A Crown & Eye Lashes

In keeping with Big Kenny’s Top Hat post, I knew that Charles needed her own. Well… maybe not a top hat, but instead a crown! So a shopping I went. The internet has a bad side, but if you’re looking for unique stuff, it’s the best.

I have always had a “thing” for weather vanes, or wind vanes… they are a little bit of icing on the roof/cake. I’ve got a really collectible one that stays inside as decoration. It’s a fire engine, pulled by horses. It’s very large, copper and needs just a bit of repair (the driver’s shoulder is dislocated), but it is one of the coolest pieces I’ve seen. So, I considered having it repaired to adorn the porch gable atop Charles. Great idea, but in scale it is far too big. So the search began. There are 1880 traditional vanes, there are quirky turn of century versions, new-fangled deco, arts and craft and just plain for fun versions. But I wanted just the right top-hat version for our girl. I was all over the internet, looking for ideas and was getting a little frustrated because there are one hundred replicas that are lovely, but not lovely enough for our girl. This girlie-top-hat needed to be unique. Special. Stunning. And as I was checking off the adjectives I was looking to find, I was searching Ebay, passing…passing…passing… and THEN. There it was. The perfectly improved version of a top hat. This baby was a crown. Genuine. Antique. Reclaimed. And at my best guess, the right proportion for the new gabled porch roof. SOLD.

Of course, as with every fairy tale, there has to be a twist to the plot. The crown was lost. Stuck in some relay distribution center in Ohio. Missing for days. Two tracking numbers. Nobody knew squat. I marveled at how easily you can buy/pay/invest your expectations online, and with one miss by Joe Blow who had a bad day, the crown goes missing in a known location. But, we kept the faith, and about the time they said it was not located or ready to ship, it showed up. Happy is not enough to share my excitement.

So, once we determined that it was the crown, Dan pulled a fast one and he adorned our beautiful new porch with the new old Charles Crown. And it is spectacular. Even people who would not likely share much of a positive comment think it is “fantastic”. It suits her perfectly. And… every beauty queen that has a crown needs eyelashes, so Dan got creative and recreated the cedar shake pattern of waves that adorns the original gables. Charles now has a magnificent copper crown and some really stylish eyelashes.

The process to give her eyelashes and to top her off with a crown made me step back across the highway and mutter “She’s a beauty”, which of course made me think of the Tubes and their song, which interestingly could also pertain to this beautiful house in this town of the oldest profession in the world. If you haven’t checked it out, you should on your next visit www.deadwoodbrothel.com And for now, Charles and I bid you good night with a tune that brings back fun memories of my younger years 🙂 https://youtu.be/mQ_k_VG6Syc