Attic Rat

Warrenton is Party Central

2011-10-02T19:04:00.003-05:00

One party that I really don't want to miss is Theresa Cano's blogger party that she hosts during the Antiques Show at Warrenton. I am already looking forward to the next one. I even stayed an extra day so that I could attend.

Robin of Magnolia Pearl stopped by to hug Theresa's neck. If you haven't seen Robin's designs, then do yourself a favor and check them out. She has a style all her own and it is magnificent.

Malisa of Pent Up Photos and Theresa. Malisa takes some really cool vintage-looking photos.

During our party, Michelle Delgado of Wonderfaux Studio gave us a demonstration of how to use Annie Sloan chalk paint. The paint, along with her techniques, gave a nice look. I may have to give it a try.

Karen and I had a nice chat and I hope to see her again at the next party.

I also had a nice time visiting with Carolyn LeCrone of CarLe Etc.

Carolyn was a special guest of Theresa and displayed her treasures at the party.

Photo courtesy of Anne Lorys

Me, Theresa Smith (TOT) of Time Worn Interiors, Anne Lorys of Fiona and Twig, and Amy Boland from Gypsy Chix.

Dixie of French Lique had just purchased this awesome frame. Do you see the hint of green around my eyes? LOL

I met several other fantastic ladies, but it got dark and I don't get good pictures without good light. Oh, well! It's really surprising that I got this many pictures. I am usually too busy gabbing!

HGTV at Warrenton

2011-09-27T14:13:00.000-05:00

Look who I ran into this time at Warrenton: Emily Henderson! For those of you who have been living under a rock, Emily is the 5th season winner of Design Star on HGTV. She was here to not only promote her new series, Secrets From a Stylist, but to help promote a new HGTV show featuring Junk Gypsy. I figured that she would be absolutely melting in our Texas heat, but she held up pretty good. I enjoyed visiting with her and found her to be very personable and welcoming.

HGTV's tent had all kinds of creativity and SWAG. I picked up a pink hat which came in handy with the scorching sun we had.

They offered an old door for us to make our mark on. I signed my name just above the H. I rather enjoyed that.

In November, HGTV will premier the new Junk Gypsy show. I can't wait to see it. I really love their style.

If you ever get a chance to go to Warrenton, do it! It is so much fun. They always have a Fall Show and a Spring Show. Hope to see you there!

Gypsy bag giveaway

2011-08-09T20:30:00.004-05:00

Just thought I would tell you about a wonderful giveaway - Jill of Gypsy Brocante is having a giveaway that I'm hoping to win. I'm a good sport, so I am giving you a chance, too. Of course, I have ulterior motives. LOL

More door parts repurposed

2011-07-22T20:56:00.006-05:00

In my last post, I showed you how I repurposed the door panels. Yesterday, I repurposed the narrower horizontal portions of the door. I made them into coat racks. I just love the old wire hooks. They are so cool. I figured out a way to make the ends look more finished also. I cut the end of the board at a 45 degree angle then wacked it off straight again so that I could have something to go on the end. I cut another 45 degree angle on the end then nailed the piece to the end. I did this for both ends.
Do you know the trick to getting your hooks evenly spaced? Well, you measure the length and divide that number by how many hooks you are going to use plus one. Therefore, if you have 3 hooks, divide the length by 4. The number you get is the length of space between the ends and each hook. Just like that! I think they would look great in the laundry room or by the door.

Door panels repurposed

2011-07-13T20:14:00.005-05:00

When I bought the door, I was planning to make a hall tree out of it. Unfortunately, it didn't survive the trip home. In case you are ever hauling several doors, take my advice - do not stack the doors. The ones on the bottom stand a good chance of getting broken. The constant bumps just pounded and pounded away.

Since I deal in salvaged materials, I am accustomed to looking at ~~junk~~ vintage treasures in a different way. I banged the door apart the rest of the way and pulled out the panels. I put all the pieces in the shop for another day. Well today was another day. The panels spoke to me and here is what they said:

LOL. They both said that they wanted to be coat racks. Didn't you hear it too?

Food, glorious, food!

2011-05-22T13:33:00.018-05:00

The first stop on my lovely "cuisine cruise" was the Gasthaus "Kur-Schänke in Bad Soden. I had arrived in the morning and napped on and off most of the day so that jet lag would be well behind me. Once Howard got ~~home~~ back to the hotel from work, we walked to get some dinner. This lovely restaurant was about a block and a half from our hotel and we ate there often, usually with others from the project.
The food was good and the menu is fairly extensive. Unless we were handed an English menu, we had lots of guesswork to decide what to order. Click speisen and see what I'm talking about. Porkchops with a baked potato and herb butter sounded wonderful and it was!
On another trip to the Kur Schanke, I decided to try their rump steak. I'm not really familiar with that particular cut of beef, but it was very good.
A couple more blocks down the street was the My Thai. I really do not know what else was on the menu here. Once I ordered the 610, that is what I ordered each time we dined there.
We even cooked our own dinner at one of the restaurants. It was the Corner Steakhouse in Raunheim, Germany. This restaurant was very near the hotel that the project guys stayed at when they first arrived to Germany. It was good, so we drove back over there. It was about 30 minutes away and you take the autobahn to get there. They bring your steak out on a sizzling hot piece of granite and you cook your steak to your own liking. It's kind of like using a fondue pot.
Not all of the food we ate was from the restaurants. Sometimes, we would stop by one of the many lovely bakeries. One morning, I was particularly lazy and slept in a little too late for the hotel breakfast. Not to worry, I walked to the corner bakery and found a wonderful apple pastry.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CONCORDE HOTEL

Most of the time, I ate my breakfast in the hotel. They kept a wide variety of items to choose from. The first morning that I ate there, I was by myself and wasn't all that familiar with the choices. I decided to try things that had been "hit hard" meaning that I selected items that previous diners had already taken large portions from. One of those things was some kind of oatmeal made with yogurt with fresh fruit on top. I also made sure I drank one of those Dannon live culture yogurt drinks since they are so good for you. I would also select a piece of sliced ham and sometimes some cheese. The ladies would bring me a nice pot of coffee which made a perfect breakfast. Since I speak so very little German, I would say "Morgen" when I sat down and "Danke" when I left. They were all so nice. I really miss them.
I'm not sure if you have noticed it, but most of my meals were enjoyed with a glass of wine. There really is no such thing as iced tea since none of the drinks have ice and ordering water was a little iffy. Even though I would order still water, meaning no gas, I would still sometimes end up with some sort of seltzer water. I am not a fan. Well, I solved that problem right quick. Order wine!
If you are not much of a fish eater, I realize that you will find this fish absolutely gross, but let me tell you, it was wonderful! We went to the Gran Sasso Italian restaurant for this baby. Most of the seating is out on the patio which was quite lovely during the time we were there.
For our 3oth anniversary, we ate outside at the Ristorante La Cucina in Bad Soden.
Howard ordered spaghetti, but it had seafood in it. Otherwise, it would have been a bit dull.
I had the scalopina al vino e limone or in German, the kalbsschnit zelchen in weißwein-zitronen sauce. It was as delicious as it looks.
It was so good that I ordered something very similar when we went back to Raunheim to eat at Michelangelo's. This is one of our favorites. They would always give us grapa shots before we left. Can you say throat on fire?

Howard ate here several times a week when they were staying at the NH Hotel. It was that good.We were treated very well here.

Before my trip, I would almost always order ranch dressing. Over there, they served their salads topped with balsamic dressing. It is now my new favorite.
Nice view, huh? This is from the Chicago Steakhouse in Köln, Germany.

The steak was pretty good, too!

My favorite pizza has to be the Hawaiian. I love the combination of ham, cheese, and pineapple. It makes me smile.

My favorite place where we ate outside was in Antwerpen, Belgium. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was heavenly.
The night before we took off to Paris, we ate at this nice Indian restaurant. I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it had a lovely tree out front that was dripping with flowers.
Since my return, I make my own fresh pizzas. I wasn't too keen on the frozen ones, but know I see no need to even bring them home.
I know. I know. Why would you go all the way to Germany and eat at a Mexican food restaurant? We live in South Texas for crying out loud!
It's not the style we are accustomed to, but it was still quite good.

Need I say more?

. . .and this is what I look like when I can't eat another bite.

Heidelberg Castle

2011-05-16T20:07:00.009-05:00

Can you believe that construction on this castle began in the beginning of the 13th century? That was a looong time ago and that is a whole lot of rocks to haul. Since castles are built high on a hill, lightning strikes are an extreme possibility. This one was hit hard at least a couple of times. I bet that was loud.
Now, that was a lot of wine! Problem was, it was tax wine and it didn't taste very good because it was all the wines mixed together. Of course, the king had his own private stash. This vat was for everyone else.

The town of Heidelberg is very picturesque. It's even prettier when you hear the church bells.
Scouting out castles can be exhausting.

Frankfurt, Germany

2011-05-11T07:49:00.018-05:00

The hauptbahnhof is like a city all it's own. It is full of shops and restaurants and is the busiest train station in all of Germany. It serves about 350,000 per day. Wow! Those wonderful, huge pretzels are easy to find.
On the first Saturday of my Europe trip, we rode the train into Frankfurt. I didn't particularly like walking around in the red light district even though you don't really see anything. I was glad when we hoped the train again and went a little further away from the main station. We decided to have a bite to eat at the Chicago Meatpackers restaurant. It is located near the European Central Bank.
I took another trip into Frankfurt with Jan, one of the other project wives. We headed straight for the Zeil area (the mall). To get there, you ride the train until you reach the Hauptwache stop which is 3 stops past the main station stop.
The mall has some really interesting architecture.
See what I mean?
Once these trees leaf out, this is going to be a gorgeous area.
We also walked down to the river. It is very pretty there. Quite peaceful.
This shot was taken from the walking bridge. Only pedestrians and bicyclist are allowed on this bridge.
There were padlocks all over the bridge. Couples would put their names and dates on the locks and throw the keys into the river for good luck on their relationships.
Makes you want to ride in the boat, doesn't it?
Can you imagine how long it would take to put down all of these paver stones?
This is such a gorgeous area.
By the way, we left lots of euros behind. We gave that ATM a good workout.

Surrounded by castles

2011-05-03T06:35:00.006-05:00

I've just spent the last 30 days surrounded by castles. My husband was sent to Germany to work on a project and he was gone for 3 months. I flew over and spent the month of April with him so that we could spend our 30th anniversary together.

We stayed in the small community of Bad Soden just outside of Frankfurt. Bad Soden is a charming place with lots of flowers, great restaurants, shops, and other niceties. Most everything is within walking distance and what is too far can be reached by hopping on a tram or bus or by hitching a ride with one of the project wives that have a car.

In the next few posts, I would like to share my trip with you. It was the trip of a lifetime. I hope you will join me!

Mirror frame shelf

2011-03-15T10:00:00.003-05:00

I was fortunate to be the beneficiary of a garage clean out. Harvey gave me this wonderful mirror frame along with a trunkful of old windows. I was just plain giddy! I painted the frame white and built a shelf around it. My son graciously came down and cut the backing for me. Circular saws intimidate me. I've been afraid of them my entire life. My Dad would set his circular saw in the door of the shop if he wanted to keep me out. It worked like a charm. For some reason, the radial arm saw doesn't have the same effect on me. Go figure.

Time to go SHOPPING!

2011-02-28T19:30:00.004-06:00

Methinks it's getting time to go buy more furniture. My shed is starting to get emptied out. All I have is miscellaneous and half a dozen chairs . . . or maybe I will just build something . . . Truth be told; I'm just looking for an excuse to go SHOPPING!!

Get wired up

2011-01-21T16:09:00.005-06:00

'Get WiredUP!' by analogueshop

Enjoy

Old Wire Basket wit... kizzyrayan123 $36.00	Plump, Wonky Cage L... CrudeOil $40.00	Wire Locker Basket ... AtticRat $22.50
Vintage Industrial ... CoopDeVilla $9.00	2 Vintage Gym Locke... circlecreekhom... $48.00	Vintage Wire Bird C... bluebonnetfiel... $79.00
Vintage - Industria... BDVintage $25.00	50%OFF early wire w... thefoxparade $12.00	Wire wall shelf SassytrashAnti... $29.00
pair of vintage wir... jetsetvintage $19.00	Vintage French Chic... Shabbylull $20.00	Rusty Wire Basket annabelleestud... $18.95
Vintage Silver Wire... AmeliaRoseVint... $12.00	vintage wire coland... mamaleanne22 $12.00	Green wire Fishing ... faithfulroots $52.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com.

I am truly honored to be featured in analogueshop's first treasury list on Etsy.

Something to gush about

2011-01-13T11:34:00.006-06:00

Lauri woke up the other day feeling very generous so she hosted a giveaway on her new blog, Lauri Evans Designs. She challenged us to tell her what item she makes is our favorite. I didn't know if she had ever made any burlap pillows with an ampersand on them, but thought that they would be charming. Guess what? I was right! It is very charming. The best part is, I won it!! Lauri custom made it just for me. She was even more generous to give away not one, but TWO pillows! Both Karen and I won. It's on it's way to me and I can't wait until it arrives.

Lauri can usually be found here in Texas at the Marburger Farm Antiques Show in Roundtop. Her booth is always stunningly beautiful.

Junking Trend

2011-01-03T18:34:00.005-06:00

We are entering into a new phase of television viewing - JUNKING!! First, most of the programs shown on HGTV, DIY, etc. were all about arts and crafts. Remember the Carol Duvall show? Then, when the prices of homes were skyrocketing, they were all about flipping houses. Well, we know how that turned out. Because of the housing crash, the shows started to be more about how to get your house sold or how make part of it an income property.

Enter the current phase - JUNKING! Now, we're talking. We get to enjoy shows like American Pickers and Pawn Stars on the History Channel and Storage Wars on A & E. Tonight, HGTV is getting in on the action. It looks like it will be a girl version of American Pickers.

The new show is called Cash & Cari. Cari Cucksey is the star of this show. She is an antiques dealer and appraiser.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HGTV

From the HGTV site: With her razor sharp business sense and an eye for spotting diamonds in the rough, estate sale guru Cari Cucksey combs through her clients' basements, attics and garages in search of hidden treasure. And once she and her team have organized and priced the entire contents of the home, they hold an estate sale right on the premises. From antique furniture and vintage toys to retro electronics and rare cars, there's something for everyone, and everything must go!

PHOTO COURTESY OF HGTV

I figure that she won't be buying bicycles and other motor-head items so she'll be running in different circles than Mike and Frank. I think that these two shows will complement each other very nicely. I already have my satellite to autotune so I won't miss it.

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T10:31:00.008-06:00

Jill of beanlennon has rung in the New Year with this Etsy treasury that she titled, "happy.new.years.day!". She included my brass stencil letter Y. (mine is the Y in the word year) Jill lives in Mississippi and her shop is full of necklaces, earrings, and other items. You should check it out.

For some reason, I'm not quite ready to be done with 2010. It doesn't seem like we've had 2010 for a whole year yet. I guess that is what happens when you get older. The years start zipping by like you are standing next to the highway as the cars zoom past. My calendar is already starting to fill up.

I am wishing each one of you a wonderful 2011. You mean a lot to me. God bless!

American Pickers on Etsy

2010-12-27T12:05:00.008-06:00

When I found out that Danielle from American Pickers had her own Etsy shop, I checked it out right away. She loves textiles and makes some great bags from reclaimed fabric items. This is one of her Pickin' Bags. A few hours after I bought mine, she was completely sold out.
When I shop the estate sales, I make a quick run-through like a rabbit to scope it out, then go like a turtle, digging through the random boxes in garages and outbuildings. Of course, I couldn't do that without my anti-bac wipes!
After I bought it, I decided that it would be nice to have her sign her handiwork. She granted my request. I like the way Danielle chose to sign it. Since it was an after-the-fact ~~plea~~ request, she added it using a huge eyelet.

What kind of items do you think I will score with it?

Open House on Alameda

2010-12-05T10:25:00.012-06:00

Last night was our Open House. Once a year, all the antique shops on Alameda stay open until 9:00. There is lots of food, music, and FUN.

A couple of the shops have a universal percentage off, but at Betty's it is up to each vendor to have a sale . . . or not. Joan and I opted for not. We ran into Judy and Betty and had fun checking out the shops together.

Betty is one of the hardest-working people I know. She has three (count them, 3) antique malls in Corpus Christi. I have booths in 2 of them. Frankly, I don't know where she gets the energy. I'm pretty high energy, but Betty could run circles around me.

The food went fast. There were tons of people enjoying the huge shopping party. The brownies did not last long. They were absolutely delicious! Did someone say, "chocolate"?

Jean is owner of the Renaissance Shop. She is another with boundless energy.

This is the window that Jean did at Betty's Trash to Treasures. Even though she has Renaissance, she also has a booth at Betty's. Our booth is just to the left of this wonderful window.

Jean has started a Junk display at her counter at Renaissance and has included one of my Junk Queens to be a part of it. I feel quite honored.

This guy was awesome. He played Christmas music on his sax all evening. He really added to the festivities and could be heard all over.

Cricket stopped by our booth and we had a lovely chat. It's fun to meet your customers one-on-one. She has a shop just down the street and I plan to go check it out the next time I am in town. By the way, she got an awesome deal on those bowls. I wish that I had seen them first. LOL

Even Duggers Flower Villa on Antique Row got in on the fun. She served lumpia and jello shots. Quite a combination.

Perfect solution

2010-12-02T10:36:00.005-06:00

I loved the gas heater when I first laid eyes on it, but it was missing one of its ceramic bricks. The chances of actually finding a replacement were slim to none. Inspiration hit me upside my head this morning when I was looking at my bird nests. Instead of filling the space with an impossible-to-find brick, why not fill it with a sweet little bird nest?

I didn't permanently attach it if someone wants the heater in its natural condition. It would be so cute for Christmas. I am planning to place this in my booth at Betty's for the Open House on Saturday.

Now for the big question: what am I going to wear??

Lighted hall tree

2010-11-27T15:33:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, while I was standing in line at the bank, Betty from the Alameda store called me and told me that she had just sold the hall tree that I had in my booth. That makes at least 3 pieces of furniture this month. Woo Hoo!!

So what' s a girl to do? I trotted out to the workshop and made a new one this afternoon. It's made using a shutter that came from Galveston after hurricane Ike. These are kinda fun to build. I make a cornice for the top so that I can put a light in it. I am down to my last shutter. This next one will be a little harder to use. I will ~~remove~~ get my husband to remove the hardware off of it before I will be able to use it.

All settled

2010-11-11T12:47:00.015-06:00

Now you see it . . .

. . . now you don't.

Yesterday, Joan and I moved out of Third Coast Antiques and into Betty's Trash to Treasures Too. This is a nice space. We were able to get an entire wall so it gives us some "presence" in the room. It has great light, electricity, and it even has a door that can be opened for bring in larger pieces or for moving in like we did yesterday.

We will be tweaking it as we go, but we were running out of time. We tried to utilize the screens that we had over at Third Coast, but they didn't work as well in this space unless we take them apart.

Since it has less square feet than the booth we had at Third Coast, we had to bring a lot of it back home. As things sell, we will be able bring it back. I enjoy doing the buying part, but probably should stop for awhile . . . if I can! That is asking an awful lot!

Big changes

2010-11-05T11:50:00.006-05:00

It seems that when there are big changes to be made, they are rarely done when it would be the most convenient. This is certainly not the time of year for big projects, but something's got to give.

Next week, I will be moving my booth spaces around - closing one and expanding the other. It should prove to be a great thing, just difficult timing. I will get an entire wall in one of the front rooms at Betty's on Alameda. It has great natural light. I will even have outside access for moving larger items. Well, I need to gather some moving boxes . . .

Austin City-wide

2010-10-24T14:46:00.013-05:00

This weekend, I drove up to Austin to check out the City-wide Garage sale. It's called a garage sale, but it is actually a vintage and antiques show. Since I was driving that far, I decided to go early and get an Early Shopper pass. Thing is, it was VERY difficult to get there. I was within a block of the place and they had it totally blocked off. Apparently, there was a foot race taking place at the same time.

I am so glad that I had my Garmin because I am only vaguely familiar with Austin. I headed east to MoPac and then went down Barton Springs Road from the other direction. I was able to get in just a little past 8:30 so I didn't miss too many good deals. LOL
My plan of attack was to head to the back corner, then work my way back to the front. The crowd was very light so it wasn't a big deal anyway. Many vendors were quite proud of their merchandise which is fine if you are a collector, but I buy for resale. I was to meet up with my friends Herb and Diane, but they didn't arrive as early as I did. I needed to get started.
These guys were a hoot. At least the one guy was safety conscience. The other was a bit stand-offish.
It was nice to see Cindy Messer again. We had met when I went to Canton back in July. She may have saved me from an ambulance ride. I had become over-heated and when I walked into her booth, I kind of scared her with the way I looked. She made me sit down and gave me a cold water. I had been drinking water outside, but it wasn't enough and it wasn't all that cold. She had a cool breeze going through her booth which helped a lot. She has such a dear, sweet spirit. If you are ever up at Canton, look for her in Arbor III. You will love her items.
One of the booths had lots and lots of baby dolls . . .
. . . and this was my favorite. It looked like she was saying, "Oh no, you didn't"!
Oh, but I did. I bought all of these goodies!

bald

2010-10-20T08:02:00.006-05:00

While I was having lunch with my friend, Shirley, the downtown shop called me and told me that my booth looked kinda bald. I thought that was a cute description and definitely music to my ears. Linda said that a dealer had come in and cleaned me out. She bought my chandelier and most of my framed pieces. What an awesome birthday present! Thanks for letting me brag a bit. I'm really jazzed about it.
After my delightful birthday lunch, I scrambled to put together some items to replenish the booth. I am going to have to take my drill and masonry bit the next time I visit my shop so that I can hang my pieces better. I can't take a chance on using the Command hangers. Even with the screws, one of my items fell off in the middle of the night, setting off the alarm. Ooops!!

Blogging friends

2010-10-03T08:28:00.003-05:00

You meet a lot of nice people while blogging and that is where I met Jan Thomason. We are both Texans, but you know how big Texas is. She lives hours away from me so we hadn't actually met until we made plans for lunch at Warrenton last week.

We have commented on each other's blogs and have kept up with each other that way. We both have sons named Clay and I told her a story about mine. When my clay was in junior high, our neighbor was having a swimming pool dug and Clayton thought that all those truckloads of dirt would make a great dirtbike jump in our backyard. I was busy in the kitchen cooking dinner when I saw this huge truck dumping a massive amount of yucky old clay on our lawn. I told Clayton we didn't need that kind of dirt in our yard. It was clay; worthless dirt. He said, "Mom? You named me after worthless dirt?" After she read that story, she signed her note to me, "Jan, Mother of Worthless Dirt". She has a great sense of humor.

We thoroughly enjoyed our IRL (in real life) meeting. Jan was out shopping with her friends Julie and Annette. It was a pleasure to meet them and share our Warrenton shopping stories with each other.

Theresa Cano hosts a wonderful blog party each season near her booth just outside of Zapp Hall. We get to meet our fellow bloggers in a face-to-face. I didn't get to make it to this last one. I had some orders that I had to rush back home to fill. Such is life.

Chatting with Carolyn and Debbie

2010-10-01T08:23:00.005-05:00

It was a very brief chat since I was limited on time this trip. I had to get my shopping done and then zoom back home to get some special requests completed for one of my booths in Corpus Christi. I had furniture to paint and Halloween items to create.
I got to meet Carolyn Westbrook. She has a lovely book called The French Inspired Home. She did a book signing at Theresa's blog party. Her and Debbie were visiting at a cozy little table near Zapp Hall. I got to sit down with them for a brief chat and a couple of pictures.

Debbie is such a hoot. If we lived closer, we would definitely "hang out". You can visit her blog here.

Zapp Hall is Party Central

2010-09-30T13:53:00.007-05:00

COURTESY OF PENT-UP PHOTOS

I agree with Malissa. Zapp Hall is definitely Party Central.

Malissa makes darling photos and postcards with a definite vintage feel. She was set up near Zapp Hall, too. My favorite haunt. It was very nice to meet her. It was also nice to meet her right-hand angel, Rhonda. You should stop by her blog and see what she has been up to.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID THE SNAKE LOVER

Malissa had quite a time leading up to the show. She is a real trooper. Her husband took her sick dog to the vet and ended up going into a diabetic coma. He is doing fine now, but it was a very, scary time for them.

Heidi and Tricia

2010-09-29T08:33:00.006-05:00

These girls travel in style and they drove all the way from Arizona to participate in the Fall Show at Warrenton. It was quite an adventure to get to Texas. They took some wrong turns, drove for hours, got stopped by the border patrol, pulled over by the Fredericksburg police, and even ran over a poor little raccoon that was jaywalking.

Meet Heidi Martincic of Paris Montana. She makes gorgeous vintage eclectic salvage jewelry that she sells out of her adorable little vintage Airstream.

My hat is off to any girl who can pull her own trailer! The Houston Chronicle did a nice article featuring Heidi.

You can visit her beautiful blog here.

This is Tricia of Vintage Bliss. She has been published in Somerset Home and Somerset Studio magazines. Tricia teaches classes on scrapbooking, stamping and mixed media art.

You can visit Tricia's blog here.

Just call me Gabby

2010-09-27T20:27:00.008-05:00

I actually enjoyed my second day of shopping way more than the first. I think it's because I found a few good pieces the first day so I could relax, have fun and take it easy. You just don't drive that far and drop everything just to come home empty-handed. Some of these pictures are mine, and some of them are David's (Mindy's boyfriend). David takes great pics.

The area around Zapp Hall was where I headed first. For those of you that don't know, Zapp Hall is where it is happening. I was about to stop and say "hey" to Debbie, but she was in deep conversation (imagine that!) and not wanting to interrupt, I went and visited with Courtney and Sarah.

Sarah was doing some last-minute touches. I think she is very talented to be able to use a curling iron without a mirror and outside to boot.

They make lovely handmade jewelry out of vintage items. Their displays were awesome.
My next stop was to see Mindy of Primtiques, a. k. a. "The P". I don't know how she does it, but she consistently finds unusual, awesome items. She has been know to flag down trucks. Sometimes you have to be bold to get the "good stuff".

Renee and Barbara

2010-09-24T20:24:00.007-05:00

This morning, I got up bright and early and went to Warrenton to go SHOPPING!!!

About 10 minutes after I arrived, it started to rain. Not a little, wimpy rain, but a cats-and-dogs downpour. I had my big umbrella and was able to duck in to one of the tents. Hey, you might as well shop while waiting, right?

After the rain, I saw a lady carrying a box that was made out of reproduction license plates and of course asked her the all-important question, "Where did you get that"? She said she found it at a cute booth. "Just turn right at the stained glass, then go left and the tent will be right there".

I even took a short cut and found it right where she said. The tent belonged to Renee Jackson and Barbara Mason. Renee is also known as A Junk Queen and Barbara is Simple Blessings.

We had a lovely chat and I thoroughly enjoyed her tent. Her displays are AMAZING!

Ephemera parade

2010-09-15T08:55:00.005-05:00

I always thought that ephemera meant "old paper goods", but when I looked up the definition here is what I found:

ephemera n. - 1. anything short-lived or transitory. 2. an ephemerid

I have some ephemera that is over 100 years old. That doesn't sound short-lived to me. I just makes it absolutely precious!

SellaholicMom created a treasury on Etsy dedicated to all sorts of ephemera and I was pleased to be included. She has featured my music book which is over 100 years old. I even got to see the organ that this music was played on. How cool is that?

'ephemera what's in your collection?' by Selloholicmom

Showing the many faces of ephemera... It is one of my very favorite items to collect....100% vmteam vintage

Vintage 1940s Chris... ZinniaRidge $6	Pages, Pierre Larou... hatchedinfranc... $7	VINTAGE NEEDLE BOOK... Selloholicmom $10
1902 - Music book ... AtticRat $15	Vintage Bette Davis... ZinniaRidge $5	Boy Scout Merit Bad... AnnesAccumulat... $7
Dennisons Desk Orga... VintageJewelsA... $9.00	Three Vintage Photo... britishvintage $10.00	Pictures from the P... Pjjlacasse $5
Vintage Church Fan ... thevintagebutt... $14.00	Baseball Boy Ad Fai... ThreeOldKeys $8	Mad Magazine Vol. 1... worldvintagebo... $3.5
1956 Rare Vintage C... ismoyo $8	Pinup Girl Elvgren ... DovelySells $25.00	Wonder Woman DC Com... worldvintagebo... $11

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

A.R.K. sale

2010-09-03T19:47:00.005-05:00

A.R.K. (Animal Rescue Kleberg) has sales once or twice a year and I do my best to shop them. They have nice items and it's all for a good cause, too. I arrived about 30 minutes early with my friend, Diane so we could get a spot at the front of the line. I am so glad that today's weather wasn't like yesterday's. I small cool front blew in and it was actually quite pleasant.

ARK usually has some pretty awesome finds and today did not disappoint. Some of the things that I picked up where unusual to say the least. I never thought that I would by a toilet! I also picked up a beer mug that has a built-in whistle. I guess you can test to see if you have truly wet your whistle or not.
I was really happy to find all of this sterling. I just have no idea what I am going to do with it.

Granny green

2010-08-30T14:27:00.003-05:00

I go through LOTS of paint, so I love to hit the "mis-tints" ailse at WalMart and Lowe's. It's good paint, it just didn't turn out to be the shade that the previous customer was looking for. At half-off, it is often the perfect shade for me!! This time, I found some good ole granny green exterior paint. I hadn't thought to call this color Granny Green until I ran into a woman in Bastrop that referred to it that way.

Let me tell you, the shop hasn't cooled off one bit. The cool fronts haven't made it anywhere near this far south. These birdhouses are going into one of the shops in Corpus tomorrow. I guess it's real sweat equity.

Wire basket Paparazzi

2010-08-09T19:11:00.007-05:00

Black, Red, Silver

Curated By: TimelyImpress...

ArtFire.com

Craft Tutorials

The wire baskets that I picked up at that awesome sale are getting some nice paparazzi this week. First, they were featured on ArtFire when Timely Impressions added them to her member-curated collection that she entitled Black, Red, Silver

then today. . .

. . . Alice of Time Passages featured them in her Etsy treasury, entitled Industrial Strength

Be sure to click on both of their shop names so you can see the marvelous goodies they have in their shops.

I feel so˙·٠•●♥LOVED♥●•٠·˙

My, what a big spout you have!

2010-08-05T08:59:00.005-05:00

I picked this watering can up at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago. I have never seen another like it.

The Reading Room

2010-08-03T13:00:00.006-05:00

This afternoon, I received a convo from Denise at World Vintage Books that my brass door plates had been included in her Vintage Market Team treasury entitled The Reading Room. It is always nice to be included in the treasuries. It is super nice if it ends up on the Etsy home page. :D

Wimberley Market Days

2010-08-01T16:58:00.007-05:00

Next weekend, I am going to go visit my parents in Bastrop. I plan to show up with a loaf of freshly baked orange cranberry bread. My sister is heading up there also. While we are there, we are planning to visit downtown Bastop and check out the sweet antique shops that are sprinkled around. Then on Saturday, we will go and shop, shop, shop at Wimberley Market Days and maybe hit an antique store or two to top the day off perfectly.

Photos courtesy of Wimberley Lion's Club

Button Tutorial

2010-07-28T13:40:00.004-05:00

I've been wanting to create a "Grab my Button" on my blog, but I really had no idea how to go about it. Working on the computer still makes me want to tear my hair out most of the time. It was nice when the boys were still living at home. They understand this language; I don't.

After working for about an hour to get the darn thing to work, I contacted Dawn Edmonson of The Feathered Nest, but she wasn't sure how to create it either. Then I contacted Theresa of Garden Antqs Vintage and she suggested that I goggle it. The boys would have thought of this right away, but not me. When I goggled it, I came across the A Heart for Home blog and used the instructions that she provided. It worked!! Now if you would like to add my button to your blog, all you have to do is copy the code and add it to your layout.

In the pink

2010-07-21T20:06:00.004-05:00

You know it's hot when you step out of the workshop and it actually feels cool outside. That's what I braved to put this shelf together. I really wanted to see it finished so I put up with the sweltering heat. I made this shelf using 1 x 4's and an 18" x 22" old frame, painted it Pepto Bismol pink, then dry-brushed it with white. Yep, I am a woman who knows how to use power tools. Move over, Norm!

Tudball & Wiggins

2010-07-17T12:52:00.005-05:00

I stopped by a sale this morning and spotted a couple of in/out baskets. Then, I spotted a couple more, and then a couple more. They were all over the place. I decided that all of them would need to go home with me. They reminded me of the Carol Burnett skit with Tim Conway. If you would like to see it, click here. They are both comedic geniuses. It was a sad day when they aired the last show Carol Burnett and Friends.

Etsy Vintage Market Team

2010-06-22T19:05:00.005-05:00

I just joined the Etsy Vintage Market Team. The team has a wonderful blog with all kinds of wonderful links and tips. If you look on the sidebar, you will see a clickable button. Be sure to check it often. You will thank me later.

Betty's Cat House

2010-06-10T14:39:00.007-05:00

The name of this place gives me a little chuckle. Betty named her store Betty's Cat House for the section of the store that is dedicated primarily to retail cat items so get your mind out of the gutter. LOL If you look hard enough, you will also find things for the barking variety, a.k.a. dogs. What is super about this place is that it is open 7 days/week. Now we're talking.

A few days ago, I opened my 3rd booth in Corpus Christi. This one is downtown. It is surrounded by clubs and restaurants and one-way streets. On move-in day, my friend and booth partner, Shirley and I had a nice lunch of grilled mahi mahi, rice, and a wonderful salad. It was yummy!
Shirley makes beautiful handmade cards. I helped her open her own Etsy shop and now her cards are in a brick & mortar shop as well.

This is a small booth, but you would be surprised just how much can fit in. I believe that I can fit in more stuff without it getting too crowded. Now when I go to Corpus, I just hit all three spots. Number 65 was available at all 3 locations which makes things sooooo much easier. I can tag up everything, load it up, and pull out just what I want. It's all ready to go. If something fits better at one of the other locations - NO PROBLEM! I just load it up and take it to the other location.

Joan still shares the booth with me at Third Coast Antiques. When she recovers from her shoulder surgery, we will all go have some good girl time. Maybe we can get a big group of us together. It will be FUN!

Season 2 = HUGE

2010-06-03T13:34:00.003-05:00

Mike and Frank said that while we have been busy with our barbeques, they have been out picking their way across America. I wonder what goodies they have uncovered this time. I hear that they will sell some of their finds to a NASCAR guy. The only NASCAR guy I that know is Terry Labonte and he has retired LOL. In other words, you probably won't find me at the races.

Frank says that this is History's best summer yet. Season 2 of American Pickers will premier Monday, June 7 at 9/8c so you know where I will be! Yep, that's right. Smack dab in front of my television!!

Photos courtesy of the History Channel

Wimberley Market Days

2010-05-02T14:02:00.011-05:00

I am so glad that we decided to make this trip to Wimberley. It was me, Susan, Debbie, and her daughter Amber. It's fun to have some quality "girl time". I wish I had thought to get someone to take a picture of the 4 of us. It was a miracle that I got the pictures that I did.

The first thing we had to do was to hit the Starbucks. My favorite is the Cinnamon Dolce Latte. I easily could have had two of them; they are so good!

On the way, we took a wrong turn. Actually, it was more like we didn't turn when we were suppose to. We turned around, and in no time, we got ourselves parked and ready to do some serious shopping. We were so giddy!

I had my cart full to the top in less than an hour. I hauled that load out to the van and started filling it up again. I hadn't been to Wimberley in 3 or 4 years and it was so nice to be there again - especially with friends. The weather was perfect . . .

. . . and the food was FABULOUS!
This is a sampling of the loot that I scored. I found two old street signs, 2 locker baskets, 2 mirror harps, a whole bunch of picture frames, some nice enamel bowls, and many more little "treasures". I also found a cute pink shelf. This shelf would make a nice towel rack for the bathroom. I couldn't resist the little tea sets. They are so dainty. Would you like one lump or two? I also found a stained glass window that had a couple of broken pieces in it, but I think for $2, it would look lovely in the garden.

Before we headed back home, we stopped in Wimberley to check out the local shops and get a Blue Bell ice cream cone. Yep. Life is GOOD!!

On the road again

2010-04-29T09:35:00.006-05:00

I'll be on the road again. This time, I will be shopping with a couple of friends of mine. We are heading up to Wimberley tomorrow.

In my last post, I said that no self-respecting junker could go shopping without a tricked-out shopping cart. Well, I closed my eyes and made my first cut in the vintage tablecloth (it's okay, it had a couple of holes in it). I took one of those plastic tablecloths, cut it to size, then sewed my vintage one directly to the back of it.
I attached a carpenter's apron to the back of the cart for drinks and snacks. I picked this one up at the ARK sale last weekend. They sell them at Lowe's, etc for under $1. I think all I need now is my sunscreen, some $$, and some comfortable shoes . . .

The Junk Fairy blew me kisses

2010-04-24T08:21:00.002-05:00

The Junk Fairy blew me kisses yesterday. I went to the A.R.K. (Animal Rescue Kleberg) sale and loaded up! The old apple crate will be great for displaying items when I do the Bishop Centennial Celebration next month. I was also quite pleased to find a bag full of artificial bird eggs. (They are in the short, squatty apothecary jar). The jewelry box still had its key and is in really good shape.

My plans are to cut up the tablecloth to make a nice liner for my rolling shopping cart. No self-respecting junker can go to Round Top without one. LOL. I just know that it is going to be very difficult to make that first cut, but that is what I bought it for. I am looking for a plastic tablecloth to make the lining and the vintage one will go on the outside. I will be on the lookout for some ball fringe. Wouldn't that be sweet? I would like to take it to Wimberley next weekend, so I guess I better get crackin'.
This Gold Metal Cookbook was an unexpected find. It is 100 years old; copyright 1910. It is in incredible condition, too! I can't wait to try out some of its recipes.

Say "cheese"

2010-04-12T14:10:00.004-05:00

Smile pretty and say "cheese"! I found this non-working Kodak Instamatic camera at last week's estate sale and decided to make it into a photo holder. Some wire, a drill, and Voila!

I mugged for a camera just like this one LOTS while I was growing up. It was one of the first cameras that made photo-taking easy, peasy.

Theresa and Teresa

2010-04-07T13:57:00.003-05:00

My trip to Warrenton would not be complete without a nice visit to see Theresa of Garden Antiques Vintage. She is a sweetheart and she throws a magnificent blog party. I wasn't able to get up there in time for the party. I'm still bummed about THAT!
You can find Theresa right outside of Zapp Hall in Warrenton. She's just around the corner from Mindy, Debbie, and Anne.
Theresa has an amazing sense of style and helps you see how you can decorate with the unique items that she carries in her booth.

Mindy & Robelyn

2010-04-06T15:24:00.005-05:00

The three of us could have so much fun together! Wouldn't we make a fun group out on the town? You betcha! It was so nice to see Mindy again. I met her in person in September. This time, I also got to meet Robelyn. She has joined forces with Mindy and is creating one-of-a-kind handbags. Robelyn is known around these parts as Red Neck Chic. She makes her beautiful purses in the style of Primitiques 'n Poetry. It is a great pairing. Kind of like chocolate-covered strawberries and champagne. Goes very well together. I hope to have more time next time. In fact, I MUST be on hand for the next Blog Party hosted by Theresa. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I can schedule it.

Divine Miss Debbie

2010-04-05T14:57:00.007-05:00

Once I got to the top of the hill, I made my way over to see my favorite girls. My first stop was to see the Divine Miss Debbie (Cat Daddy was around somewhere nearby, I'm sure of it) Debbie and I had a nice little visit. She is such a delight! She has personality oozing from her pores. LOL If you are ever in Warrenton during trade days, locate Zapp Hall and look around to the right. You are bound to find her nearby.

We really couldn't have asked for better weather during our shopping trip. It was a little breezy at some points, but nothing to hinder my treasure hunting. This morning I unpacked the trailer. I didn't remember all I had purchased until I removed all of the newspaper and bubble wrap. It was almost like Christmas again.

Tomorrow, I will go visit my booths in Corpus Christi. You can't see me, but I'm doing a happy dance.

Warrenton

2010-03-30T21:03:00.005-05:00

I would LOVE to show you the pictures that I took today at Warrenton, but they don't seem to be on my camera. Very strange. Only the picture of the wine tasting is there. I was getting tired until I went to the Cole's wine tasting party. After that, I was ready to shop some more. Go figure.

The weather has been delightful and I've already found a few goodies. I can't wait to hit it again tomorrow. If my camera is nice, I'll have more pictures, too.

Estate sale pretties

2010-03-25T18:18:00.004-05:00

Some family friends of ours had their first day of an estate sale this morning. My DH and I went over to see what goodies we could find. Red did a lot of woodworking projects so you-know-who wanted to see what kind of tools he might find.

We arrived about 45 minutes early and still were numbers 21 and 22 so we had to stand outside drooling for awhile. I spied the wicker furniture sitting prettily in the garage and figured that I had no chance of getting it. Guess I was wrong because there you see it! There isn't a big call for chairs with no bottoms around here, so I was able to nab that. I have some ideas circulating in my brain for it. The telephone table would look lovely "shabbied" up a bit. Can't decide if I want to go pink or white. Probably white.

Estate sales can be a real adventure.

All for a nickel

2010-03-19T18:03:00.003-05:00

Well, I didn't want to be rude and question their pricing strategies, so I happily paid my 5 cents for this coin purse full of foreign coins. I could probably spring for a candy bar or a piece of gum in countries all over the world - Canada, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Columbia, Singapore, Mexico . . .

Somehow, I ended up spending over $80 at this particular sale. The rest of it wasn't priced as odd, and I found some nice things; most of which is going to my booths in Corpus Christi. The most expensive piece was a cute little oak dresser with a serpentine front. I plan on showing that to you later. I will be painting it and want to show you a before and after. I just couldn't leave without it.

American Pickers takes a road trip

2010-03-15T21:06:00.005-05:00

Frank and Mike are getting closer to my part of the country. They still have hundreds of miles to go, but they ARE getting closer. On tonight's episode, they made their way to Louisiana. I'm hoping they travel on to Texas. I'd like to see what kinds of treasures they would find here. I just don't want them to buy what I want to buy. LOL

Graphics courtesy of American Pickers

Rent free housing

2010-03-11T14:56:00.003-06:00

I've been out in the workshop playing carpenter all morning. It was quite pleasant today. I just finished my latest birdhouse condominium. This structure will be rent free and is available to any bird who would like to call it home. The taller units have false bottoms in them so that they will be easy to furnish. I don't want the bird to wear themselves out filling it with nesting material.

I make these birdhouses one-at-a-time. Since there are over 60 individual pieces, it would be just crazy to keep up with more than one.

This one is going to my booth at Third Coast Antiques since I sold the other one yesterday. *happy dance*

Estate sale yummies

2010-03-01T16:30:00.009-06:00

Last Saturday, I went to a very nice estate sale. The only problem - I was very, very late. Silly me forgot all about it until after lunch. The good part was that the workers were getting awfully tired and wanted to be done. They were making some awesome deals. Deals on what was left, that is. I don't even want to think about all of the treasures that went home with someone else.

The sale was for the late Mary Lewis Kleberg. You can read more about her by clicking HERE. She did wonderful things for Kingsville and South Texas. She will be greatly missed.

This was a really cool piece. Can you read the engraving? It was done in 1895. Sweet, huh?

Moving on up!

2010-02-27T20:20:00.004-06:00

I am really enjoying having my booth at Third Coast Antiques. In fact, I am enjoying it so much that today, I opened a booth in the shop that is two doors down - Betty's Trash to Treasures Too. This second one is a tiny booth.

It needed a little TLC. Do you agree? The first thing I did was take a crow bar and bust down that ugly lattice panel. The shop owner said that I was the first person that she had ever seen setting up their booth with a crow bar. I think I am really going to like working with her.

I like the fact that the booth has electricity. I'll just have to ignore the ugly wires.

I designed the bookshelf and my husband helped me put it together. He wasn't able to help me set it up, so I made 3 of the shelves adjustable so that they could be removed so the darn thing wouldn't be so heavy.

One of the shelves has Alice in Wonderland related items, one has Coca Cola glasses, one of the shelves has bird and nature items, and one of the shelves barely has anything.

It was hard to visualize just how much I could fit in. I will go back on Wednesday and take more goodies. I am sure that I can fit LOTS more in there.

I sold over $100 in my Third Coast booth just this morning. *doing a happy dance* I will try to take a nice load with me. February has been very good.

Nest building

2010-02-20T21:09:00.004-06:00

My sister is starting to scout cool things out for me now. She says "WWTD" - what would Teresa do? She found some big, chunky wooden picture frames and wondered what I would come up with for them. I'm glad that she snagged them for me. It's funny how easily I am excited over old stuff. I jumped up and down when she handed them to me. I know; it's pathetic.

I had been warned not to put bleach on vintage linens but they were all stained and thought it would be fine. No, it wasn't. The bleach ate the delicate stitching on some family linens. Since they were no longer going to be family heirlooms, I decided that I would just need to create something with them. They told me that they would love to be backdrops for my next project. They were the first things that went into my Feather Your Nest piece. I fixed up the nest while the sweet little bird looked on.

Flea Market Style Magazine Giveaway!

2010-02-13T19:30:00.004-06:00

Artist, Lara Harris is hosting a giveaway on her blog to celebrate being published in the new Flea Market Style magazine. She is a wonderful artist who paints in oils. Not only is she giving away an issue of this magazine, she is also giving away a giclee print. Trot on over to her blog for your chance to win. A Vintage Touch.

You are my Valentine!

2010-02-11T15:14:00.005-06:00

I can already feel that wonderful sugar rush coming on from all the chocolate and sweet treats! It was so fun in Elementary School when we would decorate our Valentine bags and wait for them to be filled with all the cute cards from our friends and maybe even a secret admirer! I usually had most of the candy eaten by the time I got off of the bus that afternoon. LOL.

Year-end analysis

2010-01-23T07:12:00.006-06:00

While it is true that I've only been in my shop since September, I decided to do an analysis last night to see how my sales break down. Thanks to having everything on a spreadsheet already, it didn't take but a few minutes.

I divided my sales into smalls, furniture, and my vintage-inspired art. Smalls, which by far is the easiest to deal with in the booth only accounted for 15% of my total sales. I like smalls because they really do not entail much work out of me. Buy it, price it, place it.

Next in line is the furniture. This includes the furniture that I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase and place as well as those pieces that I have cleaned up, painted, and put my touch to. The furniture, which you would think would be my bread and butter, only accounted for 20% of total sales.

The largest catagory is my vintage-inspired art which is a whopping 65% of my sales. As an artist, this really charges the ego. Good for the ego, but it DOES keep me busy!

Half table is whole again

2010-01-22T21:50:00.006-06:00

Note the big, black circle on this pretty half table. It is a deep burn mark. I wonder what caused it. I'm thinking that it might have been one of those infamous votive candles. It took a several applications of wood filler to fill that crater.
After a good sanding or two, or three, I applied a nice, clean coat of white paint and made sure that it crackled some. She looks so much better now. I lightly sanded certain areas in keeping with the history of this sweet table.

American Pickers ROCKS!

2010-01-18T20:26:00.007-06:00

I have a new, favorite show. It's on the History channel and it's called American Pickers. It may be dangerous for me. I LOVE to junk and this show just feeds that desire. From honey holes to windshield time, get the inside scoop on picker lingo from Mike and Frank. They even have a DVD for sale.They know how to find all the "good junk" and I'm taking notes. Monday's just got fun!

Photos courtesy of American Pickers

I'm a JUNKMARKET Style member

2010-01-11T15:45:00.006-06:00

After spending a good hour and a half checking out over 3,000 junking submissions, I decided that I should become a member of JUNKMARKET Style and start sharing some of the ideas that I have put together. It only seemed right to "give back" to other fellow junkers out there.
As it turns out, there are over 6,000 of us on this site ALONE. I submitted my shutter hall tree that I made last week.
So far, I've made one contribution to this site. Hmmm . . . .

Hurricane Ike Hall Tree

2010-01-07T13:54:00.007-06:00

Back in September of 2008, hurricane Ike paid a visit to the upper Texas coast devastating everything in its path. Galveston was one of the areas which was particularly hard-hit. Ike had a pretty powerful storm surge. Not a good thing.

When I was on my buying trip to Round Top, I came across a glorious pile of architectural pieces. These pieces were all salvaged from Galveston by a Galveston resident after hurricane Ike paid its visit. All kinds of doors, pieces of gingerbread, windows - you name it. Enough to make you just absolutely drool. Drool, I did. I made myself quite a stack - a $200 stack.
Today, I finished the hall tree I've been working on. It is even wired up with a light! I had a super time designing it. In fact, I was so excited about it, I had trouble falling asleep!

In the pink

2010-01-04T17:35:00.005-06:00

This is one of the items that Joy gave me back in October. I decided that this step stool was just begging to be painted pink. The color is called Fifties Pink and it is actually a mistint that I bought at half price. I don't know if it's anything like it was suppose to be, but it is a beautiful pink. It's so pink that it is almost flourescent!
Joy will be surprised to see how much it has changed! I'm going to take it to my shop in Corpus later this week. Just in time for Valentine's day.

and the winner is . . .

2010-01-01T14:25:00.005-06:00

I enlisted the help of Baby Doll to draw the lucky winner. She had just woken up from her nap so she was still a bit cranky. It takes her awhile to be a polite member of society again. LOL
Congratulations, Caterina Giglio of La Dolce Vita. May each of you have a super, fantabulous 2010!!

Celebrating 300 with a giveaway!!

2009-12-26T13:29:00.015-06:00

I am so honored that 300 of you are now following my blog through Networked Blogs!! To celebrate, I am hosting a giveaway.

I made a special art bottle to commemorate the occasion. Thanks to Photoshop, I was able to put my face on it and customize it a bit. It is an old picture of me. LOL It was taken during my 2nd Halloween. I use this picture on my blogs, online shops, etc. My Aunt Emma made the costume for me. She currently has a costume shop in Eufaula, Oklahoma.

Anyway, if you would like to be entered, please leave a comment and you will be entered once. If you would like to be entered twice, post this giveaway on your blog and then leave a 2nd comment with the words BLOG. I will randomly choose the lucky winner on Friday afternoon, Jan 1.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T22:42:00.000-06:00

Have yourself a very, merry Christmas!

The Junk Fairy blew me kisses

2009-12-13T15:48:00.007-06:00

I didn't want to get out of bed yesterday. It was Saturday; my bed was so, so soft and warm. I stretched and stretched and finally made my feet hit the floor. I wasn't moving fast by any stretch of the imagination. My goal today was to get more of my Christmas shopping done and didn't feel like I wanted to rush into the madness.On the way to the mall, I stopped at an estate sale here in town. I didn't expect to find anything because it was already an hour into "half-price day". I made a bee line to the garage. Forget the furniture and household - my first order of business is usually the garage, shed, and outbuildings. I like the boxes of "treasures". You never know what you will find and I love the "thrill of the hunt". I don't even always take time to see what all is in the box. If it looks interesting at first glance, I pick it up and keep hunting. Let's just say that the Junk Fairy blew me kisses. I am a sucker for old door knobs, keys and the like. Can't seem to pass them up.
I also couldn't pass up a plastic bag full of plastic bags, full of Barbie accessories. They didn't have a price on them so I guess that is why they were still there. The assistant took the bag to the guy in charge and when she brought it back to me with the price, it was all I could do not to start grinning ear to ear in fear that he would change his mind.

Let's just say that I got all of this and more for less than the price of a large pizza and a drink. Yes, the Junk Fairy definitely blew me sweet kisses.

Open House at Third Coast

2009-12-01T14:25:00.004-06:00

Third Coast Antiques is having a Holiday Open House and you are invited! It will be an all-day party that starts at 10:30 in the morning and goes until 8:30 in the evening. Everything in the store is at least 10% off. Stop in for cool vintage gifts, food, spirits, music, and fun. I certainly plan to be there! Did you say wine?

It pays the rent

2009-11-04T13:18:00.004-06:00

I am fortunate to be able to also offer up my art pieces in my antique shop booth as well as furniture and smalls. In fact, my art is what is paying the bills. Literally. A couple of weeks ago, the owner called me and said that there was a lady in the shop who wanted to know if I could make 25 of these. SURE! They would pay for 4 months of my rent. After I hung up, I danced a little jig. Don't get excited. I'm sure that I looked like Elaine from that Seinfeld episode.

Gotta love "free"

2009-10-26T15:18:00.006-05:00

Joy called me and she said she had some items that I would probably like. She also told me that she would make me an offer that I couldn't refuse. She knows I couldn't possible turn down "free"!

The darling little yellow table was built way back in 1941! I know because its builder signed and dated it. It has a neat little pullout section and a nice drawer. I think I may put a crystal knob on the drawer. I haven't quite decided yet.

I'm pretty sure that the doll beds are going to get a nice coat of pink paint. The other day, I mixed up a nice, soft shade of pink and it is now my color of choice (at least until it runs out)

The ceiling tin may find its way on top of a birdhouse. Not sure yet. It seems almost too precious to cut up. Almost.

The wire chair is just screaming to become a planter chair. Wouldn't it be great with a foxtail fern sprouting out of the seat?

There are 4 nice pieces of gingerbread but a couple of them are broken. I think that I may salvage parts from the most damaged one to make 3 complete pieces.

Oh, and do you want to guess how many wads of gum are under that black desk?

Felt like a Hobo

2009-10-13T21:58:00.006-05:00

I had errands and doctors appointments today so I had to drive in to Corpus Christi which is about 45 miles from my home. At my first stop, I slipped on the wet tiles and broke my shoe! Flip flops to be precise. I don't care how graceful you are, you just can not walk in broken flip flops. No way, no how. To top it off, the side of town I was on didn't have any known shoe stores. I had to walk around Corpus Christi barefooted until I bought more shoes. Made me feel like some kind of hobo.
Since I was already on the side of town that Third Coast was on, I had to rework my booth barefooted. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I can't stand dusty feet.
I'm glad that because I'm a junker, I carry a big container of Lysol wipes with me at all times. Ahhh, relief!

Miles and miles of SHOPPING!!

2009-10-02T15:47:00.009-05:00

There was shopping as far as my eyes could see and as far as my feet could walk.

I just went from one awesome booth to the next. Most of what I found was in Warrenton. I also shopped Giddings and Fayetteville.

I ended up falling twice on my trip. No one said I was graceful. The first time I fell was when we were buying the trailer. The guy we bought it from had a Segway. When he offered to let me ride it, I jumped right on. He gave me a little lesson on how to manuever on it. He just didn't get to the part about how to get off of the thing. When I went to step off, it put more weight on the right side so it started to turn that way and sent my feet flying. I scraped up my elbow a little.

The second time I fell, I was watching for my DH to come back with the truck and didn't see the pile of stuff on the ground in front of me. I looked like I was sliding into home plate. I had white pants on. How I didn't get dirty, I'll never figure out.

They were even all set for Halloween.

I have spent far more than I had intended to. I just love all of my purchases. Can you see the gingerbread in the trailer? It came from Galveston. Galveston was devastated during Hurricane Ike. So sad. So very sad. I picked up several tables and chairs, a couple of neat dressers, minnow buckets, post office doors, I also found rusty tin ceiling tiles, chandeliers, and lots of other cool stuff. Now where am I going to store all this stuff?

Marburger Farm

2009-10-02T06:31:00.013-05:00

I was walking around the Marburger Farm Antique Show with my eyes wide open and my mouth agape. I was like a kid in a candy store. The show is in Round Top, Texas and features something like 400 vendors from all over creation. There is tent after tent and building after building to explore.

Marburger is where you go to see the best of the best.

Magnolia Pearl takes you to some other time. lts creator is Robin Pearl Brown. She grew up in California to an artistic father and a gypsy mother. She now lives in Bandera. I'm sure that she got to Texas just as fast as she could.

This year's Victorian fairy wear is stunning!!

I stopped by Janet Waldrop's booth. She is a certified jeweler who does wonderful vintage jewelry using vintage found objects for her Skip to My Lou shop. All of her pieces are displayed on old cabinet cards.

Michelle's Vintage Girl booth was absolutely darling. She has a love affair with rust, chippy paint and time worn objects. Her items make you want to invite all your girlfriends over for a tea party. Her use of color is so very appealing.

These pieces were made from industrial parts. Some of these used to be old propane tanks. I like them in their second life. Very creative.

Warrenton

2009-09-27T21:39:00.009-05:00

I shopped 'till I dropped today and boy did I have a great time. I am so thankful for my supportive husband. He toted all by treasures all over the place today. He's such a sweetie!!

It was a bit overwhelming, but apparently the best approach is find a starting place, remember where you parked, and have fun!

I found some of the authors to a few of my favorite blogs. It was wonderful to meet some of the people that I read about. I've been a bit of a lurker. I stop by and read their posts, but I haven't left many comments. I promise to be better about that in the future.

First, I met Mindy. Her shop is Primitiques 'n Poetry and is located inside Winnie & Tululas in Athens, Texas. I've enjoyed reading her blog and now I have had the pleasure of meeting her face-to-face. Her sweetie, David was there, too and we got to meet him as well.

I also got to meet Teresa of Garden Antiques Vintage. She hosted a wonderful blog party. I got caught up in the party and didn't take more pictures. I'll try to do better tomorrow! I met Debbie of Talkin' Trash. She is such a delight! I almost didn't recognize her without her crown!

On the way out, I stumbled upon this awesome car. All I can say is WOW!

Ready for Round Top

2009-09-26T16:57:00.005-05:00

We bought this wonderful trailer this morning on our way to Round Top. If I fill it up, I should have PLENTY of cool stuff to put in my booth at Third Coast Antiques, won't I?

My brother-in-law talked us into going to the lake today instead of hitting Round Top this afternoon. He is probably right. I wouldn't have much shopping time today. Besides, he promised to throw something tasty on the grill for us. Who could pass that up?

I need a bath!

2009-09-12T14:39:00.006-05:00

I feel so dusty and dirty after this morning's treasure hunt, but BOY did I find some goodies!!! I wasn't even sure I was going to bother this morning. It had been raining most of the week and there were very few sales to choose from. In fact, I wasn't even going to go to the one that I found all of the goodies but a friend of mine said, "Let's go", so I did.

The cedar jewelry box is from Dallas. The front of it is stamped - Texas Centennial 1836 - 1936. It's a neat little box. I didn't get everything photographed, but this gives you a pretty good idea of today's score.
Fortunately, the guy I bought all this from also delivered it. After he told me he would deliver it, he asked me where I lived. I joked with him and told him that I lived about 25 miles south of town. I couldn't resist.

Old window chalkboard

2009-09-11T11:39:00.005-05:00

My husband's friend has spent the last year helping his parents re-do a dilapidated old house. My DH has talked about how I can take something destined for the trash pile and turn it into something cool so he gave us a big stack of old windows that had come out of the house.

I had my DH pressure wash all the windows then I gave them a good sanding after I removed the glass. Instead of spraypainting the glass with chalkboard paint, I spraypainted some brown hardboard. It takes a couple of coats to get a nice finish, but I really like the results.

Lamp Rewiring 101

2009-09-04T11:25:00.010-05:00

If you do it right, rewiring lamps can be easy peasy.

Just follow these simple steps.

Go to bing.com and type in "rewire lamp".
Assemble all necessary tools.
Make sure husband is in room.
Ask lots of questions out loud.
Wait for husband to say, "Here, let me do that".
Hand him all the tools.
Watch intently.
Say "Thank you"!

See, I told you it would be easy peasy!

We grew

2009-09-02T21:47:00.003-05:00

Today, we went and doubled the size of our shop.

We are going to have some serious fun!

We are in!

2009-08-31T07:43:00.009-05:00

Our move in day finally arrived! Everyone was shaking their heads when they saw just how much stuff we were planning to stuff into our booth. I had it all in my garage for over a month, so I can tell you how much space I was going to need.

Each one of us has our own area of talent and between us all, we got everything arranged in a pleasing way. I am so thankful for my DH who helped us. He loaded it all in his great big Ford truck, helped lug it all in to the shop, and put our displays together.

Joan has done visual merchandising professionally. Need I say more? She has a real eye for placement. Joan was solely responsible for all the display in the consignment shop that I used to belong to. My hat is off to her.

Betty shows a fine attention to detail. She is a master with her paintbrush. Her painted pieces are stunning. She also has a couple of online shops where she markets her pieces. She is beginning to receive special orders from local ladies who have seen her work. They want her to work her magic on furniture they have in their home. I can tell you - this girl is going places!

I just know we will be happy in our new "home".

Attic Rat

Warrenton is Party Central

HGTV at Warrenton

Gypsy bag giveaway

More door parts repurposed

Door panels repurposed

Food, glorious, food!

Heidelberg Castle

Frankfurt, Germany

Surrounded by castles

Mirror frame shelf

Time to go SHOPPING!

Get wired up

'Get WiredUP!' by analogueshop

Enjoy

Something to gush about

Junking Trend

Happy New Year

American Pickers on Etsy

Open House on Alameda

Perfect solution

Lighted hall tree

All settled

Big changes

Austin City-wide

bald

Blogging friends

Chatting with Carolyn and Debbie

Zapp Hall is Party Central

Heidi and Tricia

Just call me Gabby

Renee and Barbara

Ephemera parade

'*ephemera* what's in your collection?' by Selloholicmom

Showing the many faces of ephemera... It is one of my very favorite items to collect....100% vmteam vintage

A.R.K. sale

Granny green

Wire basket Paparazzi

My, what a big spout you have!

The Reading Room

Wimberley Market Days

Button Tutorial

In the pink

Tudball & Wiggins

Etsy Vintage Market Team

Betty's Cat House

Season 2 = HUGE

Wimberley Market Days

On the road again

The Junk Fairy blew me kisses

Say "cheese"

Theresa and Teresa

Mindy & Robelyn

Divine Miss Debbie

Warrenton

Estate sale pretties

All for a nickel

American Pickers takes a road trip

Rent free housing

Estate sale yummies

Moving on up!

Nest building

Flea Market Style Magazine Giveaway!

You are my Valentine!

Year-end analysis

Half table is whole again

American Pickers ROCKS!

I'm a JUNKMARKET Style member

Hurricane Ike Hall Tree

In the pink

and the winner is . . .

Celebrating 300 with a giveaway!!

Merry Christmas!

The Junk Fairy blew me kisses

Open House at Third Coast

It pays the rent

Gotta love "free"

Felt like a Hobo

Miles and miles of SHOPPING!!

Marburger Farm

'ephemera what's in your collection?' by Selloholicmom