Collection: Souvenir Spoons

Growing up, I remember my Grandmother having souvenir spoons on two racks, a bit smaller than the one above, hanging on her dining room wall. She also had an extremely large wooden spoon and fork on the same wall. I thought that the spoons were very interesting and I looked at them often. As a teenager, I began collecting spoons of my own when my family went on trips. My Grandmother died when I was 12 years old. When my grandfather died, I was 17. I then inherited my Grandmother's spoon collection that I had admired so much. I continued adding to this collection myself. I bought some in Spain when I went with my class as a high school senior. I bought them on every trip I took throughout the country through college and later. My sister and my friends would buy them for me when they traveled. I have spoons from several countries and almost all 50 states. I have them from tourist attractions such as National Parks and Amusement Parks.

I have been married for over 15 years. During my marriage, I did not buy spoons when we traveled, we started buying magnets. Maybe I bought a few simply because it had become such a habit. When we moved into out current home 10 years ago, I put all of my spoons in a baggie and stored them in a safe. A couple of years ago, someone robbed us and stole only our small safe. We had important papers and personal momentos in it. I was using it as a fire safe, never considering it would get stolen. My spoons were lost...I thought. When people recovered some papers of ours, my husband went on a treasure hunt to try to find as many of our items as he could on the route that the thieves were discarding all of our memories as if they were trash. He came back with several of my spoons and other momentos. When the safe was recovered, the rest of the spoons were inside! I got my collection back! Now I proudly display many of them in my office to look at every day. We never recovered our class rings or old coins that my husband and I had inherited from our grandparents because the thieves could get money for them. I was very happy to get the spoons back and I have since realized that if something is important to you, you should make room for it in your everyday life. My spoons can now be enjoyed daily and shared with others.

"Abscrapture"

"Abscrapture"

This is an abstract scrap sculpture that Eddie made with pieces of metal that were cluttering the garage floor. It stands approximately three feet tall and makes a nice addition to our metal yard art. It is unfinished and will obtain a natural rust finish over time. He has many more pieces of scrap metal left over from making our metal products. The problem is that I love the things he makes and I never want him to try to sell them. Maybe if he makes more I will just pick my favorite and let him sell the others...maybe!

Scenes from a Country Walk

We own 9 acres of our own, with a pond. We are neighbors to a farm that uses the land next to us for his show cows and pregnant cows. They use his pasture and also ours. We let him use ours to help us by keeping our pasture grass short and give us the feeling of owning cows without the expense. It helps the neighbor by giving his cows more area to graze. My husband started walking through the farm's back pasture this winter on his snowshoes. This spring we started walking it for exercise. The perimeter of the pasture we walk is approximately one mile. We can see our house from the pasture, but it's really another world out there in nature. We have seen horses owned by horse farms that also border us. We have seen deer, turkey, rabbits, cows, the bull and other little critters. The pictures above are things we have seen on our walks. It's great to get back to nature in our back field. We can see distant mountains and walk among the wildlife. We would rather take daily walks here than on sidewalk lined city streets. Fresh air is very relaxing.

Hobby Farming: Chickens

My husband and I are trying to utilize our nine acres in several ways. We are interested in hobby farming as well as trying to be more self-sufficient and "green." We have had chickens in the past, but we lost them all at once when a fox decided to attack. They were free range and the fox attacked during the day. It has been two years, so we decided to try again. We have 25 Rhode Island Red chicks that are growing fast. The brown eggs we get from this breed of chickens are great. I love fresh eggs!

Our plan this year is to use as many of the eggs as we can, then sell and give the rest away. I already have some people giving me egg cartons in anticipation of the fresh eggs they will buy from me in the fall when the chickens are mature. I work with many local families during my job as a home based speech pathologist. I plan to donate our extra eggs to these families because I know they will be appreciated and enjoyed.

In the past we have only had 12 chickens at a time. My husband wanted to get more this year so that we could also use some of the chickens for meat. I had never been in agreement with this in the past, but the more I read about homesteading and hobby farming, I realize that it is sensible, economical and healthy. The breed we chose is a good dual purpose bird. Great eggs and great meat. My husband is completely in charge of the butchering process. I told him that I want the chicken presented to me as if he had just arrived home from the grocery store with it. This is just one of the ways we are making a small attempt to be less dependent on others and use our property for something worthwhile.

I'm Making Other Writers Rich

Although I have not had anything published, I am a writer. As a teenager, I kept journals and wrote poetry. In college, I enjoyed the research papers and writing assignments in all of my courses. After college, I took a course in writing children's stories, and helped my sister with her college research projects. For over twenty years as a speech pathologist, I have written lessons, goals, progress summaries, quarterly reports, evaluation reports, stories to use in therapy and endless lists. I have written letters to parents, letters to teachers and letters of justification to agencies. As a mom, I have co-authored and edited many reports from the life of raccoons to the life of Mohammad Ali. As a hobbyist I have written several children's stories, started a cookbook, and proposed a non-fiction book to several publishers. Currently I am enjoying this blog as an outlet for my need to write. As you see from the pictures, I have helped other writers by buying their books. I know everything I need to do to write books and get them published. I have all the knowledge I need for marketing a published book. I have all the sources for using the best words, using the most proper form, and ways to profit from writing. The only thing missing is the time to write. I squeeze it in whenever possible, but my paying job, family, and activities of daily living seem to always take priority. I have a long term goal and a short term plan for my writing. I will get my current stories sent out to possible publishers. I will also pursue my current projects with a new enthusiasm and priority. I will be published.

Wildlife Project

MINK

RABBITS

MINK


RACCOON

SKUNK

We allowed a Graduate Research Assistant to place a camera on our property this past winter. He wanted to study what wildlife may be in this area. They did it last year and plan to do it again next year too. He was able to get pictures of several things. These are pictures of some of the animals that he found. He did not get pictures of the many others that we have seen or taken pictures of ourselves. We have also seen: deer, beaver, groundhog, muskrat, geese, blue heron, mallard ducks, fox, squirrel, hawk, owl and many different varieties of birds. This beats the city any day!

Bottle Tree

Our Bottle Tree

I had heard a little about bottle trees and saw one in a local yard. Since Eddie is a metal artist, I asked him to make me a metal bottle tree. The teachers at the school I work at were kind enough to drink some wine in beautiful colored bottles for my tree. I love it in our yard.

Bottle Tree History

(Taken from internet I did not write this but I don't know who did)

Glass "Bottle Trees" originated in ninth century Kongo during a period when superstitious Central African people believed that a genie or imp could be captured in a bottle. The legend said that empty glass bottles placed outside and near the home could capture roving evil spirits at night. The spirit would be destroyed the next day when the sunshine hit the bottle. They could then be corked and thrown into the river to wash away the evil spirits. So, this is how bottles and trees originally came together.

This practice was taken to Europe and North America by African slaves. Thomas Atwood, in History of the Island of Domi (1791), made particular note of the bottle tree as a protection of the home through an invocation of the dead. Atwood writes of the confidence of the African people "in the power of the dead, of the sun and the moon--nay even of sticks, stones and earth from graves hung bottles in their gardens."

While Europeans adapted the bottle tree idea into hollow glass spheres known as "witch balls," the practice of hanging bottles in trees became widespread in the plantation regions of Southern states and from there migrated north and inland into Appalachia.

Traditionally, the bottles are placed on the branches of a crepe myrtle tree. The image of the myrtle tree recurs in the Old Testament, aligned with the Hebrews' escape from slavery, their diaspora and the promise of the redemption of their homeland.

Bottle tree colors can range from blue to clear, to brown, but cobalt blue are always preferred. In the Hoodoo folk-magic tradition, the elemental blues of water and sky place the bottle tree at a crossroads between heaven and earth, and therefore between the living and the dead. The bottle tree interacts with the unknown powers of both creative and destructive spirits.

The bottles are placed upside down with the neck facing the trunk. Trees need not be thickly populated with bottles. Malevolent spirits, on the prowl during the night, enter the bottles where they become trapped by an "encircling charm." It is said that when the wind blows past the tree, you can hear the moans of the ensnared spirits whistling on the breeze. Come morning, they are burnt up by the rising sun.

Today, the bottle tree has entered the realm of folk art. Companies now market bottle tree armatures meant to serve as colorful garden ornaments, once covered with colorful bottles.

1965 Custom 500

This is our classic car. It is a 1965 Custom 500. It's in the Galaxie family with a little different body design. My husband is the second owner of this car. He purchased it in August of 2003 for $580. The car was originally purchased in October of 1965 from A.B.C. Motors, Inc. in Cliffside NJ for $2,018. The man traded in a 1958 Ford Tudor for this car giving him a $218 credit towards it's purchase. It was owned by the same man until it was passed on to his son. His son stored it in a barn until deciding to sell it in 2003.

When Eddie bought it, he changed the motor and we headed out on road trips with it as soon as we could. There was originally a 6 cyl engine with standard transmission. Eddie changed it to a 302 automatic. Over the past six years he has worked on it a little bit here and there. He has worked on the body taking care of rust spots. He replaced the gas tank, putting the new one in the trunk. He added moon hubcaps. He wants to keep it relatively stock in appearance, but just clean it up a bit. In addition to taking the car to many local car shows, we have taken it to a local drive in movie theater several times. We have gone the the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, Ben and Jerry's Factory, Covered Bridges of Vermont, day trips around Vermont and NY and to the coast of Maine. It is fun to own a little piece of the era that my husband and I were born in. He was born in 1963 and I was born in 1964.

Louis Crivellaro: Stone Carver 1902-1978

These granite monuments are located at the Hope Cemetery in Barre, Vermont. My husband's great uncle Louis Crivellaro, "Uncle Louie," carved his own monument as seen in the top picture. He was the son of an Italian stone carver and he immigrated to Barre, Vermont from Switzerland with his family when he was just 2 years old. He spent almost 60 years as a stone carver, following in his father's footsteps and starting in the trade when he was just 17 years old. Louis never retired and lived way past the average age of the stone cutters he worked with through the years. An article was written about him in the May 15, 1977 edition of the Vermonter. In the article, titled Louis Crivellaro,a craftsman schooled in the art of living, he said, "I have no regrets, I have no problems, no regrets at all." He also said "I've learned to sacrifice. I've learned to do without. So nothing seems to bother me."

My husband has fond memories of his uncle and his little camp in Vermont. He was given Louis as his middle name, which may have given him a little extra connection to his uncle. Louis Crivellaro was known as the Old Man of Maple Hill. He owned a camp on 30 hilltop acres in Plainfield, Vt. He stayed there more often than at his home in Barre with his wife and daughter. The camp was a trailer that was untidy, yet it was described as having an atmosphere of warmth and hospitality. The collection of found items in random arrangement on the property kept Louis busy when not working at carving granite.

The article pictures him standing next to the monument he carved for himself and his family. He passed away only 8 short months after the article was published. My husband, son and I took a trip to Barre to see this cemetery as well as nearby "Rock of Ages" granite quarry.

When we entered the 65 acre cemetery, we first started walking to the right. We came upon the monument in the bottom picture. This is for Louis' father, Napoleone Crivellaro 1870-1952, his mother Emelia 1861-1953 and brother Ezio 1899-1918. We then walked towards the back of the cemetery, down the entire length and zig-zagged through the middle. We looked forever for Uncle Louis' monument. Several times my husband asked out loud "Where are you Uncle Louie?" Each time he asked it, he then said to me that Uncle Louie is probably way out in the front right where we came in. Even though he said this, we kept going on our systematic search through the cemetery. After much searching, we headed back towards the front of the cemetery towards where we came in...there was the Crivellaro monument! If only my husband would have listened to the answer that he received from Uncle Louie we would have saved some energy! Visit the following websites to see more beautiful monuments in the Hope Cemetery and the Rock of Ages Quarry.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10090 Hope Cemetery
http://www.vermonter.com/hopecemetery.asp Hope Cemetery

http://www.seacoastnh.com/dct/barrecemetery.html Hope Cemetery

http://www.cvchamber.com/web/roa/index.html Rock of Ages Museum and Quarry

http://rockofages.com/en/gift-shop-a-tourism/ Rock of Ages Museum and Quarry

Paintings

A long, long time ago...in about 1987 I took some oil painting classes. I completed 12 paintings and I loved it. These are two of the ones that I still have. I gave away my favorite ones as gifts and I hope to get pictures of them someday. These are the best ones of the 6 I still have. I miss painting and I think I was getting fairly good at it. My favorite one was a fall scene with a waterfall in a small creek. I also did a storm scene, a sunset, a winter mountain scene and several others. I still have an interest in painting, but do not currently have a place or the time to pursue it. It is something that is on my list of things to find the time to do again though. It was relaxing and a nice outlet for creativity. My mother in law was nice enough to send me a picture of the winter scene I gave them. I added it above.

Old Window Project

I was just talking with a friend about old doors and windows. It reminded me of this project I made a few years ago. I took an old window and painted it with an antique crackle effect paint. I printed some family pictures in black and white and placed them behind a photo mat. It's a pretty big window. Each opening is 8x10. This has been hanging on our kitchen wall. Many people have given us nice comments. We have a stack of old windows out in one of our barns. I want to do more projects with them. We might build a greenhouse with some of them, but the ones that are like the one here I want to do more creative things with.

Saratoga Automobile Museum

We went to the Saratoga Automobile Museum today. The above cars were just a few of the ones on display today. Most of the exhibit was a collection of 54 cars owned by one man. He currently lives in Venezueala but the collection stays in Schenectady, NY when not on display.

There were also cars that belong to the museum as well as a whole display of old race cars from NY. Check out their website and the exhibits they plan to have in the future. We want to see the vintage camping trailer show in August. http://www.saratogaautomuseum.com/

Hand Made "Power" Hammer

Ed wanted to make a helve hammer, but didn't have enough pieces, so he made this instead. It is powered by his foot and serves a similar purpose for the time being. Since building this hammer he has modified it by putting some padding on the foot pedal to make it a bit more comfortable. The hammer part is an old sledge hammer with a pipe on top filled with lead for weight. He has made some metal bowls with it like the ones pictured above. I use the ones above on my dining room table. I change out the contents of the large bowl for the season.

Hand Made Tumbler

Ed made this Tumbler out of my grandfather's old air tank and scrap metal. It is currently powered by a drill mounted on the base. He puts our small hooks and other small metal items in it with bolts and nuts to clean off the slag from our pieces while giving the pieces a bit of a texture from the tumbling.

Hand Made Press Brakes for Metal

Ed built this metal brake to bend our bookends. It can also be used to bend metal for other projects. The jack hasn't been placed in it at this point. Ed had just painted it.

Ed made this brake to bend our napkin holders. He can also use it for other projects that require the metal to be bent 90 degrees.

Some Custom Projects We've Done

This sign was made for a family near Saratoga,NY. We live by Saratoga, NY which is famous for its horse racing and horse farms.

This was a custom project for a local man. It represents his brother and son on one of their fishing trips they took together with a dog. Both of them have died and this will be part of a memorial he is making for them. On each of the ends it has their initials and date of their death. He will be placing a water feature in the center of it and displaying it in his yard after he paints it.

This sign was made as a gift for neighbors of my husband's parents in Florida. They own horses and cows.

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We have made many custom projects. I have many pictures of them, but with my dial-up service, the pictures with a high resolution will not upload. I now know to use the lower resolution setting on my camera for the pictures I plan to use. I also made the mistake of not remembering to take pictures of many of our custom items. That mistake will not be made again! To see more of our custom projects go to our website custom page. http://www.adirondackmetaldesigns.com/custom.html

AustralianTea Tree Oil Uses

Australian Tea Tree Oil Uses

A couple of years ago I stumbled on Tea Tree Oil. I purchased a book called First Aid Handbook: 101 Plus Ways to Use Tea Tree Oil. I bought a bottle of the oil and began to be amazed at how well it worked for the things it claimed. The book was written by Cynthia Olsen. For many of the uses, it is mixed with things like olive oil, aloe vera, soap and other ingredients. For most uses it can be used full strength. It comes from a tree that is a member of the laurel family. It is scientifically known as the Melaleuca alternifolia tree. Some of the uses listed in the book are as follows: head lice, acne, ear aches, dry scalp, canker sores, sore gums, bad breath, sore throat, laryngitis, eczema, hives, ringworm, warts, athlete's foot, blisters, nail infections, hemorrhoids, aromatherapy, chicken pox, diaper rash, insect bites, sunburn, humidifier additive, insect repellant, disinfectant and many, many more. It's an all natural product to use as an alternative to over the counter and prescriptions for common problems.

This is one source for her book.
http://www.alibris.com/search/books/isbn/9781890941024

My Husband's Homemade Tractor

My husband is always making something. This is his most recent toy. It's a homemade tractor that he can just ride around the property on or use as a small work tractor, pulling a small trailer. It's not finished, but he is having fun with it. He also built the utility trailer you see in the background. That's been a great trailer for hauling things for ourselves or family. As you can see, the snow is slowly melting, but it's not gone yet.

We're on Etsy Stalker

We were featured on etsy stalker with our firetruck coat rack. It was nice to be recognized along with other metal artists. Check it out. http://etsystalker.com/?p=538