Milestones...

Some of you may know this, and some of you may not, but a little over three years ago, I weighed in at my first Weight Watcher's meeting at 204lbs. (207 was my personal high, not pregnant). Tonight I weighed in at 145lbs. I wore a size 6 jeans to dinner tonight, but most of the time I am still wearing 8's. It was a true milestone for me. I'm tootin' my own horn here, but have to admit that I am really, really proud of myself. I've been working really hard and am wearing sizes smaller than I ever wore in high school. I feel good and I even think I look okay. :0) Today was a good day!

Tag sale mania!!!

Barb {simplyiowa} stopped by Friday morning and let me ride shot gun with her to a tag sale in Davenport. I had NO idea what I had gotten myself into, but OH MY I'm so glad I did! We didn't get to the sale until after noon and we heard that there were over 200 people in line when it opened. It was a huge mansion on Brady Street in Davenport and the Free family had a photography studio there for nearly a century. There was so much interesting stuff. I bought and I bought and I bought. Each time I came back around toward the check out area, the ladies would say... "are you still here?" I was there for hours and hours, awed and mesmerized. Barb and I both found tons of wonderful treasures. She filled her truck and needed to come back for more. I knew in the first five minutes after we arrived that Bob and I would be coming back tomorrow with the truck and a trailer. Barb ended up having to come back again as well. We came back Saturday morning, trailer in tow, after hitting the Sharpless garage sale outside of West Branch on the way down. I found some great buys on small items there and was really happy with our little side trip. Kiki even got 4 new pair of shoes in the deal including a really cute little pair of cowgirl boots!
We got back to the sale about 10am on Saturday and pulled out around 3pm after making countless trips up and down winding stairs to the attic and basement... attic and basement... attic and basement! Bob wasn't so sure about it when we first got there, but he got into it quickly and started getting excited about some of my purchases. We were covered in 100 years of dust, dirt and grime and my hands still won't come clean from all the fine dirt that got into the dry wrinkles and crevises around my cuticles and work worn hands.
I hope you enjoy the pictures... they are all of the items where they sat in the house, unretouched photos, if you may! I can't wait to work on them and get them cleaned up and displayed. If you see something you might be interested in, just let me know.

Springtime decor...

I just love the springy colors in this display. There is something about the beautiful, cornflower blue that just makes me wish I had more blue things to put in my shop right now. I think the next trip out I'll be on the hunt. They say that blue is making a comeback. I've always shied away from blue a bit because I had this little subconscious thing going on... my mom used to say that "she already went through her blue phase". I guess I figured everyone else had, too. I have always like the blues that weren't quite such true blues. The aquas and robin's eggs, the baby blue and, well, the cornflower blue. I have never been much for the darker colors at all... I'm a pastel girl, through and through. I did one chair's upholstery in navy blue and just didn't have any fun playing with it. I never gave it another try.

more upholstery...

Springtime decor...

I just love the springy colors in this display. There is something about the beautiful, cornflower blue that just makes me wish I had more blue things to put in my shop right now. I think the next trip out I'll be on the hunt. They say that blue is making a comeback. I've always shied away from blue a bit because I had this little subconscious thing going on... my mom used to say that "she already went through her blue phase". I guess I figured everyone else had, too. I have always like the blues that weren't quite such true blues. The aquas and robin's eggs, the baby blue and, well, the cornflower blue. I have never been much for the darker colors at all... I'm a pastel girl, through and through. I did one chair's upholstery in navy blue and just didn't have any fun playing with it. I never gave it another try.

For the sweet photographer with the little baby girl...

Had a sweet gal in my shop today with her mom and her little baby girl. She's a photographer and was looking for some upholstered pieces to possibly use for staging photos. I told her that four pieces went out the door in the last couple of weeks. I've got two more at the upholsterers now, but they won't be ready for a bit yet. It sounds like she's looking for something a little bit edgy... I told her to check out my blog and my website to see the kinds of things I have done in the past. I'm going to post a couple pictures here for her just in case she doesn't find them on my site. {I hope you find something that will clue me in to what you are looking for... just let me know}.

Auction goodies and more...

I've had a busy few days here in Iowa. I went to an auction on Saturday... it was the first one I have been to in over a year. Bob dropped me off and hung around to look at a little furniture. He ended up staying for a bit, just long enough to fill the truck once and then he headed home with the load. I stayed and bought some more. I called him and told him he better bring the trailer back when came to get me. We filled the trailer and the truck again. I spent over $1300, but I didn't think that was too bad for two trucks and a trailer full. I mostly bought furniture, but also got some fun small items to use as well. It seems that furniture is easier to buy at auctions than small stuff. I am one who waits until the end and buys the leftovers and tries to pass them off as fantastic stuff by the way I put them together.

I worked at the shop on Sunday and was able to get the front room swapped out. I sold my bring green wainscot cupboard on Saturday and I had Bob and Robbie load it up and deliver it Sunday afternoon. My green couch and chair set wasn't moving, so I called a lady who had been looking at it and made her a really good deal and they loaded that up when they got back from delivering the cupboard and they delivered it to her today. This gave me lots of room to play in the front room. I set up a bed and brought in a small table and chairs and a commode. I rearranged the area where I used to have baby stuff and filled it with lots of ironstone and muted colors. I also put my big cubby hole rack in there and did a display with my candles. I have a ways to go with the final touches, but it turned out pretty good.

At the auction we bought a great sized oak table that is only 36" x 42" without the leaves, but has 7 leaves and stretches to almost 10 feet when they are all it there. It has 6 legs, too, so it is nice and solid. We bought a nice walnut dresser with hanky drawers, another maple dresser with a mirror that I have to clean up yet. A great shabby chic dresser that has been out in the barn for a while. It will be a fun one to play with. I bought three little corner shelves, a sweet little green cupboard that I am going to take with me to the UNI Dome this weekend and two old sets of post office boxes with the keyed fronts on them.

I worked at the shop again today and managed to get a lot of the small items from the auction marked and tried to tidy up a bit. We were busy with people early in the day, but I didn't have many this afternoon as it was so beautiful here. I came home to my littlest one riding her bike in a tank top and shorts... She came riding down the street from the neighbor's when I pulled in the driveway and didn't have her training wheels on (she's 6). I looked at her a bit perplexed and asked her when she learned to ride without training wheels. She smiled, shrugged her shoulders and said... "today". Bob came home and she was riding the neighbor girl's bike without training wheels and she asked him to take hers off of her bike. She's an independent one, to say the least!

I'll try to get more pictures taken soon. Enjoy!

Spring came early at the Expo Center in Rock Island last weekend at the Antiques Spectacular!...

We had a really good show in Rock Island this past weekend. We sold a lot of stuff, but most of it was priced under $20. There was a record crowd and our booth was very well received. We've got another show coming up at the UNI-Dome in a little more than a week. I don't have such a huge booth there and it always makes me nervous when I am pulling things to take and I don't have furniture items to know what sort of display I'm going to do. Hopefully it will all come together nicely and we can have another great showing.
Anyone planning to be at the UNI-Dome show? What should I bring?