Featured Your Best of 2024

Thank you.
Yes, the stick is the applicator. I don't think it is the original one, it looks Omani to me, not Yemeni. But if it isn't original, at least it shows the bottle has had a life. And Yemen and Oman are neighbours.

 

My best find of 2024 was ... this site!

 

The bottle is nice, but I preferred His Royal Furriness behind. Or Her Royal Furriness.

 

We need a formal introduction to the furry "someone" please!!

 

I love the bottle. I don't think I've ever seen a kohl bottle of any kind here in the states, but then again I've never looked for them.

I agree, pretty kitty!

Linda

 

I have done my best to NOT buy anything this year!
I have toooo much stuff!!

But while wandering a flea market, keeping my daughter company, I couldn't help but bring this home.

Many Jugtown Ware pieces have modest value but if you happen upon any in "Chinese blue", give them a good look.

From what I can tell, the more the blue has slipped away from the red beneath the better.

 

May I introduce: Dewi, the sweetest cat in all of Eindhoven (my town). Dewi is a girl, but she likes to dress up in a tuxedo, she is a tuxie.

I got her from a shelter. She has a panic disorder and because of that she was never socialised before I got her. She never even played, too scared of anything that moved.
I was told that it was possible that she could never be socialised, and she certainly couldn't be around other pets or kids, nothing boisterous or noisy. But I had an immediate click with her and vice versa, and I decided to take the risk. Even if she couldn't be socialised, at least I could give her a peaceful and loving home. Because she scares easily, I have become even more Zen than I already was.

With a lot of patience and love she is now a perfect pet for me, very cuddly, playful, and she follows me around the house. She has learnt to sit in her travel basket when I tell her to, for which she gets a treat of course.
She is still wary of strangers, but she will watch from a distance when I have visitors. I am sure she will become more relaxed with other people over time, she has already come a long way. I am very proud of her.

 

It is beautiful, SIS, love that colour, and the blue on red is very striking.

 

Well, that glaze is all kinds of gorgeous, so I would've been very tempted myself. Read the wiki article about Jugtown pottery. Interesting and glad it has remained in business so long!

 

Your cat is beautiful I had a tuxie growing up called Skyler - I had to move in with my stepmother as a teen, and when I went to move out at 18 she wouldn’t let me take Skyler. I got a postcard, telling me when he died. Still very fond of a tuxie, although I’m too poor at the minute for pets. But when I can afford it, I’ll head straight to a shelter! Thank you for posting her.

 

I had sweet Boots, tuxedo boy. He has been gone about 8 years. He was the quiet sweet one in the house, always snuggled next to my back or legs just to be touching me. Miss him.
Linda

 

They always go too soon, don't they. And it hurts so much.
But the memories are good, they are all special in their own way. They give us love and they teach us, if we are willing to learn from them.

 

I had Thomasina as a child, a tuxie, who died when I was 21. Another tuxie was Fruitcake, who earned her name fair and square. There was also Dusty, who was afraid of me. The latter two were taken in when someone had to move quickly and couldn't take the cat.

Shelters are not good places for cats. The scared ones become more so, and the shy ones become shyer. My last cat, Genie, came from a shelter after most likely being dumped on the street. She hid in my basement for a week after I got her and she never did like other humans much. She only sat on my lap when she wanted something.

 

Acquired quite a few nice pieces in 2024, this one my favorite without doubt, because it was a Christmas 'spoon exchange' gift, and making it particularly special was the sweet enclosed note expressing why he wanted to give me this spectacular late 19th-early 20th century Norwegian plique-à-jour enamel sugar shovel by David Andersen:






Another beautiful plique-à-jour piece and a long-time want-list item, Viking ship salt by David Andersen, acquired through the lovely Kyratango and hubby, shown with well-matched spoon I already owned:






Another item off my want-list, raven spoon by Tlingit silversmith Rudolph Walton:




Additions to my Lily of the Valley spoon collection, sizes from 7.75" to 10.5", circa 1870. The first piece, a Whiting Mfg. berry spoon, acquired a year or two ago, but the other three in 2024 - a Whiting Mfg. cream ladle, the pie knife and almond scoop by Wood & Hughes.






And a very uncommon piece that I'd only seen in a late 19th century catalog - didn't know I wanted it until I saw it in parcel-gilt sterling, and then I definitely wanted it...





~Cheryl

 

She was just waiting for you to come find her!!

I so miss having a fur baby around & am determined to have at least 1 in the house by summer!!

 

Put the word out that you want a cat to show up. The cat distribution system works in mysterious ways.

 

Nope - it is not that I hate cats, I just couldn't live with an animal that did not realize who was in charge. Every dog I have ever had understood 3 things - 1) the kids were easy, 2) dad is a pushover & 3) mom means business.

Case in point - the dogs all sat between my husband & the boys at the dinner table because they knew there were handouts to be had, but mom didn't believe in feeding dogs from the table. So all I had to do was look at them & they would scurry back to dad.

 

Ahhhh, the difference between dogs & cats...... and their humans !

 

Wowser. That's impressive. The plique a jour is to die for!