Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year! Hope the year is filled with many blessings that fill your heart with joy!

2021 ended with my Top 9 squares on Instagram being all about my Christmas posts. Nothing wrong with that. Christmas was fabulous! It was the most amazing year for my Christmas finds. Looking forward to what I'll find in 2022.

I spent some time redecorating my room. I bought this cabinet at the Carriage House and painted the inside an off white. It was painted a deep red at some point and it just didn't go with my collections. I needed somewhere to display my quilts and other pieces instead of being put away in a drawer. I'm super happy with how it all came out. I even got to use my deconstructed lamp shade on my favorite cherub lamp.

Here's a close up of the top of the cabinet.....

Since I was in the redecorating mood, I changed a few things around in my living room too. I have been purging my collections since December. I always get into the purging mood right around Christmas and all through the winter. More room to collect other treasures throughout the year....

I'm loving my ironstone collection. I purged quite a bit from my milk glass collection though. Slowly its all going into the Carriage House for sale.

I like to decorate for each season. Right now Valentine's Day decorations are up. I don't have many vintage pieces for Valentine's Day. They are getting harder to find. So, my decor right now is simple but dainty.

I found this fabulous cherub yesterday while out antiquing. I fell in love with it....it fits in perfectly with my style. It was embellished by a dealer at Vintage Bliss.

Here's another addition I recently added. I changed it around a bit and added the heart for Valentine's Day instead of a bottle brush tree....from Vintage Art and Findings. Love that chippy base....

For some reason, I'm drawn to hearts made with vintage material and quilts. This was no exception....

Another great find from Diane who sells at Vintage Bliss as Found.curatedgoods. 

Recently I won some beautiful bone dishes from a contest on Instagram from Ironstone.stacker.  Boy was I surprised and excited!

Next holiday up is St. Patrick's Day. Vintage items for that holiday are really hard for me to find but I do have a few shamrock decorated tea cups and die cut cardboard pieces at the shop.

The elf was from my own collection. Isn't it great!

The Carriage House is participating in the Vintage Shop Hop again this year on March 4-5. Plan a trip to come see us in Crystal Lake. Spring should be making its way into the shop by then.

Keep hunting for those finds. Estate sales have begun again and there still are finds at the thrift stores.

It felt like Christmas to me today. I had been looking for the perfect frame for this vintage jewelry Christmas tree and finally found it! Plus some vintage Christmas treasures....

Happy treasure hunting!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

It was a smashing success for our Holiday Open House in November at the Carriage House. We had 50 people lined up waiting to get in! I was very fortunate this year to find sooooo many vintage Christmas goodies. It was a busy amazing open house.

Here are some pictures of what my space looked like:

Santa mugs were all the rage this year! This picture blew up my Instagram  page! Please follow me as I post pictures daily.

Here's a larger view of my space....

Some cute faces throughout my home. My Santa collection that brings me so much joy!

When I see these plush Santa's, I just can't pass them up!

In this picture I'm playing along with #santamugmonday on Instagram. That punch bowl set was an estate sale find last year and the pitcher mug set was a gift from my family.

This year I did something different with my smaller pieces. I found this cubby at a sale and knew it would work perfectly for displaying them. 

The blow mold snowman was from a sale of a woman who was 104 years old! Too cute not to keep.

Can't forget about my pixies....all snuggled in bed.

 

This is one of my themed aluminum Christmas trees. It's my Santa tree....

This adorable Santa mug was a TJMaxx find. I loved the color! The vintage Christmas corsage was a find at Bell Jar Vintage. Since I collect vintage Christmas corsages it was a perfect addition.

This mug was also a TJMaxx find. I just added some of my vintage pieces to it.

Santa was a recent sale find. I arrived late at the sale, almost 2 hours after it started, but he was waiting for me....

It was a similar story with finding these Santa mugs except it was the second day of the sale and these were still there. I couldn't believe it!

Some other cute finds recently...

One of my favorite finds in years past is this Christmas print. It is darling...

My treat to me this year was this amazing wreath. I found it in a Wisconsin shop. It has "me" written all over it.

What an amazing vintage bottle brush tree gifted to me by my friend. She knows me well! I used a deconstructed lamp shade as a base for a toule Christmas tree that is behind this bottle brush tree.

Another friend who knows me well, gifted me this adorable Santa cookie jar and Santa Apron...

It's been busy around here the past few months. Many changes happening, but all for the good. I have updated the 2022 page of my favorite flea markets so be sure to mark the dates on your calendar. With the many ifs today, make sure to check each site before going to the event.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!

Happy treasure hunting!

Hello Fall!

 Hello Fall!

As soon as the weather gets cooler, I'm baking. I made six butternut squash mini breads today. They freeze well so I'm always ready when company comes over. 

Sales have been great these last few months! Wait until you see some of my treasures....

and these...

Wait there's more....

I've been extremely lucky recently with ironstone finds and I only kept one!

These finds were from different sales on different days...

And these too...

2 flea markets where I found some treasures...

Why buy one when you could buy the whole box of flower frogs? Of course I bought them all!

The Carriage House just celebrated the beginning of their 18th year in business. I am celebrating my 7th year there. It has been sooooo much fun! I'm enjoying every minute of it.

We are making plans for the early part of November for our Vintage Christmas Open House. Here's a teaser for you. I have such a large amount of Santa mugs this year. I lost count!

Enjoy all that fall brings you!

There are still plenty of estate/rummage/garage sales going on. The last Elkhorn Flea Market of the season is this weekend September 26. The Vintage Shop Hop is October 1-2 (the Carriage House is participating.) The last Cedarburg Flea Market of the season is October 3. Wilmot Flea Market continues for a few more Sundays. Autumn Drive in Woodstock is October 15-17. 

Happy treasure hunting!

Summer Ramblings

How is your summer going? It has been weird weather wise here. Mostly too dry. At least my vegetable plants are doing well in the raised beds.

I have been trying to get to as many flea markets as possible. I finally had a chance to go to Main Street Market in May.

Loved the truck they had at the market!

Then it was off to the Pec Thing. I had been looking for a hat form for a while and finally found one! Funny but I sold one at the Carriage House a few years ago and now I wanted to decorate with one.

My son and I took a road trip in June to Shipshewana Indiana. He went his way to a friend's wedding and I went searching for treasures. It was super fun to stumble across the Farmgirl flea market going on.

Look what I found....

It was the perfect weather day and the perfect day to find treasures.

Speaking of treasures, I ran across two flamingo figures recently. I had always wanted one but I like the thrill of the hunt and don't want to pay a lot for my treasures. How exciting when I found two at an estate sale. Here's one of them....

My sons and I took a trip to see my family in New Jersey. It was great to see them! As usual, my brother took me out treasure hunting. I even shopped his storage unit where he had been holding this vintage dress form for me to look at for about a year. She is beautiful with all her imperfections....

She was covered up with this fabric piece so I took it off to reveal her imperfections.

Here she is closer up....

Plus there is some writing on her back.

Here are a few things I found while out and about with him. I even had a chance to visit the Allaire Flea Market. It was my first time there.

Garage and estate sales are in full gear right now. I'm probably going to have my yearly one at the end of July. I need to clean out. I wanted to show you a few of my recent finds...

I couldn't resist all of those wooden bowls! When I was moving them for this picture, they moved into just the right position that all I had to do was take the picture. I kept the pitcher for my collection and all the rest either have or will end up in the Carriage House for sale. Speaking of the Carriage House, I enlarged my space! I am super excited to have more space for my ideas plus it's so much more open to move around in my area.

You all know how much I love vintage Christmas. I came across these fun ones recently...

I have been posting much more on Instagram these days, so make sure to follow along for almost daily updates. 

Happy treasure hunting!