Good news / Bad news

Well, I have some bad news and some good news.  Bad for ME.  GOOD for you.  The bad news first.  This is what the passenger side of my car now looks like:

It actually looks a lot WORSE in person.  You can’t really see how DEEP the dent is in the photo.  It’s deep enough that I can’t open that door anymore.  I’m fine.  My car, notsomuch!   Thanks to another driver in a parking lot who ‘saw me but thought I was going to let him to go by’, even though he had a STOP sign and I had the right of way.

Currently dealing with insurance and just waiting to hear what they decide.  Here’s the ‘back story’.  The ‘Cruiser’ is 15 years old and has served me well for the past 7 years.  I definitely ‘got my money’s worth’ out if it.  Because it’s got such a low resale value at this point, it was futile for me to have full coverage on it anymore; and most likely it is going to be deemed ‘totaled’.  And while I knew the day was coming, in the not too distant future, that I was going to have to replace it, I really can’t afford to do so just yet.  I was really hoping to get at least another year out of it.  It’s still driveable, but isn’t going to be worth squat as a trade in.  sigh.

So, what’s the GOOD news?
The good news is that because I need to drum up considerably more funds to replace my vehicle, I’m having a 50% off sale in my booths at Stars.

Look for these red and white ‘50% OFF’ coupons in both of my booths.  You have to have a coupon to get the discount.  The discount is good for everything you purchase from my booths, through May 31, 2019.  After that, I’ll be extending the sale ‘as needed’, until I have enough to replace the Cruiser.

You can also print a coupon directly from the Stars website.   The coupon on the site will look a little different than the ones I printed on my PC, but the offer is the same.

I was just in Stars yesterday, rearranging and restocking, so there is a huge variety and selection of goods awaiting your shopping, and SAVING, pleasure!  And IF there is something that you have seen in my booth in the past and always coveted, but don’t see there just now; feel free to ASK ME!  It might just be something that I pulled and took home when I changed out inventory.  I’ll be happy to take it back in for you; and even have them HOLD it ‘just for you’ at the front desk.

Time for pictures!

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As you can see, both booths are jam-packed with goods.  I will continue to bring in MORE stock every week.   I’ll be making more and resupplying the coupons too.  IF, for some reason you can’t locate a coupon while you are there; ask them to CALL ME, and I will give them a verbal okay for your 50% discount.

So, come and get it while the gettin’s are half off!!

Stars is open 7 days a week; 11am – 6pm.

Half off all Christmas!

Christmas is less than a week away!  WhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaTTT?!?!  How is it that even though Thanksgiving was early this year, basically giving us an extra WEEK between then and Christmas; that Christmas has still snuck up on me?!?!  I have not even started wrapping gift yet!  sigh.  And to further ZAP my Christmas spirit, I have to go to Costco tomorrow . . .  because I use their pharmacy for my prescriptions.  Ug!

So to give my Christmas spirit a little boost and add a bit more “JOY” to my life; I’ve decided to put all my remailing Christmas product on sale for HALF PRICE, in my booth at Stars.

Many other vendors are offering discounts on their Christmas product too.  Instead of settling for the ‘slim pickins’ left over in the big box stores, come shop at Stars for unique vintage and upcycled gifts that they will really LOVE!

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Still a great selection of gifts, decor and gift boxes in both of my spaces.

Show off your favorite Christmas treasures by topping them with a glass cloche.

Unique and collectible gift boxes.

I found some ‘itty bitty glass baubles’; just the right size for decorating your bottle brush trees!

Cubbies filled with collectibles!

Hand crafted vintage sheet music and crepe paper rosette ornaments or package toppers; regular price $1.50 – $2.00 . . .  NOW HALF OFF!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

to you all!!

STARS HOLIDAY HOURS:
Christmas Eve: 11AM to 4PM
Christmas Day: CLOSED
New Year’s Eve: 11AM to 6PM
New Year’s Day: OPEN! 11AM to 6PM
11AM to 6PM ALL OTHER DAYS!

MORE Christmas in my booth at Stars

Took the rest of my Christmas goods to Stars this week.

Both of my spaces are fuller than full!

Plenty of vintage white Ironstone dishes in my wall space.

 Unique hand crafted gift boxes, perfect for that ‘little gift’ or gift cards.

Hand painted Christmas signs, red glass jar lanterns come with a battery votive and SO CUTE little vintage style car with tree on top ornaments.

Trees.  Trees and MORE trees!  Bottle brush trees in just about every size and color; mounted on unique vintage bases: candle holders, tart tins, glass vials filled with ‘snow’, spools of thread and cherub candle holders!

‘Snowfolk’ made from vintage salt and pepper shakers are making an encore appearance this year; but it will be their final year.  Get them while you can.  Bottle brush trees and snowmen are the perfect winter decorations to leave out after Christmas and before you decorate for Valentine’s Day.

Vintage crepe paper rosette ornaments also make wonderful package toppers.

Vintage sheet music rosette ornaments with classic Christmas color adornments of red, gold and silver.

Both Stars malls are open 7 days a week; 11am – 6pm.

Give unique vintage and upcycled gifts this Christmas.

Stocked and spruced up and ready for the Summer Sidewalk SALE at STARS!!

Stars BIG ‘Summer Sidewalk Sale’ starts Friday, August 31st and runs through Monday, September 3rd; Labor Day.

This is really one of the BEST sales of the year at Stars.  LOTS of vendors bring in ADDITIONAL inventory to set up on the sidewalk outside.  Don’t miss this sale!!

BOTH of my booths are stocked to the hilt; and as always, everything in my booths is 50% off during the sale.  Last chance to purchase my beach decor items from my wall space.  After the sale I will be converting the space to Fall decor.

I have added a few little ‘hints of fall’ to both booths . . .  just to get you in the mood for fall.  (Not that anyone needs to be enticed to ‘think fall’ after the record HOT summer we’ve had!)

Lots of vintage hobnail milk glass vases and dishes added recently; as well as regular and gold rimmed milk glass.

Vintage and upcycled beach decor.  Big surag starfish, painted white and glittered.  Little jars filled with tiny seashells or pretty beach glass.  Shells mounted on wood posts and jars.  Candle lanterns and lamps.  And of course, Mermaid crowns!!

Vintage picnic baskets, bar stool, ‘breakfast in bed’ tray, wreaths, cubby shelves, trugs and wall decor.

And that is just my little wall space!  On to my 10’x10′ booth!

No such thing as ‘too much’ when it comes to my booth!!
Vintage Fire King gold rimmed milk glass dishes and vintage Ironstone dishes are restocked and always plentiful.

Both Stars Mall are open 7 days a week, 11am – 6pm.

“Happily Ever After” ~ New wall space display.

Sorry that it has taken me so long to get the new booth display posted.  Been dealing with a LOT of things all at once.  Finally feeling settled enough to get caught up on my blog.

The theme for May is “Happily Ever After”.  Wedding decor.  Mostly whites with touches of gold, silver, pale pink and blue.  LOTS of vintage milk glass.

Here are some of the major elements that might be a little hard to see once they are filled with displayed smalls.  Lots of shabby white tables and shelves.

Some of the hand crafted elements.  ‘Happily Ever After’ banners made using vintage sheet music and book pages.  Bride to be crowns.  Vintage paper feathers.  Hand stitched vintage lace and felt hearts.

Vintage shabby white candelabras and metal filigree lanterns.

Most of the small shelves can be wall hung OR set on a flat surface.

I couldn’t fit ALL the milk glass and cake stands in the wall booth.  Lots more to explore in my bigger booth.

As always, aqua and turquoise.  Vintage chenille spread and coverlet.  Little aqua stuffed hearts made from vintage chenille cutter spread.  Trugs with vintage wood legs as handles, and pretty dessert stands.

Front view of my big booth.

As much of what was leftover from last months booth display as I could fit, has been moved over to my bit booth.  Bird nests, jars of eggs and moss, jars of natural elements, bark, moss, dried flowers and pods.  Some of the burlap items.

And lots of the assorted galvanized stuff.  Including that cute 12 hole cubby shelf!!

NOT that I ‘needed’ them.!.!.!

Catching up on my thrift shopping now that my hand is better and I CAN shop.  Look what I found yesterday!

The ‘mixed’ jar was in the front and I ALMOST didn’t pick it up because I really only wanted the white ones.

As I pulled this one from the shelf to look closer at the white buttons, I noticed the FULL jar of white one behind it!!  I could not grab that one fast enough!!  hehe

Aren’t they beautiful!?!  And most of them are small and extra small ones.

Like I said, I did not NEED any more buttons, as is evidenced by the above photo if SEVEN jars of just white buttons (and one jar of black ones!)  My colored buttons are in show boxes; 3 boxes full.

While I really didn’t NEED any more white buttons, still I sorted through all of them and picked out the ‘special ones’ (unique shapes and the super smallest ones to add to my jars.  Then I decided to ‘share the wealth’ and filled three pretty apothecary jars to sell in my booth at Stars.

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These jars are about ‘pint’ size.

Progress report on my hand post-op.  This picture was 4 days after surgery.

13 days, just after stitches were removed.

And today!!!  The incision is completely healed, and hand ‘function’ is at about 85% and improving considerably every day.  Just yesterday I still could not turn on the ignition in my car with my right hand; and today I could!!  woo-hoo!

White drop leaf tables at Stars

Took these two cottage chic white drop leaf tables to Stars last Monday, and they called me yesterday to let me know they have both SOLD already!

Before I even had a chance to do a blog post on the booth re-do!

So, the two ‘focal point’ pieces in this vignette are now gone, which means the vignette needs a complete do-over and will not look like this if you go to Stars now . . . .  but I really liked how it turned out, and wanted to ‘show it off’ anyhow!

The idea was to make it kind of look like a wedding dessert buffet set up.  (I forgot to put the sign that says “Eat, Drink & be Married” on the table!)

I did this drop leaf coffee table a while ago, and was actually planning to keep it for myself.

Drop leaf tables are MUCH more time consuming to sand and paint than a regular table.  So I was kind of ‘hoping’ that if I really priced it to reflect how much TIME I spent on it, that no one would buy it and I could take it back later after I finally get moved.  I SHOULD have learned by now that that ‘game plan’ NEVER works!

Upcycled vintage dessert stand (I added the base and painted it white) is filled with chocolate cupcake candles.

I’ve also used stands like this to display vintage creamers, or loaded it with pretty ornaments as a Christmas centerpiece.

I just HAD to have a cute little faux wedding cake for all the cake stands I upcycle.  I made it from paper mache boxes.  The birds are GLUED on!

I’ve got a fabulous stash of little vintage dessert plates.  I started out with about twice this many; lots have sold!

This piece ended up in this vignette just because I didn’t have any place else to put it!  Used it to display vintage creamers and sugar bowls; which I always have in stock ‘en masse’.

The rest of my creamer stash went on the little step-back; along with some other assorted small pieces.

This display even looked pretty good from the side!

I haven’t entirely abandoned my signature aqua paint color!  Just trying to keep it ‘segregated’ in a separate vignette.

For now though, the white furniture IS selling better than the aqua.

Usually the night stands sell in a snap.  Took these in two weeks ago.

You can see from these candle pedestals, that I am moving towards a lighter and softer shade of aqua.

Now to figure out what to do when I go to Stars tomorrow to re-work my space?!?!?!  Usually I stay two steps ahead of the game and always have ‘what I want to do next’ all figured out.  Since these two pieces sold so quickly though, I’m just going to have to ‘wing it’ this time!

Vintage salt shaker collection

All of a sudden I have an abundance of little old salt shakers!

Many of them had been stored in my ‘box of spare knobs’  because I like to use the short squatty one upside down as knobs on top of the cloches I make.

And BECAUSE I had set them aside to use as knobs; I had removed all the lids.

And now it’s time to play, “Let’s see if I can figure out which lid fits which salt shaker?!”

WHY, all of a sudden did I need them all paired back up with their lids you ask?   Blame it on Pinterest!  I had seen a cool display idea for them on Pinterest.  So, I decided to put them all back together and see if I had enough for the Pinterest project.

Quite a few, as you can see, and ALL different (except 2!)

Some of them are SO pretty, you almost think they could be vintage perfume bottles!

The tiniest ones are my personal favorites though!

I kinda wish ALL the lids were worn and tarnished like the one on the left.

Look!  It has FEET!!

And now,what to DO with them all???  First I had to figure out a way to attach price tags to them.  NOT easy, given how small they are.

Here’s my inspiration picture from Pinterest.

 And here is my version.  I didn’t have a cloche BIG enough to fit them ALL under, so I  had to improvise.

The biggest cloche is resting atop a rusty tin and gold pedestal.

The largest shaker had to be put in it’s very own display; upcycled cloche and upcycled clear glass base.  I really wanted to put it with varying heights of other shakers but it’s base is SO wide, it just wouldn’t fit!

This is one of my very favorite cloches!  I actually had two of them, the other slightly bigger.  Can’t believe that only the bigger one sold???  They were so cute as a set!  I have no idea what the porcelain busts were originally used for; and they actually sat in my ‘junk box’ for quite a while before I figured out what to do with them.  I’d love to find more of them someday.   (anybody know what they are for?)

And the last little solo shaker!

These are all in my booth at Stars.  

Don’t forget the big EASTER EGG HUNT for grown-ups at all three Stars Malls tomorrow!

See the Stars Facebook page for details.

Antique Mall findings

One great thing about having a booth at an antique mall is that you have a ‘built in excuse’ to do a little shopping; be it for actual items or just inspiration; every time you go in to work on your own space.   Found a couple of goodies last week while working on my booth at Stars.

Does this vintage turquoise fan have my name on it or what?!?!?  And I wasn’t even ‘shopping’ when I found it.  Was headed down the aisle to my car for another batch of stock and there it was!   And at a really good price too.  This is my third vintage fan, so now it’s officially a ‘collection’.  Not sure yet where or how I will display them.  Have a bathroom make-over in the back of my mind for sometime in the future.

Since I was ‘feeling lucky’ after having found that fan, I decided to look around the rest of the mall and found this GALLON jar of buttons for $19.00!!  If you have EVER looked at containers of vintage buttons, you know what a STEAL that it.  A small Ball canning jar of buttons will usually be even MORE than that.  DOUBLE SCORE because I can re-use the jar!  The lid is not at all banged up, so I can paint the lid (turquoise maybe) and use it as a canister.

And of course the HOURS I spent sorting all those buttons was pure enjoyment and relaxation!

This vintage dress form was actually posted on Curiosities Facebook page; and at a GREAT price.  It was Sunday evening when I saw the posting and they are closed on Mondays and I wouldn’t be able to get in until Wednesday.  So I called and left a message on the stores answering machine for them to hold it for me.  Have been wanting one of these to ‘alter’ for AGES; but even the ones that I’ve seen at thrift stores were too pricey.

Just dressed her in what I had on hand for now.  Need to find a BIG FLUFFY petticoat to put under this vintage slip.  I saw one at Stars when I was buying the fan and the jar of buttons, but passed on it; thinking that I could find one cheaper at a thrift store.  Looked at GW the next day and the only ONE they had was MORE than the one at Stars.  Fingers crossed (but not really getting my hopes up) that it will still be at Stars when I go in next week!

I just tucked the shirt sleeves in.  Looks better than just hanging there.  OH!  And I found this t-shirt at Dollar Tree!!!   Only this one color available but hey, it works for this purpose.  Might even try painting a design on it since it was only a buck.  (and I bought a few extras!)

Eventually she will be all dressed up and blinged out and have a pair of wings.

It’s ‘officially’ now a COLLECTION!

Yippee!  I have a new collection.  Armillary spheres. .  I’ve always liked them and finally splurged and bought myself one a couple of years ago when I got my $10.00 bonus from shopping at Goodwill.  It was white and a little rusty in spots  fit in nicely with my globe collection and my shabby chic style.

I was content with just the one.  But then I found another at a price I couldn’t pass up; so now I had a pair of them.  It’s not really a ‘collection’ unless you have 3 or more; so once I got that second one, I REALLY wanted a third one!

My dear friend and thrift shopping buddy got me this smallest one for Christmas!

Is it not THE PERFECT size to round out my collection???  I do not think I could have found a more perfect one if I had tried.  Now it’s officially a collection of armillary spheres!

Here’s the other special treasure I got for Christmas, to go with my Santos (faux and repros!) collection.  Isn’t she sweet?!?

And here she is in her place of honor amongst my others.

Did you start any new, or add to your  collections over the holidays?

P.S. If anyone knows the correct plural of armillary PLEASE let me know!  I tried looking it up and can’t even find the original word.  sigh.  *** Asked and answered (thanks Pam!) and edited accordingly.