An Antique Show For Fun and Profit!

This past weekend was another one of those weekends, where I start out wondering about my own sanity (as I do the set up) and end up in a good mood. (as I count the money!)  Here we are at the end of set up last Wednesday, ready for the show to start Thursday, running through Saturday.

In this picture we see a doll, an unusually small electric fan, a shoe form, and a brown suitcase, as well as s snippet of a silver loving cup, all of which sold at the sale. 

This picture shows our 'toy' area.  I do the show with an easy going man named Bruce with whom I work at the antique mall, and who also comes and participates at our Flea Market at my historic house in Payson.  He is great to work with and I have learned a lot about what to bring to antique shows from him.

This is another area of our booth.  Of course I love to decorate, so there is actually some appeal for me in setting up an antique show booth.  Bruce pretty much lets me arrange the displays, even his stuff, and is even gracious enough to tell me that he appreciates me doing it.

The other thing I love about antique shows (aside from the money) is the lovely people I get to see.  Its like having a party without having to clean the house, send invitations OR make food!!

These are dear friends Cathy and Fred.  Cathy is also a vendor at my flea markets, and specializes in 50's linens and geegaws.  Fred found an amazing hand calligraphied bird with flairs in the fly leaf of this old text book.

Jennifer and her daughter Bronwyn came too.  I got to show Bronwyn my very, very favorite booth at the antique show.  The booth belongs to a doll collector and she has absolutely amazing dolls!  Bronwyn agreed and got to discuss her sock monkey collection with Karen the proprietor.  If you love good quality dolls, don't miss the next antique show up in Ogden, where Karen will next be showing her wares.  BTW Jennifer is also a vendor at my Flea Markets.  She makes amazing junque jewelry, fabulous crowns and usually has fun and interesting vintage items to sell as well.

Now when it comes to old friends these two are just the best.  Michelle and Wendy used to have a booth at Treasures Antiques, which is where we met.  Wendy has done my Flea Markets too, but that was in years past before she repented of being an antique dealer.  See, these girls are living proof that there is LIFE after dealing antiques.

Terry is a good friend who lives in my neighborhood, she is also a collector, though I haven't been able to persuade her to sell at my Flea Market, its not for lack of trying.  Terry and her husband Steve once shared an antique buying trip back to  Pennsylvania with us.  What a blast that was!!  Good times. (and oops, camera shy Bruce is in the background of this picture!)

And here are Kim and Marcy.  Both of them bought items in that first closeup pic.  Thanks girls!!

And last, but certainly not least, here are a pair of Beccas who came to see us.  Becca #1 is Bruce's daughter and Becca #2 is my daughter.  What good supportive daughters we have!!  (Bruce's Becca brought her boyfriend, and my Becca brought her son Titan :-))

So all in all it was a great show.  Lots of hard work to be sure, but very satisfying in the long run, and yes, we are signed up for Walter's Fall show!

All Austen All the Time - Part Two!!

Yes, Siree Jane!!  This past week, I got to live the last of the 8 days of Austen, and add another couple of events!!   On Tuesday I spent the day getting my tax information ready for the accountant!  Hours and hours of number crunching can only be made palatable by a spoonful of sugar so to speak, and in this case that meant three Jane Austen adaptations!!  First of all I watched the BBC Production of Persuasion with Amanda Roote in preparation for seeing a stage adaptation that night, next it was the A&E version of Emma

with Kate Beckinsale, rounding out the trio with the classic 1940 Pride and Prejudice with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier.  Good Stuff!!  And I hardly noticed all those numbers tumbling by!!

 

That night it was off to the BYU adaptation of Persuasion by Melissa Larson.  My friend Jennifer works with the Stage Management team at BYU as a facilitator, so it was natural for us each to take our favorite tween to the show for a double date!!  Here we see my Granddaughter Kim with Jenn's daughter Bronwyn as we caught one of the actors, Brock Kannan (Mr. Elliot)  back stage during intermission.

Here are the lovely girls again, including the lovely Jenn in front of her office!! Triple adorable, if you ask me!!  Then it was back to see the rest of the play. 

I have to admit I was taken back a bit at the beginning of the play.  I confess to being an Austen purist.  In my opinion, an adaptor is welcome to take her works apart and put them back together again, however they like, as long as they don't add new material that takes a direction not intended by the author. (OK, I confess to liking the 1940 P and P, though it does take liberties, but that is just because I first saw it and loved it before reading the book!!  And it IS a classic in its own right, true?!?)

This is why I got my back up for a minute, but it took about five minutes to realize that though Larson had pulled Austen apart, and done some distillation, emphasising the humor, she really had not 'messed' with its integrity.  I love this version, though I found it laugh-out-loud funny and acerbically sarcastic, I believe it was true to Austen's intent.  The characters were charming, though it took a bit to get used to the 'flash backs' played by another set of lovers.  The fleshing out of their early love story, which predates the narrative in the book, of necessity, had to be built from a fragile web of references from the original story line but it was believable and cut from the same cloth, which I felt actually enriched the story.

I also want to mention the cool stage 'gadget' that added nicely to the flow of the play.  Imagine if you will a ring shaped band cut out of the stage.  The center of the stage moves independently, so that the ring itself revolves, bringing a new section into view, set up for each change of scene.  This invention made for quick scene changes and made the play, which requires fairly frequent changes of 'drawing rooms' for the most part, to flow smoothly.

And here I am with the adaptor herself, Melissa Leilani Larson! 

And if seeing this wonderful play once was a great experience, seeing it again, amidst Jane Austen admirers truley enriched the experience.  I snuck out of the antique show a couple of hours early on Thursday (thanks to having an agreeable business partner in Bruce)  to attend the same play, this time with the Jane Austen Society of North America, (JAsna) the Utah Chapter, which was formally organized just last summer!  It was fun to sit next to a 30 something woman who's two children are both named with an Austen influence, MacFayden (the surname of the actor who played Darcy in the most recent movie adaptation) and Elizabeth for every one's favorite Austen Heroine. 

This is a picture taken of me after the play with Aspen Anderson, the President of the Utah Chapter (center) and her treasurer, when we met for the first time, this being my inaugural JASNA event.  If you are interested in learning more about JASNA, you can contact Aspen at austenfans411@gmail.com

To round out my ten days of Austen, my daughter Becca and daughter-in-law Nell decided to watch the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice at our 'girl's night in', last night at Nell's house!!  Becca is a huge P and P fan, and I PROMISE, it was her suggestion!!  I, of course, did not argue the point!!  :-)  What a lovely Austen focused season for me!!



The Magical and Amazing Marci Reinvents (again)

You are about to enter a magical world, the world of my most excellent friend Marci.  A little background on this talented friend before we enter, however, is in order.

Marci pairs her talent for creation with almost boundless energy, which has always amazed me.  I remember once running into her at an antique store on a Friday afternoon.  She said that she had decided to redo her living room using a dramatic black and white palate, with French influences.   She asked me if I had any ideas for things that are black and white and antique.  I suggested one of my personal favorites, silhouettes.  At this point she did not own a silhouette, but agreed they would be a perfect element.  I knew that she was in her collecting phase for her remodel, and that even as fast as she is, that it would probably be a few weeks, at least, before she had it put together, but I jokingly said, choosing a day at random, "Well be sure to call me on Wednesday so I can come and see the finished project!"  Now I have known Marci through a number of remodels, and I knew that she was very fast, but imagine my SHOCK, when she did call Wednesday to say she was done with the remodel and invited me to come see the finished room, complete with a grouping of antique silhouettes.

Of course the room was divine!  I was so enamored of it, that I used to drop  by just to look at it!!  (I later asked for her help in a little parlor remodeling myself, and love the room she helped me put together!!)

OK, with all that said, lets go and see her 'new' bedroom.

I am starting with this sweet bust, as she is one of the few elements that made the cut to the new room, besides which I adore her hat!!  Marci's room transformation was basically switching from a French Blue and cream room, to a black and cream room.

This is a hall just outside her bedroom and it actually welcomes you to her new theme.  The wall behind the frame is decoupaged with pages from books.  She got the idea from another friend's blog, and used paint for her medium to adhere the pages.  She was not really satisfied with the final product, so when she did the same to one bedroom wall, she used watered down wallpaper paste, still adding some color with paint, but with a much more professional look. 

Here we see part of her new wall in her bedroom.  She used several publications, including a wonderful antique calligraphy book. 

An antique fireplace mantel shows off one of three mannequins in her room.

This is a closeup of the mannequin I gifted her after she helped me redo my parlor.  She has the magic touch, it turned out wonderfully.

This corner shows the other end of the decoupaged wall, along with a tapestry, a comfy chair, ah such a restful vignette!

This is the dramatic canopy treatment shown with the head of the bed and her 'so Frenchy' lamp shades.

And finally the woman herself.  She was having a sleepover with her darling friend Kim the day I came to see the house.  This picture was taken the next day at the antique show, thus showing again my mannequin, but I thought you would like to see her.  It was great fun to meet Kim who is an old college roommate!  Thanks, Kim, for sharing Marci!!  It was lovely to meet Kim, and as always a joy to spend time with Marci!!  Kudos!