The hutch!

I subscribe to my favorite Craigslist searches and last week, saw a "retro hutch" come through my Google Reader. I emailed, didn't hear back, emailed again, and finally heard back. My friend Jacqueline went with me to look at it (an hour away!) and while it wasn't PERFECT, it will work perfectly in my booth!

I spent 3 hours at the mall Saturday rearranging and making room for the hutch, then reorganizing parts of my booth. I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out. I think the hutch makes the booth look a bit more professional. I would like to get more actual furniture but it's hard to find something affordable that matches the style. The only thing I don't like about the hutch are the knobs. If it were coming to our house, I would definitely switch them out but they're fine for the booth!

You can barely see the hutch's mid century tapered legs, but they're there! 

Hopefully rearranging will produce some nice sales this summer!

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Thrift Report: Ephemera Edition

So, I'm a "phase" person... I get an idea, obsess over it, do it, then move on. Right now, I'm obsessed with ephemera and gathering lots of random supplies for my Smash Book (more details coming soon!) and then I had the idea to sell variety packs of ephemera and supplies and such. So, I hit up thrift stores last week with that goal in mind and hit the jackpot!

I'm looking for vintage children's books, flashcards, game pieces, etc. Anything that would be fun for scrapbooking, card making, or other paper crafts. Here are my finds!

Cute "concentration" cards with fun cartoon drawings of various careers (ballerina, rock star, magician, etc), some carnival style Crazy 8 cards, random game pieces, and a TON of alphabet cards from the word game Probe. (I found Probe at an estate sale last week then went to Goodwill were there were THREE Probe games - how weird is that? I had never even heard of the game before last week!)

More flash cards, including state cards!

Lots of fun Sesame Street items! Flash cards and books!

Wonders of the World flash cards, which funnily enough, includes things like "television." And I've been finding really funny female-focused books lately - What Makes Men Tick and The Girls We Leave Behind (which sounds like it's the Trudy Campbell story, for you Mad Men watchers!).

Some cute children's books that aren't in great shape, so they will be cut up for projects!

A Family Creative Workshop book that doesn't look like much from the outside (top left photo) but the photos below that show the inside. It has a lot of random crafts in it!

The pink bowl is a funny story - At the Goodwill Outlet, I found a ton of loose buttons and scooped them up into the bowl... then I came across a very, very broken typewriter. It's pretty much a free for all at the Outlet, so I popped the letters off the typewriter and tossed them into the button bowl. Now I have typewriter letters!

I found a few 4th of July related items - a beautiful red, white, and blue afghan and some patriotic books!

 

I found this gooooorgeous brown leather suitcase!!! And a fun tan purse. 

Some of the books are in the booth now but some are going to be put away for projects. The purse and suitcase are there! 

I'll have some booth updates tomorrow - there's an exciting new piece!

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Crazy Plant Lady

Remember when I said I was in danger of becoming a crazy plant lady?

Here's a little insight into my plant madness right now. :) Here are the stairs I mentioned that were built right in front of a window.

The succulents in the pink and brown planters are all from the esty seller SanPedroCactus. The white and teal planters both have hens and chicks that we used in our wedding (succulents that originated in my great-grandmother's garden many decades ago!). The chalky looking planter is from my friend Emily who gave me a cutting from one of her plants and then finally, one of my terrariums.

I recently discovered a blog called Wit & Whistle and I loved her tips for keeping plants alive. She and I use the same Miracle-Gro fertilizer so I'm glad I'm in good company there! She also says she talks to her plants... I haven't started talking to them very much, but I do try to greet them when I pop around the corner to see them!

Have a great weekend!!

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Introducing: Stockroom Vintage

The Nashville Wedding blog world has been abuzz the past several weeks over Stockroom Vintage, a new vintage rentals company.







I will admit that I was totally and completely jealous when I saw the site and what Elizabeth was doing! I decided to send her an email and be totally honest and tell her exactly that! (In a fun, friendly way, of course!) I didn't want to sound like a crazy person, so I told Elizabeth a little about myself. The amazing this is that she replied right away and told me that she knew who I was and loved my booth!

We met for coffee over the weekend and had so much in common. I am so excited for her as she develops her business and finds her place in the wedding industry! I think she has such a great vision and I love what she's doing. She is a genuine person who deserves the success and press she is receiving!



Elizabeth has an amazing eye and styled a Kate Spade inspired photo shoot to show off her amazing vintage inventory. Also, see her own wedding featured on The Budget Savvy Bride. It was BEAUTIFUL!

Her blog is full of wedding eye candy and if you need any amazing vintage furniture or goods, be sure to check out her services.

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Owl Really Anniversary!

A year ago today, I introduced you to my booth at the Tennessee Antique Mall!

It has been such a fun year! It has FLOWN! I love having space to display and sell my finds - I am so thankful for the mall and for everyone that steps foot in it. There are lots of booth switch-ups happening right now and hopefully some new great vendors moving in, so if you haven't been lately, be sure to check it out this summer!

Here is what my first booth looked like:

A few months in, I moved next door! Here is what my booth looks like as of yesterday. As you can see.... some items have been around since the beginning. Yikes!

My booth is feeling pretty cluttered and disorganized to me. If you have any tips or suggestions, please let me know in the comments! I would like to paint the pegboard (a serious undertaking!) and re-arrange but I'm just not sure what to do!

Thank you so much for your support and for being on this journey with me!

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Thrift Report: Estate Haul

I have not been able to make it out to an estate sale in quite awhile, which is so tough when you know you're missing out on awesome things! I swung by a recent sale and found SO many things. It felt like old times!

I found a vintage Samsonite travel bag - I always try to keep these in stock in the booth because they are such great sellers. My stock was very very low, though! I'm so happy I found this one in such great condition!

Let's take a look at some other items!

A really cute girl's brown dress, some hilarious books including Your Pet's Secret Language and How To Get a Teenage Boy And What To Do WIth Him When You Get Him, chock full of 1960s dating advice. It is CLASSIC! The sale had lots of cute children's clothes and I picked up some pretty adorable shirts and overalls!

Found a cute red and white stripe apron (very candy-striper-esque), some Danskin blue tights still in the package, some really awesome white boots, a jar of appetizer sword pick things, some pretty blue stationery...

Some amazing men's boots, a set of 4 cute glasses in a holder, a word game called Probe, a Snow White book...

A set of National Geographic state brochures and maps, a big baggie of sewing notions (I can never resist vintage sewing notions!), a pretty pink box, and a cute yellow scoop.

It felt so good to be back in the game and scoring deals! I'm excited to stock these items in my booth and refresh it. I barely took anything up there in May, so it will be fun to have some new items! 

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Birthday Wrap-Up

I really don't mean to beat a dead horse about my birthday, but I wanted to do a little wrap-up! We celebrated over the course of a week between our families and friends and it was such a great time. Turning 30 wasn't too bad, thanks to all our friends and family!

The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, Andy & I met my parents in Bowling Green for lunch and thrifting for a few hours. My mom did a great re-cap of our time including photos that you can read here!

We had lunch, then hit up some thrift stores and consignment shops. I always drag my family around thrifting but luckily my mom enjoys it as much as I do and Andy and my dad always find something to look at too. :) It was so, so hot so after hitting a few shops, our final stop was to get some ice cream! It was too short of a day together but it was very fun!

Bowling Green has soooooo many consignment stores, I was so surprised! A few weeks ago, I received an email from a Bowling Green vendor who was looking into opening a booth in Nashville. I found out where his booth was and made sure to visit it. I loved it!! I bought the following items from him:

 

His prices were incredible and these items will be going into my booth soon! I really hope he does open a booth in Nashville (hopefully in the Tennessee Antique Mall!) because his taste is so similar to mine.

The next day, Andy and I swung by the flea market in the morning. I only bought one thing (can you believe it?) and it was the little fawn pictured below for $2. The flea market is great but the prices don't leave enough "meat on the bones" for me to re-sell. Globes are $25 which is what I would sell them for... so... it's hard to shop there unless it's Sunday at closing and I'm feeling confident enough to try to haggle.

That afternoon, we celebrated my birthday, my mother in law's birthday, and my brother in law's birthday with Andy's family! I raided Andy's grandmother's bookshelf and found this amazing book series called Foxfire. Have you ever heard of it? From their website, Foxfire.org:

"Foxfire" is the name that an English class picked, in 1966, for a student-produced magazine they chose to create, containing stories and interviews gathered from elders in their rural Southern Appalachian community.

"Foxfire" is the name of a series of books which are anthology collections of material from The Foxfire Magazine. The students' portrayal of the previously-dismissed culture of Southern Appalachia as a proud, self-sufficient people with simple beliefs, pure joy in living, and rock-solid faith shattered most of the world-at-large's misconceptions about these "hillbillies."

This series is amazing! It features explanations of mountain hobbies, activities, and ways of life. It also has interviews with experts on these subjects and people who live this lifestyle. It makes me want to be a mountain person! They talk about quilting, moonshine, banjos, and so much more. I am so fascinated by them! I am so happy that Nanny let me bring them home! (You can see one below!)

Then on my actual birthday (Tuesday), we met friends at Rumours (a wine bar in East Nashville) and hung out for a few hours. I accosted everyone with my instax camera and then asked them to paste their photos into a little book I had made with scrapbook paper.

Rumours treated us so well and it was a very fun night. I felt so blessed that everyone came out in the rain to celebrate with me!

Then Friday, Andy's immediate family came over for one last birthday celebration. We got Calypso Cafe take-out (the best salads ever! black bean salad with white meat chicken for-eva!) and hung out and watched That Thing You Do. It was a very nice night!

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