Antiques are often part of an eclectic decorating scheme nowadays. Gardeners know that an unusual blooming magnolia or dogwood tree must be placed in an isolated spot to be admired as a "specimen" tree. Decorators and collectors soon learn that some furniture can successfully dominate a room filled with pieces from many eras as a "specimen," a very special to-be-admired addition.

Don't refinish your furniture. Original finish adds to the value. This warning is given over and over on TV shows about antiques. But is it always true? No. An original finish on a superior example of an 18th, 19th or even 20th-century piece of furniture should add value. But because well-to-do Victorian housewives had their furniture touched up and polished every few years, many pieces now have finishes that, while not original, are more than 100 years old. If you have a piece with such a bad finish it would look out of place in a home, it could be refinished and gain in value. Sometimes a refinished piece sells for a high price because it is so rare or decorative.

Over the last many years I have gone on quite a few Garden Club tours and on Audubon tours.  I have also tried to take my camera along so I could remember what I saw.  I also like to copy ideas!!! There have been all sizes of yards from the very small ones to acreages. 

Collectors can tell you strange stories about how an antique or collectible will come in and out of their lives until at last it finds a home with them.

Rings have been popular since the days of ancient Egypt and Greece, perhaps even longer. The Greeks said that one of their gods used the first ring. It was an iron ring made for Prometheus.

Creative cabinetmakers have enjoyed making dual-purpose furniture for centuries. A desk with a drawer that opens to a bed, a chair that can be flipped to become library steps or bed steps, a table with a top that flips up to become the back of a bench, and other clever examples were made by the 18th century. There was even an 1866 patent for a piano that opened up to be a "bedroom" with a bed and chest of drawers. But an 1883 combination sofa and bathtub is our favorite.

Ever stop to think about how a book was made in earlier centuries? There still are  craftsmen making books much the same way. The paper had to be made. Then the story was written or printed on each page. The pages were stitched together in groups called signatures.

Kewpie is the name of a nude, elf like baby with fat cheeks, wide eyes, a topknot and tiny blue wings. Rose O'Neill drew the first Kewpies for a Ladies' Home Journal story in 1909. The drawings were turned into 3-D designs for Kewpie dolls and figurines by 1911. They were an immediate success, and several companies made Kewpies and Kewpie-related products.

Folk art takes many forms, anything from cigar-store Indians to bottle-cap figures and carved coal pictures. It is the art of the untrained artist, and each piece is unique. With spring comes thoughts of the garden and where to place antique urns, pots, statues, architectural tiles, fountains, sundials, bird feeders and other collected pieces.