Monday, April 29, 2013

Sunday Lunch With My Kids


Sunday I had a celebration lunch with my children. Their dad made pork chops, a garden salad
and corn on the cob. I brought an appetizer and pound cake. We celebrated Edmund's 17th
birthday which is on May 1st and Ellie will finish her 1st year of  college at Sweet Briar. I am
so proud of them and love them both very much.:)

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Spring Flowers

My Spring flowers and the begining of Summer Flowers.












This Spring weather really has brought out beautiful color in my yard in just days.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Repurposing Antique Frames and Wallpaper

I have had a lot of empty antique frames come in recently. All are wood and either
gilded, carved or plain wood stain. I started playing around with ideas of ways to use
them. I thought about turning them into mirrors, but I have a lot of mirrors in here and
do not need any more. So here are a few of my ideas of what to do with them..........


I have three very large Seabrook wallpaper samples that have been discontinued that are too
pretty to just throw away. They have that Chinese hand painted look to them, I know that I
will have to get glass for the frames, but do they also need to be matted?


I brought in a painting I did last summer of some of my hydrangea flowers from my yard
to try in the frame that was white and gold and already had the glass in it. I am going to
take it home to try it, but wood insert cuts off the painting and the frame is too big for the
painting if I take it out and I don't really need the glass, do I? I wanted to hang this painting
in my bedroom on a blank wall.


Another thought was to frame these two beautiful, hand painted,original  wallpaper designs
I bought on Ebay last year and never did any thing with. If I nix the painting in the frame, I might
try the smaller of the two designs in this frame because it already has the glass and backing.



For a Saturday, it was a great day! I had a customer take a picture of Elfie and post it on
Facebook as a shop dog and a mother and daughter come in and spend hours trying on
all of the vintage hats that came in last month. One of the veil/birdcage feathered hats went
home with the mom on approval along with a vintage bag I had from Ebay.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Vintage Onion Dome Birdcage

Yesterday, after work, I went to meet a new consigner. This lady has quite the collection.
The lovely large onion dome birdcage above is one of about 75 birdhouses and birdcages
she has in her modest 1,500 sq foot house.

This metal and wood birdcage still has it's two feed trays and a removeable tray on the bottom.
I listed it on Etsy along with some other things to help my sales until business picks up. I wrote
down at least two pages worth of things that will be coming in from this house. She will have a
private estate sale first and then the rest will come to me. I will post pictures when the come in.
here is a teaser, losts of hutches and corner cupboards, wreaths antique chairs, all in a very
country look.
In the mean time ,I have a hand full of decorating jobs going on that are keeping me busy!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Shopping For Vintage Plates

I thought that at some point, I had posted about looking for a grouping
of vintage plates, leaf plates for the wall of my dresser. I wanted four
plates that would look good together to go around my beautiful Italian
mirror. I think it was the post about old furniture versus new furniture
when I replaced my computer station for a desk from Clash and Trash.

Two of the leaf plates on the right, I found on Etsy. My new go to place for almost everything now.
The bottom left plate I bought at Clash and Trash when I bought my new desk, that place always
has great stuff for really good prices! I know the balance is off, I need to lower the right bottom leaf
plate, I only see that stuff when I take pictures. I may still look for a bigger plate for that area.
until then, I am happy for now!
This is my lastest plate from Etsy, I love this pretty bird plate, $5.00 plus shipping! 
He is a little different than the others, still experimenting, I don't want everything to be so matchy- matchy.
This leaves me room to play around a little.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Bright Yellows Sing Spring

Bright yellow colors say Spring to me, and Spring is finally here. I started noticing
all the beautiful shades of yellow around my shop.........


Bright yellows, soft yellows and lemon yellows..............


Love yellow birds, old yellow pottery and sweet yellow bird houses.................


Don't you love the bright yellow Hoosier cabinet with the periwinkle inside and the old yellow
fabric on the french settee I bought in Asheville......
Last but not least, the cherry blossom branches I brought in to the store from the parking lot trees,
that says Spring.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Paint Job

My storefront finally gets a new paint job. It was supposed to done in the Fall, but
the weather would no cooperate. It had been 10 years since the building had been
painted and it really needed it.



You can see the old colors, dark green trim and the yellow door. A local architect firm
picked the old colors and the new colors. To paint the outside of your building, you have
to get the colors approved by the Staunton Historical Society and it helps to use an architect.
That speeds up the process.




Love the new colors, nice and bright and fresh. The paint is Pratt and Lambert and in shades of
cream, brown and a green door. Don't you love the sign my customer from Harrisonburg brought
to Elfie. Now I want to go home and paint my house. I hate my brick color, I wonder is you can
still white wash brick, is there a paint or process for that? I will investigate and get back to you on
that.......