Tobacco Baskets

Last weekend my hubby took my Mom and I to The Simple Goods Show.  It is the second time we have been there and had a great time.  I came across several items that caught my eye, but this was on item that really peaked my interest.  I actually fell in love with it when I first saw it, but wasn’t really sure where I would put it.  I though that I could take something off my wall and then hang the tobacco basket up or just find a new spot.  Well, I have three particular spots in the running for this wonderful tobacco basket, but still have yet to make up my mind.  Do you ever find yourself buying things and then trying to finding a spot for it.  Yep, it must be a “prim” thing (lol).  Anyway, I thought I would share some pictures of my tobacco basket and a little history about them.

Some baskets “might” be antiques, but believe it or not some were used all the way up to 1980.  These basket were used to display tobacco taken to market.  The leaves are normally picked by hand, starting at the bottom of the stalk.   In the old days, the leaves were then carried to the tobacco barn where they were hand-tied onto sticks about 3 feet long. The sticks were then placed in tiers in the tobacco barn. A fire was lit and the leaves were cured to a rich golden color in the barn. When the sticks were removed from the barn, the leaves were then sorted by size and original location on the stalk of tobacco. Tips are from the top of the plant; cutters, about half as long as your arm, are from the center of the stalk; lugs are from the bottom. There are 216 different grades of tobacco. After sorting and grading, the leaves were tied into "hands." A hand of tobacco weighed about 1 pound if made of tips or lugs and about 2 - 3 pounds if made from cutters. A hand of tobacco is a group of leaves tied together at the stem end. The end is wrapped in another cured leaf. The hands were then laid in the tobacco basket in a circle with the stem ends pointing to the outside. The baskets were then loaded and taken to the tobacco warehouse where they were sold at auction.  At the warehouse, the baskets would be stacked about two high to reach a pile weight of 250 pounds of flue-cured tobacco. The baskets were made from hand-rived oak, primarily in Yadkin County, NC. The oak strips are nailed together. The open spaces in the center of each side are to allow room for a hook to be attached. The hook was used to pull the baskets onto the scales and to load the baskets into trucks after the sale. The baskets were owned by the warehouse or the Board of Trade, a consortium of tobacco companies. The company name was stenciled onto the edge of the basket. Baskets are no longer used in the warehouses of the south. They have been replaced by burlap sheets. Baskets are still used in the markets in Maryland. You are now more likely to encounter a tobacco basket in an antique store or see one hung on chimney as a decorative device. Some baskets are hung on walls inside homes and used to display memorabilia or flower arrangements or other decorative items.

So, are you ready to see some close up pictures of my tobacco basket?

I absolutely LOVED the red and blue on the end of the basket.  I thought it would match my colors in my family room perfectly.  The basket isn’t perfect by any means, but that is what makes it unique.  Don’t ya think?

Wouldn’t you love to know the history behind this basket?  You wonder where it has been and who carried it?  I always think about things so in depth sometimes.  I guess my mind is always wandering and that makes it hard to shut it down (lol).

I pulled these pics off the Valley Voice website.  Aren’t they so neat all piled up?  Gotta love all the different colors!

You wonder why the different colors?  Guess that leaves more time for my mind to keep thinking (lol).  If I find out or you know then leave me a note.  I would love to hear from you.  Well, I hope you all enjoyed the pictures.  I leave you with one last picture of my tobacco leaves.

Do you have an old tobacco basket?  If you do then you should share some pictures.  I would love to see it.

As for endorsing tobacco products…. I am not a smoker, never have been a smoker and never will be a smoker.  Oh and I will never be a chewer either.  Eww, yuck!!  I guess you could just say that I enjoy the history behind it and decorating with it. 

Until Next Time ~ Blessings, Lisa

The Simple Goods Show

My Mom and I went to The Simple Goods Show yesterday and we had a great time.  We were hoping the rain would hold off and luckily it did.  I can’t even remember the last time the sun was out.  Geesh, I was beginning to think we would need to take a boat to the show.  Hmmm, maybe I would have had more room for goodies in a boat (lol).  Anyway, it was a fun time and my sweet hubby was such a sport carrying all of our purchases out to the car.  I love you honey!!

Anyway, here is the back end of my CRV.  As you can see it is packed and there wasn’t much room for anything else. 

I have alot to share with you, but I wanted to first of all let you know that I met some great gals.  I met Angie Sutter from Love The Prim Look and Lesa Cook from Brier Creek Primitives.  I have had the great opportunity to get to know these gals mostly through Facebook and they are so sweet.  Not only are they sweet, but they put on a GREAT show at Simple Goods.  Here are some pics that I had taken with them.  Here is Lesa Cook and myself…..

Here is Angie Sutter and myself……

Here are some of my show purchases.  I bought this from Lesa.  Don’t you just love it?  It is a hanging pie safe.  I absolutely love the blue!!

I also purchased these items……

So, what do you think?  I absolutely fell in love with my tobacco basket.  I will share more pictures of that in a couple days, but wanted to share all pics with you now.  It definitely was a fun time and we actually were able to get in and look freely without running into people.  The crowds were down from the fall show, but I am sure it had alot to due with it being Easter weekend.  I did see Kris Thomas from Simply Prim, her hubby and her daughter Kory.  Talk about a sweetheart.  Her daughter was just a gem of a girl.   I also saw Vickie from North Shore Primitives and her friend and co-worker Becky.  It is always nice seeing those gals too.  Aren’t we so blessed to have such wonderful prim girlfriends!?!  Gotta love each and every one of them.

Well, that is all I have to share with you today.  I hope that you all had a very blessed and Happy Easter.  I leave you today with this pic of my little man.

  

Much Love & Prayers!!        ~ Lisa

Country Hearth Primitives

Do you ever search craigslist and come across some neat items?  Well, I came across a neat store just by searching craigslist.  This place is located in Grove City, Ohio and it is called Country Hearth Primitives.  They sell a mixture of antiques, primitives and a few other items as well.  Of course the antiques and primitives are right up my alley.  I took my Mom there a couple weeks ago and we loved it.  I found so many goodies and by the time we left there, we felt like we were eating the dash board because we didn’t have much room left in the car for us (lol).  Here are some of the items that I came home with.

I absolutely loved the bowls.  They looked so old and look perfect in my kitchen.  I also found these……  She said that they were old spinning wheels and I thought they were very unusual and very neat.

I absolutely fell in love with this big huge barrel as soon as I walked up to the front door.  Isn’t it great?  I ended up putting it on my front porch.  I have so been wanting a large barrel for awhile and when I came across it…..well, it was easy for me to decide on it.

I then found this and had to get it.  I thought it would be perfect in my bedroom or my family room.  I just loved the picture when I came across it.

I bought this to hang on my fence……

AND this was probably my best purchase of the day.  A very old bed which she called a “hired help” bed.  I did some research on this bed and found one just like it for sale online and that particular one said that it from the late 1800’s.  I thought it would be great in my flowerbed.  The neat thing about this bed is that it folds up.  It is very neat!!  Are you ready to see it?  Yep, I was crazy over it when I first saw it.  Here are some pics…..

Very neat – don’t ya think?  Well, I hope that you enjoyed my new finds and most of all the goodies that you can find at this wonderful and very unique store.

Have a great week everyone.

~ American Pickers ~

Awhile back my hubby took me to this place in Springfield that had tons of old barn wood, old windows, doors and the list goes on.  Well, awhile back I decided to head back over there and look around while my Mom was with me.  I forget the name of the place, but they said that they were in the process of changing the name again.  Anyway, it so reminds me of a smaller version of American Pickers.  If you are looking for some old stuff for your home then you are definitely in luck.  Let’s take a look.  Here is a picture of the front of the building.  The front of this place is normally loaded with anything and everything wood.  Looking for something made out of wood then you will find it here.

Did you see all the old windows and doors?  What about all that barn wood and did you see all of the old chicken coups piled on top of one another?   I just couldn’t believe how much more stuff they had behind the store.  Tons and Tons of stuff!!  Here are a few pics that I took while inside.  Just imagine some of these old doors inside an old farmhouse.  Yep, I just need the money and the house and I think I could get started with refurbishing one – how about you?!?

 There were tons of these.  The gentleman that helped us said that he got them out of an old theatre and that someone had already purchased each and everyone of them for $40.00 each.  I thought they were neat, but I would have no idea what I would do with one (lol).

Here are a few more pics of a close up of the porch area. 

I ended up leaving with an old barn door, some old glass jug jars that I bought for $1.00 each, a Clabber Girl tin, 2 old lanterns and a rusty old can.  My hubby asked me what I was going to do with an old rusty can, but I couldn’t really answer him.  I think I will work on that as the weather gets warmer so be watching for more posts.  Here are the pics of my new items.

Gotta love old and rusty things!!  For all of those items…… I only ended up spending $13.92.  Pretty good deals don’t ya think?

Well, I better go for now.  Keep checking back frequently because I just recently checked out a new shop and can’t wait to show you my new purchases.  Blessings to you all.

Hugs, Lisa