Upcycled porch post and floor boards harvest table...

Bobby and I just finished this table today... it is made from two porch posts and some fun old blue floor boards... It turned out great~

A few of the newest things I'm excited about...

I love how this little chair turned out.  The background of the floral print is a soft aqua and is simply yummy.  The piping is done in a wonderful little green check.  Too cute!

BEFORE...

and AFTER!  So comfy, too!

His and hers night clothes...

Pink ruffly floor length dress!

New arrivals at Polly Ann's...

We've been working hard in our workshop to clear out some of the projects so we can move in a storage shed full of fresh stuff to work on... here are some of the results...

sweet little red shelf... just the right size

This blue cabinet was a built in kitchen cupboard out of a sweet little cottage in Cedar Rapids.  It originally had a base cabinet that it was free mounted above, but we made it into a little more of a free-standing variety with space underneath for pet bowl and storage.  Wainscotting on the back and some sweet oilcloth on the shelves... the outside needs a coat of paint...

Another quick, sweet little shelf.  This one with a new back.  It's a great size and a great look in a soft aqua...

I absolutely love how this turned out... Bobby put a new top on it as it was just an opening and wainscotting in the back.  I white washed the outside and made a quick set of cafe curtains with tie backs to spruce it up...

I filled it up with dolls and sweetness and it's sitting atop a french candy makers table with a glass top... I made a matching scarf... Love the little doll dresser on top...

Here's the 6 footer.  I love how the legs turned out... such character.  This is the last one he will be making for a few weeks.  We have another project coming to the workshop.  If you have been thinking about one of his tables, get your order in NOW as he is just about out of materials...

This is a sweet little bench that Bobby refurbished for me.  Where we found it, there was another board sitting close by... one leg was totally rotted off, so we used the other board to make a new one.  He also had to replace the support board in the back... it looks great... a fun primitive piece...

This is one of the projects going on in the workshop now... I plan to white-wash it and recover it.  My fabric stash has too many fantastic choices, so I haven't yet decided which way to go... any suggestions???

This pink paint I found at the hardware store in the "Miss-Mix" pile.  It's REALLY bright pink, but both of my daughters had a minor panic attack when they saw it.  I asked if that was good or bad and they both said "good"... would be great in a "tweener" room or for that girly girl out on her own for the first time... 

All I have to figure out now, is how to get the space under the dropfront to quit sticking to itself and peeling... as soon as I get it right, it, too will make it upstairs to the shop...

always interesting...

Polly Ann's... because there's no place like home...

The putzing paid off at Polly Ann's...

The front room at Polly Ann's after three days of putzing...

I adore the color pink and am thoroughly in love with the combination of pink and green. Aqua is hangin' in there tight, too... 

Centerpiece is Bobby's wonderful 8 foot long harvest table with two wonderful cement urns and the trees I got from Hill's Bank (the best bank around) for our store's 20th anniversary...

This sweet little corner is brought to you by the color "PINK"...

Wicker table with glass tops and layered cloths, 4 wicker chairs, a sweet little fireplace built by Bobby, a window project copied yesterday from pinterest, hankies, red glass, Haviland China, pink paper doilies and pink flashed beer mugs.  Oh, yea... and don't forget the sweet little Typhoon pink pitcher on the center of the glass shelf for the window...

More pink on this unique fringed table that was once the center of attention at home wakes... you guessed it... it's a coffin table, thus no finish on the top and someone upholstered it along the line.... a great server!

Close up of the project from pinterest... 

check out my pinterest page!

Mirror, mirror on the walll... Love the soft yellow wingback I did in a Ralph Lauren fabric with a red and white mini check for trim.  Isn't the mantle Bobby built wonderful?

Did I mention I LOVE pink and green together?  This display of roses plates and accessories makes me so very happy...

Pink and green Haviland and other European pretty dishes... and one of my favorite saying plates... "My favorite place is in your hug..."

 A sweet colonial maiden on a really big plate with perfect fading around the edges...

Georgian Eggshell dishes by Homer Laughlin...


Polly Ann's... because there's no place like home...

A new slogan...

Polly Ann's... because there's no place like home...

this is my new slogan for Polly Ann's... my 20 year old antique store... I'd love to know what you think!

So... this is the house that our house is designed after! It was Country Living's House of the Year in 1992... Someday ours will look more like this, but for now, we are on the 13 year plan and aren't finished yet. Our siding is vinyl and is a creamy color. Someday my door will be either magenta or red (haven't decided yet) and we will have close to the same design on our porch. I've got the stonework half finished (it's been that way since Bob's mom got sick in 2004). My goal is to get the porch and door done this summer. Wish me luck... So many projects, so little time!!!

Anamosa Antique Show Bound... This Sunday, January 22nd

I've been framing prints like crazy and trying to put together a fun, feminine, romantic array of goodies for the show this Sunday. Bob made me the awesome display shelf from a couple of ladders and some salvaged wood. He'll have one of his salvaged materials harvest tables there, a 7 footer with walnut legs, and he made me three trenchers/troughs for the middle of a table. He's getting into this creative stuff, and I think he even actually likes it. That makes me happy.

Hope to see you there!!!

Another custom harvest table of vintage materials... made by Bob :0)

My honey's latest custom harvest table. Another beauty! He's got two more orders in the works and then we have to sit down and evaluate how much of our wood stash we have left... she's a dwindling fast.

The tops and skirts of these tables are made from old floor boards out of a house in Lisbon, Iowa. I wish there had been more! The legs are old table legs that we have been stashing for years. We're getting low on those, too... time to go a hunting again ... my very favorite part of this business...

This one is just over 6 feet long... a very popular size. Doesn't he do nice work? :0)

Finally a new and perfect home for this beautiful set at Hope's Bridal Boutique!

I've been wondering what this custom sofa and chair were waiting for... the perfect home! Their new owners at Hope's Bridal have finally come to find them. I can't think of a more perfect place for this girly, comfy set. The thought of mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and best friends awaiting the big reveal while sitting upon these beauties makes me enormously happy.

The best part? Now I get to play, play, play house again in the front room at the shop. I believe the plan will include a wonderful pair of burgundy floral chairs and a deep aqua blue velvet sofa that has been hanging around in my front room at home. It will be so much fun to set it up and decorate with all the wonderful treasures I can choose from at Polly Ann's. Something fresh and new will be there after the first of the year... you should come and see!

some recent views....

Pine Harvest Table ... all old materials

This is the beauty that Bob just put the last coat of polyurethane on tonight... it's almost 3 foot wide and is 8 foot long. Oak legs from an old table, long dismantled, and floor boards from a house that was over 100 years old. So solid and such wonderful character in those floor boards. I can't wait to get it in the shop and play with it! Oh what fun!!!

Unless, of course, it sells before I get it in there! That would be just fine, too :0)
He can build to suit your measurements. We have several sets of legs to choose from. The floor boards will go quickly, and when they are gone, they're gone. We're always scouting for more materials, but it's always hard to find...

oh what a terrible blogger I am...

I am so bad at this whole blogging thing, but I really do enjoy it when I take the time to post something. It seems like these days I usually post things to facebook on the Polly Ann's Antiques page as I already know how to do a mobile upload on facebook. I'm sure mobile blogging is quite easy, but I'm not sure I'm ready to sit down and figure it out.

Anyways.. last Saturday was Polly Ann's Antiques 20th Anniversary. It's so hard to believe that we have been in business that long, but we have! We had a wonderful day at the shop. Dad, Bob and I were there all day long together and it was wonderful to have people stop in and share in our celebration. We did a little impromptu sale and ended up having a fantastic day. I wish you all could have been there.

Here a little ditty I wrote when I woke up Saturday morning and was feeling a bit nostalgic...

20 years ago this morning, I left our little, freezing cold, rental house north of Martelle, Iowa as a scared, but determined young woman who wanted to find a place for herself in the world. Bob and I had worked hard, or so we thought, at the time, to have our little antique store ready for the public to see. My dad was anxiously awaiting the first day of what would turn out to be a new journey for him.

We had nothing, almost... be we were determined. I had left a job at the Collins Plaza Hotel where my only possibility for advancement was working every night and weekend along with the regular 9-5. In retrospect, there have been times when that would have been fantastic, but only at times.

So many people taught us so much along the way... Kim Wolfe who was, and still is, an incredible mentor of mine... It was in her store a few weeks before we opened that I stopped in to let her know there would be a new kid on the block, so to speak. She didn't waste any time in helping me get listed on the "brochure" that we still use to help our customers find the other antique shops in our wonderful little burg. She asked me right away what I was going to call the shop... I stuttered and said that I hadn't really thought about it. She said the brochure was going to print tomorrow and she needed the information right away. I said, "um, um, um... Polly Ann's Antiques, I guess"? She wrote it down. Next question, "what are your hours going to be"? I looked at her and said, "what are yours"? ... and so it went. She's been eager and willing to help me every step of the way. She and Carolyn Wellso are two women who have worked this business hard for more years than Bob and I have. They paved a way her in MV, and I feel so very blessed that they both chose to help me along the way.

From the moment we opened, we had traffic. We were so excited, and thought, after the first day, that our biggest problem would be making sure we had enough inventory. Ha! What we soon realized was that those first customers were the vultures of our business honing in on the new village idiot. We even gave them discounts on items that were so grossly underpriced that we still long to this day to have back. But each and everyone of those customers/vultures taught us invaluable lessons about what was to come. What was to come, was helpless and hopeless that winter. I mean, who opens a 350 square foot antique store two weeks before Christmas with zero inventory of their own and expects to make it? Well, we did!

From there we figured things could only get better if we worked hard and started to learn about what we were doing. At the time we opened I thought we would sell Dad's stuff for a 17% commission and that Bob and I would contribute "crafts" to the inventory. What a joke! We soon learned that we weren't very "crafty". We made it through the winter because Bob asked Rich Rockrohr for a job. Rich said he wasn't hiring, but listened to our story and told Bob where to be Monday morning at 8am. Thank God for Rich! I worked a part-time job at the Anamosa Journal-Eureka as, of all things, a sports editor. We had no kids, no money, a really drafty, but otherwise cheap, rental house and our tenants in the apartments we had finished the previous summer were all making their rent payments. It wasn't so bad.

Working six days a week at the shop was getting old when I was working Mondays in Anamosa. Just then Mary Swan from Mount Vernon Antiques (at the time her shop located in what was called the old IE Building) walked a dealer down the street named Phyllis. Mary would be closing her store and Phyllis was looking for a new place in Mount Vernon to have a booth. What a novel concept, I thought! I was honest and told Mary and Phyllis that I hadn't really thought about that. Mary said to rent her a space for $1.00 a square foot and have her work a couple of days a month. That was music to my ears! So, Phyllis Shutt was our first "dealer" at Polly Ann's and it meant that I was going to get out of there for at least a couple days a month. We finished another room and Phyllis moved in about the time I got a call from a lady named Peg Burke from Coralville. She was a professor in the athletic department at Iowa. She wanted space and was willing to work as well. And so it began, we became a mall. Francis and Betty soon followed, along with Dee, Barry and Eileen. Things were starting to happen. My dad and all of those dealers, excepting Phyllis, who retired from U of I hospitals and moved, and Barry, who passed away a few years back, are still with me. Many people have come and gone over the years, but we've had such wonderful people helping take care of both our store and us. We are so lucky. I still charge $1.00 a square foot and every dealer at Polly Ann's is required to work as part of their booth rent.

I borrowed $70 from my dad in the spring of 1992 and I started buying and selling antiques myself. I now have a store that is ten times the size it was when we opened and have inventory stored all over the place in storage sheds, garages, machine sheds and often in the middle of my living room if we have a show coming up.

I love, love, love what I do and I get to be with my partner and best friend every day... not to mention getting to know my daddy along the way. Bob and I do the antique thing full time now. Bob also runs a Blythe Cottage Inn... a bed & breakfast, from our home. We do about ten antique shows every year. We've got three wonderful kids now and, with 20 great years of experience under our belt, I think we're starting to get this thing figured out.

The past 20 years has been a wild ride, but one I would go on again in a heart beat. If I only knew then what I know now...

Custom vintage reupholstered couch and chair fixed!

Just in case the gal is out there who fell in love with the looks of the couch and chair, but not the springiness of the old springs... I had it fixed. My upholsterer took the springs out and put in a firm foam and a board... now it is fantastic and doesn't sink like it did. Always a tough call with the old couches... I took his word for it that the springs were good and they weren't... now it is good to go and oh, so comfy...

Here's the custom vintage couch and chair... I LOVE it!

I had him make several pillows to go with it... I think it turned out wonderful... pinks, golds, greens and creamy whites... simply YUMMY!!!
I know I'm a really bad blogger this time of year, but we've been crazy, crazy busy with purchasing the estate and yet another funeral today.... Our small community is still going through a really rough time. We had yet another teen kill themselves last week and his services were today... three in the last seven months and two in the last month... we're spent and are just trying to stay focused these days. I hope you'll all forgive me to being so absent from this platform... I would love to hear what you think about the couch and chair set...

Stay tuned... Polly Ann

I got it!!!

We signed the contract today! I get to start my treasure hunt tomorrow... no wait, I have to work tomorrow... anybody wanna work for me? Shoot, I have to work Thursday, too... Come to the shop and see me :0)

Need prayers and good thoughts today...

Today I am going to meet with a family about their mothers' items. It would be a nice buy for me if I can get it accomplished... lots of fun stuff, but TONS and TONS of work. I made my offer and drew my line in the sand... the family muddied my first line pretty badly and I backed away. Today, round 2... the final round for me. Wish me luck and say a prayer for me that the answer will be cut and dried... I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks bunches...

Polly

Projects and springtime...

This was one of the projects I completed yesterday. Have I ever mentioned that I have hundreds and hundreds of frames and hundreds and hundreds of prints. Sometimes I don't know where to start, but yesterday these two little girls spoke to me... maybe they remind me in some way of my own girls. This was a magazine cover from July 1934 that someone had saved in a scrapbook. I couldn't find a frame quickly that would fit it just right, but I had this black one and I knew it would make it pop... then I need to figure out how to bridge the gap. I didn't want to mat it as matting somehow makes it look too new for me, so I dug out one of my old wallpaper sample books and found this sweet little floral print that brought it all together... for me anyway. I hope you like it, too!!!

Have a fantastic Wednesday and may the sun be shining where you are, cuz it sho ain't shinin' here!!!

Oilcloth ... one of my very favorite things at Polly Ann's

...as a shelf liner

...as a table runner

...as a cover up for yucky kitchen cabinets

...the obvious... as a tablecloth

... 15 patterns available at Polly Ann's... almost all retro and vintage designs

... shopping bags, beach bags, the possibilities are endless

... precut in 36"X47 1/2", 47 1/2" square, 47 1/2" x 60", 47 1/2" x 96", and 60" rounds

... how fun!

...the Oilcloth trademark...

"A new oilcloth makes the whole family happy."