Tannehill Trade Days

This past weekend Steve and I enjoyed a trip to the first Tannehill Trade Days of 2010, trade day weekends are held every third Saturday and Sunday from March to November. The event takes place at Tannehill Ironworks historical park located in McCalla, AL which is near Birmingham.

We bought several things but most importantly we had a great time just spending the day together. The weather was just beautiful on Saturday (which is more than I can say for Sunday, ughh).

One little bit of advice for anyone thinking of attending trade days, go early! By the time we got ready to leave there were so many people it was hard to look at anything. The road in to the park is just a two lane road which is small and very curvy, we left the park Saturday at 1pm and people coming in said the traffic was backed up so far it took them two hours to get in. There were cars backed up for 5 or 6 miles. Below are some of our finds and a few pictures of us.

We did not buy this piece below, but would have liked to.

This piece below isn't something we bought Saturday, it's something Steve pieced together. He had bought the base a while back, Friday he found the top at a yard sale. Cute isn't it, I love the short size of it.

A Welcomed Sight

No, I'm not there yet, the cemetery isn't the welcomed sight I'm talking about. It's the beautiful flowers. I visited this cemetery yesterday near our home to get some pictures of my husband's grandparents and great grandparents headstones, just thought I would share the pretty flowers with you all. They are just everywhere now it seems. It's amazing to drive down the country roads see clusters of these pretty flowers where old homes once stood. Ahhhhh I just love spring!

Birdhouse Surprise

Steve has built a couple of new bluebird houses so yesterday I decided to have him take down a birdhouse that has been up a couple of years but has never had any birds to nest in it. This birdhouse used to be a mailbox, Steve put a divider in the middle and holes on each end, we knew bluebirds wouldn't use it but thought maybe some other type of bird would. Anyway to get on with my story, he took it down yesterday. We noticed what looked like nesting material in it and thought that was weird. He was looking in the hole, then all the sudden he says "What the *$&%&"! This is what we saw, if I'm correct it's a flying squirrel. So cute isn't it! (Don't forget, you can click on the pictures to enlarge them)

We decided to put the house back on the post where we got it from, hopefully the little critter will stay.

Maybe it picked this house because of the bird feeder next to it, I figure maybe it eats the seed from the feeder.

2010 Jerry Brown Arts Festival

This weekend was the annual Jerry Brown Arts Festival http://www.jbaf.org/ which is held in Hamilton, AL.

Molly and I attended the festival yesterday. It's fun going seeing all the great Southern artist with their work on display and for sale. Of course headlining the festival is the man himself, Jerry Brown.

For those of you who aren't familiar with him or his work he's a ninth-generation potter.

He's a Smithsonian potter as well as the recipient of the 1992 National Heritage Fellowship and the 2003 Alabama Heritage Award from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

Brown's work is hand-turned and he still uses a mule to power his clay mill. Most of his work is still fired in a brick kiln.

He produces many neat items from rooster teakettles, crocks, bean pots, mixing bowls, jugs, etc. but I believe he is most famous for his face jugs. Most people who see them think they're ugly and wonder why anyone would want such a thing but with Jerry Brown being a local artist and living in the same county (Marion Co. Alabama) my mom was born and raised in I just love all his work.

On Valentine's Day 2007 Steve told me to get in the truck that he was taking me somewhere but wouldn't say were. I was beginning to think he was hauling me off somewhere to kill me (ha-ha, just joking, he would never do that) but seriously I thought where in the world are we going on these country roads. When I saw the sign pointing to Jerry Brown's shop I knew where we were going. Oh I was so excited. I think Mr. Brown got a kick out of me telling him that he was my Valentine's Day gift.

Steve was able to write a personal message for me on the bottom of a face jug that was still wet and Mr. Brown signed and dated it, of course it had to be fired so I couldn't bring it home that day but I did get to pick out another face jug that had already been glazed and fired to bring home with me that day. They were my Valentine's Day gifts that year. Here are my two face jugs.

In all we probably have at least 30 pieces of Jerry Brown's pottery, we have things ranging from candlestick holders, bowls, pitchers and even a large churn.

Goodbye February

This is how we spent the last afternoon in February 2010. It was a relaxing afternoon.