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?

Fun with letters at the show...

Time to load up the trailer tomorrow... Rock Island Antique Spectacular this weekend!!!

We've been feverishly working to get ready for our show this weekend. I'm really getting excited about it. We did the show in Anamosa in January, but I have a pretty small booth there and it is hard to "show my stuff". Rock Island is a bit different. I have a big booth and love to set up little room settings. I don't have as much in upholstered furniture that I would like to take, as my couch and chair that won't seem to sell have already been there.
I'm planning a nursery display and have lots of vintage baby clothing, knick knacks, prints, blankets, dolls, bonnets and other toys that I can't wait to play with. I painted a baby blue wardrobe that I got just last Sunday and we wainscotted the sides. I think it will be adorable all decked out for a nursery. Bob painted another little cupboard today that is turning out so cute... it was a homemade gun cabinet that someone started trying to strip... it just needed paint, not stripped. We took out the insides, added shelves and a divided glass front on the door and it is so sweet... only a little over a foot wide, about five feet tall and has a great little storage drawer at the bottom. I'm so eager to do a display in it. We are painting it magnolia white, so it could be used in just about any room... the perfect little display case!!!
I'm just about exhausted, so I'm heading up to be for tonight. I'll try to get a few more pictures on tomorrow.
Come see me in Rock Island!!!

The finished display...

Here's a couple of pictures of the wardrobe. I have to rub down the glossiness of the crown we did, but I think it turned out pretty good. I'd love to hear what you think...

I need motivation!!!

I finally sold my fireplace mantle last week! February in Iowa has taken it's toll on my motivation. The mantle is the first significant piece I've sold this month... that's sort of typical of February, but not this bad. I finally have a blank wall that I can do something with. I've been bringing things into the shop, but nothing has been going out and that makes it really difficult for me to do my thing. I'm looking so forward to bringing up a big wardrobe out of the workshop tomorrow. I spent part of the day today trying to match some really old painting techniques on this wardrobe. It is missing its crown and Bob cut a new one and I tried to make it look better than it did without one. I still have a few more steps before it's finished... hopefully I can get it done quickly in the morning and Bob can haul it upstairs for me to play with. These are a couple of before pictures... I tried to make the crown match the mottled look on the door panels. I know it won't look perfect, but hopefully it will be a step in the right direction. I'll try to post a picture or two of the finished display when I get it done.

A few fun fotos from fabulous Polly Ann's...

A sweet little bunny sleeping peacefully in the children's area...


The coolest yellow floral painted kitchen set...


What a beautiful pitcher & bowl...

The things I love surrounding me...

I know, I know... I've been a bad blogger. Bob and I finally repainted the family room and kitchen area. We're going to start work on the front rooms today... our "formal" living and dining rooms. All this really means in that these are the rooms that we don't use very often... the rooms that get piled with stuff to keep it out of the way in our living space. I could fill hundreds of these rooms. Alas, today is cleaning day and that means tough work and decisions to be made about what to do with things. I have some wonderful things in those two rooms that just needs to find a home, but there is no room at the inn, so to speak, in this house... no real room at the shop right now either, which is why it all just continues to sit there. I have three shows coming up in March, so I'm hoping to get some of the items priced to take to the show. Then we can box them and put them in the trailer to "wait" for us to get to them some more. I'll try to snap a few "before" pictures before we start our little cleaning and painting project (that will likely grow into a very large and unfun cleaning and painting project before long). I'll share as we get a little further into it (that means when I need a break from cleaning and painting :0))

These are the "after" pictures of our family room. I redid my mantle after it sat empty after I cleared off the Christmas display. I decided to use some of my very favorite things. This display is a pretty good representation of "me"... Polly Ann Blythe is really just a little girl who likes to dream and wants to be creative, but finds it difficult to follow through on her intentions.

Hope you like the pictures.



Two of my very favorite painted plaques. I love the colors. The one that has the glare is of wonderful hollyhocks. By son collects chalk banks and this is one of my favorites from his collection. The little "made in Japan" doll speaks right to my heart and the little pointed feedsack ornament thingy is truly one of my very favorite things that I own. It embodies so many things that I love... all the colors and prints in the 1930's fabrics... the detail of the blanket stitching... the fact that someone took the time to make it and keep it all these years until it found a home with someone who loves it as much as its original creator. Then we have a little motto print... I love these things. The little dog is a pin cushion and is a representative member of a growing collection of pin cushions.



I bought this little house bookend/doorstop from my good friend Daryl. It ranks right up there with the little ornament thingy on the other side of the mantle. I WILL live in a little cottage like that one day. I'm going to have an arched doorway and the flowering vines climbing and the white picket fence and everything. I AM!!! The little cottage print tray is yet another representation of a bigger collection. I'm really into houses, I've discovered. My mother was in real estate and she, too, "collected" houses. I used to love to go to her open houses and critique each property. It was a nice common ground for us and now that she is gone I find myself missing that relationship. She always valued my opinions and often would call me when she was putting an ad in the paper for a certain property and needed my help with a description.
I love the little clown... he's a string holder and hangs from yet another, hand-made, crafty item, a pot holder holder. (I love saying that). The little girl with the bonnet hot pad needs a safety pin and she'll get hung up too... such a big chore, but I can't seem to get er dun! The pink feather tree is new, but is so very sweet and since pink and green are definately my most favorite combination EVER, I decided to put it up against the green ("Lettuce Alone" colored) walls. The little boy is wooden and an is a hat stand with a "pocket" in the back for a brush. He speaks to me too! You can also see another one of my cottage prints in the picture. That is the one that I bought at Barb's () fall sale. I LOVE it!



Maud Hallyer prints, cottage plates and plates with hollyhocks... what could be better. I love the thatched cottage roof on the bigger picture. Looking at that wall always makes me smile.



A close up of my "someday" retirement home...



My collection of matte McCoy pottery sitting atop my mother's kitchen cupboard, surrounding yet another cottage print. I love the subtleness of the colors of matte McCoy. One of the little shoes (the lavendar one) always sat on the back of my grandparents toilet... my grandma is 100 years old!



My husband collects R.A. Fox prints. For Christmas this year he bought me a "Fox" cottage print... the best of both worlds. Although the majority of his collection is in our bed & breakfast area in our lower level, we brought up a couple of garden prints to display with my new cottage print. I absolutely love the colors in these pictures against the green walls. Green goes with just about everything and makes me happy, to boot!



By the way... it was my husband's idea to paint. I am hosting my Bunco group this month and he, yes HE, decided that the house needed a bit of sprucing up before the big Bunco day... I wasn't going to argue. He's motivated and I'm determined to be there with the cattle prod to keep him going. He's a keeper, for sure!!!!