I have been so busy lately that I haven't had much time to do
anything on here except reply to comments. Ken's sister and her husband
visited from England for a few days. We
took them around to some things we hoped they would find
interesting.That included a visit to the home of President Harding,
which is right here in town. We have the president's tomb too, but
they've seen that. Not that there is a lot to see, just a couple of
tombs and a tree. The house is a lot more interesting. It's got some
replaced wall paper, but otherwise it looks pretty much like it did when
Harding died in 1923. (That suits me fine. I could move right in, but I
think the historical society would have a problem with that...) It's
furnished and decorated almost 100% with items that actually belonged to
the President and his wife. The things were all put in storage when the
Hardings went to Washington, and since the president died in office and
his wife couldn't bear to go back to the house, they stayed there.
There are lots of rumours about the house being haunted by Mrs. Harding,
but our guide assured us that none of the people working there had
ever seen anything. I was disappointed by that! While I don't wish Mrs.
Harding the misery of walking the Earth for eternity, it would be
interesting. As it was, the most interesting part was the clock on the
stair landing.It was a wedding gift to the Hardings, and was hung on the
stair landing before the wedding. Since then it has stopped only a
handful of times:at the exact moment of Harding's death, and on that
minute on the 50th anniversary of his death, and one other random time.
The staff of the home these days make an evening of the anniversary of
Harding's death every year, sitting around the clock, waiting for
something to happen. Or, in this case, stop happening. Well, the clock
has stopped one other time: while we were there! The minute was right
for the time Harding died, but not the hour. Hmm.
The in-laws also have
a big interest in cars.So we took them to a small nearby town that is
home to the world's largest collection of running Edsel cars. Whoever
would have thought that such a tiny town would have such an unexpected
collection? I love any old stuff, so I enjoyed the cars too.
What
else have I been up to? Fall house cleaning for one. We don't have air
conditioning, so Spring cleaning is pretty uncomfortable. Part of that
'cleaning' involved taking stock of all our stuff. I think I've
mentioned that we used to do doll and toy shows. We quit for years when
the kids were growing up.We did a few doll shows in the last few years,
but I have retired from shows again. It's just too hard to make a profit
with the amazingly high cost of tables, and poor sales. The huge show
we used to do is now a tiny show, which is going to kill it. I have been
organizing all the stuff we have and trying to get rid of a lot of it. I
have made several hauls to Goodwill, but there is still alot of stuff
here! I have also actually pulled a bunch of stuff out of my personal
collection and I'm letting it go. I just have too much stuff and no room
for it. Having said that, I have bought some stuff lately!
But this stuff was so amazing!
I had been keeping an eye on a place here in town that always has some great stuff at their yard sales. The people there used to go to a lot of auctions and had a stall at an antique mall in a nearby town. Their place is where I made the amazing finds I told you about
HERE and
HERE. They always have some interesting stuff. It's also the same place I got the Ginny wanna be and Barbie patio set last year, which you saw
HERE.Anyway, they had their tent up and had looked like they were getting ready for a sale for weeks.Finally they had it, and I stopped. I went through the loads of old sheet music and bought several for Ivy, and a 1947 "Night Before Christmas" book.We had paid, and on my way to the van I remembered I was going to look at a bag of miniature houses. It was even better than just houses! It had these great cats in it!
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| The lady is my favourite of the two. Love her dress.She needs a parasol. Maybe someday I'll make one for her. |
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| The guy is pretty amazing too. Look at those whiskers. |
Look at their hair! In spite of their tripod look, they don't stand up on their own. Their previous owner has put sticky tac on their feet.
They're only 2 1/2" tall.
UPDATE: The artists seem to be Charles Claudon and his wife Ferbie. Charles, who later decided to go by his middle name, David,did the sculpting, and his wife did the clothing. Their business was called The Butterfly Cat Studio. Charles began by sculpting realistic cats, and then later began to make the anthropomorphic cats with his wife Ferbie. They continued to make the cats until they divorced in 1995.
And there was some really cool really tiny stuff in the bag too.
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| You can tell how tiny this stuff is by comparing it to the cats in the big picture below. |
And besides the cats and the tiny stuff there was something else I spotted in the bag that I thought might pay for my cats.
This barn and these tiny houses are 1/144 scale They're wonderfully made.
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| Look at that tiny little saddle! |
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| Unfortunately it has a broken roof. |
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| I'd live in a real house like this one. |
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| Uhh, except I'd want furniture. |
And of course the big one.
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| Look at the little walkway. |
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| All those tiny details. |
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| There's a tree missing from this end. |
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| Nice place, but it's unfurnished. |
And this one has something extra special about it...
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| It's numbered and signed. |
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I hadn't heard of Pat Russo, so I looked her up. I found a "Row Shops" that had recently sold for $350!
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| This was in the bag too. I guess it's the original price sticker. |
I still like the cats best though!
