Showing posts with label antiques. Show all posts
Showing posts with label antiques. Show all posts

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Classical Statuary in Eclectic Settings

Anyone that has "moved" can tell you that there will be certain items, that no matter how much you loved them in your old home, that just don't work well in the new abode. The architecture, furniture, setting...whatever...the personality of the new house just doesn't mesh with all your old decor.



Sunday, May 8, 2016

Vintage Blooming Prints and the Consult

I don't have a lot of "blooms" around here yet. I've been putting off planting containers outside until I felt more like taking care of them. Some days I don't get much accomplished except laundry and putting something easy together for dinner. I'm really missing the color of my spring containers full of Geraniums, Million Bells and Lantana. So for now, I'm enjoying these old prints on the console in the Entry. Hopefully, I can get some plants out in a few weeks. It looks sort of bleak and forlorn around here.



Saturday, October 17, 2015

Out and About for some Fall Fun

We're really fortunate to have so many wonderful antique shops, flea markets, boutiques, and tea rooms, here in Springfield, and the surrounding area. You can spend several days and you still couldn't see all that they offer. Delicious food, great antiques, fun vintage treasures to find...and most of all we have some fabulous local talent.



Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Life is like an old cupboard...

(feeling a little Forrest Gump-ish today)

Inevitably, when you move and downsize many of the furniture pieces you love and have collected have to be sold. Or in order to make the cut, they have to be relegated to different purposes and function. I can't tell you how much was sold last year, but let's just say it was literally truckloads. A couple of pieces that I could justify keeping were for storing things. I bought this piece to use at my antique mall space before I started blogging, but once I finished it, I realized it would be perfect for quilt storage in the downstairs guestroom. Now, it's in the basement/lower level kitchen nook next to the bar, displaying some of my odds and ends "collections".

Here at the new house


Saturday, May 30, 2015

A visit to Sandstone

Phone pics...I have a love/hate relationship with them. On one hand, I'm thrilled to have a way to capture images in my favorite shops spur of the moment, but on the other, mine are less than desirable straight off the photo roll. I took these images a couple of weeks ago when we were in Joplin. I'd never been to Sandstone Gardens, and it was a beautiful experience. The garden/green houses on each side of the main retail area were enough to make me want to come back. Oh, and the restaurant provided a wonderful lunch in French Country ambiance. 





Sunday, April 27, 2014

Mystery Solved...

There are times when you can look back and see where one small act changed the course of your life. What seems a random choice at the time, turns out to be one of those life altering occurrences. I'm sure we've all had them, but it's up to us, the individual, if we see them as coincidence, totally random, fate, luck, destiny, or maybe it was God moving us in a direction we wouldn't have otherwise traveled.




I'm going to tell you about one of mine...


It was after Christmas about nine years ago that I was cleaning off the downstairs mantel, putting away all the Christmas decor. I totally stripped down the large rustic wood beam that has always been a challenge to decorate properly. I tried several things but nothing seemed "right". I had a picture in my head about some sort of wooden box that would look good up there. I tried a few things we had, and nothing worked; too big, too small, wrong shape...nothing worked. The weekend came and I was on a mission to find "The Box". The "picture" I had was of a smallish box with a keyhole...I would know it when I saw it.



Real long story shorter...my hubbs and I decided to scope out all the antique malls and fleas in the area,. We'd have a fun weekend out and about, but in my heart it was the quest for this special box. So on Sunday afternoon, we happened into an antique mall that we hadn't been to before. Hey, my husband knew the owner from growing up with him and we chatted and reminisced before we checked out the booth spaces. Time got away from us and it was almost closing time when I spotted this worn out and used hard wooden box. Hallelujah, I knew right away that it was THE box I'd been looking for.





The markings on the top were worn out and barely discernible, the finish was rough and flaking, but it was the right size and had the keyhole. I brought it home, ran downstairs to the mantel, placed it in the center and said a "thank you, Jesus" prayer. It worked.



Fast forward, we started several antique mall spaces there, and never looked back. That was the beginning of our business. I'd been buying and selling antiques my whole life, but never had a shop or space. So the search for a small wooden box was the motivation to move us forward for a really wonderful time in our life. The antique malls, flea markets, and small shops eventually led me to this blog, and so here I am having gotten to know you all. And this has been one of the most rewarding times of my life.



Are you still interested in the "mystery"?

Well, we never could figure out what the box had been originally made for. We knew the inner lining and workings were gone. It also had "Switzerland" stamped on the bottom. We now have it setting on the arched opening from the kitchen as a kitty deterrent. Of course the first thing the girls wanted to do was hop back and forth from the sink to the loveseat below the opening. ah no... not happening.



Last Monday night we were watching one of our fave TV shows "The Blacklist", when lo and behold, there was an almost replica of our little wooden box. It was a music box that had been given to Lizzie by her father many years ago. If you don't watch the show, you're missing out. This is one of the best on television right now, so go catch up, it's a totally fascinating story line.




These are some photos from Google when I did a search.



I found examples of many different styles and sizes, each with a somewhat different design or crest on the top. I could barely make out the design on top of ours, which after searching, turned out to be a horn and probably a violin with other musical items. I never would have thought that it was a music box.

So, we finally have the answer to our little mystery after all these years;
A little worn out music box that has changed our lives...

joining in with these parties:

Amaze Me Monday at Dwellings
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Tweak it Tuesday at Cozy Little House
Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life
The Scoop at Cedar Hill Farmhouse
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

xoxo,

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Mid Summer Mantel


I know you all have been waiting for the next installment of 
"The Summer Mantel"
Sort of like how we're waiting for the next season of Downton Abbey...right? (I hope you all know that I'm a "kidder" from waaaay back) I guess that it's safe to say that it's "mid" summer, now that we're into the middle of July. 



And once it's past the July 4th holiday, and those wonderful little Black-Eyed-Susans start blooming, then I have to hold myself back from going Sunflower crazy.



A few weeks ago, on the way back from St. Louis we stopped at one of our favorite Antique Malls, Artichoke Annie's in Columbia, Missouri. It's a real quality mall; big, and full of great antiques. No "garage sale" items here. I saw tons of things I loved but I'm really watching what I buy, so my only purchase was a piece of Majolica; a small dessert plate that would match the other few pieces that I have.




Once I had that new plate,
I had enough to put together a little grouping on the mantel.


I love the wonderful colors of Majolica, 
mine all have the gold and green in common.


Even with chips, it's still collectible and doesn't break the bank.




The colors of the pottery play off the silk Sunflower and Rudbeckia
(part of the Daisy family) that are now in the Wolff  Pottery vases.
A little English Cottage metal doorstop sits in the middle.


These sunny warm colors are my go-to colors of late Summer.


I'm lovin' this Summery display, so it just might stick around 
for the next episode; the "Late Summer" mantel...




And here are a few pics of what's happening in the rest of the Living Room.





And here's my little Italian desk in the corner.
It doesn't make an appearance very often.





Sunflowers have popped up in other places too,
so stay tuned for some changes in the Dining Room.

I'll be joining in for these parties this week:

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
Tips and Tutorials at Stone Gable
Inspiration Gallery at Ella Claire


xoxo,

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Gotta Go Sale

This is a post, that I'm semi, sort of, embarrassed about, but I'm doing it anyway, hoping you don't mind looking at a few photos that are old ones from my space at Relics, (here in Springfield, Missouri) from last year. I wouldn't take pictures and post them on a bathroom wall, of what my booth space looks like right now. pretty much like a tornado went thru a junk store... yep that's pretty much it. 

These are old pics so it doesn't look anywhere
 near this good in there anymore.

I'm closing my space out by the last weekend of this month. On July 27 and 28. The reason I'm posting all this mayhem is that big architectural window in the center...it has to go. It won't fit in the back of my husband's suv and I'm not paying someone to haul it home for me. I don't have anyplace to put it, but it's super cool piece. It's an actual window (no glass panes, though) that is probably about 7 to 7 and 1/2 foot tall, in good shape. It would be so great for an outdoor arbor, or for a gardener's shed...so many wonderful ways to use it, except I don't have a place for it. I'll probably kick myself later, but at this point in time getting my husband to try to build something wouldn't be practical.


I also have a couple of tables and small tabletop bookcases that I've used for display that now need to go too, and they're marked at a good sale price. It all has to go, so if you're local and want to see about any of it, it's at Relic's Antique Mall, on West Battlefield, just west of Kansas Expressway and the Grizzly Tools Showroom. I have $95 on the big window, a real steal. Now remember, it's big, and behind a bookcase, so it will require some manpower to untether it and haul it to a truck. First come first serve. My booth is the first row to the west of the restrooms and tearoom, it's in the middle of the store, on the west side of the aisle. 



Just about forgot that I have two or three old doors also, one is 17 or 18, the other ones are 25, (but not marked at this time) also behind furniture. I was hoping I could get those out for whoever wanted them on that tear down weekend.



Most of all of this is gone, 
except the wonderful white metal fence gate is still there, for $50 I think.
I still have some smalls for good prices, too.




OK, I'm done groveling.
 I just need to see this stuff gone
 so it's not home in my garage...my marriage won't stand it.

thanks guys,

Saturday, December 15, 2012

An Old Friend Visits for Christmas

I'd like you to meet an old friend of mine that came to visit in the Dining Room this year. He usually lives in the Family Area downstairs, but he's making an appearance in a special place to help us celebrate the joy of the Christmas Season.




My parents were antique lovers from the beginning, so when they found this wonderful wooden horse, it was already "vintage". He was a gift to me when I was very little. I think I may have been placed upon him only once, and after that they realized he would be better suited to being admired than ridden.



I took these first photos this morning 
and added a little sprig of holly to dress him up.
Don't you love his happy little smile?



Love the rusted little bell on his reins, 
and his perfect white chippy "coat".



He has an honored place here in the Dining Room,
 on my old metal plant stand.






This is an old wedding certificate I found this Fall at the Festival of the Ozarks Antique Show. It makes me sad that this isn't with their family any longer, but I will enjoy it for them...





This time of  year as we celebrate Christmas, we realize that it holds a special place in our hearts for family, joy, and peace that only knowing Jesus can bring. Not only knowing the little baby that was born in a manger so many years ago, but knowing Him as our precious Savior, Comforter, and Friend.

I'm joining in with these wonderful parties this week:

Make it Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Blissful Whites at Timewashed
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
Cowgirl Up at Cedarhill Ranch
Tweak it Tuesday at Cozy Little House



Sending the Spirit of Christmas your way,
xoxo,

Friday, October 26, 2012

Antique Festival of the Ozarks this Weekend

For anyone local to the Southwest Missouri area, just wanted to let you know that the Antique Festival of the Ozarks  will be held this weekend at the Event Center at the Ozarks Empire Fairground, here in Springfield. This is the 3rd year of the show and it just gets better and better.













 Vendors from Oklahoma, Ohio, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and all throughout the Midwest will be there. It's a good sized show, indoors, so don't worry about the cold and wind, it's warm inside! I'll be there shopping, with camera in hand!

And if you haven't joined in for Vintage Inspiration then just scroll down to the last post, still time to join the party!


xoxo,

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