The History Behind the Pillowcase – John and Bettie

As I previously stated in two of my other blogs The History Behind the Dresses – Vera and The History behind the Dresses -Frannie, I get asked where I find the pieces in my shop.

This story is close to my heart as it all starts with my husband buying our house from John. John Ford was a welder who worked for Hanna Coal Company, he started working there in 1949. He bought our house in 1947, the original part of the house is log and the rest is additions he made to the house for a total of 1500 square feet. His bride Bettie passed away of lung cancer in 1995 as she was a heavy smoker. We purchased the house in 2007 and spent the next two years renovating it when we had the time and money to do so.

After we moved into the house in 2009, we were looking around the upstairs of our tiny garage where a plethora of things were stored including some of Bettie’s sewing projects. Most of them were to stained or had huge holes that were not salvageable with the exception of this set of Pillowcases.

Bettie started embroidering this set of pillowcases not long after her diagnosis, as you can see she only finished Johns pillowcase. He never used it, instead he packed it away with the rest of her sewing supplies. What I love about this set is that she made sure his was finished before hers because she knew she wasn’t going to make it through her cancer treatment.

John passed away a couple of weeks ago 20 years after his bride, he was 93 years old. He always had a smile and joke for everyone. He taught the guitar and violin after his retirement from Hanna Coal. Unfortunately his family held only private services for his funeral.

I will leave you with this joke John once told me.

2 fellers were walking down a back road and bump into each other.

“Hey Ned!”

Hey Zed!”

“What did you give your horse when it had the heaves?”

“Turpentine”

“Ok, bye Zed”

“Bye Ned”

The next day the bump into each other again on the back road.

“Ned, what did you say you gave your horse for the heaves?”

“Turpentine”

“I gave my horse that and it up and died”

“Mine too”

Moral of the story: Don’t give your horse turpentine if it has the heaves.

Until Next Time,

~Kristen

Spring Cleaning Part 2

Since I wrote Spring Cleaning Part 1, I have completed a bunch of tasks on my list such as washing walls and the interior side of the windows as well as giving the living room carpet a good shampooing even cleaning the stove out. I am hoping to be done with my list before March at least that is my goal.

Today I have been working on deep cleaning my bedroom Mr. KVC said no pictures as that is one room that is off limits to the public. I will honor his request and I hope my words will give you a idea of what I am dealing with. Right before Christmas I went through all of the clothing in our bedroom which includes both of my  sons dresser, and the dresser my husband and I share well he gets 2 drawers and I get 4 but he likes all of his shirts including t-shirts hung up.

Our 2 and 3 year old boys wear the same size clothing so they have always shared a dresser, I know that will soon change but for now it works for us. I try to go through their clothing a couple times a year as they get bigger and remove clothing that is to small and replace it with appropriate sizes usually the size they are currently wearing and a size or two bigger as all clothing is not created equal in sizing depending on the brand and style.

At that time I also went through my clothing and my husbands jeans, good heavens that man has more jeans than the rest of us combined in this house. They actually sit in folded piles on top of the boys dresser because they won’t fit into our shared dresser. Why don’t I hang them up? I can’t but for good reason, we only have 1 closet in this whole house and it is located in the bathroom, it is a decent size closet however between all of Mr. KVC shirts and my dress clothes and our daughters dresses there isn’t much room left for anything else.

Since our clothing has been taken care of, the rest of the  room just needs a good vacuuming and the walls washed. Thankfully those are fairly easy things to do with the exception of cleaning under the bed and behind the dressers, the bed and dressers are to heavy for me to move on my own in my current state i.e. 23 weeks pregnant. So that will have to wait until Mr. KVC can help me move them, hopefully this afternoon when he gets back from plowing snow from many of our neighbors driveways.

After a short break….

Well Mr. KVC is back and we tried moving the bed, instead moving it like I had planned we ended up breaking the bed. The foot-board came clean off, Mr. KVC says he can fix it and I really hope he can because I like our bed. So after that fiasco I will finish our room tomorrow.

Until next time,

~Kristen

Red and Pink

February’s color of the month is Red and Pink in honor of Valentines day. I couldn’t decide which color to go with so I am incorporating both Red and Pink in to my daily posts on Facebook and Google +

http://www.stylemepretty.com/gallery/picture/854734/ Photography Meg Perotti

Until next time,

Kristen

The History Behind the Dresses – Frannie

I often get asked by friends and family where I find my treasures for my shop, sometimes it is by searching far and wide and other times it kind of falls in my lap.

This story begins almost 8 years ago long before I opened my Etsy shop, even though selling vintage clothing is something I had/have wanted to do for a very long time. My older sister Grandmother passed away unexpectedly, my sister is the only grandchild of Frannie Udeck. She was a woman of many talents and one who loved to play bingo, from the stories I’ve been told she was quite the character. I only remember meeting her once and that was at my sisters wedding 15 years ago now.

After she passed away, my sister was told by her Dad to go in and take whatever she wanted because he was just going to have an estate auction since there wasn’t anything that he wanted in the house not to mention he lived in Florida while Frannie lived in Ohio.

Frannie’s whole house was a treasure trove of trinkets, jewelry, clothing and dolls. It was like stepping back in time to the 1970’s.

My sister knew her grandmother kept all of her clothing from years past and instead of throwing them away or selling them, she said come on up and take whatever you want.

Frannie’s clothing were the very first thing I ever had for my shop, most of it is from the 1970’s occasionally the 1960’s and very few pieces from the 1980’s. Her memory lives on through each item I sell from my shop, here is a small sample of clothing found in Frannie’s Closet.

I still have several totes of clothing to go through and either list or rephotograph for my shop. I hope you have enjoyed learning a little about where I find my pretties.

Until Next Time,

Kristen

The History Behind the Dresses – Vera

What is this VC collection? Well let me tell you. VC stands for Vera Copeland, very lovely lady who lived in the same house her whole life it had been in her family for 3 generations if I remember correctly. At the ripe at of 90 years old she was put into a nursing home after driving into a flat bed truck parked at the side of the road, which I’ve driven that part of the road when trucks park like that and truly anyone could have miscalculated the distance but I digress.

While her son was cleaning out his mother’s house, my husband stopped to say hello and ask about Vera. While he was there the son started talking about throwing away all of the clothing in the house, he opened a closet and what shall appear but a closet stuffed full of vintage dresses.

My husband is a lovely man who immediately suggested that instead of throwing them away to sell them to me. So two days later I trudge up there with my 4 month old infant in tow and I dug through that closet and brought about 70% of it home with me.

So what dresses do I have from this closet of treasures, here is a small sample of a few that I still have in my shop today.

Vera passed away 2 years ago from dementia, her memory lives on through her clothing that is given a new life when I ship it off to its new forever home.

Until Next Time,

Kristen

Children’s Book Review: Prancing Dancing Lily

I recently came across a book at my local library in the children’s section of course as I don’t get to wander to other parts of the library very much anymore.

It was your usual Wednesday afternoon right after story. As I browse the hundreds of books to find several to take home and read to my children I see it, nestled among the A section there it was “Prancing Dancing Lily” by Marsha Diane Arnold

Prancing Dancing Lily is about a milk cow named Lily who loved to prance and dance, which is something she did all the time.

She decided being a milk cow isn’t the life for her, so she travels the world looking for a place just for her not to mention all of the new dance mooves (total cow pun there).

Next time you are looking for a cute book to read to your children, be sure to check out Prancing Dancing Lily.

Until next time,

Kristen