The French Lady

This past fall while doing a show in Chicago we saw one of our fellow dealers sell a dress form that they had stripped of it's fabric and had mod podged. So I made up my mind that the next dress form I came across I would get such a project a try. In addition, I had found a blog site this Fall that had 1000's of free vintage clip art called "The Graphics Fairy". I was interested in doing a project that would let me down load some of this wonderful art work.

A couple of weekends ago we were visiting CJ's sister in southern Michigan. Her sister has a wonderful old house that dates to the 1860's and that has had a dance studio added to the back of the house. In some of the closets are old dance school dresses and costumes. Hiding behind a dress in one closet was a dress form. After a brief conversation I became the owner of the dress form.

When I got home I checked out the site of free clip art and decided to modge podge my dress form with vintage french art work, labels, letters, etc. It took me two nights of work to complete my project but this past week I put my French lady in the mall at Bluedoor. I usually spend my time work in my shop with wood and finishing furniture and other projects. This proved to be a wonderful creative change. It was like doing a jig saw puzzle. Great fun!

Tucked In

Here in Michigan the temperature is dropping, the wind is blowing and it is gentley snowing, so Dan & I have tucked in and we are creating. We both have been quite intriged with vintage paper lately. We made up these Valentine bottles with Victorian calling cards and vintage trims.

Dan gave me this darling candle for Christmas that Judy from Tapesties of Nature made and we both have been inspired to try some ourselves. When I was unpacking my studio ( some more! )  last week I found an old stash of vintage postage stamps so we made some up with stamps. There is something romantic, mysterious and wonderful about old stamps. Their designs are amazing and so delicate.

Even though I am not always so good at multi tasking I did make this yummy batch of granola in between glue drying etc. I shouldn't even tell you how good that made the house smell!

AND white chicken chile for dinner!
So LET IT SNOW!

Wanderings

This past sunday we decided we needed to get away and we have been wanting to visit a small town in northern Michigan called Pentwater. It is located on Lake Michigan and is a very charming small town that has become a wonderful resort comunity in the summer with great historic character that has been wonderfully preserved.

The main reason for our visit was to check out an antique mall located in town that caters to the resort community. We are hoping to find new sources for some of our finds and antiques for this summer. Since we love the cottage look we feel with might be a good move for us.

Much of the down town was closed including the mall when we got there but there were phone numbers on the front door that we wrote down to contact the owners. We then wandered around looking for what else we could do or find. When you are an antique dealer you are always on the search for "opportunities".  We happened upon a small coffee shop called "Good Stuffs" in search of good coffee and maybe a good cookie. Inside the store we were greeted with a small group of people playing the most wonderful bluegrass music. Quickly purchasing our chocolate chip cookies we sat down and had a wonderful time listening to wonderful music. In chatting with locals sitting next to us we found out that this group plays every week(for free) on sunday at this coffee shop all year round. In the summer they sit on the sidewalk and play in front of the store.

CJ is from northern michigan (Boyne City) were this kind of thing is very common but in the city of Grand Rapids were we live this experinece is much harder to find. We felt as if we were blessed with a small town, northern Michigan experience and the good wishes of generous small town folks that made us feel so welcome. The treasures we hauled home that day were not as tangible as our usual antique treasures but were just as important to our sense of well being. We loved our Pentwater experience. Good people, good music, and good cookies. What a combination!

Moss Studio- Vintage Industrial

At the last show we did in Grand Rapids there were a couple of dealers that specialized in vintage industrial. This trend takes industrial items and gives them a new look for for office or residential use. It is very popular in some of our larger cities and has been so for some time. I have had an interest in this trend for since earlier this year. So I took a few pictures of a dealer called Moss Studio from Lansing , Michigan that was at the show with us a week and ahalf ago and will share the pictures with you in this blog. I have also decided to work a few of these pieces into our look at Bluedoor and take some of the pieces with me to the shows we do. At any rate, I am excited about trying my hand at a few carts I currently have in the shop and will let you know I do.

This Weekend

We are sorry to report that we will not be at Grays Lake this weekend for the show due to truck trouble and the weather. But we will be using this downtime to create and re purpose so the February shows should be GREAT! We will miss all of you and hope that you are snug as a bug.

Grand Rapids Show

We had a great weekend doing a Grand Rapids show at the DeVos Center this weekend. We sold a bit of everything. Our repurposed theme seemed to touch a cord with many local people. I brought along a couple of repurpose pieces of furniture. A hall tree made out of an old commode and garage door and a buffet made out of window and old cabinet parts and pieces. Both sold on Sunday so I am greatly encourage to build more. Wine stoppers made out of vintage doorknobs, votive candles we decorated with vintage, lavender hearts, jewelry, floral fabric pins all did well in addition to our many other vintage finds.

Next week we will be back in Grayslake and look forward to seeing our many friends we have made there. However, we did enjoy this weekend being less than a mile from our show and being able to sleep in our own bed at night.