Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Monkey Pod Wooden Fruit in a Bowl

Wooden Fruit

The rich brown color of this bowl of hand carved wooden fruit is truly pleasing to the eyes. It makes a wonderful center piece for a table or stand. The wood is from the tropical Monkey Pod tree. Hawaii is famous for making bowls, trays, fruit and other items from the wood of the Monkey Pod tree. While the tree grows in many other tropical areas, Hawaii is most famous for its use of the wood. The wood is also used to make veneers and guitars.

This bowl has eight pieces of fruit. I especially like the banana and the grapes. They are very nicely done. The bowl itself is not made of Monkey Pod. It is an older wooden bowl. You can find this item for sale in the Sirocco’s Curios Shop. Take a look.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Real Money

 

As you know, the social network, Ecrater Stores Network, picks a new topic each week for its members to blog about and this week the topic is “Labor Day.” Labor Day became a national holiday over 100 years ago in 1894 and it is a day to pay tribute to the labor movement which actually began some years earlier.

I got to thinking about what life might have been like in the 1890s. It must have been hard. Remember, travel was by horse. There wasn’t much in the way of electricity or telephone or even radio. Those were the days when one got up in the morning, went to work then came home and rested. Nowadays, one gets up, goes to work, comes home and then exercises.

I started sifting thorough our ESN member’s ecrater stores to see if I could find something to remind me of the 1890s. I came across this old Indian Head penny from 1895 in the Bargain Express store. The penny looks to be in excellent condition. Those were the years when we had real money. Copper coins were made of copper, silver coins were made of silver and gold coins were made of gold. Bargain Express has a number of real money coins for sale. Go ahead, take a look. Just click on the links.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Model Wooden Sailing Ship

 

I was looking through my ecrater store today and came across this very nicely made handmade model ship. Clearly, someone paid attention to detail and put a lot of time into gluing and rigging all the components to this little model. I would call it a labor of love. It reminded me that the first Monday of September is Labor Day and is celebrated both in the US and Canada. It is a day when we can pay tribute to the men and women who, through their labor, have added to the strength, freedom, and the well being of our nation. Stop in to the Sirocco's Curios store to see what other curiosities are for sale.