Fall is Calling!

(click any image to enlarge)

You know it's been HOT when the weekend forecast calls for a high of 90 and a low of 69 and you get all excited! Hurray - Fall is coming! Pitiful, I know. Not exactly time to break out the sweaters and make hot apple cider, but around here, we'll take any little break in the monotony of oppressive heat and celebrate it as a sign of cooler days to come.

So, in the spirit of all things Fall, I thought I would share some projects and images to help get even us Southerners into a Fall-ish mood...and nothing says Fall like a fun flea market in the crisp cool Autumn air (which arrives about November :o)

We're beginning to get our preparations underway for our booth at the November flea market in Winnie, TX. Here are a few photos from the studio of projects in the making...

I created a few Fall florals using some pressed tin containers my Mom had...

Earlier in the year I bought a Duncan Phyfe table and 6 chairs for $50 total (I know, amazing how people practically give some things away!) We used the table extensively in the antique shop to display merchandise, but now we will be selling it along with the chairs at the flea market. We covered one chair to see how we liked it...we liked it just fine, so just five more chairs to go...

The fabric we used to cover the seat was from an awesome garage sale we went to a couple of months ago...they had stacks of fine upholstery-grade fabrics for $1 per piece...and some of the "pieces" were 5 yards long! Here's a sampling of what I bought that day...

I picked up this huge clock a few weeks ago at another fun sale at someone's warehouse...5 bucks..

One of the things we are really going to change about our merchandising approach at the flea market versus the antique shop is leaving some of our finds as is...instead of up-cycling them. Good case in point are these lamps...I don't think I paid much more than 1 or 2 dollars for any of them, and we want to sell them as is, with no matchy shades or anything, and pass on our savings to our new customers. Normally we'd clean them all up, maybe repaint them and then trick them out in a gorgeous shade, then sell them for $30 each or more, but now we'll keep them well under $10 each. We're still making double, triple, quadruple what we paid, but we're providing an affordable DIY lamp project for someone to make them their own...

There will still be plenty of things we remake too...here are some cupcake platter bases all in a row waiting for their turn to be glued...

...this is what I mean by "cupcake platter" (as if you haven't seen a gazillion of these all over the place already)...

Some items need just a tad bit of work, like a quick coat of paint...these were partially painted when we bought them...we'll just finish the job...

Some things we'll just wipe clean and they're good to go...

Love these silver-plated cut class coasters...they were in a box at a recent garage sale for ten cents each!! Once again, instead of selling them for "antique store" prices (set of 4 would fetch about $12 - $20), we'll see them cheap ($1 or $2 each) and still make ten times our money or more...

And some stuff is just fun "fluff " like these pink shabby sconces... I grabbed these at my local thrift store from a pile of stuff sitting in the rain outside...the apologetic clerk said "oh, those are just 50 cents because they've ruined out in the weather"...I guess one woman's "ruined" is another woman's "awesome patina" :o)

Still, the most fun projects for the flea market for me are the handmade and repurposed items. Here is a pile of various wood items to be made into functional art...

My Dad has cut and routed a number of plain pine boards for me...

...some will be hand-painted/lettered signs, and others I will combine with frames like these...

...to make hangers like these...

I'm really looking forward to how it will all come together...we have a LOT to do between now and November, but it will no doubt be a lot of fun! I will definitely continue to share photos of projects and new garage sale finds as we go along - I hope you'll enjoy following along with our progress...

And one last bit of Fall for now...if you like the images in the mouse illustration at the beginning of the post or this little mouse girl, etc. I have all of the images as well as a number of background papers and the tag with the Scripture all available in my Aimee Asher digital clipart shop... This kit is called "Happy Fall Y'all!"...

 For just $2.99 you can print them out or use them digitally for any number of creative Fall projects for school, cardmaking, scrapbooking, etc... I hope you'll stop by my Digital Boutique and check out all my clipart kits - they are all very reasonably priced and have uplifting, Scripture-based themes...

OK, I'm finally beginning to feel a bit more Fall-ish...at least until I walk out the front door :o)

Happy Fall Y'all!!

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"Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you: he will never let the righteous fall."

Psalm 55:22