All for a nickel

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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!

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

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

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.