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.

Every Husband’s Nightmare Spring Show

The show opens tonight for preview, from 5-8pm with a $3.00 donation.  The rest of the week, admission is FREE.  Parking is always free.  Now that the old exhibition hall has been demolished, the show is in the Cloverleaf Building, at the back of the fair complex.  Tuesday – Friday hours are 10am-8pm.  Saturday. 10am – 5pm.

I delivered MANY boxes and bins and old suitcases filled with inventory!  Turning that, into this:

I brought mostly farmhouse rustic decor to the show this year.  Including lots of crates and trays made from upcycled old weathered fencing:

Decorative shutters and shadow boxes too.

My items will be very easy to find.  Most of my product is displayed on the tables directly to the left after you enter the building.

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I didn’t make the weathered wood potting benches, but they are pretty fabulous!  Great for indoor decor use or outdoor garden work!  Those dried hydrangea are from my garden.

I brought quite a bit of Paris chic decor too.

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The rest of the displays were still ‘in progress’ when I left, so I didn’t get pictures of the rest of it.  Lots of great spring home decor and Mother’s Day gifts, vintage, hand-made and upcycled goods.

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.

Recent finds

Went to an awesome estate sale last week and found some great stuff!

I won’t even tease you by telling you how LITTLE I paid for all of this!!  But I WILL tell you about the great folks that put on the estate sale; Kathy’s Estate and Moving Sales.  Truly the nicest estate sale people you will EVER meet, and they have VERY reasonable prices.  Sign up for their email list to receive email notification with PICTURES of each of their sales.  If you are extremely ‘bargain minded’ as I am, be sure to go on the LAST DAY of the sale when all items priced under $50.00 are 50% off!

I can never resist a cute little vanity chair!  Be sure to check UNDER the seat to see if it has screws for easy removal and recovering.  That little wood stool might end up getting paired with the big cutting board to create a little side table.  I never pass up little wood step stools!

I have NO idea what I’m going to do with those two tall white floral arrangement stands, but they were too fabulous to leave behind!  That sweet little picnic basket came with a ‘pie shelf’.  It’s pretty rare to find them with their original pie shelf, which is super handy for not squashing your picnic food!  OOPS!!  I forgot to take the stuff that I had them pack inside the picnic basket out for the picture.  It was some vintage milk glass dishes.

Some other recent finds:  cute oval night stand, pair of kid’s chairs (another things I never pass up!) a basic and boring end table, a big sturdy bar stool and a solid oak cubby shelf with scalloped detail.

Set of three wood nesting tables, funky old spice rack, little (jewelry box size) chest of drawers, shelf/hutch with heart cut out (which will be done away with!) and wood crate with metal reinforced edges.

Cute little red end table I found on “Next Door’.  Vintage wig head with VERY elongated neck (because it was for long hair maybe?!?!  IDK!)  Leopard mannequin torso.  Wicker and nesting tables with wrought iron legs, and two cubby shelves with drawers, one with wicker and one with wood.  But I probably won’t keep the drawers with them when I sell them.)

Yes, I have been on a bit of a furniture buying spree.  Reason being that all of a sudden in the last two months I’ve sold a LOT of furniture from my booth at Stars, and I depleted my ‘back stock’ of replacement pieces when I restocked my booth.  NOW I just need a few ‘not so durn HOT’ weather days so I can get outside and paint, paint . . .PAINT!!

Oh my!  Just got another email from Kathy’s Estate sales and it looks like another great sale that I might HAVE to hit tomorrow!!

 

 

 

Sophie’s Annex Premier Display

Got my additional 2’x8′ wall space at Stars all set up yesterday.  It’s very difficult to take good pictures because of spatial limitations.  There is simply not enough room in that back aisle for me to step back far enough to take a good picture of the entire booth.

This is the little sign that I made explaining that there will be an entirely new theme displayed in the space every month.  This first display is kind of a mixture of farmhouse, galvanized stuff and garden-ish things.  May’s theme will be ‘Happily Ever After’.

This picture makes it look even smaller than it actually IS!  The purple border on the floor outlines my space; and the shutter door on the right hand side, which I put up to divide my space from the one next to me.  The big ladder is not a terribly effective use for this limited space, but it works so well with all the baskets et all.  The ladder IS for sale.

This is as far back as I can go to take a picture, but you get the idea.

This is what all is displayed on the ladder.

BIG jar filled with dried hydrangea (from my garden!) on galvanized metal tray.

Jar of assorted dried botanicals, another galvanized tray (I have three of them the same size) The metal bird-cage thingys on a pedestal are supposed to be for candles.  I put some mini glitter chandeliers in them.

Burlap curtains, valance and cafe.  I’ve had these curtains forEVER, but have never HUNG them to display them.  There are more of the curtains in bundles right beneath the hanging ones.

Hand crafted paper wreaths and small olive buckets with pale blue rims.  I also have some olive buckets with red rims.

Cloche with wood base is filled with three nests.  Glass jar is filled with assorted moss and bark, gathered from my yard.  I have LOTS more of the nest, egg and botanical items; just no room for them yet.  Will be adding more to my big booth after Easter; and as room becomes available in this space.

One of the several garden trugs available sitting atop a small grubby step-ladder.  Those are big burlap bags in the rusty basket under the ladder.

Another trug, vintage canning jars, that third square galvanized tray, a nest with eggs and a bird skeleton; stack of buckets behind the bird.  Under the trug is an old rolling mop bucket that I upcycled into a storage bucket with a padded seat.  The seat lifts off to store things inside.

Big olive bucket and awesome long narrow galvanized trough.  Burlap pillow cases in the shabby metal urn to the right.

There’s the aforementioned red rimmed olive buckets!  A cute little glass and galvanized house and electric grubby candle.  Three more garden trugs under all that, and an old tool tray on the right.

I’ve got LOTS of these rusty wire mesh baskets.  Galvanized storage box with blue lid inside.

Stack of buckets, vintage and upcycled.

Remember, this ALL GOES AWAY the end of April.

 

My booth at Stars Antique Mall

I know I’ve been posting a LOT about the upcoming Rebel Junk Marketplace in Hillsboro, Oregon; and seemingly doing nothing BUT prepare for the show.  But I have still been adding new inventory to my booth at Stars every week, as I always do.  Here’s a little peek at some of the recent additions:

LOVE these little Valentine gift ‘bags’ that I upcycled.

I’m really not certain if ‘gift bags’ is the right thing to call them.  They are more like little ‘boxes’ made out of lightweight cardboard.  I have no idea what I originally intended to do with them when I bought them; or even when or where I bought them in the first place.  But they were in my Valentine supply box and I decided it was time to ‘use them or lose (donate) them’.  I’m in serious paring down mode so that I don’t need to rent a storage unit anymore.

In the top left picture you can see what they originally looked like.  I only covered them with the old dictionary page on 3 sides.  (trying to keep it a ‘quick and easy’ project!)  Then I glued a strip of pink ribbon along the top and tied it in a knot.  Then I added some little scrapbook embellishments . . . just whatever I had on hand.  I was going to add a piece of tissue paper to give them some ‘oomph’ and keep them looking nicely fluffed up; but thought I see if paper doilies would work.  Just the perfect little extra touch.  These are available in my booth at Stars for $1.00 each.

These red cones were leftover Christmas trees from LONG ago.  (I think clear back when we had our shop!)  I had filled them with cello bags of wrapped candies in the past and added a chenille handle.  I had a package of ‘hearts on a stick’ and put two in each cone along with some paper shred (I ‘blend’ my own paper shred) then tied on a tag that I printed with some bakers twine.  The tag reads “Forever, for always and no matter what.”  I only had three of these, so I displayed them on the little black wire shelf along with the little gift bags.

I had bought some of these ‘honeycomb’ hearts a while back to use for display, but decided to go ahead and sell them this year.  I opened up one of them, and left the other two ‘flattened’ for easier transport.

For some reason I had the ‘lid only’ of this old heart shaped box.  I added some embellishments and made it into a wall hanging.  The ‘arrow’ on the box was made from the one extra ‘heart on a stick’ leftover from the cones.  (there were 7 hearts in a package) I glued some cardboard on for the tip of the arrow and glittered it to match the heart end.  Used some leftover red Christmas ribbon to glue all around the edge of the box and tied it into a bow at the top.

Then I tied on a little ‘True Love” tag, which I printed myself; with baker’s twine.  really trying to keep my upcycles ‘simple and quick’ so I can price them lower; so they will hopefully SELL faster!

A couple of upcycled mini Valentine themed mini mannequins.

Vintage Ironstone bunny covered casserole dish, and an English gravy boat with attached liner.  I especially like the ones that have the liners attached like this one does.

Some ‘Love Potion No.9’ upcycled bottles.

Some cool newly found hobnail Milk Glass containers.  (and a few more that I am taking in tomorrow!  I’ve been finding a lot of the hobnail Milk Glass lately.)

Upcycled jar lantern with tea stained lace and rusty tin heart.  A big ole tub of letters to spell out just about anything your heart desires!

Upcycled apothecary jars and vintage and upcycled medicine bottles.

PLENTY of hand stitched and stuffed felt hearts still.  (there will be some of each of these colors/styles at the Rebel Junk Market too!)

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

SOLD!

Well, the ‘odd-ball’ colored chest of drawers SOLD the last day of the five-day sale!  Kind of nice to make money selling something that I didn’t have to put a lot of WORK into.

With all the other big pieces that sold during the sale, I wasn’t sure if I had enough new pieces ‘ready to go’ on Tuesday when I went in to re-stock; soooooooo . .

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I decided to try my luck again at selling a piece ‘as found’.  And this one is REALLY different for my booth!  I just LOVE ‘little drawers’ and this was a crazy good price.  If it hasn’t sold by the time I get something to take its place in my booth; it just might be coming home with me!

I could incorporate it with the red and turquoise I have in my kitchen!

It sure stands out like a sore thumb in my booth, doesn’t it?  Priced at just $89.00 thoughm

Tiny Framed Faux Frozen Charlotte’s

Super simple project.  I made the Faux Frozen Charlotte’s some time ago using Fimo clay and a mold I bought.  Since the clay doesn’t keep well once opened; I make a big batch of them all at once, and stash them for use later when inspiration strikes.

They were perfect for these tiny oval frames I just found.

This cupboard is ‘Barbie-Doll’ size; the oval frames are about 2″ tall.

 I just removed the plastic cover on the frames (instead of glass) added backing from a vintage dictionary and glued on the Charlottes.  Quick & easy!

Windy winter weather wreaths!

Try saying that five times fast!  It’s been a VERY wet winter here in the Pacific Northwest.  As in RECORD rainfall.  Even my garage is too damp to do much furniture painting many days.

It’s been quite windy along with that record rainfall; and the landscape service hired by the property owner is ‘off’ for the winter.  SO, there are a LOT of these willow tree branches in several of the neighbors yards.  I grabbed a hand-full from a common area on my way back from the mail box one day . . . .

Because it was still so fresh and damp, I was able to very easily from it into a little wreath.  Didn’t even need any wire to hold it together.  I just ‘tucked and tied’ the ends.  I felt a new ‘addiction’ in the making!  But most of the rest of the fallen branches were in the yards of neighbors, so I didn’t feel quite just taking them.

So, I took the first little wreath that I had made and was headed over to knock on the door and ask if they minded if I picked up the branches in their yard.  The neighbor just happened to be taking her dog for a walk, so I introduced myself, and asked her if she minded me picking up the branches from her yard to make the wreaths; and I offered her the wreath that I had.  She accepted the wreath and said ‘Take as much as you want!”  And so I did!

I I used up about half the pile of branches and had made about a dozen 10-12″ wreaths.  It wasn’t really ‘work outside’ weather and my hands were getting numb, but I didn’t want the branches to dry out and then later when I wanted to make more wreaths they would just break instead of bend.  As I was searching for ‘something to store’ the extra branches in it hit me!

If I put them in a ROUND container they would dry out in that shape and probably be even EASIER to make more wreaths later on!

As my storage basket got fuller, it was becoming difficult to keep the branches contained, so I put some ‘weight’ (in the form of a planter filled with packing material) on top and ‘voila!

Another wind storm a couple of weeks later left a fresh batch of twigs to be gathered.  (I still had not used up the previous batch!)  So I found another round container to store that batch in.

Topped it with an old enamelware bowl to keep the branches in place.II

I decided to try an oval one, but it ended up more of a ‘rear drop’ shape.  think I’ll stick with the round ones.  Now I just need a fairly warm and dry day to use up the rest of my branches.

I’m resisting the temptation to go out and gather up MORE branches because the rain and wind continues to fill the neighbors yard with them.