Pottery, California, and Otherwise

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

 

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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.

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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.

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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

Gardening with Monarch Butterflies

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Monarch Butterfly Garden.

For several weeks I saw a Monarch Butterfly flying through the yard so I decided to buy two milkweed plants since Monarchs look for milkweed to lay their eggs on so the Monarch Caterpillar can eat the leaves before forming a chrysalis.  I saw the butterflies landing on the plant several times and I have seen several Monarch Caterpillars on the plants but no chrysalis so far unless they are so hidden that I can’t see them.  The caterpillars grow very quickly because they are constantly eating the leaves of the plant.  Still waiting to see if the 5 caterpillars that I currently see will each turn into a chrysalis.