Fern Bisel Peat

I was at a flea market a few weeks ago and I was looking at this lady's goodies. She exhibits at a lot of shows that I attend. We were chatting and I told her I liked children's tin dishes and she said she had something to show me. This little set...a coffee pot, cream and sugar, and two cups...all from one set- a nursery rhyme theme and one other little cup from another set. Of course I fell in love with the tin set and she came down in her price. I had some spending money left over from my trip, so I caved!

She told me that it was a Fern Bisel Peat set and that her name was on the little coffee pot. I was clueless. When I got home, I had to do some investigating to find out who this person was!

Little Bo Peep!

This is the extra little cup and I don't know the pattern. Shades of Mary Engelbreit, don't you think?

I have these sitting on a wonderful old candy box tin. My SIL Chris gave this to me along with several English king and queen tins. I love this box! I love tin and tin boxes! It's so nice inside too.

I also bought this little set of tin pans from the dealer. I thought they had to go home with me.

So back to Fern Bisel Peat. She was an illustrator who worked for the Children's Play Mate magazine for years. Most of her work was done in the 1930's and 1940's. I know I have seen these many times, but I didn't really pay attention to them. I will now! There is very little information to be found on her, which I think is so sad. She was born in 1893 and lived until 1971. Her art work is delightful and I love her style.

She also did a lot of paper dolls. I love paper dolls and am surprised that her work escaped me!

She illustrated many many books too. Do a search on her to see more or her work. You can find Pinterest boards too.

You know how I love my dolls and I like to iron. I would love to have this print...love the little poem in the corner.

Yes, I will be on the hunt for more of her work and her delightful lithographed tin dishes.
Have a great weekend. 

Garden Therapy

Last week Jimmy and I headed over to our favorite garden center to get a truck load of plants. Deep Creek Garden Center has a great selection and the staff is really helpful. The plants are healthy and it's a very fun place to go to spend your money! It's close to home too. We took out the twisted and overgrown plant a long the front of our house this spring. I was ready for a clean and updated look. We also lost so many plants with our colder winter. I love to dig in the dirt and call it my garden therapy. Can you relate? Retired Jimmy looks so happy!

Retired Linda looks pretty excited too! We actually made 3 trips to the nursery that week. It's best to do the front and back in stages.

Here I am at home, unloading the truck and getting ready to plant, plant, plant! The weather was really nice, not too hot and no rain.

I had to replant the bed under the front window. You may remember I redid this bed a couple of years ago, but lost all my lavender plants this winter...sigh. Trying something different this spring.

A long shot of the NEW front bed...I love it! It should be easy to keep up. I planted another day lilly. This one is pink and has room to spread to catch up with the orange one.

Most of these plants did survive. I did take out some overgrown plants and cleaned out this garden area too. Looks so much better.

I just caught the pink azalea in full bloom! I think the fairy likes it too.

A few SUNNY shots to enjoy. I get full sun in the afternoons and with the brick front, it can get pretty hot. Full sun plants for sure!

My Italian hubby has gotten into his little veggie garden this year. He found some yellow tomato cages at a sale and then bought some on 1/2 price to finish it up. It looks really nice. He has onions, tomatoes, cukes, summer squash and patty pan squash. Every thing is doing well and we have tiny green tomatoes already. He does a variety of small tomatoes...we just don't have a long season for the big tomatoes here. His dad was the master of tomatoes back in Illinois when he was living. Angelo had a tomato forest...really. He had this metal pipe frame and the tomatoes would grow over it. I have a picture of me somewhere standing inside of it....amazing! We don't get much sun in the back, but I have a pumpkin and some beets back there near my herb garden. We'll see what happens.

This is the back where I put in the herbs last years. It's all really pretty this season.

I replanted my fairy garden...note the tiny tree! I hope I can keep it alive over the winter. It is a container plant. I just couldn't resist. I have put in few more items since I took this picture. It sits under the blueberry trees.

Otto and Angie stopped by one afternoon. Otto was so interested in my little plant that came up in the sidewalk. That little plant just never gives up!  Otto didn't either!

He gave it a good pruning! It has actually bounced back just fine. It's so pretty, I don't have the heart to take it out.

A Sad Day In My Little City of Troutdale

I live in small city about 22 miles outside of Portland OR. I love Troutdale and it has been our home for almost 38 years now. It's a quiet little town between the Columbia River and the Sandy River.

This is a photo of one side of our main street with some cute little shoppes and restaurants.

This is the local high school....Reynolds High School....which is about 2 miles away from our home. I drive by the school many times a day. It's one of the largest high schools in Oregon and it's a busy place at the end of the day with students everywhere. It's a 20 miles school zone, so I have to drive by pretty slow.

This was the scene today at the Fred Meyer's Grocery Store where parents were being reunited with their children after a tragic shooting at the school. A young freshman student was shot and killed by a shooter who came into the school with a rifle. A brave teacher, who was grazed by the shooter's bullet, was able to alert the school and set the lock down procedure into effect. This is NOT the scene I see when I go to the store!  Anxious parents waited for hours to hug their kids.

Just last week, there was a school shooting in Seattle at the university. Now today, it's right in my backyard. It was just so upsetting all day. My prayers are with the families who lost their children today. I just feel bad for my little city of Trourdale.

First Friday Tasha Tudor Book Review~Betty Crocker's Kitchen Gardens

As I have been planning and planting all week long, I thought it would be fun to share this little book with you for my First Friday Tasha Tudor Book Review. The official title is BETTY CROCKER'S KITCHEN GARDENS. It was written by Mary Mason Campbell who was a real person who loved to garden and she lived in a farmhouse in New Hampshire. She was a member of the Massachusetts Horticulture Society, the Herb Society of America and the Audubon Society of NH. The book gives some recipes and most of them are her own. She loved gardening and cooking with herbs.
The book is 170 pages of information for planting and growing herbs and vegetables. She gives you a great deal of information about herbs, including detailed garden plans drawn out for planting your herbs. Tahsa illustrated the book.

The book was first published by Universal Publishing and Distributing Corp in 1971. I have two copies of the book. I like the green copy which is smaller than the paper back with a lovely photo cover. It was published under license from the General Mills company, owned by the Betty Crocker trademark.

Some of the illustrations are in black and white and some are in color...all very charming.

Both lady's gardens were used for the drawings in the book. Don't you love the innocent smiles on the these faces of these children? It makes me think of summer.

I hope to finish up my yard and garden planting tomorrow. I will have to post some pictures.  The weather has ben just beautiful here in Oregon.

Tasha Tudor Museum

After my visit to Tasha's home, LaVonne and Kristen took me to the Tasha Tudor Museum. It's a small museum in the historic Jeremiah Beal Home in Brattleboro VT. It's a brick Federal Colonial style house that was built in 1805. The museum is cute, rather small, but quite charming.

LaVonne heading into the building. They were kind to visit with me as they had already been the day before.

The exhibit this year is called MADE FROM SCRATCH: TASHA'S HANDMADE LIFE.
It offers her fans a chance to see little handmade animals, paintings, canned goods and correspondence.

The little goat is pretty cute! Glass table top displays give you a great look at the items on display.

Love this handmade Corgi with such a great personality. Paint brushes and little drawings are just fun to see.

Two frocks were on display too. Our guide told us that even after the sale of so many of Tasha's gowns, the family kept over 150 garments.  The sewing machine did not belong to Tasha.

Here is an example of Tasha's love of correspondence...lots of handwritten letters.

We were invited to browse through the cabinet of some of Tasha's books. I think she did 80 some different books in her lifetime.

I'm sure Tahsa's son Seth made this wooden chair called a settle. We also saw these chairs in her home.
They sure don't look too comfortable to me.

You were invited to do a little watercolor or write a letter at the desk. One of our friends-Cat-is an artist and she did some little watercolors for everyone the day before.

More books......

This is Sue who was our guide...very nice and very pleasant.

This was a trunk in near the register. I'm not sure about it's history.

Books, prints, stationery and a few other books for sale.

The other room had a woodstove  and was set with a tea service. We were short on time, so we didn't get to have tea.

LaVonne was visiting with the Sue and was watching one of the videos about Tasha. It was a very nice little visit.

Amy and Winslow Tudor have two little girls and it's nice to see things in the museum for kids.
Our friend Melinda is a volunteer at the museum too and she said the murals for the walls haven't been done yet. I guess that adds a great deal to the exhibits.