I found my first official piece of McCoy pottery this week at a local thrift shop! It was priced at 1.50, but because they were having a half price sale I got it for .75 cents! I’m very excited.

Initially I was looking for a pretty, white pottery plant pot to house a plant in our kitchen. As i was looking I saw this small urn. I thought it looked special, then when I turned it over over and saw “MCP USA” on the bottom I thought, “this might be a McCoy???”

When I got home and looked it up, sure enough it was!

I’ve found other pottery in the past that I thought could be McCoy – and it may be, but it wasn’t marked, which an antique dealer told me many pieces aren’t – But the challenge, this same dealer told me, is that at the same time that McCoy was making pottery, a lot of other companies were making pieces that looked like McCoy – hence, this dealer said the phrase “the real McCoy” came about. (Believable, but I’m not certain of this fact.)

Anyway, it pays to dig, hunt and look!

Happy Hunting!

Our kitchen remodel is NEARLY complete!

The remaining details are up to us to complete and are quite simple – painting the trim and hanging some art. But, fitting these simple tasks into our busy summer is a larger challenge than I thought it would be.

Working in the time to paint has been limited to weekends – because during the work week I find I’m too tired after Parker goes to bed to think about doing more than watering my plants. So, this weekend I’m finishing the walls.

I find that when a project is nearly complete, it doesn’t hurt to have some incentives. Hosting book club this last week was the reason I was able to power through and get the primer on last weekend. And this weekend it’s the fact that a friend of ours, who paints on the side, made a trade with us to paint the trim – which means I need to get the walls wrapped up so he can finish the trim.

This same friend gave me some good wallpaper tips, so once I’m done in the kitchen, I’m going to jump back to getting the wallpaper hung in the parlor. The incentive here is two-fold: 1) I’m sick of living in a remodeling mess; and 2) The settee and conversation chairs that Shon’s  mom and dad gave us, which once belonged to his great-Aunt Frieda, are completely restored and re-upholstered. Kevin at K-Craft in Tea did an amazing job! He refinished the woodwork, repaired one of the chairs and even hand-carved some missing inlay. Parker and I went to see them today and I CANNOT wait to bring them home and arrange them in my finished parlor.

I began hanging paintable wallpaper in our parlor Sunday night, and as I was struggling along, a saying my Great-Granny Mary used to say came to mind. “Growing old ain’t for sissies!” Or, in my case, “Hanging wallpaper isn’t for sissies!” or any sane person!!!!

The DIY project began after a trip to Benjamin Moore for all the supplies. Thankfully they have a kids’ table with crayons, so I could ask for advice without paying attention to Parker (side note: Parker loves the kids’ table so much that both times we’ve visited the Minnesota & 41^st location I’ve had to drag a tantruming toddler from the small showroom!)

Upon the advice of the store’s owner, I then watched several instructional YouTube videos. They all stressed the importance of starting with a straight line and patience. I knew when the “P” word was thrown out that I was in trouble – I’m not patient. But, I thought, “I can do anything I put my mind to – right?”

So I began and the first four pieces went up easy peasy – then I absolutely under no circumstance could I get a piece to go on strait!!! After trying to re-hang it several times, the piece stuck to itself too long and tore. I tried a new piece, I didn’t work.

Then, Shon suggested I try a plumb line instead of a level – my patience had given out so I’m waiting until after July 4 to try again – we’ll see what happens with this new method. The only good news is since this is paintable wallpaper; some sin will be covered up with paint and primer. 

Here is a close up view of the wallpaper pattern. We’ll paint this once I’m done hanging it.