Allegan this SUNDAY!

Wow I am finding lots of tresures as I am packing that I will be taking to Allegan this Sunday - rain or shine! Both Dan & I are so inspired by French General. I was taken by a photo in one of their books lately of a bundle of fabric - you all know my passion for fabric :> I have tons of great fabric, so I have bundled them together to sell. The pieces are large enough for pillows, tote bags, place mats, napkins, quilt squares, children's cloths, basket liners, journal covers, sachets. And just wait till you see what Dan's done. It's going to be an exciting Allegan - see you there!

SOLD!

I am on to a new chapter in my life. I closed on the sale of my little pink house yesterday. Dan and I are creating a life of our own together in the historic district of Heritage Hill in Grand Rapids. We both love the architecture and character of old houses. My pink house as it has become know, has only been pink for 3 years, prior to that it was a beautiful butter yellow for 10 years. It was built in the late 1930's & has some charming details both inside and out as well. This house has been good to me and for me. It embraced me. I really spread my wings here and grew not only my business but also myself. I created a haven for myself, cozy spots inside and pretty flower gardens overflowing outside. I had the opportunity to decorate the interior exactly how I wanted - a dream fulfilled! This house has been filled with many friends, family, clients and kitties over the years. Best of all it is here that Dan & I started our life together. But the walls don't hold the memories my heart does.
So now on Sept 24 I will turn it over to the next family. It will embrace them & they will embrace it. So long old friend.

Star Birdhouses

Like most people in the antique and collecting business I am often inspired by the many magazines found in some of my local book stores on collecting vintage items. I have been know to pay a visit to some book stores that have coffee shops and sit and drink coffee reading through magazines for hours looking for ideas.

This past winter I found a picture of a star shaped birdhouse I fell in love with. So, this past week I fished a growing number of old plaster lath boards and small cut offs of vintage bead board out from under my table saw and began building star shaped birdhouses. It was one of the most fun projects I did all week.

The house in the picture is built completely out of old plaster lath boards and stained white. Most of the others also have beadboard on them. This one was elected to be the photo model since it is the only one complete. I hope to complete the rest this weekend. I should have a total of six done.

I will be taking some along next weekend to Allegan Antique Market.

REPURPOSE

Repurpose is the new word in antique circles these days. To repurpose means to use of convert for use in another format or product. It fits perfect with our new economic times and with the new green movement. These days both CJ and I have been using our creative energy to find new uses for old items. I have a shop full of old broken chairs that I have been turning into hook racks and towels bars. Cj has been making jewelry out of vintage buttons and turning damaged antique table clothes and towels into pillows. Porch columns are getting turned into coat racks, window and door casing is getting turned into picture frames, broken and damaged furniture is recycled into new uses and new shapes. Yesterday, I made a conservatory out of old windows. These days I can't wait to get up and can't wait to get to my shop and work on new ideas and inspirations. These are exciting time we life in. I know many are going thru economic hard times and I am no accept ion. But, I believe with all my heart that I can either despair or chose to see my life as ripe with new possibilities and let my creative juices run. I choose the later.

Grown Up Flower Child

I have always loved baby's breath and on the way to do the antique show in Petoskey Dan turned the suburban and the 16 foot trailer around "on a dime" as the saying goes and screeching the tires a little too, when he spied a large patch of this beautiful wild flower. He gathered several bunches of it and we took it to our booth and sold it to excited customers for two days. We also brought some back and it is in our booth at Bluedoor.

It's a wonderful nostalgic feeling of my youth in Northern Michigan!

Petosky Antique Show

We did the antique show in Petosky this past week end. CJ's parent's who live in Boyne City put us up for the weekend and took good care of us. They even packed us lunches every day. I felt like I was a kid again.

The Petosky show was wonderful! It is a beautiful setting with people from all over the county coming to the show who are up there on vacation.

I am attaching a few pictures. Our next show is Allegan at the end of the month. We are going to take off the weekends between now and than to try to get our house cleaned out since it has been sold and if all goes well we should be moved in about six weeks.