Home to the Mountains

My brothers and I bought a cabin in the Eastern Sierra between Gull Lake and Silver Lake.  It is next door to my brother's house so it was a great opportunity to add more space to his house and create a family compound, so to speak.  It is very old (it was built in the 40's probably and moved to the current location from a motel resort in the area in the 50's), very tiny, very rustic, but it has lots of potential.  It has 2 small bedrooms, a tiny bath with a shower, and a tiny kitchen area, no oven, only burners.  We won't starve, there is a fancy resort across the road with a restaurant! I love the fact that the cabin is available year round.  It is just off Highway 158 which is plowed in the winter so we will be able to use it all year. We are currently working on it because everything needs work! 

This is what the interior walls looked like after my brother took off the old paneling. These are old half logs, actual logs that are rounded on one side and flat on the other.  This photo was taken after my brother filled in the open cracks between many of the logs! You could see daylight through them!

This is that same wall with the new paneling that is going up over the old half logs, quite a difference!

This is the flagstone we had installed that will be behind the gas stove.  First thing we did was redo the heating for the cabin.  Flooring and the new stove for heat should be in by mid July and we can start using it after that.  I keep heading up there to check on the progress being made!

This is the view of Horsetail Falls from above the cabin. In the spring, there are several falls to watch as the snow melts.

A definite work in progress, but we are getting there!

Pottery, California, and Otherwise

It all started with a couple vases inherited from my mother. A tall, white, simple pattern, I remember them in the house growing up. 

I liked the matte finish and I started looking for pottery in antique malls and later online on Ebay.  I mostly focused on blues and greens. California Pottery had its heyday from the 30's to about the 60's for the most part but I added pottery from other areas as well.  Some of the vases in my collection are labeled on the bottom but I didn't collect by maker or for investment, just what I liked.

I love this pitcher, I have always had a weakness for pitchers and I love the curves of this and how tall it stands. The blue vase was made by Royal Haeger, number 741 in the 1938 fall catalog.

Some colors were a mistake when I bought them because the monitor when I bought the item showed a different color and it wasn't accurate.  This was supposed to be a true green but I actually loved this color as soon as I saw it.

This is the only one here that is labeled, it was made by Stangl Pottery.  Stangl was a pottery company started in 1929 in New Jersey.  They went out of business in 1978.

I have several that are this color and then some that are a bright cobalt blue.  I stopped collecting a few years ago, I simply ran out of room to display them all!  I have some displayed in different rooms of the house and I really enjoy looking at them.

For more information and photos of my pottery collection visit my blog post about my blue pottery: https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/blog/2019/4/13/pottery-blue-and-blue-and-blue

Red, White, and Blue, 4th of July Table

One of my favorite 4th of July Tablescapes.  I love the stripes running through the tablecloth and the plates. The repetition of the white stars on blue really ties it all together even though the items came from several different sources.  I use the red Waterford Marquis glassware often in my Tablescapes. You can find them at Replacements and on Ebay still. 

Day Lilies

Back from vacation and my day lilies are finally blooming.