Thursday, May 14, 2015

Azaleas in Bloom: Vintage Noritake Azalea Tablescape

Just in time for my garden zone's (7a) full display of spring azalea blooms, I'm sharing a vintage collection of Noritake's Azalea china pattern, circa 1918.
Made in Japan for export, this china pattern (Patent #19322) features hand-painted, pink azalea blooms on a white base with gold rim, and grey-green leafy flourishes.
The table, as set in Panoply's booth space in our local antique mall, consists of six 4-pc place settings (dinner, salad, cup and saucer). In addition, there are serving pieces (sugar bowl & creamer, round and oval vegetable bowls, plus a celery server). Less common serving pieces include a round butter server with drain insert for ice, lemon dish, and whip cream bowl with underplate & ladle (often used for serving mayonnaise).
Complementing the table setting are a set of vintage Viking "Georgian" 9 oz flat tumbler glasses in amethyst. Viking is one of many West Virginia glass brands, and these are a more recent vintage, 1980s. The centerpiece is a dainty cherub and floral porcelain by Capodimonte, mid-century in age.
The display was altered in our booth spaces as the dining furniture sold, relegating the china to a wicker cart yet, perhaps, suggesting an equally inviting garden party. Additional amethyst glass serving pieces were added.
China is not a big seller in our vintage resale business; however, it is most definitely one of my biggest weaknesses. It's not even something I seek out while on the hunt, but the dishes always seem to see me coming, and call my name. Even though many of the other vintage pieces shown here have sold, the Noritake Azalea china was pulled and remains in my personal stash of dishes - until another seasonal display calls for their presences and, hopefully, a potential buyer decides they must have them. ;)

What is it about dishes that captures demands attention? I certainly cannot explain it, can you?

Meanwhile, in the garden, the photos below show the flower for which the design this Noritake pattern mimics.
Garden Azaleas in bloom, 2015

Thanks for your visit!
Rita C. at Panoply

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Sunday, May 10, 2015

Early May Switch-Ups in Panoply Booths

It's that time again........time to switch things up in our booth spaces. Here are a few photos of how things currently look at the start of May since our last, bigger changes.
Vintage Americana / Militaria 'encampment' vignette
We like preparing a vintage Americana vignette once May begins, as there is an Armed Forces Day parade along our storefront street in mid-May, along with Memorial Day at month-end, of course. We set an Americana/Militaria theme in the center of our largest space (above). It seemed to feel like a sort of field office encampment once we completed it. This replaces our previous Derby-themed vignette.

Just to the right of the center table are additional Militaria items, including a field cot (folded, straddling the chairs), uniform, and original WWII photograph (photo below).
Additional vintage WWII Militaria
Just two weeks before this was set, we brought in the long farm table, and this is how the center space appeared (below). We squeezed the Derby items off to the right of the farm table at that time. Now the chairs from the table sit where the Derby items were last seen, and Derby is relegated to a less visible status.
Overall space with farm table center (Derby to right)
We then focused on our farmhouse vignette (our newest space addition), shifting a few items for a different look. We hung stools and chairs, along with a vintage car seat spring, and moved the quilt cart back, placing the gateleg table closer to the aisle. We focused on red textiles to tie in with the Americana/Militaria theme.
Farmhouse switch-up: hanging chairs, car seat spring
Farmhouse addition: gateleg table for added surface space
Hanging chairs is a nice way to clear floor space and fill a wall simultaneously. Our ceilings are very high in the antique mall, so we often use this tactic to our advantage.
Hardware corner: hanging plank chair
Trying to stir some creativity with our hardware and tools, we fashioned a few pieces to spell "flower" (see below). The hanging sign above the wicker cart on which the hardware sits also has a sign spelling "Heehaw", made from hardware and tools (see photo above).
"Flower" made from tools and hardware
While spring was slow to start in our region, we're enjoying its stay, so the gardening themed items and vignettes will remain a good while longer in our spaces (if they don't sell first).
Vintage garden items
As this post is published, Panoply will have just completed purging some items in a community yard sale. We'll now begin planning one or two summer vignettes in the booth spaces. If shopping opportunities don't readily present themselves, you can be sure the Panoply sisters will plan one. I can feel it coming. :)

Want to see more of our Panoply booth spaces? Just type the keywords "booth space" in the search block above my profile picture on the sidebar and more posts should come up for your viewing. As always, thanks for your visit!
Rita C. at Panoply
(A special thanks to Christine at Rustic and Refined for featuring this post at her Table It! Link Party #45.)
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Sunday, May 3, 2015

Wedding Party - Homemade, Barn Style

I mentioned in a previous post we traveled to Casstown, Ohio in April for a family wedding party. It was a great venue, with many homemade, personal touches by the marrying couple and their families, and we had a really good time. There are a lot of great ideas here for anyone planning a wedding - some you may have seen before, but a few I hadn't ever seen - so I wanted to share. Lots of photos, so grab your favorite drink, relax and enjoy.
Lostcreek Memory Barn - Casstown, OH
The reception venue was held at a 100+ year-old family farmstead - the Wilhelm Family Farm, aka Lostcreek Memory Barn, in Casstown, Ohio (SR 589). I have no idea of pricing of anything, but I know the 3rd generation of this working farm just started booking weddings last year (two), and they already have 41 booked for 2015 as of our visit.

The sign-in table was right at the curtained barn doors. Guests signed squares of fabric with permanent ink markers, and a family friend was going to be making a friendship quilt for the couple. Isn't that cool? They encouraged guests to share photos with a personal hashtag so they could easily find photos on Facebook and Instagram.
The table assignments were hung on an old ladder next to the sign-in table.
The tables were topped with burlap and had hand-burned & numbered, wood-cut toppers made by the groom's dad. Flowers were arranged in vintage milk glass vases on crochet doilies by the bride's stepmom.
The bride and groom's table was a vintage settee and table with vintage linens.
The cupcake stand was situated right next to the bride and groom's table.
The gift table was arranged just beyond the cupcake stand on a vintage dresser, with a homemade card banner over a vintage suitcase.
The setup was great while guests waited for the couple to arrive. The DJ was situated in the loft on the left, while the bartender poured drinks from the open bar just below. The photo booth was in the loft, on the right.


There were plenty of soft drinks and bottled waters for guests to serve themselves too, as well as dispenser jugs of lemonade and teas just beside the bartender.
There was a candy bar (apologies for photo quality) in the opposite corner that was only discovered by watching kids congregating. Cute little fabric bags (like the squares at sign-in) were stitched up and tucked inside the drawer for easy takeaways.
The reception card read, "BITES, BOOZE, AND BAD DANCE MOVES", but we had no idea there was a meal in store for us outside! There was a freestyle grill on wheels, cookin' up bacon burgers and grilled chicken sandwiches.
There was a cart full of sides including homemade mac & cheese, quinoa, baked potato chips, green beans, salad. Fixins for the sandwiches included grilled onions, homemade dill pickles and the normal condiment spreads.
There were smokers' stands (and seating) outside of the barn, next to the gravel road, far enough away that they weren't offensive to non-smokers.
The restrooms had doors on sliding tracks.
I made myself busy taking photos as we waited our turn for the buffet, and struck up a conversation with one of the family members of the 3rd generation who currently own the farmstead (she was tending the parking lot). That's how I learned about the property and the fact that it was over 100 years old. She asked me if I wanted to see inside the house. Oh no, I have no interest in antiques........said no Panoply sister ever!

The home was built in 1886, has nearly 200 acres of land, and is still being farmed (corn and soybeans, about 70 acres worth, I believe she said). The first generation of the current family moved in in 1916. The ceilings are at 13 feet, the doors are heavy oak, and the hardware was just awesome. There were nice pieces of antique furniture still remaining, but some not-so-great updates made over the years, and continuing.
Wilhelm Family Home at Lostcreek Memory Barn
I hurried through the tour of the ground floor, but figured my posse would come looking for me, so told her I had to go. Before leaving the house, she was extremely proud to show me their venue had been voted top wedding site for 2014 in the knot OHIO magazine, beating out Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo sites in its most recent publication. :)
On our walk back to the barn, the owner mentioned the family had cleared out the barn to make it a party venue, and all I could think about was what all they got rid of, so I asked (she said it was FULL). She said a lot of it was still under the barn's ground floor and other buildings. 8-)

A gorgeous venue, a gorgeous day, a beautiful ending. I hope the couple live happily ever after.
Sunset on the Fields at Lostcreek Memory Farmstead - Casstown, OH
This wedding was put together by the couple and their parents. When my daughter was married in 2013, we also provided a scaled-down, very affordable wedding and reception with great results. You can read about it here, here and here.

I really love the trend in weddings for a scaled-down decor and homemade, vintage options. Who doesn't love saving money and having a good time too?

Thanks for your visit!
Rita C. at Panoply
(Special thanks to Debra at Share Your Style #13 and Jill at Let's Talk Vintage #31 for featuring this post!)
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Thursday, April 30, 2015

Silly Rabbit, Tricks are for Adults!

Remember that '70s commercial for kids' cereal, "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids"? Well, silly rabbit, tricks are for adults, and I've got just a few more up my sleeve to rid you from my garden, once and for all!
Remember last year when the rabbit nested in the middle of my lawn and the bouncer, Mr. Hawk, ultimately took care of things?
Well, one of the rabbit relatives came back this year, and decided to move in not too far away in my lawn again, not quite in the middle, but close. A little too close to my Asiatic lilies, which I added more of in my flower bed last year after consumption killed them off (just to the right of the umbrella stand pictured below, out of frame). It's been two weeks, and neither Mr. Hawk nor my product seems to be working.
Last year I used a shelf product, Repels-All, that I, incidentally, get no sponsorship for, or anything else I blog about. It's a good thing, because it didn't work, last year or this year. I distributed it over the lawn and landscape areas again this year because I still had some and wanted to get rid of the product along with (hopefully) the rabbit. It's supposed to irritate the sinuses. A lot of things irritate my sinuses, but I keep on going. I should've known better, I guess, because the rabbit kept showing signs of return (the dug up grass).

Latest tricks? Well, I was reading Feathers in the Woods' blog post on the subject, and she's got a list of 8 tricks ways to keep rabbits out of the garden, so I'm onto this one - Irish Spring soap (see photo below).
No, it's not garnish for a salad. Well, maybe it is - for the rabbit clan. I'd like to think of it as washing the rabbit's mouth out with soap, just like moms did back in the day. You take a bar of Irish Spring soap and whittle the flakes, place them in a net bag or hosiery. I have no idea how much I need, but I made four little "bulbs" with a half bar of soap and one knee-high.
I went straight out to the rabbit hole and affected landscape areas, and I "planted" my bulbs". I put one directly in the hole (where I had sprinkled Repels-All just two weeks ago). 
I placed the other three "bulbs" around the area where my asiatic lilies are supposed to be growing.
In the photo above, you can see a few, random lilies coming up (along with a black-eyed Susan and wild violet). I also put the flexible fencing around the area in vain, to try to keep the rabbits out. I think they have a tunnel from the yard hole over to this spot.

I'll let you know how this remedy goes. We may have bubbles all over our lawn when it rains again, hahaha. I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve just in case this one doesn't work. If it does work, I've got more soap.

Did you ever get your mouth washed out with soap? Did it work??

Thanks for your visit!
Rita C. at Panoply

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Sunday, April 26, 2015

Fiesta Tent Sale, DC Area and Farm Country

Mr. P.  and I did some traveling in April over two different weekends that made for great little getaways. Mid-April we went to the DC area with an agenda that included shopping, sightseeing, cultural activity, and visiting. The following weekend was for a wedding and barn reception in Casstown, OH (just north of Dayton). It was a good mix of city and country that may be of interest to you in your own future travel planning.

The Fiestaware Factory Tent Sale was going on the Thursday we left for DC (about an hour north, on our way). This tent sale happens twice a year (April, August) in the Flatwoods, West Virginia outlet location, and in Newell, WV retail location (June, October). When we arrived, it sounded like a short-order restaurant, with dishes clanging and banging inside the tent.
Happy Shoppers at the 2015 April Fiesta Tent Sale
I didn't shop the sale, but I wanted to stop long enough to take photos of those shopping it. People camp out and stay in nearby hotels to get a jump on getting in line for this sale. The number of shoppers at one time is limited, no one under 15 is allowed in the tents at all, you're allowed to purchase a max of four milk crates full, and carts are allowed to haul your four crates, but must be narrow (you can rent them on site). Lines were long in the beginning, and it can get hot, but it's a doable venture.

Check out the line of people, where the (white) tent sale is to the right in the top half of the photo below. Those people were standing at the edge of a tractor-trailer truck (there for someone hauling this stuff!), and there were a lot more trucks with smaller trailers on the parking lot. Place settings (4-pc) can be bought for around $9 at these sales, but it's pretty dirty work. The best advice is wearing tube socks on your hands to wipe and feel for blips in manufacture as you make your selections.
April 2015 Fiesta Tent Sale - Flatwoods, WV
Moving on toward DC, we stopped overnight in the Leesburg, VA area, where I planned to visit with my cousin. She had mentioned a couple antiquing places along the way, so I stopped and did a one-hour sweep in two stores in Hagerstown, MD. She is also an antique dealer and lives near Lucketts, so that's where we met the next day (Friday). It was the first day of the first outdoor flea of the season.

Other than seeing displays and marketing policies at each of the locales, nothing intrigued me much at all. I did enjoy seeing where Marian, aka Miss Mustard Seed has her huge annual sale on Lucketts' grounds (in May), and the shop where blogger Mary Alice is situated, near Lucketts by a few miles. I don't know if it was my mood, or the impending migraine the next day, or what, but I only found a few textiles to buy and one transferware pitcher - less than $50 worth of items - all in Hagerstown.
Antiquing in Hagerstown and DC areas, April 2015
It has become very frustrating for me, as a picker and dealer, to see vintage inspired items (read: Decor Steals, Antique Farmhouse) being sold in antique stores without full disclosure of the fact that the items are not antiques. That's just not good antiquing business, in my opinion, and a disservice to those new to antiquing. It's okay to mix a few reproductions in with the old, but I think dealers owe it to potential buyers to fully disclose the information to them in order to clarify and/or educate on the differences between the real things and reproductions.

Saturday of this same weekend was Cherry Blossom Festival in DC. Note to self: do NOT go to DC the weekend of the Cherry Blossom Festival events. For us, going a few days before or after the actual weekend would've been best. The place was wall-to-wall people on the weekend of the festival, and traffic was horrendous (more than usual). We had matinee tickets to see the New York City Ballet at the Kennedy Center. And I had a migraine.
2015 DC Cherry Blossom Festival
Some battles are not worth fighting. We blew right through town once we got past the traffic around the Tidal Basin and National Mall areas, and headed home without getting out of the car, without seeing the ballet. The tickets were what Mr. P. refers to as sunk costs (money already spent, can't recover).

The following weekend, we had a family wedding to attend in Casstown, OH (just north of Dayton). We drove up the morning of the wedding, and it was a gorgeous day along Route 35N, through West Virginia and Ohio - farm country!
Traveling Route 35N in WV, OH
These country roads were busy with tractors working the fields, and the smell of ramps wafting in the air. This is also the ramps harvesting time in WV, where cooking with the wild onions is a culinary festival celebration in various locations throughout our "Almost Heaven" state.  The Bob Evans Farms is also along the route we traveled, about halfway to our destination. Rich, river bottom fields are what Route 35 consists of, and it's one farm after another - dairy, grain, and livestock - as you travel through.

I'll be sharing the details of the homemade, barn-style wedding reception we attended in an upcoming post. The decor was really well done, the food fare was terrific, and the backdrop couldn't have been better. The reception lasted from mid-afternoon until late that night in a 100+ year-old barn / farm that's housed three generations of one family. It was a fun, family gathering with seven of my total nine (including myself) siblings and nearly 150 more guests. I hope you'll come back when I share the creative ideas carried out at that reception.

Happy trails to you, until we meet again.  Have you been on the road lately? Country, city, or both?

Thanks for your visit!
Rita C. at Panoply

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