The space is now EMPTY!

Everything is now GONE! Either sold, stored or given away.

LOOK FOR US AT

EVERY HUSBAND’S NIGHTMARE BAZAAR

November 17-21, 2009

at the Washington county Fairgrounds.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

We are going to enjoy a little bit of R&R, then get to organizing all the stuff we hauled home. We’ll be back to posting projects and ideas again soon. In the meantime, scroll back in the blog or peek in on some of the categories for a ‘refresher course’. Even “I” have forgotten about some of the ideas I’ve posted in the past!

Be back soon!

Too hot to SHOP?!?!?!?!

MERCY!  This heat wave just seems to be lasting FOREVER.  And we usually get our hottest temps in August!  Yikes.  This heat sure dampens MY shopping spirit (unless it’s shopping for a strawberry smoothie!)

Well, we are now down to just 18 shopping days left until we close the store and this heat and the diminishing shoppers DUE to the heat has me admittedly getting a little panicked!  We are on a strict time-line for the closure of the store and we have GOT to be moving merchandise at a fast pace.

So, to sweeten the deal and get you out shopping EVEN in the heat . . . . we will now start taking an additional TWENTY PERCENT off the total of your already discounted purchase!

You’ll still get the already established 50-80% discount on items throughout the store.  Then when I subtotal your purchase I will subtract an additional 20% off the total.

(Yes, as a matter of fact, we WILL be practically GIVING some of this stuff away!)

EXAMPLE:  Original price of your purchased items – $100.00

50% discount, you pay – $50.00

Additional 20% off (-10.00) – $40.00 your final price.

And remember, there are LOTS of items that are LOWER than 50% off.

P.S.  This additional 20% discount WILL be valid during the primitive estate sale too!

FINALLY!!! Preview photos of the (not dead yet) Primitive estate sale.

It just took me FOREVER it seems to find a photo site that I could load this many pictures to, for free. I’m out of room on my Picturetrail site.

Finally tired Flickr and VOILA!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40944201@N03/

There ARE some additional items that I did not get pictures of. The little set of ‘aj’ small alphabet blocks that you see in all the pictures is just there as a ’size reference’. I CANNOT answer any questions about size or price or anything else regarding the items in the photos. It is ALL packed up (in SEVEN Rubbermaid bins!) and I will not be accessing it until the day of the sale.

Saturday, August 8th; 11am – 4pm

You ‘might’ be able to read the price stickers in the photos. All prices are FIRM. I’m not ‘giving the stuff away’, but it’s not overpriced either. Especially considering that most of the items are ‘one of a kind artist originals’. They are GOOD prices on some GREAT collectibles.

Items photographed together are not necessarily priced as ‘lot’; I was just getting tired of taking so many pictures, so I started grouping items for the pics.

Big items include a steamer trunk, a smaller trunk, a BIG painted cheese box, a red wicker SET (2 chairs, table and love seat) .

Mark your calendar and save the date!

WHAT are you going to do???? Part III

I haven’t set the date yet, but sometime in August I am going to have a special sale at the store of my PERSONAL collection of primitives.

The primitive/Americana stuff that I have collected for YEARS just never did ‘look right’ in this living room. Six years ago when I moved here with Michael I just put it all out and figured I’d figure out how to ‘make it work’ later. THEN, we opened the store and that was the end of that. No TIME to put any energy into our home decor.

So now that I am ‘going to have time’ to do stuff in my own home (once the store closes) I’ve decided to re-decorate the living room too. Not sure HOW (what color/style) I am going to do that just yet, but I do know that I have a LOT of primitive goodies that I need to get rid of first; and tagging that onto  the closing sale at the store seemed like the perfect time.

Depending on how the sale at the store goes, I may leave leftovers from the sale in the store; OR (and IF I have time to) I may list some of them for sale here in the blog.

Most of my primitive treasures were acquired via ‘internet bulletin board swaps’, so most of it is NOT my own creations. Lots of wonderful primitive dolls, stitcheries, pillows.

Here’s a sneak peek:

That red wicker love seat plus two matching chairs and a side table are going to be sold too!)

Yes, that is a FULL size rocking chair that this raggedy is sitting in!

I’m KEEPING my bears.

I thinking the sale will probably be about MID-August, on a Saturday. I’ve got a lot of pricing and packing to do!

BREAKING NEWS ~ Lost our Lease ~ Sophie’s Cottage is closing up shop!

Our lease is up on this space we have been in here in Hillsboro for going on five years.  Due to the uncertainty of the current economy and the rent increases that would come along with renewing our lease, we have decided to close the store.

We will continue to do the shows we have been doing; and possibly a few more.  We ‘re still waiting for the proverbial ‘other door’ to open to see what’s next.

Once the store is closed and I have the time to dedicate,  I’ll expand our offerings on etsy (currently only our e-books are listed)

The final date for the store is August 30, 2009.

We have expanded our hours for your shopping convenience during the closing sale.

OPEN: Wednesdays – Saturdays; 11-5.  And I’m happy to stay open past five upon request.  Just call ahead and let me know and I will stay open late for you.

* ALL FURNITURE is 50% off, and will NOT go any lower that this.  So it there’s  something you’ve been wanting, get it now before it’s gone.

* ALL UNFINISHED ITEMS & CRAFT SUPPLIES remain priced as marked.

*  EVERYTHING ELSE in the store is  AT LEAST 50% off.  Special clearance tables contain items marked up to 80% off.    New items are added to the clearance tables EVERY DAY.

MORE INVENTORY (we still have a trailer full!) will be added to the store as space becomes available.    So check in often to see what’s new and newly added to the clearance table!

COME TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR FINAL OPPORTUNITY TO SAVE ON SOPHIE’S UNIQUE GOODS.

IT’S A GREAT TIME TO START STASHING AWAY CHRISTMAS GIFTS AND SAVE BIG!

Open! Open!! OPEN!!!

Yippee!  We made it down the driveway AND back up last night!  I am headed in to the store today to figure out what to do with the aftermath of all the Christmas product that got left behind because of the Arctic blast. 

I won’t ‘officially’ be open until Friday and Saturday of this week, and the store will be quite a mess, BUT, if you knock on the door I will open for you.  And those of you who have the $5.00 gift certificates are welcome to use them through the end of January (even though the expiration date was 12-24-2008) 

I’m thinking that I will probably leave out the Christmas ‘gifty’ items out through this weekend; presuming that many of you have had Christmas gatherings rescheduled because of the weather.    And Christmas gift bags will still be available.  And we have plenty of non-holiday specific gift items available, as always.

But I have to start packing away the Christmas decor stuff to make room for new stuff and Valentine’s.  You’ll see our big white trailer parked in front of the store a day or two this week for me to unload and reload.    I’m hoping to have things mostly changed out (except for maybe one table of Christmas gift items) by Friday.

My hours at the store will be sporadic, Monday – Thursday, as I have lots of other errands I need to catch up on and squeeze in somehwere.  Grocery shopping (we are out of nearly everything!), post office, bank and pharmacy.  As always, feel free to call and see if I am there before heading out.  503.615.5960.

Then it’s back to ‘business as usual’ with our regular hours

Friday, noon – 6pm and Saturday 9am – 4pm.

And it’s STILL snowing . . . .

There is yet another storm system expected on Christmas Eve!!  It could bring warmer air, or colder air.  They can’t yet predict which way it will go at this point.    PLEASE keep us in your prayers!  At this point, we have NO WAY out should we lose power or the roof cave in from the weight of the snow.  (there have been several roof cave ins reported on the news already!)

If we lose power, we also lose water because the well pump requires electricity.    I honestly don’t know how long I could last without heat.  I feel like I am getting a bit of a cold right now, and after battling pneumonia last spring and with having asthma; being stuck with no heat could be really bad for me.    They may have to AIR LIFT us out of here!!!!

Send WARM thoughts our way, and hoping the rest of you are weathering this storm well.

M.O.T. S. (more of the same!)

This is what the ground around the house was looking like in the late afternoon on Friday.  Packed snow that has melted ‘just enough’ to turn to ice!

Temps hovered right below freezing all night.  And then is snowed all day Saturday.

By Saturday evening we had almost ten inches of snow.  And temps dropped throughout the day.

Sunday morning now, and we are up to 13″ of snow.    It’s 25 degrees right now.  A ‘warm air aloft’ front is predicted which will warm a layer of air in between the frozen upper air (where the snow forms) and the frozen surface.  That warm air will melt the falling snow so it is rain as it hits the ground and then refreezes. 

So, we are expecting a nice layer of ice ON TOP of this 13″ of snow!

And when all that snow and ice DO eventually melt . . . we will be facing massive flooding!

I wish I could say that I think I’ll be able to open the store the last three days before Christmas next week, but it’s truly NOT looking like that is going to happen.

Bracing for the BIG ONE!

Seriously.  That is what they are calling this next storm front that is expected to arrive around 10 am today.  Of course we already have light snow falling here at our house, as we did pretty much all day yesterday.  And again yesterday it warmed up just a ‘little bit’ above freezing for a couple of hours mid-day before the temps dropped back down to freezing to re-freeze all the melted snow.  Our temperature here hovered right at 31 degrees all night.

We are as prepared for it as we can be.  Just praying we don’t lose power because is is just TOO cold to stay home with no heat.  Yet getting out of here with the roads iced over could be impossible too.  I ‘thought’ I had chains for my car.  And Michael was going to put them on yesterday ‘just to be on the safe side’.  I distinctly remember him making me buy new chains a few years ago after he bought me new tires for my car.  BUT, he has since then replaced the tires on my car again, and apparently turned the chains (never used) in because the newest tires are a little bigger than the old ones.  NO chains to be found anywhere for any of the three vehicles we have!  The little Toyota truck DOES have studded snow tires, but not enough room for us and the cats to get out of her if we needed to.

Just watching and waiting and keeping the TV tuned in to the news.

And obviously not opening the store today.

Yep, STILL snowed in!

As predicted, it warmed up ‘just enough’ yesterday to melt some of the snow, which froze into ice overnight.  THEN we got a fresh layer of snow on top of the ice.  And this is just the BEGINNING of the next ‘arctic blast’.  The BIG ONE is supposed to be coming on Sunday.  OH JOY!!!

Michael ventured out yesterday in the small truck (that has studded tires) to go to the post office (Beth & Terry: your birthday/Christmas packages just MIGHT arrive before Christmas!)  and little grocery store in town for a couple of things.  He slid down the drive way, and got stuck coming back up . . . and that was WITH studded tires!

Things melted a bit more later in the day and he was able to get out with the big truck and bring home a load of water since we are running so low because of having to keep the faucets running to avoid freezing. 

We got another dusting of snow in the early evening as the melted snow was freezing over.  And it’s lightly snowing right now.  I don’t even want to try and WALK out there, let alone drive!

I got a little bit of crafting done yesterday; painted some paper mache boxes to take to our space at Stars Antique mall.  I use my electric belt sander to sand (distress) the boxes and even being out in the workshop for just five minutes, the cold was unbearable!  The belt sander kicks up a lot of air, so it was like having a fan blowing in my face and on my hands!

Guess maybe I’ll just get a lot of base coat painting done over the next few days!  I HATE having to keep the store closed for so many days right before Christmas, but it’s just not safe for me to drive out here on our country roads.