Treasure Hunting for the Iron Bed

This story was drafted over a year ago, I never published it...but it brings back such fond memories lol!

(This was on a Saturday in the middle of hot hot summer weather we get)

Today started out like every morning.  Got up, let the dogs out, made coffee, let the dogs in, went to the computer to check in and rinnnnnnnng, rinnnnnnnnnng went my phone! 

What, where, HOW MUCH?

This started my planned leisure day into a day of "Treasuring Hunting for the Iron Bed".

A friend of mine called at 7:30 am and told me he just left a sale in south county that had an iron bed for $30.  WHAT?  He didn't buy it?  Men friends..ugh.  Okay, got the details of where to find it hoping that it would still be there when I got there.  This was suppose to be just a 25 minute trip.

Headed down the road and 2 miles before the main road I needed to be on there was this lonely sign posted by the State of Ohio...road closed two miles ahead....
---------> DETOUR!  No way, not today, I'm off to find a bed! 

So, what do I do?  I don't take the detour the state suggested, I take the "back" roads.  I am not a country gal but figured I was smarter than that detour sign telling me to turn right when I knew I wanted to turn left.

So down some old country roads I went.  Oh, look at my gas gauge, hum, maybe should have filled up before 25 planned minute trip.  Ah, I'll be fine, there has to be gas somewhere sooner or later. 

Okay, darling daughter pulled out Greta the GPS.  Greta is so helpful in most cases.  Okay, turn left, no turn right, no recalculate, should have named it George!  What a bumpy rocky road I was traveling down.  I'm in the country now, is that like a song?  I want to know why people live out in the sticks.  Give me the city any day!  

Thought I'd be smart again and outsmart the State of Ohio and turn back towards the main road.  Sure, thought I traveled far enough east, west, south to miss the construction zone.  Wrong.  That sign was straight in my face again.  The state forgot to send me the memo that the road was closed right after the road I came down.  Here we go again, U-turn, east, south, west, oh my, I think we finally found the main road to the bed!

Wow, look at that flea market building, will be sure to stop back after I find that bed.  On the right track now and oh, a garage sale, must be where the bed is.  Whipped into the driveway and up to the garage. I don't see a bed.  Oh no, no bed!  Oh, wrong sale!  I did manage to quickly pick up some bakelite handled silverware and headed to another sale looking for that darn bed.

Oh, oh, oh, another sale, wait, THE BED in the yard!  Wait, I have to turn around. Wow, lots of traffic and some of it has four legs!  Oh my goodness, the Amish area!  Well, come on horsey, pull a little faster, I can see that bed!  Okay, safe to back out and finally I get in the driveway of the house with "the bed". 

What, tables are covered with tarps but I see that bed. I'm on a mission.  Hey, girl on the porch.  Hey girl, I came an hour away with all the detours after a phone call about "that bed"....do you mind if I look at it.  Waiting, waiting, waiting, oh, okay.

Well, needless to say, I bought the bed, $30 ching ching.  Also bought a cool sled for $10.  Nice folks to sell me that bed.

Okay, need gas. Oh, back by the flea market was a gas station and I wanted to go there anyway.  Pulled in, closed?  The gas station is closed?  What's up with that? Oh boy, no gas, no food, where the heck am I?  Orwell, Ohio.  Okay, let's go to the flea market then find gas.

Oh, whee, the indoor flea market looks like fun.  Oh wait, closed?  What? The door let me in...there was a country restaurant inside the same building.  Okay, let's eat breakfast.  This restaurant was really country.  Mismatched plates, odd ball cups, didn't even think to check the silverware, just like home!  Hey, maybe I do have some country in my blood.  The food was good and the flea market opened at 9:30. We ate and looked around.  I found an oval hooked rug that matches one I have in front of my door and I found three jars of buttons.  I won't make that a regular stop but was fun for the day...but wait, I still need gas!

Okay, Greta says there's a gas station back towards main road.  Okay, on our way.  Oh wait, what's that!  A thrift store?  Gotta turn around again.  Cute little shop if you need clothes, I bought 5 hankies for 10 cents each.  Deal!

Back to find that gas station.  Oh, wait, another sale? Oh, I like this one! I found 5 red glass lampshades for 50 cents for all!  Okay, confirmed gas station is just up the street. 

Finally got my gas, never leave home without a full tank if your heading to the country treasure hunting! 

We decided to continue to hunt our way down to a yearly sale in the town of Mesopotamia Ohio.  I've never been there but we were so close, why not stop in?

Holy Cow!  It was PACKED! The annual ox roast was going on and the line of people standing in line for sandwich's was unbelievable!  I talked to a friend of mine I seen there and they told me that the cupola on the building caught fire earlier and the fireman where covering the roasting meat to save it.  I did get a picture of the cupola on it's side on top of the building.  And the fireman put this ox roast on.  Hum, good thing they were all there!

I bought a metal umbrella stand at the market.  By now it was getting super hot and I was tired of fighting the crowds.  Off we go to the next unplanned stop.

We headed even more south to Annie's Antique Mall.  They have some beautiful items, get a chance stop in there!  First though we looked somewhere for lunch. What a task that was.  We ended up finding a gas station (wow, another gas station) that had a small sub/pizza place in it.  We ordered lunch which was good and hit the road.  I parked by an Amish buggy and horse. I think the horse was hot standing in the hot sun, but what do I know.

Couldn't wait to head home~a whole 45 minutes north. Long day, fun trip~gotta bed!!

You can find daughter and I on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/thechickshak

Where does time go?

I stumbled upon my blog in my bookmarks this morning.  I looked at my last post, WOW just over a year ago~where does time go?  Am I really too busy to enjoy posting my silly stories? I always enjoyed sharing some of my real life experiences with you, the good, the bad, the ugly? I love to share my treasure hunting finds with you. It seems that facebook has changed so much in the world of blogging. I'm going to give it my best effort to try to post here. It's fun. I can write a whole page instead of one line!

The other day on the news it said that women talk more than men. Hahaha, uh yep, gotta believe that! They said that women speak 20,000 words a day! I've pondered that for days and really listened to me when I opened my mouth and what I had to say. (I wonder if talking to the dog counts?) Anyway, I don't think I say 20,000 words a day~but probably close :).

moving on to new blog~join us!

Since my daughter and I have combined our treasure hunting we've decided to start a new blog. Please join us.  Just started our posting today!  Also planning a website to share our goodies with you!

See you over there --------------->

Just about 1 year ago....

Hi fellow bloggers! WoW, can't believe it's been almost one year since I have posted on my blog! Shame on me! I guess I have just been so busy, a good busy that I have let a left several of my internet duties lapse.

I'm anxious to get back to blogging and sharing many of my daily antics with you. 

My daughter and I are going to be doing a blog together, will update that info a tad later, would love you all to join us as we hunt for treasures and share our stories.

It's that time of year again and I'm getting ready for the Antique Show in Burton Ohio.  I have lots of goodies to share and lots to catch up on in general!

Stop back in while I ponder over some of my silly stories I will be posting.

Miss you all!

Garden Fun

Are you having as much fun in your garden as I am? Today's Make Mine Pink Friday is about "Along the Garden Path".

Hum, what do I have that fits the bill? Oh, I know, vintage jewelry!

Lots and lots of flower pins!

Then there's the vintage rhinestone sunglasses and floral straw purse!

You can find them all through my website! C-ya there!

http://www.antique-boutique.com/

Burton Antique Show....going, going, gone!

Buy it now, or regret it later is the motto for anyone who shops at an antique show. I can't tell you how many times people will "think" about something and walk away and the next person coming in your tent snatches it up. Then the first looker comes back to buy that desired item, just to be told "sorry, it's sold". So, my first advice to anyone hunting for treasures, don't want until later...if you see something you like, buy it now, later may be too late.

On with the show! We usually do the Burton Antique show since it is close to home and I can really fill up our tent. We took three loads of goodies down and came back with 1-1/2 and that includes my tables and tent. We did good.

A few years ago we were tagged "The Chic Shak". We always have items women love but we also cater to the men. My first photo is a picture of a chalkboard that my daughter and I made a few days before the show. We had best intentions of selling it until she suggested we write "Welcome to The Chic Shak" on it. That was it, it's mine lol. We had so many comments on it, so many people wanted to buy it but, I just couldn't part with it.

We used an old dresser mirror frame that I have saved for a long time (because I liked it...hint hint) and I primed it, painted it and sprayed a protective coating on it. My daughter made the chalkboard after I cut the wood for it. Isn't is awesome! All that carved wood, who could give it up?

Back to the show. I hopefully have enough photos from inside the tent. We sold all but one footstool my daughter recovered and painted. We still have the PINK one! I am so happy! I didn't want to sell it but we put it out anyway, One lady wanted to buy it and offered some silly price for it...said she'd have to pay to have it covered, she didn't like the pink strip fabric...LOLOLOLOLOLO, oh sorry. No thanks, we'll keep it.

I was a tad disappointed that the larger pieces of furniture I took didn't sell but...you know me, I have a plan to unload it.

Okay, back to the show again...some of the first things we sold again were the items that my daughter planted flowers in. She did good! I'm thinking all we need to take is recovered footstools and flowers in odd ball planters this fall!

For the most part the weather cooperated. It was hot, humid, sticky, cloudy, a few spot of showers (normal for Burton Ohio). We survived!

If anyone ever tells you that doing a show is easy, they've never done a show. It's a lot of work! Hunting down items to resale, cleaning, painting, recovering, pricing, packing, setting up, making your display attractive, dealing with the weather in an outside show, and yes, sometimes dealing with the public. There's always "one" in every crowd.

We had people that came in and asked to take photos of our layout. No problem, it happens every year. I take that as a compliment.

We had so many people ask us where our shop was so they could visit it...ouch, that's the part that is hard to deal with. I loved our shop but am not ready to commit to one again. I just tell them..."hopefully, see you next show".

Thanks to my sister-in-law who came down to help us, she's a pretty special gal who my brother is lucky to have! That pretty much sums up this show....next adventure...who knows...only the blog will tell!

Reflecting back a year Part 1.....Part 2 Below

It's funny the difference a year can make in your life. I was going back through saved pictures on my old computer and memories started flooding back. Some good, some not so good, but all reminders of my life a year ago in some way.

A year ago this week my daughter and I were preparing for an antique show in Burton Ohio. I remember emailing a friend in Florida some pictures of our tent and a silly short story to go with it, "How Two Girls Put Up a Tent" (with no help).

I'm not talking a small tent, I'm talking a BIG "Event Tent" which is 20ft. By 22ft. Yep, my daughter and I can put it up by ourselves! I've learned never depend on anyone but yourself to get a job done. Why, because no one cares like you do.

First picture is our nicely packed tent in our SUV. I have pastel painted galvanized concrete pails to hold it down, works wonders. We first put the tent top frame together, after a couple of times we decided to mark the poles, so much faster!

My daughter and I put the top of the tent frame together and then we put the on top on the frame. My daughter secures the top to the frame, she is much more flexible than me, half the size of me and half my age! She gets the ground work lol!

We lay the legs out and I lift the tent top and she gets two legs standing on both sides of me. I know, your thinking...sure, two girls by themselves? You betcha!

Then I go to the other side of the tent and pick up the top while fast paced half sized daughter adds two more legs posts...then it's all downhill from there. We get the other posts in place and then we attach each side wall.

I love our tent as it has arched windows and I can drop the inside curtain for privacy. We have the only tent with double peaked tops. Whoa lala, under an hour the tent is up, we pat each other on the back and go home for the night.

So, this is the week we "raise the tent". We'll set it up Friday morning and start filling it with treasures. The antique show is on Saturday. Come on down if your in town! I'll be in spot B-36. Bingo! Believe me, after the all day crowds, by 5pm we're ready to pack what doesn't sell and head home.

Check out the pictures of our "tent raising". These photos were taken at the Geauga County Fairgrounds last year.

Part 2; What goes in that tent?

Part 2, What goes in that tent? The Chic Shack

We have a ball at the Burton Antique Show in Burton Ohio! We prepare for the show starting the day after last year. My daughter and I are always hunting for treasures to re-do. Painting tables, planting flowers in odd items, displaying jewelry on dummies, no offense lol. We...okay...my daughter has to have things just right. When they say presentation is key to business, it's a fact!

Our booth as been tagged "The Chic Shack" by our customers. We are very lucky to have followers who can't wait to see what we have to offer. Makes for a very good show!

The photos here are from last year. I'll be sure to take photos of this year's display after it is set up and post a blog about it later.

All the furniture you see has been redone by my daughter. She paints it, she distreses it and she recovers items. I watch. The furniture sells really fast. I LOVED the pink chair she covered and it was the first piece that flew out of the booth. But, I have pictures, oh those memories!

Last year she painted several items bright colors. Pink, green, yellow, blue...oh, the sold, sold, sold. Also, she had several items shabby white and it sold sold sold. This year, you'll have to check back to see what we've been up to!

We also try to have some men things in the tent, you know, keep them busy while the wife shops. So far, it has worked. This year we have a HUGE sailfish for some man to hang in his "man-cave" and a few other goodies packed up.

Enjoy the photos as much as we enjoy doing the show!

Attic hunt for bird cages pays off!

It's that time of year again! My daughter and I do an Antique show in Burton Ohio. I save stuff that appeals to the customer base I have there.

One thing that we found that sells well is bird cages planted with flowers! Well, my daughter and I went on a hunt in the attic this week for bird cages I have saved.

Oh my goodness, so many bird cages to choose from! We picked out a few that we thought would look great with flowers flowing from them and hauled them down three floors.

Darling daughter is so dedicated to her work, she headed straight outside with them to clean and prepare for planting. Oh wait, here she comes, she's headed for the computer, hum, what's with that?

She calls me over to take a looksey at a website that had a bird cage just like ours that sold...WHAT! I mean WHAT? I mean HOW MUCH? And we were going to plant flowers in it?

So, stuffed in my attic of treasures I had this rare signed PNF Czechoslovakia Victorian 6 Side Bird Cage! Goodness gracious, I must have bought it because it was shabby and chic looking. Thank goodness she had the insight to check the mark.

Am I going to keep it, nope! Find it for sale on Make Mine Pink!

It was a good day!