my latest gift baskets for Christmas...

here are a couple of my latest baskets ready for giving for Christmas!!

inside this treasure is a large vintage mixing bowl made by Harker (the oldest pottery company in the US), an egg beater, a cake spreader, a flour sifter, a cinnamon shaker, some measuring cups, 2 copper cookie cutters, nail files, body puff, hand-crocheted chicken, two taper candles that smell like apple pie, a lovely face lotion, and many, many ornaments for your tree....

a closer view....

isn't this cute? It would make a perfect gift for that special someone that you know that loves vintage kitchen items.

here is another fabulous basket loaded with vintage goodies...the feature pieces is a large princess-style Pyrex mixing bowl in a hard to find pattern that has grape vines on it, a lovely vintage table runner with fruit on it, a vintage Py-O-My bread pan, a wire wisk, an unusual masher with a rotating head piece, a Santa salt shaker, a miniature pitcher commemorative keepsake from the Blue Ridge Mountains, 2 taper candles that smell like apple pie, a wonderful night cream for the face, a snowflake shaped floating candle, and numerous ornaments for your Christmas decorating....

love the fruit on the table runner....

this basket is all about roosters! It has a vintage melmac dinner plate with a farm scene on it, 2 swanky swig juice glasses with roosters on them, a vintage syrup dispenser, a set of vintage slat and pepper shakers from Gemco, 2 taper candles that smell like apple pie, wonderful aromatherapy bath salts, and lots of ornaments for your Christmas tree....

Russell's Auctions & Tag Sales

The gentlemen's chest shown here, along with the matching ladies piece shown below, is 200 years old. The top of this chest is made of rosewood from Upstate New York. The front of this piece is burl maple. Absolutely delicious pieces of furniture. I love this set. You will never see wood grain, or furniture like this ever again....beautiful and a piece of history too.

here is a double child's school desk, complete with the ink wells. so unique!!

fabulous place setting. The glass is a deep purple, trimmed in a butter yellow enamel dot pattern.

can you believe this desk???? the wood grain is stunning....

love Roseville...now is the time to buy it....

doesn't this place look like fun???? stop in and see for yourself!

ooops...should have rotated this one....:o) lovely antique dresser...needs to come to my house....

don't you love finding a 'new' place to shop and hunt for vintage treasures? Here is my latest find....yes, it is 'new' to me, but this dynamic duo has been in the antique business for decades! Joyce and G.I. (Russ) Russell are the owners of Russell's Auctions & Tag Sales, located in West End, North Carolina. They used to do large auctions, but due to health constraints, they now host 'tag sales' in their large warehouse, every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, from 1pm to 5pm. Their warehouse is full of the some of the most beautiful pieces of antique and vintage furniture pieces that I have seen in one place...they also have some of the most interesting eclectic pieces placed on or  next to a priceless heirloom! and guess what? it works!! check out some of my photos from my most recent visit....

home made bread....

Just seeing the words 'home made bread' can make you hungry, don't you think? I just took four loaves of my home made sourdough bread out of the oven...the house smells so good!! Having been raised near San Francisco, I grew up eating sourdough bread just about every day of my life. I started making my own bread back when I was a teenager....gee, that was before the internet, blogging, cell phones...well, you get the idea...:o)

My next items to bake include the Italian Christmas bread called panettone, and then the German Christmas bread called stollen....both are so yummy with a hot cup of coffee....I make my panettone with chocolate chips rather than the currants and raisins...although I do have one friend that asked me to make a few loaves with the raisins.....did I mention that I love to bake bread???

time for another sale....

Thanks to everyone that stopped by last weekend to celebrate our inaugural 'Christmas on Park Avenue' Holiday Craft Sale. It was fun to see old friends, and to meet my new neighbors....so much fun, that I have decided to do it again! So many people asked me when I would be doing it again, I thought, 'well, how about one more time before Christmas?'

Our next sale will be on Saturday, December 10, 2011 from 10am to 4pm. There will be lots of fun and interesting vintage and antique collectibles for sale, old chippy-paint solid wood doors and cabinet doors for your next craft project, ready-made gift baskets filled with lovely vintage items, yummy sourdough bread, beautiful silk flowers, and so much more....

stop by and say hello....

four new creations....

Yesterday I created four new gift 'baskets'....my husband and I are getting ready for our 'Christmas on Park Avenue' event which is coming up this Saturday, November 19th from 8am to 4pm.....stop by and say hello!!

a Saturday in Fall....

Saturday was such a beautiful day...it was chilly and cold in the morning, but it warmed up to be such a pleasant day in the afternoon. Around 1:30pm I headed out to do an Ultimate Spa Facial event for a friend of mine. Her house is so adorable. It was built in the early 1930's, and is just the perfect country farm home. I did the Facial event for her and several of her friends. One of the ladies in attendance is getting ready to open up her own beauty shop in the town of High Falls, North Carolina....I will make a post for her when she holds her grand opening...I am so excited for her!!
After the event, we sat around chatting and munching on some home made pecan pie (absolutely heavenly by the way!)..it was a great time...just as I was packing up my things, my friend mentioned to me that her husband and her father are starting to do some blacksmithing. I had to see what that was all about!! So I followed her outside to see what the two men were up to...I was so amazed to see the lovely items that they were making out of iron. Wouldn't you know it that I didn't bring my camera with me?? My friend promised to send me some pictures of what they make...they showed me fire place tools, hand wrought hooks to hang pots from in your kitchen, and the coolest thing ever...they made knives out of railroad spikes!! I had never seen anything like it! so cool...can't wait to see what they come up with next....

Christmas on Park Avenue!!

After my husband and I moved out of the building in which we had our antique store, we moved into a lovely home located at the center of town. I often have things delivered to our house, and when I first had to update my shipping profile with my various businesses partners, I found that the autofill for my address kept putting in Park Avenue, even though I knew that the street was really Park Street. I thought, 'this is odd, I wonder why this keeps popping up'...so I had to continually over ride my street address entry...one day while thinking of ways to help reduce the inventory of items that we brought to our house from our store, it struck me....We could have a Christmas event on Park Avenue!! Who wouldn't want a Park Avenue address??? so, rather than fight google, etc...I decided to have fun with it...so there you go...My husband and I, and our neighbors, are hosting our inaugural 'Christmas on Park Ave' Holiday Craft Sale on Saturday, November 19, 2011. The fun begins at 8:00am and continues until 4:00pm.
There will be lost of antiques, vintage items and collectibles, ready made gift baskets for Christmas giving, yummy baked goods, and plenty of great deals!!! come and join us if you can....
On that same day at 6:00pm, the Town of Robbins will be celebrated the lighting of the town's Christmas tree located next to the train Depot. There will be carolling after the tree lighting. Please bring a non-perishable food item for a donation for the Robbins Area Christian Ministry. There are lots of people in our area that need a helping hand right now....
So, mark your calendars and come to see us in Robbins next Saturday. The fun begins early on Park Avenue, and continues into the early evening downtown.
See you there!!!

Jerry's Flea Market

I had to write about my friend Jerry. He has been a part of this town for many, many years. He has the coolest thrift store, and it is where I find a lot of my 'treasures' for my baskets. The name of his place is 'Jerry's Flea Market'. It is located inside an old gas station building. The gas pumps are long gone, but inside is the best treasure hunting place around. If you like to dig through boxes and hunt through things stacked upon each other, this is the place for you! It is so much fun to go and see the latest things that Jerry has for sale. Oh, and don't forget to buy a soda and a pack of nabs. They'll only cost you a dollar!

Here is a picture of the outside of his place. I stopped in this morning to say 'hello', and of course I left with a 'few' items....lol....

Fall...lots and lots of leaves....

My husband and I had been living in a loft above our antique store in downtown Robbins for many years, so we didn't have any land or yard. We recently moved out of the building into a lovely home that was built in 1927. It is perfect for us, and had just enough space for all of our antique and vintage items that we brought from our store. It is located in an older neighborhood in town, and has lots and lots of beautiful old oaks and maples....well, guess what? Those lots and lots of trees, also drop lots and lots of leaves...lol...I have spent my afternoon raking and bagging leaves from one of our maple trees..and it doesn't look like I have even made a dent...they sure are beautiful though....totally worth it....:o) to those of you that grew up on the East Coast or Midwest, you are probably thinking, 'gee, was this a surprise to her?'...actually since I grew up on the West Coast, we had very few trees in our area that lost their leaves in the Fall. The oak trees out there are called 'Live Oaks', and they don't shed their leaves. You will see an occasional Japanese Maple in someones yard, but for the most part, everyone had deciduous trees and bushes.

Auction time!!

I had a ball yesterday! My friends Cheryl and Greg Fisher had an auction out at their farm in Seagrove, North Carolina. Cheryl comes from a family that has been involved in the antiques business for decades! She has been collecting since before she could walk...well, that might be a 'slight' exaggeration, but after seeing what she had for sale, I could believe it!! I wanted to go to her auction just to see what she had for sale....that gal has an eye for the unique and unusual. She had a booth space with us when my husband and I had an antique store (Middleton Mercantile), and she always  brought in such interesting items for sale.
The weather yesterday was a picture-perfect Fall day, so I decided to bring my camera along to snap some pictures....so glad that I did! I have added some of those shots here for all of you to enjoy. The items shown here are just a remnant of what she used to have! Cheryl told me that she has been selling a lot of items to individual buyers that come to her property to make an offer. She also mentioned to me after the auction yesterday that she is going to have a 'moving sale' sometime in the next few weeks. I will let you all know when and where that will take place....great bargains, and fun collectibles are still available!
Oh, and before I forget, the auction was performed by Steven Cates, and his company, Elite Auctioneering Services. Steve and his crew (Don, Sean, Randy, and...Clarke?) were hilarious. It is a tough job to talk non-stop for hours straight, and to do it with a sense of humor is amazing! He also had his clerk (Lisa I believe was her name...forgive me for not remembering), and the lovely Carol collected the money and kept track of all of our purchases. Carol also owns her own shop called Unique Treasures & Collectibles, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. She has new to antique items in booths and shelf spaces. Carol told me that she is planning to expand her booth spaces too. Those are great words to hear from someone in this industry, in the present economic times! Give her a call at (336) 992-3328 for her hours and directions.
Here is some more exciting news! While bidding on some treasures, I started a conversation with a young woman that was sitting across the aisle from me. She told me that she had just opened up a new shop in Carthage, North Carolina, about a month ago, and that she was at the auction to get more inventory for her store. I thought, my goodness, even more good news!! A new store too...that is just great! I told her that I would mention her in my blog. The name of the store is T&T Hidden treasures. The co-owners are both named Tracy, hence the name 'T&T'....They are open from Wed-Sat. 10am to 5:30m. She has two phone numbers listed on her business card, so here are the two of them...(910) 639-2780 and (910) 690-3788. apparently they take consignments too. Stop in to say hello and tell them that I sent you....:o)

ok, so now for the pictures...sit back and enjoy the view.....

my 'work shop'....

I have been making a lot of baskets lately, and have been storing them on top of a vintage maple drop-leaf table....I walked in to take a few items to a friend, and the site of all the pretty colors and vintage pieces made me smile...so...I decided to take a few pictures of them to share with you!! enjoy....:o)

Spa baskets

Here are a few of my newest baskets....they feature lovely items for the perfect spa experience....each has a bath towel, hand towel, and wash cloth, a beautiful night light, body puff, votive candle holder and candle...and, best of all...one of them has a fabulous massage oil, and the other has a seafoam body mask product.....only $25 each....