Upcycled Luggage!

I've been collecting some great old vintage luggage and purses because I wanted to try my hand at painting some silhouettes on them! I think they turned out great, what do you all think?


Olive green weekender tote with deer silhouette.



Vintage grey luggage with deer silhouette in white!

Vintage orange train case with rabbit silhouette.

Vintage white handbag with skeleton key silhouette and matching charm!

Give-away Winner!

Helen is the winner of our latest give-away! Congratulations Helen and thank-you for the sweet comment! This cute little raggedy gal will be making her way to Helen's home soon!

Tania

Funky Junk

Last Saturday Tania and I went to Puyallup to The Funky Junk Sisters antique show and flea market in Puyallup, Wa. I was a little reluctant to make the long drive (3 1/2 hours) at first, but I'm glad we went---it was a fun trip and a good show. Not as big as the Farm Girls show in Spokane, but much easier to navigate without the huge crowds.

And we made the trip this time without any flat tire adventures, thank heaven!

As we approached the building where the show was held, we noticed vehicles parked alongside the road for at least half a mile! So we're thinking "crap, we're in for a hike"! But, being the eternal optomists that we are, we just drove right on into the parking lot and found a spot practically right in front of the door! Well, we weren't sure it was really a spot, but we parked ourselves there anyway, hoping for the best. The car was still there when we finished, so all's well that ends well! LOL!

We saw this piano bar at the Farm Girls show, but it deserves a second look! There's Tania just taking in all the things there were to look at.

Lots of fun French inspired things in this booth.

Tania found lots of goodies in this booth!This is cool! The "hooks" on this post are actually car rear view mirrors! Love this vignette.And this pink refrigerator!What a feast they served for lunch! Barbecued beef sandwiches, corn on the cob, potato salad, baked beans & a cold drink. It was delicious and only $7.00 a plate!We went thru every booth, had lunch and made a quick trip thru again before we left. Kudos to the Funky Junk Sisters for putting on a great show. www.funkyjunksisters.com

Nancy

VOTE FOR US!!

Our vintage birthday card was nominated to be in the Etsy voter this time around to "Make a Wish for Your Favorite Birthday Card!

If you'd like to vote for us... or any other of the beautiful options, follow this link: http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=55 You'll need to log in to vote. If you don't have an Etsy account or have never shopped on Etsy, you're really missing out! It's free to sign up!!

Also, don't forget to enter our newest give-away! http://thevintagedresser.blogspot.com/2009/06/give-away-time.html

Tania

Yard Sales 101 - Part 4

Our 4th and final post for our Yard Sales 101 series is all about advertizing! If you missed the first 3 in our series, you can read them here:

Part 1 - http://thevintagedresser.blogspot.com/2009/05/its-yard-sale-season.html
Part 2 - http://thevintagedresser.blogspot.com/2009/06/yard-sales-101.html
Part 3 - http://thevintagedresser.blogspot.com/2009/06/yard-sales-101-part-3.html

Advertizing. Stick an ad in the newspaper. Put up signs. But while making a sign like this:

Garage Sale
606 Bone Head Avenue
Friday & Saturday
8:00 am to 4:00 pm

may seem like a good idea… it has all the relevant information after all… it’s not good enough! If we don't know the area, how the hell are we going know where 606 Bone Head Avenue is? Is it to the left? The right? Straight ahead? If your house isn’t on a main road, please help us find you with signs that are large enough to see! Getting rear ended or honked at and flipped the “bird” while we slow down to try to see what the sign says is not our idea of a fun day! Notice the word “signs”… that’s plural, more often than not, we'll see a yard sale sign with an arrow pointing up a street, so we'll turn up that street and then never again see another sign (or any garage sales)… WTF? More than one sign might be helpful! And making a sign with an ink pen may look fine to you while you’re writing it, but stand back a few feet and check it out… or better yet, put up your sign, get in your car, and now drive past your sign at 35 mph… you’ll see what we mean! You need to use a dark marker and make the lettering thick and bold to be seen from a moving vehicle! This… now THIS is a good sign!

Promote expensive items. Big-ticket items are harder to sell, you might have to do a little work other than posting a sign that says “Couch for sale, ask to see”. I don’t want to ask to see it! Can’t you put up a couple of pictures on your sign so I can at least see if it is something I might be remotely interested in?

Finally, after the yard sale is over, TAKE YOUR SIGNS DOWN!!!! We cannot stress this point enough! Carelessly leaving old signs up is extremely inconsiderate to both future shoppers who will inevitably drive down your street looking for the sale, and the neighbors who must look at your weather-beaten signs for months to come… not to mention us when we follow your signs next weekend all the way to your house not realizing until we get there that the signs were OLD!!

Running a yard sale is not rocket science. But if you put a little effort into creating an environment where it is pleasant to browse and easy to find junk (oops!)--treasures, you’ll make a lot more money.

Hope you enjoyed our Yard Sales 101 series!

Tania and Nancy

Give-away Time!!

So, I decided it's time to do another give-away! Isn't this little raggedy gal cute?! I made her from muslin fabric and painted her legs and face, stitched on a little felt heart, added some crazy red hair (that's what I look like in the morning before coffee, LOL!) and gave her a tea stained "Prim" tag. She's a petite little gal, about 6" tall.

To enter to win her, just leave a comment on this post! We'll choose a winner next Saturday, June 20th.

Tania

Yart Sale on Etsy!!

We are busy preparing The Vintage Dresser Etsy shop for Etsy's 2nd annual yart sale, June 10th through June 14th! What's a yart sale?

Yard + Art = Yart!!

We'll be discounting select items in our shop by 20% so if there is something you've had your eye on, now is the time to grab it up! We have a Yart Sale section in our shop to make it easy to find the items that are on sale. You can make your purchase and go ahead and pay and we'll process a refund for the difference or you can make your purchase and wait for a revised invoice from us!

You can also search for the keywords "Yart Sale" and see hundereds of other Etsy shops that are participating in the sale, including my C'est Magnifique shop and mom's Tole-tally Painted shop.

Tania

Yard Sales 101 - Part 3

Yard Sales 101 by Tania Angelo & Nancy Carroll

Part 3 in a series of 4

It's Monday, so it's time for part 3 of Yard Sales 101 which is a sort of yard sale etiquette lesson for those who are yard sale impaired! This is part 3 in a series of 4, if you missed the first two you can see them here:

Part 1 - http://thevintagedresser.blogspot.com/2009/05/its-yard-sale-season.html

Part 2 - http://thevintagedresser.blogspot.com/2009/06/yard-sales-101.html

Part 3 is about Customer Service.

Be friendly and pay attention! I don’t want to have to interrupt your very important conversation JUST to pay you. Like any marketplace, the customer comes first. If I am handing you money please take it and please give me my change… yes, it’s only a nickel in change… but that could buy something at the next yard sale! Also, please make sure you HAVE change! You’d be surprised to know the number of times we’ve gone to a yard sale and they forgot to get change… DUH!! Oh, and do not use a cash box. Keep your money on you at all times. We’re not going to rip you off, but there are some people who might. We’ve been to too many yard sales where someone made off with the cash box when the person’s back was turned.

On the above note, being friendly and paying attention does NOT mean staring at us or following us around explaining where you got every little thing we glance at! We’re probably not interested in the history of the item… telling us that your great-grandfather whittled it while sitting in his wheel chair on the front porch doesn’t make us want to pay more for it, it just makes us wonder why on earth you’d want to part with it… but we still want it for a quarter! If you don’t have anyone helping you with the yard sale that you can chat with WHILE you are still paying attention then play some non-offensive music or look at a magazine or something, so it isn’t an uncomfortable experience for us.

Make it easy for shoppers to test electronic items. If you’re selling electrical items, make sure you have an extension cord handy so that people can test them. No smart person is going to just take your word that your television “works great”. They’re going to want to see it in operation. Also, have some batteries on hand so that a prospective buyer can test that old Nintendo Game boy for himself.

Tania & Nancy

Day Trip

Yesterday (Saturday) was a day Tania and I had been anticipating for several weeks. The day we drove up to Spokane to the Farm Girls antique show. It was held at the fairgrounds, in a huge building and was cram packed with treasures!

But, before we get into that, we have to backtrack a little. Spokane is about a 2 hour drive from Tania’s house. And another 45 minute drive from my house to hers. In order for me to meet her early enough to get to our destination close to when they opened, I had to get up before dawn! So, I arrived at her house at 7:30 and soon we were on our way.

We took Tania’s truck and were motoring along when suddenly the road seemed to get really bumpy. No sooner had Tania mentioned that, than bam---a blowout! We managed to get off the road and sure enough---the right front tire was shredded! Crap! Now what?! Being the tire changing gurus that we are, the first dilemma was figuring out where in the heck the spare tire even WAS. OK, it’s tucked up under the bed of the truck----how the heck do you get it out???? Time for a quick call to Tania’s hubby to report our tale of woe and see what sage advise he has for us. “There are instructions”, he says. Huh! Instructions, you say?! Novel idea. “But you’ll never be able to change that tire”, he says, “you aren’t strong enough”. Now, does that sound like a challenge to you, or what?!

He’s (grudgingly) going to come to where we are and change the tire (Hah! we'll see about that!)and then switch vehicles with us.

So we get the manual out and start reading. We found out how to get the danged tire out from under the truck and got that accomplished, dug the jack out from under the back seat, unbolted the lug wrench/jack handle from under the front seat and proceeded to remove lug nuts. Now, when they put lug nuts on wheels, they use some kind of machine that permenantly attaches them! Evidently they presume you are NEVER going to remove that wheel from the vehicle! We pushed and pulled and leaned and stood on the lug wrench trying to get those danged nuts loose. FINALLY, one by one we were able to loosen all but two. So we tried a different lug wrench we found hidden in a bag under the seat. Still no luck---back to the other wrench. Eventually they also gave up and came loose---free at last!

We got the jack under the truck where the manual said to put it, jacked it up as far as it would go and pried the wheel off the truck. Success! Now it’s time to put the spare on. The jack’s all the way up as far as it goes and the tire doesn’t want to go on. The ruined tire came off pretty easy because there was basically no tire, just the wheel! But to get the the spare on, the truck needs to be a little higher in the air. Well, that ain’t gonna happen, so we get a bar out that’s part of the jack handle, I guess, and dig a little trench under the tire so we can slide it onto the bolts. Success again! Now all that’s left is to put the nuts on and we’re done!

All this time, cars and trucks are whizzing by, not a single one stopping or even slowing down. Some didn’t even get over into the other lane! What a bunch of jerks!! As we were putting the tools and jack away, a car stops! "Thanks for stopping", we say, "but we just got done". Right after he pulls away, Tania’s hubby pulls up behind us! A good hour after this fiasco started!

He’s not happy with the condition of his wheel, not to mention the tire. So he gripes and groans for a while, but finally he grudgingly admits there wasn’t anything else we could have done to prevent the damage, tossed the casualties in the back of the truck, we trade keys and off we go. Him to limp home in a truck with one tire significantly smaller than the other three, and us to continue toward our holy grail, the antique show of all antique shows!

Photos follow, to prove that! There were so many people it was hard to get clear shots of booths and products, but I got a few decent ones. We had thought we might get done in time to hit a couple of thrift shops, but we didn’t finish till 4:30 or so, so we just headed for home, arriving about 7:00 P.M., tired but happy with our few purchases.

Lots of really cool painted chairs!

Piano (and lots of other things) decoupaged with sheet music.We saw lots of vendors, and shoppers as well, dressed in some really interesting garb!Neat jars and bottles all gussied up.

See those shoe heels used for hooks?!Adorable fairies and assemblages.This was too funny! She's wearing a tiara and earrings and has red lips! We overheard a couple of ladies conspiring to dress up one of their husband's trophies!

Well, it was a great trip, even with the unanticipated interruption. We're already planning our next outing!

Nancy

News Alert!

I actually spent some time in my studio last night and this morning and created something! It's been forever since that happened. I've spent a lot of time in there, since moving in to the new house, but not creating. I've been trying to get it organized so I can find things again. Moving forced me to thin out a bunch of stuff, some of which I forgot I even had!

Anyway---here are a few pictures of my creation. I've had this frame for a long time. While on our trip to Snohomish a few weeks ago, we found the little flash cards & I picked out enough to spell "nest". The first two pictures are some of the supplies I gathered up to begin with.

So, a little arranging, a little stamping, a little re-arranging, a little glueing and the following pictures are the finished project. I guess I'm pleased with the way it turned out. I have a tendency to putter too much, so---it's done!

You may notice that I decided on a different birdie than the one I started with. The other one was a little too "shabby" for my liking! And I like the color of this one better.

Nancy

Introducing "Tole-tally Painted"

Hi,
I'd like to mention that I have recently opened an Etsy shop where I'll be putting my hand painted items. It's called Tole-tally Painted. I've added a few items and there are many more I'll be adding as time goes by. I need to take pictures of things. And I need to find a picture, or take one, so Tania can make me a banner.

So many things to do and so little time! Now, that may seem strange, since I'm retired and home every day. But I think I got more done when I worked! How strange is that?!

Anyway-----I'll be taking pictures and posting things, so I hope you'll take a look and see what's there now and check back often to see what's new.
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7441296
Thanks,
Nancy

Fishing at Yard Sales!

We had a pretty successful yard sale outing on Saturday. Below are some photos of some of the things I came home with.

I had a good day fishing! The set of four is still attached to the cardboard they came on! Unfortunately a couple are broken, but the unblemished ones are still pretty cute on their own. The pink one is huge! And all sparkly.

I'm thinking maybe I'll put a pincushion in the little chicken and put her in The Vintage Dresser shop. I have no idea what the slot in the front of her is for. Anyone have any guesses?? Whatever it's for, I thought she was pretty cute!
Isn't the little puppy doorstop adorable? It's had a hard life, tho. Maybe someone will adopt him and give him a good home!

This little kissing couple is pretty cute, too. I couldn't resist them! They're salt and pepper shakers.

The little brown case is a cigarette case. It has a slot on the bottom for dispensing them. And has an empty pack of Lucky Strike inside! I don't know if you can even buy them this size any more. I thought it was kinda cool---not that anyone should be using it, tho!

Well, that's the hilights. I'll be making them available as soon as I get a few minutes to get to it.

Nancy

Getting High in Snohomish

I promised a while back to post about "getting high in Snohomish". I almost forgot! So, here goes----

Snohomish is a little historic town in western Washington. The downtown area of vintage old buildings is just one antique shop after another---HEAVEN! Tania and I were there a couple of weekends ago and posted about the outdoor antique show they had and also posted a few pictures.

My hubby and I always stay 2 nights and go out for dinner at the restaurant at the airport--Harvey Field. You can eat outside on the patio and watch planes & helicopters take off and land, but the best part is watching people parachuting and sometimes, hot air balloons landing or taking off. We were lucky to be there on Sat. night while they were doing tandem skydiving, and I got a few pictures.

So, as you see, there were people getting high in Snohomish. However, it wasn't us! I don't think I could muster up the courage to leap out of a plane--even with an instructor hanging onto me! I'll keep both feet on the ground, thank you very much!

Nancy

Yard Sales 101 - Part 2!

Yard Sales 101 by Tania Angelo and Nancy Carroll

(Part 2 of a 4 part series)

It's time for part 2 of our yard sale etiquette series! If you missed the first post, you can see it here: http://thevintagedresser.blogspot.com/2009/05/its-yard-sale-season.html.

Today we are talking about planning and pricing... what?! you say... you're actually supposed to price everything?!

Planning. Plan your sale layout with customers in mind. Prepare your staging area, have your yard sale where people can see it. We don’t like going inside a house unless it is an Estate sale, then we are expecting that it will be indoors. We also don’t want to walk two city blocks to your backyard only to find a tiny pile of junk that should have gone in the garbage can (see part 1)! Having your sale in an easy to see spot is best and you’ll lure people in who are just passing by too!

If you want to get rid of stuff, put it up on a table so we don’t have to bend over boxes full of stuff. Or at least take it out of the boxes and spread it out so it can be seen. And wipe it off for Heaven’s sake, no one likes looking through filthy, dusty junk! Clean junk… well now, that’s another story!

Pricing. Decide in advance what you want for things! Price things carefully… or at least… PUT A PRICE ON IT! If we have to ask the price of every single thing that we might be interested in, we probably won’t bother.

Don’t try to haggle with us on everything we ask about (for more on haggling see http://thevintagedresser.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-one-for-me.html). If we are interested we’ll ask if you will take less for it & then we can haggle. Or we’ll just pay the price you are asking. This is the most irritating scenario that we encounter on almost EVERY SINGLE garage sale outing:

Me: “Excuse me, how much do you want for this?”
You: “oh gee… hmmm… I don’t know… how about… well… what about… hmmm…$10.00?”
Me: “Ok, thank you” putting item back down on the table thinking $10 bucks, Judas Priest, these people are crazy!
You: watching me put the item down, “How about $8.00”?
Me: trying to be polite, “No thank you”.
You: “$5.00”?
Me: wishing you would leave me the hell alone now I just shake my head.
You: “well what would you give me for it”?
Me: wanting to say, “NOTHING NOW”, because you’ve irritated the holy crap out of me! “.25 cents”… see? Now you’re insulted!

And it goes on from there until we finally leave without buying anything. This is a yard sale after all; there isn’t much that should be $10.00 unless it’s a piece of furniture or something like that. If it’s worth that much to you put it on eBay or sell it on Craig's List!