Thursday, February 27, 2014

St Joseph MO Blob Top Bottle

I've been in love with vintage bottles forever.  While planting tulip bulbs in our back yard my husband came across a batch of circa 1900 bottles.  Not surprising since we live in an 1895 Victorian home.  Those bottles are still displayed in my kitchen.  




But dozens of cool bottles have come and gone since.  This one I purchased last summer, and meant to take to the St Joseph antique show but forgot it in my kitchen window.  So now I am trying to sell it on ebay. I absolutely love the color.

Update:  I bought the bottle for $1 and sold it for $41 on ebay.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Altered Cracker Jack CHARM Bracelets

Last year I was fortunate enough to purchase a box full of vintage cracker jack charms.  I knew the approx. worth from selling a few on ebay before.  These dated from about 1930.  They were so much fun to sell on ebay.  We started out selling singles, but then realized with eBay's rule about tracking we would have to sell groups in order for the shipping not to appear unreasonable.  So most of them we sold in lots of approx. 20.  I had saved a group of shoe charms from an auction about a decade ago + I had a few in this new group leftover so I actually added them to existing  bracelets.  We'll see if they sell at the Topeka Antique Show on March 22 & 23.


A good majority of the box of charms I purchased were celluloid.
Sold on ebay for $13.
 

This is my favorite one.  The large brown advertising
heart was also from the same auction a decade ago.  The
lady had collected anything to do with shoes. 
Sold on ebay for $16.
 Before youfeel too sorry for me having to part with these
, I put the best shoe charms on a
necklace that I am keeping.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Primitive Wool Tied Quilts



I'm listing several primitive wool quilts on ebay this week.  They are so ruggedly handsome.  Usually affordable. Sometimes have great fabric backing.  The negatives:  heavy to ship, large to store, often have moth damage.  After spending several months clearing out merchandise from my house, I was surprised to find I had several of these beauties that I had stashed here and there.  It would have been better to start the selling process back in December, but we'll see how it goes.

This patchwork is just a wool quilt top, so visually pleasing.





Monday, February 10, 2014

More 2014 St Joseph Antique Show Pics

Busy today unloading the van and restocking my booth at the Rusty Chandelier.  It was a sunny 9 degrees, which actually didn't seem too bad.  You know you've had a brutal winter when people are running around in light jackets and no hats at 9 degrees.  The rest of our booth photos from last weekend:

The plat map book was in poor condition but still sold for $22.

I am on the right, and my friend Marcia is on the left.
We generally do the St Joseph Show together.
She likes foo-foo smalls and I like larger primitives,
so it works out well.  This is the only photo I got of
the great Shoe Polish Stand I sold (signs on both sides)

My $3.00 each jewelry box is always a big hit.

Diane sells Country & Garden antiques in
Estes Park and Omaha purchased my 3 sugar buckets.
I bought all three in pieces for $5, I had to assemble them like a puzzle.
I sold them for $90.

Gibson Girl type painting.  Purchased for $4, sold for $40.
Made about $1680 sales from the weekend after rent.
 
 
 


Sunday, February 9, 2014

Post St Joseph MO Antique Show Picts

Winding down from frenzy of Saturday - Sunday St Joseph Antique Show.  We had great sales Saturday and better-than-expected sales today.  The weather held -- only a little light snow today.
We appreciate all of our customers and friends that visited us at the Show.  I'll show a few photos of our booth today and add more later.

I wrapped all of the vintage handmade lace around Bingo cards.
I'll try to get a close-up of the lace that is left -
it looked really cute.

THe oak cabinet with white door on left I purchased for $30, sold for $75.
The wall clock in front I purchased for  $2, sold for $15.
The  cute medicine cabinet on the right I purchased for $15, sold for $42.

The wisk brooms I purchased for $1 each and sold for $5 each.
The one in original paper sold for $10.

The domed birdcage was purchased for $5 and sold for $25.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Upcycled Art Cross

I received a letter from my college (where I graduated with an art degree decades ago) asking me to share what art means to me and a photo of a current piece of art.  My current art projects are usually quick / cheap / easily available / and helps something to sell.  The last one I could think of was an old oak cross which I decorated with various pieces of junk I had laying around.

 
I really liked it, but like most things I work on -- I am selling it.  So I took a quick photo of it before hauling it off to the St Joseph Antique Show today.  (Set up is tonight!)  The photo isn't the best, but you get the idea.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Quilt Tops for eBAY

In the lull before the antique show I'm working on listing a bunch of quilt tops on ebay.  I purchased these at a couple of different auctions many months ago.  (Part of my winter destashing project).  You have got to love quilt tops for so many reason:
  • they have the same artistic merits of quilts
  • they have the same heritage or preserved past as quilts
  • they have never been used so are usually in better condition than same era quilts
  • they are so much easier to store and ship than quilts
So I think I have about 12 to get on.  They won't be appearing until Saturday, February 15.






Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Antiques Are Packed & Ready!


The BAD NEWS was 7 inches of snow last night and single digit temperatures this morning.  So I woke up wondering how I was going to get everything from the house out into the van on the street.  My husband had a snow day from school, and almost as soon as I struggled to face the day he had the GOOD NEWS.  The good news was he had found wonderful young man named Damien wandering the streets with snow shovel in hand looking for work.  My husband explained that shoveling was not what we needed - he needed a strong, young back to help him tote things to the car (and that we pay better than shoveling.)  Thank you husband. Thank you Damien.
 
More photos from last years 2013 St Joseph antique show:
 
                                           This was the greatest vintage little chippy dresser
                                           that I've ever come across, it sold first thing.  
I bought it for $50, sold it for $120.
  
Blue transferware -- keeper if it had been brown.

                                           We had lots of Victorian smalls last year -
                                           more primitives this year.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

First Post EVER

I've been wanting to do a blog for a long time.  A blog is great way to keep track of my projects, purchases, antique shows, furniture renovation.  I sell resurrected furniture and last Saturdays vintage finds.  Sometimes I sell actual antiques and other times real junk.  It would be great if I could actually document what works and what doesn't -- instead of just remembering the last three minutes of my life.  I also want to become a better photographer, and this is a great way to trick myself into practicing more with the camera.  So, mainly this is for me, but also offered up to anyone who could benefit from, or just enjoying looking at old stuff.

Current project:  St. Joseph Missouri Antiques Show this Saturday and Sunday at the St. Joseph Civic Arena.  I've spent the last month pricing and packing all the little treasures.  Now to try to get it all packed in the van.  We are in the middle of 5-8 inches of snow and single digit temps so I'm not really sure when the prime time to do all that loading will be.

I'm throwing in a few photos from last years St Joe Show.  Incentive to pack. 

So in 2013 I sold about $1500,
and paid $121 for rent on half a booth.

Business was brisk,
I shared a booth with Marcia.

I bought the crazy quilt for $6, sold it at the show for $100.
I had purchased the pitcher and bowl for $25, sold them at the show for $65.

Blue Hearts & The End Of My Blog

Early on during the corona virus, I did this project. When we put scalloped wood trim on the guest cottage door, we had some of the trim ...