July Brimfield Antique Show -- YEAH!!

The weather was hot and super icky humid this week, until.....yesterday!  A great day to take in the July Brimfield Antiques Show.  July is always a questionable show for me to attend.  With the girl's summer schedules varying so much from year to year and hot weather being a huge factor in attending, I'm never quite sure if I'll be able to go.  But everything worked out well.  Girls were all set, the weather was picture perfect and I had some money in my pocket so off I went for  great day.  Here are the pictures of my finds.

Love the graphics on the old battery sales rack from the 50's.  The star is for Heidi's room.  Good combination of her love of old licence plates and stars.  This five point star is made from old Massachusetts plates.  The dealer makes them for all states. 

Love the patten  and the soft jadeite color on this roll of vintage wallpaper.

 

The metal item is an expanding vintage dish rack that I intend to use as a file folder holder/organizer.  The paper is a vintage biscuit store inventory pad.  The crocheted pot holders are intended for unique appliques on chenille pillows I plan to make out of the pale blue spread draped over the chair.

Love these little aluminum numerals.

The flowers on the hat will be removed and used for a variety of projects.  LOVE the old-new stock sweater clip!  I will look so vintage when I pin it on my little cotton shrugs.

The little tins are destined to become pin cushions.  The two small glasses will be added to our Swanky Swig collection (I show them all on a blog some day.)

Some aprons to sell.  Some to keep and add to my personal collection of aprons to both wear and enjoy looking at.  The chiffon one on the left was made with sections of a vintage handkerchief.  The one in the center front was made from a feed sack.

Love the color and pattern on this vintage dress.  I have to let our the hem, and then it will be a perfect fir for me.  I even found a vintage full satin slip to wear underneath.

Here is a happy little picture to leave you with.  I bought this aqua polka dot work dress for the fabric (it was made for a very large woman and has many holes in it, but the fabric is great 40's fabric).  Earlier in the morning I picked up the little red and white stool.  Come lunch time, I found myself a shady spot with a tree to lean against, spread out the dress as a blanket and used the little stool as a table for my lunch with the vintage thermos and plaid lunch box I bring my lunch in.    Oh it set quite a happy mood for my day!  It makes me feel good even today. 

Antique Marketplace Weekend

Well, it wasn't the blowout that I had last month, but the Marketplace still saw good sales for me for July.  Being July, I wasn't surprised at the slower paced turnout.  It is peek vacation time and folks are saving their time and money for activities with the family.  All in all, I did very well, however, and the few items that did not sell will no doubt disappear from my space at the Cooperage in the month to come.  Here are some happy pictures for you to see.

Here's my happy little corner again.  Still using just a half space and that seems to fit me just right.  Look closely and you'll see some of the flea market finds on display.  The white bookshelf was a red brown.  I gave it a coat of cream paint and distressed it.

The little early fold up crib from a flea is here holding linens.  Next to it is a little flea table, once mahogany colored, now distressed cream with a glass top on the inset of the table top.  I put newspaper ads from the 1920's under the glass, but it can be changed out to suit the owner and/or the holiday or season.

Remember the little yard sale free find I blogged about two weeks ago.  This green and black piece is the transformation.  I put a piece of moulding down the center front to hide the gap where the two nightstands had been joined years ago.  Two curio shelves were glue together to form the new top and back splash.  I also made two little brackets to hold up a new shelf along the back splash.  It all got a couple coats of paint, a good distressing to look timeworn and some distressed black knobs.  I am so proud of how this piece morphed from the little piece with potential into this finished work.

These three drawers had no home, long since separated from their unit.  I gave them a coat of paint inside and out, distressed and waxed them and labeled the bin pull handles with stamped numeral names and presto, cool storage bins for some one's shelf or bookcase. 

This piece was from Brimfield in May.  I finally got around to scrubbing all the grime off and making new labels for the drawers.  Love the aqua color.

Last to show you is this piece that was sold outside.  It started out as two sets of vintage black shutters with tulip cutouts.  I cut off the bottom couple inches to have a flat straight surface, screwed them all together with the addition of some pieces of wood, added three shelves, gave it all a coat of green paint and then distressed it to let the black show through.  Neat!

I love how this turned out.  I have two more sets of shutters, so I think I'll make another unit.  The only question is do I sell it or keep it?  Hmmm.......?

Meet Myrtle

Meet Myrtle, my 1960 vintage Fan trailer. She sits in my front yard under a little canopy built just for her. She is my personal sanctuary. Something that belongs only to me. You moms know that when you can't even claim bathroom time and space for your own without being interrupted by a child or spouse, how wonderful it is to have something that is yours and yours alone. Myrtle is my little bit of totally personal space. No one goes in, but me, unless invited by me. My only regret? I don't have the time I would like to spend out there! In a perfect world, I would have a cup of tea out there every day, and maybe even a snooze. As it is, this time of year is hard with gardening, yard work, and the kids home from school all summer. Even still, I take delight each day when I spend even a few moments on her "porch" watering the pretty flowers there. One of these days, I'll show you the inside of my little vintage world. Till then...

Flowers - A - Bloomin

The gardens are so pretty.  We had a good dose of rain and now with a good dose of sun, everything is looking soooooo pretty.  Remember the hydrangea buds in a previous post?  Well they're breaking out in blooms!  Love the robin's egg blue hue mixed with the cream and pale green.

Look at the raindrops on the petals.  A quick passing shower left these little rain kisses behind.

Amazing!  Look at the detail of these little flowers.  They are smaller than a pencil eraser and cover the winter berry bush they are on by the thousands.  God's orchestration of nature never ceases to awe me with it's completeness and grand details.

This last one is taken from underneath my fuchsia blooms. Oh, it is all just so pretty...........

Tuckered, But Content

Our dogs LOVE to swim.  This is probably an understatement.  They will seek out the smallest puddle of water and ask to swim.  Over the years, they have learned that it is not allowed if they are wearing a leash, but walking off leash is another matter.  All water is fair game then.  Even in winter, if they can find a small opening in the ice, they are in!  Crazy dogs.  Fritz took them out for a long walk, culminating in a swim.  They lay tired, but content on the deck drying in the sunshine.  We should all be so content with life.

Honey taking advantage of the rail as a sensible headrest.

Maisy, all sprawled out catching 40 winks.

Independence Day Thoughts of My Dependence

A happy Independence Day to everyone.  I have a corner of my dining room where sits an antique school desk given to me by my grandma.  It was not one she sat in as a child, but one she purchased and had in her dining room for years before passing it on to me.  It is often a place that I decorate for a holiday.  For the month of July, it will be decked out with vintage memorabilia with a flag theme, to pay respect to the courage of those who fought both with words and thoughts and force to create this free nation we live in.  I was going to take a picture of it and post that as my piece for the 4th of July today, but my thoughts have turned elsewhere and I wanted to share them with you.  I don't usually blog this way, but today I am going to be long winded.  It begins with a story of what happened to me on Friday. 

This is my outdoor area where I do most of my outdoor painting and restoration work.  The sand circle used to hold a small swimming pool that the girls have long since outgrown the desire to have, so now it is employed as my "can make a mess here area."  On Friday, I had about 5 different projects going on in this little space.  Imagine the plastic tarp covered with large paint chips and sanding dust and sand tracked across it.  It was a mess.  My final project was to scrape down a six foot long peeling bench.  After finishing, I removed my dust mask, but unfortunately, the elastic band caught my ear, snagged on my diamond earring and popped it out of my ear, flinging it yonder.  I heard a tiny "plip" making me think it hit the tarp. 

Let me backtrack a moment.  I wear diamonds in my ears every day.  Years ago, my ears became very sensitive to any thing worn in the piercing hole except for a tiny bit of gold.  Fritz took Kayleigh shopping one Christmas season and together they bought me a pair of diamond earrings that I wear every day since.  I lost one once while out doing a day's worth of activities and was crushed.  It is not so much the loss of a diamond (it is just a thing after all) but the loss of an item attached to the memory of Fritz and Kayleigh picking these out for me and their joy at doing so together, and of Kayleigh being so excited as a little girl having gotten to do this for me.  I treasure the feelings it brings forth.  So for several months, no set of earrings.  For my birthday later that year, Fritz and I went and replaced the earring.  We traded in the larger remaining diamond earring for a set of two new smaller ones.  Now the memories are even nicer, for what started with Fritz and Kayleigh, continued with Fritz and me.  Back to wearing my diamonds everyday, and then Friday, "plip" one is gone and now very much like the proverbial needle in a haystack.  Finding my small diamond in that mess or in the grass around the mess if it had bounced off the tarp, seemed impossible. 

I called to Fritz and Heidi, who were home inside the house, and together we searched for the earring to no avail.  I was on my hands and knees with them, scouring every inch of the tarp.  No diamond.  I went inside to fix supper which was long overdue, leaving Fritz and Heidi still looking.  No diamond.  My plan was to go back out after supper and carefully sweep the tarp and sort through all the junk collected for the diamond.  If I could not find it, I would go out with the flashlight after dark and see if it might catch the light.  I went out alone after dinner, picked up my broom and with my first stroke simply opened a conversation with God as I often do (my favorite form of prayer) and told Him that I would really like to find that diamond if it was okay with Him.  I walked to the corner of the tarp where there was the least amount to sweep, and where by the way I had spent most of my time earlier looking on hands and knees (as Fritz and Heidi had been looking on the other side), and there lying as plain as day was the diamond stud, not a thing around it, not a thing covering it, just as plain as could be, my diamond.

At church yesterday, the youth pastor gave the sermon as the regular pastor is on a mission trip in Kenya with a group of folks from our congregation.  He talked about how blessed we are to be living in a nation of freedom.  Freedom to work whatever job we choose, live where we want, send our children to school where we want, pray and worship how and where we want, love whom we want to, etc., etc.  But with so much freedom, often comes insecurity.  When we are free to define ourselves, we often find ourselves wondering, "Who am I?  Who should I be?  What should I do?  How should I do it?  Does anyone even know I am here?"  He reminded us that though we are free, we are not best off when we are independent.  We are, and need to be, dependent on something greater than ourselves.  That something is a Someone:  God.  Jim reminded us (and this really hit home, having the experience I did on Friday) that we need to go to the source when we are looking for answers.  Just as when he could not find his swimming  trunks and towel he had left in the dryer, he had to go to the source of the laundry chore (that day, his older daughter) to find where they had disappeared to.  Going to the Source provides us answers, comfort, love, acceptance and so much more.  Psalm 37 vs.5 says to "Commit everything to the Lord.  Trust him, and He will help you."  It wasn't until I quietly went to the Source on Friday and asked for His help that I met with success in finding my diamond.  It wasn't so much that I found the diamond (a thing) that excited me, but the right-in-your-face reminder that God was there with me, cared about my loss, and helped me find it.  I am important to Him, just as we all are, and He was letting me know right then and there in a great big, tiny way.  Now the memories attached to that little diamond are even more precious.

It is interesting that in writing the Declaration of Independence, our forefathers reference God four times:  one as the Maker of the laws of nature, one as the Supreme Judge of the world, one as Divine Providence and one as the Creator of all things.  While this document was being written as an assertion of their "independence" to the king of England, they were at the same time submitting to their "dependence" on God in this new endeavour of becoming a separate, free nation.  This truism, along with my experience on Friday and our pastor's well spoken message on Sunday, fills me with such joy and gratitude.  I live in a nation of freedoms, under a God who loves me and has time for me even on a balmy summer night in a sandpit.  How much more reason do I need to celebrate?! 

Happy Independence Day and may you also know the great joy of  being dependent!

Independence Weekend Flea Market

I got up bright and early today and ventured off to the flea market.  I knew it would be small since it was a holiday weekend, but there were just enough dealers there to make it worthwhile for me.  Even with the slim pickins, I managed to spend most of my money and bring home some happy treasures.  Here's a peek:

An old folding chair from a theater long since gone, a two tiered green tool box, a wooden footlocker box, a 1950's copy of Better Home and Garden's Handyman book, some vintage juice glasses and glass canisters, some soldier's note paper, a vintage clipboard, some one's 1940's wedding photo, a scrapbook full of magazine clippings, some vintage tinware, a great vintage file box from the Statistics Bureau, an old box of Rit Dye, and an old percolator that will become a planter.  (The wood bench is being sold, but from my own stash, not from today's flea.)