freshvintage

Photos from the Brandywine View Antiques Fall Fling

So, how was the Brandywine View Fall Fling? Well, it rained half of the day, but we still had a great time!

I caught up with some of my blog readers and friends, including:

• Teresa: My neighbor and the doting wife of Tastykake Man.
• Mary T.: frequent commenter, antiquer, and my new source for local gossip.
• Gloria: Former Vintage Home partner, and one of my antiquing gurus.
• Robin: Fellow student at the antiques class I took a few years ago.
• Allison: One of the owners of Nannygoat Antiques in Narberth, PA.
• Catherine: aka Nutjob (also my new friend).
• Amanda: a local blogger who has a beautiful design blog called Purely Practical Lifestyle.

Here's a shot of some of our wares after we moved them onto the huge wrap-around porch (due to the rain). The cool architectural pieces along the wall and the chandelier were a nice backdrop. They were being sold by the shop owner, Lisa. We can't take credit for those, although we would love to.

We hid mimosas on the floor behind the picnic baskets.

I was finally able to use a glass-doored display case that I purchased a couple of years ago at an antiques store. My mother-in-law Mary was with me at the time. She told me to buy it, just in case I ever had any items that needed to be locked up in a shop or booth.

I'm glad I took her advice! The case was in okay condition, but I decided to spice it up a bit. Here's the BEFORE (that's blue painters tape on the glass):

And here is the AFTER:

I painted it aqua and glued vintage wallpaper to the back. The glass shelves came with the display case, but they were perched precariously on screws. I removed the screws and added proper brackets.

I also added a glass knob, because glass knobs make everything look better.

The worst part about the display case? I could have sold mine five times over. But I didn't want to sell it because I actually want to use it as a display case, dammit!  Here's your tip of the day: buy cool display cases and market them to antiques dealers. You will make millions. (Or maybe just hundreds.)

Here are a few more shots of our junk:

 

 

 

Some of our water-resistant junk that we didn't have room for on the porch:

Here are a few photos of the Brandywine View Antiques shop:

Thanks to all who came to shop!

Fall Fling at Brandywine View Antiques

Calling all locals!

Erin and I will be selling our fabulous vintage finds at the Brandywine View Antiques Fall Fling Tent Sale on September 12th in Chadds Ford, PA.

Not only will the grounds of the store be packed with more than 20 dealers, the store itself is a sight to behold: three floors of antiques in a gorgeous historic home. There's a room set up like a Victorian parlor and one like an old General Store. Not to mention the porch that wraps around the entire house - it is packed with primitive cabinets, benches and farmhouse tables. For those of you who have been reading my blog since 2007, you might remember that Erin and I had a space at Vintage Home Annex. Well, one of the former owners, Gloria, now has a booth at Brandywine View! She shares it with her daughter, who has a great eye for vintage jewelry.

If you've ever longed to visit the Brandywine Valley area of Pennsylvania, September 12th would be the perfect day. Guess what else is going on?

Mushroom Festival in Kennett Square: "Celebrate the mushroom as well as the beauty, history and excitement of Southern Chester County with music, children’s rides and a variety of entertainment." This is a HUGE event. And they have mushroom-flavored ice cream. Yummmmmm.
[10 minutes from the Fall Fling]

Chadds Ford Days: An outdoor festival that celebrates this historical village. Crafters, Fine Artists, Restaurants & Rides, a Colonial Tavern and 18th Century House Tours. Chris and I bought our handmade barn wood kitchen table at Chadds Ford Days two years ago (after much searching for the "perfect" table).
[2 minutes from the Fall Fling]

Other attractions in the area:

• Longwood Gardens. We have a season pass and I just can't say enough good things about this place. And I hate gardening. If you have kids, they have tree houses. Who doesn't love tree houses?
  [5 minutes from the Fall Fling]
   
• For you wine-lovers, the Chaddsford Winery is a thirty-second drive (or a five minute stumble) from Brandywine View Antiques. Stop by for a tasting and tour of this award-winning winery.
   
• Antique stores in the immediate vicinity:  Brandywine River Antiques Market and Pennsbury-Chadds Ford Antiques Mall.
  [2 minutes from the Fall Fling]
   
  
• Brandywine River Museum, more wineries, Brandywine Battlefield, Terrain at Styer's (home & garden store brought to you by the Anthropologie folks)

What you need to know:
Brandywine View Antiques is located on Route 1 in Chadds Ford, PA, next to The Gables restaurant. Here's the Google Map.

The Fall Fling starts at 9am on Saturday. The tent sale will also be running on Friday, Sept 11th and Sunday, September 13th, but we will only be there on Saturday.

Big Daddy's Barbeque will be selling yummy food during the sale.

Email me or leave a comment if you are planning to go! And let me know if you have any questions about visiting the area - I would love to help you plan your itinerary.

P.S. Are you on the fence about going? Can I woo you with some not-for-the-blog stories that I mentioned at the bottom of my last post? You know you want to hear them.

BlogHer Recap - Swap Meet

Here's me behind my half-table at the BlogHer Swap Meet . Thanks to my new friend and fellow vendor, Lotta, for taking this picture. More on her later.

This was my oh-so-nice neighbor, Amy Turn Sharp, who didn't even scream as she witnessed what looked like a flea market barfing all over the other half of her table. Amy and her husband own Little Alouette and make baby teethers & rattles out of locally harvested wood in Ohio.

Amy is a blogging superstar, and was selected to read one of her posts at the Community Keynote. Yes, the same keynote for which my posts weren't selected. And after listening to the bloggers who were selected, I realize that I need about 157 more years to hone my writing skills before I would try again. One of my favorite humor pieces was one by Danielle from Knotty Yarn. Here's the video of her reading (it is not safe for work, which is my favorite kind of video).

I took your advice and packed a vintage suitcase stuffed with linens, tiny jars of buttons, vintage coloring books, goodie bags of vintage price tags and so much more. I attached a clothesline across the front of the table (which was already covered with a tablecloth and draped). It was pinned with those freaky flashcards and the horse show prize ribbons. 

I sold the flashcards individually ($2 each or 3 for $5). They were definitely a best seller, along with the sex books and medical journals.

I sold six out of the seven books that I brought. Thank god for all of the twisted and perverted bloggers who purchased books from me (especially that one who bought three books - you know who you are). Those books were too damn heavy to lug back to the airport.

My Moo business cards were a big hit, too. Throughout the conference, I had some bloggers ask to see all of the cards, and then pick the one that they liked best. It was a fun and easy way to let people know what I blog about, since there didn't seem to be any other antiques bloggers at BlogHer (at least none that I knew about).

I met some other vendors that were really sweet, including Velma who blogs anonymously at A Smeddling Kiss. I was fascinated by the fact that she doesn't use her real name on her blog and that her extended family doesn't know about it. The funniest was when she walked out of a session called "Blogging Identities and You", which was a panel discussion about blogging anonymously, and she randomly ran into someone that she went to high school with (and hadn't seen since). Of course, her first question was, "Why does your name tag say Velma? That's not your name."

I found a vintage soul mate in Lotta from Mom-o-matic, who makes jewelry out of vintage buttons. I traded some of my junk for two pairs of totally hip earrings and two hair pins. I love how she uses old photos as the backing for her earrings. And tiny flashcards for her hair pins. To top it off, Lotta packages her items in vintage-style peanut & popcorn bags. So freakin' cute. Lucky for you, she has an Etsy shop that she frequently updates with new stuff. I double love her because she bought my blue vintage suitcase to display her wares at craft shows and whatnot. One less thing that I had to bring home.

Make sure you click on the picture to see the adorable pink & white hair pin with the pair of jitter-bugging dancers. I wore it to the fifties-themed BowlHer party at the Lucky Strike Bowling Lanes on Saturday night.

Here I am with my new friends Gwen and Lotta on our way to the BowlHer party. That was the first time that I'd bowled in over 15 years. Bowling balls are a lot heavier than the Wii remote. Thankfully, all of that heavy lifting didn't keep me from doing the running man on the dance floor later that night.

We had so much fun at that party that I can't even share the photos without getting explicit written permission from them first. And I doubt that will happen.

But here is one of Lotta at a different party with a blow-up doll. Just my luck...the one party that I missed had blow-up dolls!

I'll have much more about BlogHer in my next post. Perhaps I will eventually get to the part where I learned stuff. Or maybe not.

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For your reading pleasure:

Lotta has her own crafting column at Try Handmade.

Read Gwen's About Me page - she grew up in the jungles of Indonesia. She only had electricity for three hours a night. And I thought I had it rough because my mom wouldn't let me watch The Newlywed Game or chew Bubbalicious.

On My Way to Chicago!

Wow! Thank you for all of the great display ideas for the BlogHer Swap Meet. I knew I could count on you. There's one update, though: I now only have half of a table on which to sell my vintage finds. This is definitely a stress-reducer (and a baggage reducer) for me.  But I am still going to use some of your fabulous ideas, including the vintage suitcase.

I packed nearly everything that I am going to sell into this navy blue and white suitcase:

It is a small suitcase, but it weighs a TON. I plan to carry it on and put it on the overhead compartment. It is so heavy that I had to practice lifting it in the air, to make sure that I won't drop it on anyone's heads.

I will surely take some pictures once I have everything set up at the Swap Meet.

Hey - who's peeking out from under that tablecloth? It is my little fancy beer-opener man.

His gal-pal is shoved in there somewhere between the the ob/gyn medical journals and the illustrated sex manual. I would expect nothing less for someone who is always screwing. What a slut.

I will try my very best to write a couple of posts while I am in Chicago. On Thursday afternoon, I am planning to attend the SocialLuxe Awards ceremony for which I was nominated for the Funniest Blog. I didn't even remotely make it to the finals, so I have no chance of winning. I am totally getting trashed and storming the stage when they announce the winner. I'll be sure to take pictures of security carrying me out!

Moo Business Cards & The BlogHer Swap Meet

I am a sucker for business cards. I already have 200 cards that I designed and printed at overnightprints.com last year. But I'd heard so many great things about the totally cool Moo cards. With the BlogHer Conference quickly approaching, I decided to check them out.

The Moo cards are unique because you can have a different photo on the back of each card. I used the photos in my Flickr account to create my 200 double-sided business cards, but you can upload photos directly from your computer, or from Etsy or Facebook. The Moo cards are also available in the original skinny version (MiniCards), but I prefer the full-size card to show off the photos of my vintage finds.

It was just like Christmas when I received the package! (Christmas for paper-obsessed nerds.)

There's a photo on one side, and my contact info on the other side. There are several configurations for laying out your info.

I included some photos of my home:

As well as some of my creepier displays. I might not want to give these away at BlogHer. Definitely won't make many friends handing out a card with a pink dollhouse zombie standing next to a toilet.

Here are a few of the other cards:

Another reason why I wanted to get new cards is that I will be selling at the BlogHer Swap Meet. During one of the breaks between workshops, attendees can sell their books, t-shirts, handmade goods or whatever else they please. I signed up for one of the ten 6' x 3' tables available. I'm not sure what the hell I was thinking, because I am nervous enough about going. Now I have to figure out which wonderful vintage finds I should stuff into my extra suitcase. Damn USAirways charges $25 for the second checked bag EACH WAY (and $15 for the first). So I am essentially paying $50 to sell at BlogHer for about an hour. Sounds a little crazy, but I think it will be a great way to get the freshvintage name out there, and to meet some other vintage-loving bloggers.

Any ideas on what products to bring? I am thinking about selling some of ephemera and linens, since they are light and easy to pack. Maybe a few of the child-themed vintage items, like blocks and books. And what better place to sell my 1920s Obstetrics & Gynecology Journals than at a blogging conference for women?

Can you lend a hand with some display ideas? You know how obsessive I can be about displaying my stuff. I don't want to lay it all out on the table - I'd like to add some height to the display. And I don't have my cute wooden boxes and enamel bowls to display things in (too heavy), so I have to think about other lighter containers. And, I will probably only have a very short time to set up & take down. I might have to enlist retail display guru Debi Ward Kennedy for this one!

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Today I received a code for free shipping for new Moo customers (that means you can't have ever ordered their free sample pack). You have to spend at least $15 and order by August 31st. You can buy any of their products, including the MiniCards, which are great to use as price tags or gift tags. Here is the code: Q63N9W.

Amelia, Martha & eBay

February in Pennsylvania does not bring much in the way of yard sales, so I don't have much to share. But - I hit a couple of thrift stores where I found these Amelia Earhart suitcases and children's blocks:

The inside of the large suitcase is beautiful burgundy satin. And I'm not normally a big fan of burgundy satin. It even has the (original?) portable hangers.

I have a ton of children's blocks, but no one ever buys them when we have a sale. Am I the only one who loves these?

The set on the right caught my eye because they are unusually small:

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Guess what?! I'm going to be on the Martha Stewart Show! Okay - so I'll be in the audience, but it's all the same. Audience. Stage. What's the difference?

I'll be attending the taping on February 26th in NYC, but I'm not sure when the show will air. My sister Erin, and our friends Laura & Ellen will be joining me. We all went to a taping of The View a few years ago. The guests were Geraldo Rivera and a man who had over 30 plastic surgeries. (And, yes, they were two different men). Let's hope that Martha's guests are a bit better.

Have you been in the audience at Martha or any other talk show?

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I'm unloading some things on eBay to make room (and money) for springtime vintage finds. Take a look:

freshvintage on eBay

Check out my other blog, freshblogtips.com, where I just listed the results of my Blogging Goals for 2008. Find out if I ever got Tina Fey to read my blog. You may be surprised!

Here are a few items that I am selling on eBay this week. Anyone interested?

Do you sell on eBay? You can get this fancy-schmancy widget for your blog or website at eBay To Go.

Antiques at Kimberton Recap

We had a theme of "General Store" at the Antiques at Kimberton show, inspired by my obsession with vintage price tags. You may have noticed that I like to buy cool stuff in bulk (like the lamp parts). So, we piled the bulk junk into planters, enamel bowls and wooden cheese boxes. I made tags for each group and sold them for one or two dollars each, with a discount if you bought in multiples. We were joking around with other dealers that we were the dollar store of antiques. 

We didn't have walls around our 9' by 13' space, so it is difficult to distinguish our stuff from our neighbors' in these photos. We're going to re-think the wall situation next time.

 

We had a dealer on one side who only sold glass and flow blue dishes. Erin and I pretty much neglected that side of our booth because we were afraid of knocking something over and causing a domino-effect throughout our neighbor's booth.

 

I decorated a little Christmas tree with all of the "dollar store" items that we were selling, like vintage price tags, stencils, chandelier crystals, tin christmas tree light reflectors and silver Shiny Brite balls.

 

Erin was really annoyed that I brought my homeless-lady dressform to the show. I dressed her up with various items throughout the show, including a religious sign and a fancy rhinestone pin. No one was able to appreciate her beauty, so she came home with me. Maybe if I tell people that she isn't for sale, then everyone will want to buy her.

 

I made bunting out of pages from a decrepit 1890 dictionary and black rick-rack. It took about 20 minutes to make, just using a hole punch and pinking shears. Try it! It was so easy. We used chenille bedspreads as the tablecloths.

 

I didn't even sell one of these cool old receipt books. I think they made great notepads. And they were only two bucks! Oh, well. Maybe next time I'll make a sign that says "They make great notepads!". Duh.

Here are some highlights of what sold well and what didn't.

What Sold Well

• Chandelier crystals ($2 each)

• Lamp parts ($2 each)

• Vintage price sign bundles (25 little signs for $3)

• Books (between $1 and $10)
  We sold all of our very old books with fancy covers (like the kind on Bricolage yesterday).

• Postcards ($2 each or 6 for $10)

• Green-lidded cracker jars ($12-$14 each)

• Ice cream scoops ($6-$10 each)
  I had four of these, and they all sold.

• Floral frogs ($4-$6 each)
  Especially the green ones.
   

What Didn't Sell

• Green shabby table/server ($165)
  I know - what the hell? How could that not sell?

• Country cupboard ($425)
  Erin is happy. She is going to keep it for herself.

• Suitcases ($18)

• Picnic Baskets ($18 - probably better for the spring show in March)

• Linens (also better for the spring show in March)

• Christmas balls ($2 each/6 for $10)
  This was a surprise - I thought everyone would be down with the balls at this time of year, but maybe they didn't like our selection of balls. The dealer across the aisle, Cathy, loved our balls and told us that she loved our balls. Loudly.

• Erin's primitive dovetailed toolboxes ($45-$50)
  I thought these would have been the first to go, especially since this show is known for country primitives. And everyone else was selling them for $100+.

Do you see a trend here? People were looking for small, inexpensive things. We're okay with that. As I've said in the past, we are all about volume. Mostly because it gives us an excuse to buy lots and lots of stuff.

Autographs & Boxed Wine

We're having a great time at the Antiques at Kimberton Show!

 

   

 

 

This is my new bestest friend in the whole wide world, Debbie. She brought the Country Home magazine that had my letter to the editor, and asked me to autograph it! After a little coercing (just a little), I signed it. And then she asked Erin to sign it. Does she know something I don't know? Is someone giving us that book deal that I've been longing for? Maybe a TV show? What a great lady. Totally love her.

 

In addition to all of the new friends we made, we caught up with some old junking friends that we hadn't seen in a while. Everyone is so friendly. Some of the dealers have been selling at this show for over 20 years! And the customers really like our vintage finds - even though they are a little different from the typical antiques at this show.

And then 4:30 struck, and we were told by our neighbor-dealer that there was cheese and boxed wine in the back room. Just when I thought my day couldn't possibly get any better, someone mentioned wine!

 

One more day to go. Maybe tomorrow afternoon, they'll have ice cream sundaes.

Preparations Are Underway!

I've been putting some thought into how to display our vintage finds for the upcoming Antiques at Kimberton Show. When we sold at Renninger's in 2007, we had such an unbelievable amount of stuff that we didn't take the time to plan our displays. Or, maybe I should just lie and say that we purposefully went for the wind-blown yard sale chic look at Renninger's.

I've been wracking my brain, trying to come up with a way to display this huge lot of glass lamp parts that I bought at an estate sale last week.

Then, I spotted a silver ice bucket and piled them all in:

 

It looks like ice, doesn't it?! (kind of)

 

I'm using some of the manila tags that I tea-dyed as signs for the items that I will display in vintage containers. I stamped the tags with my logo, using the custom rubber stamp that I bought last year, and then added the prices using a set of vintage pricing stamps. The set is missing the number 3, so anything that I was planning to sell for $3 will be drastically reduced to $2.

 

Maeve helped me fill some jars with buttons.

 

You would have thought that I was letting her play with millions of dollars worth of precious jewels. She would pick up each fancy button and say, "Ooooooo. This one is FAB-U-LOUS",  à la Sharpay from Highsicle Musical (as she pronounces it).

I'm looking forward to displaying our country primitive antiques on this stepback cupboard that Erin found. (Go Erin!) 

 

She also found these primitive dovetailed boxes at an antiques store that was going out of business:

   

And here are a few other finds that I forgot to show you...

Don't you just love that green depression glass mixer? I think I paid way too much for it, which means I will have to sell if for a bit higher than my typical low, low prices. Or, just keep it for myself. I also found another big cookie/cracker jar, which blends in nicely with the three that I found at Renninger's.  I think I'll fill it with Shiny Brite ornaments.

 

Introducing the world's smallest ladle:

Here's my fourth Last Supper print in the past year. The more Jesus stuff you buy, the more likely you are to go to heaven. Everyone knows that. Why do you think Sue from Vintage Rescue Squad buys so much religious stuff? 'Cause she's a sinner. Duh.

 

P.S. Do you have any crafty ideas for using the vintage glass lamp parts? They have a hole through the middle that would fit a candle, so they would be great for that. But I'm trying to think of some other ideas.