Gathering Dust

The Last of 2009 Fav Photos

 
The last group of my favorite pics and finds from 2009.  These handsome gentlemen are Bill Dings- wooden blocks that have notches on their shoulders so they interlock and create a tower.

Fishing lures display from one of my favorite out of the way antique stores.

Yo-yo circles I made from a stash of tiny bits of flour and feed sacks from an estate sale- and yes, I'm sorry to say, they still look just like this- I haven't made anything with them yet.

The wreath on the door at Mission Road Antique Mall on Kentucky Derby day.

And sewing trims from Accessories of Old that I got on my birthday trip to Virginia- I posted about it here and  here.

And with that, I'll say good-bye to 2009 and onto 2010.  We're going to North Dakota for the New Year to visit family- and spending a few days in 10 below temperatures makes you hardy.

More Re-Runs, er...Favorite Photos, Pink Style

 
 
As predicted, the junking has been REALLY thin- more like non-existant- over the holidays, so I'm rehashing some of my favorite goodies from 2009.

The flowers and sheet music "The Sparrow" and "Robin Redbreast" were a gift from Barbara of Oodles and Oodles.

  

A scrapbook I made using my some of my favorite vintage wallpapers.

Two sweet toddlers dresses that I bought at the same estate sale as these prom dresses.  I sold these dresses at Silverbella- and sold the prom dresses on ebay.

 
A pink poodle pincushion- pink poodles can't help but make you smile, right?

A collection of wedding cards from my Aunt Barb.  She had them displayed at their 50th wedding anniversary, and was going to throw them away, when she remembered how much I like old paper.

Pretty pink trims and a wallpaper book I made for my Etsy shop.

A 1900's rose print- not in very good condition, but still so pretty.

Thanks for looking at my 2009 reruns.  I've got one more group left- the BRIGHTS- and then it'll be on to 2010 and hopefully lots of  "new" old junk.
 

Favorite Photos 2009

 
The huge snow storm that hit us on Christmas Eve kept me housebound until today.  It left me a lot of time to be watching the year end news on TV and the internet including a  lot of  top 10 lists of 2009- top songs, ton videos, top sports stories, etc etc. 

I hope this isn't too self indulgent of me, but I decided to do a top ten list of my favorite pictures from my blog.  Its not actually a top TEN list, I just went back through my blog posts for the past year and picked pictures that caught my eye.

 
Then I divided them into three groups-pinks & pastels, bright colors and the tans, sepias and earthy tones. 

I bet you've figured out which group this is.

 
As I'm looking at the pictures, I'm remembering where I got the items, and where they eventually ended up.

 

Most have passed through my hands, but I still have quite a few of the pocket watches and the sterling manicure set in this picture.  The manicure set is in a spooner on a shelf in the living room and the watches are in a sliverplate bride's basket next to the spooner.

 

Most of these pretties were part of "Sepia Summer" and have passed through my hands.  In the very back is a guest book I got in Virginia on my birthday. From the handwritten entries in it, I guessed it was probably from a bed and breakfast type guest inn somewhere in New York State in the 1900's.  It had an Arts & Crafts style that you don't see often in books.

I sold it to an dealer who was going to keep the original pages in front, and use the blank pages as a mailing list sign up for customers when she did shows. I love to sell special items like that to someone who's going to use them, enjoy them and share them.

Thanks for indulging my reminiscing- 2009 was a good year for junk!

Buddy Was a Very Good Boy...

 
Look at all the toys he got for Christmas.

 And all his sister Maddie wanted was a nap.

Hope your holiday was everything you were dreaming of!
 

Another Silly Little Collection, Holiday Style

 
In the past I've shown you some of the silly little collections I've stumbled into assembling- hot water bottles,  handmade Valentines,  yardsticks and letterhead and office supplies.  

Most of those collections aren't because I woke up one day and thought "I LOVE hot water bottles, I MUST find more"- it was more like I happened upon one or two, then found another that I liked, and without really planning, I had a collection.

The same goes for this collection- I love buying groups of old pictures, and a while back I started setting aside vintage black and white Christmas pictures.  It's fun to see the trees decorated with tinsel, corny Santa suits, and kids with new toys.

A subset of those pictures is the holiday photo greeting card.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Happy Holidays from:

The Donaldson's

Doris & Bob

Thomans Lafferty Boone, Jr

The Odells

 

and me.
  

Quelle Horreur! Friday and No Estate Sales!

Friday morning and the estate sale column in the newspaper is only 2" long.  The few sales listed didn't sound worth visiting- so I was home on a Friday morning and have no estate sale finds to show you.

Quelle horreur- that's French for "How Horrible".  I thought it would sound more interesting if I said it in French.

 

What I can show you is some things I have listed in my NEW Etsy Shop, Gathering Dust. 

...Like the checkbook in the picture above- the first and last pages are ledger pages with entries for deposits, checks etc.

 
 
 A nice set of cloth napkins- luncheon and dinner size. 

VIntage oilboard stencils- I added these to a new category in my shop called "Use It In Art"- things that I bought because I thought they'd be cool in a mixed media project.

Lots of keys.

 
Ribbons of old store labels.

 
and ca 1950's trim on the original store display card.

 
Oh dear, this could be a long holiday season unless I can find some alternative junking spots- maybe I should just hop on a sled with these guys- they look like they might know where some goodies are.  (Click on the image to enlarge, and right click to save to your computer).

Antique Mall Booth Redo: Books & Silverplate

At a recent auction, I got a good deal on a set of books and big box of silverplate.  Even though I don't always do well selling silverplate, I went with the theory that a lot of anything makes a good display and decided to make them the basis of a redo of my booth at the antique mall.

I threw in a couple of doilies, an old candy box and propped the slide of a trombone up by the door of the cabinet and like how it turned out.  The tag for the trombone reads "Part of a trombone- but it's the BEST part".  

 
 
 I improvised a hat stand with some more of the books.

Another table has a collection of green, gold & creams.  It looks festive and Christmasy even though none of the items is specifically a Christmas decoration.

 
The mercury glass vases in the upper right of the picture are so pretty, but so fragile- thank goodness one sold today- and I don't have to worry about ME breaking it.

These are the French bed dolls left from the Miss Frenchie's show- I know, they're both a little spooky looking...

After finishing up my booth, I wandered over to Gwen and Teri's booth "French by Design"  and found these great architectural candleholders.

And I LOVE this idea- old and tattered French book pages bundled and displayed in a cloche.  You've heard me say it before- everything looks better under glass.

 
On a completely different subject, I found several of these really cool plate/bowl/book/picture stands at the estate sale of an antique dealer.  They're wide enough to fit a book or bowl and have the cutest details.  There's a cherub in front and a crown topped heart.  I'm keeping some to use for display in my antique booth, but also have some for sale in my NEW Etsy store Gathering Dust.

An Identity Crisis... and Friday Estate Sale Finds

 
 

I've been having an identity crisis.  I don't really have a name for my business.  My blog is technically called "Gathering Dust" and that's the name of my Ebay store, but my Etsy shop is "SugarPinkMoon", and when I sell antiques at a show, I'm just Beth.

When fellow Miss Frenchie's vendor Julie Reed volunteered to make booth signs and name tags for the Miss Frenchie's show, she asked what we wanted on our booth signs for business names.

Julie is Julie Reed of Vintage Finds & Fancies. 

 

Debbie is Debbie Dusenberry of Curious Sofa.  Carol is Carol Spinski of Raised in Cotton.   Karla is Karla Nathan of Karla's Cottage.  And so on and so on.  I was just Beth Leintz of.....I don't know, Beth of ...  Planet Earth.  So I decided to be Beth Leintz of Gathering Dust. 

So, I've opened a NEW Etsy shop, Gathering Dust.  And I've stocked it with some of my finds from Friday's estate sale finds.

 

The sales weren't great- but I did manage to find a few things, and they seem to follow a color pattern- golds, silvers & blacks.

 
Here's a peek at some of what I listed in my NEW Etsy Shop- Gathering Dust. 

 
 
 
Another Friday purchase. Early New Year's resolution- get those five to seven fruits and veggies every day.

Antique Shows- What's Hot, What's Not

 
"Antique shows- what's hot, what's not" is a pretty provocative title for a post.  Wouldn't we all like to know what's going to sell?  You just never can tell.

I don't have a picture of them, but my "prize" pieces for the Miss Frenchie's show were a pair of full size mercury glass vases.  I was wrong about my prize- hardly anyone even LOOKED at the vases.

 
 

I thought I had another prize in these dolls- I had four  French boudoir dolls  and brought three home with me.

What was hot?  The tiny leather bound Shakespeare books at the top of the post, strands of pearls, pretty spoons and bundles of lace.

These cardboard spools were popular- I displayed them in a large brandy snifter- and so were ledger books.

 
I sold a lot of bird prints, too- my low price on the spools and prints might have accounted for some of their popularity- they were only a dollar a piece.  I'm kind of a dollar store version of an antique booth.

Barbara Farmer had a beautiful booth, full of French furniture, Italian toleware and the tower of beaded fruit you can see on the table.

Towards the end of the sale, everyone was a little punchy and Gwen decided to start wearing the fruit.  She tried to convince other dealers to put on some fruit, but no one was interesting in pinning a banana or orange to their jacket.

 
Karla was seen wearing her new curtains that she was so tickled to buy from Joyce.

I know how she feels- when I was six and got "big girl" snow boots for Christmas, I wore them to bed.

We thought she was channeling Magnolia Pearl and suggested she wear a bird in hair.

I'm not sure that Robin Brown of Magnolia Pearl has ever actually had birds in her hair, I may be confusing her with another over the top style icon, Marie Antoinette.

Gwen liked this bird, but Karla didn't want to stand out too much, so she settled for the tiny wren (hidden in the lights) that's perched on top of her head. 

Miss Frenchie's Brocante: Bits & Pieces

 
 
I'm afraid my pictures don't give a very well rounded picture of the Miss Frenchie's Brocante Antique & Art show this past weekend.  I was so caught up in being at the show that I missed a lot of opportunities for capturing inspiration.

The first picture is from Joyce Gilpin's (All that Jazz) booth- she was right across from my spot, so I had a chance to get quite a few pictures.

 

Joyce does a great job of combining pastels, chippy painted pieces and darker colors for a romantic look that really works.

 I loved her captured doll head.

Cupids, cameos and jewelry boxes.

A glittery tray of Christmas cheer.

The pictures of I took of Carol's (Raised in Cotton) and  Linda's (Willow's Nest) booths turned out blurry.  I'm going to blame the chilly weather and my hands shaking for that.  Their areas were in the barn annex and it was kind of nippy- actually it was just downright cold- but the spaces they created were absolutely magical. 

Carol added some rich red to her usually neutral color palette. I think everyone was a little surprised to see her with red roses and red candles, it was a great combination- she has lots of inspiring pictures on her blog.

I do have a couple pictures of Linda's creations- but they just don't do justice to how she and her husband Ludmil transformed the barn.

  
Lesa Daily brought her wonderful glittered creations.

See the birds in the upper right hand corner and center table?  They sold out within the first hour of the show.

It was fun to see customers walking around with their birds in their arms like little babies.

Speaking of customers, it was wonderful to meet so many people that have shopped my booth at the antique mall, but I had never had a chance to meet.  A lot of people recognized my "She Wanted to Play" business card logo.

 
I only have a few pictures of my booth- and Karla took those.

The graininess in the picture isn't Karla's fault- I cropped a much larger picture down, so you couldn't see how my tableclothes didn't go all the way to the floor- I probably should have cropped out the fire extinguisher, too.

 
Remember my lampshade post?  I filled up the lampshade with sepia tags I made, and some other goodies, like metal numbers, chandelier crystals, skeleton keys, a baby's boot and some extra small cabinet cards.

  

I was a little shy about bringing in things I had made- I still have some of that "what if they think its stupid?" phobia- but I was just tickled that I sold a lot of my tags.

If you'd like to see more inspiring picture of the Miss Frenchie's show, check out Karla and  Carol's blogs.

In my next post, I'll show you some "outtakes" from the show- and tell you what sold and what didn't.