Post Sale Review

Sorry it's been a while since I've last posted.  Still trying to catch my breath and catch up on projects from this year's tag sale.  Here's the story behind some of the items... 

 This "NOEL" was patterned after the metal one in Pottery Barn's Christmas catalog.  I asked Ken if he'd be willing to cut a few out of wood for my sale.  Usually he sees my vision and jumps right on the bandwagon, but his scroll saw is not his favorite tool and he said "NO".  How dare he?....

Along comes my friend Deb, who saw the same picture and casually said..."So, Ken is making these for your sale, right?" Well, wouldn't you know, he had 16 of them cut the next day. Thanks DC for the outside encouragement!  15 of them sold.  I kept one for myself. 

As I was painting and staining the letters of NOEL, I discovered that as I was rolling the dark paint on the flat part of the letters, I was inadvertantly making a stencil of NOEL on the white bedsheet that I was using as a drop cloth.  Not being one to pass on a perfect opportunity to make cheap art, I had Ken build me some canvas frames and I stretched the new "artwork" over the frame and I had some 'mod' Christmas art. 

I have two canvases left if you're interested. 

One word on a rustic board.  Who knew what a statement that could make?  I sold three and just made three more yesterday.  Two are available for purchase.

Sometimes I'm embarrassed to reveal how much we pay for certain treasures we find.  The snowflake below represents one of the 'greenest' things we've done with reclaimed wood.  Ken and I were out garage sale-ing this summer when we stumbled on a pile of old knee-high red picket fencing.  The homeowner had bought it to keep his dog in the yard, but never got around to installing it.  I only wanted one or two sections to hang on a wall as a memo board but he refused to break up the pile.  He made me take all 20 sections of the fencing...for $5!  It was an offer I couldn't refuse, but seriously at the time, I had no idea what I'd use them all for. Fastforward to a few weeks before my sale when we were dismayed to find that while we had done a great job of weeding through our storage areas and attic, we still kept stumbling over red picket fencing. 

Taking the advice that I always give my clients to 'think outside the box'... I began to picture them white, not red and asked Ken if he could somehow design a snowflake out of the pieces.  Of course, the man has never met a challange, (besides me) that he couldn't conquer and he got to work dismanteling the parts and stapled them back together in the shape of a snowflake, which became the number one selling item of the night.  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I loved these vintage wallpaper samples that I bought this past summer from Allegan Antiques show for $1/each.  Again, I had no idea what I intended to do with them, but I loved the retro, (now current) pattern on them. 

I've blogged before about how fun it is to repurpose old mail/letter bins.  Well, I wasn't quite sure of the practicality of this wooden shelving but I liked something about it and thought it would look great with a new, (old?) wallpaper treatment.

This was a fun, small project to do.  Not sure who ended up buying this one, but I love when clients hire me to help with interior design in their home and I spot some of the items they've purchased from the sale or my booth.  Warms my heart!

I used the other wallpaper sample to cover the backside of these shadow boxes that I bought at a garage sale.  If only I could get my hands on this pattern for my upstairs foyer! Circa 1950?

Such a blurry picture below, but I wanted to show you my 'babies' resting up before the big sale.  I thought they looked like an old granny and gramps resting in their matching wing- backed chairs...(which I just bought last month at Bibles for Mexico thrift shop).   I commented to Ken the other day that our house always smells like old musty furniture and stinky animals.  His response..."That makes sense..our house IS full of musty furniture and stinky animals".  I went out that afternoon and bought three yummy candles from JB and ME...(Hazelnut, Espresso and Vanilla Pumpkin).  Small price to pay for being frugal.  

Esker and Libby