One thing I wanted to do when I went back to PA to visit my parents was visit some of my favorite antique stores.  I have found some nice things in Minnesota, but I really missed the antiquing back east.  No, that’s too general.   I really missed my stores – the ones that were on my regular route.  I knew many of the vendors and which booths were routinely my favorite and I was never skunked. So, my mom, Jenn, and I hit a few of my favorite places and I found some awesome goodies.  Unfortunately, I didn’t find the biggies that were on my list, like a mirror for the dining room, but I found one of my favorite things in spades – ironstone. As you may know, I love ironstone and have been collecting it as well as buying and selling it for many years.  Thousands and thousands

I’ve been asked a lot lately about my pale blue & white antique dishes, specifically about the handleless cups and the pattern, so I thought I would share the details with everyone. I found my first handless cup several years ago.  I’m not generally a lover or collector of teacups, but I loved the more functional shape of these.  They are taller than traditional tea cups, making them suitable to be used for small potted plants, candleholders, pencil cups, all sorts of things.  And, since they don’t have a handle, they stack easily. By the way, they are cups, not egg cups or pudding molds.  They are from the 1800’s and that was the fashion, I suppose.  I don’t often think about the fact that these are well over 100 years old.  Oh, the stories they would tell… Anyway, the color of this transferware also caught my eye.  It is

My mom and I hit one of my favorite local antique shops last week in hopes of finding a few furniture pieces for the rooms we were working on while she was visiting.  As I shared earlier this week, we found a new art cabinet for my studio, which was on the list… …but we also found a few smalls.  (“Smalls” are just little things, accessories, that you find at an antique/retail store.) One thing I miss about having my studio, selling online, getting ready for an antique fair, etc. is shopping for smalls.  I really don’t need much for my current house, since I already have years of collected smalls.  I could probably stand to sell some, even!  So, I try to stay focused and not buy things just because I like them.  I try to think of how I’ll use them to make sure it’s not another thing

Remember the art cabinet I bought and fixed up last year?  I really loved that cabinet, but I decided to part with it when it came time for us to move.  I was going to consolidate all of the pieces in my home as well as in my studio and we didn’t know what house we would be moving into, so it made sense to let go of as many of the large pieces as we were willing to sell. Now that I’m settled in my new (much, much smaller) studio, I am learning how I use the space and where I need to make some changes.  One of the main things I needed to change was where my easel was located in relation to my palette.  My palette has been on my left, which is a little inconvenient, given that I’m a righty. I was also finding I needed