WELCOME - Y'ALL !

My nieces, Elizabeth in the white and Linda in the yellow.

     This past weekend was  the Apple Fest Celebration in my hometown, Clarksville,Mo. We have been getting things ready for days. I had, My Old  Historic House, open for tour for two days. It is a lot of work, what with the cleaning, yard work, advertisement and rounding up help. Every thing turned out wonderful, including the weather, it was a beautiful sun filled weekend, in the low 80's.My sister and sister in-law helped out, by  running my gift shop, Richard's Great Stuff. My two beautiful nieces, Linda and Elizabeth, got all dolled up in Ante -Bellum costumes and helped with the tours. My neighbor and dear friend, Marilyn, arrived in a beautiful purple satin ball gown and she was also the hostess with the mostest.We had fun greeting all the wonderful guest as the arrived for a tour. A charter bus load came from as far away as Jeffereson City, Mo. They were delightful. I got on the bus and with the help of a speaker gave them a brief history of the house and then they were allowed to just wonder. My beautiful ladies were there to help answer any questions. Every one was most gracious. Some one commented that they felt like they were on a movie set. Camera flashes were a common thing and all the girls were more than agreeable to pose for their picture.The one question they all asked was, "Who cleans this place?" I always have a dust rag in my hip pocket, pull it out, hand it toward them and say, "Help Yourself." This is always a crowd pleaser. I am serious, but they just laugh.I had the whole house sparking like the  brightest star in the Heavens,polished silver for days.
    To make things a little more hectic, I threw a big party on Saturday even. I served home made chili and some 35 guest came bringing there favorite desert or snack. We had so much food, the people were fun and some ended up on my screen porch and stayed till close to mid-night. My Old Historic House, is a wonderful place to entertain and I like nothing better than having company. What a beautiful, warm, cool night to spend on the porch. It is October in Missouri and we may not have many more chances to party on the porch.

My Historic House.

   I wanted to share some of the fun and excitement with all of you. I feel you are all my friends and some even feel like family.. I had one blogger friend ,travel 2 hours for the tour. Ms. Janice from, Curtains in my trees. She is the sweetest little lady I think I have ever meet. We hit it off and I even gave her lunch on the porch. I my not be a Real  Southerner,  but when it comes to visitors, I can slop on the sugar. And we always have to eat, can't let any one leave with out something to eat. This is how it was in my home when I was growing up.

1845

My dining room table.

The fall foliage is beautiful this year.

   I hope you enjoy the tour today. I wish you could have been her in person, we could still be enjoying that porch and  a big glass of sweet tea. Come any time. I will leave the lights on and Sissy Dog will always meet you with a jump and a kiss. I almost forgot, Ms. Janice, brought me a wonderful bottle of Missouri wine and a special big basket full of treats for Ms. Sissy Dog. When she called her name, Sissy ran and gave her a big  jump and a  kiss.All these  sweet girls,  what more could a man want?
 

 This bus  is from our state capital, Jefferson City,Mo. It had 45 people. I always welcome bus tours. Plenty of parking. Rent a bus, get a group and come on down to Clarksville.

The Bus tour hostess.

The silver was polished.

Sage and lavender from the garden is arranged among the pumpkins on the dining room table.

Elizabeth helping in the Down River, Gentlemen Parlor.

Elizabeth in the Ladies, Up River Parlor.

Linda in the Ladies Parlor.

My beautiful friend Marilyn on the entrance  stairs.

Marilyn showing a needlepoint face screen.

Three generations. My niece Elizabeth, her daughter Ashton and her daughter, 7 month old, Karah

Me with Janice, from Curtains in my tree- blogger.Be sure and check out her latest post, it is all about, My Old Historic House.

Ms. Janice, ain't she pretty and sweet.

I have 12 pumpkins on this table. "Go big," is my motto.

Sun set on a the Mississippi, ending to another Apple Fest in Clarksville,Mo. See you next year.

Fall in Rural Missouri

This is some of my handy work. Every thing is donated including my time.

This is outside the door to my shop, Richard's Great Stuff, in downtown, Clarksville,Mo.

This is the entrance to my little home town, Clarksville,Mo.

       
 Fall in Missouri is usually a very beautiful time. The hills come alive with all the changing colors of the leaves. I wondered about this year, as we had a very long, hot and dry  summer, but it seems they are going to show there stuff.
   I have spent the last couple of days decorating the whole town ,for our Apple Fest Celebration, that is this coming weekend. The town is only 490 people and covers a few city blocks. We have a local farmer, who has a farmers market, at the edge of town. One of his main crops is pumpkins. He donates bales of straw and corn stalks and the local Chamber , helps to buy the pumpkins. I have been decorating the town now for about 5 years. I have amassed a small collection of scar crows. They go on sale at the dollar store soon after Halloween and I hit the half price sale.This is one way I can give back to the community.
   I saw one little early  cottage house, all decorated up and thought that it was worth a special mention. It is the home of Ralph and Caron Quick, he is our resident Santa and also a Windsor Chair Maker. His chairs and shop have been featured in many national magazines. This little house is around 1840 and Caron has an eye for decorations. She always has this sweet little cottage done up to the nines.The inside is darling and very Colonial. Maybe some day she will let me do a blog tour. I'm going to ask her.
    At My Old Historic House, I don't seem to do a lot of decorating for fall. This year I topped my many garden urns off with a giant pumpkin. I think it is just the right amount ,to say fall ,but not to over do.I have been working on my dining room table, but I am going to keep that for another post. I am having house tour both Saturday and Sunday, as part of the Apple Fest celebration. I have been working morning and night to get ready. Polishing silver, cleaning and this morning, on my hands and knees, waxing all the hard wood floors. Every time I have to do all this, I wonder ,if I did the right thing, when I bought this old house. I can't help but wonder how many more years I can do all this.
   I hope you enjoy my tour today of Fall in Rural Missouri. I do wish you could come and see it all in person some day. You are always welcome. I will leave the lights on and Sissy Dog will be there to greet you with a jump and a kiss.I hope you have a beautiful fall season ,where ever you live.
 

I have a little display like this by each lamp post.

Our local farmers market stand.

Fall Mums for sale.

Ralph and Caron Quick's 1840 Colonial Cottage

All my urns were topped with giant pumpkins.

Weighing In

   Hal Joyce is recognized as the man who  invented a weighing scale ,as a measuring instrument for determining the weight or mass of an object.
     The oldest existence of weighing scales dates to c. 2400-1800 B.C. in Pakistan. Uniform polishes stone cubes discovered in early settlements were probably used as weight setting stones in a balance scale. Egyptian Hieroglyphic symbols for gold have been discovered, which suggest the Egyptian Merchants had been using a weight system.
    The earlier design for a scale dates to 1770 and is credited to Richard Salter.He brought the first spring balance scale into wide spread use in the 18th century. In England he began making what is today known as a fishermans scale,which used a spring balance to measure weight. The spring scale is a weighing scale often used to measure force, such as the force of gravity, exerted on a mass ,on the force of a persons grip.The force is commonly measured in Newtons or pounds. Many spring scales are marked on the face,"not for legal trade,"as they are not always accurate.
    The Dictionary defines the spring scale as an apparatus with a simple spring fixed on one end and a hook to attach an object on the other end. It works by,"Hooke's law," which states that the force needed to extend a spring, is proportioned to the distance, that the spring is extended from it's rest position. Therefore the scale markings on the spring scale, are equally spaced. Standard measurement was established in the 13th century by King Edward 1st of England. The standard soon traveled through trade and became somewhat acceptable in other parts of the world.

     Richard  Salter and his nephew , George, patented the spring scale in 1838. They formed one of the first spring scale making companies, George Salter and Company.Scales with these markings are highly sought after by today"s collectors.
     In 1840 R. W. Winfield developed the candlestick scale for use in measuring packages. This made it possible to measure weight faster -as the balance scale required adding and removing weights.
    By 1940's various electric devices were being designed, but was not until the late 20th century that they became accurate enough for wide spread use.
    In a typical spring scale- the spring stretches or compresses in proportion to how hard the earth pulls down on the object. It is there fore affected by the local flow of gravity and objects do not always way the same in one area  as compared to the next.
    The spring scale was most often used in fish markets, and soon took the nick name ."fish scale." They were used up and until the first part of the 21 century. Today in rural areas and small markets they are still widely used. They have become very collectible and have been sought after for years by antique hunters.
    I do not know why I am attracted to certain items. I have collected spring scales more than once in my life. At one time I had a big wall full. Sold them off and thought I was over them. Here while back, when I was on a antique shopping trip, I ran across a few scales and they just called my name. I had not bought any for awhile and had no ideal what they were selling for theses days. I asked the  seller to make me a package deal, he did, I did, and they came home with me. When thinking about the 1845 Historic Elgin/Cottrell House Museum, aka, My Old Historic House, I like to find and collect items that would be of interest to the tourist that come for a tour. I have to especially keep in mind the gentlemen and try and have a few items that they can relate to and like. Well the scales always seem to do the trick. Almost every gentlemen tourist has a story to tell about a scale. Sometimes it was there father or grandfather that had one. Often it leads to other types of scales and I say, I will have to look into getting a few of those.And you can rest assured , that gentlemen went home with a good tour experience.
    The scales I am sharing with you today are all English., made of brass and iron and are very beautiful examples. I hope you like them and enjoy them as much as I do. Maybe you can come some day for a real tour. I will leave the lights on and Sissy Dog will always meet you with a jump and a kiss. I hope you all are having beautiful fall weather, we sure are here in Missouri. I hope it will continue for awhile as the leaves are just starting to get beautiful.
   

The beauty that is fall in rural Missouri

Bonus Room.

      Almost every home has a little room or hall way that the owner is not quite sure what to do with it. Well, My Old Historic house, is of no exception. I have a little space,  that once was a hall way and the servants stairs, leading down to the kitchen. The second owner of my house, The Bankhead Sisters, removed the stairs to make a bigger kitchen. I saw no real reason to replace them ,when I did the restoration. Any how to make a long story short, this left a little room in the back hall. It is 6 foot square, 11 foot ceiling and lucky that it  has a window. I should have used it as a walk in closet or storage area.Because my house has very small closets and no storage.  But, I hardly ever do what I should. Another good use for it would have been a second bath room. Again a smart choice.All houses can use another bath ,and many bath rooms, are strong selling points.  The way I figure it, the next owner can do what is best, I want to do what is fun and pretty. What I have done to this room can easily be undone and  it can become a closet or bath room in a flash.
    Sometimes little rooms are hard,.but I have no problem with them. I like to treat them just like they are huge. I always go for bigger than life. I use large chandeliers, busy wall paper and very important furniture and window treatments. One way to make a room look bigger is with wallpaper and fabric that matches. I choice a black and white Waverly Toile for this little room.  In St.Louis there is a store called, Discount Decorating, and it is my Heaven on Earth.I just love to go there and walk up and down the isles and dream, plan and get inspired. The best thing about this store, is all there stuff is in stock and you can bring it home with you, that day, I am not a very patient person, when  I want to decorate, I want to do it now. The Wavery Toile wall paper and fabric was  medium priced. I did not need a ton of it, so that was a good cost savings. I f you have tall ceilings and want to use less wall paper to save money, I suggest you add a picture rail, a few feet down from the ceiling. You can stop the wall paper there and get a lot more footage out of a roll. I also choice a 2 foot wide boarder to add to the top of the paper, again this saved on the amount of paper I had to buy. All these savings are good and bad. Bad because, I now had to buy a very expensive boarder and add some wood picture rail trim between the two. The boarder I chose is from a company called, Burt's Wall Papers. Burt used to work for Bradbury and Bradbury, but now is on his own. He does not have a vast selection to chose from, but his papers are  unique and all historic correct reproductions. And, the best thing about his papers are, that he can make them in any color combination you want. I choice this boarder as it was of the right vintage, 1860's.  I wanted the paper to be mainly black and white to go with the wall paper, but I wanted to add some silver  and cranberry red. The reason for the silver was I planed on using a lot of silver dresser pieces in this little room and a splash of red. So this is the wall paper boarder result. It is not cheap, but as the room is small, I only needed. 9 yards, so I went for it.  I used the boarder as a window cornice and made the rest of the boarder be  at the level of the window, so the eye continues all the way around. I added a black ceiling and black shades on a very large crystal French chandelier.

    The room is just wide enough for a bed to fit, end to end.Having room for a bed,  makes this legally a bed room.  I wanted a  French day bed look, but, did not have the budget for a real one. My solution was to find a nice pair of twin beds and use the two head boards to make a day bed. The pair I found are really  better for my house ,as they are early American. They are mahogany and made around 1900. I got them for a fair price, but that price soon jumped ,when I added the upholstery. I got a new twin mattress and box springs and had the  two upholstered as well as the head boards. The two foot boards and two side rails were left, so I put them together and sold them as a day bed in my shop. This helped me play for the whole project. I didn't want to spend the money for the  Waverly Toile fabric for these beds, so I chose a white damask. It was on sale at Discount decorating. I needed 20 yards,so the price was important.
   At a auction I found a darling little upholstered vanity chair. It was rather small in scale, but had arms and looked bigger than it was. I had it done up, with the Waverly ,black and white Toile. I did not add a skirt as this would have made it, look too 21 century.A black and red rose needlepoint rug was the finishing touch
    This is this finished product. I usually end up in this room, to sleep, when I have a house full of company. It is also a favorite spot in the winter. Being so small, a little heater can warm it right up. The one disadvantage about living in a big old house ,is that they can be very cold in the winter. So, this room is a great place to relax with a blanket and a good book.
   I hope you  enjoy the tour of  this little room. I had a lot of fun putting it together. I wish you could come by some time for a real tour. I will always leave the lights on and Sissy Dog will be there to give you a jump and and a kiss.

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