Auction Night

Mike and I found ourselves with not much to do on Saturday night and a need to get some more furniture into our booth. We sold the Red Vintage Cabinet and the three tiered stand(both pictured) so things are starting to look a little more bare...we really need some larger pieces in there. So, we went to an auction on a Saturday night and surprisingly so did about 50 other people!

For those of you who have never been to an auction think garage sale but with an auctioneer and you can get some great buys because you don't have the woman who bought it 25 years ago telling you about all of the sentimental value - just some guy who wants to make a buck and could care less if he sells you a box full of fabulous glassware and china for $5...or even $2.50. You walk around box by box as he auctions and then you get to sit down while they auction off the more valuable items and larger furniture pieces. We ended up with no furniture sadly but some great glassware and a few pieces of china. All have been cleaned and are on their way to the booth and will be posted on the website under a new section called "one of a kind".

Here is a sampling of some of the great finds. A glass cake plate, a silver plated pitcher and decorative vase, a low wide bowl with silver plated base and the cutest I think of all is the little footed plate. I didn't see it until we were home unloading the boxes. It is darling! Click here to view these items and more in my new "one of a kind" section on my website which I'm updating Monday :)!

Blog, Blog, Blog

I have recently been sucked into the blogging world. I find myself reading specific blogs daily if not twice a day to see what cute thing this girl or that is creating, selling, cooking or just writing about - it has become quite addictive...a little snapshot into someone else's life...so very fascinating! I decided to share what I do via blog with well, whomever may be interested. Probably just my family and friends :) I think this will be a great way to keep everyone updated on what's going on with me.

The picture is of me at my Holiday Open House at Southern Accents Designer Showcase in Mt Pleasant, SC. I have a booth, a whole 100 sq feet to merchandise my product and play! I buy furniture at local auctions and refinish it by painting it and usually distressing it. I also find a lot of glassware and one of a kind mirrors, etc at auction to resell. I buy all my other product wholesale. I love all things vintage, I swear I was meant to be born in 1920...I love everything from 1900 - 1950 - I think it is all just so beautiful! I have always dreamed of having a little shop to sell all the great stuff I can never find anywhere else. I have walked into a handful of shops and said, wow, I love everything in here! That's the shop I want. I've actually had a couple girls say that to me at my booth - what a wonderful compliment! So, I hope this booth is the beginning of something even bigger!

Sugared Fruit

I have no idea why I'm so intrigued by sugared fruit but I am...it's as if it's a childhood memory that I just don't remember, but I must have experienced it in my past to be so excited about the idea of it! It started when I saw this picture, a darling little wedding cake topped with what else but sugared fruit. Voila, I have a theme for my wedding. Yes, on 9/29/07 Mike and I will be surrounded by family, friends and sugared fruit! He's such a good sport :) And if he only knew how much money we're going to save on centerpieces! Of course, I will just reallocate those funds for flowers elsewhere :) So, Christmas time rolls around I see these cute little crab apples and lady gold apples in the Harris Teeter (my grocery). I of course have to buy pounds, yes pounds of them and try my hand at sugaring some fruit! A couple years ago I had purchased apple cones for both me and my aunt who is very, very crafty. I had never used mine until this Christmas and I was thrilled with the results! Although I did end up making a second trip to the grocery store for more, yes more apples! I had to use some of the larger apples to fill in around the bottom and to make this a more reasonably priced project, those little crab apples are expensive! The leaves are from our little condo compound here in Marshview Villas - they have beautiful landscaping, so I just took some snips from outside - they worked great. So, back to sugaring. I bought a spray adhesive and sprayed each apple and then sprinkled sugar over it and that's about it, much easier than I thought it was going to be. I would like to try it again using light corn syrup(I've heard that works...), the spray adhesive kind of smells like, well, spray adhesive and although they are dry (it's been a week now) I still can kind of smell the adhesive, not a nice smell for my wedding reception. I did try something to see what might work for my actual reception (we're doing one long family style table that will seat 40 or so guests). These footed bowls (I love the way the fruit looks in milk glass) will be down the table maybe with some small (small as in juice glass small) arrangements of flowers. The good news is that the fruit is still fine after a week, so this might be something I can do myself a week or more before the wedding. Ah, the sugared fruit obsession continues, maybe I'll try lemons and limes in the Spring!

O Christmas Tree....

Our beautiful Christmas tree, purchased at Huck's Produce here in Charleston, SC. I added a new glitter star topper to our tree along with new bows, in a persimmon color - kind of an orangey pink, quite beautiful I must say! I love the color that adding bows does for the tree. I tried to find mercury glass ornaments this year but didn't come across any that I loved, there is always next year! Our lovely christmas tree did produce some extra branches that needed to be cut off so I created some swags for around the house. Pictures of those to be added later, I can't believe I didn't take any!..

Merry Christmas and Merry Decorating!

I think everyone has a favorite part of Christmas and all of it's many traditions. Gift giving, gift getting, baking, wrapping, decorating, entertaining. I must say I love it all but this year I think I enjoyed the decorating the most. Our little condo on the marsh here in Folly Beach, SC had every last corner decorated. If I intend on bringing more holiday decor into the house we may need a bigger house, there is just not enough room to decorate without looking, well, over the top. I included a pic of the house in the middle of the mayhem, I was wrapping, decorating and baking all at the same time, it was madness. It's hard living away from all of your relatives, I felt like it was the day after Christmas on 12/16 because I had just mailed out all the gifts to all of our families and friends. Then there was a whole other wave of baking and wrapping to prepare for actual Christmas, I guess it's a good thing to have it split up like that, keeps me on the ball! The wreath in these pictures is one I just had to have. The downside of having my booth in a store with 50 other like minded women is that well, we buy each others wares(a bad thing when you're trying to make $$ there, not spend it)! And we are sometimes pretty secretive about our suppliers, hey, have to stay competitive! Well, I loved this wreath and just yesterday Mike and I were in Lowe's (he shopping, me reading) and I picked up Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion and there was my wreath with the designer who makes it - I will definitely be checking them out at the wholesale market in Atlanta! And no, I never thought I would be a reader of something called a "home companion" but I must say I loved it! I will be a new subscriber.Another favorite new item this year are these garlands I made out of vintage Christmas postcards from my very own family. Back in September at my sister's baby shower my aunt gave me bags full of these vintage postcards along with cut outs from magazines, cookbooks, etiquette books, all from the early 1900's - so very fascinating! They are all from my great grandmother, my aunt had kept them all of these years after finding them while cleaning out her house after she passed away. I'm not one for keeping things but I might just have to keep all of my Christmas cards now that these have been found! I took all of the postcards and made garlands for each of my sisters and aunts - they were a huge hit! My aunt had thought that maybe I would want to make something with them and sell them in my booth - I just couldn't part with family heirlooms like this, they are too wonderful.