St. Louis Dreamin'....Again!!

I get homesick...way too much!!  As some of you know (from previous posts) I lived in St. Louis for 20 years before moving to small town Kentucky six years ago.  I used to go back and visit a lot more than I do now....life has gotten busy here.  I did make a recent trip home and captured pictures of why I love it so much...some are quite simplistic, but typical of the fun and quirky things I see and do there!  There is an out-of-the-way shop that I always frequent to get my butt out of the car during the trip.  This time I saw this table JAMMED with my favorite:  FIESTAWARE!!  I wanted every piece!!!

I always leave my house as early as humanly possible (with the help of a Diet Dew to help me wake up!!) so that I can arrive in St. Louis to hit my favorite antique mall..."Treasure Aisles"  I never go out of this mall (quaint and rather small) empty handed.  That day, I wanted the teal cabinet you see here!! 

Isn't she a beauty??  I saw her and fell in love...only to see that she was a bit too much for my wallet this trip!!!  She was part of a display at a gallery in Maplewood.

Sister was rockin' the bling, huh??  I'm not sure why I'm obsessed with mannequins, but if you look in previous posts you will see their naked bodies popping up all over the place!!  This one was taking in the scenery outside...a street festival!

As luck would have it, the St. Louis Craft Mafia was holding a craft show at their headquarters....an old police station down in the inner city right down the street from the Anheuser Busch plant.  This baby was parked just outside of the building....so sweet, huh??

This sweet vendor was kind enough to pose for a picture just inside of her haven for all things vintage...I loved her dress!!

Another trailer had some yummy teas and drinks inside...the perfect place to chill before dropping some bucks inside!  See the wall behind her??  She painstakingly cut out strips of wallpaper from stacks of designer sample books and glued them to make a sort of quilt-like patterns.  I could have stood and looked at that all day long!!  She also papered the ceiling!

Loved the neat colors and patterns on the aprons sold by one vendor

This made me want to sing the theme to "The Jetsons"!!  So cute!!

Inside of the building were some of the cutest booths....like this one!  This gal had some many neat things and I LOVED the way she used that cute table in her display!  Note to self...look for a cool table like this!!!!

Another neat booth....loved the drawers and suitcases as display

As I was turning my car around to make my way back to the highway from the show I laid eyes on this house....isn't she something???  It looked slightly crooked to me, which only added to my love for her.  Look at the stone wall and neat rounded steps!  Oh, how I wanted to see the beauty within that house....but all I could do was snap a quick picture and dream of how I would doll up the garden after painting her exterior and hanging pretty wreaths on her doors!

When it was finally time to head home I sadly loaded my car and set out on the open road.  There is one little gas station that has some yummy candies that I like so I stopped...only to see THIS cutie in the field next to it!!  I almost jumped the fence in hopes that the car was by chance unlocked so that I could sit in her!!  I almost called just to see how much she was but stopped myself...no way to get her back here!!  The color was just to die for and set against that field and sky...wow...almost like a postcard!!

Stone or Diamond??

Hello Everyone!!

I remember this old song from John Denver that went, "Some days are diamonds, some days are stones"....and it's TRUE!!  Yesterday was a mess...I won't bore you with the idiotic details, but it involved me pushing my car down my driveway, out into the road in front of my house (where someone almost hit it) and then into my neighbor's yard across the street!!  I felt like Tom Cruise in "Risky Business" when his dad's sports car almost took a dive off of the dock...remember??  Well...thank GOD that day is past me now because that one was "a stone"!!  Then comes today...the DIAMOND!!  A friend of mine suggested I send a picture of my suitcase stack into the "Where Women Create" blog when they called for people to show their favorite studio item.  I am the feature of their post today!!  Here's the link:    http://wherewomencreate.com/2012/09/vintage-suitcases/

I think so much of the magazine and the blog, so of course this was a huge caret for me today!!!

What has today been for you:  a stone or a diamond??

Ragged Gypsy Vest

I've been seeing a lot of these cool distressed vests in magazines lately...and I always have to chuckle a bit at the prices!! GULP!!!!!  I wanted to make one!!  Of course, I wanted to add my own swag to it...jazz it up a bit!!

Here's my little gal...she started out life as an Old Navy jean jacket, but she lost her arms along the process and gained some bling on her existing buttons....

Just adding buttons wouldn't do, so I dug into my stash of stuff and put some other things on them, too...an old watch face would do the trick

An orphaned earring and a foreign coin on the bottom finish it off!!  I have this vest and another one that I made also in my piecespassed.etsy.com store!!

Iron Baby Angel Antiques

Do you have a favorite booth within an antique mall that you hit up?  It seems I have one in just about every mall I've ever frequented and in my tiny town we only have ONE MALL!!!  I know...it's torture being a transplant from a huge city with ones all over!!  This booth inside of that one mall is my favorite--probably of any mall on my long list!!

That's probably because Libby and Jodi (the creative minds behind this booth) are the absolute BEST pickers of COOL STUFF...and the way they display it in their space is just appetizing!

I love the crusty screen door and all of the the variety in there...it's like being in a different little mall within a mall!

I could stay in this booth all day just taking it all in....I feel like I HAVE on some visits!!

I want those suitcases!

Love the old prints behind the window panes

Yummy...huh??  I must inquire about those two white tables...perhaps an "I-featured-your-booth-on-my-blog" discount is in order??!!!

I could also love that vintage game for a wall I have!!!

I'm Blaming Ki!!

I wasn't sure what I would do with a lazy Saturday stretched before me...this is the calm before the "marching season storm" so to speak, so I had one weekend to do something productive.  That meant going to Orange Leaf and kicking back with some frozen yogurt and the newest Flea Market Style.  I knew when I opened it that my day was drastically about to change!!  These great magazines inspire me to go out and look for stuff!!!!  Ki is the absolute maven of junking and just thumbing through the pages of her magazine is enough to make me gulp the yogurt down, throw the car in drive and head to one of my favorite junking spots.....

....which is this place!!  This is an older couple who has turned an out building next to their house into a virtual playground for junkers!  You are guaranteed to find just about any and everything in there at one point or another! 

It's wall to wall goodies and the owner, Connie, is VERY organized...everything is grouped and easy to find.  That way, if you are in there looking for something specific, she knows where it is!!!

Old bottles, anyone??

I always look at this chair when I visit and think how it would look with a nice coat of turquoise paint with some rust coming through....I may just get it one day!!  I can fix anything with turquoise!!

LOVE this old 60's glass set...perfect for the lovers of decorating their houses like the set of "Mad Men"!!!

I have found many a great frame that have been redone in the past in this section of the store

Loved this cement lawn dog....he's waiting patiently!

Speaking of dogs, no self respecting junk store worth its salt would be without a good shop dog or two....or three...with cats as companions!  This is just one of the precious buddies there.  He's likely worn out from everyone who showers him with love when they come in.  I'm guilty as charged!!

But this little gal is the queen bee...all stretched out in the sun and waiting for a scratch or two.  She looked like she had gotten into a mess because her fur was a bit....yucky...today.  Nonetheless, I couldn't pass up the chance to love on her a bit!!

Found some great tins for my jewelry projects...pennies on the dollar!

I have a plan for these!

 A swing by the Bluebird Market today yielded some great postcards for 50 cents a piece.  I just LOVE the old linen postcards...especially ones that are from Florida.  I'd like to park myself in one of those chairs outside of this old hotel and take in the coastal breeze.  I can dream, can't I???

I think the colors in this one are so gorgeous.  They just don't make postcards like this anymore!!