A little less 70s

And a little less plaid.

We picked up the new couch cushions today in Bushwick...a good rainy day excursion.
Underneath is a brand new cat scratching pad covered in cat nip. My fingers are crossed.

And so it begins.

The house next door is about to be razed. Big fence went up yesterday, and today the trucks showed up. It turns out that they're actually disassembling it by hand--piece by piece. It's too close to my house to use a bull dozer. With the way things go around here I thought they might propose explosives.They say it'll take until next Friday. Let's hope that this giant sun-blocking wood business will come down too.

Blossoms are good....

because they mean the tree is still alive!

We were nervous there for a bit....

Free Trees!

Todd heard about a free tree giveaway by the Gowanus this morning. Everything in NY always seems so competitive that I was surprised that we were able to snag a couple.

My choice was a magnolia...tall, fragrant flowers, and cones of berries in the winter. What's not to like?And Todd picked a Hawthorne which I'm not that familiar with but it's supposed to have white flowers all summer and berries in the winter too.
We also have a Crape Myrtle reserved to pick up in a few weeks. I feel just a tiny bit greedy...but the greed is pretty much obliterated by the joy.

They look like bundles of sticks right now...but give them time!

The backyard is just getting started....

The digging madness continues...

You may recall my thoughts about obsessive people and digging tools...and here is further proof. Thursday I spent the greater part of the day digging my heart out (still not done!!), covered in filth...but ahhh, it was worth it!

I was amazed to find some bottles intact. The one on the far left says "The Pride of Long Island" which was apparently a ketchup (catsup?) made in Brooklyn. The middle one says Columbia Bottling Brooklyn, NY 86-88 Harrison St (which I think is now Keap St)...but other than that I can't really find any info on it --or what would have been in it. The small square one was made by W T Co--a popular manufacturer of bottles (especially for medicine) from 1806 to 1938 in New Jersey.

And here's how Todd found me 8 hours later...and told me it was time to come back inside.

Taking stock

The list continues....earthenware jug, so sad that the rim is broken..and a big old spoonI looked up this shard and whatever it was from was made between 1870 and 1889...just wish I knew what...
Two more marbles and a Victorian porcelain picture-nail cover (and the only reason I actually knew what the latter was, was that I purchased a few on ebay for curtain hanging exactly like it!)
A tiny apothecary bottle and more broken glass
and I thought this piece with the yellow paint deserved a close-up:

Bits and Limbs

Some more doll parts that got unearthed....Sorry, but the butt was too cute to resist showing
and 2 porcelain limbs

My Dream Baby!

So...I found this one shard of something and I held on to it because the text was so nice saying "germany". Kind of an odd shape, I couldn't figure out what it could be from...and then I realized...back of a doll's head...I ran the number and found the same imprint on the back of this doll's neck (for sale on Ebay)
Made from bisque in the 20s by Armand Marseille, it's name is "The Dream Baby", model number 341/2.

So really,...now I really must know if the rest of her is down there in the soil somewhere.

And THEN...it got interesting....

Just when I thought I couldn't bear to dig up any more bricks and rotted clothing in the backyard...

A couple of bottles: The front one says Chesebrough Mfg Vaseline, according to their company's info, any vaseline jars without screw top are 1907 and earlier.
Marbles...including one big clay one
Lots of pottery shards
My favorites...transferware:
And lots of broken bottle pieces, I kept the ones with interesting text
Now that I found what I think might be the old "household-garbage" area, I'm tempted to put off turning over the dirt in the rest of the yard and just dig as much as I can in this one 4'x4' space. Crazy? Maybe.

Obsessive people should not be allowed to have shovels.

Irish Linen

Finally! Curtains for the parlor living room...with a bit more privacy at night.Better than the Ikea sheers that were thumbtacked up, anyway.

Old or new?

You tell me.

I dug this up in the yard--seems like milk glass and it has a thread around the top rim for a lid. It looks like a cold-cream container or something...the only identifying mark is a very faint 5 in the bottom--but if anyone just bought one of these at CVS please let me know.

I should have taken a "before" picture...

because I guess it doesn't look like much...but we spent about 7 hours on the yard yesterday.

We took out 4 carloads full of wood, garbage, and weeds. The stack of materials still there will go to the back corner into the "shack-imprint"...and then the rest can be gotten ready to plant, plant, plant!

See your face in that shine!

Yes! The stairs are done!

Am I satisfied? Never!

But anyway, I can live with them.

The obsession needs to stop.
Shiny, shiny, shiny.
And the linen cabinet has been given new (old) hinges, a new backing, doors are adjusted...and it's been painted.

Done. Now if only the weird antique store bad-air-freshener-stink would go away.