Bird Bottles

Being a bird nest collector, and a lover of all things bird,

I am crazy for there bird bottles from one of my

favorite locals - Sprout! Go here for more information.

Comfort Village Antique Show and a Surprise Visitor!

 

Last weekend I set up at the Comfort Village Antique Show. 

Comfort, Texas is about twenty minutes from my town and about thirty minutes from San Antonio. The show is what I think of as an old fashioned country show.  People from the town work at the show selling tickets and a local barbecue restaurant sells sandwiches and breakfast tacos. There is a sweet spirit about this show.

Many dealers come back year after year and during set up there are lots of old friends reuniting and catching up with those they might not have seen since the last show.

 I got to shoot a few photos of some of the booths right before the show opened on Saturday morning, but really couldn't capture the feel of the whole show. I was set up by myself so I couldn't get away from my booth much after that first morning.

As luck would have it, though, I had a surprise visitor mid morning on Saturday, and she just happens to be a fabulous photographer!

 I finally got to meet blogging friend, Anne, from Fiona and Twig!

Anne and I have been emailing, especially lately, since she and her husband are moving to Fredericksburg.

She is also a fabulous photographer and a generous friend.  Anne walked the show and got really great shots of all kinds of neat vintage items.

You can see Anne's post about the show here.

Remember the story of the grain sacks I bought and then decided not to sell them because my friend, Shelley, was selling them right across the aisle?

Well, here is just a smidgen of Shelly's booth at the Comfort show. She is the queen of vintage linens, especially grain sacks!

Shelley also had a TON of old clocks and clock faces. 

An finally, but the biggest miracle photo of all - a decent one of me! 

Those are rare - really rare!

Thank you Anne, for all the great photos. I look forward to having you as my Fredericksburg neighbor, and who knows, maybe one day I can convince you to set up at the Comfort show !!

Voila! Instant Slipcovers!

Several years ago I stumbled upon some vintage grain sacks for a great price. Always thinking of re-sale value, I bought some and planned to sell them at some of the smaller hill country shows I do.

As luck would have it, when I took them to the first show, I found my space to set up was  across from one of my favorite dealers, Shelley, who -  guess what?  - sells tons and tons of antique linens and vintage grain sacks! Well, no way was I going to pull out my measly 15 or 20 bags and proceed to undercut her prices,

So, I tucked the sacks away and sort of forgot about them.

I have been wanting to slip cover my dining room chairs or do something to add some softness to the dining room. There are no window treatments because we are in the country, the windows are all across two entire walls, are floor to ceiling, and the views are beautiful. Also, I have some decorative painting on the walls and just like leaving the window areas open.

Still, the room needed something.  Every now and then I would think "I wonder where I put those grain sacks, and would they fit over the backs of my chairs?......then I would get busy and weeks and months would go by and of course, everything else in life came first.

So, as I began pulling things together from my storage for this weekend's Comfort Village Antique show, guess what I found in a drawer?

As you can see from the photos, the grain sacks fit perfectly! I think they are quite fun and solve my problem of wanting slips,at least for now!

If you don't like them, don't tell me. I am feeling quite brilliant for now. Ah, simple pleasures.

Update - My Daughter's / Guest Room

A while ago I posted on some chairs I put in my daughter's room.  I picked them up at a thrift shop and they are really close to a Hans Wegner classic like the one below.

 My daughter is in college and I want to make her room into a sometime guest room, but also let it still be her personal space when she comes home. 

As she is a senior in college, I thought we could probably put away the medals, prom photos, graduation pictures and other high school memorabilia now.

While I would love to have done some major re-working (read: remove) of built ins and window treatments, I went for the most creative and least expensive way to spruce things up. We have built in long leaf pine cabinetry all over the house, and I think I might be tarred and feathered if I painted or removed the old long leaf pine. It's kind of a sacred thing around these parts - seriously.

 Blue and white curtains and Hans Wegner look alike chairs!

The curtains over the window seat are a blue and green block print on white. 

I bought the John Robshaw duvet cover on sale at Anthropologie, thinking I would save it and use it as fabric for a project one day. I think it adds something  here for the time being!

Notice the bulletin board over the desk. There are two of them, custom framed in the same pine as everything else. I can't decide if I want to cover them with something cool, or take them down, stick them in a closet until we sell the house, and put some kind of wonderful art or mirrors in their places. 

Ideas anyone?  I love getting other perspectives and creative solutions!

The curtains are actually Indian print twin bedspreads, bunched up and tied with twine on the rods. I used three pairs of different prints....meaning,  each window pair matches, but they don't match the other windows. 

 I added a sea grass rug, and poked some John Derian for Target platters here and there mixed with her art work and sentimental photos.

 The lamps were custom made from some oddly wonderful vases I found. They have coiled paper rings covering them. I just love them and think they turned out to be so funky and fun as lamps!

Here is another angle. See all that built in pine? See the other bulletin board? The family who built the house had three boys. Each room has two built in desks with storage closets, bulletin boards,  and a window seat. All three bedrooms upstairs are the same.

I used to sing "You are My Sunshine" to my daughter when she was a little girl. 

I love Sugarboo Designs and gave this to her on her 21st birthday last May.

She is still my sunshine, every single day.

Don't forget to tell me what you think I should do with those bulletin boards!

What do you think?

Candlesticks listed on One Kings Lane as French and priced at $449.00, said to retail at $900.00.

The listing reads as follows:

French gilt candlesticks, beautifully carved and finished.
Made of: Pine
Dimensions: 5"W x 5"D x 11"H
Color: Bronze gilt
Care: Wipe with dry or damp cloth. 

My candlesticks,  bought several years ago at Round Top from some wonderful people who always  bring lots of great looking items from San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.
I paid about $45.00 for the pair.

Mine are pine, carved and painted, 5"wide, 5"deep, and 13" tall from the bottom of the base to the top of the candle stick, but 11" from the bottom round part of the candlestick to the top of the wooden part. 

Very, very similar, no?

What do you think - did I get a great deal or what?!

Marburger Farm Antique Show Fall 2010

A few months before the Marburger Farm show this fall, I had the pleasure of being asked to write a short article about antiquing for The Howdy, the program that everyone receives upon entering the show.  It is a great little guide and was designed by Cynthia Kinney of Kinney Design, with illustrations by  talented artist, Karla Man.

My story was to be light and entertaining, and it was quite fun to see my story in print when I got there! You can see it here.

So, typically I am one of the first in line to enter the Marburger Farm Antique Show when it opens the Tuesday before the Round Top Show opens on Wednesday. It didn't work out that way this year, and after taking my daughter to school that morning, I got to the show about noon. So, the two things I really would have loved had SOLD tickets on them when I spotted them - proof that someone else also loved them!

The dog painting spoke to me immediately and when I saw the SOLD ticket, I was not really surprised. It was just the most charming painting done in 1917 and 4 feet long.  Turns out the dealer is also a blogger and though we do not know each other, I was delighted to find a comment from her on my post after I got home. She is Nance Harper of My Favorite French Antiques.

Nance has great taste and I, for one, plan to follow her and get to her booth sooner next time!

I made a point to visit my friend, Mary, who sold me my carved Indian and wonderful water bird planter last fall. She also sold Joni her beautiful kitchen clock,  which unfortunately fell to the floor and shattered shortly after she hung it. Very sad.

  We got a kick out of the fact that she and I bought from the same dealer, unbeknownst to either of us, until we read each other's blogs and saw photos! Mary had quite an impressive collection of southwestern and Indian items this show. She has a great eye for vintage southwestern art and memorabilia.

This little painted chest also caught my eye and I would have nabbed it if someone else had not already gotten to it first. Oh well,

I guess I could say getting there late saved me some money!

Here are some more images from the show. Enjoy!!

Loved the bottle collection and the cute burro behind the painting - too bad he lost his ears, poor guy.

The last four images were taken of the booth created by American Garage. If you know me, you know I am crazy about folk art and the composition of interesting fragments and objects put together in playful and meaningful ways. This booth was colorful, fun and so, so well put together. 

In hindsight, I wish I had visited with the dealers and learned more about them and their antique business. Visit the American Garage website here to see more of their huge talent.

Last but not least, some of my favorite artists, Brad and Sundie Ruppert of Vintage Sculpture.  

Always clever, always colorful, and always something new I had not seen before - I have three of their pieces (see below) and try to resist buying another one now when I visit them at the show. 

It is always a treat, though, to see their latest sculpture and one day I am sure that one sensational creation will come along that speaks to my heart (again) and I won't be able to resist!!  

 This piece is called "Love Bird - Love Letters" and I absolutely love it.

 Details of the drawer with an old love letter inside and the inscription "Keep your memories here" stamped on the edge of the drawer.

 I can't remember the name of this one, but it has to do with a rodeo, and of course, is perfect for a Texan to own! The photo surrounding the base is a vintage rodeo picture and the horse has an old Texas Ranger badge on it. His head is a golf club and his ears are tiny red Christmas lights.This was the first piece I bought.

 This piece was one of those "I cannot go home without this" pieces. It is called "Let Your Love Shine Through" and the heart actually has a light bulb in it that illuminates the interior of the heart and the box. It is lined in old love letters and the sides of the box are decorated with hearts in hands, as seen below.

There you have it! I didn't get to take as many photos this year, but thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Marburger Farm show.

It gets better and better and I encourage anyone who just has a day or so to see what is going on during antique week at Round Top to visit this show. Of course there is SO MUCH more to see, but if your time is limited,  this show will give you  a taste of a little bit of everything the shows have to offer.