Flea Market Sunday!

Getting toward the end of the season for the flea market. I did manage to find these cool knife rests in these boxes. They were my best find for the day.

This was my small grouping I found.

Sweet depression glass sugar and creamer, some gold trim, and duck-bill pliers...

In a bag of jewelry pieces I found some silver-plated pieces.....

Can you believe this fabulous reproduction pendulum clock for only $25.00 (It chimes too)...

Found these beautiful chalk-ware busts and a sweet pie bird....

Cute little bird bookends...

Flea Market and Antique Show

Hanging with my "Gnomies".... Ah, no. I found these vintage Gnome picks for cakes(?) or cupcakes(?) and had to get them. I have two daughters. My eldest Steph has a sort of love/hate thing for gnomes. (With her sister it's squirrels) So I tease her by presenting them to her (when I find them cheap enough) here and there as a gag. She has been really studying hard, and stressed out with going back to school full time and trying to fit her dog rescue work in. I plan to surprise her with "Gnome" cupcakes, and two bottles of her favorite wine from Wolcotts Winery (In Michigan). We came across a fellow selling what had to be the biggest lot of cigar boxes I have ever seen. I picked out six of them. It was hard because they we all so pretty and well made. I love storing my beads and trinkets in them. (I also found some lace and fabric coasters later at the Antique show. I was looking for things to add to a fabric journal I am planning. There were no trims or lace at the flea market). Someone was there selling off an estate. I was lucky to find these item there for a great price. I have another one of those small lady planters in pink. A Goebel/Hummel type box(I do not think its a Hummel? not sure), a painted plate, a Royal Dalton cup and saucer, and a pretty dresser box. Another find was a neat tin cupboard with drawers for storing goodies or maybe trims in.

I saw this old time foiled and framed blessing picture. It reminds me of the one that hung at my grandmothers on her back porch. Hers was smaller. When she moved it was given to me. It fell apart when we moved and was lost. Seeing this brought that memory back, of sitting with her on her back porch watching Lawrence Welk .

At the antique show I found this beautiful Madonna Statue (she has glass eyes). I love religious icons, mostly the older ones. She's about 20" tall, has a few chips, looks like a couple small repairs, and is missing her crown, but I love her sweet face. After a little haggling, she came home with us.

The other thing we found was new caster wheels for my dress-form (new "old" ones that is, they look like the type that are already on it), and Steve found a locomotive he really liked. It was a lot of walking but fun and a nice day for it too! Of course I had to pass on my frozen custard I had been looking forward too all week. I had spent my allowance on my treasures. I had a great day with Steve, and I think I covered my walking for the week.

My Rainy Day

Many had Monday off for Labor day, but not I. I never have, you see I do the payroll for a company and it has to be done and sent out Tuesday morning. Also it's month end and when a lot of reports are done and sales accounted for, so I work. No biggie because I get today off. Yeah and a good thing too. It's rainy and cool. Perfect for doing things at home, and making soup.

What else to do? How about working on my friends journal book? I am making two pages for hers, and she for mine. We started these last year and they are incomplete. She called me and asked if i would consider doing a couple pages. I chose Halloween. It's one of my favorites.I love the colors, and imagery. It's candy day for the kids, and "eye" candy day for me! I am using a couple digital sheets I bought from Seneca Pond Scraps, here is a picture of the work in process.

In a somewhat premature "ta-da" here is my dress-form the one I posted about below. She has her cage back. Yes, a little bent (it was much worse), but re-welded and re-attached. You see the new finial, and I decided to stained her. She had a lot of marks, and although I repaired the neck. replacing the material and cap, it just didn't look right. The staining pulls it together and makes it all look original. Yet it has worn and used feel to her I really like. Fits with her rusty, bent cage.

Here she is from the side. I still need to cut the pipe down, or adjust it, since she's a bit too tall. We are scouting for new wheels for the base, since two appear to be bent. For now though I am considering her done.

She is very cool, a thinner compliment to my other dress-form. I will bring her upstairs and use her to display my work. Steve also surprised me by making a finial for my other form with a brass doorknob, but I will share that another time.

More goodness

Sooooo, if your saw my post below you know I stumbled on a couple dress forms at a sale last weekend. I managed to repair the one (her neck was torn and the block, and batting gone from her neck) and let Terri have her, she was picked up Tuesday. I have to say I did a great job (Terri could not tell wear I had done the repairs, and I foolishly did not take any photos, duh!)

On Monday the lady I bought them from called me (I had given her my number when I wasn't sure I was going to buy the other dress form, which of course I finally did). She had another one!! Oh yeah with the cage. She was not in great shape but was I interested in her? Of course, so we arranged to meet and after hemming and hawing I decided to take her. She was in bad shape, her cage was bent and needed attention (Stevens friend welds and is repairing it for me,Thanks John!), and she had no neck, well she had most of the base but the material was gone and someone had mercilessly duct taped her neck and arms up. Have you ever tried to get duct tape sticky gooey gunk off? No fun.

I spent quite a lot of time online checking and calling trying to find replacement parts (she needs a new cap and finial), but she is old and most are not made in the U.S. anymore. I talked to a real nice guy named Joe at "Manne-King" and he explained how they come assembled. How the cages and arm covers are made to specifics for that model. Yeah you can possibly get someone to make theses pieces for me but the cost would be dear and to be honest you would be better off buying a new one. I suggested to him there may be a market for parts and he said he will definitely consider doing that. He did carry some neck blocks and finials though. However he did not have my size. I thanked him and continued looking.

So I was surprised to get a call from him Wednesday saying while cleaning in the back storage they found a cap and finial that had been damaged. They replaced it but if I wanted the damaged one (and if it fit) he would sell it to me at a discount. So I measured, and it looks like a fit! He is sending it to me. It should arrive this week (along with her repaired cage). I cannot wait to put her together.

Again I didn't take any before photos (duh, what's wrong with me?) to focused I guess to think about it. Anyway I cleaned her up as best I could fixed and recovered her neck. Even after staining the cloth, it was a bit too bright next to the older tape stained fabric, so I played with inks and stains. You really can't tell, well maybe if you studied her up close for a bit, but overall not bad.

Not too shabby a repair job. the hardest part was finding the right weight of muslin and matching the color. You can still see the tape on the cap. But that will be gone soon!

I was chatting with my friend yesterday and we are seriously thinking about doing a material collage, smash/vintage journal exchange. We had both bought the book "Layered, Tattered, and Stitches" (okay she says I am a bad influence. I bought the book and another and showed them to her. So she ordered them too) and were so admiring all the lovely collage pieces in it, and were getting inspired and fired up about trying some of the ideas, but with our own spin.

Today Steve and I decided to check out a couple garage sales and a local collector/flea market sale near our home. I found a very cool reproduction radio/stereo. It is very 40's and works, not bad for $4.00. Then I saw these below in a bag. They were all separately tagged, so I was looking through the bag when the vendor looked at me and said "you want the bag, take it all for $10.00". Well, hello, and yeah! They are great pieces and these buckles are sizable. I keep thinking how cool one would be, say on a vintage collage journal? Hmmmmmmm......

I will be hard pressed to use the others. I will have to put them aside for my own projects (my journal cover), but what a great find. It made my day!

***Guess what arrived today? Yep, the cap and finial, and they fit!!!! (4:55pm)