BEFORE AND AFTER SALE SET-UP

                                           HOB NOBBER MEMORIAL DAY SALE 2013

BEFORE SET-UP...

BEFORE SET-UP: BOXES ALL OVER...

We had an amazing sale over the weekend! A BIG THANK YOU to all who braved the cold and rain and stood in line for almost an hour to get in the door!

BEFORE SET-UP: BINS ALL OVER

Rain and cold had been predicted all week but I kept hoping it would turn out nice. The weather man isn't ALWAYS right! I thought the yucky forecast might deter some from coming but almost an hour before the sale, there were people in line, three deep, umbrellas overhead and WAITING...IN THE RAIN!  Our customers are hearty folk! And they LOVE a bargain! And we are no different! We do the same when we're out hunting for treasures for our sales! Rain doesn't put a damper on FUN!

BEFORE SET-UP: FURNITURE ALL OVER

As always we worry about whether we have enough inventory! But, as always, we end up having MORE than the last sale! We kind of forget what we've bought until we start unpacking things to clean and tag. We opened up another room in order to have more space for items and also to have a bigger space for checking out. We DO "worry" that the lines our customers have to wait in to check out are so long that they get discouraged.  BUT we DO have a "holding room" where we hold our customers items as they look for more treasures. We had three people working the "holds" this time. It gets CRAZY in there! It's hard to keep up for the first hour and a half! People are quickly handing things off to us and then getting back to finding more stuff! They leave their stuff and their name and we tag it and add it to their "pile". We had a college age girl helping in there because I figured she could handle the fast pace! She was a great help but even SHE commented, "THIS IS STRESSFUL!".  There was confusion when there were two men with the same first and last names! One person took B. C.'s stuff and started a pile and another person took stuff from the OTHER B. C. and put it in the same pile! This pile was getting huge when we started to question it and found out that there were TWO B. C's! What are the odds?

READY FOR THE SALE...

AFTER SET-UP: SMALL LINENS ARE HANGING

QUILTS ARE ON THE VINTAGE RACK

ONE OF TWO HANGING RACKS OF LINEN

TEAL COLORS

SUITCASE FUN

VINTAGE SEWING MACHINE

CLOTHESPIN DOLLS

RED COLORS

 GARDEN CHAIR

These are just a few of the treasures that were available at our sale. I got so busy I didn't have time to take as many photos as I would have liked. We had more furniture than previously, most of which sold. I wish you all could have been there! We had some great stuff! Some great pieces that were hard for me to let go! But I can't keep everything!

So I'm taking a few days off to rest and then it's onto shopping for our next sale over Labor Day weekend!

PILLOW CASES, SEWING MACHINES, AND DABBLER LISTS

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: The world is the work of a single thought, expressed in a thousand different ways.      unknown



I'm a pillow lover. So when I saw this pillow at an Estate Sale I snapped it up without a second thought. I knew right away that this was going to be a "keeper".  I wouldn't be selling THIS at one of our sales.  It's the natural simplicity of it that I love.

                

               The pillow case was handmade of soft cotton ticking with vintage buttons of different natural shades. How sweet is this?

                                               Here's a closer look at the cute buttons.

          I love this pillow case so much that I'm going to make some of these pillow cases myself! Maybe using red ticking with red buttons, or maybe with blue buttons.  Or yellow ticking with assorted white buttons. I'm imagining the possibilities now!

            But first a new sewing machine is needed . My sewing machine is about as old as the one below.

Any advice on good sewing machines? I'm not exactly skilled at sewing but I think I could pull off some pillows...
 I'm kind of a jack of all trades and you know what that means...a master of none! I dabble in way too many things. Over the years I've "dabbled" with the following: painting, knitting, crocheting, scherenschnitte, macrame ( back in the 70's ), sewing, pen and ink drawings, writing, card making, furniture refinishing, calligraphy, photography, just to name a few...

I guess there are even a thousand different ways to express your creativity.  I just can't make up my mind which one to "master". So for now I'll just add "pillow case making" to my dabbler list.

NEW AND IMPROVED HOB NOBBER BLOG

This is the last day of our vacation and it's been raining all day. Not complaining though since we're missing a snow storm at home. What? In April?! Last year at this time it was in the 80's!! Guess it makes life interesting!

LAST PHOTO BEFORE LEAVING

 Hubby is watching The Masters. Can't get "into" it except to watch the 14 year old from China! How can a boy that young be so focused?

So guess what I've been doing? Yup! Playing with different blog headers. Still haven't decided what to do with it yet. So for now it's plain and simple. But one thing I DID decide on was to "officially" expand my blog to include more than my vintage finds. To those of you who are following my blog to keep up with Hob Nobber Sale updates, don't worry! That will always be a part of this blog. In fact if you'll look on my right sidebar you'll see the "button" for our next sale over Memorial Day weekend! That's NEXT MONTH! Get it on your calendar and tell your friends! I even picked up some things on our vacation in Florida. Look here, and here to see them. You can also go to my Hob Nobber Finds Page ( see just under header ).

Now on to the "NEW AND IMPROVED HOB NOBBER BLOG". I've decided to include other interests that I have in addition to vintage finds and sales. I've already been blogging about different things all along but decided to make it official, especially since I also like to be consistent. My hope is that you can share tips and ideas that work for you and we can have an ongoing-sharing-blog of ideas.

ORDER
 So one of the topics I'll be blogging about is ORDER. For an example of one of my blogs about "order" go here. But I'd also like to know what YOU do to create order in YOUR home? What great organizing trick or product do YOU have that you can  share? Does YOUR desk look like this? Mine doesn't either. But it's one of my next goals!

SOURCE

BEAUTY
The next area I'm going to blog about is beauty in our homes and lives. What do YOU do to bring beauty into your home? To add beauty to your life? Do you notice the simple beauty around you on a daily basis? I'd love to hear how you make life beautiful both inside and out. This WILL, of course, include photos of beautiful things. I'm for SURE going to try and grow some hydrangeas and bring them into the house like this!

SOURCE

CREATIVITY
Being creative is something that helps to inspire me! It keeps me in the moment and makes me happy. What do YOU do to create? Bake? Paint? Knit? Write? Decorate? How does creating help YOU? I think I'm going to try this next...

SOURCE

HEALTH
To be honest, this area is not my favorite but it IS NECESSARY...FOR ME! I really need to lose some weight, get my BP down, eat less sugar, and just feel better physically. So I'm going to challenge myself to get healthy and create wellness in my life. I'm hoping some of you will join me in this lifestyle change. Or maybe YOU are in great shape and have some great tidbits of information that can help me and others as well. I'll be sharing the great ideas that work for ME and hopefully some will work for you too. I'm hoping I'll be able to do this balancing on the ball thing. Yeah, right.

SOURCE

I'm excited about adding these areas "officially" to my blog and hope you'll join me in sharing your OWN insights and ideas! I'll be heading home tomorrow and the NEW AND IMPROVED HB BLOG WILL BEGIN! Hope you'll join me!

UPDATE TO THIS POST : For photos of Florida during our vacation, check back the last few posts!

ThE GiFt Of CrEaTiViTy

THANKS-LIVING   ToDaY  I'm ThAnKfUl FoR ThE GiFt Of CrEaTiViTy.

Creativity...We ALL have it. Some just are not aware of it yet. Made in the image of a creative God we all have endless creative possibilities! We just need to discover it and express it!

 You might be creative in painting, or making beautiful pottery, or you might be a creative writer. Maybe your special gift is in creating a beautiful home for your family, or decorating or cooking.

I have been amazed at all the creativity I see in blogs, on PINTEREST,  Etsy, and in other places on the internet!  This allows us access to more than the creative endeavors we find in our own communities. I am in awe as I look around and see all the possibilities of endless creativity.

We were MADE to create! The important thing is to discover YOUR WAY of creatively expressing yourself Then  develop it, and  best of all...SHARE IT! 

Shown here are some handmade  items I found on Etsy that show creativity expressed in different ways.  Since Christmas is coming up also, I thought I would share some things that you could purchase  in time for the holidays to decorate  with or give as gifts.

                               Lovely hand painted pillow from Southern Empire Designs

  
                  Darling Christmas hanging made from a garden apron from the Rusty Thimble.

                                       Wooden manager scene from the Creative Wood Shop.

                   Beautiful painting of a bird from rachellelevingston.rachellelevingston.etsy.com

                                             WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR? 

GRAMMA CAMP

Last week was" Gramma Camp" at our house. We have the two granddaughters spend a week with us and we plan daily activities. I'm always surprised at just how EXCITED the girls are each year in anticipation of this fun week! It seems to be one of the highlights of their summer! And I always thought I had the most fun! Each year we have a theme and this year's theme was a Girly-Girl Camp, meaning we did a lot of "girly" things. We had a great time and made many memories. Grampa is my assistant so he does some of the activities with us but this year, being Girly stuff and all, he spent some time golfing instead. Here are a few photos of our week:

A GARDEN "TEA" PARTY ON THE SUNPORCH

ASSORTED TEA CUPS THAT BELONGED TO THEIR GREAT GREAT GRAMMA

                                               ANOTHER VIEW OF THE TABLE

THE GIRLS WITH INVITED GUESTS

 

        SPA DAY WITH PEDICURES AND MANICURES AND MASSAGE CHAIR

        A LITTLE CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND SET THE MOOD

HAD TO HAVE SOME PHOTO SHOOTS FOR THE COVER OF OUR BOOK

HARD AT WORK PAINTING THEIR POTTERY

AT THE MELODRAMA

Activities included eating at a fancy restaurant, going to a Melodrama, baking and having a "Garden Party", having a spa morning, working on cross stitch projects, painting pottery at Color Me Mine, having a movie night, making vision boards and setting goals for their "Best School Year Yet" along with shopping for school clothes,  making a book of all the week's activities on Shutterfly and more fun too numerous to mention! It's really a week packed with fun, learning new things, and experiencing different activities along with lots of laughs and memories!

I highly recommend this to all grandparents!

How To Be More Creative

If you are looking for inspiration in decorating with your vintage finds, check out Sandy's Book Shoppe here on my blog. I've picked out some books that inspire, give tons of ideas, and are just fun to look at.

Did you know that just perusing these books and magazines on a regular basis will imprint the ideas in your mind and you'll begin decorating in similar ways as the ideas in your mind come out in your life? Also going to antique and vintage sales and checking out on-line vintage shops will inspire your mind in a creative way. Be sure to check out my "Fun Blogs" list on the right of this column. They are all blogs that creative women write and they all have beautiful shops with fun things to buy. They're a great source of inspiration! But be careful! You just might get addicted to the vintage blogging world!

 I've always noticed that  often very creative women have grown up in a home where they were surrounded by mothers or grandmothers who were creative. As they were surrounded by creativity, they had "imprinted" on their minds the things they saw and experienced.

The good news is  that you don't HAVE to have grown up in a creative environment to be creative. And believe it or not EVERYONE  is creative. Your creativity just has to be developed. You can begin by creating your own inspirational environment! It just takes time being surrounded with things that inspire, getting new ideas, and then trying out new ways of doing and seeing  things. I know I get inspiration from magazines, books, and going to flea markets, and vintage and antique sales. I keep trying to put the images and ideas into my mind to spur my creativity and engage my creative spirit. And it works!

One of the things I'm working on now is taking better photo images and setting up vignettes that inspire. I'm doing that by studying the pictures that inspire ME and attempting to replicate vignettes that I like. It has helped my creative "eye" to let these images soak into my mind. I feel like a magazine-aholic, however, as I buy so many magazines and books but I do learn a lot from them and the photos themselves bring  inspiration and relaxation as I sit with a cup of tea and take in the beauty.

At my last vintage sale I had a basketful of these magazines with a sign that read, "Get inspired!" and they were snapped up quickly at 50 cents each. Everyone loved it! I could have asked for more but I was just wanting to share them ( OK get rid of them ) as it was kind of getting out of hand with all the magazines I had stored up.

So check out the books and magazines here and even check out some on-line vintage stores. ( No, I don't have one yet but keep watching! ) You'll still have to come to one of our three occasional sales which are really PARTIES in disguise.

And don't forget.... Today is the LAST DAY to sign up for our Spring Fling Give-Away! Details are under the Big Chick but you DO NEED to "follow" me to be in the drawing. Check out the Feb 16th post to see what the gifts are. Tell your friends!