Wedding planning

Is there a wedding in your near future?  Don’t forget to check out STARS ANTIQUE MALLS  when you are looking for unique decor items.  Vintage wares are very popular for using in weddings these days; and it’s a very economical way to go too!  Unlike a lot of the decorative things you buy or make ‘just for your wedding’; the vintage items you purchase can continue to be used afterwards for decorating your home

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Here’s a peek at some great vintage items in my two booths at Stars that you could use for wedding decor.

Hand crafted ‘HAPPILY EVER AFTER” banners made using vintage sheet music in neutral tones would work with just about any color scheme.  I put each work on it’s own hanging string, but you can easily hang them together in one long line.  After the wedding, this would be cute in your home, hanging on a wall along with your framed wedding photos.

Be sure to visit Stars website to get a 50% 0FF everything coupon for my booths.  

And speaking of frames!!  I’ve got some plain and fancy large frames that would be great for use in your photo booth, for people to hold up to their faces.  OR use on the hors d’oeuvres table or candy bar.  I love the look of big blank frames like this leaning on a fireplace mantle or hung on a wall.  I’ve got lots of smaller frames too.  Many of the have some sort of picture in them, but they can easily be changed out.  After the wedding?  What home doesn’t need photo frames?

I’ve got lots of smaller frames tucked here and there throughout both booths.  ALL half off with coupon!  I’ve got some pre-printed coupons in my booths also.

Word cloud chalk boards are great for using in your photo booth too!

How perfect are these glitterey crowns for the Bride at the Bridal shower?

Looking for some truly unique ‘little gifts’ for special people who have helped with the wedding?  These one of a kind hand stitched wool felt hearts are something they will treasure forever.  (And half off with coupon!)

This lovely mannequin with a fluffy black tulle skirt would make a perfect greeter for your wedding.  Hang a framed copy of your wedding invitation around her neck and let hert welcome your guests.  Her regular price is $155.00; half off with the coupon. 

Wispy twiggy wreath and paper Hydrangea wreath work great for a nature themed wedding; and of course as home decor afterwards.

More natural style decor with bird nests.

 

Vintage milk glass is just perfect for use in weddings.  Please don’t DIY your vases and other glassware by picking up old clear glass pieces and spray painting them!  Authentic vintage milk glass is not that costly.  I’ve got lots of vintage Milk glass vases, urns, candu and nut bowls, serving plates , punch bowls and dishes.  ALL 50% off now with coupon.

Bundles of old grubby books work well with just about ANY wedding or decorating style.  I always keep a lot of them stocked in my booths, tucked into all kinds or displays.

Going for a more rustic feel for your wedding?  I’ve got quite a few items that will work for that stYle too.  Bit rustic weathered wood trays, small wood drawers and crates, shadow boxes and arrows.  Galvanized buckets, trays and baskets too.

STARS IS OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK ~ 11am – 6pm

Visit the Stars website, or on Facebook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hippity – hoppity . . . Easter’s on it’s way!

We had an amazing break in our winter weather last week that made me SO ready for Spring!  Our winter weather arrived late (February!) but hit HARD; as did my cabin fever.  Putting out the Spring and Easter product in my booths at Stars has really got me in the mood for ‘play outside weather’.

Since I’ve got the beach decor in my big booth, I put the Spring/Easter product in my wall space.  (Pardon that red bucket in the left corner.  It’s an OLD building and occasionally the roof leaks.)

Some cute vintage chicks and bunnies.  Ostrich sized faux eggs covered with vintage buttons.   Milk glass is great for using with your spring decor!

Vintage bell jars with hand shredded vintage book page ‘grass’ and gold leaf eggs.

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Custom blend of pink and gold paper shred to go with the packaged gold leaf and pink little eggs in the pink basket on the right.  Turquoise glitter eggs too.

More unique eggs for your spring display.  These are covered with ‘Paris’ themed paper.

Hand stitched felt eggs, embellished with vintage buttons and baby rick rack.

Gallon size mercantile jars filled with moss, nests and eggs.  Smaller jars with straw and eggs.  Big vase with nest and eggs under black wire cloche.

Cute mini take out boxes in Spring colors are perfect for filling with sweets to give to your friends at Easter Brunch.  Decorative faux cupcakes.

Plenty of cake and cupcake stands.  These are so versatile for use in your seasonal tablescapes for adding height and dimension.

Upcycled journals.

Reproduction vintage style chicks from an estate sale.  I gave them lace crowns and nestled them into some cozy nests.

Hand painted faux eggs in turquoise ceramic pots and buckets.

LOTS of new frames, big and small, just stocked.

LOVE this reproduction Gothic arched window pane.  I’m still on the fence about selling it.  It just might come home with me on my next trip!

Vintage white shutter with handcrafted twiggy wreath.

Youth size white rocking chair.  Vintage wash bowl and pitcher.

One of a kind little upcycled suitcase end table with ‘hairpin’ metal legs.

Black occasional tables.  The bottom one is distressed oak, the top one with  the scalloped apron and curvy legs is a satin finish.  Will be removing all the darker furniture in the not too distant future; replacing it with lighter colors for Spring and Summer.

Not quite matching pair of vintage canning jar lamps.  The jars are the same size but different brands.  The shades are the same color, but slightly different shapes.  Each sold separately; $29.00.

Vintage jewelry box with seashell motif paper.

Assorted crates and carriers; perfect for use with your spring decor.

Stars is open seven 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.

Quick Change

Well, not really all THAT quick (it took me three hours), but a considerable change in my booth layouts.

My original ‘plan’ to put in a completely new vignette in my little wall booth has been abandoned.  I’m not abandoning the space, just the idea for changing it out.  Why?

My thought process in deciding to change it up monthly was that it was a small enough space and it would be fairly easy to do so.  It was a LOT more work than I had anticipated.    Not that I necessarily eschew hard work, but it was getting to be too much for my ‘bad back’ to handle.

AND the aisle along the back is much narrower than the central aisles.   It was next to impossible to move stuff around without blocking the aisle for shoppers to traverse.  So I decided to put mostly small items in my wall booth.  Small stuff is easier to stock without getting in the way of shoppers.

Fortunately for me, the owner scheduled a ‘dealer work shift’ Saturday, which gave dealers 3 hours to work without any customers.  I took advantage of that time to move the big metal rack from my big boot to the wall space.  Which sounds fairly simple, but it was a pretty big undertaking.

First I had to empty and move four shelves on the back aisle side of my big booth in order to access the big metal shelf.  Then I had to empty the metal shelf.  Move the stuff that was in the area of the wall booth where I was going to put the metal shelf; then move that big heavy shelf to the wall space.  Put all the product back on the metal shelf.  Figure out where I wanted to put the four shelves I had moved out of the way.  Then figure out where to put the stuff I had taken from the wall space!  Believe me, I needed every MINUTE of the three hours allotted for us to work without any interference.

Normally I have what I am going to do with my booths pretty well thought out ahead of time.  As soon as I decide to take a new piece of furniture in, I start thinking about where I will put it and how I will move things around.  So I had measured ahead of time and knew where I was going to move the big metal shelf to, but beyond that I just drew a blank.  Had to ‘wing it’ this time.  I’ll be changing this up again next week when I take the leftover Christmas product from the show in, and pull the last little bit of fall left.

It feels SO much bigger without that metal shelf in the middle!

Took these two cute little upcycled tables in last week.

The bottom photo here is the space where the big metal shelf used to be.  Haven’t quite decided what I want to do there.  This will do for fine for now though.

Some pretty vintage liqueur bottles.  Perfect for putting homemade liqueurs for gift giving in.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Ready or not . . .

 . . . . Thanksgiving, the Christmas will be here before you know it.  I’m getting a head start and brought in a few holiday decor things to my booth at Stars this week.  Then tomorrow I deliver to the ‘Every Husband’s Nightmare’ show in Hillsboro.  After that show ends next Saturday, I’ll have even MORE holiday goodies to bring to Stars.

Here’s what I’ve done to start off the season:

I think my decorating theme for this year is ‘simple elegance’.  Lots of pretty vintage glass baubles in jars and bowls with mini fairy lights give off a truly magical glow!

It’s almost impossible to truly capture the beauty of the little lights in pictures and in the well lit store; but you get the idea.  Some of these arrangements are ‘all inclusive’ pieces, where I have priced the container with the lights and baubles to be sold together as one item.  The rest of them are priced individually so you can just buy what you need.  If you already have the glass baubles and just need the container to put them in, OR if you have the container and just need a few more glass baubles.

SO many different ways to display these holiday lovelies.  Think outside the box and use what you have to place your ornaments in.  Or buy something that will serve multiple purposes.

This is actually a cupcake stand!  Pretty little boxes with bows always add a festive touch to your decor, and you’ll have a gift box handy if you need one for a last minute gift!

I’m pretty sure that the white metal stand filled with ornaments was intended for this very purpose.  But you could also use it at Easter to hold your colored eggs.

Milk glass punch and candy bowls look pretty filled with ornaments too!

You can even fill the dome lid of your cake stand with baubles!  It’s a bit of a tricky process and you have to be sure that no one inadvertently takes the lid off ‘to see what will happen’.  A mess.  A mess will happen.  Which is why I didn’t fill the ones in my booth with glass baubles!

I’ve got some awesome vintage crystal snack plates with cups for you holiday entertaining.  And some beautiful silver espresso cups and saucers.

There is never a shortage of Milk Glass dishes or vases in my booth!  The milk glass vases are really pretty with vintage glass baubles on top of them too!

Always a plentiful supply and variety of stoneware dishes too.  Be sure you have all the serving bowls and platters you will need for serving your holiday feast.

I hate to admit it, but my wall space become more of a depository for ‘all the stuff I can’t fit into my big booth’, as opposed to a theme planned vignette.  A few bits of fall still available in my wall space.

Stop on by and get into the holiday spirit.

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

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Little chest make-over

This is my very favorite size of chests.  Big enough to hold plenty of stuff, but not too big to function as a night stand.

She’s a real ‘Plain Jane’ and was pretty beat up when I found her.

It almost looks like someone used her to cut teeth on; and there were several good size water stains on the top.

 

You can tell that it is quite because there is actual WOOD on the back and not just particle board.

Given how old this chest is and how beat up it was, I crossed my fingers and took a deep breath before I opened the drawers to see what condition they were in.

To my complete surprise and delight, the drawers were immaculate!!!  (that one little spot you see is from my camera, not something on the drawer)  These are seriously the cleanest drawers I have ever seen on an old chest.

A good bit of sanding, some soft grey colored paint and a bit more sanding to distress and she was ready for her new knobs.

With little crowns on them!  I have had these knobs for YEARS, just waiting for the perfect piece to use them on.

All ready to go to my booth at Stars.

My booth was completely disheveled after the five day sale.  But that is a GOOD thing, because it means that a lot of stuff sold!

I ended up putting the new grey chest in my wall space; topped with a couple of grey trugs.

This next week I’ll be changing over the wall space to BEACH decor.

Here’s my tidied up big booth.

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Stay tuned for the BIG announcement about the new ‘hang out’ for Sophie’s Cottage.

ANNOUNCEMENT!

Coming soon to Star’s Antique Mall in Portland, Oregon:

Sophie’s Annex.

At the end of this month, I’ll be taking on an additional space at Stars!  You won’t have to walk far to find the new ‘Sophie’s Annex’.  It’s along the back wall, directly across from my existing booth; literally two steps away.

Why am I so excited about this additional 2′ x 8′ space; and what will I DO with it that I couldn’t already do with my existing space?

It’s no secret that changing up the look of your booth, adding new inventory, rearranging furniture and just generally ‘refreshing’ your space brings you more shoppers.  With a 10′ x 10′ booth FULL of inventory, changing things up is pretty difficult.  I have so many great ideas for ‘cute little vignettes’, and the inventory to create them; just not the SPACE to do so.

Taking on this additional wall space feels like the perfect solution.  It’s close to my original booth, so no extra moving stuff throughout the mall.  And it’s small enough that I can totally EMPTY the space and set up an entirely new vignette every month.  THAT is the plan!

At the end of every month, all of the existing inventory in my 2’x8′ wall space will be removed, then a whole new vignette will take it’s place.

I’m so excited about this new venture at Stars!

What’s your favorite decorating style that you can never seem to find enough of? 

What styles are you ‘just over’ and wish would go away already?  

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!!