Thursday, August 25, 2011

Country Living Fair, Columbus Ohio 2011

OK so many of you know that we are so excited to be doing the Country Living Fair in Columbus Ohio, Sept 16-18. And many of you know that we specialise in up cycled, handmades from vintage pieces and parts. Dan has shown you what he is up to, so I thought that I would show you what I have been up to ( and a little more from Dan :-)   )
Some of you might remember "the bag" as it has become know as, that I made earlier this summer, using a piece of rug hooking that I had done as well as vintage ticking & upholstery webbing. Well is seems most everywhere that I go people comment on my bag and at the last Petoskey show many people spotted it hidden behind the table and wanted to buy it. So OK I got the hint and I am making LOTS of them to bring with us.

I am using wonderful vintage needlepoint, crewel embroidery, cross stitch and linen children's books for the front centers. Her is a sneak peak and some of them in progress.
I am also working on jewelry!
Spooky and some not so spooky vintage post card garlands.
Dan has also been making these must have photo holders using old door knobs, vintage shoe forms and.....................
 the rest is a secret!
Can't wait to see you all there!!!
Until then
XOXOXO
(sleepless in GR)
CJ

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Saturday Night News

It has been awhile since we have blogged. We are discovering that since the Petoskey show(pictured above) that we have been working overtime to get ready for the next big show in September which is the Country Living Fair in Columbus Ohio. The Petoskey show however, was fun for us to do. The numbers of people that usually come to this show seemed to be down. The main parking lot on Sunday was never full and it almost always has been full in the past. We however still sold lots of product including our two largest items- a rattan sofa and a rather large harvest table.  

Having done this show now for a couple of years we get to meet many regulars that attend this show. We are also finding good energy between the show and many of the people who shop our our space at Then and Now in Petoskey which is just up the street from the fair grounds were we set up at to do the show.
Speaking of Then and Now, we have had a couple of the best months we have ever had at any antique mall. We are so gratful for all the hard work of Tracy and all the people that work our space for us.

About the time we did the Petoskey show we also took the Train from Grand Rapids to Chicago to pay a visit to the Gift Market. We love doing this to see what new product is out there that we could benefit from for the design business. We also love being inspired by what we see and try to collect ideas for many of our repuposed products we do. We are also discovering that some of the vendors buy vintage to use in their displays. In fact, the people who do KD Vintage (above) have purchased from us at Allegan Antique Fair.

The day we returned to Grand Rapids from the Petoskey show I managed to acquire about 13 antique arch top vintage windows. There were a few more than I had planned so as you can see packing my small cart with them was a bit of a challenge. They came out of a wonderful old farm house. The grey haired gentleman who sold them to us told us that his grandfather build the farm house and  his grandfather's name was written on the side of the windows. I have brought a few of these windows over to Elements here in Grand Rapids where this past week I hung one of them from the ceiling. It looks spectacular!

We also purchased a number of these iron/metal legs benches from someone and have recovered the seats in vintage grain sack material.

This load of vintage casing and bead board also was something I picked up this past week. It all came out of and old school house that burned. Some of it is painted white but most of it is painted red and blue. Wonderful colors to work with for creating our vintage frames and caulk boards.

 
I also just clean this vintage drafting table and old school lockers which can now bee seen at Bluedoor.

So as you can see there is plenty to keep us busy. We are also now regularly bring items to Elements here in Grand Rapids(See blogs we follow). As we get ready for the Country Living Fair we will keep you posted on the finds and creations we come up with for the show. We are planning our largest load ever. So much to do and so little time! We have heard from a number of you that you are planning to attend the show in September. This absolutely delights us and we hope you all stop by to say hi.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Antiques at the Fairgrounds, Petoskey this weekend

Dan & I are working like little bees this week getting ready for the Antiques at the Fairgrounds show in Petoskey this weekend. We are excited about the product that we are bringing. Lots of re purposed up cycled furniture and decorative items. Great antiques, cottage and garden.

So here is a sneak peak @ some of the product we are bringing along for the show.

Dan & also were in Chicago this week for the gift and accessory show @ the Merchandise Mart and we thought you might like to see a few things that totally inspired us!
We loved all of this color!
This was a great line of furniture and accessories. Wonderful styling and great color.

The other "trend" that we love is quite opposite - a rather lack of color.
We loved  bleached driftwood color on this set of wicker trunks and what's not to love about French grain sacks!

OK so back to work and hope to see you all at the SHOW!!!!!!!!!