Flowers, Projects and Flea Markets

 Hi guys! I'm still alive! I have been busy busy busy! Spring has sprung in East TN and we are already into hay mowing and honeysuckle season...it smells fantastic outside. Probably not too fun for the allergic though! These flowers we picked today to show off a McCoy vase I will be listing online shortly. There is Queen Anne's Lace and 2 kinds of roses. I have TRIED to grow hybrid roses, but it is very humid here and blackspot is rampant SO I grow these hardier pink shrub roses. The deeper red rose is what is left of a hybrid rose. The hybrid graft croaked and this came back from the rootstock..oh well..at least it is growing!

The lilacs are long gone. They had an even briefer then usual season this year as it froze again after they started to bloom. I love the scent, but they are harder to grow in the South..I think they like cold winters!

 The irises have come and gone.These are some that I transplanted from my husband's Grandma Minnie's flower garden. They have really spread and need to be divided. I got a "fun" case of poison ivy this spring pulling poison ivy and blackberry brambles out of these beds.I am usually pretty tolerant of poison ivy, but everywhere the blackberry brambles stuck me, the poison ivy got in and spread. Yikes!

 For Mother's day the kid's set up a table on the deck complete with flowers (and I think the little daisy flowers are actually weeds..still pretty!) These were a few of the peonies.

 Projects! This vintage shabby mannequin has been lurking in the
workshop for months..Before..........          
                                                           

and after! I was going to stamp this with my antique signage stamps but I may leave it this way.

 This makeover probably cost $1-$2. I covered her with approx. 4x6 inch squares I tore from brown paper lunchbags. I crumpled and wet them and then Mod Podged them on. Where there were dents I added wads of paper w/ more Mod-Podge to fill in and then covered that with the paper. I love the textured finish..I did nothing to the previous cover which looked to be spray painted fabric, just went right over the top!

 This one is adjustable..if she is "short" the pole can stick out the top. I may make a cardboard "cap" for the neck hole..covered with antique text of course..maybe with scalloped or lace edges that you can remove if need be...hmmm...

 For now I just stacked 2 light fixture bits on it. I may just attach these and call it a day!

 I went on a pillow making spree. I made 2 of these out of some old barkcloth with grey and cream ticking on the reverse. These have already sold. I loved this fabric!

 This is a rooster I painted on muslin and turned into a pillow....

 and a burlap Union Jack with vintage damask fabric and vintage cloth measuring tape accents. I dyed the cross bars pale grey. I left the edges raw for more texture.

 This table was a make over. The black shabby top was on some mid century hairpin legs. I removed those legs and added them to an antique barn door for a coffee table. I painted a clock face on this...

 and then added it to an old typewriter table base. The top to this was losing veneer so I took it off..it will probably end up being 3 painted signs! Waste not, want not!

 I liked the shabby look of this tabletop, so I just worked with it instead of against it!

 This was a very grungy topless old trunk. It looked to have held feed at one time..note the grubby enamel table top in the background.

I scrubbed it down and painted another Union Jack on the front and added the scrubbed up enamel tabletop. The red paint is original, I just used tape and white paint to add the flag graphics.

 The show I did last month..setting up. My grandson Hunter and I painted 7 old drawers that were in the shed that Ed had been threatening to burn. We just "shabbily" painted them white..and also ourselves..and OK..the dog too! I bought them for $2 each because they had old glass knobs which I removed and sold. The drawers were sturdy pine and I got the idea to use them for both hauling and displaying items in my show booth. I filled them up and stacked them up in the van.These tablecovers are vintage curtains with burlap yardage runners.

 These stacked well and you can use them in different configurations. I guess if you were nervous about tippage, you could clamp or anchor them somehow, but these are so heavy unless someone shoved them, they were not going anywhere! The peonies are paper ones I made from coffee filters..I was going for a garden-y booth here.

 I also made these scrapbook paper flowers (terrible lighting on this one!)

 I use a lot of ladders in my booth..easy to set up and pack. I shove boards through the rungs for shelves.

 I also have a few old screen doors I added chicken wire to and wired together to hang things off of.The base here is an old washing machine base. I made the nests and eggs too..woman possessed.

 This was this month..burlap yardage, then striped yardage..then Martha Stewart sheet..I use what I have on hand!

 This display piece is an old 2 shelf wooden bookcase I got for a couple bucks. OK..Ed got it and I said "What is this trash!?" I painted it white and added chicken wire to the back..perfect for tabletop displays. Booths always need height!

 I love this shabby thing...totally destroyed elegance...just the most important parts left untouched.It is a Victorian era piece. It may end up on my wall! Certainly not another one just like it out there! I may back the totally gone parts with antique text.

 This mirror didn't sell (I only had $35 on it!) but that is OK because I gave it to my daughter and we are painting it chartruese for her new apartment. The medallion area will hold a silhouette of her son or maybe a monogram..the final decision has not been reached yet!

 More Martha Stewart sheets and a red tablecloth..a very old mirror on the left..Mason's Vista china and blue Jamestown Fostoria Stemware..red white and blue!

 A cool folk art cabinet and a table full of dolls and dollclothes. A lot of those sold first thing.

 These flags sold right away too..they were 48 star.These dolls may end up online.

 I just love these charming old graphics. I actually was running 2 shows this same day. I set up Thursday night and Friday morning at our hometown annual HWY 11 yard sale. When Ed got off work I left him in charge and reloaded the van and set up in Knoxville..that show was Saturday then tore down and repacked and drove home..I was beat!

This is the best thing that happened this month..our daughter Alexa graduated Suma Cume Laude  with a chemistry major and biology minor. She starts grad school in August to get her doctorate! Yay Alexa!