Notes from A Cottage Industry

Sharing the holiday spirit.

Last night I wrapped up my first round of baking, and packaged up some cookies for my Rock n' Roll Buddy to take into work. Hmmm, for some reason, this basket of treats photographed small looking. It's actually a nice big tray of cookies!!

I stopped by GoodWill on my way home to see if I might find a cute container or two to package up the baked goods, and I struck gold. 

I found a set of six matching little buckets for $2.99...exactly enough buckets to make lil' presents for my department friends at work! 

I filled each bucket with shred, and cookies, and added a sweet little tag that I created on my computer, and candy cane striped ribbon. Today we are going out for a holiday luncheon and these are going to make charming little gifties for each of them!

Peace, love, junk.

Today I am thankful for all of the inspiration from my friends out there in the Junk World. Thanks to the internet, this world is a much warmer, cozier place where we can share clever ideas and stimulate our imagination for re-purposing things to make our homes our havens.

Especially now, when so many of us are on budgets, and have more time than money, it is gratifying to be able to use discarded items in new ways, without breaking the bank.

The little chair I can't seem to part with.

Oh. My.

Last week out thrifting with my thriting friend, I got an incredible deal. It was supposed to go straight to my booth space, but...instead...it has now bcome my newest favorite prop for taking photos.

Vintage.

Aqua.(Turquoise?)

Lil' chippied white Queen Anne legs.

Too perfect.

She thought so too, so yesterday we did a photo shoot right here in my Barbie Condo's Backyard.

 

Now, do you see why I can't seem to let this sweet chair go to my booth space?

 

Almost showtime.

So....this is the most organized I have ever been for a show, and yet..I am still not feeling organized. While I have piles of finished projects everywhere you look, I still have so many more pieces not completed.

I'm not sure if it's my time management, the fact that I just have so many ideas for things that I continue gathering pieces, the possibility that I might subconsciously like to work under pressure by waiting until my deadline to work like a maniac, or because I seem to procrastinate a little bit once I get a project far enough along that I can see how it is going to look in the end, and I loose my zippity-do-da for wrapping the end up. 

Whatever it is, I kinda like to think it's a genetic thing, except the only other family member that seems to have this tendency would be my first born daughter, so...maybe not.

I catch myself wishing for just four....more....hours in each day. Seriously, if every day had 28 hours in it, I am quite sure I could get everything done on my To-Do list. In fact, I think I'd be completely organized.

Anyway.

Where was I? Oh yes, I am more organized than ever before. And excited. I can't wait to set things up tomorrow and take some pictures. It's gonna be such a fun show! We have a great booth location.... (Come see me in booth spaces 19 and 20) ...and there are so many fabulous people doing the show that it is sure to be a wildly fun day. There is an admission fee, but if your print off this coupon and present it at the door, you'll get a dollar off, so be sure and do that.

If you're in the area, I hope to meet you. If not, I'll be sharing pictures after the flea market!

Excess baggage.

Last weekend was packed full, from Friday night, finishing up things for the faire, all the way through to Sunday evening at nearly midnight. And...all of it was fun.

Sunday I went to the Oregon City Antique Fair with a friend, and we had such a good time, perusing the booths, and looking for hidden treasures. There was live music too, which made it extra nice as we meandered through, chatting and shopping.

I was so proud of myself-I even remembered to bring along my camera, planning to snap plenty of booth shots...but somehow, I completely forgot to take any pictures of the fabulous stuff we found. (Like the vintage turquoise and white travel trailer that was for sale.) We ran into quite a few of my friends from the Camas Vintage Street Faire the day before, and I forgot to snap pictures of them as well...in the end the only photos I took were of the restaurant where we ate lunch and the area next to to it, (Why I snapped a photo of this I am not really sure, except that I was waiting for my friend and it momentarily occurred to me that I hadn't taken a single photo as of yet. Of course, as soon as I snapped these two photos, I promptly forgot I had my camera with me for the rest of the time I was at the Antique Fair.)

  

Nice shots, huh? (Okay, so I think it's safe to say, especially after this post, that action shots are not my strong suit.) Um...ya. Oh, but on a side note...here is an actual decent picture of us and Sara Barreilles that the radio station took, for those of you that are into that kind of thing...(Funny...doesn't she look like she could be one of my daughters?)
Anyway.

Where was I? Oh yes, I was going to talk about baggage.

Amongst the other treasures I found, I got these two suitcases. I just adore the vintage appeal of the weathered texture, and the time worn look of them. The larger one is actually a square suitcase, which makes it all the more charming to me.

The great thing about old suitcases is that, while they add a nice touch of vintage to a room, they also hold anything and everything, you know? I keep old pictures in some of mine, fabric, and I actually even use one in my workroom to hold my stash of tissue paper. It's a perfect container for this, 'coz it keeps it neat, flat and out of the direct sunlight so it won't fade.

My biggest challenge isn't finding a perfect spot to place these little gems in my home, but remembering which suitcase I put what in.

Keep or to sell...?

My daughter finds the best junk. Really, she does. She found this piece for me over a month ago, and I have drooled over it in my garage each time I look at it. I am not quite sure if it is a hutch top or a wall piece.It is very large, measuring about three and a half feet wide (or more) and almost five feet tall.

The piece is very large. The glass is missing from the door, and I plan to replace it with screening or bunny wire (which do you think would look best?) It needs to be painted, and I am leaning towards a creamy, weathered white. The detail molding is sweet as can be, and it has such a huge amount of cottage charm.

It has three shelves, and I can imagine this charming piece, mounted on a wall, filled with old white stoneware and tarnished silver pieces. The dilemma I am having now is that I will have trouble showcasing it in my booth (see how it doesn't look quite right sitting on the ground?) because there is no way to hang it on the wall, and it is coupled with the fact that I have the perfect spot on my dining room wall (where I currently have a plate collection) to hang this gem myself. The big question is..do I need to keep this baby, or should it find a new home?

A thrifted find that won't be making it's way to my booth.

Yesterday I hit a couple of thrift shops over in Portland with my daughter, and the trip was well worth my time. I got some oh-so-charming cane backed dining chairs (wait till I get them painted and share them with you!) and this incredible painting of Jesus.
It was hard to capture the soft shades of pinks, corals, blues and creams with the evening lighting, so I may edit this post later when it's daylight and I can attempt to get more natural lighting.

Anyway, the picture is actually a nice big one (I usually find fairly small Jesus pictures, you know?) I love the subtle colors, and the kind of weathered finish that time has created on the painting. The shabby white frame adds the perfect finishing touch to make this gem just to charming for me to let go of, at least for now.

Now, all that's left to do is find the perfect wall to showcase this latest lil' treasure now....

A dream day of thrifting.

I hope you aren't sick to death of these thrifting posts, but I just had to share an eensy-weesy bit of my major score from yesterday.

Moose and I left our home at 6:20 yesterday morning (anything after 6:30 and you hit stop-and-sit traffic until nine o'clock-ish.) and headed over to my daughter's home across the river in Oregon. By 8:30 we had gone to Home Depot, planted flowers in pots for her patio, changed a few light bulbs, and added a new shelf to a fabulous little cabinet in her living room, thankyouverymuch.

We then headed out thrifting and ...(I know I've said this before, but this time I really mean it) we hit the motherload! We actually had so many large pieces that we had to take one car load back over the bridge to my home, then head back and get the second carload, which we then had to tie my hatch back down on my car, because the fit was not quite close enough, and we didn't want to turn it into three car trips.

I kid you not, it was as if we had a golden touch. Every piece of furniture we found was more charming than the last. And, to make this a real dream trip in the thrifting world, every item we wanted was either incredibly affordable, or not priced. When we would ask the price,we were shocked at how cheap the stock person would announce the price to be. They had the largest overstock of furniture I have ever come across in a thrift shop on a single day.

So many of you have commented or emailed me on occasion to say that you never seem to find great things out thrifting. I want to encourage you to keep going. Those of us in the business (it's like a sickness really....we get so hooked on thrifting.) know the rush of adrenalin that comes over us when we spot a diamond in the rough that the person before us had missed.

It's a hit-or-miss process, and sometimes you have to go to the thrift shops, estate or yard sales multiple times before you find the types of things you are after. Next time you are at a thrift shop, go slowly. Look past the messy pile or bin of what appears to be real trash.

You just may discover a real treasure or two or ten.

A charming little settee is reborn.

A couple of months ago my daughter came across this little settee on good ol' Craigslist. She sent me the email thinking I might want it for my booth space, but after purchasing it, we decided it was simply too sweet to part with. It has a down filled cushion and, besides being so charming, it is exactly what I would imagine sitting on a cloud would be like. (Um...other than the fact that the fabric was nothing like a cloud...it was a very busy, cheerful floral. So not my daughter's style...)

Not to worry. My girls hit the fabric store one morning and found the perfect shabby-but-classic linen type fabric. We found an amazing slipcover gal on...Craigslist. (Where else?)

Oh yes, it's sweet as can be. Like I said, it's just as I imagine sitting on a cloud would be like, and it's the perfect finishing touch for her bedroom. Here is the finished product... Let me show you the other side of her bedroom, which she is very nearly finished decorating.(All that is left to do is add some personal details and finish up her window treatments!)

I found her the exact same headboard I have on my bed (Although mine has a footboard)...except I found her's at an estate sale and snagged it for $25. (Can you believe that?!)
Her walls are freshly painted with a really amazing color from Restoration Hardware. In some lights it looks like it has a hint of green, other times it appears blue-ish, and more often, it has a gray-green look...at any rate, any time you look at this color, it is soothing. Spa like if that makes any sense. It's a deliciously calm and neutral color.

Her duvet set on the bed is from Target, and it looks like a million bucks. (Seriously, why pay a fortune when you can make it all happen with thrifted finds and bargain store bedding?) She's still got to finish out her window treatments and add a few little somethin-somethin's, but the room is complete for the most part....and it was all done on a shoestring of a budget.

It's the perfect retreat, and the little settee was just meant-to-be in this room, don't you agree?

Ever growing inventory....

 
 .....not only for my booth space at Camas Antiques, but also for two upcoming summer shows I have coming up in July and August. Things are piled high and layered in, waiting patiently to be re-invented.I spent a couple of hours last night attempting to organize the massive piles into some sort sort of order and I am proud to say I succeeded! I was able to park my car in the garage at the end of the task and I am anxious to begin creating some fabulous new pieces out of these thrifted treasures.

The biggest challenge for me now will be which piece to start on first....

There's no doubt about it. She's my little acorn.....

 
 ...or is it a nut? Oh, you know what I mean.

When you have children, you can actually see yourself in them sometimes. In the way they move their eyebrows when they smile, or the fact that they always make a huge mess while doing a project. Or that they can tell (and write) a good story. Or that they have to have ketchup on their eggs. (Okay, so none of my kids inherited that trait from me. I'm alone in that one.)

When you have more than one child, you'll see yourself in different ways in each of them. While I'm proud to share that all three of my babes have at least a passing interest in thrifting, (My girls a bit more so than my son, although he's been known to hit the garage sale trail too.) my first born inherited the over-the-top-I-can-spot-a-diamond-in-the-rough-a-mile-away gene from moi. Truth be told, she's better at than I am. She's like a Junk Whisperer. Seriously.

She'll be at home and an uncontrollable urge comes over her and she'll head out to the thrift shops to dig around and see what she can find. It's pretty amazing, and some of my best booth items ever have been scored by my sassy-little-cardiac-critical-care-nurse-turned-maniacal-junker. If you don't believe me, check out her blog post here. (She's just started a blog, and I think she's pretty hilarious, even if I am her Mama. Please hop on over and leave her a comment to welcome her to the blog world!)

Oh yeah, she's definitely my little acorn.

A full day....Something new in the window and a lil' cupcake love.

 I absolutely love days like today. I had a full day today, filled with all kinds of activity. I worked at the bank from 11:30 until 6:15.(Okay, that part wasn't so thrilling, but it was a busy and rather fun day there as well.) What else made it a full day? Well, let's see...

Today is one of my fabulous son in law's (Son's in laws?...whatever. Carter's Daddy.) birthdays. I took some double chocolate cuppy-cakes to his office on my way to the bank.(I baked them last night) I got the "Happy Birthday" candles at the grocery store...an easy decoration that looks pretty danged cute. 
 Before the bank, and before stopping by Carter's Daddy's office, I was a very busy bee working on a few new finds for my booth space.  Mmm hmm, my day began with a quick trip to Camas Antiques at Oh-dark-thirty to fluff the window and add a couple of new treasures. (I so love fluffing this window...I cannot even describe how fun it is to create new vignettes up there!!!) 
My favorite new find was an old vintage brass birdcage holder, which I coincidentally had the perfect vintage brass hanging light fixture. It was just begging to be hung from this wonderful holder... a match made in heaven. (I think if I were to keep it, I would nestle it in the corner near my reading chair in the living room, or take out the wiring and use it for a romantic "candelier" on my balcony...how sweet would that be?!)
Now I'm home, in for the night. 

If you're going out of town this holiday weekend, I wish you safe travels, and if you'll be staying home, I hope you're with people you love. Whatever you are doing this weekend, let's all remember what Memorial Day is really about, and the service men and women who've given it all of the freedoms we Americans enjoy today.

What's old is new-but-vintage-shabby again.

My daughter found this diamond in the (very-very-very) rough for me a few weeks ago.(She's a cardiac recovery nurse by day, but a junker with a keen eye on her time off) Now, for who-knows-why, someone had painstakingly covered all of the shelves in faux wood grained contact paper (Is that heinous, or what?!) and had painted the body of the piece a very bright..umm..I guess I will call it..caramel color. Pretty hideous overall. Anyway, that is what one might think at first glance.

Upon closer inspection, the piece had good lines. It was clearly originally an old armoir, but the doors were long gone, so it has these six wonderful cubbies. (look past the contact paper, people.) And the drawers...the drawers had been painted an off white at some point in time and they were chippied and rustic looking, which was the part of the piece that both my daughter and I loved most of all.(It's hard to tell in the photo, but the dark center is a cool vintage pull in a dark pewter patina metal.)

I took one of the drawers to my good ol' Home Depot and they color matched the paint. I came home and painted. And painted. And painted. I got most of the contact paper off, but it left the shelves sticky (there was a lot of mumbling under my breath at this stage of the "rejunkinating" as my friend Carol calls it.) I covered the sticky shelves with my old bookpages, natch. Here's another angle, from inside...
In the end, it was all worth the effort. A lot of sanding, and this gem is a charming example of shabby charm at it's best. (Kind of Anthropolgie-meets-Rachel-Ashwell, no?) I know the photo isn't great, 'coz it was taken from outside the window....

Anyway, I love it. I love it so much I wish it could stay and live in my workroom for-evah.

*sigh* No such luck, though. It's just too perfect for the window display at Camas Antiques. And that is where it is now.

Charming little blanket chest....reinvented.

I got this adorable blanket chest a while back. (and of course, forgot to take "Before" photos...but trust me, it was a pretty dicey looking piece!) This past weekend, I reinvented it for the window space at Camas Antiques.

The original condition of the chest was stained wood, and the drawers had multiple holes where different knobs had been over the years. The knobs it had on it were giant square wooden knobs...so not me.

Anyway.

As I pondered what to do with all of these holes (Putty them in and start over? Cover them with ginorous pulls?) Then, I had an idea. I decided to go with my signature book pages from tattered old discarded books. I applied them, as always, with liquid starch.... (Be sure to do this process on a floor that is easliy mopped...it's messy. And sticky. And gooey. I let it dry over night, and rough sanded the edges of everything. I then added my new knobs and the filigree pieces for around the key holes.
I also added book pages to the sides of the chest to make things flow. Now, it's got a whole new look and I think it's charming.

What do you think? Have you reinvented anything lately?

Pony Show.

 Carter's Mama, along with Carter and I went thrifting yesterday morning, hoping to score a few more littles for my window display. We hit a garage sale on the way home, and the nice lady at this sale offered to take Carter to see her Shetland ponies. (For the record, Mr.C was only interested in the chocolate brown pony.)
How sweet are these three? I swear, you just never know what you're gonna find when you head out thrifting. 

That's why I always take my camera.

Things are coming together.....

I've been a busy girl the past couple of days, (and it's my excuse for not having a post yesterday...) and my booth is at last, beginning to show the results.....(for those of you nearby, it's "First Friday" on 4th Avenue here in Camas and all the shops will be open late tonight, followed by the garden show on 4th Avenue all day tomorrow!)

I'll work at the bank tomorrow, and then be painting and pricing, and crafting here to put the final touches on my window display items for next Tuesday. (And I cannot wait to share it all with you!)

I must say, I am having a blast doing all of this.

Junkin' in Twenty-ten.

 See that adorable vintage twin bed in my photo? It's just one piece from this weekend's big junking haul. I think it's incredibly charming. (And, it will be in my booth at Camas Antiques on Tuesday morning!)

That's not exactly what I wanted to share today, but..well, you know... I like to start my posts with a picture.

Anyway.

I am so happy to be living in this age of amazing technology. I mean, cars with seat heaters, DVR on our hi-def televisions, and an app in your iPhone that looks up garage sales within a 5 mile range of anywhere you might be. Could it possibly get any better? 

Well, yes.

And it has.

This past weekend, I found this incredible site that not only will show me garage and estate sales in my area, (like that cool iPhone app) but, it will also let me map them out in any order I desire and give me step by step (corner by corner?) directions to each one, along with the entire ad for the sale. (If you already knew about this site, from eons ago, and I am apparently the last Junker in America to discover it, please don't burst my bubble by telling me.)

I was so thrilled with this site that I felt compelled to share it with all of you, my fellow Junkers. (the ones in the US anyway..I am guessing there are sites for those of you outside of the US...just google yard sales or boot sales and your town or city)

Now, I ask you...How cool is that?! Okay, maybe I am especially partial to this site because I am directionally challenged and being a bit of a new-bee here, I am still trying to find my way from one bridge and/or freeway to another here in the Pacific Northwest, but I was pretty wow'd by this website.

*sigh* All this technology. You've gotta love it.

A successful treasure hunt.

Here is the lil' peek I promised I'd share from today's thrifting adventure. Actually, this is only part of the pile of goodies I scored for my booth space.

Probably my favorite find of the day was the set of six parfait cups. They are in mint condition and incredibly charming.

I love the detail of the harp design on the stems, don't you? I can just picture them filled with berries, or sorbet, or ice cream.
I'm pulling a late nighter (an early morning?) tonight, painting a couple of new large pieces for my booth, polishing some vintage silver and pricing my latest goodies. It may sound like I'm a crazy woman to some of you, but this is a fun way for me to spend an evening. I go to sleep feeling happy and content and oh-so-grateful that I have been given the gift of opportunity to follow my bliss.

A peek at my booth before I go thrifting today...

I'm heading out for a morning of thrifting and I will be sharing my finds later today. (That is assuming I find some treasures!) Anyway, for now, I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of some of the details in my booth this week. 

Each time I pop in and check on my booth space I feel surprised to see what has sold, and what is still in the booth...

The reason I thrift.

 The thrill of the hunt. The satisfaction of turning trash into a treasure. Yes, those are good reasons to junk, but for me, the ultimate moment of pure and complete nirvana is when I find something exactly (or very nearly exactly) like some piece I have created, for sale at some insane price somewhere.

That's what happened with my fabulous free-coz-I-traded-my-old-set-and-reinvented-this-set dining room table. Mmmm hmmm. I got a Horchow catalog in the mail last week, and there it was....page 23 to be exact...my table...or very nearly my table. (I am going to be weathering mine a bit more with sandpaper this coming week! I love that look!)  For the price of $2400 delivered, you too may have one of these lil' beauties from Horchow.

Now, that's what I'm talkin' about.

Spooning.

I've always and forever had a thing for table settings. It began with a love affair with dishes, and has branched off to vintage linens...(anything from tablecloths to napkins to cutwork doilies....) and then finally, on to serving pieces and flatware.

Oh, me oh my.

Over the past several months I've come across some charming old flatware pieces, and I have decided to group them into mismatched place settings to use for entertaining, or just for dining by myself. (Six of one style fork, six of another style spoon, etc...)

My latest find was just this past Sunday evening at a local thrift shop. I couldn't believe my eyes when I discovered them. There they were, six perfectly matched Rogers Silver soup spoons. The old, wonderful, big, perfectly round soup spoons that make eating a bowl of soup or chowder extra special. Oh, I had planned to put them in my booth space, but then, as I washed them and polished them, I realized that I had fallen in love with them, and decided, that, at least for now, they need to stay in my home.

*sigh* They are the perfect comfort accompaniment to comfort food, if that makes any sense.

More than just a vintage linen chest.

 Here is the finished vintage linen chest...at least I'm calling it finished for now. I am still debating on whether to add words on the front of each drawer, in a faded black print...maybe French words for tablecloths, napkins, bed linens? Or numbers, either written out in English or French, or simple numbers themselves...?

The reason I am not sure if it needs more detail work is that I am not sure I want to keep it in my booth space at Camas Antiques, let alone sell it. I am working on my fabulous workroom currently, and it could be an amazing addition to the room. It could hold papers, or fabrics, or who knows what all else, and looking spectacular all the while.

This is one of the challenges of being a professional junker. It's always the same...do I love it too much to sell it, or do I put it in the booth so my space looks fabulous, and I earn some good money? I am always torn.

Anyway.

I adore this piece. So versatile and functional and charming, even if it is missing one drawer and the cupboard doors. Perfect, in a tattered kind of beautiful way.

Night table reinvention how-to.

Thanks for all of the ideas and input from yesterday's post on my color dilemma! I'm still debating about my Robin's egg blue letters in my booth, although, I must admit I am leaning towards adding dark brown edges to them, or making them more of a weathered chocolate brown, and I will share any updates. In the meantime...

A copy of weekends ago I snagged two matching night tables at an estate sale. I like the simple straight lines of these miniature dressers; plenty of storage and still small enough for the tiniest of bedrooms. I knew what I wanted to do with at least one of them.(I've shared my technique before, but it's worth sharing again...)

...First, I removed the drawers, and the knobs, and I primed everything with KILZ. (Sold at most hardware stores like Home Depot and Lowe's in quarts and gallons)
Then, I painted everything with my signature Robin's egg blue paint.(It's a pale blue with just a subtle hint of green...although it's hard to tell in this photo...)

....and, here's the recipe for my Robin's egg blue paint in a gallon size with a medium base. (I used an eggshell finish enamel this go around.) The pale blue doesn't photograph nearly as well as it looks in person, and I am not sure why...maybe it's the lighting?
Finally, I antiqued the entire piece, as well as the lil' knobs with my tobacco colored glaze. I use one part dark brown paint mixed into three parts Behr Brand glaze. Paint it on, rub off lightly, and you're done painting.

Lastly, I finished this little baby off by decoupaging old book pages inside the drawers and on the back of the night table for a finished look. To do this, all you do is tear old book pages from several different sized books, and dip them in liquid starch. Wipe the excess starch from the page and apply the page to the drawer bottom or back of the dresser, smoothing out all bubbles and left over liquid starch. Let it dry and you are good to go.

This little treasure will be making it's way to Camas Antiques today. If you've got an old plain piece just sitting around your home looking like it wants a makeover, try my method, with any color you like, or a shade of white or cream. (I still have some copies of my Furniture Painting kit available here, if you feel like you need a more in depth tutorial.) I think you'll be happy with the results!

Thrifting finds of the day.

 I spent the bulk of yesterday out thrifting with my daughter all around Portland. We found lots of great treasures, and I wasted no time at all getting things polished up, and tagged and taking them down to my booth space. I think this unique old typewriter was my daughter's personal favorite find. See how the metal rod things stick way up? It reminds me of butterfly wings there. A very unique design, and it has just the right amount of rusty patina.

Oh! How about these shiny lil' silvery buckets? Kind of perfect for an elegant Easter table, don'tcha think? I love the idea of an elegant tablescape..picture these on one of the Sewing Queen's burlap runners. The burlap with the bling, so to speak. Yummy.
This white glassware basket was one of my favorite finds...perfect for holding rolled up napkins on an Easter buffet set up.It's a bit hard to tell in this photo, but it is a very large basket- longer than a butter knife, which is why I think it would work so well for a buffet table.
We had so much fun out thrifting! So many sweet accessories....my booth space is really filled to the brim, and that makes me happy. My five days off from the bank were put to really good use!

Vintage jelly cupboard.

 I was very lucky to score a vintage jelly cupboard last week. It is now proudly holding lots of wonderful vintage items in my booth space at Camas Antiques and I wanted to share it with you. It really makes my booth space, I think.
  I love the chicken wore on all of the windows! I also love the various colors of paint on the wood.
I've also brought in my stash of faux Robin's eggs and nests (some bags are eggs, some are eggs and nests)...perfect for Easter and spring time! By next week I hope to have a Robin's eggs blue tall boy chest to complete the new look. 

Please, do stop by and check things out if you're in the area!

Knives, forks and spoons.

 I have a thing for vintage flatware. I love the patina and the feel of old silver ware, not to mention all of the wonderful detail work on the handles. Oh, and all of the different types of utensils. Ice tea and sugar spoons, butter knives...I love 'em all.

My latest favorite thing to do with these little gems is to bundle them up with scraps of lace and old seam binding and nestle them in with treasures on my dining room hutch. (Of course, I have so many pieces that many of them are in my booth at Camas Antiques)

I'm off for a morning of thrifting with Carter's Mama now, and I am hoping to find more vintage flatware to add to my collection...and my booth space. I'll share my finds of the day a bit later!

A sweet lil' seat.

 I whipped up this little chair-redo for my booth yesterday afternoon. It had a bad bleach spot right in the center of the seat, so I foofied it up for some lucky little Miss.
 

You likey?

Warming up the bedroom fireplace.

 
 
 A very short while after I shared the pictures of my master bedroom I found a wonderful old wicker chair (for an absolute steal of a deal!) to cozy up the fireplace in my bedroom, as so many of you had suggested. It has the perfect combination of old paint, slightly weathered but not too tattered, and quaint charm. I re-covered the seat cushion and added a white cutwork feather bed pillow to add some softness to the back of the chair.

Now the area isn't so bare, and I have a spot to sit...and it looks inviting and charming and warm and welcoming. Oh, and I also added an old (and VERY heavy) mirror to the mantle area for some added personality, although I am still not sure I will keep it up there.

I am very happy with my new-to-me old chair and I am so glad you recommended adding one to this corner of my bedroom!

Vintage touches add charm to the master bath.

I found a charming vintage hutch top a short while back, and I fell in love with the cottage look of the scalloped shelf edges. I painted it a weathered white and it now has a home above my master bathtub.

  I think it adds some vintage charm to the otherwise modern room, with some of my favorite old photos and sweet old silver pieces. My two foot tall vintage tiered silver tray rounds out the tub area, filled with hand towels, bath sponges and soaps.
Now, every night I take my candle light bubble bath, enjoying the romantic vintage look of the re-purposed hutch-top of days gone by.

Once again, it's all about thinking outside the box.

Re-vamped Vintage at Stars Antiques.

I'm still struggling with computer challenges, but I wanted to share some pictures from a great booth space at the fabulous Stars Antiques store in Portland. Remember when my new friend showed me all the great thrift shops in town a while back? Well, I accidentally left a couple of my purchases in her car and we finally connected for me to gather them up, and in the process, I got to see her amazing booth at Stars Antiques Mall.

AJ's booth was nothing short of incredible! (So incredible that I begged her to please think about getting a booth space over at Camas Antiques sometime soon!!!) Even her sign is amazing.... You're missing out if you live anywhere near by and don't stop in to drool over all of AJ's treasures (and the many other wonderful booth spaces at Stars!)

The kitchen sink.

 
I'm sorry to say that I once again forgot to take a "Before" photo of this thrifted lil' treasure I found last summer at the Goodwill last stop store. It was painted a kind of dull shade of purple when I found it, and it was missing the actual sink and cupboard doors.

Yesterday, while back in Reno for Miss Isabell's birthday party, I finally had the chance to get it painted up and the Sewing Queen of northern Nevada whipped out a darling Minnie Mouse curtain and a couple of dish towels to coordinate. (It's all about Minnie Mouse in Isabelle's world these days!) She's still a bit small to reach the sink, (it stands aprox. 24 inches tall.) but she's growing like a little weed, so it won't be long before she will be having fun with this little gem!

I think she's gonna love it. What do you think?