This will come as a shock to no one that has been reading this blog for any period of time…..we went to an estate sale this weekend.
I know. Shocking, right?
I subscribe to EstateSales.net. It isn’t a Minnesota thing. It is a national listing of estate sales. Of course I narrow the search to only include listings in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro. You can set your search for the area that you live in. There are also national sales listed and oh how I wish I could go to some of those sales.
We started the day with the intentions of only going to this one particular sale. The house looked amazing and they had a couple of things that caught my eye. On top of that, Nikki our neighbor came with us and I wanted to take her to a sale that looked like it had a lot of great items.
The house was beautiful, but the sale itself was disappointing. Everything was way overpriced.
Fortunately there was one more listing in the area that I had not considered going to see. The sale had a lot of dolls and bears and dishes for sale. But, the sale was only nine miles away from our first stop. Since we had already driven 45 miles, what was another nine measly miles.
It was day two of the sale which typically means discounts off the original prices.
And at this sale, I found this.
It was packed with dishes. Tons of dishes and the old glass doors were wide open. Open so everyone could see all of the dishes. I don’t think anyone knew the tall pine cupboard was for sale.
I couldn’t believe my luck. And it was 20% off day!
But that’s where my luck ran out.
We didn’t have a way to get it home.
So we went back home empty handed. Empty handed except for the squeaky cheese we bought at a creamy. But that is a story for another day. 🙂
I couldn’t stop thinking about that cupboard.
I imagined it at the top of my stairs. Big and strong and displaying all of my pretty for sale things.
I imagined moving things around as they sold and creating new ways to showcase them. The ideas were endless.
So that next morning I convinced Wade that we NEEDED to journey south one more time.
My good fortune had returned. The cupboard was still available, but it was no longer 20% off, it was 40% off!
Happy danced all over that estate!
My own little store within a store.
Happy Dance Monday to you!
Wendy
P.S. the jars you see with the scissors from above? They make a great Mothers Day gift. The jar holds twine for your Mom’s garden or ribbon for gift wrapping. Or if you send fresh flowers for Mothers Day, the jar has a grid to help display a bouquet. And for extra bonus points: the cute scissors come with the jar. 🙂
Have you ever wanted to redecorate a room in your house but didn’t want to spend a lot of money? I did just that this week. The bedroom was decorated under $100 by shopping my house and the Old Lake George shop.
The starting point for the room was the bed. I have had a down comforter, bedskirt and shams sitting at the dry cleaners after purchasing them from an estate sale. The 3 items were only $60, for a king size set.
I picked up the comforter set this week and as I was lying in bed that night redecorating the room, please tell me that that is how you fall asleep also, 🙂 , I remembered that I had the perfect curtain fabric.
Last winter when I visited my parents in Texas, one of my Mom’s quilter friends was in the process of downsizing her fabrics.
She had yards upon yards of two particular fabrics that she had intended to make a quilt from, but she changed her mind. My Mom acquired the fabric and used a little bit of it to back a quilt she was making but there was still a lot of fabric left.
I mean, a lot of leftover fabric.
Here are those fabrics all together on top of the comforter and some added sparkle for affect.
Everything is very neutral and goldish. They are tricky to photograph but you’ll get the picture.
No, literally I will show you pictures in a sec.
First lets look at the previous curtains.
Total side story: When I was sewing the curtains, I called my Dad about something. The conversation got around to him asking me what I was doing that day. I shared with him that I was making new curtains.
New curtains? Didn’t you just make curtains? was his response.
Yes Wade, Dad I did. But…never mind. 🙂
Where was I going with this? Oh, right.
After completing and hanging the NEW CURTAINS, (eye roll), I moved the pillows that I showed you yesterday on the loveseat to the bed. I thought they looked even better on the bed.
From the last time I shared these pictures, so many of you were interested in the pillows.
It’s Spring! Even better, it’s already the 3rd day of Spring! Each and every day will be a little warmer, a little sunnier and a little greener.
Spring makes me want to open up windows, clean out closets and throw out and donate stuff!
Spring also puts me in the mood to decorate and redecorate.
I am contacting a contractor tomorrow to hopefully start my stairs project.
Stairs are an awkward thing to photograph. These stairs are on the “backside” of the family room and lead to the other bedrooms in the house and my studio.
The carpet is in great shape, but there is no wow factor to what could be a magnificent staircase.
Here is an example of my vision.
Imagine the risers painted with a creamy white and the treads having a dark walnut stain. The runner on the stairs will be a neutral woven fabric or I will only have a stair tread only rug. I am teetering back and forth between the two ideas.
So excited! I’ll keep you posted.
My other Spring obsession is wrought iron. More and more of it keeps popping up in my décor.
For example:
These wrought iron tractor seat island stools.
The kitchen cabinet pulls and knobs.
As you may have noticed, the spindles on the staircase are black painted metal.
And of course my all time makes me smile every time I look at it Metal Orb Chandelier.
Well, I am so excited to show you that I have added a few more metal orbs to my collection.
I am going to hang these in the bedroom, one on each side of the bed. There is a handy on off switch on the 8 foot cord. Perfect for turning the lights out after finishing a good book and falling asleep.
These would also look great hanging over the kitchen island but then that might be a little bit orb overkill in my house. And no one needs orb overkill.
Maybe I will sneak one into the corner of Wade’s office. It will be fun to see how long it takes him to notice it.
So many options and options are always good to have when decorating!
One of the last Spring things I am going to undertake is a garden. Well, not really a garden, but more like a few tomato plants and basil plants over in Nikki and Jimmy’s garden. 🙂 They are amazing gardeners.
I hope your Spring is off to a great start also. Any big projects coming up or garden plans started? I’d love to hear from you.
See you on Wednesday,
Wendy
And by the way, if you are in love with the Metal Industrial Orb lighting as much as I am, you can grab a couple here from my shop.
Recently we cashed our reward check from Costco. You know that cash back you earn throughout the year from your purchases. It shouldn’t come as a surprise how quickly a 1-3% stacks up considering I never check out from Costco with a bill under $100. Tell me I am not alone on this.
Yes, I take a list. Yes, I only go down the isles that have those items. And Yes, I eat before shopping.
But than Costco puts these front and center as you walk in the door.
What can I do when they jump into my cart not even giving me a chance to justify to them that I didn’t NEED them and that they weren’t on the list.
Don’t they look amazing? Blooming tulips in February, in Minnesota. Be still my heart.
So just as Costco has a way of presenting me with cool things that I didn’t even realize I needed, I would like to take a minute and show you the new Old Lake George products!
The day we shot all of these new products created for Old Lake George’s Shop was a great day.
The reason? The day was spent with Spencer.
As I’ve said before, we usually spend the first hour or so catching up on our personal lives. The next hour we review what has happened on the business end of our companies, the third hour we set up and style photos. Typically after that we have some type of training, goal setting and homework for the coming month. Spencer is always teaching me something. Bless his patient heart.
In between all of that, there are always tons of laughs, questions, comments, concerns, patting ourselves on the back and finally bringing each other back to reality and getting to work. 🙂
The second vase was also purchased from an estate sale. I consider this vase a rescue vase. The estate it came from was overflowing with high end home decor. But this elegant white honeycomb patterned vase got lost in the shuffle. So I rescued it and took it home. I hope it can now find a forever home.
Another vintage wood level rack came into my life last weekend. It was part of this weekend. The level received a good cleaning, a massage of hemp oil to rejuvenate the wood, and two rustic iron nails to complete the vision.
I completely lost track of time this week. I had goals and deadlines and appointments but for some reason, time slipped past me so quickly this week. I met the deadlines, I made it to the appointments, but I missed a goal. 🙁
My goal of getting all of the new products listed in the shop was not reached. boo.
I did however get this one item listed. Partial credit please?
So many of you commented on my post from last Saturday titled, Sidenote Saturday:Mother Knows Best wanting to know where you could get one of these grids.
Well, Good News!, they are now in the shop and ready to ship! Just in time to save what remains of your beautiful Valentine flower arrangements.
In the spirit of making up for lost time, I am going to get back to work, reset my goals and pull together a much more interesting, less whiny post for tomorrow.
Big problems, small problems, some problems that take time to figure out and some problems that feel like they take forever to solve.
Having problems can be stressful. I don’t think anyone will debate that.
If ever in the history of ever there could be such a thing as a good stressful problem, this is my week to have one.
Let me explain.
I have been working with a customer on a wholesale pillow cover order. She is a dream to work with. She knew what she wanted and never hesitated to ask questions.
Sidenote: I myself am a question asker and also love it when other people ask questions.
Anyway, the wholesale order came through the same weekend that Karianne of Thistlewood Farms fame gave me a shout out about the large metal signs I have available in my shop. Everything Karianne touches, turns to gold. The metal signs flew out of my shop! In fact last I checked I only have one left in inventory.
On top of the wholesale order and shout out, I was visiting my parents in Texas AND my Etsy shop had become extremely busy.
The point I am trying to make is that, THESE ARE THE BEST STRESSFUL PROBLEMS EVER!
Seriously, how can I possibly complain about being insanely busy making pillows and signs and home décor items for people who want to buy them for their homes.
Every sale I receive, I am so excited to think that this item will be enjoyed by someone, maybe comfort them and possibly start a conversation when the new owner shares the story about why they purchased something from my little store.
So Thank You to everyone that has purchased an item from either one of my shops or any small business owner.
Now let’s go back to the wholesale order.
Julie from Julie Kay Design Studio was the customer who contacted me thru Etsy concerning a wholesale pillow cover order. A week or so later she shipped me the fabric and zippers she wanted me to work with.
Two huge heavy rolls of fabric made with 10oz. certified organic cotton duck canvas was her fabric of choice.
From here I cut matching pairs of 18 and 20 inch squares.
800 cuts making 200 squares created a nice and neat pile of fabric to finish step one.
Each piece then had one edge stitched with a serger allowing a clean edge.
Two serged edge pieces are then sewn together adding a zipper for the bottom of the cover. From there it is a matter of sewing up the remaining three sides and again serging the inside edges for a finished look.
The covers will now be boxed and shipped to Julie.
She then does her magic and creates these beautiful watercolor covers.
Each one of her pillow covers is a hand painted unique item. No two cover are exactly alike.
Stunning, don’t you think?
Read all about her shop and other products she has available.
These pillows would make great conversation starters. 🙂
I hope everyone has a fun weekend. Stop by tomorrow for a Sidenote Saturday chat.
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