in a row.

Close up of the candle conversation hearts.

A tea time wreath with a little cloth heart in the lower right that my sweet mother made!

Close up of the heart my mother embroidered with ribbon.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

A big Turtle, candy turtles and Guests

Hi everyone, I looked out across the back yard today and saw a big turtle laying eggs in the dirt she had dug up with her powerful back legs! She had come out of the canal along the side of the property and you can see the marks on her back made by the swampy water. When I took her photo, she paid little attention to me, as she waited to lay her eggs. Can Spring be on the way? I think so, no matter what the groundhog may have said to the contrary!

No, these are not turtles or turtle eggs, although they could be called "turtles". They are chocolate candy pieces made in the Crockpot. I gave that recipe out near Christmas if you want to find it in my December blogs. It is so delicious! The recipe makes about 70 pieces in little cup cake papers. These I will be taking to the church Valentine Party on the 14th. YUM!

Last Friday we had guests arrive from snowy and cold Minnesota! One day we bought Valentine goodies for our tea time.....

Below are our guests, Mr. and Mrs. Smiles from Minnesota. They were so much fun and we enjoyed their visit and hated to see them go back home! Mrs. Smile and I both love antiquing and we found several nice treasures on our hunts! Mr. Smile did the nicest thing for me.....he actually cleaned and shined my car! I shouldn't tell that because every one will be clammering to see if they can get the Smiles for guests!