It was a first! Both of my daughters, as well as my sister-in-law, went to the Grayslake Flea Market with me for Mother’s Day last weekend. I’m not sure they will return, but I appreciated the gesture. The most interesting prints of the day were these vintage pochoirs from the 1920′s. Fabulous color!
My husband said that this was the best stain that he had ever used. I am a believer! Our daughter put in an order for her table to be stained “espresso”. I asked if she didn’t just want me to spray it black? No, espresso. After looking around Blog land I decided that we, collectively, would give the Gel Stain a try.
Front side of knotty pine table.
Back side of knotty pine table.
My husband, the re-finisher, reported that the Gel Stain has the consistency of pudding and went on easily with a sock. Very little goes a very long way.
TA DA! Table with 3 coats of General Finishes Java Gel Stain and 3 coats of Gel Topcoat satin urethane.
I took the liberty of doing some table styling here at home. But, something tells me that my daughter will not be setting up the table this way at her apartment in the city.
The 1800′s Nippon tea set from is from my husband’s great grandmother. The peonies are finally in full bloom from our front yard.
A coffee table should always have a few good books and a couple of bookends. This table is on the way down into the city this weekend. I can’t wait to see how it looks in her new home.
Linking to: Wow Us Wednesdays, Furniture Friday, Vintage Inspiration Friday
If you need some fun kitchen ideas, don’t miss the Hinsdale kitchen walk this Friday! It’s the best!
I bought this cute Beef Jerky stand out and about one Saturday afternoon years ago. I thought I could use it somewhere in my house and envisioned the back in black or red. Recently, I have been wandering around the house and have decided it’s time to do a little de-cluttering around here if that is even remotely possible. My husband thought it would be a good idea if I started with the garage. So………..
I did get around to painting the back black and still think it is adorable but today it left my garage. It is going to get a new back and become a chalkboard in the kitchen. What a great idea! Enjoy it Vicki. I know it has found a good home. One down and a few too many to go.
Kane County in May. I should have brought a wagon and taken home some flowering hanging baskets. Anyway, I loved the green tiles but the one missing on the left was a problem. The bed picture is for my friend Dee Dee who is looking for a twin size vintage Simmons bed like this one. If you have one, email me. We can talk. I bought some cute ephemera which I will post up later this week. I still miss the STRAIGHT rows. I’m never sure I saw everything in that ridiculous maze in the middle!
The month of May is the opening of the flea market season in Chicago. Yeah!!! Now I know just how my husband feels when it’s the season opener for baseball! Here’s the line-up for the month:
Kane County Flea Market: May 5th
Wolff’s Flea Market: May 6th
Grayslake Flea Market: May 12th
Wheaton Flea Market: Update: not open this month
Elkhorn Flea Market: May 20th
Randolph Street Market: May 26th
I guess these will more than make up for having to miss Brimfield this year. And speaking of Brimfield, the photo above was shot at a campy shop in Andersonville called Brimfield. More on that when I post about our Andersonville road trip. Bottom line, how would you rather spend your time on the weekends? Watching baseball on TV all day or out treasure hunting?
When I was in Ann Arbor for Mom’s Weekend, we saw this wall painted in a shop downtown. I thought it looked very fresh. Some of the rooms in this house need a new look and I was trying to figure out how to paint this pattern. I should have known where to go. Every time one of the kids ask me something I either don’t know and don’t have the patience to answer my response is “Google it” because of course the answer is out there somewhere on the great wild web! So, I finally found it this morning when I was looking at the links from Wow Us Wednesday. Here is a step by step tutorial of how Christina at Remodelando la Casa did it. Now I know.
Time. We never really have enough do we? Usually I am running late and leave the house at the last minute. To combat this problem, I set my watch ahead so that I am never late. I do that with the clocks in the house and the car as well. It drives my family crazy. The clocks are all set different. The kitchen clock is set to run 10 minutes ahead, the car is usually 7 minutes ahead and my watch is about 15 minutes ahead. It works for me.
I cannot walk past a vintage moon phase watch at a flea market without taking a really good look at it and a few have come home with me. These were so very popular in the 1980′s and the year we were married we gave each other a moon phase watch. This month we celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary. Those moon phases signify so much more now.
My Etsy store is now officially open. I finally have gotten around to making that Shop button on the sidebar work. My first items for sale are my overflow of vintage Mother’s Day Poems. When the kids were young I went to the Grayslake Flea Market every year. That way my husband had all day to run to Jewel, buy Mother’s Day Cards, flowers and have a lovely dinner ready when I returned home. I would purchase a Mother’s Day Motto to remember the day. Fast forward to today. I don’t have the room to hang up 10 years of Mother’s Day prints. It’s time to share and I thought it was a very appropriate time for this Mother to open up her shop. So if you need something special for Mom this year. Check them out. The one above I have saved for myself.
This is one show I try not to miss. I go to listen and learn. No one person can possibly know everything there is to know about antiques. Each of these exhibitors are passionate about what they sell and collect. I love people with a passion. They are the best to learn from. So, you know where I’ll be this weekend.
This is the pigeon hole cabinet that I bought last weekend at the estate sale. One of the guys asked me what I was going to do with it and I promptly replied, I am going to use it to display my bird flower frog collection. He looked at me and said “what?”
So this picture is for him. This is what a bird flower frog collection looks like.
I forgot to add, this is the first flower frog I ever purchased and it is still my all time favorite today.
And this is what the collection looks like in the new display cabinet. Perfect.
A place for everything and everything in its place.
Linking to: Furniture Friday, Vintage Inspiration Friday, Feathered Nest Friday
