More photos of 11x14 historical prints

Lovely Fine China Bell with Gold Trim

Stumbled across this in a box of teapots I purchased off of Craigslist. It is in perfect condition.

Vintage Clock Avon Bottle

More of Antique Archaeology Mike and Danielle

Here are some more photos from our visit. Mike was making the weird face because he was making some kind of cool dude picture with my son, cropped my child out, don't want his photo all over cyberspace on a blog. I think Danielle is much prettier in person. And very, very thin. She is much thinner in person, so is Mike. The camera really does add ten pounds.

Antique Archaeology Nashville, TN

These are pictures from our trip to the new Antique Archaeology store in Nashville, TN. We went to the grand opening and met both Mike and Danielle who are super nice. It was hot, there were thousands of people and they were both just as gracious as could be. My camera flash messed up when taking my son's picture with Danielle and there was a big line behind us. I was going to move along since everyone was in a hurry and she stopped me and said it was no problem, that she would be glad to take another picture. I liked the store overall, I spent way to much on souvenirs from there, should have just splurged on one of their picks they were selling instead. The store is located in the historic Marathon Motorworks building in downtown Nashville.

Antique Booth Basics

Do you want to know what one of the big rookie mistakes you can make when you have started in the antique business via an antique mall booth? Not keeping it tidy. It is tempting to bring in everything you have managed to find out there to have on display to sell. I admit I have looked at all of the extras I have in storage thinking that they were not making me one bit of money just sitting there in my home. However if you have your booth jam packed with stuff people are just going to walk on by. Keep your shelves with enough stuff to catch the eye, but not so much stuff that it is overwhelming to look through. People shop with their eyes first, place one show stopping piece where anyone walking by will see it. Also group what things you have as much as you can by color. If you have several different types of glass of one shade group place that all one shelf. People looking for items to use with their existing décor will stop by whatever display offers colors similar to what they already have. Remember people are usually antique shopping to add to their collection, not start an entire new one.

Best Yardsale Find EVER!!!!

I found this for $1. The clock still works. I think it is beautiful. As of now I am keeping it. To pretty to let go. Which isn't a good philosophy for making money however figurine sells have been virtually non existant for me so I do not have to feel too guilty. Plus he has been repaired. I have seen similar figurines before but they had blue paint trim, none with the cranberry color.

Cool Avon Bottles

I stumbled across these at the antique mall. The genie lamp is my favorite, the car is pretty cool too.

Tapping into my deeply hidden inner crafty side.....

Okay so the antiques business has really slowed over the past two months. The only major sellers I have had in the past month have been the 11x14 historical prints I have in my shop, which is better than nothing but when I initially started out with hopes and dreams of primarily being an antique glassware dealer that has drifted away from my intentions. I love old glassware, new glassware, any glassware. I think it is beautiful, functional,and I just love it. However we are in a horrendous recession, and what little money people are spending seems to be on low priced historical documents and primitive decor. Everyone in the shop that deals in primitives are making a tremendous amount of sales, no matter how high priced the item. I used to work with my grandfather in his wood shop as a child. He could make any type of furniture, with the tiniest decorative details. I can remember he let me cut figures out of wood blocks at his band saw. (Probably not the best job to give a ten year old but...) I used to love doing that. So I thought perhaps I could resurrect this long forgotten crafty side and start making primitive signs (or MY version of a primitive sign) that people would want to buy. As I looked more into it I saw that most true primitive signs have been painted, varnished, then sanded within an inch of their life to make them look really old. I felt that I could accomplish a satisfactory weathered effect with crackle paint. Yes you can tell it's crackle paint and not just really old but number one, I don't really like the excessively sanded look and knowing that I am rather heavy handed I would have produced too heavily sanded a product and number two I wanted my signs to be affordable for everyone. I can make my crackle primitives in a shorter amount of time thus passing that savings down to my customers. I have been at places in my life where I have been very short on cash and could not afford to purchase a decorative item I fell in love with because of the price. If someone sees something they really love that I have made, I do not want them to have to walk away because it is too expensive. Sometimes being able to look at home decor you just love makes you feel great and proud of your home, and everyone deserves that. Or perhaps I just put way to much self validation into my own home decor but either way, I try to give my customers the most affordable price possible. Those who have seen them have really liked them, I have already made a few sales so I guess I'm doing something right. I love making them and I think they are pretty, so if I end up with some non sellers I will love looking at them on my own wall. I have them in my booths in Scottsville and Bowling Green. (I recently opened another booth at Vette City Antique Mall in Bowling Green, KY) I am thinking of listing some on Etsy, I am boycotting right now Ebay because of a bad experience with a sell to someone in another country. Plus the fees. Ebay went crazy with their fees. That's a story for another day though.

A few new items and a new location....

I have included some images from a massive collection of 11x14 photographic historical prints. They look beautiful framed, I kept several and now have them framed in my kitchen, covering an entire wall, kind of Cracker Barrelish in a way I guess. They have sold fairly succesfully at my location in. I love them so much if I had the room I would probably hang on to them all, however that would be rather selfish considering there are far too many prints for me to ever display and I got into this business to be able to bring pieces of the past to light that have long been forgotten for people to appreciate now. These prints had been in storage forever when I got them. I have also opened another booth in at Vette City Antique Mall. It is right off of the interstate.

This is the place that got me interested in starting my own antiques business. I started going here years ago and I just loved the items and the fact that they were essentially keeping history alive with every item. Sadly the couple running it had to close it months ago and it just sits there. Eventually it will probably go to auction.

JFK Newspaper

Images from the Allentown, PA Morning Call newspaper from 11/26/1963

more JFK newspaper photos

Tea Time

more craigslist treasures