A Lucky Winner!

Congratulations Shannon of Silver Trappings! You are the winner of my random giveaway. Thanks to everyone who entered and for all of your sweet comments. I was so happy to see so many new commenters. Shannon, please email me your mailing address so I can get the goods out to you pronto!

I'm so sorry I don't have any new pics to show today. We had kind of a crazy weekend. A little family drama is all I will say, but things are fine now.

I am going to boogy on over to Monticello today for a little after weekend clean up duty. Hopefully I will discover that we had an awesome weekend saleswise and lots of stuff will have gone on to new homes.

I know some of you are eager to see the chair re-do and I am a little embarrassed to admit this, but in the interest of "keeping it real," I was only able to sand one chair. (Insert sad face here) Hopefully by weeks end I will have more to share. In the meantime, I'll be trying my best to work on those chairs in addition to working on a little Fall Cleaning. Hope you have a great week!

I Been a Lazy Girl So How about a Random Giveaway?!

I don't really know what has gotten into me lately. I can't seem to get very motivated to do much these days. Maybe I need some vitamins or something. This week's thrifting adventures turned up very little. Not even enough to warrant a group photo. My hubby asked me if I was going to JoAnn's one day as he needed some brown felt for a project. I was going to go right by JA's on my way to the thrift store so of course I could stop. So glad I did as they were having a sale on some purty fabric. So, $40 plus later here is what I ended up with.

(I guess I should have ironed them for a prettier picture)

I'm thinking these will make some lovely shopping cart liners. Even though I figured out that I sold 12 shopping carts this summer at various shows, I have at least that many carts left and with me, it's never too early to be thinking about the next show I will be doing which is Farm Chicks (next June) as I am the queen of procrastination.

Our Vintage Sale last week went well despite the city removing some of our signs from the Highway. It was so fun to see so much of my stuff go bye bye and even more fun taking a load of stuff to Goodwill on Monday. Funny thing though. Isabel went to the Goodwill Outlet in Portland on Wednesday and spotted a piece of ugly fabric I had donated. She knew it was mine as it still had its garage sale tag on it.


I did manage to make a trip to Monticello with a load of stuff. Again, forgot to take some pictures. Our booths are full to overflowing with good stuff so if you are in the area, stop in and take a peak. Our special booth will be set up in the Garden Room until October 13th. Not sure where I'll put everything after that as I'm sure it won't all fit in my regular space. Oh well, I'll just worry about that later.



In case you're wondering what I did this week while I was being lazy. I reserved a bunch of movies from the library and watched most of them. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my library? I do. It's great! They have lots of dvds and if they don't have what I'm looking for, I can just reserve it online from another location and they will ship it to my library. So fun!

Isabel and I also met up to go see this movie. It was pretty good. Not the best movie ever, but a fun Chick Flick.

It's now Saturday morning and for once I have absolutely nothing planned for the weekend. I think this will be an excellent time to tackle a few projects I have been procrastinating. Remember these chairs?

This weekend they will be painted and recovered. Okay, now that I have said that, I am committed to doing it. You will hold me to it, right? Also, I have special plans for a dress form that I took apart and another project I have been thinking about that will use up some of my barkcloth scraps. So stay tuned!


Recently I read on a couple blogs that the newest issue of Romantic Country was finally out. I just love this magazine and wish it wasn't a quarterly, but a monthly publication. I had to go to 5 stores to find it. Since it was so difficult for me to find, I thought I would buy an extra copy and give it away on my blog. And since I love to do lavish giveaways, I'll include some extras as well. Oh, you know, maybe some vintage wallpaper, pretty buttons, etc. So, if this sounds like your cup of tea, just leave a comment on this post. I will pick a winner on Monday morning.




Well, I hope you all have a wonderful Fall weekend. Get lots done or nothing at all! Be back on Monday.

A Day in Portland and Some Other Stuff

Last Saturday I promised my #1 girl that I would take her shopping on the hip and happening Hawthorne Blvd. in Portland. A while back you may remember that my hubby and I took our daughter and a couple of her friends to a concert. Well, it was at the Hawthorne Theater and on our way there, we spied a lot of cool shops and vowed to come back and check them out. So that is just what we did.

Our first stop was at this place. Pretty much a junk shop with some antiques mixed in. We had a lot of ground to cover so we didn't spend a lot of time in there, but I did manage to find a cute pink satin glove box and colorful vintage tablecloth for a good price. Onward!


Our next stop was at Vintage Pink. This funky retro shop had lots of cool vintage clothing and home decor. I thought the prices were a little high on most things I was interested in such as this Lacy crinoline.

Here's my angel checking out some CD's. So cute!

We then strolled up the street checking out shops that looked interesting like this one. We really worked up an appetite with all that walking and shopping so we stopped at the cute Hawthorne Cafe for lunch. The weather was just gorgeous and it was so fun spending one on one time with my girl.

On Sunday we decided that since the weather was so nice we would take the boat out on the river. First, lunch at Joe's Crab shack, and then we tried to put the boat in at two different places on the Columbia River. Apparently everyone else had the same idea as the lines to put in were really long. Being the impatient people that we are, we left and headed toward home but hubby found a good place to put the boat in on the Willamette and we took a lovely cruise down the river into Portland. My favorite part is seeing all the neat houses along the river. It was so very relaxing. Just what I needed.

Spent the week getting ready for our "Vintage Stuff" sale that I am doing today and tomorrow with Mitzi, Karen and Isabel. I dug through the house, garage and pulled stuff out of my booth at Monticello for this sale. We did one in the spring which was very successful so I'm hoping that we will have good luck this time too. What doesn't sell is getting donated with maybe the exception of a few bigger items which I may try to sell on craigslist.


Inspired by Timi, I have been really trying hard to declutter and get rid of stuff. Yesterday I found a couple half finished little projects so I thought I would just dive right in and get them done and out of here. Here's some pictures of a few things I attacked with wallpaper.

Also, a cute little wood table that I painted.

Tuesday I decided to have a stay at home day and work on projects and cleaning. I was having a little break when the phone rang. It was Mitzi. She said that she was in her driveway vacuuming a cool rug she found at an estate sale and she thought I might be interested in it. She said she was going to take it to her booth at Stars, but that I could have first dibs on it if I wanted it. I said, "I'll be over in two minutes!" When I pulled up in front of her house and saw the rug, I couldn't believe it. It was gorgeous. I have always wanted a rug like this even begged another good friend to sell me hers if she decided to ever get rid of it. (She moved to Tuscon and took it with her.) Anyway, I bought the rug and it gave me a good excuse to rearrange the furniture which always means vacuuming. Here are some pictures of the rug and my newly arranged living room.



On Wednesday, Isabel and I decided to have a fun day out and hit the Goodwill Outlet in Portland. We spent a couple hours there and found some neat things. Isabel had a cart full too. I didn't get a picture of everything as some things went right in the wash and some things are in a pile of stuff to price for Monticello. Nothing too exciting. Some picture frames, linens, a couple nasty down pillows that I hope will clean up. After Goodwill we mosied over to visit our friend Randy at Madison Park. He has the best store on 13th Street. Everything there is just lovely as he has a incredible eye for finding the "good stuff." Next we headed over to the Stars malls and saw Karen and Mitzi, both there fluffing their spaces. After a quick lunch at Grand Central Baking, we headed home. I didn't take one picture I was just having too much fun and forgot.

Got all my stuff set up at Mitzi's yesterday so I'm all set for the sale today. Just gotta show up and sell stuff. The bad part of doing sales with others is that there is always good stuff to buy and I'm supposed to be getting rid of things. I was a naughty girl and bought a few linens and an adorable antique doll bed from Mitzi. I'll have to show it on another post, but its going over to Monticello on my next trip over.

Speaking of Monticello, I got a call from Kelly the other day saying I sold a couple bookcases. Yeah! Isabel also told me that I sold a big chair too. Yippee! Now I have room to take over some more stuff!

Also, I want to thank Sue for giving me this award. It was a couple weeks ago and I completely forgot to acknowledge it. So sorry, Sue. Thank you so much! I really appreciate it. I do!

Now that I have got you up to date with me (and completely bored you in the process) I will say goodbye. I'll be back later this weekend with some pictures of our sale and hopefully some good stories too. Until then, have a great Friday!


*note: this post was completed on Friday, but as I was having trouble uploading pictures, it didn't get posted until Saturday morning.

Monticello Fall Sale, Goodwill Outlet and Some Garage Sale Finds

On Wednesday Isabel and I headed over to Monticello to set up for the Fall Sale going on this weekend. We were there almost four hours trying to make everything fit in our special space and look pretty. Since it is a Fall Sale, most of the vendors had items in Fall colors, rustic pieces perfect for fall decorating. Us, not so much. We basically had what we always have, shabby chic pastel or white items. In our haste to finish up and get home, I forgot to take pictures. Fortunately Joyce at Monticello took one so here it is.

The sale started on Friday and goes through the weekend. Our space will be set up for a whole month.

As if that wasn't enough, next weekend we are having a "Vintage Stuff" Sale at our friend Mitzi's house. We did this sale in the spring, but since we still have a lot of stuff to get rid of, we are doing it again.

After the success of last weeks trip to the Goodwill outlet, I decided to go again and was so glad I did. In addition to finding great stuff, this is also a great place to people watch. You get everyone from Mom's with kids to Men who are probably there looking for stuff to sell on ebay. Regulars will stand around and chat. I like to go it alone, that way I can stay focused on my hunting for treasures.

It's also fun to see what other people have in their baskets, that is if their baskets aren't covered up with a blanket like so many are. In the spirit of Halloween coming up, I thought I would show you what one guy had in his cart.

So funny. Not really something I would want to add to my bride and groom collection though. ha ha The same guy also had a three foot tall vintage Santa in his cart as well. In case you were wondering, I did ask permission to take a picture first. I'm sure his thought I was wacko, but I just thought it was so funny.

While shopping there I ran into this guy. His name is "Tam the Cap." At least that's what he told me. I had met him at the July Expo Isabel and I did. He was a dealer there too and had some Elvis stuff for sale. I had told him about how I'm related to Elvis and we had a nice chat. He is Scottish and has a very thick accent so it was hard to understand everything he said. He only had a few items and since they charge by the pound and the more you by the less the price per pound is, I let him add his stuff to mine so he could get it cheaper.

Now, I suppose I should tell you what I found there. Well, even though I told myself that I have way too many linens and they are not always the easiest to sell, I found some fabulous linens. A lot of them. I just couldn't pass them up. Several embroidered runners all rolled up on a cardboard roll, pretty doilies napkins, a fabulous crocheted table cloth, two down pillows, a pair of jeans for me, an itty bitty pink flower pot (it has a big chip, but I didn't care, it's still cute), vintage etched glass lamp, plaster santa face and a cute vintage doll. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that's mostly it.

Oh I did forget something. This cute wool hooked kitty rug. It is already at Monticello in our special space. Hopefully some kitty lover will see it and have to have it for their own.

On Thursday morning I woke up with a nasty cold so I didn't do much. I'm still suffering a bit with a drippy nose, but I'm feeling a bit better. Friday, I felt up to hitting some garage sales with my pal Andrea. We found a trailer park that had sixteen sales and I was very pleased with what I scored . I think I spent a total of $20 at sales. Everything was really cheap. Here's my Friday haul.

Two pink wood shelves (not pictured), old locker basket, italian gesso mirror, oldish tole rose, little italian easel, six old wood finials, some white painted wood for shelves, little book shelf/holder, cute metal recipe box, metal necklace, silver snack caddy and some Donna Karen glasses. Everything you see here will be headed to Monticello today. I'm going to take a load over, clean up our spaces, rearrange and pick up some of my older stuff for our sale next weekend.

Well, that's it for today. On my next post I'll share with you my day out shopping my my sweet girl. Lots of housework and projects to work on this week. Can't wait!

Coburg Antique Faire

I may have mentioned that Isabel and I have shopped at the Coburg Antique Faire the last few years, but that this year we decided to sell there too. Coburg is a sweet little town about two hours south of where we live. We drove down on Saturday afternoon and set up the bigger stuff. We then came back super early Sunday morning to finish up. It was so funny to see lots of buyers with flash lights and head lamps shopping in the dark. I had heard about that before, but since I have never shopped that early myself, I never saw it actually happening.

Our friend Braeda took this picture for us on Isabel's camera. Don't we look like we are having fun?

We had a great day seeing lots of our friends and we even met some new friends. A few sweet gals stopped by to say hi and that they read our blogs. We even had several buyers who we met at other sales like Expo stop and say hi. Here are some pictures of our good buddies booths. We were all in the same area so it was fun to run back and forth a bit to check up on each other when we had time.

Martha's booth.Diane's booth

Cindy's booth

Kathy's booth.

Sue's booth.

Joy's booth
And finally, my half of our booth
and Isabel's half
Of course, we couldn't go to this sale without shopping a little bit. Isabel and I took turns and we both were able to find a few neat things.

I found this adorable pink vintage prom dress for only $4.00. Okay, you can hate me now.

Here's a close up of the bodice.Also found these brass curtain tie backs and ten of my favorite vintage glass knobs.I traded Isabel an old doll I found for this painting. You can see the doll on her blog.
I forgot to take a picture, but I also found a cute pink roses apron and a lovely crocheted hanger for my collection. I was really good and didn't bring any big furniture home. Hubby was pleased about that.

Laura, who I met at Farm Chicks and who is a BFF of my BFF Timi, gave me this award recently and I am so honored to accept it. I have gotten a few awards in the past for my little ol blog and it is always so nice to be recognized in that way. So, thanks so much Laura. I really, really appreciate it!

Pam, at One Gal's Trash tagged me to list 7 random things about myself. It is always so hard to come up with things to share, but here goes.

1. I am a rule follower. I guess I always worry about getting caught if I break the rules. This probably goes along with being a people pleaser.

2. I love teen movies. Always have and now that I'm in my 40's I still watch them.

3. I have a funny game I like to play when I'm out thrifting. If I find several items at one place, I like to find at least one thing that I can sell for at least the total amount I pay for all the items at one place. Does that make sense? That way I feel like every thing else I got for free and whatever money I make selling the items is pure profit. I know, silly, right?

4. In high school I was voted "Miss Preppy" even though I wasn't really. I wore mini skirts before anyone else did and my outfits were always very color coordinated and cute. I was also voted, "Best Freckles." My freshman year in college I was voted, "Biggest Flirt" in my dorm. Again, I don't agree with this one. I just had a lot of male friends and being the affectionate person I am, I gave out lots of hugs.

5. On my husband and my first date in college we drove to a bar on my scooter (the motorcycle kind). I was wearing a fluffy coat and I remember he put his hands in my pockets to stay warm. We were having a great time until we got pulled over by the police on the way home. The police officer said, "you know this vehicle is only for one person." To which my husband replied, "but I was holding on." I ended up getting a ticket which was a small price to pay for my silly new boyfriend who eventually became my great husband.

6. When we made the decision that I would quit my job to be a stay at home Mom, it literally cut our income in half. We had some pretty tough years financially, but I never regretted our decision. It has been the most difficult and rewarding job I have ever had.

and finally

7. I love jewelry. Especially vintage inspired jewelry and I seem to have accumulated quite a collection of it. But, I rarely wear more than just my wedding ring, an aqua marine ring, my diamond solitaire necklace my hubby gave me for our 15th anniversary and a pair of simple earrings.

Wow, that was really hard. I know I have lots of stories and feel like I have led an interesting and fun life, but I always have a hard time coming up with interesting things to tell about myself. If you are newish to my blog you can read more stuff about me by clicking on the "stuff about me" category at the bottom of my sidebar.

On my next post I will share some pictures of our booth at the Fall Premier Sale and some new thrifted finds.

I've Been "Blog Spotted" and the After Pics

Last week I decided I needed a little thrifting therapy so I visited a few thrift stores in search of some new/old treasures that I could take to the Coburg Antique Show. First up was a Goodwill where all I found was a cute tablecloth. Next I decided to stop by the Goodwill Outlet. You know, the stores with the big bins of junk, I mean excellent stuff. I had probably only been there a few minutes when I caught a woman's eye and she smiled at me and said, "I know you from your blog!" Her name was Paula (no blog :() and she couldn't have been sweeter. We chatted a bit then I continued to shop some more finding a few treasures here and there. Paula is also an antique dealer with a booth at the awesome Stars & Spendid Antique Mall. Turns out she recently met my good friend Mitzi, (finder of shopping carts) who also has a booth at Stars and Laurie. I told Paula that I'm so glad I took a shower that morning and she laughed. But seriously, now that I have a blog, I just never know when I'm going to be "blog spotted." ha ha BTW, Hi Paula, it was so nice meeting you. I hope to "bump" into you again sometime soon!

Here are some pictures of my thrifted finds from that day.

Pink baby coat (with sweet Made in France label), antique bibs, stockings, pink fish pin cushion. Muslin yardage and two vintage lamp shades.

Two old baby sweaters, two pink baby bonnets, hand painted celluloid fan, misc. linens and ribbon.

Lovely vintage formal dress.

Beautiful victorian lavender night gown with pin tucks, lace and ribbon. So much prettier in person.

On Friday I headed over to Monticello to pick up a few things. Made a few more thrifty stops along the way and found these items.Adorable powder blue vintage dresser, brass vase and trophy, tall cut glass jar, sugar bowl with hand painted roses (minus the lid), cool vintage tackle box, several bags of buttons, silver plate baby set and neat crusty plant stand (I'm keeping that for now).

I also wanted to show you the after pictures of the items I showed on my last post.



Here are the two little tables. Took both of them to Coburg. Only the little yellow one sold, but I think they both turned out pretty cute.


Here is the mail cart that I finished about an hour before we left for Coburg. This much admired item sold to a sweet gal who lives in an old farmhouse with a laundry shute to the basement. She will use it to catch laundry. Very cool! One person thought it would be great in her daughter's room to hold her stuffed animals.

Speaking of Coburg, Isabel and I had a great time and sold quite a bit. The weather was just perfect and it was so nice that we were able to set up the day before. It felt much more relaxed. On my next post I will share some pictures of some of my buddies booths and the few treasures I was lucky enough to purchase.

Today Isabel and I took the stuff that wasn't sold at Coburg to Monticello to start getting set up for the Fall Premier Shopper Show starting on Friday. We are going back on Wednesday to finish up by putting out our smalls and giving our space lots of cute. I'll make sure to take pictures when we're done, but if you are in the area, the sale is going on all weekend and our booth will be set up for a whole month.

I promised I would do the seven things tag and awards on this post, but they will have to wait a bit longer. I'm still trying to come up with 7 things you don't already know about me. I have a few, but need some more. I hope you are having a great Monday and I promise to be back soon!

Mid Week Update

Well, I finally got my pictures uploaded onto my computer. Still don't know what the problem was. Oh well. Here is a picture of my thrifted finds from last week.

I love the cute little metal patio chairs. When I first saw them at Value Village, they were pushed together and from behind looked like a bench. My heart skipped a beat as I love little metal patio benches. Upon closer inspection I could see that they were indeed two separate chairs, but it didn't matter as they are still very cute and the price was very affordable. I think I'm going to keep these for now.

I also got a great basket at VV (perfect for holding wallpaper rolls), floral painting, linen table cloth, vintage heating pad with pink roses flannel cover, and a scrolly metal basket, not old, but still cute.

I finally got my butt in gear and have been working on some things for Coburg this weekend. Here is a before and after makeover on a vanity bench I bought at a garage sale last spring.

Before


After

Lots better, right?

I also finished another shopping cart. This one turned out so cute I think. I used this new, but vintage look fabric on the outside and some sweet pink and white check for the inside and ties.

I started a couple more projects yesterday. Here are the before pictures. I'll show you the after pictures on my next post.

These are a couple antique tables I bought on craig's list quite awhile ago. They were disassembled and I had my hubby put them together for me.

This old mail cart I got from Joy. It has great wheels on it. I ripped off all that ugly canvas and am going to give it a new look.

I have also been given an award I want to acknowledge and have been tagged to tell seven random things about myself which I will do on my next post as well.

Kids are both at school today. First day for my son, yesterday was first day for my daughter. Her report was that it was, "boring" and there were no cute guys there. I had to remind her that she is in school to get an education, not for the cute guys. You can probably imagine how well that went over. Hope your Wednesday is Wonderful!