Tick Tock

Since I've been in Europe, I've started to really like their old fashioned chime clocks. Ya know, the ones with the cool little mechanisms in the front that move around at the top of the hour. When we first got here, I was REALLY wanting to get a nice old fashioned German Cuckoo clock...butttt that never happened because they're outrageously priced. The type I want runs anywhere from three to five hundred dollars. .Yes, I understand that you're paying for the craftmanship and details, but...I'd feel kinda silly having something that expensive that I would see as a novelty item.  I obviously don't NEED one..it just comes down to "wanting" something cool.

When I was in Poland earlier this year, I found a pretty clock that is about as Polish as it gets...I mean, it's made out of Polish pottery..so, what more could you ask for, right? So, that's currently displayed in my kitchen. Honestly, I picked it up because the flowers reminded me of the German mountain flowers I always saw in my Grandma's house, which is Enzian as well as Alpenrose. All it's missing is Edelweiss, but it seems rather challenging to find anything around here that actually has all three of those flowers on it without looking insanely tacky / touristy.

So, the other day I went back over to Slegers (yes, again!) because a friend I was with wanted to see if they got any new goodies. It just so happened that the day before, I was looking through their site for a nice little antique clock...found one and asked 'em if they could hold it for me to check out. Well, sadly, it was sold before I managed to pop in, so no worries. As my buddy was checking out stuff, I trolled over to the area where they keep the majority of their wall clocks and ended up really falling inlove with one of 'em. Given, the majority of this particular wall clock all looks the same, but I liked this particular one because the clock weights weren't shaped like nuts ..see:

Seriously, I'm not being a pervert. They really look like massive balls.

Anyway, here's the clock that I found:

I was really diggin' the metal scroll work towards the top of it, especially since didn't have Atlas holding the world like the majority of the other clocks I had seen. Instead, there's a nice little acorn on the very top which works perfectly for me since the decor in our house revolves around forests:

The face itself was nice considering it had a windmill as well as a little sailing boat like you'd see going down the canals in Holland. So, this works for me in terms of something Dutch for my collection aside from the clogs and wooden tulips I've acquired over time:

Now I just gotta find a nice clock maker to take this to in order for the inner mechanisms to get cleaned up and overhauled. Odds are, that will have to wait till I get back from the States since I only have another week and a half left here. When I bought it, the chimes worked and everything, but you can tell the insides need some good old TLC and tuning. But, I wanna see if I can shorten up the weight chains since the ones that are currently on there are about four feet long! I realize they're long for a reason, but I wanna stream line the clock so it can go anywhere in the house...not just in a spot that has room to accomidate the chains!

So yeah, there ya go. I officially have my old fashioned clock for the house :)