Mother's Day Weekend

I hope all the mother's out there had a nice Mother's Day weekend.  We had a busy weekend.

Friday afternoon we went to an estate sale and a couple flea markets and shops. The highlight of Friday was Ann Marie's Farmhouse, located at 3095 Wagon Wheel Road in Springdale.  The shop is owned and ran by Melissa and her husband Jeff.   Their Facebook page can be found here. This shop is located in a cute little house, with each room filled with antiques, primitives, restored/repainted furniture and some shabby chic flair. She had an amazing Fire-king collection (I'm jealous!).  I really enjoyed meeting Melissa.  Below are some pics I took while at her shop.

Saturday morning we got up and hit about 10 yard sales around the area.  We picked up a nice set of Fire-king saucers, an old darkroom timer and a vintage trophy, among other neat pieces.

Saturday night we went to Cornerstone Auction House and loaded up on beautiful colored glass and other awesome treasures. Dan went with us and picked up a new flat screen TV.

While at Cornerstone, I visited with Ken, the auctioneer at Ken's Auction House.  He has a huge auction coming up in June at the Holiday Inn in Springdale.  It's going to be a big one!  Below are a few pics of what he has lined out so far.  It's my understanding that this list will be growing.  We will have another write up on this auction in a week or so.

After we got the car unloaded, from the earlier yard sales and auction, this is what my poor living room looked like.  Ty was a trooper and stayed up past midnight with me trying to get everything sorted and entered into my Spreadsheet (yes I'm OCD).

Sunday we met up with Mom & Dad and Cass & Ashley & Kendal for a Mother's Day breakfast. Kendal entertained us until breakfast arrived.

Afterwards we went home, took a nap, then went up to White Elephant to check on the booth and drop off some items.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. 

Busy Busy Busy

Busy Busy Busy!

We have been so busy lately.  Here's a little bit of an update on what we've been so busy doing....

Last weekend was the spring craft fair weekend.  Hundreds of vendors were in NWA at multiple events around the area, including War Eagle, and the big craft fair at the Sprindale Holiday Inn.  We are not huge craft fair goers, but did make it to events both Friday and Saturday. 

Friday night we visiting the vendors that were set up at the Frisco Station Mall in Rogers.  It started out as a trip to the Samaritan Shop there in the same location and it was just a bonus that the craft vendors were set up.  We met some very nice people and picked up a great selection of magnets.  A lot of these have already sold but you can check out what's left in our booth.

Prior to the Frisco Station stop, we hit up the Goodwill stores in Springdale and Rogers. We scored big in Rogers!  Springdale was good too!

On Saturday morning our intention was to hit up the 20 mile Hwy 59 Pickin' Time sale between Siloam Springs and Decatur.  Unfortunately the weather was cold and wet.  Most vendors decided to hold off on setting up so we just ended up hitting some of their local flea markets and antique shops.  We picked up some great deals there too!

After our stop in Decatur, we stopped at the craft fair in Springdale, visited with vendors, then went to Cornerstone Auction House in Avoca.  Cornerstone always has a nice selection and a friendly staff.

Sunday afternoon we went and checked on our booth at the White Elephant Emporium in Fayetteville. Lots of items had sold so we went back home, gathered up some new inventory and took it back down and did some rearranging.

Monday night we worked on painting and pricing from over the weekend. 

Tuesday after work I stopped back by the booth.  A ton of stuff was missing!  I was so excited!  I went home and Jim and I loaded the car back up and took another load of stuff back to the booth.  When we got home I started looking at my Spreadsheet (yes, I'm a spreadsheet junkie) and moved a lot of stuff from my inventory list to my @WhiteElephant list and also moved a ton of stuff from my @WhiteElephant list to my sold@WhiteElephant list.  I keep pretty good records of everything we buy, where it's purchased, what we paid for it and how much it's selling for.  This allows me to keep an eye on sales for the month.  So for our first 11 days At the White Elephant, we have sold over $300 in merchandise!  That made me very happy!  Not only to be moving product, but to be validated that other people like the same stuff we do!  The booth has proven to be a lot of work but a lot of fun!

Wednesday night Jim and I took a trip to Hobby Lobby for supplies, then I worked on cleaning up the work area.  Currently we have most everything in the living room(extra inventory, furniture to paint, tools & supplies) My 12 year old son informed me that it was time to clean it up!!  So I spent about an hour last night trying to organize everything.  I must say it's a much more pleasant place to be now.

Tonight we are going to go check out the auction in Eureka Springs @Eureka Auctions & Market.  I've been wanting to go for the past few weeks.  They have it every Thursday night. 

So that's what we've been so buys doing lately!  I hope the weather is nice this weekend!  I'm going to put together a yard sale list for Saturday morning and hopefully some of the vendors that go rained out last weekend will be able to have a sale this weekend.

Hope everyone has a great day!
Casey

Cornerstone Auction House

If you're looking for something to do on a Saturday night, check out Cornerstone Auction House. They are located NE of Rogers in Avoca, just past the Rogers Airport.  They have an auction every Saturday night at 6PM and they always have a packed house.

This past Saturday night's auction was a good time.  Jim and I took Ty and Dan with us and everyone found something, or somethings they just couldn't live without. 

The find of the night was this old mid-century lamp.  I'm thinking it is Hollywood Regency but I'm still researching it.  The bottom portion lights up as well as the top bulb and you can turn either on by themselves or both on at the same time. 

We also picked up a pair of vintage wall hangings and some glass corn on the cob holders for my grandparents.

Another favorite is the mismatched Pyrex bowls.  I've been keeping my eye out for these recently.  They are really cute and make a great display when you have sets of 3 or 4 and stack them. I'm hoping to pick up some of the pink, teal and or black pieces.  They are the most rare but look great stacked. The photo below was my inspiration to start collecting Pyrex...found at http://pinterest.com/pin/244812929716190327/

The first purchase of the night was a flat of mismatched Soreno drinking glasses from Anchor Hocking.  This line was produced between 1966-1978.  My mom had some assorted Soreno pieces when I was young and I always keep my eye out for these pieces.  The Soreno line comes in clear, avocado green, honey gold, and my favorite, aquamarine. They also have a pink but it is very rare.  I have only ever seen it in books and online. The flat I purchased had a mix of sizes but it did have enough of the larger size to make up a set.

We also picked up a 6 piece set of vintage corning ware in the Country Festival pattern.

Some of these items and others will be available in our booth soon at the White Elephant. 

I've had a lot of people tell me that they want to go to an auction but are intimidated or don't really understand how it all works.  If you are interested in going to an auction but have never been before, here are a few good basic tips:

1. Go early.  Most auction houses open at least an hour, some times 2, before the sale begins.  Get your bidder # and get a good seat in the center of the room, near the front so the auctioneer can see your bids.  Spend the time before the sale starts to  walk around and look at all the items.  Check the quality of the items and makes notes on what you are planning to bid on.

2. Pay attention.  Once the auction starts, you have to be paying attention.  You never know what's coming up next so you have to be watching and keeping an eye out for the items you are interested in.  It only takes a minute or so to sale each item so it goes very quickly.

3. Make a budget.  It's easy to get caught up in the bidding, so know what your max is on each item and don't go over.

4.  Watch your hand and head movements.  A lot of bidders bid by just nodding their head or by putting up a finger.  It's easy to mistake a bid with normal body gestures.  For this reason, I only bid with my bidder card and I keep eye contact with the auctioneer when I'm bidding so he knows I'm bidding. 

5. Relax & have fun. Going to auctions is a lot of fun and can become addictive!  Don't be intimidated by the fast talking or bidding.  Sit back and watch and listen for a while and you will catch on. 

I hope these tips help and hope to see you at a local auction soon.

Have a great week!
Casey

Exciting night at Cornerstone Auctions!

Tuesday night was a great night at Cornerstone Auctions!  We came home with some great treasures!  The steal of the night has to be this vintage green Moon and Star kitchen canister set.  I have seen single pieces of this in flea markets all over town but I have never seen a full set.  There were a couple chips around the lids but when the lids are on, you can't see them.  I paid $9.00 for the set and I think I can resell it for $40.

 We also picked up a vintage California pottery ash tray for $2.00 and an old pencil sharpener for $5.00.  I haven't done any research on the sharpener yet so I'm not sure it's value.

 We bough 4 framed Homestead prints by Currier & Ives.  They don't have glass in them so there is some aging on the prints but they are very nice.  We paid $7.00 for them.

 Cornerstone holds auctions each Tuesday night at their new place at 6PM.  Check out our Auctions and Events tab for all the weekly auction listing details and locations.

Click HERE to check out their facebook!

Have a great Thursday!
Casey

Vintage Cookie Jar Collections

Last week Jim and I were at Cornerstone Auction House and we picked up a black Americana piece.  It was the "Cooky" half of the "Mammy and Cooky" cookie jar set.  Cooky was not in perfect condition as he had a couple small areas that was missing some paint, but other than that he was great!  Jim has always been drawn to the black Americana salt and pepper pieces, so this was right down his alley.  There was a salt and pepper set with it but we didn't win that bid.  I quickly Googled Cooky and found all kinds of crazy numbers attached to him.  I found we he had sold on Ebay numerous times ranging from $76 to $128 and at separate times and I found him listed on an auction site as having a value of between $200-$400 dollars.  We have him listed on Ebay and hope to turn a small profit!

As I was researching Cooky, I discovered a whole new world of vintage cookie jars.  I had never paid much attention to them but decided to take a closer look.  Companies like McCoy, Brush Pottery, American Bisque, Red Wing and Hall have very collectable vintage cookie jars.  They are fun to research and look great sitting on your kitchen cabinet.  Consider a cookie jar collection if you are looking to start collecting something new.

Happy hunting!
Casey