Shop & Family Photos at Last!

Hello friends! Although there is still much to do, I wanted to share a few photos of our space at Whispering Willow Antiques. We do have a GREAT location in the shop - this Fall vignette on my antique sideboard is one of the first things you see when you enter the shop. The entire shop is decked out for Fall, but on November 1st, we will be changing eveything over to Christmas. (Remember when Christmas stuff didn't come out in stores until after Thanksgiving...?? Oh well...)  I do LOVE Christmas decorating though, so I am looking forward to the transition...

I made this chalkboard with an old cabinet door and chalkboard paint. I will probably keep it as a display piece, but if someone is really interested in it, I'll likely sell it...

The covered cake pedestal is actually made from three separate glass pieces I had - a cover, a glass plate, and an inverted glass candleholder...

I'm a sucker for vintage needlepoint/stitchery...these tiny framed pieces stitched with bits of wisdom are some of my favorites...

I like to glue teacups and saucers onto these vintage plastic sconces as candleholders...

This is the view of our space from the back room. If you happen to remember our shop from last Summer, we still have the same dresser and china cabinet....although we are now on the hunt for a new china cabinet as this one just went into layaway!

Here are a couple of the things I've recently made in the studio. I made them from scrap wood that my Daddy routed and I painted and sanded. It's hard to see in the first picture, but there is a vintage rhinestone earring in the center of the bow. The oval piece on the black wall hanging is an inexpensive plastic frame that I painted to match the board. I backed the oval with black and white toile fabric and bits of vintage lace. I finished off the wooden plaque with a vintage drawer knob to be used to hang any number of things depending on where one uses it...

The off-white wall plaque is made in much the same way except I used a vintage crewel embroidery piece with an old metal frame... I really like the scrolly metal drawer pull and back piece at the bottom...you could hang a cute little fingertip towel from this in a bathroom...

I am continuting to prepare items for the shop and will share more photos as soon as I can. Getting all set up in the shop has been a frustrating process this time for some reason, but it is finally starting to come together and even become fun. I imagine it will get even more fun (though busy, busy) as things get rolling through the holidays...I'm looking forward to it!

______________________________

We had a GREAT time visiting with my sweet hubby's kids (4) and grandkids (8) in Louisiana this past weekend...and as I mentioned in my last post, we now have a great-granddaughter too! Sweet little Addison is 5 weeks old and is the daughter of hubby's oldest grandson...(yep, they all started young!!) On top of that, I am 10 years younger than my hubby and never had children of my own, so now I am a childless 48 year old step great-grandmother - go figure!!  :o)  I am LOVING my sweet *instant* family - they have been so accepting and loving toward me from the beginning 2+ years ago and it has been a pure joy to become a part of their lives! Here are a few photos of sweet little Addy and her dad...

...and yep, she's a red head, just like her daddy! What a cutie!!!

______________________________

On Sunday morning, before we headed home, we went with daughter #2 and her family to the Acadian Festival Parade in Plaquemine, LA - it was a hoot! I love these little slices of small town Americana! The decendants of the Acadians (French settlers from Canada) became today's Cajun population in Louisiana, so the week-long festival is a celebration of all things Acadian-Cajun...(and fyi, that's about the closest thing to an ethnic heritage that I can claim - 1/4 Cajun...from my Mom's side). We had fun catching beads and candy and other goodies thrown by the folks on the floats...the weather was perfect...it was a blast, and capped a wonderful weekend of family fun!

Well, we're looking forward to another beautiful cool (finally) Fall weekend - I'm sure there are garage sales and studio time in our future!   Yay!! :o)  May your weekend be filled with who and what you love!!