Thinking of Mother's Day at Scott's Antique Markets

This is the second weekend in May and, therefore, Scott's Antique Markets weekend - link to site. This large market, held in two separate areas south of the city of Atlanta, is heralded as the world's largest flea market. I try to go each month usually accompanied by my friend, Bette. We have developed a visiting strategy that culminates with a double-scoop of ice cream at the end ... after all that walking and work!

When attending the markets, I am always on the look-out for those special refurbished (or refurbishable) upholstered pieces that would add to my collection. I have several vendors that I check with each month, most of whom are at the North building site.  I also try to plan my observations and attendant photo shoots around a theme for this blog. This also helps me look at the market offerings through a different prism. Yesterday, I chose to look for items that remind me of mothers and motherhood. It proved to be an interesting challenge. 

Here are some of the images:

Finding good mother's day reminders was a little more challenging than I thought it would. I loved the sweet baptismal  /christening dresses and the European style baby stroller. Those kids do grow up fast!

The silver service is the same pattern that Bette's grandmother had (and now in Bette's possession). The dishes were her mother's every-day dishes. Such memories!
My mother came of age during World War II in The Netherlands and had a lovely cream and gold pattern china that my daughter now proudly displays on special occasions. She also had the more commonly found blue willow pattern as a tea and coffee service.

I couldn't resist this one. I have for many years collected pigs and  have a sweet Lladro pig mother with babies. This reminded me of that special piece.

I was easily distracted at the market by the usual hunt for upholstered furniture and ended up finding a number of pieces to bring home. I always stop by to see Sharon P. and look at her fine refurbished pieces (always in distressed lacquer finish and usually with neutral linen fabrics). I sell her items as part of my "European Linen" collection. She does such fine work! I bought four Century French-style chairs and a settee. I also ran into a woman who runs estate sales in the are (The Turnage Company). Her sales are generally high-end (and a little too pricey for me). She also happens to be the aunt of my next door neighbor - small world. I bought a very nice three piece set of rusk chairs and ottoman that I plan to have reupholstered in a largish blue and cream/white print. 

It was a great and nostalgic day at the markets!

My purchases from yesterday - coming soon to my sales sites!

Yellow is the Color of Sunshine - Spring is Near

Daffodils at Gibbs Gardens website

Last Sunday, my husband and I traveled about an hour north of the Atlanta area to visit Gibbs Gardens and the first event of their season - acres and acres of daffodils. It was a beautiful day and a great outing. We became annual ticket-holders last year and are going to try to make all of their big events!

The fields of yellow just glowed in the sun and yellow is the color that most reminds me of spring and sunshine. We've have a harder-than-usual winter here in the South and spring is beckoning! Yellow is also my personal go-to color for decorating - at least 75% of my house has either some or a lot of yellow. Even on gloomy days, the rooms retain a certain amount of sunshine!

I just added a great little settee and chair (very nice Mitchell Gold products) reupholstered in a wonderful large pattern daffodil yellow and white and thought I'd use this posting to highlight it and other yellow favorites from my recent collections.

Here is the Mitchell Gold set - love this fabric!

The buffalo plaid has to be my all-time favorite bright yellow fabric - I had enough to do three pieces! 

Nice pieces from last year! I have some of the yellow and blue toile left over and am doing a bergere chair and ottoman right now - should be available soon!

Nice pieces as well - the two fabric on the lower-right chairs is actually brighter than it shows here!

Clearly, I need to keep the sunshine going with yellows and pale golds - more to come soon!

Visiting the Great Atlanta Fabric Houses

Atlanta is home to two old fabric houses that cater to decorators and homeowners for miles around. They are located in the inner "industrial" area of the city - near the water treatment plant - with views of the Atlanta skyline. Both have been around for over 60 years. One is Lewis and Sheron link and the other is Forsyth Fabrics link. They carry all types of decorator fabrics and Lewis and Sheron has a great line of North Carolina upholstered pieces that can be upholstered in any of their in-stock or ordered fabrics.

On a rainy day yesterday, I accompanied a neighborhood friend in her quest to find the right fabric for two Victorian-era chairs she has just inherited. She mentioned she wanted to visit and, of course, I jumped on the opportunity to accompany her - I cannot resist hanging around great fabrics.

Both stores have an impressive array of fabric choices at pretty good prices that appear to be more reasonable than Calico Corners Fine Fabrics. They have far more choices as well. Forsyth has a "clearance corner" - fabrics are marked $8, $10 and $11. This is still more than I am willing to pay for the fabrics used in refurbishing my fine furniture but a pretty good deal for a homeowner.

The stores both have extensive in-stock availability and many many more that can be ordered at a reasonable price (far below recommended retail).

Racks near entrance at Forsyth - these are linens and cottons.

More racks at Forsyth - arranged by color groups and types of fabrics - wovens and silks and solids were in another area. 

I do love all things blue - this rack is at Lewis and Sheron - they do not separate the types of fabrics - all blues  are grouped together (silks, cottons, linens, silks, wovens).

More racks at Lewis and Sheron - blues and greens are big colors this year.

Look at the fish in the top and bottom fabrics - love them!

Well, with dashing in and out of the rain to get into the shops (with another one in between whose name I didn't capture), I failed to take many photographs. My friend was looking for a mid-size woven print with reds, greens and golds and didn't find many that would work for her. We discussed this color combo with one of the decorators who told us that true red is currently hard to find - it it out of "cycle" for fabric houses. Most of the reds are either brownish or raspberry - not cherry. She did find several gorgeous embellishing fabrics including a crewel but these were $45-60 per yard and even if that is a good price for this type and style of fabric, it is more than she wants to spend. She did feel that the visits were worthwhile and helped her establish some better ideas of what to do with her chairs.

I saw a number of fabrics that I either have in my current inventory or have used. I am always happy to compare these prices - several were in the $40-60 a yard range - which is great for me and my customers. Fun all around!

Weekend Estate and Garage Sales Adventures and Buys

The housing market is really heating up in Atlanta and lot of the sales, like this one in nearby Sandy Springs, are moving sales. This house had some wonderful items and I was tempted by the love seat (they wanted $200 so I would definitely have had to bargain - most I would have paid is $100). I am, however, suffering from too much inventory, slow sales and limited storage space. A larger piece like a love seat just doesn't fit into my current plans.

The weather was great in the greater Atlanta area for garage and estate sale shopping so I headed out Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings with lots of destinations. The trick, as any experienced "saler" knows, is to be the first at the best sales. Since there are usually quite a few and I check out a fairly large geographic area, this is definitely a hit or miss proposition. I am also working under a self-imposed "do not overbuy" requirement since my storage spaces are bursting at the seams.

I found interesting sales on all three days but Saturday was definitely the best. With my regular Saturday partner Ouida along, we found some wonderful sales and each of us bought some items we love.

This Dunwoody sale (another moving sale) was limited but had some decently priced pieces that would have been great for someone starting out.

This sale in a large golf-course community on the river, was held in a huge house with four stories of stuff. The house itself and the grounds were the most interesting elements of the sale - not that much tempting inside.

The moving sale at this beautiful home was the only one I remembered to photograph on Saturday (I easily get distracted). I bought the great oil (24X48) and Ouida bought two lovely lamps for her living room which she is furnishing almost exclusively with our estate and garage sale finds! 

OK - I didn't totally walk away from all potential purchases. I bought this set on Thursday for $135 for the pair. They are heavy and solidly made. I will be redoing the woodwork (Annie Sloan Chalk Paint) and haven't yet decided on fabric - either a blue and yellow toile or blue and white woven check - what would YOU recommend???

Well, I do love a good weekend of sales and this one was great! Now I need to head into my workroom (aka garage) to get this and other furniture ready for reupholstering. My husband would like to get his car back in the garage!

December Visit to Scott's Antique Markets - Atlanta

Outside sign at Scott's Antique Markets

This is the second weekend of the month and an opportunity to visit one of my favorite Atlanta marketplaces - Scott's Antique Market link to website. Today, I was checking out my newly arrived January issue of Architectural Digest and saw an article called "Insider Secrets of the AD100".  These designers discuss travel, inspiration and sources secrets.  One of the designers interviewed, Atlantan Suzanne Kasler, provided the following source secret:

Every time I go to Scott's Antique Markets in Atlanta ... I find unique items: maybe a fabulous wood sphere, great art fabric, or custom-made pillows.  Really anything you can think of."

How timely! My normal companion on these trips (friend Bette) and I, however, were somewhat disappointed in this month's market. The booths were less crowded with wares for sale and less populated with buyers. We discussed this with several vendors who said that this is a low-volume sale month for many vendors and some have just stopped coming. Here we were hoping for a huge holiday extravaganza and opportunities for last minute gift shopping. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful warm day and we enjoyed our visit including the highly-recommended ice cream cones in the Southern building.

Here are some of the red and green items we saw - all would work well in a holiday setting.

One of our favorite South Building vendors - beautiful floral arrangements - a little pricey but one of these days we plan to buy!

I bought five of these hand-made reindeer and added bows. Three of them are proudly displayed in my foyer.  My plan is (was) to give them as holiday dinner favors to my family but I may just keep them!

Norcross Art Festival - Home Sweet Home

Norcross Arts Festival in historic downtown area 

My mailing address is Norcross, Georgia, although our particular area has recently become its own city - Peachtree Corners (how unique is that) - but Norcross remains the mailing address.  So this blog is about my home town.  It is a suburb of Atlanta - about 22 miles from city center which is considered close-in given the huge area that the Atlanta metropolitan area occupies.  Here is a tell-all website for the city of Norcross including its history - link to website - an excerpt:

Georgia's first rail tracks were laid in the mid-1830's, and during the years of post-Civil War Reconstruction, rail expansion led to town expansion.  In 1869, Atlanta entrepreneur J.J. Thrasher purchased 250 acres around the first stop north along the proposed Richmond Danville lines, and a year later, the area was incorporated. Thrasher named the new town for his good friend and fellow entrepreneur, Jonathan Norcross, who was also the fourth mayor of Atlanta.

Over the weekend,  the annual Norcross Arts Festival in the historic downtown area was scheduled.  We had only once been to this event briefly before and thought we'd meander over on Sunday afternoon.  The weather had turned chilly for this area (mid 60's) so it definitely felt like fall.  We were VERY impressed with the scope and variety of the event and it was very well attended.

The Norcross Arts Festival's website includes much information about the event - link to website.

The Norcross Art Fest, the first sparkling member of our Splash Festivals family, will celebrate its ninth season on October 6 and 7, 2012. The popular Art Fest, with crowds of 60,000 festival goers in 2011, makes its home on the charming streets of historic downtown Norcross. Whimsical and wildly colorful artisans from across the country exhibit their imaginative artwork amidst the enchanting shops, eateries and boutiques in the City of Norcross. 

Heading towards art displays.

I bought several Christmas gifts and picked up vendor cards for future discussions.  Several vendors have Estsy shops (as I do) so that may be a way to stay connected.  Here are some images of the event - we will definitely put this on our calendars for future visits.

I also discovered a shop selling Annie Sloan Chalk Paints (Yaaah) and promised to come back to do a "blog exclusive" on her shop.

Here is the ASCP Shop - I will be visiting soon to make some purchases and hear more about her shop. 

Love this idea and wish I had known - I would have donated one of my chairs.

 This was a wonderful stop for us and an impressive venue for our hometown!