Everything old is new again

Today I was surprised to receive the first in what I hope will be a steady trickle of merchandise I ordered at market:

German grain sack reproduced as a rug/wall hanging/table cover. And canvas buckets.

My husband didn’t hesitate to start calling the grain sack piece a “traitor rug.” He also pointed out that the writing on the canvas bucket couldn’t possibly be French, but that the bucket would come in handy on a camping trip. Really? I told him it was much too cute to take camping…

SO…the first person who can explain to me WHY my husband made those comments about the rug and the bucket GETS A BUCKET!

The above question was a stumper. And I really want you to have this cute bucket. So if you like what you see, I’ll be giving away one bucket to a lucky winner.  All you need to do to be included in this random drawing is leave me a comment before 6 p.m. Friday, February 4. I’ll have one bucket reserved in the winner’s name.*  Good luck! 

*If you live far away, it will be mailed to you!!

Deja Vu

In her third — count ‘em — giveaway of the year, Amy of Four Sisters in a Cottage has 100+ pieces of ephemera up for grabs! Since I didn’t win her last giveaway, I’m going for it again. Maybe you should, too… unless YOU won the last one. In which case I think you should give it a rest instead.  Check out the giveaway here. Then step aside as I elbow my way to the winner’s circle. 

Have a junkalicious weekend…

***Pssst…just got home from working on my far-away space to discover an email from Amy of Four Sisters in a Cottage…I WON!!!! {guess I’ll be sitting out her birthday giveaway later this week.)

To do or not to do — that is the real question

Confession.

When I have a project like this looming in front of me {for months, mind you}:

I prefer to ignore it and concentrate on something easier, like removing crystals from an old light fixture that’s been hanging, ignored, in the shop for months.

Whereas that chest of drawers {let’s just call him Chester, shall we?} needs the veneer glued down, a drawer fixed and a paint job, all these pretty little crystals need is a good bath.

Now they’re ready for all kinds of things!

Just look at this two-second project:

{Aren’t crystals supposed to be good for your health or something?}

I PROUDLY wore my newest jewelry creation to my son’s high school tonight. No one seemed to treat me like I’d lost my mind. But now that I think about it, no one gave me compliments either. Hmmm…did I just make a Regretsy, as I’m feelin’ a little like Amy Sedaris and her crafts over here?! 

Pretty in pink

Isn’t she?

{all photos from the pink room in my house}

To market, to market…

All I can say is WOW. Market. It wasn’t even old stuff, and I still managed to enjoy myself and to spend money!

What I discovered:

1. I want to sell candles

2. I want to sell bath and body products

3. I want to sell cards…postcards… notepads

4. I want to be a buyer for some huge company and just sit and write orders all. day. long.

5. In Dallas, there’s no such thing as hair that’s too high

6. In Dallas, there’s no such thing as too much makeup

7. Some sales reps need to be reminded that they are working at a wholesale market … go buy an attitude adjustment {I’m just the type to report you. In fact, I did.}

8. Most sales reps are extremely nice and helpful

9. Freebies rule, even if it’s a fingernail file or a slice of organic soap

10. Free food and drinks rule — especially pimento cheese and crackers that appear at just the right moment. And pink sparkly cake is an extra-special bonus. And a mashed potato bar is heaven

11. EVERYTHING  is being reproduced {duh}. NOTHING old is sacred. {with the exception of loving cups, which I KNOW are being reproduced, I just didn’t have any luck finding them.}

12. Vendors who shop in Paris for props won’t part with said props no matter how hard you beg. They expect you to buy the new stuff. Go figure

13. Original jewelry should never be swapped for a Justin Bieber rubber bracelet, no matter how cute the brace-faced kid is who makes the offer

14. The World Trade Center is big

15. 11,000 parking places may sound like a lot, but they fill up quickly {Note to buyers: please take the time to pull into only ONE space STRAIGHT, so that 11,000 vehicles will fit. If I can’t have two parking spaces, neither can you.}

16. Shopping is tiring

17. Writing orders is cool

18. Cash-n-carry is not for me

19. Inspiration is everywhere

20. At least one wholesaler carries Meloney Russell’s beautiful pillows. {I didn’t buy. I’ll go straight to the source in Warrenton.}

21. I miss Dallas

22. I’m ready to put Halloween in the shop. And Christmas

Orders are placed. Now is the time when I wait. I think you’ll like what I ordered. It all fits well with all the vintage junk I sell. It must be late {or early}. I’m rhyming.

Have an awesome week…

Are you a VIB?

Marburger Farms is looking for a few good bloggers to blog about their spring show!  Can you think of anything more fun than that?!  Press credentials, t-shirt, swag bag…all in exchange for covering the most beautiful antiques show around {at least that’s what I’ve heard}!  To register as a Very Important Blogger, click here to fill out your form.  Hope to see you there!

Two great things that go great together

French.

It’s all the rage.

And it is SO not my house.

Yet … YET… I recently purchased a couple of pieces that have somehow found their way into my heart and into my home.

I live in a mid-century modern ranch. Our living room has ledge lighting and a stone wall with an offset fireplace. Our front door is extra wide with an offset doorknob. Our roof is thisclose to being flat and was tar and gravel until the late 90s.

And I love it. We’ve outfitted our living and dining rooms, mostly, with teak Danish modern furnishings – period pieces that reflect the modern mood of 1957, the year our home was built.

When we were putting together our guest room/office, we included a pole lamp. {When we first looked at the house, there was a very scary pole lamp in the bedroom. Sadly, it didn’t convey.} We also have a mix of leather, fabric upholstery and VINYL in the room.  And this room is known as the pink room. Its walls are pink with brown trim. Its curtains have pink and brown polka dots.  This room is most definitely the most girly room in the house. It’s a mixture of eras and wood {no teak}, including an antique tiger oak file cabinet from an old bank and a 40s looking coffee table from Target.  Original metal works of art designed by a friend of ours hang opposite a Rodney White pink and green print in a shabby frame.  Needless to say, this room is a bit eclectic. 

So… a couple of French pieces added in would hardly be noticeable, right?

The French quilt in the photo was purchased from Kelly Coffman of Vintage Bliss. I adore it. It stays thrown over the back of the leather loveseat.  The French box I purchased from Willow Nest at the Big Red Barn sale. It’s now the centerpiece on the Target coffee table. {Does that make you cringe like fingernails on a chalkboard?}

The box is probably a yard long, decorated with pyrography and then covered in French wallpaper strips. Linda from Willow Nest believes it to be from the late 1800s. I agree.  It has beautiful pink silk lining that is hardly shredded at all. And now it’s a comfy place for all my calling cards to rest.

I don’t think I’d be happy in a home that wasn’t at least a bit eclectic. 

Customers and fellow dealers ask me quite regularly if my home looks like my white cottage/shabby space where I sell. They are always surprised to find out that I don’t have a bit of white and hardly any black in my home.  It’s full of color.  Each room is a bit different. But it works for me. It makes me happy {at least it makes me happy on those rare occasions when it’s clean}. And the pink room is, hands down, my favorite room.

Big brother is watching…

Maybe it’s just a tall tale.

OR IS IT? 

Urban junking legend, perhaps? {I forgot to check Snopes.}

Initially for me, it was just another line item in a long list of government conspiracy theories.  And I heard it third hand. I won’t divulge my source {just in case the government is reading my blog}.  My source will come forward when the time is right, or when enough pressure is applied by the government, I am certain.

*It was, after all,  just a short conversation being held intimately between two customers in a junker’s booth that perpetuated this myth. It was a secret that would’ve stayed between them, had they not been careless and, therefore, overheard.  You see,  these weren’t just ORDINARY customers. At least one was in the know.  And what she knew was the stuff of government secrets. 

I can picture it now:  She was looking around at all the fine junk for sale {which I’m guessing included an odd doll head and maybe some mirrors with silvering issues} as she confided to her friend that she KNEW where all that junk came from.  “The government has a warehouse,” she told her friend, “where THESE people go to pick out stuff for free.”  But here’s the kicker. According to the customer with insider knowledge: “This is how the government keeps THESE PEOPLE off welfare.”

Okay. So let’s get this straight: The government has some giant warehouse(s) full of junk. And junkers would be on welfare if the government didn’t open this/these warehouse(s) to them, allowing them to pick all they want FOR FREE. Then junkers resell this stuff so as to avoid being on the dole.

So MY source says, “Do you have a number we can call for the free stuff?!” {I’m with her. Why the heck have I been wasting all that time at sales and flea markets when I can just go get it FOR FREE from the government?}

Well I don’t have a phone number to share.  But I do think I know where these secret warehouses can be found. And the government signals you when they want you to come shop {kind of like the bat signal}. All you have to do is watch for the vapor trails from airplanes {since everyone already knows they are the product of the government practicing its mind control over the masses}:

AND we all know that “x” marks the spot on treasure maps. 

The government was very busy today, spraying mind-control gasses around San Antonio.  So I followed the “x,” but it seemed to move away as soon as I started getting close {another trick o’ big brother}.

I never could find the warehouse. But I’m going to keep trying.  And I suggest you follow the contrails to your own pot o’ gold… for the good of our country. And for the good of all mankind.

*This story was based on third-hand information {Please forgive me, Source}. I can, in no way, promise there are warehouses full of free junk anywhere. {I just thought I’d share it because it is the strangest — if not the only —  junking myth I have ever heard! Hope you enjoyed it. And my apologies to you if you are in any way involved in government secrets such as this one.}

News you can use

Disclaimer: It was never my intent to become a blog clearinghouse, but lately there have been too many cool giveaways to ignore. And it’s fun to meet new bloggers, right? And fun to read more blogs.  So I began following the blog Vintage No.35 on Facebook. I can’t even remember how I found her. But she’s giving away a really cute ring to celebrate her 25-follower milestone.

All you have to do is leave a comment  here to be entered to win.

{This photo was taken in LA’s fashion district. Rolls upon rolls of beautiful fabric. And all I could carry home on the plane was a tiara (which I sold almost as soon as the plane landed) and some lace. But I’m a sucker for fabric. This photo has absolutely nothing to do with this post, by the way. I just saw it in my cell phone album and thought I would share. Hey! It’s MY blog, right?!}

Other news in blogland… Apartment Therapy is looking to award some cold, hard cash to a few lucky shelter blogs.  They’re handing out $50 prizes for the blogs they feature as 2011 Homies.  Know of anyone to nominate? {I can think of a few worthy nominees…} Want to nominate your own blog?  Check it out here.

 

And on the home front, I’m still stamping away. Got another batch of hand-stamped muslin ribbon ready for the shop today. 

{I also never meant for this blog to turn into a crafting blog! But in the grand scheme of things, I guess it’s all junk to me!}

Hope you’re enjoying a fabulous week!

Fab day in lil ol’ Round Top, Texas

My visit to the Big Red Barn was strictly for ME! And my purchases reflect that:

1. Coin purse necklace from Time Worn Interiors. I immediately threw it around my neck…Plus I finally got to meet Theresa in person.  Are all women from Kentucky so sweet and talented?  {And every third or so person at the barn was wearing one of her coin purse creations. I kid you not.}

2. Late 1800s lined wooden box covered in French wallpaper from Willow Nest. {My splurge.}

3. Pictures, a song book and a coin purse from the handsome Hector.

4. While I missed all the butter pats, I did buy all the song books Sweet Talk had to offer. {I’m awestruck by her cutting abilities, too! It’s no secret.}

5. Sheriff election cards from the 30s from Red Door. {These could end up in an art project. Maybe even the apron project.}

6. The cutest baby shoes EVER and a cemetery piece from Garden Antqs Vintage. {I’ve had my eye on the cemetery piece … and since she still had it, it came home with me.}

All the rock stars were present and accounted for, I’m proud to report.  And you’ll just have to trust me…as I neglected to snap any pictures at all.

Here’s to the kickoff of what promises to be an amazing junking season!  Bring on the spring shows!