Two pretty things.

I've been spending the day so far cleaning (except for changing the sheets on my bed, I'm done now). This is a "big" cleaning - the kind I'd do if I were having guests. (It was time).

I like to clean before I go on vacation for two reasons: first, I usually have more free time before than after, and second, it's a lot nicer to return to a clean house. (And third: less chance of ants finding crumbs).

I also took a little time to put up a few things I had that never got on the walls yet. I have two framed photographs I bought at the Sugar Creek Arts Festival this summer - one of a traditional British cottage, another (even better!) of an Irish cottage with a couple of sheep out in front of it. (The people I bought them from take all the photos themselves on their travels). So those are now up on the wall in my dining room, as is this:



I think you can read that it's a souvenir plate originally from Niagara Falls. It's an old (I don't know how old - I'm guessing it's probably more recent than it looks) pink transferware plate. The back says "Mason's/ Patent Ironstone China/ ENGLAND / Made in England" and there is also a crown label.

I think I mentioned before that I sort of collect souvenir plates - I have a whole lot hanging up on the walls in my bathroom as decorations. These are all mid 20th century American examples (although many are stamped "Made in Japan"). But this plate has a different feel to it - it feels older, even if it isn't, and it's more elaborate. So I wanted to put it up somewhere by itself. I also love that the shields of the three provinces closest to Niagara falls are there on the rim. And I love that it's decorated with maple leaves - I love all those little careful touches.

I like pink transferware china anyway. I can't quite explain why - I think it's the idea that it's sort of "fancy," but not fancy in an expensive way - it makes me think of the kind of thing an ordinary person in the 1920s or so would buy to have as their "nice" things.

I found the plate at a little antique shop in Jenks, Oklahoma - I had stopped there last week on my way home to buy gas and I drove into the little downtown (hoping there was a little candy shop or something where I could buy some mints - this was after that garlic-laden lunch). I ran into the shop where I bought it because there was a close parking place. The lady directed me to the Walgreen's that I eventually went to, and I figured I should at least look around. Then I saw the plate and decided I had to have it - it wasn't very expensive ($16 originally, marked down to $12), so it came home with me and now hangs on my dining room wall.

Yes, I am kind of neo-Victorian in the sense that I'm slowly covering all the open surfaces of walls in my house with family photographs, framed mottos, or souvenirs. (And the plate COULD count as a souvenir, even though I didn't physically buy it at Niagara Falls - I have been there twice.)

(Update - on a whim, I typed "Mason's patent ironstone china pink transfer Niagara Falls" into Google and found a couple of auctions offering plates just like mine [and it looks like I got a good deal, comparatively speaking]. The date they listed was 1940s to 1950s. So it's not OLD old, but it's in keeping with the era in which my house was built - which makes me sort of happy. I mean, I don't want to LIVE in a house that was totally a "1940s house" with the plumbing and heat issues it would have had in the 40s, but I like having decorative pieces that are in keeping with the era.)

I also wound off some yarn.

This is Schaefer "Anne" (sock yarn) in the colorway called "Peter" (as I said before, I don't know if it's an allusion to the color of Peter Rabbit's jacket, or to the UK kids' show "Blue Peter")

I like it even better after it's wound up. All too often, I buy variegated yarns that look really nice in the long skein, but when I wind them into a cake (or when I start to knit from that cake), they get all muddied or the colors seem to fight. This yarn is subtle enough in its color variations that there shouldn't be any muddiness.

I think I am going to make the "Child's French Sock with Diaper and Citron Pattern" from Nancy Bush's "Knitting Vintage Socks." I think such a pretty yarn deserves to be a fancy sock.