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.

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.

Timing is everything.

Remember this cute little grey chest of drawers?  It’s been forever since I had any chests to put in my booth at Stars, so I was anxious to get this one painted and taken in.

Just DAYS after I had put it in my booth, I came across this adorable little SOLID OAK  hutch top /  cubby shelf, that looked like it would be a perfect fit to set atop the grey dresser.

I went to work on it as fast as I could.  Painting it in the same grey that I had used for the chest, and distressing it.  I was SO looking forward to pairing it with that grey chest!  Alas, when I went in the following week with the grey hutch top and some additional stock for my booths, the chest had SOLD!! Bitter sweet.  Happy for the sale, of course; but disappointed that I wasn’t able to display the two pieces together.  Lousy timing!

Here are a few other pieces that I’ve recently completed:

Off white oval three tiered night stand; painted pink and distressed.  This piece is available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

I had two of these child size chairs.  The seats were made of that white ‘dry erase board’ kind of wood, which as as you can see in the before photo, was slightly damaged.  While the damage did not affect the structural integrity of the chairs; my attempts to cosmetically repair them failed.  Pretty wrapping paper and Mod Podge to the rescue!  These have not yet been taken to either of my sales venues.

  The drawers to this cubby didn’t slide very well once I had re-painted it; so I set them aside for some other project.  Cubbies with the backing already on them are extremely time consuming to paint; hence, spray paint is my go to solution for such pieces.  A little hand sanding along the edges shabby it up a bit.  available to purchase in my booth at Stars.

Continuing with the grey color scheme on this small shelf and DVD rack.  available to purchase in my booth at Stars.

 This bar stool is BIG and sturdy.  It had a glossy finish on it to begin with, so I had to either prime it or sand it before re-painting it.  I opted for primer, which gave it an added dimension when I distressed it.  Some of the distressed areas show the white primer layer and others the original dark color.  I was very tempted to stencil something on the back, but I couldn’t quite decide what, and I really NEEDED furniture in my space, so I left it plain for now.   Available to purchase in my booth at Stars.

With two of the wicker drawers missing, I opted to just remove them all.  The cubby was in fairly rough shape, and since I had just painted the other cubby white, I decided to leave this one it’s original wood; just distressed it a bit.  It’s available to purchase in my booth at Stars.

The leopard print mannequin torso needed some ‘legs’.  I had a black wrought iron base and a tall curvy plant/candle stand.  Opted for the wrought iron base as the weight of it would make her stand steadier; and besides, her skirt pretty much covers the base.  I used nearly 100 yards of tulle to hand make her fluffy black skirt.  She is available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

A couple of smaller upcycled mannequins with fluffy tulle skirts; also available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

I’m ALWAYS on the lookout for vintage gumball machines to make over and fill with ‘fun stuff’ like seashells, spools of thread, jingle bells . . . . etc.  NEVER imagined that I’d come across a silver plated one!?!?!  It really wasn’t even very tarnished and required minimal polishing.  Such a fancy gumball machine needed some fancy filling.  Acrylic gemstones to the rescue.  They look prettier in person.   Available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

Somehow I missed getting a ‘before’ picture of this one.  It was dark brown wood, that I sanded painted and sanded again to distress.  LOVE the little drawer and the ceramic rose drawer pull that I put on it.  This piece can be purchased at Stars in Portland.

Could hardly believe my good luck when I found this set of three suitcases . . . ALL of them had beautifully CLEAN innards!!  The color is difficult to tell in the photos, but it’s a very, very pale pink.  Each is priced individually; and available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

Just waiting for the weather to cool down a bit and the outside air to be ‘breathable’ so I can get LOTS more painting done.

Beach Cottage Decor now at Stars

I rearranged my wall space at Stars and put out all the beach cottage decor.

I brought in my shabby white crates to create shelves for the booth.

A couple of shabby blue nightstands tucked in there, and a white wall shelf.

A sweet vintage shabby white child’s chair and a little three legged foot stool.

Shell topped jars, shell filled jars and shell candle jars.  A little round table with a shabby white trug on top.

Distressed turquoise frames with ‘floating’ white fingerling starfish.  Some BIG sugar starfish, painted white and glittered.

A shabby vintage spice rack filled with little jars of shells and sea glass.  Some small mermaid crowns and a sugar starfish mounted atop a shabby white candle holder.

I did some rearranging and stocking of my big booth too.

Lots of stacks of old books, as always.

This giant turquoise cubby shelf is filled with vintage milk glass and Ironstone pieces.

Some additional, and smaller, cubby shelves.

LOVE this vintage chicken tureen!

I’ve added lots of this style of vintage Ironstone with the scalloped edges.

Beautiful hand painted vintage milk glass vase with gold accents and ruffled edge.  Gold glitter Eiffel Tower tags.  Little vintage vanity jars.  Old bottles and upcycled bottles with repro labels.

Vintage metal chair with new gold paint and pretty soft blue and gold Toile covered seat.

Come on by and check it all out.  The construction on the next block continues; BUT, they have not been blocking off the side street parking as much lately.

 

 

 

 

 

White furniture binge

Went on a bit of a white furniture painting binge recently.  Here’s the end result of said binge.

Cute little metal birdcage.  Just a quick coat of white spray paint.

Little brown step stool.  Painted white and distressed.  Still debating whether or not I should stencil something on it???

Not a very good picture of the refinished piece on this one.  (sorry!)  Just a basic white paint job and distressed.

Cute three tier wall shelf; again just painted white and distressed.

This half round table was the same dark wood color as the shelf above.

This little shelf was already white.  I just distressed it.

This coffee table with lower shelf had already been repainted white, but they didn’t do a very good job of it.  You can’t really tell how ‘streaky’ the paint was in the pictures.  I needed to sand it before repainting it anyhow; and decided that I liked how it looked without repainting!  Distressing covers a multitude of mistakes!

Little ‘jewelry box size’ chest.  Removed the knobs, sanded off the red, white and blue; painted it white, distressed it and put the repainted knobs back on.  easy peasey.

Little upcycled side table made using a tall metal candle stand and an inverted metal tray.  Glued together using e6000, and spray painted.

This ‘open back’ cubby shelf was a medium wood color.  The white paint and distressing really emphasized the dental moulding at the top.  Below it, in the second photo is another cubby shelf, but with a back.  It was already white, so I just distressed it a bit.

I guess this shelf was for some kind of sports memorabilia.  Some white paint and you have just a regular white wall shelf!

 

No before picture for this one.  It was dark brown and had a ‘tapestry-like’ cover on the seat.  I LOVE the foot stools that open up like this for storage space!  Painted it white and distressed it a little.  Added some additional padding to the seat before I recovered it with a pretty soft aqua paisley print fabric.

All of these went to my booth at Stars.  A few have already sold.

So, what’s next???  I’ve got some pretty BIG news!  A new shop is opening soon in Aurora . . . and they will be carrying some of my items!  Stay tuned for more details and official Grand Opening notice!

 

 

 

New inventory in my booth at Stars

All of a sudden there’s been a flurry of furniture selling in my booth at Stars Antique Mall, which means ‘room for NEW inventory’!  I was caught a little off guard this time and the only furniture items I had ready to deliver were shabby white.  I will usually stock darker furniture this time of year, but . . . oh well!  Here’s what’s new:

LOVE this vintage vanity bench!  The existing paint consisted of a very pale aqua/sage green undercoat, topped with pink and topped with a creamy white.  The varnish on top of all that paint was very splotchy, drippy and yellowing, so I gave it a good ‘once over’ with the orbital sander . . . .and here it is!

This simple little three-legged half-table is super light weight and worked perfectly to stack atop another table to create some height in my booth display.  I mostly left it as I found it, and only distressed the top a tad bit more.

Another little white table, pretty basic design and was originally stained a light pine color.  I think it might have been part of a set of nesting tables, but little tables like this are convenient for so many different uses.  I sanded it, painted it white and distressed it.  (sorry about the one blurry photo!  I’ll try to remember to replace it.)

I actually have THREE of these little three legged stools; and even painted them all white!  I only have one stocked in my booth for now though.  They look like milking stools, but they don’t have the handle on the side.  I thought they would make nice stands for a dessert display.

A vintage slat wood picnic basket, and this time I left it ‘as found’ instead of painting it as I’m typically inclined to do with the picnic baskets I procure.  I almost passed this one up because it had one of those ugly plastic liners inside.  I actually had put it back on the shelf and was ready to walk away, when I decided to take another look and see how difficult it would be to remove the liner.   Turns out, the liner was not attached at all and pulled right out!  So into my shopping basket it went.  One feature of this basket that I especially like is that the lid is hinged about 3/4 of the way on the top.  Usually the WHOLE lid is hinged on the outside rim, and those hinges break easily.  So I’m thinking this one will be much sturdier and hold up a lot longer.

I stacked the newly added unpainted basket with a previously stocked and painted white basket that I stenciled “EAT” to the top of.  Little wood stained step stool is kind of ‘fancy’ with a beveled edge.  Old apple basket dry brush painted white and filled with apothecary jars.

Grubby little step ladder.  You can NEVER have too many of these!  They are awesome for displaying stuff on, but they usually sell super fast.  Most of the time I will just lean them in my booth so the shopper doesn’t have to unload it to buy the ladder.  But I was in need of more display space this time, so I loaded it up with Halloween decor.

LOTS of vintage milk glass vases.

For some reason ‘beach decor’ season totally slipped my mind!!  I usually stock the beach stuff right after Easter . . . better late than never, I guess!

Vintage white wire garden fencing candle chandelier.  The candle lanterns easily lift off for easy transport.  Just add your own battery or regular tea lights.

Assorted vintage treasures.  Those vintage ‘dirty joke’ cocktail napkins are HILARIOUS!

PLEASE don’t let the construction on the block next door scare you away!!  Dealers are stocking new items daily, and the parking is NOT as bad as you might be thinking!  

P.S. Stars sale coming REAL soon!!

 

Shabby cottage chic desk and dresser

Found this little desk and three drawer chest at a recent estate sale.

Of course, it was the color that first caught my eye when I saw this little desk from across the room.  Alas, the top was a real MESS!  Cheap plywood that had cracked, stained and peeling paint, but not the kind that you can leave ‘as is’.  Still, the price was right so I bought it.  (and the drawer innards were nice and CLEAN!)

SCORE!!  Another piece in ‘my color’!?!  woo-hoo!  Ah, but wait!  Once I put my reading glasses on I could see that it had been very POORLY painted aqua over a medium green pain; which still showed in several places.  Still, it was nice and sturdy.  The backing was in good shape and the drawers were clean!

The chest was pretty ‘grimey’ and  required a good scrubbing; and those drawer pulls HAD to go.  The pulls were screwed on, which usually means an easy removal; but these had been painted over more than once, so simply removing the screws did not do the job.  I had to WHACK them really hard with a hammer to get them off.

Not all of the stain and grime came off when I washed it, so it was time for the orbital sander.  I was HOPING that I could ‘just sand it’ and leave it this color.  Nope.  This, and the desk were going to HAVE to be painted.  I opted to paint them both white.

The top to the desk turned out just perfect!  Just the right amount of each color, white, aqua and wood showing after I distressed it.

As I am in the habit of doing, I painted the backside also.  It really only takes a few more seconds to do this when you are repainting items; and it gives the purchaser a lot more flexibility on placement of the item, as they won’t HAVE to place it with the back to a wall.

Distressing brought out just the right amount of the original aqua paint along the edges and ‘here and there’.  I recycled some old metal drawer pulls that I had on hand.  The insides of the drawers were completely painted the same aqua as the desk, but the bottoms were a bit scratched up.  I glued some pretty wrapping paper to the bottom of the drawers.

Distressing the chest was a bit more difficult.  Usually I can just ‘sand away’ and not have to pay very close attention and it will turn out fine.  However, the aqua color was a very LIGHT coat of paint, and if I sanded too hard of too much, I went clear through to the green coat of paint.  A little bit of the green showing through wasn’t too bad, but I wanted more of the aqua to show.  At one point, I almost decided to just repaint the whole thing turquoise!  But then I decided to ‘give it a shot’ at selling with the bits of green showing, before I went to all the extra work of painting it a second time.  I used the same vintage metal drawer pulls for the dresser and I did for the desk.

You can really see the green around the edges of the top of the chest.  That little ‘reddish’ mark near the center of the top of the chest had been a ‘blob of paint’ that had to be sanded down.  Apparently the top had been RED at one time, and sanding went down to that coat on this one little spot.  SO, I may well have to paint this chest a second time.

But for now, it’s in my booth at Stars Antique Mall priced at $59.00.  The smaller size of this chest make it perfect for a child’s dresser and/or a bed-side chest for an adult’s room.

As is the desk; which is $49.00.  That aqua cute bow back chair is also $49.00.

While I had the white paint out, I painted up a couple of wood slat picnic baskets that I’ve had for a while.

The smaller square basket with the BEE on top is $24.00.

The bigger, dark brown one with EAT on the top is $29.00.

The shabby apple basket is $15.00.

White metal birdcage (decorative use only; it does NOT open!) is $ 25.00.

Upcycled candle chandelier is $29.00.  Made using old white metal garden edge fencing; with five frosted glass hanging jars for tea light candles or battery tea lights.

I’ve recently added a LOT more vintage milk glass dishes!  Look at that adorable little espresso cup and saucer!!  I’ve got LOTS of regular coffee’tea cups and saucers and creamers and sugar bowls.  Perfect for an elegant bridal shower.  Lots of vases too!

I also just took in a nice collection of vintage Taylor, Smith and Taylor ‘Boutonnier’ dishes.  I had been collecting these for myself for quite some time; and finally decided that I just didn’t have room for them.  It’s not a complete set.  But there are a lot of cups and saucers and dessert size plates.

Stop by soon and see what’s new!!  Don’t let the construction on the side street scare you away.  (they tore down the boys and girls club and are putting is a high rise condo building!)  There is still plenty of parking; actually MORE than what was available before on some days!!

Updated vintage cedar boxes

Forgot to take a ‘before’ picture on this one, but it’s pretty easy to imagine what it originally looked like.

The outside of the lid looked pretty much the same as the inside!  These old cedar boxes are pretty heavily varnished, so a good sanding was necessary before painting.

Sanded.  Painted.  Sanded again.  Carved wood applique painted and added.  Matte varnish.

And of course, a ‘little something’ inside!

I had this EXACT one when I was little.  Still have it ‘somewhere’ filled with little treasures from my childhood.

Same steps as the first one.  Sanded.  Painted.  Sanded again to distress.

Decided to line the bottom of this one with some pretty scrap book paper.

The hinges and clasp were not removable, so I just painted over them, then sanded away some of the paint afterwards.

After trying out several different embellishments, I settled upon this tiny metal plate that reads ‘live  love  laugh’.  Glued it on with e6000.

If my hands were less arthritic, I would have done more ‘detail sanding’ around the carvings on the lid to enhance them a bit more.  OR you could add an antiquing medium to bring them out more.  I’m TRYING to stick with the ‘less is more’ mantra in my make-overs right now.  Choosing to slow down before life and old age FORCE me to do so.

More of the ‘new blue’

Well, I guess the customers at Stars prefer the ‘new blue’ too!  Everything I painted that color has already sold!  Here’s the rundown:

You’ve already seen this piece in the previous post, but here are the details of it.  It was originally a plain dark pine stain with round wood knobs and sat flat on the ground.

I added some wood feet, because . . . . . I like stuff with feet!

Just sanded off the original varnish, painted it my new blue and sanded again to distress.  The plain wood knobs HAD to go! (although if you MUST re-use the original knobs, you CAN paint them)

I found these gorgeous bubble glass knobs at Home Goods a while ago.  I NEVER go out and buy specific knobs for a specific project.  I buy them when I find them at the right price and always have a stash of them to select from.  The old original knobs get added to the stash as well.  These just happened to have one knob missing; so only five instead of a set of 6 . . . and consequently at a reduced price!

I lined the drawer with some vintage post card wrapping paper.

And decided to line the shelves too.

I must have made the ‘right choices’ because it sold from my space at Stars in just over a week!

I also painted this old wood chair my ‘new blue’ and distressed it.

Here’s what it looked like when I bought it.  Gotta LOVE it when you find pieces that don’t need a lot of prep-work’!

The chair sold right away also.

Painted this pair of end tables with the new blue as well.

The tops were pretty badly chipped and scratched, so I did have to sand them quite a bit before I could paint; but the legs were pristine!

Love this little cut out detail on the fronts of them.

And the ‘shapely’ legs.

No two pieces will ever distress exactly the same, so don’t even bother trying to get them to perfectly match.

As long as each has a comparable AMOUNT of distressing; they will still look like a ‘matched pair’.

 I almost always price everything ‘individually’, makes the clerks job much easier and saves them and ME time.  Because IF you price items as a ‘set’ you can BET that half the people who look at it will want to know if they can buy just ONE!!  Then the clerk has to take time to call me and ask IF I will break up the set and what would the individual prices be . . . . and 9 times out of 10, the customer will NOT buy even one of them!!

So, save everyone involved a lot of time and trouble and price items separately.  UNLESS you absolutely insist that they be sold as a set.  In which case, BE SURE to make a note of that on the price tag.

For example I found a pair of matching twin size chenille bed spreads.  Chenille is always hard to find and I have NEVER found two that match.  So, since this is such a rear find, I want them to be sold together, so the new owners can really enjoy their ‘rare’ vintage find.

So, all of these items sold within WEEKS of putting them in my booth.  Now I need to find more stuff to paint.  And that ‘might’ involve bringing some of the ‘white stuff’ currently in my booth home to RE-paint!   Haven’t been finding much furniture lately on my thrifting adventures.

Ugly gold to shabby white :: Outdated / Updated mirror

Very cool, taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall skinny wall mirror with roses . . .but the gold???

Good candidate for a shabby make-over!

ALWAYS check the back before you buy, to be sure that the frame can be easily detached from the mirror for repainting.  I suppose you COULD ‘tape off’ a mirror to repaint it, but I’m just too lazy for that.  If the mirror can’t be EASILY removed and reattached, I pass.  (Time IS money when you are refinishing items to sell.)

This particular mirror backing was STAPLED in place??? Hmmmmmm.  But most of the staples had been previously removed and the mirror was really held in place by the tape shown in the last picture.  I decided the rest of the staples should come out easily too.

The staples did come out very easily.  I gave the frame a good cleaning to get all the dust out of all the nooks and crannies.

Roses just are not supposed to be GOLD!

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A couple of coats of an off-white spray paint and  LOT of hand sanding to bring out all the pretty details.

The bow at the top.

The tassel at the bottom.

And lots and lots of roses to sand, petal by petal.  I actually had to do the sanding in three or four sessions and give my hand a rest between!

Time to reattach the mirror.  I was not brave enough to attempt to staple it back in place, and tape was not reliable enough.  I had to GLUE the mirror back into the frame.  Using my trusty Aleen’s Tacky Glue, I ran glue along the inset and replaced the mirror.  Let that dry overnight, then filled the gap between the backing the the frame with MORE glue.

 LOVE how it turned out!

It’s in ‘storage’ for the time being.  Might end up saving it for next spring or the first of the new year.  Next booth ‘do-over’ will be Halloween stuff . . .then Christmas . . . .then . . . .  ALWAYS thinking ahead!