Flea Market Wrap-Up

Wellll, I've put off writing this post because the flea market was super disappointing!

The fairground where the flea market is held is huge. There are so many different buildings and barns and sheds and some are known for vintage and some are known for junk and some just aren't known! It's funny talking to friends about their favorite flea market spots...there are certain buildings I love that some people have never even been in, and vice versa. I didn't even know there was a cafe at the fairgrounds because I never head to that side!

So, all that to say, we moved our booth to Wilson Hall, which I thought would be super successful but it turns out hardly anyone knows Wilson Hall exists! It's one of my favorites to walk through, so that was surprising to me!

I sold about $70 worth of merchandise, which just wasn't really worth it when you take into consideration the time and energy it took to prepare, set up, load out, etc.

It was really fun to see people though -- lots of friends came out and I finally got to meet Lauren and Kimmie in person. Lauren's husband took this photo of us at the flea:

Audrey Assad stopped by and made a purchase--I got to know her through my former job and she is very, very talented. She has something cool in the works and this window will be part of it!

I would consider doing the flea market again maybe--if I could sublease for one day (Sat or Sun) and I knew for sure that the spot was good. I think I'll just stick with my booth though, and maybe smaller festivals like Making Merry in Berry Hill--where I always do pretty well!

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PaintStick EZ Twist Winner!

The Rafflecopter winner generator tool has spoken! Congratulations to Marty! She won the PaintStick EZ Twist!! Marty, I hope it makes all your painting dreams come true!! I will send you an email today to get your address to pass on to HomeRight so they can mail your prize.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered!

Change of plans!

Just a quick note from the flea market. We were able to move into Wilson Hall near other vintage dealers! Exciting! Come see us! :)

Two Great Shopportunities Including Owl Really at the Flea Market!

"Shopportunities"--see what I did there??

Through a fun twist of events, I have the opportunity to set up at the Nashville Flea Market on Sunday! (Just Sunday! You won't find me there today or Saturday... just Sunday!)

I'll be set up in the Agriculture Building and selling some of my most recent finds! I will also have majorly discounted baby/children's clothes--every item will be just $5! Including this horse cardigan that shockingly has never sold.


Don't you want to just squash it up against your face and smell a sweet baby smell emanating from it??? No?? OK, moving on...

But yes, please come see me at the flea market. I am so excited to dip my toe in to the Nashville Flea Market scene and see what happens. Plus, I love meeting people and talking about great vintage pieces!

Also, while you're out and about today and tomorrow, be sure to swing by Family Tree Estate Sale's shop on Nolensville Road for a vintage clothing and accessories sale! My friends Lisa and Eartha both consigned great items with Family Tree so be sure to check it out!

And don't forget to enter the PaintStick EZ Twist giveaway!

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Our "New" House!

Check our our "new" house!

We had hail damage and were approved by our insurance to replace our roof, siding, and gutters. While we were getting all that work done, we hired some painters to paint our foundation, shutters, stepping stones, and even the humongous front of our garage.

It's embarrassing to post such horrible before shots of our house! It's a cute little house, just old. :) Oh and we haven't done any landscaping yet - we'll start that when it gets a bit warmer!

I am apparently REALLY bad at taking before and afters - they're all at different angles - but hopefully they make some sort of sense! :)


You can click to see the images larger. In the top of each, we have the front of the house.

Below, you can see the new siding, painted shutters, porch, foundation, and stepping stones. Ooh, also, they replaced our porch lights. Our porch lights hadn't worked in YEARS but now they do!

In the bottom row, on the left, you can see the side door (from very different angles, sorry!). The porch paint was in realllly bad shape. They still need to put our new awning on - hopefully soon!

The middle image is our back door, which got a new "wrap." They made it look so much better!

And the image on the right is the front of the house and you can see the painted shutters, and shiney new siding.


It is so nice to come home to a "new" house! It looks so similar, but everything just looks cleaner and more streamlined!

Aaaand, here's a photo of Lucy wondering what the heck I was doing.


:)

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Win a PaintStick EZ-Twist!

I love painting walls. My parents and I painted every room (except the kitchen, with its crazy textured walls) in my house when I bought it in 2006 and over the years, I've changed the color of every room--most multiple times!!

Along with obsessive painting comes impulse painting. There have been many nights that I've decided to paint walls at 9pm! And over the summer, I painted our dining room when we were only a few hours away from meeting Andy's mom for dinner and we were going out of town the next day! I'm a crazy, impulsive painter! I love to paint!

That's why I was so excited when HomeRight emailed me about their PaintStick EZ-Twist! Since we're going to be listing our house soon, I won't be painting any rooms in our house in the near future, which means it's your lucky day! I get to give away a PaintStick EZ-Twist!!

Check it out!


What kind of crazy space-age paint roller is that??? I'mmabout to tell you. :)

Prepare to be amazed... the PaintStick EZ-Twist holds the paint in the handle. That's right, you don't have to use a tray!!! I'm not just an impulsive painter, I'm also an impatient one and I have the drips on my old hardwood floors to prove it. You don't have to worry about drips from tray to wall with this bad boy.

No paint trays means no having to climb up and down a ladder while you're painting to refill--which will save you tons of time!

And it has a crazy extension of 64" - that's almost as tall as me!

So, I haven't tried it out yet, but I can't wait to. HomeRight said they'll send me one when we get our new place--I will be an unstoppable painting machine then!!

I'm excited for one of you to try it out...be sure to enter the rafflecopter giveaway below! (RSS readers, you probably need to click through to the blog post to see the app!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck to everyone! I'm jealous that a lucky winner will get to try it out before me!! :)

PS - I'm not getting anything for this post - just the opportunity to make someone's day!

Linking to Someday Crafts!

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A Soldier's Surprise

image source

Over the weekend, Andy's family had quite the surprise!

We were all supposed to gather at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house to celebrate a few birthdays. They unfortunately both came down with the flu, so the gathering was postponed. Saturday, I left a comment on my SIL's Facebook page saying I was sorry she was sick, and a few minutes later, Andy got a surprising call from his cousin Matt.

When I met Andy's family, Matt had done several tours in Iraq with the Marines but was now out of the Marines and living life in Nashville. Last year, he joined the army as a photojournalist and was deployed to Afghanistan.

Fast forward to Saturday, and Matt was calling Andy. He was back home and planning to surprise the family at the now-canceled get-together! A small group scrambled to make sure that we all still got together, this time at Nanny's house--so Matt's surprise could still happen. What made it even more crucial to get together still was that he had involved a news crew in his homecoming surprise!


image source
We gathered and Matt's immediate family, including Nanny, had NO idea what was going on. It was nerve-wracking! We ate a pizza lunch and were hanging out when Andy's dad pulled everyone into the sunroom and in walked Matt with a cameraman behind him!

Matt's family was so surprised and we were all SO happy to see him after a year.

You can see the news story below--they did such a great job! (If you're reading in an RSS feed and can't see the below embedded video, please click here!)

WKRN, Nashville News, Nashville Weather and Sports

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Lucy's Nose For Vintage

My little sidekick sure has a nose for vintage.

I can't take a photo of my finds without Lucy nosing her way in.


She makes photo-taking really hard, but gosh she's cute. :)

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Selling at Pistils & Petals!

Over the weekend, I swung by my friend Melissa's new shop Pistils & Petals in East Nashville.

Melissa has curated a great mix of handmade and vintage items, plus gorgeous art. I took some of the items I've made over the years and Melissa put them on consignment!


I am so excited to sell my mini-books made from children's vintage books and button rings!

If you're in town, be sure to check out the new shops on Fatherland and give Melissa a shout at 1006 Fatherland St!

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Valentine's Gift Ideas from Owl Really!

Need a last minute Valentine gift and live in Nashville? Check out what's new in the booth!


Surprise your sweetie with a goooorgeous bar cart! Shiny and sleek and sure to wow your honey. :)


Stick a plane ticket in a vintage travel bag and bam! Perfect surprise!


Fact - girls love horses. Pick up a little horse figurine to make her childhood dream come true!


Cozy up with a vintage afghan or have tons of fun with a vintage game! Grab Twister, The Dating Game, or stick with a more calm choice like Yahtzee!

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Thrift Shop (Vintage "Grandpa Style" Remake)

I know that Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' song "Thrift Shop" has made the rounds on all the vintage/thrifting blogs but here's an amazing cover version sure to please all vintage lovers. :)

(This version still has some language in it, but it's close to the "radio-edit" version so proceed with appropriate caution.) 


I have a TON of thoughts about Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis and hardly any of them have to do with "Thrift Shop." They have an amazing catalog of songs outside of that one and there is SO much depth to them and the lyrics. If you want to know more, just ask below in the comments - I could go on and on forever about them. I love them and the album "The Heist." A LOT.

Edited to add: thanks to my wonderful husband for sending me all the great "Thrift Shop" covers he finds on YouTube, and for introducing me to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis in the first place! :)

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New Estate Finds

Throughout most of the fall and winter, I took a pretty major break from estate sales...but I'm back in full force! I've gone 4 weekends in a row now, which is great! Here's what I found over the weekend...


I found these 2 great handmade ceramic pieces - a cute little fawn and a beeee-yoo-tiful owl cookie jar. It looks sorta like a McCoy but it has the crafter's name etched in the bottom. And it's gorgeous!


I also found this great blue typewriter - it was still there on the third day of the sale, can you believe that?

I rarely pass up these mini-scales but while they're normally kitchen scales, this one is a postage scale. Aaaand, I already have this green stapler in my booth but I love vintage office supplies! Especially miniature ones!

And the cute little guy in the back is a Fisher Price Jolly Jumping Jack. You pull the string and his arms and legs raise while he squeals. Adorable!

Everything is currently in the booth minus the scale and stapler...since I already have similar items up there!

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Last Week Finds

I made sure to visit Family Tree's pop-up shop twice last week to scope everything out. I picked up great things both Thursday and Saturday!

I also went to another estate sale and it was a disaster. It makes me so sad to see the items thrown around and not taken care of. It feels very disrespectful to whoever's house it is - whether they're living or not.

Anyway, on to the finds:


I always pick up anything Opryland! Andy has suuuch great memories of spending every summer at Opryland (our now-torn-down amusement park) and I thought this little elephant was so adorable.

I also love these little fold up printed notes - I found some owl notes like this last year!

"Life with Women & how to survive it" sounded really funny.. had to get it!

And an autumny table cover.


These vintage invitations are so cute! Perfect for spring baby and wedding showers!

This ceramic pup was one of the 3 things I picked up at the disaster of a sale.

Hallmark coasters in the package! Really cute!

An owl... candle holder, I think? The little barrel next to the owl looks like it might fit a taper candle.


The two dancer paintings were my other finds from the disaster sale. I think they are paint by numbers, but they're a little messy - probably what a paint by numbers would look like if *I* did it. :)

I found 8 brass owl napkin rings. They're really fun!

This gold pillow was calling my name! So was this Betty Crocker entertaining book.


Always gotta buy ahead for Christmas - really liked this Christmas card list with lines to write who you sent AND received cards from. Also found a book that tells the stories of Christmas carols and a box of notecards featuring Nashville landmarks and recipes. Fun!

Going to gross sales makes me so thankful for Family Tree and how well they run theirs! Melissa, Sue, and Earl work really hard to make sure their shoppers have a pleasant experience and their prices are always extremely fair. I am thankful for them!

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Apron Strings Vintage at GasLamp Too

Doesn't this look like vintage heaven? :) This is Lauren's booth Apron Strings Vintage at the GasLamp Too Antique Mall!


She has done such a great job staging everything--and she has such great stuff!


Lauren is a Pyrex-selling machine! From what I understand, she goes through it really quickly and always finds great pieces to sell! I am not a Pyrex guru, so I don't know the names of the patterns, but I am always drawn to the green pieces with white flowers! :)


Be sure to check out GasLamp Too and scope out her booth!! And swing by her blog to say hi, too!

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What I Bought From Sugar Millie

Yesterday I blogged about shopping Sugar Millie at GasLamp Too.

So, what did I get? A paint by numbers barn! I love it.



What drew me to it, exactly?


It's not finished! This is my second unfinished painting - I bought a deer painting at an estate sale over the summer. It's the first paint by numbers piece that I have bought to keep for myself. Can't wait to find a frame and a home for it on one of our walls!

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I Shopped Sugar Millie!

On Sunday, I went to my booth but nothing had been touched in a week so there wasn't much work to be done! I straightened a few things up and then decided to go shop for myself. :)

I hadn't been to GasLamp Too yet, so I decided to check it out. GasLamp Antiques is a really nice and kinda fancy antique mall in town and last year they opened a second location. I had heard such great things about it but hadn't had a chance to check it out yet, so I decided to swing by on my way home.

It was great! I know two booth owners over there and set out to find them. The first one I found was Sugar Millie and it was so, so awesome. Shawna has done SUCH a great job with her space!






CUTE owls! Her whole booth is so inspiring!

I actually bought something that is pictured, can you guess what I bought?? I'll give you a hint - surprisingly it wasn't an owl! :)

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Saturday Finds Part 2!

These are all finds from last Saturday when I hit up two amazing estate sales. (Part 1 is here!)


I think this family had a lot of parties - after the two bar sets and the plethora of drink umbrellas I found, they looked like they had fun! Bought a ton of large and small drink umbrellas and then games at the second estate sale - Yahtzee, Scrabble, and Parcheesi plus a really cute bi-plane puzzle!


Old magazines are so fun and I found two House Beautifuls and two Beatles covers!


This red bag was one of the very first things that caught my eye at the first estate sale. I am contemplating keeping it - I love it! I mentioned the family must like to have fun - I also found this great Vegas/casino set. You can play a bunch of different casino games on it!

At the second sale, I found twin sheets still in the package! Perfect for a vintage-loving mom who's decorating her hip son's room! Also grabbed a Bobbsey Twins book and a Lassie book plus a Highlights magazine from 1955.


This green metal basket was a treasure trove of vintage packaging! I totally thought of Eartha Kitsch when I found it! It's full of vintage hair products (including perm supplies!) and shoe shining items. I haven't dug through it a ton yet, but I'm excited to research the different brands and products.


I just added a ton of jewelry to my booth, so I was happy to find two jewelry boxes to hold it all in!


Vintage sparklers still in the box! So cool! And I can't pass up such pretty stationery in a box! I also got some pretty drawer liner and this adorable deer!

Lucy loved the deer too:


Whew! That was almost everything I found over the weekend but I left some different little books and paper out. I bought a french grammar workbook and a "camp songs" book and things like that.

I won't be adding it all to my booth right away - it feels a little crammed right now, so I'll be slowly adding items. If you're in town and curious about a specific item and when it's going in there, just let me know!

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Saturday Finds Part 1

Happy February!

On Saturday, I had a very successful day of shopping estate sales. Wooo wee, it took awhile to take photos and edit them! Here's Part 1 of my finds!

Have you seen old rotary phones selling for a ton? Me too! I probably won't price this crazy high, but I will start at $25 and see what happens. There's a guy at the flea market who sells them for about that. Seems strange to me, but I am going to try and see!

I love love love old pencil sharpeners and try to scoop them up whenever I find them, which isn't often. So glad to find this one!

I found this exact same cooky-pastry press over the summer and it sold almost immediately in my booth. Happy to find another!

This ceramic horse bookend is SO cool! Love it!

I almost always buy (and sell quickly) these cute little scales.

Gosh, I love crewel. I've never found an unopened kit in such good condition! The box is a little smashed, as you can see, but it's still the best condition I've personally found one in.

Love these danish-looking salt and pepper shakers!

I have a very similar cake platter in my booth right now and it attracts a lot of attention. It hasn't sold yet, but very frequently when I'm in my booth working on things, people will step in to take a closer look at it. I might lower the price a little bit so it will sell and then I can replace it with this one.

I have no idea how to play bridge but I couldn't pass up this owl bridge scorepad! It will be going to the booth!

Travel bar sets! Two of them! There are various items missing from them - don't you think? Or is the empty space for your liquor bottles? Think I can sell them as-is or do I need to find some replacement pieces? Man, I really hope someone buys these and has an AWESOME picnic this spring. :)

I am inexplicably drawn to flash cards and I was THRILLED to find this enormous box of very organized flashcards. There were a ton of reading/vocab flashcards and then also an envelope of flashcards with illustrations on them. LOVE THEM. Still trying to figure out how to sell them! I could get more bang for my buck if I sell them individually, but I'm not totally certain how to best do that. Any thoughts?

I love buying craft supplies at estate sales - they're so well-priced and there can be really rare, interesting items!

I've always liked these opaque plastic sewing boxes but have never bought one... until now! I packed it full of some fun supplies like an embossing pen and glitter, bobbins (you can never have enough!), and this crazy "graining tool." It looks fun!

This is only roughly half of what I found! Part 2 coming up next! :)

If you're heading out shopping this weekend, good luck! Hope you find lots of treasures!!


Linking to Apron Thrift Girl!

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