My Newest Find: Saginaw Watertown Slide

Meet my newest find for my studio, an antique Saginaw Watertown Slide cabinet. I had been searching for one for almost a year and this piece has quite a story of how it made it's way to me.

After unsuccessfully locating one in my area, I took to the Facebook search bar (this is how I found my complete art show system, read about it here) Typing in "expanding cabinet table" brought up a lot of older posts. After scrolling through I found a post from the previous day of a cabinet for sale in Pekin, Illinois at a small shop called Corner Curio. I contacted the shop owner, Dawn, who was extremely helpful, and explained how I was interested in purchasing the cabinet but needed to figure out the logistics of getting it to New Jersey.

As some of you know, my brother, Brandon, lives just outside of Indianapolis and works for John Force Racing. I called him while he was racing in Pomona and asked if he would be willing to bring the cabinet home with him during his upcoming visit for Thanksgiving. He was able to bring it home but I had to get the cabinet to his house, about 3.5 hours from Pekin, Ill.

I was determined to obtain this long sought after cabinet. Luckily, I stumbled upon the television show "Shipping Wars" just a couple of weeks prior and learned about UShip.com. After registering and uploading information about the cabinet, I received bids on transporting the cabinet to Indiana.

I purchased the cabinet over the phone and secured the transporter, Mario. We discussed the details of the transaction and settled on pick up and delivery dates. Since my brother was racing in California and wouldn't be back to his house for almost a week, I got in touch with his neighbor, Michelle. She was going to help by accepting the shipment and storing it in her garage.

Unfortunately, due to prior engagements and differing time zones, Mario was unable to deliver the cabinet at the time we discussed. However, this worked out for the best! A couple of days later, Brandon was home and the cabinet was delivered.

The following week, my brother drove the 10+ hours home to stay with us to celebrate Thanksgiving. The cabinet was finally home! 

I can't wait to use it with my private lesson art students, packaging prints, and creating works of art. Below are pictures of this amazingly versatile piece of furniture. The best part of the whole story, is that it only cost $150!

Thanksgiving

Now I know almost everyone's favorite holiday is Christmas for the presents, lights and the beautifully decorated trees. But mine is Thanksgiving! There's something about getting the whole family together to enjoy delicious food and each other's company that can't be beat. There's no stress over buying gifts or wrapping them. Just the people you love the most giving thanks for all the blessings the past year has brought.

We enjoyed our garden's harvest with vegetables and fruit we grew earlier in the year. We had sweet potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, coleslaw (from my father-in-laws cabbage) and mashed potatoes (from our friend's potato farm). We even had raspberry juice that we harvested and froze to enjoy throughout the winter.

Below are some pictures from our Thanksgiving feast.

Day Trip to Barre, MA

We just got back from an awesome day trip to Barre, MA to purchase and pick up equipment for my next business venture: art festivals. I started researching canopies and display systems and stumbled across a complete art show display for sale on Facebook. The power of social media!

After putting the kids to bed, Chester and I started our drive north. (My mom graciously stayed at our house to tend to our littles. Thanks, Mom! ) We drove to Sturbridge, MA and spent the night at the historic Publick House Inn. I would highly recommend staying there if you are traveling in that area. It was absolutely beautiful and the staff were so friendly!

The next morning we had THE best breakfast: french toast, ham, buttermilk pancakes and sausage. Seriously, they were out of this world. We then made the short drive to Barre to meet Darrell and Cynthia, the photographers I purchased the art show system from. After going over the trailer, we were back on the road headed home.

We did make a pit stop at Sturbridge Antique Shops on the way home. My other passion is antiquing and we had a great time going through the shop. I found a lot of great items to add to my collection. Chester even found an old scale "that spoke to him" and had to have!

Below are some pictures from our trip. Check back for announcements of my 2017 art festival schedule!

Driving in Massachusetts 

One of the dining rooms at the Publick House Inn

How awesome are these crocks?! 

Our treasures from Massachusetts 

Landscapes: How Two Artists See Nature

During the month of October my work will be on display at Mala Galleria in Kennett Square, PA. Here is a video clip of gallery

New Painting: "Hope After Darkness"

In early March of this year, my husband caught a very aggressive stomach virus. In all the years we have been together, I have never seen him sick. Two days later my 2.5 year old daughter, Courtney, came down with croup (this was her first time being sick, she never even had a cold before). A couple days after that she came down with the stomach virus. After staying up all night with her, I also caught the bug. I was 36 weeks pregnant and ended up needing to go to the hospital for dehydration. Needless to say, it was a difficult time for our family.

It took a couple of weeks for everyone to begin feeling better. As life started to get back to normal, Courtney and Chester went for a walk and picked me this flower. It was the first sign of spring and better days ahead. A couple of weeks later our son, Kent, was born. This painting commemorates that moment in our family life.

"Hope After Darkness" - Acrylics on Gessobord - 5" x 5" by Kimberly English © 2016

Progression video of "Hope After Darkness"

Eagles

It's a normal occurrence to see bald eagles around our home because we are surrounded by south jersey farmlands with multiple lakes in the area. Usually around 7:30 A.M. I can spot an eagle on it's daily route from the nest (near the lake) toward the power lines. After making breakfast for my family yesterday, my husband spotted two eagles across the street from our home. I quickly grabbed my camera and went out the door to see how close I could get for some pictures. I started sneaking up the hedgerow next to our house; the eagles were not phased. I walked across the street to get a better view and noticed what the birds were interested in: a dead possum. I was about 25 yards from the eagles and they couldn't have cared less that I was there!

Later in the morning, one of the eagles remained in the tree keeping a close watch on the possum. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to photograph when it swooped down to pick it up the road kill. However, I did get some action shots of two hawks trying to take the possum from the eagle.

Have you spotted any bald eagles? I'd love to see pictures! Please leave them in the comments below!

Painting Progression: Daretown Lake

On a beautiful afternoon in the early fall, I took a short drive to Daretown Lake for reference pictures for an upcoming exhibition with my good friend, Janice Chassier. The joint show will be in Kennett Square, PA at Mala Galleria and I decided I needed to create more paintings that reflected the habitat of Janice's favorite subject: Canadian Geese. Below is the video progression of the painting.

Video progression of "Daretown Lake"

"Daretown Lake" - Acrylics on Gessobord - 5" x 7" by Kimberly English © 2016