Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo - Page 44 of 661 - Living a simple, creative life in small town USA. Bryson City. A Lifestyle Blog.

Things Found at the Old Farmhouse III – Excavating Found Objects

June 23, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

Because of the state of the foundation at the Sixty-One Park farmhouse we’ve had to do a lot of excavation, and that’s bound to bring up things from the past. A back hoe is way more efficient than a shovel:

A neighbor told me that a Civil War sword and belt buckle were found on the property next door years ago. I haven’t found anything like that but I have found so many remnants of early 20th century life. Here are some pieces of pottery I’ve found:

More pottery and glass. I love all the varieties:

One day after it rained I filled up an entire two gallon bucket of glass remnants. Look at the variety of all of this glass! I would love to learn to solder better…maybe this could be a stained glass window one day:

Here’s another collection of found objects:

A detailed list:

A few pieces of “fringed” glass
The bottom piece of an old lightbulb
An intact bottle (any idea what used to be in this kind of bottle?)
A metal piece that looks like it might have been on a piece of furniture
Three arrowheads
A piece of obsidian
A cardboard milk top
A zinc mason jar top
A rusty hinge
2 pieces of pottery
An old slice of bone
A small turquoise resin piece that was probably part of a piece of jewelry
A gold ring
The tops of 2 vintage bottles and part of an old blue mason jar
The front of a combination lock
Half of a porcelain mason jar lid
A piece of a salt jar

Oh and these are some of my favorite pieces…because they are toys. A tiny doll dish and pitcher, a porcelain dog, and a green marble. Can’t you just see the little girls from that old 1925 photo playing with these?

I have buckets of things to still sort through. I don’t want to rush it. One day I’ll probably have found everything there is to find…of course we still need to tear down an old shed so there’s bound to be cool stuff under that too!

To read more about the Sixty-One Park Farmhouse click here.

You can follow Sixty-One Park on Instagram where I post more recent updates as we go along!

The Knothole Box – A Mysterious Package

June 22, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

I collect so many things. Mostly vintage, and mostly tiny. For a while now I’ve been trying to come up with something creative to do with them. Open a museum of tiny things? That would probably be too expensive and then I’d have to sit there all day….which wouldn’t be bad at first but eventually it would get old.

Make interesting collages out of them? Well I’ve already done that for some of them:

As I started sorting things one day I thought how a fun gift for someone would be a smaller curated collection of finds. I could put them into an old box or tin…just like the opening credits to To Kill a Mockingbird…as if the finds had been collected from a knothole of a tree, all left by Boo Radley. So I started. Each collection was completely unique and I decided to call them Knothole Boxes. I even hand-carved a stamp so that each box would have a unique tag:

Fitting all the items into each tin is almost a puzzle. I wrap some and place others in little nooks and crannies. Some of the smaller items I put in little specimen containers so they aren’t thrown away:

Here’s one ready to go…Box No. 1.79Xq:

This was my third box….Box No. Pi:

Each box comes with an inventory that I’ve typed up on one of my trusty old typewriters:

I also enclose a note that explains what a Knothole Box is…just in case it’s for a gift:

What is a Knothole Box?

Sometimes I find things in my path that I often think Boo Radley (To Kill a Mockingbird) could have put there himself. I pick up little trinkets and treasures wherever I go. Feathers, shells, prickly things I can’t identify.

And I collect things. Things that I think must have a wonderful story to them. Things that people don’t use any more. Things that someone probably lost, someone just like me but in a different time. Things that need their story continued.

Each Knothole Box is filled with items I’ve carefully selected. Every box is completely unique and has been curated over time with a lot of thought. In each box is a hand-typed detailed inventory. I apologize in advance for all the x’d out mistakes. My grandmother Marge failed the typing test in secretarial school so I must have inherited her typewriter skills. There’s no backspace and my typewriter eraser went into a knothole at some point along the way.

What is this box for? Anything you want it to be. Unwrap the treasures one at a time. Investigate things you don’t recognize. Use them as writing prompts. Leave items for other people to find. This box is yours now.

Boxes 9 and 10 were listed on Etsy today and I’m now working on boxes 11 and 12 but they won’t be finished for a while, I still need to find the perfect elongated tin for number 12 because of some of the shapes of the objects. Every collection unique and varies in size and price. It’s become a new hunt for me to find things that will round out one of the mysterious collections.

Sorry I’ve been a little absent but sometimes I just get off in my creative world and forget to write about what I’me doing. I have a bunch to catch on! I did finally finish up some artwork. I varnished and apple hardware to all of these yesterday and finally listed them in the shop:

Putting the Farmhouse Back Together – Joists and Subfloor

June 12, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

We are finally putting the farmhouse back together and it started with the joists and subfloor. The original kitchen and bathroom floors had rotted to such an extent that they couldn’t be salvaged. After straightening the beams and exterior walls, and removing two feet of dirt from the kitchen floor, Jaime and Brett started putting the floors back together:

The original floor joists and sub floor are over 100 years old and needed to be replaced but that wasn’t so easy. Here is Jaime ripping 2×10 boards down to 2×8 in boards for the floor joists in the old kitchen and bathroom:

Instead of the usual 1-hour-per-day progress that they typically make during the week, an entire Saturday was devoted to the floor in the kitchen and bath. Below are the new joists in the kitchen:

And the new joists in the bathroom:

The original subfloor was 15/16th of an inch thick, which is not something you can just go out and buy. New subfloor had to be made. Here’s a video of curly maple being planed down:

A post shared by Sixty-One Park (@sixtyonepark) on Jun 12, 2017 at 6:40pm PDT

Below is one of my favorite photos so far…I should frame a black and white version for the finished farmhouse. These guys work so hard. They installed all of the floor joists and the new subfloor in just one day.

And the finished product! I love it, even though I have to remind the guys at least once a week that it does not have to be perfect. I’m amazed at how dedicated they are:

To read more about the Sixty-One Park Farmhouse click here.

You can follow Sixty-One Park on Instagram where I post more recent updates as we go along. Here’s the sunset in town tonight: