My local flea market, vintage jewelry finds, vintage bird cage and my new crafting room.........eventually!

Hi folks! Take a look at all my pics today as they cover a wide range of subjects, that's for sure! First pic is my now newlywed living in California daughter's room! Yes, it is pepto-bismol pink! When she was here it was darling I admit but now she has taken alot, left alot and some stays and some goes. However, it is going to be my new craft room hopefully sooner than later. And yes (don't tell my daughter) it is going to change colors! My "room" will be all shades of whites and beiges plus some baby pink and a touch of black! 

  One thing I recently bought is the black antique office chair and I found it recently at a garage sale for $25.00. I knew the older woman, I grew up with her daughters, and she said it came out of her father's sewing machine repair shop on South 17th street, now long gone. I love old McAllen memorablilia and was thrilled to know the history of this piece. It has a good home now!

 Now for a look at one of my local flea markets! Yes, that sign reads in spanish & english as this flea is only about 5 miles from the Mexico border....yes, I live in DEEP south Texas and have almost all my 53 years! It is not like it used to be but it is still home! Just for the record I have been coming to this flea since I was about 14 years old! Of course over time my tastes have changed considerably but no matter what my "style" or "wants" at the time, I can usually find something I "need"! Husbands just hate that word!

 This was an old drive-in theater so the front area is paved with slopes where your car would face the screen. For years there were lots of speakers on poles but now only a few poles remain. Check out this fruit and veggie stand, yum! Behind it is another stand that sells old linens, bedding and miscellaneous.

 Here is one of the parking areas-there are three at this flea. This one is a mess after rain which sadly isn't often. Fortunately this week we have a chance of rain over the next few days!!!

 Another pic of a booth that sells furniture and there are lots of boxes of stuff-you never know what you might find!!!!

 I found a woman selling some jewelry, new and old, of which I picked out these things. This vintage  large-sized multi-hued pearl necklace has a wonderful round sterling and rhinestone clasp. The vintage oblong scarab bracelet is signed Winard and gold filled. The small vintage woven ring is sterling and gold filled and is worn but sweet! The best piece, which is MINE-at least for now, is a vintage french coin ring that appears to be handmade and just fits my pinky!

 This old vintage birdcage jumped into my truck at a local resale shop. Well, it had help getting in my truck, and no, it will not be blue much longer. I have the most wonderful powdery baby pink paint in a spray can that will be used on this shortly. The birdcage is one of the items I want to display in my new craft room!

 I have always wanted a vintage bottle rack but they are so expensive!! I actually bought an AWESOME antique half-round one several years ago that my mother talked me out of-one of my big regrets-and darn it, she loves it!!!! I don't blame her. Well, I was scouting out some of my favorite blogs earlier this year and came across this rack at Laurie Anna's blog and online shop. It was new, looked old and reasonable and boom, I bought it! Aren't credit cards and the post office wonderful!

I have vintage medicine bottles and flower pots on my rack and galvanized tubs on this antique marble table top on an antique iron sewing machine base table. This was my mom's but she didn't need it anymore, yea! More on my backyard another time. Whoops, it is starting to rain outside. Thanks God!

My shabby antique corner cabinet!

  I adore this cabinet! My family was heading back home from our daughter's college graduation last December. As we always do we shopped on the way home. We like to visit Laurent Street Antiques in Victoria as they are a mall with lots of vendors. They did not disappoint me! This cabinet was in a back room, undecorated, all by it's lonesome and with a big SALE sign on it! It was talking to me! I took my husband back to look at it and of course, what do ALL husbands say??? "Where are you going to put it?", right? I had a corner cabinet I was NOT in love with anymore so it was going......I told him I was going to make an offer and if they took it, great, if not, I wouldn't buy it! He seemed pleased with that! Especially since "he" would have to unload our bags and stuff in the back of the truck to fit this in! He was secretly hoping they would not accept my offer! Well, you know the answer and it is now in my hallway corner and brimming with favorite things!

  This cabinet is oak and would look wonderful refinished BUT who in their right mind would screw up that great shabby peely gray and pink paint? Not me! Now for the contents.....remember, you can click on all my pictures to get a better closeup view! I have little antique cups/mugs with all kinds of sayings...the one behind my handsome son's senior photo, one of many, has my initials! The little hearts frame is my husband with this same son as a baby! The small antique boxes are from my mothers collection. The dried flowers are one of my daughter's bridesmaids bouquets from her January wedding. And I have a matching vintage brooch and bracelet made of lucite and aqua berries found on eBay. I have a small tole tray at the back...I collect those, too! The large photo in the back corner is of my children long ago at their grandparent's home, looking out the dining room window one Easter. By the way, my parent's own the William Jennings Bryan home in Mission, TX. He lived here only briefly and there is a state historical monument out front.

  This shelf has one of my daughter's senior photos next to a wedding memento. There are more antique boxes, a antique paperweight and antique pincushion. There are 2 antique sterling repousse bud vases, unpolished sorry, with Charlotte's bridal bouquet next to them. There is also a very small jar FULL of old monopoly game pieces, love them! I collect antique mirrors so one is a backdrop on this shelf, several embellished domino holder/stands that I made and a tiny purple wooden bench found long ago at an antiques mall.

  From my recent purchase of milk glass came these wonderful medicine bottles. In all our 30 plus years in the antiques business I can say that I had never seen them in milk glass before. I found the little aluminum "laugh" letters on Etsy, the cups held heart shaped sweethearts conversation candies at the wedding and the vases & pewter goblet held individual fresh flowers there, too. The enameled flower decorated opaque glass box is an estate sale find. And check out another of my son's senior pictures sitting with a tiny hand painted vase on a little wooden lavender chair. It is one of my favorites of him with his bass from orchestra.

 This shelf holds more domino holders, dried flowers, antique milk glass medicine bottles and another of Charlotte's senior pictures. It was taken at a railroad loading station with a train car in the background. These sterling and milk glass candle holders were used at the wedding along with another bridesmaids bouquet. We also used the old scale in the wedding decorations and yes, I collect all kinds of clear jars and old mother of pearl buttons, any size! I collect LOTS of different things!!

  These galvanized buckets with enameled number hanging tags my daughter found at TJ Maxx for a song and we used these to hold flower arrangements on each table at the reception. They were awesome and we had lots of comments about them. The mercury glass type candleholders were also at the wedding/reception.
  I love the little wooden beaded trim around the top of this cabinet and please take note of the use of faded pink paint on the carvings. I am so glad to have found this wonderful piece and I have loved filling it with favorite things!!!

My antiquing junking shopping extravaganza..................

 Here is my faithful shopping companion. I fell in love with this truck on a used car lot 7 years ago and she has been wonderful. We have been on many trips, antiquing expeditions, 4 years of college move ins and move outs, across the country and in between. She can pull into an antiques shop without being told, ha!

 This week I have had extremely successful shopping for antiques, crafts supplies, projects, etc. My cup, or, truck, runneth over! I am particularly excited about that woven purse/bag. It is like new, very nicely made and is going to be transformed into a MacKenzie-Childs knock off, or at least my version! I can't wait!

 I made a house call to a former customer's house. She was downsizing and needed to get rid of a few things. Oh yes, that is music to my ears! I bought this antique wicker rocker and a small collection of milk glass items. My grandma collected milk glass for many years and I now have some of her pieces so I add a few things when I find some I like. Of course, some of these , I "like"! Duh!

 This customer helped me pack them into a box and here is a sampling of the goods. In over 30 years in the antiques business I can honestly say I have never seen milk glass medicine bottles like these. Jars, yes, bottles, no! Some of these items will be added to my booth, some on eBay and Etsy and some are MINE! That antique black milk glass bottle with the stopper, OMG! I LOVE that!

 I kinda opened up some of the paper to show some of the other pieces....more bottles, jars, shakers, vases, etc. That oval flask could be a goodie, we shall see. I think I will list it on eBay and see how it goes.

And because my truck is FULL I took my son's truck out this morning to a sale way out in the country. The ad sounded so good I HAD to go! I'm so glad I did. This wonderful antique oak dining table said "take me home" and I did! It will be at the antiques mall later today hopefully! Well I had to show what I have been up to this week. I hope I am not so bad-good-next week. I will post again soon to show off my great shabby peeling paint corner cabinet and all the neat things in it. Don't miss it!

Remembering February................

I was looking at pictures I had taken earlier this year and thought these would be worth sharing!  In February I took these 2 odd pictures of my daughter. They may not be anything special to you but they are very special to me. What Charlotte is doing, rather absentmindedly, is taking strands of her hair and curling and twirling them in her fingers and she has had this habit since she was very little. She does this with one hand then will switch to the other hand, over and over back and forth, while watching TV, on her computer or reading a book. Since we would be moving her to California in May I knew I wouldn't get to see her do this much longer so I snapped these pics. I realize they are nothing to look at but they are very special to me!

 Here is a pic of my Valentine's Day arrangement. I love decorating for each holiday! I adore domes and putting little vignettes in each one and have others scattered about the house. Please note the handmade valentines made by my children when they were little. You Moms out there understand-it seems like we save every little thing our children made! Most of my valentine decor is old or vintage with some new sprinkled in. Remember, you can click on each picture to get a closer look!

 February 28th is our wedding anniversary and each year my husband Terry and I like to take a long weekend to get away by ourselves and just enjoy each other's company, shop, dine, go to bookstores, etc. This time, our 30th anniversary, we went to Corpus Christi. We had not been there in years so it was nice to explore the area again. We splurged on a weekend at The Omni and felt so pampered. We had a view of the ocean and all kinds of little extras.
  We love to go antiquing together and hit many of the antiques malls, shops, thrift stores, etc. We even snagged some buys at an estate sale, the highlight of my buying part of the trip! At one mall I was amazed at some of the chandeliers they had. Someone had gone to great lengths to "decorate" them. The one above had all types of kitchen goodies and gadgets.

 This one was decorated with strands of buttons, beads and christmas ornaments. It also had old lace, tulle, flowers and some angels-though hard to see.

And still another had absolutely "loads" of pearls. Lots of strings of pearls of all shapes, sizes and color tones went on this one. Each chandelier was so unique! There were several more, not pictured-one that was an all red and green themed christmas decor. Another had pearls and then dangled 45 records from them, odd! This mall, the name leaves me now, was wonderful to look through. They had really unique things and the prices were not bad! Just thinking about all this and seeing the photos again makes me want to drive back up there. Maybe I can persuade Terry to go..........................

Summer is almost over & other things!

 Is this an angel or what? My husband is holding Miley, the third daughter of some sweet church friends of ours. She also just happens to be my daughter and her husband's godchild. Isn't she precious and LOVE that outfit! She is about 5 weeks old here and this was just taken Sunday. I just had to share!

 I am also sharing this pic of my daughter Charlotte at her Texas A&M University, WHOOP, graduation this past December. This leads up to her just getting her first teaching job.....TODAY! She is a newlywed (she and Tim married Jan. 14th) and is in beautiful Monterey, CA with her Air Force husband. They are living there for his training and now she will be teaching also! Praise God!

 This picture is from her birthday in May at a restaurant on Cannery Row in Monterey. They are so happy!!! Tim had been in a parade the day before and was sunburned, poor thing!

 Now I thought I would show some more things around my house! If you don't already know.....I LOVE stuff! I also love little stuff in little cabinets! This is a vintage tin and glass showcase chock full of goodies! Please note the mercury glass elephant on the bottom shelf which I adore. I also am fascinated with the moveable wooden hand. We had that in our shop to display with and after years of telling folks NO it is not for sale, I finally brought it home. I LOVE it! I also like stands of all kinds and clear jars with things inside.

 Here are some of my "stands". I managed to find a glass cheese dome lid that just fit this old silver plated compote, yum! Inside is a bird's nest that I made and then decorated with old pearls, eggs, christmas ornaments beads, feathers, etc.. The second small dome has a vintage style bird decorated ornament and several tiny vials of old china painting paint powder, so cute! The third stand was a porcelain cake stand from Hobby Lobby that I found the right sized dome for and it is one of my favorites mainly because I love black and white. Inside this one are several really nice vintage bird figurines, a vintage christmas bead strand, an antique bird decorated trade card on a vintage metal spiked flower frog AND a fabulous antique black milk glass vase with white enameled flowers, a favorite. Look also at the little antique walnut chest that the first 2 stands are sitting on. I LOVE little drawers, too! Scary, I LOVE lots of things....and it shows!

 I bought this sweet old cabinet on one of our vacations several years ago. It can hang or sit so I chose "sit"! It is hard to tell but this little cabinet is just that, little. It only measures 11" tall so the items inside are small, too! There is a 1928 tennis trophy, vintage millinery flowers, old small christmas ornaments, old flowery pins and 2 photos on a tiny bench..I also LOVE benches of any size but especially little ones! The photos are of me holding Charlotte when she was tiny and the other is our son Dustin, also known as Bubba. Each of these little antique frames have rhinestone edges and are very collectible. I set the sweet vintage painted metal flower brooch outside the cabinet to show it off! Just my colors!

 I may have already posted about this old washstand. It was in our antiques shop warehouse for years before I finally got inspired with what to do to it. It was plain 'ole pine, and not very pretty pine at that. Now it has a Mackenzie-Childs style to it courtesy of some paint and I added wrapping paper and mod-podge for the corners.

Don't want to overload your senses too much so here is the last photo for today! These old french style chairs originally had smoker's tinged old blue velvet on them and I found this great zebra striped designer fabric on Ebay. Again, I LOVE black & white, Mackenzie-Childs, decorating magazines-see the pile in the basket, the color pink, etc. Okay, enough! More blogging another day.....stay cool!