5 Victorian (and other eras) Medicine Bottles

I developed a bit of a fascination with old medicine bottles whilst living in England. At car boot sales (a type of flea market, where people might literally sell things out of their car's boot/trunk), there would often be a few tables set up selling these bottles. Sometimes they'd be ridiculously priced, and I'd walk away, but often, late in the day, the vendors were eager to return home with empty trunks, and I'd be able to talk them into giving me a great deal. I'd talk up the colors, and how they catch the light- I made sure not to let on that I'd actually done a bit of research into the real value of these bottles, particularly in the States.  In England, and I'm sure most of Europe, there are mounds of these in buried tips (dumps/trash facilities), and many people, often retired men, "dig for bottles" as a hobby. Some do it for a bit of income, but most of the ones I ran into did it purely out of fun and a love for the adventure of treasure-seeking. They often were selling them mostly to make space for more!  Anyway, between a few car boot sale trips and a lucky snag of a milk-crate full of them at our auction house, I amassed a bit of a collection. I was just setting some of my favorites on a display shelf when the dogs barreled past in their quest for nuisance-ry (they wanted to bark at something in the backyard), and my bottles shook a bit more than I'm comfortable with, so clearly they will need to find a new spot in this house- one more sturdy and less trafficked by paws.
I was enjoying the sun beaming through them, though, so before I nestled them back in their temporary box I decided to take a few pictures.

This weekend we're hoping to do a bit more exploring, a lot more unpacking, and make some plans for next week, specifically picking up Watson (my Honda Element, in case you're not familiar with my brand of crazy)! I'm pretty excited to have him back, and I know the dogs will be as well!!
I hope your weekend's lovely- anything fun on your calendar?

5 Restored Railway Safety Lamp

 Ages ago I teased you with this auction find of mine that needed a good makeover: 

an actual railway safety lamp!

I love Restoration Hardware, but can only dream of affording what they display.  

One item I lust for regularly are their industrial lamps, 

*sigh*

so I was determined to make this railway lantern my own!!

 I wore this sexy getup while I scraped, scraped, steel-woolled, and scraped the old paint off. I then scrubbed the whole thing down, rinsed out the inside a few times, and put it aside.

 I bought some rust-prevention metal paint in black and bright red, and I started with the black. Two coats later I had the legs done and the lid.

I put the whole thing aside again. 

I then did a coat of the red paint, but it was thin. I set the whole thing aside again.

*While part of the "setting aside" was laziness, it was also the weather. This summer has been crazy rainy and I needed a good-weather, not windy day to work on this!

 Since my time to finish up projects is quickly drawing to a close, I knew I needed to finish the lamp. 

I slathered on a second coat of the red, and touched up the black- and I love it!

 There were so many layers of paint originally that it was hard to distinguish which parts should be which color, and I couldn't find anything just like it online, so I went with my gut.

 "LAMP MANUFACTURING & 

RAILWAY SUPPLIES LTD LONDON"

 The lid says the same thing, just with a different patent number.

I'm really excited about it. After a few days (to be sure the paint is completely dry) I'm going to try a candle in it to see how it shines through!

Have you made or restored anything inspired by a catalog-dream? 

Link to it in the comments!

In other news, have YOU entered my cookbook giveaway?? 

2 Getting Stuff (not really) Done

 This weekend both Paul and I were off of work.  That may seem like a given, as it was Easter weekend, but Paul's schedule doesn't care what day/holiday it is and I'd volunteered to go in if my work needed me- which they ended up not.

Since most of our English adventure ideas were out due to either holiday closures or big holiday celebrations (which we generally avoid, due to crowds overwhelming the dogs and getting in the way of my camera), we stayed home to get some stuff done.

Only we didn't complete a thing.

There was some cleaning, sorting, etc. both of the regular variety and the spring variety,

there was some talk/brainstorming about the future, and what it may hold for me in particular,

Paul worked on his Master's thesis,

I worked on bloggity-blog stuff,

I did some much-needed computer storage transferring and sorting (technically that was completed, I guess),

and I worked on two DIY-sorts of projects: one Pinterest-y, one auction-find restoration.

But neither of those can be completed until after another trip to the DIY (think Lowe's or Home Depot) store. 

It didn't help that it was chilly and rainy and dreary and blergh all weekend, either.

I suppose all of this is just a really meandering way to say "sorry, this is why I don't have anything interesting for you today, but I promise that this weekend's work will result in at least a couple of posts."

So... that ^.

Here's a little teaser...

The auction-find desperately in need of some restoration;

Yes, those are my ski goggles.  I'm never going to hurtle myself down a mountain again, so might as well get some use out of them.

and my make-shift safety wear.

As I was wearing this, scraping and sanding the lamp in our front courtyard, a lady in a delivery van slowly drove by (whilst talking on her mobile- which is illegal here) and just stared at me the entire way.  

I can't say I blame her.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend, 

whether they were productive or not!

0 Things In My Head

1. I bought some vintage bottles at the auction, and when I got home and went through them I saw this one:

Please ignore my shiny face. Photobooth isn't the kindest, especially at the end of the day.

That's right, Sloan's Liniment!  As Paul pointed out, though, she tends to both bring and kill pain.

Anyway, today, while I was cleaning the bottles, I started looking them up on the internet.  I'd told Paul I would sell any I don't want out of the bunch on Etsy, but he didn't believe that I'd get any money for them.  Well, I found comparable bottles on Etsy and Ebay for anywhere from $7-$50, and that's without researching the labels/companies marked on them!  I defended myself, saying this was proof I wasn't crazy, but Paul said it just confirmed that I wasn't the only crazy one in the world. 

2. I'm planning to make a few pies for Pi Day (3.14) and take them in to work.  One of my English friends, who enjoys giving me a hard time ("taking the piss" here) told me it's not Pi Day here, since the date is written 14.3, but I told him that means he doesn't get any pie. 

3. I need to get my act together and photograph my auction finds, Stoke goodies, and souvenirs for y'all.  I love them, and am really excited about them, but I'm just not that organized, so I'm trying!  I've got a few "to-do" projects from the auction, as well, and if this warmer weather holds up I'll take the blog along for the ride, and you can all share in my big ideas that usually tank miserably!

4. Whenever I'm showing someone around here it's like I'm seeing North Yorkshire for the first time all over again.  The past two days, with their bright blue skies and sun have just made it that much more beautiful, making my pre-nostalgia worse!  I'm kind of glad, though, because I'm really trying to make the most of our last months here, and I don't want to take a thing for granted.  

View over Nidderdale from Brimham Rocks. 

0 Auction Items of Note and Curiosity

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Do you have cases of moonshine hidden away from the authorities? 

Perhaps an underground poker lair?

Maybe just need a secret place to house your mint-condition My Little Pony collection?

Here's the item for you:

Your very own secret passage door, complete with fake bookshelf facade.

Yours for the bidding at Thompson's Auctioneers.

0 Social Calls in Style

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Over here in Great Britain there's a fantastic custom of auctioning off one's belongings.

These belongings are often sold due to a house clear-out, a move, or someone's death.

Sometimes these belongings are basic: couches, bookshelves, boxes of books or records.

And sometimes these belongings are fantastic.

Once there was a Victorian commode... 

that's right. 

A toilet. 

A big, wooden, throne-chair of a toilet.

I've gotten some wonderful things at our local auction; furniture, decorative items, a pair of stained glass church-doors, even an old letterbox.

This week there is a pony trap.

If you give a girl a pony trap, she'll need a pony to go with it...

0 Due to Overwhelming Demand

I am finally posting pictures of the church doors that I went nutso over at the auction about 6 weeks ago.  Before you ask, I don't know anything about their history.

They're tall, I think taller than the average door (I haven't measured, though) and kind of heavy, so I didn't want to try hauling them out of the garage by myself.

This one is just to show you the stained glass part.   There are a couple of broken panes, but not too bad, and since they don't make up a picture or anything I should be able to get them replaced by a specialist without a lot of trouble.   I really do love them, I just need to figure out what to do with them!