Learning SHOW BIZ!

One of the beautiful things about life is that you keep learning and growing and experiencing new things all the time. We continue to learn about other fun shows to do and what's hot where. A customer yesterday told me about her etsy site that is great. We were invited it be a part of the "Allegan neighborhood", a group of like minded antique dealers who collaberatively do pot luck lunch every show - yum! thank you for including us :>

I am so fortunate to be doing a business with my life partner and husband and boy I could not do this antique biz without him. Together we create a look that is a wonderful mix. Dan creates these great re purposed pieces of furniture and useful items and sees possibilities in such cool things like you would never imagine. I have been working on rejuvenated pieces of jewelry using found objects, buttons and other odd bits of old jewelry as well as vintage fabric pillows, slipcovers and cushion covers.

Here are a few photos of our booth at the Allegan Antiques Market from yesterday.

And a big thank you to Sandi and Joe of Rhubarb Rein who have been such good friends and mentors, teaching us about the show biz!

Allegan Antique Market

Tomorrow is Allegan Antique Market. It looks like it is going to be a beautiful day. Come see us if you can. We have lots of new items and since we sold the house this week we are cleaning treasure out of the corners of our house to sell. Come see us!

Some of todays great finds!

Here is a sampling of today's great finds! I went with my dear friend Sue H. , we found tons of great stuff, solved all of our problems and had breakfast and lunch out. How fun is that!!!

And thanks again Sue for the groovy boots :>

Lots of Great New Product @ Eastown Antiques

Over the weekend we added lots more great product to our booth space at Eastown Antiques. Dans been a creative force not to be slowed down. You can see his latest creations at both malls, Eastown and Bluedoor as well as this coming Sunday the 26th @ the Allegan Antiques Market.
I have always had a fascination with silhouettes. I loved this pair of positive negative ones of the boy and girl in turquoise frames. I have another pair I will be taking to Allegan. I think that you either like these allot or you could pass them by, what do you all think? I would love to have some feedback on this!

Victorian Wicker

As antique dealers we don't often get the opportunity to see where our product goes to live once it is adopted by a new owner, but today we had that opportunity! The antique Victorian wicker chairs that Dan & I worked to redo went to the most beautiful Carpenter Gothic home in Heritage Hill. This has been my favorite house in Heritage Hill since I first lived there in college in the 80's. We both are so proud to have them adorn their porch so appropriately.
We rescued these chairs from an old garden shed and Dan cleaned and repainted them and I reupholstered the cushions. I was so pleased to be in the antique mall at the time this couple was in there shopping and found our chairs. Dan & I put one in each of our cars and delivered them later in the afternoon. What a great way to end our day.

We do have a few more pieces of Victorian wicker if anyone is interested. We love the old heavy wicker, it has so much style, comfort and character. Makes you want to linger on the porch with a cool drink and watch the world go by.

Summer Salad

I discovered this Martha Stewart salad recipe a couple of weeks ago, we "altered" it a bit and it is so good and so pretty! I used our home grown lettuce, 2 cups of corn, 1 cup of grape tomatoes, about 3/4 of an avocado and black beans. For the dressing use the remaining avocado, 2 T of fresh lime juice, chili powder, salt & pepper to taste & 1/2 cup of water. Put all of the dressing ingredients in a blender of food processor. We topped it off with grilled chicken. So yummy and so healthy! Yea to summer dinners in the back yard!

Bluedoor Antiques Grand Rapids

We moved our space at Bluedoor Antiques this week, to a larger area just inside the back door from the parking lot. We have some great product there including fabrics on the bolt and fabric sample books to order yardage from. Bluedoor has this wonderful "Anthropology" store kind of feeling with all kinds of creative product and wonderful color. It's a treat for the senses just to walk in the door. Eye Candy!
We both are also working on items for both spaces, Bluedoor Antiques - Grand Rapids, Eastown Antiques - Grand Rapids as well as for the Allegan Antique Market - July 26th and the Petoskey Antique Show- August 1st & 2nd.

Petoskey!

We had such a great time at the show in Petoskey! Great weather, we had a to die for view of the bay with a breeze, wonderful friendly enthusiastic people and we stayed at the best B & B in the area - Mom and Dad's! We spent time with all of CJ's Family ( minus TR ) on the 4th and saw baby Baily for the first time.

It was our first 2 day show and we will be back on August 1st and 2nd in the same spot. Here are some photos including one of Kris wearing 3 of my button necklaces that she purchased the day before.

Thank you everyone for a fun show!