Heading to Barn House!!

I'm getting the trailer packed and I am heading to the country!! Tomorrow is the Barn House flea market, and I can't wait!!! If you are in the area, please try and come, you will not be disappointed!!! I have to go, but wanted to leave you with sneak peeks of some of the things I have been working on... I'll be back with lots of show pictures!!!

More Expo and found treasures

This year the show was able to place a bunch of us friends together, and we sure had a lot of fun!!! This was the first summer Expo I did without Lisa, and even though she came to help on Friday, I was pretty much glued to my space all weekend! I was able to peel away a couple of times for a little shopping and to take a few pictures...

Right next to me was my sweet friend Joy! Her laughter and good disposition keeps us all happy!!

Next to Joy was our friend Diane, she always has the most exquisite and romantic things, which always make me drool....

Next to Diane were Shannon and Maryann (missing for health reasons), a daughter-mother team with a wonderful talent to find beautiful items!!

Across from us were Julie (in the photo) and Christa, from Kindred Roses, their wonderful wares were flying off their booth all weekend!!

The gang!! From left to right, Kara (Diane's daughter), Diane, Joy, Shannon and me (don't you love my umbrella...?!!)!

My finds from this weekend include...

... an old velvet photo album...

... a pair of victorian boots (I have been wanting some for a long time!!)...

... Vintage crochet trim and old handwritten letters...

... a great (victorian?) chair...

... vintage barkcloth pieces....

... a floral pillow....

... a darling vintage baby coat, maybe used for christening...?

... vintage linens...

... and finally a chair I found at the end of the show for $1!! It's falling apart but I love that base and am sure I can find a use for it!!

There were a couple of other things I bought but they are buried under some furniture, so I will have to show them later!! Right now there is no time to rest, as I get ready for the Barn House Flea Market this Saturday... I will be back soon with some sneak peeks!!

Summer Portland Antiques Expo

Not much time to blog, today, as I am headed to the last day at Expo... But I wanted to leave you with some pictures of my space! Despite the heat we are having too much fun, and I feel so lucky to be neighbors with very sweet friends!! As always, I love seeing old customers come back and getting to meet new wonderful people!! The only sad thing about this weekend is that I cannot be in Seattle with my husband and children (who are there for a soccer tournament), but I have to say that I have felt a guilty pleasure coming home to a quiet house!!! I will be back with more Expo pictures and a show and tell of some of my found treasures!!

Portland Expo and a Lisbon repost

I hope I will see you at Portland Expo this weekend!! I will be outside in booths 147 and 148 and have been gathering some great treasures...!!! Friday July 10 is early buying and the show is Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12. Please stop by to say hello!!

In the meantime, I leave you with some eye candy... I posted pictures of my mom's home a year ago, when I was in Lisbon on vacation. I thought I would publish that post again (first published June 16, 2008)!!! I will be back with pictures from Expo!


A post from Lisbon

We have made it safely to Lisbon, and are staying at my mom´s warm and beautiful home! It has been a whirlwind of visiting with family, shopping, and eating, of course!! I wanted to share some gorgeous pictures of my mom´s home, she has a great decorating sense and loves romantic things like me. The first picture shows my favorite room in the house, the sun room.













































































My mom´s room is so romantic, mostly whites, a beautiful venetian mirror and lots of cherubs and candelabras, combined with pretty silver accents. A huge collection of Limoges boxes (not shown) covers shallow built-in shelves on the walls. Notice that my mom loves symetry... She buys most everything in pairs!

This is the prettiest linen closet I have ever seen!



















We have been priviledged to have some great delicacies to eat, my children surround a plate full of snails, and the blue bowl contains one of my favorite things to eat in the world (together with roasted chestnuts), TREMOCOS - I believe they are called lupini beans in the US. Yumm!!

Finally, I leave you with a picture of some flea market finds. The day after we arrived, my mom and I went to a small local street antiques fair and I found some french books, a darling porcelain lamp, some old skeleton keys, a little hand painted limoges box and an old children´s book about portuguese history. Wednesday we will leave for London, and stay for four days. We lived there when my husband was a Marine Detachment Commander with the American Embassy in 1997 and 1998, so the older girls do not remember much... It will be fun to revisit! I will try to post some pictures next week. I am hoping to combine our touristy visits with a trip to Portobello Road and maybe a Cath Kidston store. I am also wanting to get some pretty floral fabrics from Liberty of London- See you then!!

More vintage finds and makeovers

My junking buddy Lisa and I took off early this morning to visit our favorite monthly flea market... Due to the holiday weekend, many of the vendors were missing, but we still came home with great treasures, most of them purchased for incredibly low prices...!! My favorite find has to be this wonderful vintage mirror, I love the floral basket detail on the top!













































Here are some of my other finds....

Another flea market find was this table... I came home and went right to work, giving it a coat of my favorite robin's egg blue.

This bench also came home with me today and has already been transformed with a coat of cream paint and a new cover using an old piece of green wool blanket. Love it!!

This chair was a gift from a friend, the red vinyl seat cover was quickly recovered with a piece of vintage fabric... Much better now!

Finally, I used an old quilt block I found recently and turned it into a feather stuffed pillow... I was going to sell it but I think I may just keep it.... I love the detail of the worn fabric and hand stitches! It now graces my porch swing.

I close my eyes...

... And I am there...





Madredeus is my absolute favorite Portuguese musical group. Their vocalist Teresa Salgueiro has the voice of an angel and captures the Portuguese soul beautifully... "Come What May" is a timeless love song that truly transcends the language barrier. I hope you will enjoy a little piece of my heritage!!!

Latest finds and makeovers

With Portland Expo just around the corner (and despite this heat wave we are going through!), I have been trying to gather more finds and work on some things I have had laying around for a while.... I have noticed that I am becoming increasingly less inclined to paint furniture, but there are some items that are just too ugly to stay as they are, so a coat of paint seems to help.

That's the case of this adorable weeled cart I found at a rummage sale. The wood was just too stained to leave as is, so I gave it a coat of creamy paint, distressed and aged it with some tinted glaze. I really like how it turned out!






































I also gave this cherub lamp base the shabby treatment, all it needs is the electric hardware and a cute shade!!

















This sweet little end table was perfect, the only thing was the inside, which looked like it hadn't been finished. So, I decided to just paint the inside using a robin's egg blue.

I found this cute bench at a garage sale this weekend for a song, the only ugly thing was the fabric on the cushion. Fortunately, I have a huge stash of great fabrics, so making a new cover took about 20 minutes!!! Love it!! I also aged the white a little bit with some stain.

Some other recent finds include this great black bench...

.... this sweet doll crib turned vintage wallpaper holder...

... a lovely vintage dresser with mirror...

... a great hutch...

... a couple of hat stands and a silver vase...

... vintage kitchen tools...

... a pair of bistro wooden chairs...

... and the sweetest barkcloth purse to add to my ever-growing collection!!!

There were a few other finds that still need a little bit of magic... I will show them soon!!