freshvintage

Join Us at the Vintage Garage Sale on Friday, May 4th!

Join us this Friday night, May 4th, from 4pm to 9pm in West Chester, PA for the very first Vintage Garage Sale! Yes, it's actually in a parking garage. We'll be there with some great local vintage vendors, a cupcake truck, a jazz duo and fresh finds from my recent buying trip to Lancaster County, PA. 

The event takes place during West Chester's First Friday, so shops will be open late. Get a bite to eat at one of the many great restaurants in West Chester, and then come and see us in the Chestnut Street parking garage.

Visit the Vintage Garage Sale Facebook page for up-to-the-minute info. The event is rain or shine. The freshvintage shop will close at 2pm on May 4th in order to prepare for the event.

Here are a few items that we'll be hauling to the sale. (And be sure to check out some of the industrial finds that Vidalia's Vintage will be bringing.)

An nice-sized antique shoe rack and shallow woven basket with a hand-painted peacock:

 

A Corona "Personal Writing Machine", dating from the 1920s. It starts like this...

And folds out to this...

My porch is once again packed with last week's finds:

This antique aqua demijohn (wicker wine bottle) will be difficult to part with. It even has an "S" stenciled on the front. Sauvignon Blanc? Sangria? Sherry?

I prefer "SUPERWINE"...to the rescue!

Join me on Friday night, and maybe I'll share some.

Springtime at Clover Market

Yes, it's that time of year again...we are selling at Clover Market on Sunday, April 15th from 10am to 4pm. Our shop at Highland Orchards will be closed that day because we can only keep one ball juggling in the air at a time. Don't hold it against us, please.

There are ONE HUNDRED vendors signed up for this opening day! That's pure insanity! Definitely worth a drive, even if it takes you a few hours to get there. This is the only spring sale at Clover that we'll be participating in. So catch us while you can! 

 

And for those of you who are too far to drive to Pennsylvania, here are a few pics from the freshvintage shop to keep you satisfied...

 

And, of course...

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We will also be participating in the Vintage Garage Sale in West Chester, PA and it's actually IN a parking garage. It coincides with First Friday in West Chester and runs from 4pm to 9pm. The first one is on Friday, May 4th. They are still taking vendor applications, so apply as soon as you can! It will be a fun evening, filled with vintage, food, music and revelry! More info to come...

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In case you missed it on Facebook, I was the Featured Blogger last week on the new Philly Social Media Mom's website. Find out how different my life would have turned out if I ended up doing what Second-Grade-Colleen-Burke wanted to do when she grew up.

Clover Market and Reminders of THE DEER

I swear - I won't talk about the camper in every blog post. I am just mentioning it here because this was our first time bringing it to Clover Market in Ardmore, PA. And it was an enormous hit, if I do say so myself.  We even met one shopper who had the same exact Scotsman as a child! Chris and my sister, Erin, manned the camper for the majority of the day, answering questions from onlookers. The most oft-asked..."Is it for sale?"

 

After a while, Chris started telling people it was for sale for $20,000. Shockingly, no one bit. But, really, it was nice to have so many enthusiastic people tell us know much they loved it. I think I might have even convinced a few people to buy one of their own.

Since you last saw the camper, I covered up my interior cushions with light yellow popcorn chenille bedspreads. I had to cut one in half to cover the two cushions in the "dining room".

I bought an adorable chalk cloth bunting on etsy - that's what I used as the "freshvintage" sign across the top of the tent.

The back of the pennants are made of oilcloth:

A fellow vendor, Rachel from Charms City Company, walked across the aisle to my space, and bought lots of cool stuff from me...

...including a bunch of these little tags that I had just bought the previous day at a flea market. I figured that some artsy person would transform them into something cool.

Rachel and her business partner, Katie, did just that. Within an hour or two, they had created several bracelets and necklaces for sale in their tent.

I love selling the supplies to artists, but I rarely get to see the finished work. And after talking to them for a bit, I learned that Katie & Rachel were headed to the Country Living Fair in Atlanta last weekend for the Pitch Your Product event. I hope they did well!

While I was at their booth, I saw this stag necklace (which is available for sale in their Etsy shop):

Katie & Rachel looked at me a little funny when I said that it reminded me of the deer that we hit with our minivan around this time last year. The way it gracefully lept in front of our windshield. And those antlers. Those damn antlers! I think they ended up including my little anecdote in their "Pitch Your Product" speech in Atlanta: "We make jewelry that reminds people of killing large animals with their vehicles." 

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If you are in the Philadelphia area, be sure to stop by Brandywine View Antiques this weekend - it is our Holiday Open House Weekend. I'll be bringing lots of fun Christmas ornaments, tablecloths, books and decorations to the shop this week in preparation.  Also, a new vendor moved into the shop a few months ago, and I bet that many of you who are photography buffs have heard of them: Four Corner Store. Nic & Kristen's online shop has been around for a while, but they are finally selling their photography-related goods in a real shop. You can touch all of their neat-o cameras, try on their jewelry and test out their camera bags. Check out the Brandywine View website for photos of their space. Nic & Kristen are also very talented photographers & designers - visit Hudson Nichols for a look at their work.

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P.S. The last Clover Market of the year is this Sunady, November 6, 2011. We won't be there, but that certainly shouldn't stop you from going. There are lots of new vendors and artists this time around. We'll be back to the market in the spring!

P.S.S. You know I am totally kidding about the Charms City jewelry. I love their jewelry and I wish them the best of luck. Even though I kind of think that the ghost of the deer came to Rachel in her dreams and told her to bring that stag necklace to Clover on that very day so that I would be reminded of him.

 

Some cool things we are hauling to Clover Market

Here are some of the totally groovy vintage finds that Chris and I will be bringing to Clover Market on Sunday.

This is a Rem Line tool chest, that would make an excellent drink cart. (Is it wrong that I am using a child's chalk board to announce the drink of the day? Oh, well. Hopefully, the kids at Clover Market can't read.)

There are even divided drawers for your napkins and wine openers.

And another cart - this one is gray-painted wood on wheels. Along with a chippy First Aid box, wire shopping basket, step ladder and a "Kiss Me" orange crate from Kissimmee, Florida. It is a little creepy. I have a feeling that the kids on the label are brother and sister.

Continuing the "on wheels" trend, here is a huge grocery store display cart with wire baskets. Use it for kids toys. Or craft supplies. Or yarn. Or shoes. I don't care what the hell you use it for. Buy it because it is cool.

Each basket is adjustable:

For those of you (SueLa) who thought my enamelware turkey platter should be relegated to the kiddie table, here is a photo of said kiddie table. It is a tween-sized folding metal table, with a set of four school chairs. AND A TOTALLY AWESOME TURKEY PLATTER.

My favorites...two farmstand painted signs. A two-sided Peaches sign, and a Cider sign. They are huge...way taller than me. But I'm only 5' 4", so that's not saying much.

These are never-used paper signs from a grocery store, circa 1948. I think they would look so cute in a kitchen. 

I might hang the Sani-Flush one in my bathroom as a gentle reminder to my family to flush the damn toilet.

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Ignore the next paragraph if you live thousands of miles away.

If you are local...are you coming to Clover?  Is there something that you saw on my blog that you want me to bring? Shoot me an email. We would love to bring everything in our garage, but that ain't happening. If you have an undying need for something specific, let me know and I will stuff it into the back of the camper. Along with an unholy amount of other stuff. Just don't drive behind us - the bumper of our camper will probably be making sparks along Route 1.

freshvintage at Clover Market

Join us at Clover Market on Sunday, October 16, 2011!

10 am - 4 pm rain or shine
12 E. Lancaster Ave.
Ardmore PA 19003

This is the biggest Clover EVER! Over 70 vendors selling jewelry, art, crafts, good and lots of VINTAGE & ANTIQUES! Lisa from Brandywine View will be selling there, along with Meg (Hooten Nanny), a fellow dealer from the shop. And Allison from Nannygoat Antiques. And Gloria & Alison from Cottage Home. All of my buds.

I'm bringing my camper, if you'd like a tour. Don't worry - you'll have time to shop. The tour will only take about 1.5 seconds.

 

 

Back to School in Vintage Style

Chris, the kids and I drove into Lancaster County, PA this morning for the Landisville Annual Labor Day Flea Market and town-wide yard sales. It was our first time there, and we will definitely go again next year. The sky was overcast, so it kept many of the regular vendors away. I imagine that it would have been twice as big if the weather was better.

I spent $35 for everything in this post. That ledger (circa 1901) was only three bucks and the aluminum clamp-on work light was two bucks...which is why I wish this sale was every weekend, and not once a year.

This is my favorite find: the green utensil box with the white painted diamond decoration.

The two sets of flashcards in the first photo were from a big box of 1950s and 60s learning aids that came from an old school. These were all in that big box:

There are cardboard letters, wooden letters and felt letters...

...even flocked letters.  And shapes and animals:

They are made of cardboard. One side is orange, and the other side is white with green flocking. I wonder if these would stick to my fabric corkboards?

I love the simple design and colors on these rulers. They were made in England and are called 'Apex Learner's Measure".

I was excited to open one of the little boxes and find this set of seven magnifying glasses with navy blue grosgrain ribbons.

Rhyming pictures:

GIANT SIZE Alphabet Poster Flash Cards (11" by 14"):

These would look so cute hanging up around a vintage-style nursery.

Here's a box of Ideal Dial-A-Face flashcards and wheels with different facial expressions. I guess the students had to match the appropriate expression with the blank faces on each card.

This card freaked me out a little.  Is he planning to strangle that sweet girl?

And then I was even more freaked out when I found this face on the wheel!

I had to re-read the box to make sure it wasn't some kind of learning aid for kids in juvy. Maybe they should have called it Dial-A-Mugshot.

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I will be selling these vintage finds and much more at the Brandywine View Fall Fling Tent Sale next weekend (Sept 10 & 11th). If you are in the area, please stop by and say hi. There are lots of fun events going on that weekend, like the Kennett Square Mushroom Festival and Chadds Ford Days. It will be worth the drive!

And if you are still debating whether or not you should come, did you see that Brandywine View was included in the Flea Market Style Magazine's list of Best Antiques Malls in PA?! You don't want to miss this sale!

Chris' Totally Awesome Auction Finds

Here is one week's worth of Chris' auction wins. Well, the good stuff, anyway. He seriously bought all of this without my help. I know - crazy! I am a little embarrassed because it is way better than most of the stuff that I've scored lately.

He paid $114 for everything in this photo.  Except for the green & white rug - that is ours and it is from Walmart.

 

He bought a pair of these Vulcan Horse Nails boxes, but already sold one last week at Perkiomenville Auction & Flea Market. That was his first attempt at selling by himself, and he did a great job. He said that he seemed to sell more than any of the other vendors. Which probably means that his prices were too low. All of the other dealers swept in and bought some new inventory for their tables. Whatevs. We got rid of a lot of stuff that we didn't want anymore, or wouldn't sell at the store. Including this super cool, but extremely smelly red trunk that Chris bought for five dollars at an auction.

He knows I have a thing for metal office card catalogs...

But this one is extra-special because it has a huge stack of index cards used by for clothing sales. See the dates along the top (1940, 1941, 1942, etc.)? There is also an S and F for each year, which specifies whether the purchase was for the Spring or Fall.

This tattered & taped-up little book about Paris was purchased in 1918.

How do I know that? A family member put this label inside the back cover:

It is filled with colorized photos of French landmarks.

 

And a few other travel books...

Chris bought a box full of James Keiller & Son's Dundee Marmalade jars and Wm O. Hartley's Marmalade crocks. Most of the labels on the Hartley crocks are completely or partially missing, but there are a few that have the label intact. I'm not sure what those are worth, since there aren't many to be found online. Have you ever seen the Hartley crocks before?

He also bought two industrial work stools made by Lyon.

This Calf-teria bucket makes me want to buy a cow so I can milk it into this bucket.

 

A pair of wooden folding chairs:

I love the red-orange-black patina on these.

Turn-of-the-century lidded box from J.S. Ivins' Son Steam Bakery in Philadelphia. I wonder what steamed goodies filled that box back in the day.

Chris knows that I like to buy feed sacks or grain sacks or any kind of sack when I see them. We bought a lot of 24 five-pound sugar sacks at an estate sale a few weeks ago. I'll show you those in a future post.

But when he texted me a photo from the auction of a huge galvanized tub filled with these grass seed sacks, I almost peed my pants. Most are green, and some are white. They aren't all in good shape, but they are really cool, even with a few stains and fading. There's around 30 of them.

Speaking of sacks, when Chris was in college, he and his friends played a drinking game that involved a box of wine. Before I even continue, I bet you have the same question - why the hell would college-age men even buy a box of wine? My theory is that they stole it from someone's mother. Anyway, they would take the inner bag out of the box. And then they would just pass the bag of wine around to each other and each person would drink from the spigot. They called it Lick the Sack. With a name like that, I guess it could have been much worse.

Road Trippin'

We had another successful outing at the Clover Market last week! This was Chris' first time selling with me and and I am happy to report that we did not kill each other. This was also our first time using Square to process a few credit card purchases, and it worked perfectly.

Our theme this time was "Summer Road Trip". It really should have been "Ohmigod, That's a Hell of a Lot of Vintage Metal Lawn Chairs", but that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

In keeping with the summer vacation theme, I made price signs that looked like the old "Greetings From" postcards. And I asked every person who walked into our tent, "Are we there yet? How much further? I need to pee really bad."

I only had a few things that actually went with my theme, including a stack of souvenir state plates, postcards and my Florida tablecloths. I sold all five of them (I kept the pink and aqua one for myself).  

I love these souvenir postcard booklets - they all have the same style of vibrant images. I sold a few of those.

And let's assume that you like to go fishing on your summer road trip. Well, here are enough minnow buckets to bait a great white.

Here's my husband, Chris, manning the register in front of our neighbor's Tastykake truck:

Since we had the truck, I figured I had to bring some Tastykakes. The box of mini coconut donuts went really fast.

There's that Gimbel's sewing machine that I gave you a glimpse of on Facebook.

I couldn't find much information about it, but I think it was from the late fifties/early sixties. It actually works.  And it came with a matching sewing accessories tin.

 

I designated this area the "Granny Corner" because of the chair and the hanging light fixture and the birdcage. Apparently, this Granny is an archer, because she has a quiver on her shelf.

Isn't this feed sack totally awesome? I love the colors. We found this in Galena, Maryland.

We had a bunch of little bags of random game pieces and flashcards for sale, too. They are always great sellers for us.

That reminds me - I'd like to give a special shout-out to the man who opened all of the two-dollar Scrabble bags, dumped them onto our table, and then asked how much it would cost to buy just the letter "T".

Oh - and another shout-out to the lady who wanted my circus signs (in the photo below). You wanted a 50% discount on something that costs $5. And when Chris said no to your offer, you said "But it is just a piece of cardboard!" Thanks for that. We had a good laugh.

And I'd like to give huge non-sarcastic shout-out to all of the people who admired our nine metal lawn chairs. It was nice to hear so many people getting all nostalgic over the chairs that their mom or grandpa or uncle used to have. And it was fun to hear three different people talk about the tiny squares that the woven-style chairs would leave on the backs of their thighs when they sat on them as children. We didn't sell any of the chairs, so I brought them straight to Brandywine View. They look really cute all lined up along the wrap-around porch there.

Our neighbor, Mike, kindly drove the truck to Clover in the morning, and we followed in our minivan. And then he told us that we could drive the truck home on the way back. One problem - there is no passenger seat. My tufted yellow chair didn't sell, so we wedged it in the aisle between the shelves that lined the back of the truck. It was comfy, but a little tough to see out the front window since it is so low. Oh - and also a little dangerous because tufted yellow chairs don't come with seat belts.

Here we are after a long day. We will be back at Clover Market on October 16. Please come see us again!

The East Coast Farm Chicks Alternative: Clover Market on June 5th

I know that some of you vintage-lovin' Pacific-Northwesterners will be visiting that tiny show called The Farm Chicks on June 5th.

On that weekend each year, all of us jealous Mid-Atlantic antiquers just sit at our computers and read everyone's Farm Chicks recaps. And wish we had somewhere equally fabulous to shop.

Stop sulking and join freshvintage at the Clover Market on Sunday, June 5th!

We weren't originally planning to set up shop there in June, since Erin already had plans that day. But, at the last minute, my husband Chris and I decided to get a babysitter for the day and book a spot in June. Luckily, we grabbed the last space available. Lisa from Brandywine View Antiques will be there, and so will the mother/daughter duo of Gloria and Ali from The Cottage Home in West Chester, PA.

We are going to have a Summer Road Trip theme this time, with lots of sunny vintage finds for you!

And, we will be accepting credit cards, through a new-to-us service called Square. I will tell you more about that in a couple of days.

The Clover Market runs from 10am to 4pm, rain or shine (unless there are horrible, mean storms that day). It is located in Ardmore, PA.  This is the last one until September, so don't miss it! I wrote a little about it when we sold there in April. And you can visit the website for more info, too.

Restoration Hardware Baby & Child: Pint-Sized Industrial Chic

Can something be industrial and unbearably cute? Have you seen this playroom in the new Restoration Hardware Baby & Child catalog?

   Photo Credit: Restoration Hardware Baby & Child Website

The catalog and website are packed with other ridiculously adorable nurseries, bedrooms and playrooms. For rich people. The prices are similar to Pottery Barn Kids, but the style is definitely more cutting edge.

I added up the cost of everything in the room, and the total is $5,824. That's only about $5,800 more than I spent when I spruced up my kids' playroom.

As soon as I saw this room, it reminded me of a customer at Clover Market who is creating an industrial-style bedroom for her young son. She bought our stack of industrial bins to hold his toys, and a canvas U.S. Mail bag, which was going to be made into a floor pillow. I would love to see the after photos of that room. (If you are reading my blog, please send them to me!)

I mean, I love everything in this catalog, but isn't it so much more fun to dig through a flea market to find the REAL thing, than to pay thousands of dollars for the reproductions? Or just make it yourself?

Take that play table, for example. Gina's husband recently covered their dining room table top with zinc. Just chop 12 inches off of the legs, and you have the perfect kiddie-sized table.

And no one should have to pay $229 for a pinboard. That's just crazy talk. For one that large, just get some cheap molding, a miter box and some cork panels that you cover in cute fabric. Voila! (Or, for a smaller board, follow my tutorial.)

I know that cubbies & metal bins can be tough to find, but if you scour enough flea markets and yard sales, they are there. And I've certainly never paid $799 for cubbies that size. More like $35 at a flea market.

I'm preaching to the choir. So I will shut up now. 

Have you seen the Restoration Hardware catalog or looked at the website? What do you think?

Updated: My sister, Erin, just found the same chairs at a yard sale! Check them out on the freshvintage Facebook page.