Christmas is 

Right Around the Corner

Is Christmas coming twice a year now....or does it just feel that way. Can't believe it was just a year ago that I finally got a booth at Sleepy Poet, thanks to Jamie Moore and Jason. I feel very lucky to be a part of two of the area's finest shopping experiences. 

This has been an incredible year and I have had more fun than I can remember. A perk of having booths at The Depot and Sleepy Poet, that I didn't anticipate, is all the great new friends I have made, how full my life is and how this totally feeds my creative spirit. I feel like I am drawing on every experience of my life from majoring in Art in college and working after college in Austin, Texas at Eichenbaum's Display, designing and doing the displays and windows at Goodfriends on Congress Avenue, being a craftsperson in Knoxville, Tennessee and Charlotte, and finally directing and teaching in the Continuing Education program at Queens University of Charlotte for 20 years. Wow, have I been lucky in my work life.

This week and last, after gathering (the most fun part) and pricing a gazillion things for The Depot and Sleepy Poet, I have bought Christmas to my three booths. My beautiful horse is now ensconced at The Depot, surrounded by colorful ornaments and woodsy trees. Three goofy looking reindeer will surely get people's attention. It is fun to try to keep my "look" while still celebrating the holiday season. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year...I know I plan to. 

Great Weekend at Metrolina Antique Extravaganza

Took a real chance and rented a small booth at the annual event at the Metrolina Expo, October 31-November 5, 2012. After attending the monthly antique fairs since the 1980's, I finally got up my nerve to participate as a vendor and it was well worth the effort. I met a lot of really wonderful people and actually sold quite a few things!

I couldn't have done it without my friends and husband Dick. Thanks to friend Ulrike Miles for helping me haul stuff and set up on Wednesday. She has a good eye and really helped me create a unique look for my booth. I received some fantastic comments from vendors and customers and it was very gratifying. Friends Becky Sippe and Jane Hadley are fantastic at engaging customers and helping me sell things and also keeping me company. 

A real commaraderie ensues with other vendors who surround your booth. The guy beside me was selling very fine, unusual collectibles. I learned a lot listening to him tell people about his beautiful art and collectibles. At one point, he looked over at my booth and said "why don't you just buy one $1,000 item and sell it for $2,000 instead of all that stuff?" I thought that was pretty funny. I met three other vendors from The Depot and we had a lot of fun laughing and carrying on.

When I asked two of the vendors (not the Depot vendors) where they lived, they said they were living in their trucks. One said he was homeless. Both were starting their winter circuit of antique fairs in Charlotte, then on to Scott's in Atlanta and then several events in Florida. What a life....selling and buying along the way. It sounds like a hard life to me. I thought it was interesting that both guys ate really healthy stuff. None of the expensive food sold by the food vendors for them. They would come back from their trucks with fantastic sandwiches, fruit and raw vegetables, washed down with gallons of coffee.

On Sunday, Dick and I packed up and were in line to exit the grounds before 5:00 pm. We were both worn plum out. 

Well, now I am hooked. I have booked a larger space in Building B for the Spring Extravaganza. I will be on a front corner booth near the entrance. I am looking forward to it and especially the planning and buying to fill my booth with great stuff. Hopefully I can rope my great friends into helping me again!

It's Going To Be a Busy Fall

New Booth and a New Look at the Depot

After one year at the Depot, Becky and I are happily keeping our current booths, but I am branching out with a new look and another booth, located in the main room at the Depot.

I have been stockpiling and collecting pieces for my new industrial style with a French flair. I hope to sell more painted and upholstered furniture pieces, as well as my lamps.

So far the response has been very positive and I feel really good about this new direction.

While shopping at some of my favorite places like Antiques on Main in West Jefferson, Clines Antiques in Mt. Pleasant, the monthly Metrolina Flea Market, the bi-annual Antique Festival in Liberty and of course, the Depot, I have found many great items to include in my new booth. Especially love the large green German Demijohn bottle in it's own wooden crate and the round ottoman with the swiveling top.

Putting together a new booth is both exhausting and rewarding....building walls, assembling the fantastic industrial shelving I luckily found in Salisbury, NC. Thank goodness my wonderful husband and helper, Dick, was there to help with the hard stuff. We are both very happy with the results.

I love having still another reason to go to estate sales, visit my favorite antique stores, malls and flea markets, looking for really unusual items to add to my booths. Can't wait for the November extravaganza at Metrolina. There are always great dealers and great deals to be had. Especially love the booths that only show up for these special events.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and that you will come visit the Depot soon.

Nancy G

A Hot Time at Cline's Antiques

I thought I would beat the heat so I struck out for Cline's Antiques in Mount Pleasant, NC at 7:30 a.m. on Friday morning. There was no way to get ahead of the 90+ degree temperature, so I just let the sweat run through my hair and made the best of it. For a couple of minutes, I thought they had put in air conditioning, but it was only a rusty old fan sitting in the middle of field of stuff.

My goal for the day was to find things of a rustic nature for lamp parts and, as usual, Clines didn't disappoint. I asked Don Cline if he had any glass door knobs and he pulled out a rusty can, dug through it and came up with a number of vintage door knobs that I plan to use as finials on large lamps.

While looking in the various buildings, I spied a large glass container that was once used as a liquid battery. Don and his assistant Tim were quite surprised when I lugged it up to Don's air conditioned hideaway. I told them I found it partially hidden under one of the barns. It is a wonderful chipped square glass piece which is somewhat rough but hopefully can be reclaimed and turned into an interesting lamp base.

Out in the middle of a field, while looking at a couple of metal table frames, I managed to step into a fire ant hill and was stung a couple of times on the ankle. This is my second run in with these tiny terrors, and I hope my last.

I discovered a mid century chrome and vinyl chair that will look great with the pair of chartreuse lamps with the molded plastic shades. Also found an old metal walker that will make a really unusual table or bar, topped with a piece of rustic wood.

All in all it was a great day and I can't wait to go back. Becky joined her daughter and granddaughter for a short beach trip to Wilmington, NC. Can't wait to see what she finds for our booth at the Depot.

Fridays Fantastic Finds and a Saturday Auction

Drove from our cabin near Todd, NC to Hickory for an estate sale. It started at 10:00 a.m.  and I was only 10 minutes late but the place was so crowded you could barely move. Who said the economy is in the toilet! Found a great old red box that once held an ammonia mask (kinda wish the mask was still in the box..never know when you might need it), a tiny little vise that clamps on a table and a couple of more items. To make it worth the trip down the mountain to Hickory, I checked out the Antique Mall on Hwy. 70 and Great Finds where I found a few items for my lamp making, a cute coffee table with frenchy looking legs, a nice Italian bottle and a set of 3 handmade nesting pine tables.

On the way back, I stopped at the antique mall in Blowing Rock and got info about renting a booth, then went across the street to the Windwood Antiques annex and discovered a collection of imported bottles. Picked out a beauty for a lamp then headed toward the Appalachian Antique Mall in downtown Boone.

Met up with Becky S at the antique mall in Trade for a bit more shopping and purchased a nice square amber bottle, before we headed to Mountain City for the weekly Friday night auction of antiques and oddities. Where else could you go and find a 1883 metal tobacco plug cutter being auctioned off one minute and a Troybilt lawnmower the next. I won the tobacco plug cutter with the Imp astride it, a $5 wooden tray full of small toys and a couple of old-looking iron horse drawn cart toys.

One thing I have learned from going to auctions...look hard before you raise your hand to bid and watch out for fakes pretending to be the real thing. Like they say, buyer beware.

After an exhausting and rewarding Friday, I rested up for the Great States Auction in downtown Wilkesboro on Saturday.  Becky S joined me and we had a good time people watching and trying to win a few bids. Prices were either extremely high or low. There was a lot of furniture and it was going for fantastically low prices. Since I had no room for any large pieces of furniture, I kept my hand down. Gold and silver coins were going for big prices .Better than investing in the stock market these days.

Bid and won a one-of-a-kind Arts & Crafts mantle clock and a Victorian gilded bronze candelabra.

All in all, a great weekend of hunting!!

Lamps and More Lamps

It's been a great summer for hunting and gathering. Becky and I have scoured the shops and antique malls in Boone, Blowing Rock, Trade and Mountain City, as well as estate sales in Charlotte. Becky attended the giant July antique event in Abingdon, VA and my husband and I traveled up Highway 11 / 81 in Virginia, stopping at several malls and shops on our way to Fairfax, VA. We each discovered some fantastic finds for our booths at the Depot in Concord, NC. If you haven't been, be sure to check out the Depot soon.

I have been looking for a way to satisfy my creative spirit and I hit upon the idea to make lamps. First came linen and burlap shades, then came beautiful glass bottles. A natural combination for some great looking lamps to take to the Depot. My first effort was two matching turquoise glass bottles with natural burlap shades and the combination looked fantastic. I placed them on top of two wacky looking metal side tables found during a very, very hot visit to Cline's Antiques.

Next, I found a collection of heavy handmade glass bottles from Spain, with raffia wrapped necks and they metamorphosized into four more lamps. I especially like the squatty round one with the golden look to the glass. More to come!