When I get home from a two week vacation, I don’t waste any time.  (Are you surprised?)  I did all of my laundry at my parent’s house, so I came home with a suitcase full of clean clothes.  I unpacked last night, so I wouldn’t have to face it today.  I had some youth kids prepping and painting furniture for me, so it would be ready for my finishing touch.  I had a babysitter lined up for today, so I could restock the cupboards and work on some furniture to restock my space at Lucketts.  I have an HGTV.com article due on Friday, a Cottages and Bungalows article due …soon… and nine more freelance tutorial projects due in a few weeks.  Tomorrow I’m shopping for supplies, finishing up some pieces and pricing.  Thursday it’s shopping for anitques and settling into my new room on the third floor of Lucketts.  Whew.  I’m going to

I can’t travel without doing a little bit of antique shopping, right?  Not only is it my hobby, but it’s my business.  It’s my cross to bear and I must do it.  So, I did my duty on Friday afternoon and checked out a couple of suggestions from my readers.  First up was The French Nest in Orlando.  I was really dumb and didn’t bring my nice camera, so I snapped some pictures with my phone, but they were all blurry and poorly lit and definitely didn’t do this amazing shop any justice.  I stepped through the doors and could hardly even shop, because I was flooded with inspiration and creative sustenance.  The vignettes are breath-taking.  Contrasts, textures, natural elements, sparkles, chippy paint, warm woods, sleek metals…decor heaven.  Not only did the shop look beautiful, but the prices were reasonable and there was a 25% off sale running on everything in the store.  Marsha,

I’ve had a lot of fun new things come my way in the past couple of weeks.  I found some great furniture, three large doors that will make amazing signs, some goodies from new sponsors and a very special package all the way from Germany containing these… One of my gracious readers, who lives in Germany, has become a “grain sack picker” for me.  This was the first package I received from her and it was so exciting.  I can’t wait to put these bad boys to work.  (Yes, it’s OK to refer to antique European grain sacks as bad boys.  I checked it out.) My magnetism for cool things continued into my yard sale venture this morning.  My husband prodded me out of bed and rounded up the family for a morning of driving around to “look for treasures.”  I was really considering not going.  I was sleepy and still a

The last few days have been great in the treasure-hunting department.  There was a huge community yard sale…more like a flea market…in a town near me called East Berlin.  We headed over there early Saturday morning with the kids, in the hope of finding some antiques and vintage pieces I could take with me to the Lucketts Antique Market.  It was not a disappointing morning.  I found…  …an antique hose and nozzles… ..a couple of old shoe forms… …a set of math flashcards from 1957… …a sliver lighter… …and antique laundry bag (Look at the four digit phone number!)… …a couple of feed sacks… …a vintage baby dress and slip… …an ironstone chamber pot (I’m not usually into these…I mean, they were once a toilet…but this was such a bargain, I couldn’t pass it up.) … …an ironstone bowl… …a flow blue platter… ….a vintage blue suitcase with a pink