Daughters, Dishes, and Bumbershoots

On our Pennsylvania jaunt on Saturday, my daughter Anne and I saw many of those wonderful old fieldstone Pennsylvania houses that line Route 202 in Bucks County.

We got no pictures. What were we thinking?
We may have been too busy singing Woody Guthrie songs. Really.

By the time we were heading home, we remembered we had a camera in the car.
Anne snapped this wonderful example of vernacular Keystone State architecture:

It's an eatery, where you can have your shot-and-a-beer while watching
ladies dance in naughty outfits. Or lack thereof. We didn't stop.

Do you think they bought the paint from the leftover $1 a can pile at the hardware store?

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It's Monday, which means Mosaics! Thanks to Mary of Little Red House, for hosting Mosaic Monday. Go visit; you will be glad you found her blog, and have fun seeing what others have done with their mosaics and collages.

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So much for our architecture pictures in Pennsylvania: one naughty bar. We crossed the Delaware River from New Hope to Lambertville -- both towns were so packed with people you could hardly navigate -- and toodled up along the Delaware River, on the New Jersey side, to the hamlet of Frenchtown.

Frenchtown is where I want to live if I grow up to be a hippie.

It's a wonderful little town, charming shops, and block after block of unspoiled Victorian houses.
Carpenter Gothic has survived in all its glory in Frenchtown!

Some details of a few of the houses:

And a few of the houses themselves:

A day spent on either side of the Delaware River, exploring Pennsylvania or
New Jersey's small riverside towns, is a day well spent.
But come to New Jersey; we can use the sales tax revenue.

We did our spending in Pennsylvania, though.

At an antiques shop along Route 202 in Bucks County, I found something for $5.00:

I don't think I've ever bought anything for only $5 at a real antiques shop.
Especially something as practical as this . . .

It is an umbrella stand.

Made of wood, and painted in what I think of as 80s cottage colors, it will hold Howard's bumbershoots in the sunroom. He has a habit of dropping them on the carpet behind the loveseat and thinking I don't notice.

But I do.

The design is sweet, but it is due for a makeover. What do you think?
Black? Rusty brown to blend in with the leather loveseat? White to match the sunroom trim? A damask stencil? Decoupage?
Suggestions welcome!

I would ask Anne for her suggestions, but she and I do not always see eye-to-eye on design.
This is good; daughters should not copy their mothers' style. Of course, I am right . . . .

Case in point: I bought dishes on Saturday, from a woman near Philadelphia. 12 dinner plates, 11 cups, 12 saucers.
I saw them on Craigslist, and had to have them. Anne says they are hideous. Of course, she is wrong . . . .

Here's a hint of what they look like:

Tomorrow, the dishes revealed in all their glory.
Or hideousness, depending on your point of view.

Meanwhile, thank you so much for your kind birthday wishes for Mr. Dion DiPoochy. He is sleeping right now, because it is raining and the only sensible thing for a sensible dog to do in the rain is sleep. If he were awake, he would thank you himself. -- Cass