Where have I been???

You know the old saying......time flies! Well yes it has! There are no excuses here. What can I tell you except that other things took up my time. My life and all that it entails. Family, so precious! And of course all those evil time stealers.....Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, candy crush and all those other games.......yes, I am guilty of all of these!
My family has changed a lot in the past year or so. My sweet Daddy passed away in January. Oh how I miss him! To be with a loved one at the end of their life is a precious thing. To be there as they slip away into God's open arms is a memory I will never forget. My 22 year old son, with us in that hospital room, said " I've never seen someone die before" and his Daddy and I said that we hadn't either. We let him know what a blessing it was to be there!
Another change in our family is a new baby, our first grandchild, a beautiful boy born in April! This is another moment I will never forget as I was at the hospital for his birth. What a blessing a new baby is! A new life! We are so so so in love.
Other things taking up precious time is my three antique mall booths. I love my booths! Who doesn't love having a mini store all their own? I love looking for new things for my customers and bringing them to the booths. Rearranging my booth is always fun, restocking, displaying and I also like to take pics of my booths. I usually post these on Facebook under Lynnesfinds, on Instagram under Lynnewilsonshropshire and of course, Pinterest under Lynne Wilson Shropshire.
While being in the antiques business for over 30 years I transitioned into conducting estate sales. This business is known as Estate Sales By Lynne. I cannot begin to tell you the satisfaction I get when helping folks with this service. One of my recent customers was downsizing and moving out of town. She thanked me profusely when the sale was over because she just didn't know what she was going to do. She even called me again several months later to thank me again, so sweet! That's what I like...satisfied customers!
I also sell online thru eBay and etsy also under the name lynnesfinds. Because of the above mentioned time stealers I don't list as often as I should so I need to work on that! :)
Well now I have updated! I am not going to promise to do it more often because life gets in the way, but, I will certainly make the effort to try. Have a blessed day and rest of your week!

Busy, busy, busy!

 My year has been blowing by so far, how about yours? Can you believe it is almost April? Wow! I for one have been very busy! I am in the middle of my third estate sale for the year and start my fourth tomorrow. Plus I have 2-3 more coming up. The Lord is good! In between working on these sales I sneak a little time to take care of my antique mall booths. I was there Monday sprucing up and adding more merchandise. In one of my booths I added some vintage watercolor paintings by Alberto Meza, all with south Texas wildlife and so detailed. There are also three vintage cactus paintings which used to hang in the Casa De Palmas hotel years ago. The Casa De Palmas still sits in the middle of downtown McAllen but is now called The Renaissance. My husband and I spent our wedding night there in one of the towers back in 1981. The towers are no longer open, boo! It is a beautiful old place! My mother used to be friends with the manager's daughter back in the 1940's or 50's and would swim in the pool.

 Here is a view of my second booth at Mimi's Attic. I completely rearranged it Monday and brought new things here, too! It is barely in the picture but in the top right corner is a vintage retro orange hanging light fixture covered in orange prisms, so cool!!! I found it at an estate sale years ago and my daughter used it in her room. It is so unique!!! You can always click on my photos to get a closer look!

 I have been rearranging/purging at my house too! I had my brother refinish my old hall tree which turned out really nice and brought it to the shop. It is so beautiful with a heart shaped bevelled mirror. Love it! I also tried my hand at Annie Sloan paint and book page wreath making! I painted this table and then accented it with gold trim. My two book page wreaths are hanging on the heart hall tree! I loved the Annie Sloan paint AND making the book page wreaths!

 Here is Mimi the owner of Mimi's Attic. She has recently changed everything around at the mall and it is looking wonderful and so inviting! She has some great antique showcases and counters at and around her checkout area just full of wonderful things to tempt you with! She works so hard and it is a pleasure to rent my booths from her! If you are local and haven't been to downtown Weslaco in awhile you are missing out! There are now seven shops selling antiques, collectible and vintage merchandise all within three blocks plus other stores and the Weslaco Museum. It is not that far either. I can get to her mall in about 20 minutes from my driveway in McAllen!

 We have had a glorious winter and spring with summer coming quickly. I stepped outside this morning and the weather is just beautiful! It was a bit windy and cool and just perfect! This pot of lobelia and petunias is just bursting with blooms. That petunia was barely alive when I bought it for 75 cents at Lowe's back in October. Amazing what a little tender loving care will do, huh? The purplish blue lobelia blooms are awesome but will be gone once our summer heat shows up around May.

 Since the weather was so awesome I decided to do some pruning and trimming. I have several piles now so I guess I went a bit trim happy but it was needed. I had put seed out for the birds right before I started trimming and they patiently waited in the trees and bushes for me to get finished so they could eat! My cat was right there helping me and she came to see where I went when I went inside for the camera.

Here is another pot of lobelia, geranium ivy, ornamental cabbage and lantana, so lush and overflowing!! Well, I enjoyed my morning but look forward to working my newest estate sale tomorrow! Stay tuned!!!