I went shopping on Friday to get some fresh inspiration and to find some things for the online shop.  I stopped at a couple of local stores and then one of my favorite local antique malls.  When I went to the checkout, one of the vendors said, “I saw that pile on the counter and I knew you were here!” I looked over to the pile and, yep, it was pretty much “me” in a collection of items found spread over dozens of booths.  Mostly blue and white finds and lots of ironstone. I’ve been shopping antique stores for a long time and that’s always been one of my favorite things about it.  Someone can shop from many different vendors, curating things that catch their eye, and by the end of the trip, you can see their style in the collection of items. There’s something cool about that. Anyway, my favorite

Last week, I set out to find a desk for Calvin’s room in a local antique store and, while I was out, I picked up a few things to list in the online shop. I found a bunch of ironstone – some very pretty tureens were the highlight, but I also got sugar jars, small pitchers, a set of dinner plates, platters, bowls, etc. This one is particularly special, but I have enough “special” tureens and I already swapped out two in this bunch to keep for myself, so I’m letting it go. ..a set of four vintage coffee cups… How cute are they?  I’m not a coffee drinker, but I hope this style of coffee cup makes a comeback. I also listed this great breadboard… …and a couple of red and white quilts… … a bunch of heavy linen tea towels from Europe… …as well as another group of hemp

Late last week, I hit a wall.  I love my work, but sometimes I need to step away from my house and the studio and recharge creatively.  A day out shopping usually does that for me.  So, my mom and I hit a craft store for more watercolor and sketching supplies and we also hit one of my favorite antique stores. I was shopping mostly for inspiration, but I also kept an eye out for things I could sell in the online shop and I found quite a few goodies. Here’s a video showing my “haul”… And here are some detail shots of a few of the items… That huge ironstone platter has the most amazing pattern on it… I did decide to keep the linen napkins.  Just for a little while, anyway!  They are just too sweet to not use in a few photo shoots before I sell them.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to take a day to mill around an antique store.  There has just been too much to do at the studio and, of course, things have been off-kilter with the summer schedule, my recent trip to Atlanta, etc.  School starts in a couple of weeks and then it’ll be back into the routine. Hopefully. While I haven’t been able to make it out shopping, a few things have made their way to me and we’ll be listing them in the online shop this Thursday (the sale will go live at 8:00 pm EST, which is becoming our usual sale night.) I love these blue and white napkins with fringe detail…  As with all things blue and white, I’m tempted to keep them, but a drawer full of linen napkins in my dining room tells me I need to let these go on to another