50% off SALE Just some of the items on sale

Just some of the items that will be half off in the Sellwood store this Friday & Saturday 11-4
I will try to get more pics up tonight...so much more to show!

50% off SALE in Sellwood- Friday & Saturday 11-4

Yep! WE are having a consolidating/closing sale this Friday and Saturday...loads and loads of vintage stuff, and furniture, for 50 % off...
there are ice cream chairs, a buffet, a set of 3 lockers, misc. tables and chairs, oak display cabinets, doors, plantstands, benches, Fiesta dishes and English china and glassware and hatboxes and fabric and hardware and Halloween, and Christmas and so much more!!!
We hope that you will stop by (buy?) and pick up some bargains.
The Fremont store will be closed this week, so that we can both work in Sellwood. However, we are having a Super Bowl sale on Fremont, from 12-4 this Sunday, with 20% off everything except our consignors items.
Have a great week!
melanie

crystals and chandeliers

EEK! The before picture is not so pretty...but the after pics...I just love!
Crystals and chandeliers have been my focus
this week as we removed the florescent light fixtures from the store and replaced them with chandeliers. I was lucky enough to have my BFF call me and tell me that her husband wanted to get rid of some light fixtures. And...then I remembered that in some box in my basement were two very old chandeliers that were in pieces that I had picked up at a church sale last year. So...I dug them out (see before pic!) and got to work.
so...many thanks to Little Beach Designs for the inspiration and encouragement to get the job done! Thanks darlin', for all of your help...

30 years later...Antoine & Vivienne

30 years ago, I worked in downtown Portland. I would walk by the Real Mother Goose Gallery every day. And I would drool. I would absolutely adore the figures in the window, made of clay, whimsical animals that were dressed as if they popped out of Alice in Wonderland. I went in one day, to see if I could afford one, or two, or a whole family of them. And...much to my dismay, they were very much out of my price range. I was only 18 years old, and not making very much money working for Charles F. Berg, and I would just have to imagine a family of them one day being in my home, on my mantel.
There were many of them, all sorts of magical creatures with wonderful personalities. At least I made up stories about each of them, a bit of a fairy tale in my ho hum existence of work, work, work.
Flash to 30 years (or so) later...I am wandering around a thrift store, and I catch my breath. Could it be...no...it couldn't.
Vivienne...magical, wondrous Vivienne. The bakery owner herself. With a bundle of strawberries to bring to the love of her life. I can afford her this time, and she comes home with me. Bundled up and buckled in to the passenger seat of my car. My very own. She is mine.
But how lonely she looks on my dresser, by herself. However, now that I have found one, I am hopeful that one day I will find another. And I tell stories of her to my friends, my teenager, and my husband. She has become a bit real sitting there, day after day, with her bundle of strawberries.
We decide that we are going to downsize and sell our 3400 square foot house this last summer. And we are one of the lucky ones. We sell our house in 10 days, and we need to be out in 30 days. Now, I am a collector and a store owner. And I have stuff. So I begin madly packing up...and packing...and house hunting. But Viviene stays on my dresser. She will be hand carried to the next home, wherever that might be.
Then I run in to a friend of mine, Kristen. She tells me that she has a house that she is selling. So my husband and I go and look. We turn the key, and realize that this could be the one. It has all that we need, a basement for my "junque", and garage for him, two bedrooms, and more closet space than our big house. And as I open the linen closet, I gasp for air. I truly can' t breathe. For on the top shelf, way in the back of this empty house, is Antoine.
I call my friend. She had rented the house out to an estate sale company, and Antoine must have been someone's purchase. OR just left over, or...how does one explain this? I am breathless to see if Antoine can be mine, and I am not sure that my friend understands my mission. So when she comes to my house, I show her Vivienne. And I try not to sound too crazy, but insist that Antoine must be mine. I, of course, haven't told her that I have made up stories of them. How important it is that Viv has a friend.
But, we buy the house. And...Antoine is in the house when we arrive. Waiting...
and now, they are together. My son has decided that Antoine is the theatre director at the local college, and I have concluded that Viv and Antoine are soul mates. And the strawberries? They are for Antoine.
30 years later, a dream comes true. Perhaps...someday...there will be a family. but for now, they have each other.

Shopping spree for the stores!!!

Ok...I had a blast when I went down south...and found sooooo many wonderful antique china platters, bowls and plates! Also- I found another vintage wicker trunk...this time a lavender color...(ah...you don't know what I am referring to...). My last trip down south I unearthed this wonderful pink wicker trunk...or bench... in a little known shop. This trip we were joking that we would never find another...when lo and behold...the next day we found another...so...my camera is being fixed today, and I will take pictures and you can decide...are the trunks related? I haven't decided if they will make it in to the stores...or if they will provide much needed storage for my teeny tiny cottage!

CLOSING SELLWOOD STORE! Consolidating to Fremont and STARS

Wow! Now that is a title I never thought I would have on my blog!!! Since opening our Fremont store in October, I have found that I just can't be stretched quite that much! I haven't had a day off since April, and really, really want to have some time to do my decoupage, vintage found object, funky art projects and just can't find enough time in the day...so... we will be consolidating our 2 1/2 stores (keeping my STARS mall space!) and Fremont (which is walking distance from my house!).
What I really wish I could do is find 12 other artist/vintage lovers to share the Sellwood space as an art studio/retail space. So...we still have the lease until May, unless it gets re-leased before that (we have the BEST landlords in the WHOLE WORLD!)- but if you would be interested in a studio space, let me know. It is about 750 square feet of wonderful natural light, with 13 foot ceilings.
Or, if you want a shop of your own, let me know and I will get you more details. The rent is $1250 a month.
I will keep you all posted...
melanie