If at first you don't succeed...change the plan.

Sitting at work Wednesday, I had an idea just pop into my head.

 

I love it when that happens.

 

The rectangular herb boxes that never sold? I thought, how great would they look with a vintage fruit/vegetable label slapped on front? Off to Ebay I go and I was thrilled with the selection and prices I found.

 

I still have one more coming in the mail...it may not make it to the market, I may have to keep it!

 

 

 Love the tomato..

 

The labels look amazing on the stained wood.

 

Yes, they are originals, and yes I am looking at scanning them and saving the originals. Office Max here I come.

 

I am also looking at vintage Christmas postcards to put on the smaller boxes with the Christmas trees...loving that idea.

 

I also did a little bit of flea marketing. Found a couple things. I am not having a lot of luck lately. But I keep trying!

 

I loved this fish! And thought it would go very well with the frog I found a couple months ago. So funny, I looked for one of these for years and have found two that compliment each other just in the last couple months!

 

 

Too bad I am not one to use sponges...oh well, they are still cute on the counter.

 

I found another chip/dip. Makes two for me. I think I will have to try the recipe on this one!

 

 

Loved this for my husbands ashtrays and the couple old pipes we have.

 

 

I thought this box was kinda cool, not sure what it was originally used for, not sure what I am going to use it for, but I liked it!

 

 

 

 Two more Hazel Atlas creamers, same color that I already have...for .50 each, I grabbed them and they are bound for Ebay.

Autumn has finally decided begin...I think. At least the A/C is off and I can wear a sweatshirt without actually sweating. We did a quick run to the Nashville Farmers market and came away with a bunch of pumpkins and gourds, having a lot of fun with them!

 

Back to hammering this week. I put off the garden sentiment spoons and jumped right into Christmas ornaments. Preparations are coming along pretty well, with any luck I will be ready ahead of schedule!

 

Hope  you are getting to enjoy some cool Fall weather!

The woman has questionable taste.....

The woman of questionable taste would be me.

 

Proof? This Rooster.

 

In my defense, he originally belonged to my mother in law, who paid actual money to bring him home. For me, he was free. Pulled out of a deep dark closet by my brother in law who set him out in the Goodwill pile.

 

But no....

 

He caught my eye, I have no idea why. But I kinda like him. He is going to go live in my she shack with my chipmunk. Because my family is horrified at my creepy little pet collection.

 

Speaking of creepy....the rooster was not alone in the closet.

 

 

I hope the Squirrel and the Chipmunk do not bully the rooster. I must have harmony in the shack and my family will not allow them to live anywhere else.

 

Are there more vintage creepy chalk ware animals in my future?

 

Probably, I feel a bunny is a necessary member of the shack family, oh and I would never pass up a deer! A new flea market list has started.

 

More antiquing coming up this weekend I hope I find something fun!

 

Hammering away at Christmas ornaments this week, With any luck I will be completely finished hammering all the stock for the Home for the Holidays show by the end of next week. Call me a cock eyed optimist.

 

Hope you are having a great week!



A little flea marketing...

Forgive the bad pictures, I have been hammering and missed my opportunity to get some good pictures before the next storm rolled through tonight!

 

Even with all the hammering I have been doing, I am still managing to squeeze in a little vintage treasure hunting! The September Nashville flea market was this past weekend, it was ok, but not the haul I hoped for. Again, I was surprised at how many vendors were missing. I also managed a quick trip to my favorite indoor flea market a couple Saturdays ago and a lunch time run to the local thrifts last week.

 

Since my "big score" lunch time score this past August, I really have not had any luck on my lunch time runs to the thrift stores, not that that will stop me from trying! It is such a nice stress reliever in the middle of the day, well, even better stress reliever if I actually score something fun.

 

Last weeks thrift score, this cool milk glass bowl. I have no idea if it is vintage or who the maker is, it says something "France" on the bottom, hard to make out, but I really like the pattern and it is a great size. Also grabbed these two Fire King green cereal bowls with the black rim at the Nashville Flea Market this past weekend, I happen to have the set of mugs that match it so I was pretty tickled to find them.

 

 

My mom and I puzzled over this at the Flea Market. I thought it was really cute, but was not sure what it was, Mom solved the mystery, its a baby bottle! Too cute!

 

 

And my "purple bottle guy" talked me into two more bottles, stupid cheap because he had not had the time to clean them after digging them up. Ok with me, I let them soak in denture cleaner, that seems to work.....these are pretty filthy so it maybe several soaks in denture cleaner!

 

Back in the day when I first started collecting, I collected lady head vases and planters, really every kind of planter and figural vase imaginable, McCoy, Hull, Lefton and Royal Copley all came home with me. And even though I do not pick them up very often anymore, every once in awhile I see one that I just cannot pass up. This Royal Copley mama and fawn vase has been on my watch list for years! Have seen it only once or twice in the wild, passed on them because of price both times. But when I saw it at the Nashville Flea this weekend, I decided it was time to come home with me. 25.00 for the vase and the two Fire King cereal bowls. I call that a decent buy, plus, I kinda have a thing for deer, I have a lot tucked around the house.

 

 

I found this cute little plant shelf at my favorite indoor flea market. It is the perfect size for my 1960's arm chair I have it sitting next to. Notice the tiny travel clock? This was another indoor flea market fine. This tiny German made clock does not work, but I can get the alarm to jingle away! One of these days I need to get my collection of clocks fixed so they all run!

 

 

 

Not a thrift find, by my dear Auntie was cleaning out her cookbooks and sent me a couple from her collection. They were given to her years ago, she thought they were cool...and I do as well. I love old cookbooks, such fun to read and see how our entertaining and eating habits have changed over the years! Most things have changed for the better, but not all! There are some pretty interesting recipes that I am really excited to try! I will let you know how they turn out!

 

I think this one is my favorite, so cool!

 

 

I always look for the dirtiest page in an old cookbook, if the page is splattered on, you know they cooked that recipe often! I also always look for clips saved in the pages and any notes in the margins. Granny cooking knowledge gold!

 

This one is so fun! Check out that price! Expensive book for the 40's!

 

 

I managed to finish all my herb markers AND the wine bottle charms this week. Next week the Garden themed sentiment spoons are on the agenda. I am putting off the Christmas ornaments and trees as long as I can, I am not one to like to think about Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving! But if I am going to have Christmas product to sell for the show in November, I better suck it up and deal.

 

Hope you are having a fantastic week!

 



Blood blisters, sweat and profanity....

Mid September and It is still hot here in Middle TN, but despite the heat I have stuck to my schedule and have been  hammering away at making a new batch of my basic stock of herb markers.

 

It took two blood blisters, about four gallons of sweat and a string of profanity to get down to 12 herb markers in under two weeks, but...I am almost there.

 

I am not even sure how many there are. This is only some of them.

 

 

So once there are complete, I move onto a smallish batch of garden sentiment spoons, Christmas ornaments and wine bottle markers. And there is more!

 

Remember my super cute herb marker planter boxes?

 

 

Not a single, solitary one sold.

 

So, plot twist! Some are coming back with Christmas trees tucked in them!

 

 

18" trees tucked into these cute boxes. I found tiny strings of battery operated lights and will add a cute Christmas theme spoon to the box.

 

And I will have smaller ones as well. I accidently ordered 8" trees. This will teach me to shop on Amazon after 10:00 on a Friday night when not wearing my glasses.

 

It all works out in the end, I had some cute vintage aluminum cups that I picked up at the flea market years ago, the tiny trees fit perfectly inside. Off to market they go!

 

I managed to get some flea marketing in as well, but I will show you those along with (hopefully) a nice haul from the Nashville Flea Market coming up this weekend!

 

Until then, apologies to my neighbors for the hammering every night!

 

Have a great week!

 

 

It's Pumpkin Spice Season...

Apparently Pumpkin Spice season officially kicks off September 1st here in the South. Don't get me wrong, I love fall as much as the next person, but I am not a big pumpkin spice lover, I don't like to burn pumpkin spice candles, buy out Mrs. Meyers pumpkin spice cleaner (although the Mum scent this year totally got me) and I certainly do not like pouring pumpkin spice creamer over everything. I love a good earthy spice scent, but I am more of a wood smoke, leaves and pine kind of person.

 

But pass a pumpkin muffin under my nose? I am there!

 

So for the pumpkin spice lovers out there, I hope you enjoy these!

 

Literally...pumpkin spice.

 

All dropped off at "The Basement" in Mt. Juliet this past Thursday night. While we were there, we grabbed some lobster at Cousins Maine Lobster food truck who was there for the Shop late evening. We really love lobster and their lobster rolls and lobster tacos are to die for!!

 

 

I have not had any luck during my lunchtime thrift store adventures the last couple weeks, but I did get a couple deals off Ebay.  Hoping to have some good luck at the Nashville Flea Market this month, September is usually a good month!

 

I love the Hazel Atlas Bee hive spice jars. This is my first from the Range top set. Will be hunting the salt and pepper next!

 

 

My obsession with vintage children's dishes continues. I just love this Hazel Atlas circus set! And at 15.00 including shipping, even for Ebay that is a decent buy.

 

 

So pumpkin spice season or not, Bruno and I are trying to enjoy every last minute we have in  the pool before cooler temps force us to move it back inside!

I

So, now serious prep for the Home for the holidays show will kick into high gear! I will start preparing all new herb spoons, but that is not all, will have all new stock of Christmas ornaments and some other fun ideas I cannot wait to share with you!

 

Hope you have a great week!

Slow progress is still progress right?

I did really well and kept on task all last week, hammering one to two sentiment spoons each evening to bring to the Basement before Thursday when they have the shop late event, and this Saturday when they have a pop up craft market. But then the Holiday weekend hit, and my hammer stopped. I still think I can get a few more together and dropped off by Wednesday night. Then I need to really get serious so I am ready for November!

 

One thing I never have to work at is thrifting! I cannot believe I have not posted about this Thrift market find from one of my lunch time runs a couple weeks ago. Dove grey Pyrex plates. Three dinner plates, four salad plates and two bowls..12.00 total. From what I am seeing on Ebay, that is an excellent price. But because I always have to get a full setting, well at least place setting for four, I am on the hunt for another 9" dinner plate and two bowls. But I love the hunt!

 

 

 

And this flame orange Fire King casserole jumped right off the shelf into my basket! Love the color!

 

 

See the sweet potatoes? MJ Farmers market purchase, once we got them home and took a look, we noticed one of them looked a lot like a stomach and intestine.

 

 

This will not be fun to peel, LOL.

 

I also had a little luck on Ebay. I have been watching for some of the Shenandoah pattern Pyrex bowls. I seldom see them locally so I have been looking around on Ebay. Found this great set two bowls, just under 20.00 shipping included.  I would have paid that if I had found them at the Flea market for that price so I call it a good deal.

 

 

So what did I do all weekend if I was not hammering? We shopped, did some work around the house, slept in, ate good food and watched WAY too much TV (If you liked the book Ordeal by Innocence, skip the mini series on Amazon, they got the title right and that is about it) Being an Agatha Christie fan, I was not amused at how they changed a story that did not need to be changed...rant complete.

 

Oh and I swam and read magazines and lounged in my she shack,  Bruno and I love to relax in the backyard. But as much as I enjoy the beautiful summer, I am looking forward to cooler temps and crisp fall evenings.

 

 

It will be back to hammering tomorrow, I will make sure to get some pictures to show you what I have prepared!

 

Until next time! Hope you have a wonderful short week!!

Sometimes you need a kick in the pants.....

For the last 18 months  or so, I have been struggling to be creative and keep my little blog and micro business going. A super busy, high stress job and long difficult commute were the biggest drain on my time and energy, really wore me down and made it difficult for me to spend time working on new product and ideas, I would get spurts of energy, but could not seem to keep the momentum going. But now one month into the new job with a much shorter commute, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. But I still have not been creative. I sometimes need a kick in the pants to get me moving. Well, I got that kick, decided to go ahead and participate in the Home for the Holidays show in November, will be my fourth year and I am pretty excited about it.

 

It will be back on our usual weekend (November 10th) my mom and my friend Kim, (who makes amazing concrete planters and wine chillers) along with several other crafters are going to join me in the booth.  Should be a fun event, and it was just what I needed to get me going again.

 

So when I hit the Nashville _Flea Market this weekend, you know what I came home with!

 

 

And not much more!

 

August is a toss up month for me, If I did not need the flatware in my stash, I may not have bothered, There was not much to be found. Other than the spoons, I only came home with a couple treasures.

 

I almost passed on these salt and pepper shakers because the vendor was beyond rude, So rude in fact that I will not shop his booth again.

 

 

And this scrapbook (empty) probably circa 1940's caught my attention. I will probably use for some of our own family photos.

 

 

I totally forgot to show you this Nashville flea market find from a couple months ago. This has been on my wish list for a long time. Love it! It is very old and has obviously been used a lot! I love that as well.

 

 

I have had some luck at the local thrifts lately. Like this Turkey platter, old and beat up, but I still like it!

 

 

And this darling gravy separator.

 

 

And a random green Pyrex casserole.

 

 

Huh....I must have Thanksgiving on the brain already.

 

Next months Flea Market should be a really good one! But I will be hitting the thrifts until then!

 

So off I go into a new week with a bunch of new projects and ideas swimming around in my head for the Home for the Holidays show, I think it was just the kick in the pants I needed to get back in the groove!

 

I will check in with you soon hopefully with some new ideas to show you!

 

Hope you have a great week!