My most wonderful ebay find EVER!!! Mount Vernon, Iowa mini jug

I bought this little beauty on ebay last week and I am so very excited about it. I have a Lisbon, Iowa beater jar and a pitcher from Jennie's Grocery in Mount Vernon, and a Lisbon, Iowa bowl from Stahl's Store (same as the beater jar). I feel very priviledged to have found these items and am so grateful to the gal who put the mini jug on ebay.

Thank you Sierra!!!!

What a find!!!

I bought this wonderful little crock on ebay this morning. I have a big collection of "Polly" items and just a few "Polly Ann" items. This one will be a treasure right up there with my vintage book titled "Polly and Bob". I can't wait to get it in the mail and put it with my local stoneware advertising pieces. It's just perfect for me. I'm a lucky, lucky girl!!!

I didn't even get to play with it... :0(

I bought this wonderful, vintage bamboo patio set this morning on a quick run to Cedar Rapids... got lots of great goodies... and I brought it back to the shop with no where to put it, so I plopped her in the driveway at the shop. The first folks sat and said they wished they had their room done, the second van slowed down, parked, got out and inspected closer and loaded her up. Wish it happened like that every day!

Great stuff at the shop right now, you really should stop by!

Wow, what a show!

I guess you could say I cam as close to selling out as I ever have at a show... furniture-wise, anyway! We showed up at the show with a full truck, full trailer and full jeep and we left with two pieces to deliver in the truck and a couple things in the trailer. The jeep was empty and Bob was a little nervous about how things were going to ride in the trailer since things were packed so loosely. We sold all of our big pieces and I can not tell you how relieved I was about that as I honestly didn't know where I was going to put them if I had to bring them home. The shop is jam packed... with awesome stuff, of course, the workshop is full of projects and the garage at home has a tiny little path to walk through. What a relief to not have to be worrying about where it was all going to go.

I'm so excited about this season for antiquing. Shoppers have been out in full force and most of them are quite discerning and are looking for the best deal they can find. We're fortunate that we sort of specialize in affordable, functional things that have great character. Just about anyone can walk into our booth at a show or to our shop and find something wonderful and useful that they can easily afford. So many people commented about how reasonable our prices were at the show. Two women actually came up to me and thanked me for my reasonable prices. They said "we can really shop here".

I have to admit that sometimes my prices tend to creep up a bit. It's a supply and demand thing, just like so many things. I am pleased to say that right now is NOT one of those times. I have plenty of supply and am thankful that the demand is good, too. The turnover at the shop is good and I am really enjoying getting to "play house" and rearrange when there are holes to fill in.

Well, my kids are at it again... time to go crack the whip... later
Polly

Collector's Eye Preview

Heading out the door...

Bob, Robbie, Kiki and the truck and trailer just pulled away heading into Cedar Rapids to Hawkeye Downs to start setting up our booth for The Collector's Eye Antique Show... Runs Sunday (tomorrow) from 10am to 4pm.
I have the best load of stuff I've had in a long time for this show and I'm really excited about the potential that it has. It's a bit different from what I normally do, but I think I'll be able to put a few "Polly" touches on it and hopefully it will sell like crazy.

Come see us tomorrow and spread the word!!!

Quilts and a camelback...

Bob and I went to an auction on Saturday and had a BLAST! We filled the trailer and the truck again and brought home a big ole' load of goodies... among them were this nice camelback sofa, a matching victorian walnut chair done in a mauve velvet that is really in nice shape, and these three quilts. I'm in love with the one that is soft pinks and greens. I think I'll have to find a place at home where I can enjoy that one for a while. The purple background double wedding ring one is in really nice shape, too. It's hand pieced and machine quilted as is the other one... anyone know the pattern name for the one with the cream background? It has appliqued blocks and has blanket stitching around the circles. It's an unusual one and I don't think it has ever been used either.
I'm hoping to get more pictures taken tomorrow and Wednesday. I'll post them when I can.

Friday morning I made a trip down to The Junk Asylum to get started creating my booth there. I haven't had great luck as a dealer elsewhere in the past as I'm not very good at getting there to service my booths. I'm excited about this one and am challenging myself to do a good job for Lorie and make it a profitable experience. She certainly gets good traffic, so if I'm not successful, I'll know that it is my fault and not hers. I got all of the furniture set and took a few linens and smalls, but I've got to take a load of smalls down on Wednesday.

Tomorrow my friend Conni and I are going to spend the day together to celebrate her birthday... a long overdue celebration, as her birthday was February 18th!!! Yikes! I have absolutely no business not working tomorrow, but I have put this off so many times and I just can't do it again. She's such a great friend and a huge help to me at the shop and with keeping me sane when my life gets crazy.

I've got a really busy end of the week as our set up is Saturday at noon for the Collector's Eye show. I have some really fun things that I want to take... in fact, the list I have is making me dizzy. There is no way that I can get all the cool stuff in that I want to take. I'm going to try to take the cream of the crop and make it a huge success of a show for me. Wish me luck. I'll be working in the shop on Thursday and will be cleaning and pricing new stuff that I don't get to after I get back from Lorie's on Wednesday. Friday will be devoted to getting loaded for the show and tying up loose ends with all my other craziness.

I'm exhausted and heading to bed early tonight. Look for more pictures in the next couple days, or, better yet, stop by the shop and the show this weekend and check it all out in person! If you do that, please make sure you introduce yourself to me!

Make it a good one... Polly

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.