Owl Really on South Nashville Life

Thank you so much to Jen of South Nashville Life for featuring Owl Really not once, but twice! Yesterday, Jen posted about my booth at the Tennessee Antique Mall - even giving you directions on how to find it within the mall! (I probably should have posted that before, hahaha!!)

Jen is a great voice and advocate for South Nashville and I love to read about her passion for bettering our neighborhoods. If you live or work in the area, be sure to subscribe to her blog for updates on the fairgrounds, Brown's Creek, and so much more!


Thanks Jen!!

Thoughts on "Making a Living" by Jon Foreman

Jon Foreman is an amazing writer. He is also the lead singer of Switchfoot, a band that has inspired so many people throughout the years. A few years ago, Jon put out solo CDs that blew me away. The songs became some of my favorite songs ever. He also collaborated with Sean Watkins from Nickel Creek - they formed a duo called Fiction Family.

I have had the opportunity to meet and interview Jon many times and his insights always astound me. He is one of the most thought-filled people I have ever met. (If you care to see my interviews with him, you can watch the videos on HearItFirst.com/Switchfoot. Scroll through, some are light-hearted and some are DEEP.)

He just posted an article on Huffington Post about re-thinking the way we approach "making a living." I found it incredibly inspiring - here are some of my favorite quotes from the article, which you can read in its entirety, here.

A human being is most God-like when she is most creative: ingeniously crafting the true and the beautiful out of the confines of the present tense. Remixing tomorrow out of the raw materials of today. Re-appropriating a dream into reality... the outrageous souls who are willing to risk failure might be the only ones who are truly making a living.

---

You want to know the meaning of life? This is your highest calling: You are called into the dynamic co-creation of the cosmos. This breath is your canvas and your brush. These are the raw materials for your art, for the life you are making. Nothing is off limits. Your backyard, your piano, your paintbrush, your conversation, Rwanda, New Orleans, Iraq, your marriage, your soul. You're making a living with every step you take. So when you make a living, do not merely make money. Why settle for cash when joy is on the line?

---

Every moment is a canvas is waiting to come to life. The walls of this planet and the walls of your heart are still available to graffiti artists everywhere. There's still room for redemptive, honest, hopeful colors. You put your brush to canvas with every decision, with every breath. We are the human race. We are the re-appropriators. But none of us are creating out of nothing. Human creation is always re-appropriation. Trying to put beauty into form.

---

So when you create, never settle for making a living -- at least not the way that the world might define that phrase. When you make a living, you are speaking a new world into existence. You are creating grace within the confines, you are co-signing God's blank checks.

I am so inspired - both in my daily work and my outside creative pursuits. He explains the term "re-appropriation" and it just makes me think about re-appropriating the items that I sell. I give them a second chance, I give them a new purpose. So while I'm not creating them, I do feel as though I'm re-appropriating them in a way.

My full-time job is in transition right now and I find his words "the best stories often come from inconvenient and uncomfortable places" reassuring in a time of uncertainty. As we face challenges or doubt or creative roadblocks, let's remember that there is so much growth from the hard times. And as he says, "The knot in my stomach usually teaches me more than comfort ever could."

Step out of your comfort zone. Create. Make a joyful living.

How to find sales in your area by subscribing to Craigslist searches

I have a tip!

If you're an avid google reader user and an avid craigslist peruser, I have a tip you might not be aware of. Did you know that you can subscribe to craigslist searches? This can be very helpful if you're looking for something in particular and don't want to waste time scrolling through postings!

I wanted to stay on top of estate sales on craigslist, so I went to the garage sale section and searched "estate." That returned a ton of results, of course but when you scroll all the way down, there's an RSS button:


See the little button in the bottom right corner? Click it and then you can add that search to your google reader or other RSS reader! Each time a new ad that matches your search is posted, it will show up in your reader!

It will add a lot of entries to your reader, but they're easy to skip through if they are not of interest to you (did you know you can press "j" and "k" on your keyboard to navigate up and down your google reader?). I tend to just look for the location of the sale and then skip over it if it's too far.

I *would* search "estate Nashville" but people post using neighborhoods sometimes and I don't want to miss out on a sale that is listed in "Green Hills" or "Music Row" because I only searched for "nashville."

I hope this tip helps you! Try it for furniture or cars or anything!

Hair Art

Yesterday, Design*Sponge posted hair-focused artwork by Roxanne Daner who I had never heard of, but I loved the illustrations and found them especially interesting since I also had been drawn to hair-related art lately.

A few weeks ago, I went to an estate sale of a local artist named Juanita Crider. I bought a handful of items, including some of her artwork - 2 in particular were vintage portraits of lovely ladies with beautiful hair.

The first is unmarked - it is signed "Nita Crider '67" but there is no other information on it:



The second is labeled on the back: "Sandra's Coiffure" and it looks like at some point she was selling it for $10. There's no date, unfortunately.



I am especially drawn to the painting of Sandra. I have it resting on our dining room buffet currently while I think I will sell the other painting in my booth. There are only so many portraits of strangers I feel comfortable having around my house and I think I've reached my max with Bartholomew (I'll have to tell you about him sometime) and Sandra. :)

I like to wonder who they are and where they are now. Did Sandra always wear her hair like that or was this a special occasion? If you'd like to dream and wonder along with me, post your theories in the comments!

Estate and Yard Sale Round Up!

I was a very busy bee this past week! I headed out to estate and yard sales and thrifted my heart out! The Tennessee Antique Mall is very close to the fairgrounds where the flea market is held monthly and since it's next weekend, I wanted to make sure my booth was well stocked!

Here are some items I added to the booth on Saturday!

A cool yellow school chair and retro orange pillow (plus you can see the auction apple crate!):

Owls!!! I went to an estate sale that had over 100 owls for sale! I only bought 5- THAT is restraint!! The little round blue guy below is a shaker!


An owl cookie jar! I may not have gotten the one at the auction, but I found this one at the owly estate sale!

Cute red & white checkered kitchen cart from a yard sale of a friend of a friend's mom!


A really cool lamp!

A cool drawer/trunk thing!


A rustic red frame:


Really cute folk art:


And that's not even everything! I was BUSY! :)

Luckily, in the first 2 weeks of my booth being open, I covered my booth fee. Martha Jean, who owns the mall with her husband, says I'm doing really well. The antique mall is definitely a place to go to hunt for treasures and there's always a mix of people... but I always see people my age/style/demographic there. No one else there is selling the type of things I sell, so I'm really hoping that I'm filling a niche there! I can't wait to see how this unfolds!

Auction Action Part 2!

Well, I survived the auction!! I took photos but I messed up and they didn't save to my phone unfortunately. Only a few survived:

A creepy mouse doll that was for sale:


My bid card:


and the apple crate I bought!


I showed up to a pretty big warehouse FULL of items for sale. I was browsing around the tables and wasn't sure how everything worked, so I asked a fellow attendee. He explained that they would auction items separately but would sometimes bundle them if no one was bidding or if they thought they could get more for a bundle. I asked if the auctioneer was easy to understand and he said yes. Another woman who I had seen at estate sales recently assured me that it was a laid back auction and she was definitely right. The auctioneer was funny and the guys were all really nice.

They started most bids at $2.50. I bid on some fawn salt and pepper shakers but was still a little nervous and didn't go for them past my $4 bid and they sold for $5. I probably should have put in a $6 bid but it was at the beginning of the auction and I was still a little gun-shy! The woman that bought them ended up buying a LOT of items... if it had been later in the auction, I probably would have tried to go head-to-head against her just out of spite. ;-)

I had my eye on an owl cookie jar and figured I would go $18 at most... I barely got a chance to bid because people went CRAZY for it and it sold for $30. I also had my eye on a really cool file cabinet that I didn't think people would be interested in. I thought I would go $25 and it sold for $100! Eesh!

I did get that apple crate on the 3rd round of bids on a lot of crates. If you're not familiar with auctions-- when there is a lot of one kind of item, the highest bidder gets to choose which and how many of the items he wants. The first highest bidder took a whiskey crate and then they started the bidding over again and a girl picked out 3 crates at $30+ a piece! They started the bidding one more time and I was the highest bidder that time and picked out the apple crate. After my win, they bundled the rest of the crates together and sold them for "one money."

I left soon after I got the crate - it was pretty hot in the warehouse and I was getting a headache! I was there for about 2 hours and they had barely made a dent in all the items!!

Saturday, I woke up and went to a few yard sales and estate sales. I found some GREAT items this week! If you'd like to see items as I place them in the booth, you can follow OWLREALLY on Instagram (the iPhone app) because I always take photos at the booth when I take new items in!

I will post tomorrow with some of the new items and estate/yardsale adventures!

Auction Action

image source

I think I'm ready to mark the first item off my Thirty Before 30 list! Tonight there is an auction in Nashville that I'm hopefully going to go check out - but I unfortunately don't have a buddy yet to go with me! I'm a little nervous to go by myself - it seems REALLY overwhelming. Whenever I see them on TV, it's hard to keep up with what's going on! I'm sure everyone will know what they're doing, so I'll have to get in good with other attendees so they can help me - hopefully there is a spirit of helpfulness even though we're all in "competition" technically!

My friends Eric and June go to auctions quite frequently so I asked Eric for some advice. Here are his tips!

1) have an amount in mind before bidding that will be your top bid and stick to it

2) don't be afraid to start the bidding a little high if it is something you really want (it scares some bidders off)

3) don't draw too much attention to the items you like

4) pay close attention to what you are actually bidding on

5) have the persistence to stay for good deals

6) have a great time!

I am so excited/nervous that I could hardly sleep last night! You know you're a junker when the thought of getting to root through junk keeps you awake!!

Have you been to an auction? What's your auction advice? Give me any helpful hints in the comments, please!! :)

Eric says I have the "auction spirit" and I think I agree! Wish me luck!!

Oh - an update on that red couch! I was the high bidder on Wednesday at $66 but it unfortunately went too high and sold for $280. Oh well!