It's Been One Year

Well, it's been one year since I "Hung the Sign" did this post (my most viewed post to-date) and opened my brick and mortar shop, Paris Flea Market at 769 Virginia Avenue in North Bend, Oregon

It's been a very busy year for me.  The shop takes a lot of my time and energy, and what's left I devote to my grand children.

I take photos to do a post...but seem to never get further than that. With that said please excuse some of these photos...I have a difficult time getting a sharp and clear image (took over 200 digitals for this post alone) , hence, one of the problems of frequent posting.

And now for the photo tour......

Got two new signs for outside...this very cool VINTAGE CHIC sign and another that hangs from the awning (no pics). Already had the one to the left.

I absolutely adore this white nativity set!

I use newer NOT VINTAGE patterns for my tissue paper to wrap items in, the response is fantastic...every one notices, they even call out to others there with to come over and see.  I use to use black and cream toile tissue paper that cost a small fortune...and no one ever noticed. I very much like "keeping it simple".

I have a map of France on a cork board and have all my customers that have been to France put a pin in there favorite place.  Surprising how many people have just been to Paris.  A few people spied England and Italy and pinned locals there!!!

I had the Nutcracker with snow flakes painted on my window for the holiday season. I've always enjoyed store windows that were painted for the holidays....

Thank you for taking the time to look 

and as always...........

Happy Hunting and Gathering.

It was a White Christmas

Well~~~sort of

I took a couple of days off after Christmas to work on some items for my shop.  Here's a look at what I got finished. 

First up is a bench that I've been wanting to get done. I just polished up the frame and left it the way I found it, I had three of these Bakers Economalt bags, I sold two and kept this one for a future project.  I really like how it turned out.





 

A trio of Angels~~~gold frame, gold angels~~~Oohlala~~~Now they are white!!! 

The smaller ornate frame was made in Holland I just gave it and the large frame a wash of white and a bit of a rub off to show a little gold.  All I had to do to the chalkboard was to tape it off and paint the chalkboard paint on to it and add a couple of hangers to the back.



And again white, white, white. The Lyre magazine/book holder is cast iron and was gold. The little victorian looking vase was brass...so much cuter in white. The heart and star box was a maroon red...Much better in romantic white. Two small oil on canvas of Blue Roses, the roses really bloom with these white frames.


And the little bird? Didn't do a thing except give him a bath, found him at the thrift store and he asked me tweetly if I would take him to live at my shop. He's a soft translucent yellow with hand painted roses in a soft peach.

These two lovlies have been hanging out in my living room on the waiting list to be transformed.  They have springs in the seats and I had to figure out how to replace one side.  It was a challenge strength wise but a great skill to learn~~~I'll never pass up one that needs repaired again. I went traditional on the covering and used a harlequin decor fabric that I had. And again I just polished up the frames and left as is, they were in fantastic shape.  And a few darker toned pieces with all that white makes a nice balance.

And finally this adorable little magazine/night stand. I just applied the plaster roses from this post here. And distressed just the tiniest bit.

 

 This was one of the stars of the Marathon Trilogy series that I only completed two segments of, here is the one where I painted everything white.  I found that I could marathon sand, marathon paint, but not marathon finish all the pieces at once.  You need to concentrate on each individual item...or all the fun is gone out of it. 

~~~Happy Hunting and Gathering~~~