Nip It in the Bud

or maybe, Nip It in the Bathroom when your In-Laws are visiting... Seriously, I'm trying to figure out under what circumstances one might need a knit poodle nip-bottle cover.  This was recently found in the contents of an Estate complete with a nip of Seagram's.  I remember my grandmother had a knit toilet paper cozy, it wasn't a poodle but if I recall right a scary Barbie-type doll that had a giant knit skirt to disguise an extra roll of toilet paper on top of the toilet, maybe so her guests wouldn't be embarrassed to ask for an extra roll. As for the nip cozy, I dunno... I doubt Grandma had any guests hollering "CAN I GET A DRINK IN HERE?" Except maybe Grandpa... when his In-Laws were visiting.

It's Always Darkest Just Before Dawn

And if that's the case, shouldn't I be hearing roosters any minute now??  File under "When Good Furniture Goes Bad."  Actually, make that "When Bad Furniture Gets Worse."

Don't get all excited, but I'm trying to ease back into the Blog Thing.

Introducing the Oaks-Wagon Jetta!

Or more appropriately, "Why I Shouldn't Drive Kenny's Car". I tend to forget I am not in a Jeep and this particular model of Volkswagen is meant to transport VOLKS as in FOLKS, not OAKS as in Furniture.

Last weekend we switched vehicles so he could deliver a piece of furniture while I was at the shop and I totally forgot and bought more furniture than I could fit in the back room from some guy thinking "No Problem, I will just throw this 42" Round Oak Pedestal Dining Table in the Jeep and take it home for now". OH and this Giant Drawer too.

Good Thing the table came apart and there was plenty of dog hair on the back seat to prevent it from getting scratched.

Bad Thing I forgot to take the furniture out before he found it languishing in there 3 days later.  

I don't see the Big Deal it wasn't THAT hard to shift, the car has an automatic transmission so you just had to move the one leg a little before going into reverse... hmph.

No Volkswagens or Furniture were harmed in the making of this blog, but we did have one Slightly Disgruntled Husband.

Why Buy the Milk?

When you can get the Cow for Free! 

Wait a minute, Free Cow? 

Yes, Free Cow, because.... WHO WOULD BUY THIS COW????

I bought the remnants of an estate in February (YES that's how long I've been sitting on this Blog entry) and it was one of those deals where I had to take EVERYTHING whether I wanted it or not. The guy was actually nice enough to let me leave like, 9000 baskets I really didn't want but one thing he would not budge on was This Cow.  This very pregnant looking cow in a Holly-Hobby-meets-Laura-Ingalls dress.

 We were loading up 3 trucks for transport to the shop and he kept trying to stick The Cow in while I kept trying to take The Cow out. He'd say Look, you can use it for padding around this (insert Highly Breakable Item) and I'd say That's OK I'll take my chances. There was no stopping this guy so finally I was just like "Dude, not to sound disrespectful or anything but the Shitty 80's Country Store called, they want their Cow Back." He seemed to take that well and dropped the subject. Or so I thought... until I got in my Jeep and glanced into the rear mirror - he got me after all!!!!

What Goes Up... Never Comes Down

Check out this Wicked Relic I was excited to find in my hot little hands yesterday.

"Oh, WOW!" I started reminiscing back to 1990 when I got my driver's license and you could drive up to the gas guy and ask for 10 bucks worth of regular and drive away with practically a full tank.  I was thinking I would show it to my niece and nephew and relate this story and how there didn't used to be Self-Serve gas stations and did I mention I had to drive uphill both ways to get my gas? Then I decided to Google "when was gas 1.59 a gallon?" and you know when it was?!?  2000!  I guess I can't exactly label it 'Vintage'... but since I'm sure we'll never see this price again, it's definitely a 'Collectible'!

Wheeling & Dealing

That's what we'll be doing this Sunday May 20th at the Marshfield Fairgrounds... Please join us at the South Shore's Largest Flea Market!  Route 3A, Marshfield.

8AM-4PM Rain or Shine, Admission $4.00, Children Under 12 Free, Parking Free

Look for the Big Red Van, the Deals will be Rockin' so Please Come A-Knockin!!!

This is the first time EVER we are selling at a Flea Market, but we hope it to be the first of many!  IF  we survive the 4AM departure time... but that's a story for another Blog.  Stay tuned!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

CHRISTMAS?!?! I know, you're waiting for me to say "APRIL FOOL'S!!"  Sigh... looks like I might be the fool, buying these in April. Off to the Storage Shed I go!!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

It's.... a Good Reason to never take Kenny to an auction again!!!
Look what he bought on his Maiden Voyage to Auction:

 

YES, that's a PHONE BOOTH sitting outside my kitchen door.

NO, I don't know what he's going to do with it.  

Wait, I guess all Superheroes need a place to change their clothes.

File me under "Wife of Telecom Superhero".

Beating the Recession

Oh no, here she goes now on a Financial Rant... I know what you're thinking!  No, this post has nothing to do with what's happening on Wall Street right now.  Instead I'm talking Medicine Cabinets! Vintage Recessed Cabinets like this one at the shop I had my heart set on a while ago:

My Husband was even game to install it, or attempt to anyway.  But once he started cutting the hole in the wall he realized that our circa 1833 home wasn't built with regulation studs (more like cross-sections of random tree parts) and if he went ahead and installed it the back side was going to stick out into the pantry on the other side of the wall. Insert bummed-out smiley face. I was crushed. So I started perusing that Catalog Barn's website to see if they had anything suitable to my Industrial Chic design plan. Of course they did... for like, 249 dollars. I showed it to Kenny and he said all they are doing is selling a copy of what you already have; why don't we take the door off and just use it as a mirror?

Genius! I loved it; but we still needed some form of storage... so once I saw the guts of the medicine cabinet exposed, the wheels started turning and we hung that up too. 

I showed these pictures to Jack at the shop (partly because the medicine cabinet was his in the first place and I wanted to thank him for his donation to my bathroom). Our most talented craftsman with an impeccable eye for detail, Jack took one look at this thing and said "You know, you could build a frame around the cabinet to hide the unfinished looking part that's supposed to be recessed in the wall."  ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That's my FAVORITE PART!!!

 If anyone would like to replicate this look at home, we have several identical medicine cabinets available at the shop right now for $65 each. File under "You Too Can Beat The Recession". 

Tell us how you REALLY feel...

Or even better, have a pin made.  Someone actually did!  I guess they were really not a fan of Nixon, huh?  I mean, I can see sporting a pre-fabricated Nixon Sucks pin but to actually go to the trouble of having one MADE?!?  Seems a little Extreme.

The Winner's Circle...

Kenny & I recently happened upon a marathon of $100,000 Pyramid re-runs and we got so totally sucked in by the bad 80's Hair & Fashion that we ended up watching like 3 episodes. I confessed to him that my favorite part was always the Winner's Circle and I think I would be wicked good at giving the clues, at LEAST as good as their frequent celebrity flier Markie Post if not better. (what the hell ever happened to her, anyway?)

 

So today I got to thinking maybe on the off-chance that Dick Clark is really alive and well and not just a mannequin of himself at this point and they decide to revive this show and invite me on, that I should start practicing.  Picture me on this snowy Saturday in my own personal Winner's Circle that is known as Salvage Chic, sitting on my hands and chomping at the bit to give clues. We have 60 seconds on the clock.  Ready... GO!!

ME: "Snow."

YOU: "Things that are cold, Things that fall from the sky..."

ME: (shaking head) "Tom Brady."

YOU: "Things that need a haircut, Things that have too many random Baby-Mamas..."

ME: (nodding head encouragingly) 

YOU: "Things that people think are good looking but it's just because they are tall..."

ME: (short bark of laughter) "Patriots Games. Patriots PLAYOFF Games."

YOU: "Things you need a ticket to, Things you watch on TV..."

ME: (shaking head again) "Patriots Playoff Games at Gillette Stadium."

YOU: "Things with a lot of drunk people at them."

ME: (shaking head furiously) "Patriots Playoff Games with Tom Brady. Patriots Games in the snow.  Patriots Games with Tom Brady at Gillette Stadium in the snow."

YOU: "THINGS THAT KILL BUSINESS AT SALVAGE CHIC!!!!"

Ding, Ding, we have a winner!  Come see me tomorrow and I'll give you a "Tom Brady is playing a playoff game at Gillette Stadium in the snow today" Discount.  I don't really care if they win or lose, the Super Bowl is gonna kill business either way... SIGH.

Seller's Regret

I mean, WICKED BAD Seller's Regret.  Like, CHRONIC.  I bought this sign from my Picker buddy Z today.  From the get-go there was a small thought of keeping it niggling at the back of my brain and I didn't even have enough light bulbs for it to show it off in full-blown glory but it was SO COOL I just had to post it on the website and our Facebook page for all the world to see.  Not that I thought much would come of it, I mean it was like, the middle of Thursday and all; but apparently that's what the whole world is spending their time doing in the middle of the workday, parked on salvagechicantiques.com and Facebook instead of actually working.  I had figured I would have plenty of time for my slight interest in this sign to morph into full-blown obsession and probable adoption before anyone would discover it and want to fork over $195 for it.  But seriously no sooner did I post it than the comments and emails started flying and EVERYBODY wanted this sign.  Sigh... SOLD!  Next time, I'll know better.  Oh, who am I kidding, this happens like once a week.

To Flock or Not To Flock?

That is the Question! One I asked myself several times as I whipped up a "Woodland Wonderland" wreath this afternoon.

I just wanted to kiss it with a little fake snow but unfortunately I forgot that flocking comes raging out of the can like Barbasol shaving cream on Red Bull; I think "Not To Flock" was definitely the answer. Luckily that stuff takes forever to dry and I managed to remove most of it with a feather duster. But now, I don't know... to me it just looks kind of "Flocked Up."

It's Always Darkest Just Before Dawn

Actually, I think it's even darker when you decide to turn your shop's 1950's kitchen into a 1970's kitchen... only you forget to take the 1950's stuff out before you bring the 1970's stuff in.  HOLY. SH*T.  It's almost 2:00; think I can fix this by 5PM?

To Auction, To Auction,

To buy a Fat Pig...

Came home with these drawers as well, Jiggety Jig!

When these came up for bid the Auctioneer looked at me & Claudia and exclaimed "These look very SALVAGE CHIC!"; which is his way of saying "These look like SH*T that only YOU TWO will like." Then he apologized that he didn't have the actual cabinet that the drawers belonged in and I was like are you kidding me?!? Then other people would be bidding on them!!  He opened the bid and my card went up in a flash then I held my breath while they were "Going Once, Going Twice... SOLD! To Claudia's Friend!!"  Whew, I was nervous there for a minute.  $15 each, Get 'Em while they last!

Earning My Stripes

Since I haven't exactly been Blogging much lately or, ummm, AT ALL... I'm sure everyone's wondering what the heck I've been up to all summer. With the advent of shows like American Pickers and Pawn Stars, we've had an onslaught of folks coming out of the woodwork with items of interest to sell. Now I should clarify that these are most often only items of interest to the person actually SELLING them. You guys know that I am not interested in the least bit in most things traditionally considered appropriate to sell to an Antique Shop but of course not everyone knows this; so as you can imagine there are a lot of pissed-off people who schlep in their grandmother's Limoges China or Tiffany Lampshade only to have Claudia or I accidentally blurt out "THAT'S HORRIBLE!" Sorry, we kiss a lot of frogs out in the parking lot so-to-speak and sometimes we just can't contain our Inner Antique Critiquer.

So anyway, back to items of interest, or NOT... Last week this group of young kids came in with a bottle they had dug up somewhere and asked if I could give them any information about it. I reflexively started doing my bottle spiel, "I don't know a lot about bottles but I do know a guy that does, let me give you his number, oh crap do I have him filed under B for Bottle or G for Guy?!?" then I thought wait a minute, these kids don't want to be calling some random guy let me look at the bottle first.


Oh. Well. I did know something about this bottle. And I wanted to joke that unless it came with 5 friends and they were really cold, I wasn't interested. But these kids were so cute they really thought they had a relic here so I put on my best Professional Shopkeeper hat and told them it was actually a fairly common bottle around these parts and probably worth more to them as a memory of where they found it than to someone who collects bottles; I went on to say since it had a UPC code on it it really couldn't be that old. This was met with somewhat blank stares so I clarified that it could possibly be from as early the 1980's.


That seemed to really impress them and they trotted off with their new prized possession, or so I thought. Later I found they had actually left it behind - and it actually looks well-merchandised here, doesn't it? I felt bad though, when I realized I should've told him that it was totally worth a nickel at the redemption center up the street.

With All Due Respect...

"And I don't mean to sound flippant..." said the guy as he leaned in real close at the counter; (OH BOY, this oughta be good!) "But how can you call something vintage that says Made in Japan?"

"Um... Well... With all due respect... and I don't mean to sound flippant..." I leaned right back at him; "But I'm pretty sure Japan has been around for quite a long time."

I'm not saying everything we sell is old, but the item he was pointing at WAS. And in fact, a HUGE amount of antiques and vintage collectibles were made in Japan. Now, if he were pointing at something with a sticker that said Made In China, I could see his point. I'll be the first to admit if I think an item is of recent manufacture; but if I like the look of it and think you would too, in the store it goes. Perhaps the Antiques & Uniques sign on the window needs a new footer, "New-tiques"?

Things I Never Thought I'd Hear at Work

"This is going in Giovanni Ribisi's Kitchen." Wait a minute... WHAT?!? I gotta start paying closer attention to people.
Turns out the kind woman who purchased a retro kitchen cabinet over the phone the other day works for Thunder Buddies, the Production Company that is currently in town filming the new Mark Wahlberg movie "Ted." Now, normally I would probably not be running out to see a movie about a grown man whose best friend is his childhood teddy bear... but for a chance to see one of my Salvage Chic babies on the Big Screen? I'm SO GOING. I can't wait to point at that cabinet and scream "I knew it when..."

What a Hoot!

Or NOT.
Not only does it BOBBLE but the head also SPINS AROUND...
File this under "Things That Have Scared The Sh*t Out Of Me In My Own Shop".

URGENT Update for the Yard Salers!!

The Saturday portion of the Yard Sale advertised in the previous post has been CANCELLED due to lack of merchandise. Many Thanks to all the Salvage Chic fans who visited today and helped make the sale a Smashing Success!

Now, back to the regularly scheduled Blog. (Although, it's more IRREGULARLY scheduled, isn't it? Sigh... sometimes life just gets in the way.)