Playing with Purple

Sharing our stories, tears, laughter and love.

Growing closer as we treasure this time together.

Playing with my purple bottles and a few pretty posies...

Hope you all had a good weekend!

:)

If you haven't had an opportunity to enter the Give Away

for a Silvered Bottle

Sponsored by Lulu Designs and Southern Shop Girl

You have until February 4th!

This give away is open to all readers, followers,

 friends and lurkers of 52 Flea

Click HERE to enter.

Silvered Bottle Give Away!

Paula and Jennifer of the blog Lulu's Designs and the

 Etsy shop Southern Shop Girl

  are offering a Give Away to 52 FLEA readers!

 They are going to give away to two lucky winners

 a mercury type...silvered bottle!

photo from their Etsy shop

Paula and Jennifer found these bottles at 

Round Top in Texas and purchased them for their shop

 from John Norton of Industrial Age Antiques.

These silvered bottles, looking much like mercury glass, are from the 1920's and came out of a now defunct textile mill in the south.

Each one is different...some very shiny and silvery and some with darker and more mottled pewtery tones.

I bought my own silvered bottle

the August before last from John

 at the Madison Bouckville Antique Show in New York

  The above photo of these wonderful silvery bottles was taken
 at Renninger's Extravaganza in Florida a few weeks ago.

photo from Etsy shop

This silvered bottle is one of several that is for sale at
  Paula and Jennifer's brand new

  Etsy shop ... Southern Shop Girl

These two lovely ladies are a very talented mother/daughter team who have recently opened up their shop
 and are filling it with their vintage finds and creative projects.

Jennifer is a designer and Paula is a retired music teacher who has bought and sold antiques for years.

Isn't it so sweet of these two gals to offer a Give Away to
you

 my friends here at 52 Flea?

photo taken at the Madison Bouckville show 2009

Wouldn't you like to win one of these
 silvered bottles?

To have a chance to be one of the two winners...

all you have to do is leave a comment on this post

 before Friday, February 4th

photo taken at Madison Bouckville 2009

Be sure to pop over to Southern Shop Girl 

 and check out their other creations and treasures!


And if you can't wait to see if you are one of the two winners...
they have more silvered bottles listed for sale here!

Tell me what you think!

... and good luck! :)


P.S. :  OK, OK....if you post a link on your sidebar or blog about this you get a 2nd chance to win a super silvery bottle!

The Aqua Crown Jars

Thank you for all your wonderful comments and ideas yesterday!

Wouldn't you love a pair of pen nib earrings!

 I sure would!

If you liked those clear Crown Canadian canning jars

you will LOVE these that are tinted the palest aqua blue.

They came from the same friendly Canadian couple at Renningers.

 I was told that this one in the foreground is older

 because it doesn't have the dots around the crown.

 Perhaps all our Canadian friends know more about that!

In any case, I love them...

I love the crowns and the pale blue color!

I love filling them with pretties!

I love that they are simple, utilitarian pieces

 that were used to hold fruits and vegetables...

...and I remember my grandmother and Mom canning

 all those peaches, tomatoes and lima beans

 from the farm when I was a girl.

Although...I didn't like lima beans then and even now... I am not a fan!

As I am in sunny Florida caring for Mom...

I don't have my stash of vintage goodies and various collections on hand to display with my pretty jars.

 I am not looking for sympathy..

as I know so many of you in the north are buried in snow...

But, I do have access to beautiful seashells and I thought you wouldn't mind dreaming of the beach right about now...

Perhaps, later on this week

 I can post a few pictures of the sea and sand for you.

 Mom has had some visitors recently

 who have brought the most beautiful roses!

She and Dad are getting a kick out of watching me

 and my impromptu photo shoots with these old jars.

We're having fun together and we are grateful 

for the sunshine and this time together.

Are you ready for the weekend?

Any exciting plans?

:)

Crowns and Nibs

Why oh why am I attracted to these things?

Canadian canning jars with crowns on them.

Silvery pen nibs and pencil clips....a box full.

These are the clear jars.

Even the glass tops have crowns!

  I  also found two older ones in blue which I will share next time.

I have always liked supplies.

  School supplies, office supplies, art supplies.

Don't you find these nibs and crowns irresistible?

Go figure!

:)

Tonight Mr. Flea asked me that question again...

What are you ever going to do with them all?

I just smiled.

I know you must have some ideas!

Do tell!

:)

Linking up to White Wednesday over at 

Kathleen's Faded Charm

The Color Purple

Purple isn't really my favorite color...although it is close to blue, which...as you all know, IS my favorite color.


Hmm....I did have a favorite pair of purple jeans many moons ago...Mr. Flea really liked those! :)

However...I digress...

Despite purple not being my fave...

...these purple bottles, which I have seen at various flea markets

...I do find quite attractive.

 The light shining through them is pretty.

Some old bottles will develop an amethyst tint or purple color to them after many years of sun exposure.

The dealer I purchased these bottles from told me that they were irradiated in order to give them this color.

He said that the bottles were old.

Is that wrong?

To alter the authentic appearance of old bottles?

I don't know...

...but they were very inexpensive and, well...pretty.

After passing them up a few times...

I caved and bought a few at Renningers.

I'm thinking that they will be beautiful 

as part of a vignette with my lilacs and violets this spring.

Ah....lilacs and violets...

soon enough!

:)

Saved Letters

One of the things I simply could not resist at Renningers 

was this stack of old letters, notes and invitations ...

...all dated from 1891 through 1896...

Fort Plain is a small town in upstate New York...

not too far from where my Mother's family came from.

It was fun to find this stack of saved letters 

with one cent postage stamps and lovely old penned script

 from this little familiar town in upstate New York...

...and fun to share it with my Mom here in Florida.

We opened the envelopes and read thank you notes, lovely invitations and correspondence between friends, family and neighbors dating back over one hundred years.

.

How romantic!

Isn't this embossed wedding invitation beautiful?

Thank you for all your great comments on our adventure at Renninger's Extravaganza.

To answer a couple of your questions... 

I do not know the price or the name of the dealer with the

 Jack Rabbit sign that so many of you liked...

...however I may be able to find out!  Shelley?

Those mercury glass bottles are sold individually or by the case...

I have the dealers card (somewhere) as Paula and I each bought one at the Madison Bouckville show the summer before last...

and will look for it for you...perhaps one of you knows and can save me the time of hunting through my piles for the information!

I am looking forward to going back to Renninger's Extravaganza in February

 and of course, will take you with me!

Let me know if there is anything I should look out for

 or anything you would like a picture of!

I hope that the weekend is going well for each of you. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

:)

Renningers Extravaganza in Mt. Dora

Mr. Flea and sister Lynn took me to Mt. Dora last Friday

 to visit Renninger's Extravaganza.

It was a beautiful and cool morning...I was so excited to be there!

They were both so sweet and patient with me.

Mr. Flea even took two trips back to the car carrying my packages ...all without a single complaint.

 It was a wonderful day.

This is a ridiculously long post of random shots

 I took as I walked up and down the aisles of vendors.

Have fun looking!

What do you think?

See anything interesting?

Is there anything you would have bought?

:)