Gracie's Cottage: May 2011

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Door County and Viva La Cottage

At 2:14 p.m. on Friday this little text exchange took place:

Me: "So would you like to take me to Door County this weekend?"

CG: "Sure"

...simple as that. I booked a great place to stay, (a water view was a must),

and we headed off early on Saturday for a marvelous long weekend. Spontaneity has been one of the gifts of CG's semi-retirement. Footloose and fancy free, no advance planning required. Love it.

Door County is known for the best cherry pies, made from local cherries.

The orchards had just burst into bloom . The peninsula is mostly rural, with quaint artsy towns lining the Lake Michigan and Green Bay shorelines.

We spent some time cruising the back roads, enjoying the scenery. We even found one property that we thought we just might be able to afford...if only we had fixer-upper skills!

We always like to make a stop at the Door County Bakery

Where deciding what to buy is the hard part

Right next door is..................wait for it....

Yep, Viva la Cottage, where on July 9th, Kathy and I will be selling at one of the best small flea markets in these parts, Viva la Cottage's Annual Vintage Market. Somewhere between twenty and thirty select vendors will offer their freshest finds for you and we're happy to be included. Our buds Jeanine of ChiPPy!-SHaBBy! and Candyce & Jill of Altered Ever After will be there, too!

Carol was working when we stopped in and she was busy. I got her to stand still just long enough for a quick snapshot before she buzzed off to assist a customer.

Viva la Cottage is loaded with charming vintage finds mixed with carefully selected new products. It all works beautifully together.

If you're headed up to Door County make this is a "must-see" shop to put on your agenda.

Now it's time for you to grab the rope, hold on and let's all head over to Faded Charm for White Wednesday. Come on now...no dilly-dallying - inspiration awaits!

***A small housekeeping note: If you've recently commented on a post and haven't seen your comment appear, it's my fault. When I'm using my iPad, my fingers sometimes hit the wrong place and in a couple of instances I deleted instead of publishing - ouch! I DO appreciate each of you that takes the time to comment. :)

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Random Thoughts from Brimfield

There hasn't been much time to ponder the fun of Brimfield since returning home...but, the laptop now has a new hard drive, the van's expensive repair is complete, the insurance claim is in for the water-damaged hardwood floor, and my stoooooopid 'smart phone' has at long last been replaced by a new iphone.

Finally, there's a moment to reflect on Brimfield. Randomness rules...here goes!

Margaret and I flew in to Hartford on Tuesday and arrived in town just as Brimfield Acres North was opening. Our plan to go straight to the back of the field fell apart as we each spotted something we had to have just after we entered. To say that we were overwhelmed and giddy at the sight of acres of great junk would be a huge understatement.

I hadn't been to Brimfield in over a decade and this was Margaret's first time. It was probably a good thing that we flew and could only buy what we could ship. Otherwise we would likely have spent our entire stash the very first day. Wonderments abounded.

The first thing we learned was to get up early and arrive in Brimfield about 90 minutes before the 'hot' show of the day was opening to get primo parking. Making a quick run to the car now & then to unload makes for easier two-fisted shopping.

Most all the drool-worthy pieces were 'sold'. I loved, loved, loved this piece that sat waiting for pick-up.

It seemed that the majority of dealers don't price their items. I wonder why? I walked away from several things that caught my attention because dealers were flooded with people asking "how much". Who wants to stand around all day just waiting to find out the price of something? Not gonna happen when there is so much to see.

It was fun to meet Tricia from Red Door Antiques. I missed finding most of the others on my list...drat. We did pop in to the fabulous Tweet-Up tent, met some fun folks and admired Lu's work-in-progress.

Packing boxes in a hotel room is hard work. And some post offices close at 4:30 on Friday. (Thanks to the nice peeps at the Ludlow post office for not being mean when we arrived at 4:29 with three huge boxes. Who knew they'd close so early?) Between us we shipped home over 170 lbs. of treasures, and brought over 100 lbs. more back in our luggage.

We had a fun chat with Palmer from Ruby Lane, (and those great bags he gave us came in so handy - thanks Palmer!) Here's Margaret doing a little spot for his video.

The food at the New England motel and just across the road really is good. Lobster rolls, ceaser salad pita, ribbon fries, ice cream. Finding a table and taking a break mid-day is essential.

Porta potties stink and, (most), potty patronizing men really are pigs. We discovered the 'secret potties' the second day we were there and revisited them often. Tucked away, they were much less disgusting than most.

We had to go to Massachusetts to find these very cool 1940's folk-art boxes from Wisconsin.

This one's for my bud Tamarah in Australia. Weren't you looking for these at JB last year?

I still love "my" shades of blue

This old gal was headed to her new home

After 3 1/2 full days of shopping, we hadn't seen but a fraction of Brimfield.

Great merchandise was everywhere, the weather was decent, most other dealers and shoppers were pleasant and the trip just couldn't have been any better. I can't wait to return, soon!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

White Wednesday Brimfield Style

Congrats to Kathleen at Faded Charm on her 100th White Wednesday!
In honor of the occasion, I'm sharing the "white-iest" of my Brimfield photos.

The white line on the side of highway 20; it was very important to stay on the right side of it when dashing from field to field...we didn't want to be squished by a loaded truck or a driver distracted by the stuff in the fields.

Loved,loved loved those Swedish clocks.

Lots of sweet whiteness here.

Wish I'd brought some of these home.

Chairs from Holland...

...too delicious for words!

This will bring back memories for many folks that grew up in the Dairy State.

Sigh...

Ironstone galore

The church at the end of the fields.
Now let's all get in line and head on over to Faded Charm and shout out a big "thanks" to Kathleen for hosting White Wednesday!

Elkhorn...Bad Weather and Happy Shoppers

Wow, it's been a surreal spring in Wisconsin. The best thing we can say is that it hasn't been snowing. Rain, wind and clouds have ruled the skies most of the time. I flew in from Brimfield Saturday afternoon and went straight to Elkhorn for setup. Kathy saved my bacon by handling the "heavy lifting" and getting all the basics in place for our booth before I arrived so that we could get right to unpacking. (I owe you one, Kathy!)

The weather was so awful that many of the outside dealers opted out of this show...that's extremely rare here. They normally persevere because the shoppers will be out in any weather. They came in droves on Sunday.

It was so crowded that many times we had to "body block" the entrances to our space. (We've had to adopt a "max of 10 shoppers in at one time" policy, after some "pilferage" when the booth is packed.)

The day went by in a blur...thanks so much to everyone that came out. Lory, Steve & Barb, Katie, Hope, Jeanine & Jeff, Kathy from Upper Michigan, Pam from Fresh Eggs, Allison from My Artsy Fartsy Life...it was great to see each of you, (and everyone else that's escaping my foggy brain at the moment.)

It is Tuesday and that means it's Bloggers Bodega over at Capers of the Vintage Vixens..go check it out! The first of my boxes from Brimfield arrived yesterday and I've begun the process of reloading Gracie's Cottage on etsy with fun finds. Check back often for new listings.

Next post will be more on Brimfield....my laptop died the day before leaving home so off to the repair shop we went yesterday. Awkwardness rules as I try to blog bouncing between the iPad and our dinosaur pc. See ya soon!