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!!!

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!