Sandy Dale    I admit I’m a bit spoiled living here in the Banana Belt as we here in Florence call it. It gets a bit nippy, but not what other folks farther north call COLD. Still, I love those spring-like days that sneak in between the snowy ones. I get up from my art table or my computer and go […]

   Late winter and early spring is maple season; that time of year when maple producers in Ohio and other parts of northeastern North America tap maple trees to collect sap. This sap is boiled down to produce maple syrup, or further processed into maple sugar, fudge, nougat, cream or other products. Maple syrup production is unique to North America and […]

By Robert Reed    The teapot in all of its remarkable forms has been courted by civilization for centuries. It is a romance that prompted one prestigious American museum to call the teapot “the most perfect of inventions.”    A love story which may have begun with the Chinese 500 years ago certainly has endured in countless countries and cultures. The forms […]

By Robert Reed    History records that a variety of cupboards were used in the kitchens of 19th century America. The story handed down for generations is that one of the smaller ones was the legendary jelly cupboard.    To this day not all of the would-be experts agree. Some contend the term jelly cupboard was only used in the Midwest, and […]

By Anne Gilbert    The chests and luggage that once traveled to faraway places or maybe just a nearby motel, have been a decorative item since the late 20th century. Ralph Lauren popularized using a single piece as a coffee table or stacking leather suitcases on top of each other as end tables.    Well, after all, there is a sense of […]