Pickled Hutch Picks of the Week - 2/27

I love my Pickled Hutch picks this week! Well, I always love them, but this week, Julie, someone who's starting to sell her things at the Hutch filled the garden cottage with all kinds of great things. Here are a few of them. Julie just brought these in, so some of them aren't priced yet, but I still wanted to show them.

I love this vase! It's so heavy. I love the color and the shape.

I'm crazy about this metal cart. I actually have it on hold until Julie gets back to me about it. I have the perfect idea for the cart, which I'll tell you about when I find out if I'm going to get it.


Chippy green metal brackets. All you need is a board to go on top.


The Pickled Hutch is an antique store in San Francisco that I love. Every Wednesday I pick three items to post on my blog that I especially like. The Pickled Hutch is located at 1605 Church Street, San Francisco, CA. Open Wed. to Sun. 11 - 6. PH 415-641-8875. Ask for Lisa.

Daily Candy: A Sweet Treat!

My party hats are today's San Francisco Daily Candy! I was soooo excited to read it when I woke up, but my excitement deflated a tad bit when I actually read it. I'm not crazy about the way the review begins, which is, "it’s your party and you’ll cry, get wasted, and force everyone to wear funny little hats if you want to." Uh, force everyone to wear funny little hats? Hm. I could do without that sentence, even though I figure it's referring to the goofy sort of party hats people are probably more used to seeing. It's Daily Candy, though, and that's their quirky way of writing--at least that's what I'm telling myself. And I'm still excited that they chose to write about my hats! I guess I should focus more on the next sentence (and the rest of the good review) that explains that these aren't just those funny little hats: "as long as they're handmade party toppers by A Rabbit in the Hat, no one will mind a bit." We'll see if it brings me sweetness today. I've already had a few inquires from customers before 7:30 AM.

On the Bookshelf

I love bookplates. I love the idea of them and how creative they are. I don't actually use them in my books because I don't have enough bookplates. Still, I love to look at them. My mom found these ship bookplates a while back and gave them to me. I love to look at this blog about bookplates every now and then. So many interesting bookplate designs!

Cindy tagged me--this tag is about what I'm reading. The rules are:
1. The book must be over 123 pages.
2. Find page 123 in the book.
3. Find the first 5 sentences.
4. Post the next 3 sentences.
5. Tag other people

So here it is. I'm reading a little mystery called Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers. I'm not up to page 123 yet, so I hope this doesn't spoil anything--it is a mystery after all--I shouldn't be reading ahead! The three sentences in question are: "It was a deed of trust, making over the whole of Mrs. Wrayburn's property to Norman Urquhart, in trust for herself and providing that he should pay unto her current account, from the estate, a certain fixed annual sum for personal expenses. The deed was dated July 1920 and attached to it was a letter, which Miss Murchison Hastily read through." Okay, so that's two sentences, but they're long and a whole long paragraph begins in the next sentence so I'll stop there.

Adorable!

Katrina, Sugarsandwich on etsy, ordered this party hat I made to go with the dress she made for her daughter, and she sent me this picture! How cute is she? I love that little dress! Check out Katrina's other little girl's dresses. So cute.

Pickled Hutch Picks of the Week - 2/20

Gone bird watching this week at The Pickled Hutch.

Fork Tailed Flycatcher framed print. $24.

Industrial bird cage. $75.
Vintage Hartmann Bag. $52.


The Pickled Hutch is an antique store in San Francisco that I love. Every Wednesday I pick three items to post on my blog that I especially like. The Pickled Hutch is located at 1605 Church Street, San Francisco, CA. Open Wed. to Sun. 11 - 6. PH 415-641-8875.

Help from Lynda

Here's my first little InDesign experiment--illustrated party hat kit instructions (I'm working on making party hat kits, by the way). I probably shouldn't even show this because it's a very rough draft. (I know the pictures need to be larger, etc.) Still, I'm proud to have gotten this far by myself. I recently learned about Lynda.com, an online training library that offers tutorials and books on a variety of design software programs such as Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. I've been meaning to learn these things for years, but whenever I try to fool around with the programs on my own, I don't get very far. I think these tutorials are just what I needed, and it's much cheaper than taking a class. It costs $25 a month, and you can cancel any time.

Belated Valentine's Cupcakes

Last night I made some homemade chocolate cupcakes with butter cream icing and little strawberry hearts on top. I meant to make them the day before so I'd have time to give them to people on Valentine's, but I didn't get around to it. I was a day late, but not a cupcake short. The icing was delicious, but I still need to work on the texture. No matter how much I mixed it, it still seemed a little grainy. My mom told me she sifts the powdered sugar before adding it to the butter. She knows her stuff. Good advice. I'll do that next time.

Artists Paris and Jill

I recently came across some lovely paintings by Jill Barton and Paris Gerrard, who are mom and daughter respectively. Don't these pancakes look scrumptious? And wouldn't it be nice to make a stack of these on a stormy weekend morning? Paris said she loves the immediacy of painting--how it brings her into a direct and instant involvement with the work. She said it almost seems as though the painting itself is alive and active in the process. She often begins with an image that speaks to her, or if she's working abstractly, with perhaps just a feeling or color. Sometimes she feels her work is bold and serious, sometimes it feels light, perhaps even sweet. No matter what, for her, it is an evolution that becomes a process of discovery.

Jill and Paris share a studio and paint together almost every day. They also collaborate on paintings sometimes. Paris told me that her mom's paintings are often textural with layers of complimentary elements. For instance, she often adds metal leaf into her paintings and loves to explore working with new surfaces and mediums. Her painting Stormy Day II is painted on a slate tile.

Dollar Pancakes by Paris and Stormy Day II by Jill

Pickled Hutch Picks of the Week - 2/13

In honor of Valentine's this week, my Pickled Hutch picks are pretty in pink today. I think this hand painted tray is so pretty. $62

Cute little mirror. $35.

Pink stool. $38
Pretty blush pink glasses. Various prices.

Pink and gold teapot. $65
The Pickled Hutch is an antique store in San Francisco that I love. Every Wednesday I pick three items to post on my blog that I especially like. The Pickled Hutch is located at 1605 Church Street, San Francisco, CA. Open Wed. to Sun. 11 - 6. PH 415-641-8875. Ask for Lisa.

A Found Desk

Yesterday, I saw two girls lugging an old school desk home. I figure they probably found it on the street since they were walking the desk home. It looked like good San Francisco street junk. Both the desk and the situation were so cute. I wish I had had my camera with me. The girls were giggling and wobbling back forth and giggling some more while trying to get it to its new home. They stopped for a minute in the grassy median on Dolores Street to take pictures. One girl sat at the desk while the other took a picture, then they switched places and the other girl took the picture. After that, it was back on the road wobbling back and forth and giggling. Dang that desk was cute. It was like the one pictured here--a painting by Holly Farrel, whose artwork I love.

Dixie Dogwood

This morning we had some friends over for brunch, and I was really excited to use our new Dixie Dogwood plate setting. I've had my eye on them for a while a the Pickled Hutch, but my interest in them waned when someone bought only the sugar and creamer. Alas, I really wanted the full set. Even without the sugar and creamer, I decided to go ahead and get the rest of the set. I knew the print was fairly common, and Lisa told me I could probably find the sugar and creamer pretty easily. So tonight I looked for them on ebay and found them! Lots of Dixie Dogwood out there, but I found the one listing for a sugar and a creamer. Now we'll have to have friends over again soon.

Yee Haw!

I added some new party hats to my etsy shop. Rodeo girl and boy are my new favorites. Here's rodeo boy. The little doggie howling to the tune is so cute. I was especially happy to find some twine like rick rack ribbon. I wanted something that looked similar to lasso material (not that I really know what a lasso is made of). I got the last of the twine like rick rack--about a yard, so once that's gone, I'll have to find a good replacement.

Pickled Hutch Picks of the Week - 2/6

Knobby and bright are my Pickled Hutch picks this week. These bar flies are just too cute. $24.

Before the electric food processor, there were these hand crank choppers. $16 for red, $14 for yellow.

Cute painted mirror. $35.



The Pickled Hutch is an antique store in San Francisco that I love. Every Wednesday I pick three items to post on my blog that I especially like. The Pickled Hutch is located at 1605 Church Street, San Francisco, CA. Open Wed. to Sun. 11 - 6. PH 415-641-8875. Ask for Lisa.

Easy Button Project

I love buttons and button crafts and decided to pull out my button jar and make something with them. My bulletin board was looking a little shabby with plain old push pins, so I decided to cover some of them with cute buttons. Now I have cute button push pins! All I did was dab a bit of glue from my glue gun onto the tips, then pressed the buttons on and let them dry for a few minutes. My push pins aren't ideal for this project since they already have a thick tip--the thin metal push pins would have been better. Still, it worked out!

Found this look at the Hutch

I'm always seeing things in magazines that remind me of similar things that Lisa often has in store at the Pickled Hutch. Here's one of those things that I have my eye on. It's in the garden at the Hutch. I really like the idea of using it in our guest bedroom (aka the room where I attempt to make things) for my craft stuff, like in this picture above from Country Living. Paula has a similar one that she uses as a potting shelf (shown in the last picture). I think it would be cute in a kitchen too.