Shopkeeping Update: Busy Week!

Hello friends! Sorry to have been away for a week...but after our bust at Canton, we have more than made up for it in the past week with some great local junking, glorious weather (perfect for furniture painting and lots of garage sales), and lots of prep work for new items to go in the shop. It was a very busy and productive week!

Here are some new photos from the shop...we just completed these updates Sunday...

(click any photo to enlarge)

One thing we are continuing to do is to bring in more merchandise based on my illustration work. I ordered several sets of notecards from my CafePress store, divided them into sets of 5, and tied them together with coordinating ribbon, then placed them around the shop. Here are a few sets...

I LOVE finding fun red and green kitchen goodies...this sweet strawberry cookie jar is from an estate sale and the cherry salt & pepper shakers are from an incredible liquidation sale put on by a couple that were regular dealers at Round Top that are now getting out of the junk business. You junkers would LOVE digging through their huge warehouse and storage containers FULL of antiques and collectibles...so FUN! They are holding this sale daily until everything is gone

...I'm sure we will go back...

These cute glass apple-shaped bowls were at a great thrift store that we discovered a couple of weeks ago...

Love how these vintage stainless butter knives look nested in this old lid-less teapot...

We used this cute expandable yellow peg rack we found last week to fill an empty spot on the wall...and hung an embroidered apron and crocheted runner on it. The fun chicken mold was found at a sale several weeks ago - it seems right at home in this spot...

Who doesn't love a freebie? This old Anchor Hocking juice bottle was among about 4 bags of FREE stuff we scored on Saturday. We headed to a storage warehouse sale at about 2:00 in the afternoon only to find that everyone was already packing up. The folks at this one particular storage unit had a number of boxes still out and they told us (begged us really) to take anything we wanted - no charge! They were sick of dealing with it all. Well, that was REALLY fun to dig through...in coming days I'll be showing you more of our scores from that encounter...

I've had this rocking chair for years and finally decided to sell it (we just don't have room for it). I paired it with this cute yellow rose crocheted throw that I found back in '08 for $2.00. Wow, someone worked so hard on this...I love rescuing this kind of handiwork...

Here's another freebie - this sweet creamy-yellow provencial desk was being carted to the curbside at the end of a garage sale to be thrown away...we just happened to drive up a they were putting it, as well as two perfectly good end tables, out to the street. Can't stand to see perfectly good furniture thrown away...

We added this little wicker etagere for height and additional display space. It was $5.00 and a medium brown color when we found it at a garage sale a few weeks ago. We finally had good weather this past week and were able to spray paint it heirloom white...

This is a terrible photo because the sun was so bright behind it, but it gives you a glimpse of this adorable little vintage (or vintage-inspired) shaving/wash stand. This was a $4.00 find, and I was thrilled to find out that the big Homer Laughlin floral wash basin I already had fit it perfectly....

Here is a fun little cloche I made using a pink teacup ornament for the topper, an inverted candle holder for the cloche, a one-off Homer Laughlin salad plate, and a little glass candle stick...

The round table and chairs that we had at the far end of our space sold on Saturday, so the sweet gals that were working at the shop kindly moved the Duncan Phyfe into its place and redid the tabletop...they did a great job...

This is an example of what you can do with an odd number of

glass dessert dishes...I placed these on a long, narrow mirror to provide holders for sugar packets, toothpicks, etc, but it would be perfect for condiments too, or for Q-tips and cotton balls, etc on a vanity...

Even though the rose on this sweet little Lefton egg cup is patially broken off, it is still really pretty...

I've shown this handmade cloche before, but this time its housing a beautiful vintage Radnor floral bone china bouquet sitting in an etched glass dessert dish...

Thanks for hanging in there through all those photos! I feel sometimes like I'm constantly in catch-up mode and instead of pacing my posts every couple of days or so, I cram a whole week or so worth of news into one LONG post. Well, I'm so grateful that you haven't given up on me and that you've kept coming here even though I don't post as often as I'd like! Thank you for that!! But I still hope to do better and be a more regular, steady blogger...

I am very excited about a soon upcoming post where I will show you my Easter, Mother's Day, and "You are Special" collections at Universal Designs...I have ordered some of the items wholesale to sell in the shop and am eagerly awaiting their arrival!! Can't WAIT to see them in person myself and to show you guys! It is so neat to see all these things that I have been working on for so long now finally come to fruition...God is so good, and I am so very blessed!

Have a glorious rest-of-the-week friends!!

"May he grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed."

Psalm 20:4