Category: Events
My New Antique Mall
For the past two weeks I have been packing, schlepping, unpacking and arranging merchandise at the New Fredericksburg Antique Mall. The old Fredericksburg Antique Mall and the Antique Gallery finally have merged together at one location. We are now in the old Ben Franklin building where River Run Antiques was located. But this mall is so much different from River Run. My cousin, who owns the mall, has put in super new lighting, made beautiful spaces for all the dealers and had the floors cleaned up and polished. It is now so light and bright!
Here is the new sign on the front.
Here are some pictures of Moss Cottage Vintage’s new booth!
My showcase is still waiting for electricity. It will be nice and light when I get it hooked up!
Mantiques, sewing supplies and some cool odds and ends.
Moss Cottage Vintage is only one of many shops in the Fredericksburg Antique Mall. The entire main floor and downstairs are filled with booths. This is one antique mall you do not want to miss if you are visiting old town Fredericksburg, Virginia. Our new address is 925 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401. The mall will be open every day 10-5 and Sundays 12-5. And if you are familiar with the old River Run mall, come and see the wonderful transformation!!!
Happy Mail From Betsy Doodle!
I was blessed this week to receive a package of wonderful handmade items from Dee Webster, otherwise known as Betsy Doodle on YouTube. Dee generously gave away a few extra prizes after her “hand of friendship and card for Mr. Doodle” challenge. I am so thrilled I won because she is such a talented lady. Here are the items I received all the way from Lincolnshire, England.
Look at this pile of art supply goodness!
Here are some wonderful napkins to decoupage with. Being that I am originally from England myself, I’m partial to the Union Jack napkin!
Dee’s hand-made painty papers are to die for. I will share the projects I use these in if I decide to take them out of the hoard vault!!!
A large and small pocket folder, ATC, tickets and some marbled papers. I’m swooning.
I just love this prize and promise to use the items after I’ve enjoyed just looking at them long enough. If you’ve never watched Dee’s YouTube channel, do yourself a favor and check it out. I guarantee that after watching a video or two you’ll be hooked like I was.
The link to her channel is:
https://www.youtube.com/user/BettsyDoodle/videos
Thank you again Dee for such a lovely surprise and thank you all for letting me gush about it!
Ready For The Vintage Home Market
Here’s a quickie post because I am busy with The Vintage Home Market this weekend. I just wanted to show you how great the booth turned out. A great big thank you goes out to my sweet hubby Martin for helping me get it all there and arranged. So just sit back and enjoy the photos.
If you are in the Central Virginia area, please come to the show and see us. The show information is at the bottom of this post. There are lots of dealers with really cute vintage items to see and buy!
I really hope I get to see some of my dear readers at the Market!
What’s Up?
I’ve been missing in action on my blog lately because I’ve been busy getting ready for two upcoming vintage shows. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what I’ve been doing.
Five Cooking Themed Junk Journals. The Charms I Found Are Absolutely Adorable!
I have made several themed junk journals. There will be cooking, travel, garden and general themed junk journals.
Lots of Wood Pieces Getting A White Wash!
Both furniture and decorative items are getting gussied up with white paint. Funnily enough, some of the smaller pieces where then painted aqua instead!
The Beginnings Of My Show “Pile” Being Stored In The Sun Room.
This photo was taken a couple weeks ago. This pile has grown considerably since then!
The next two weeks are going to be my crunch time so I’ll be even busier. I’ll try to remember to pick up my camera and take some pictures along the way to show you.
Information about the Vintage Home Market and Foxwood Barn Sale can be found on my “Up Coming Events” page.
Another YouTube Challenge – Flipbooks
It’s been since September that I last entered a YouTube crafting challenge. With the holidays and my vintage and craft shows I was just too busy to enter any others. Well now that the dust has settled, I’m ready to enter some more challenges. This one comes from craftyirina on YouTube and it requires participants to make a three page flip book. I had never even heard of a flipbook until Irina explained them. The complete video about her challenge, the prizes and how to make flip books can be found here:
I decided to dig into my hoard vault and use the Prima Marketing “Princess” papers and embellishments I had won from another challenge.
Whole kit of Prima Marketing’s “Princess” papers and embellishments
I love these papers so much but this is where my dilemma began.
Three double-sided pieces of 6″ x 6″ papers
Flip books work well if the three pages are joined using washi tape because it is flexible enough for the pages to fold up. Unfortunately, none of my washi tapes came close the matching the papers. So I had to make my own with masking tape and a script stamp.
Pieces of masking tape on wax paper ready for stamping.
Stamped masking tape ready for using
I’m not going to bore you with step by step photographs of the making of this flipbook, but here are pictures of the finished project.
Front cover of flipbook. I actually tied stained seam binding around the book to keep it closed but forgot to take a picture
The first page on the inside has a pocket with tags inside
This is the second page you see when opening the book
This page has the information tag Irina required which flips open to the left
This is the last page that has a little bag filled with tags and various types of paper clips
At some point Irina will probably do a video showing my flip book. I will write a quick post and include the URL to the video when she does. In the meantime, go to craftyirina’s YouTube challenge video and see if this is something you are interested in entering.
I have never made a flipbook before, but this was such a fun project I will definitely be making more. This week I will mail my book to Irina. Wish me luck!
So Busy, But Having Fun In A Manic Kind Of Way!
This time of year always makes me somewhat frantic. I have two big Christmas shows, The Vintage Home Market and the Holiday Craft Fair at the Fredericksburg Expo Center. At the Vintage Home Market I can bring vintage Christmas items as well as handmade items with a vintage flair. I don’t feel so stressed about stocking my booth there because I always have a lot of vintage Christmas items I bought throughout the year and squirreled away. The Holiday Craft Fair is another story. Everything in my 10 x 10 booth for this THREE day show has to be handmade! That is quite intimidating. I helped a friend do this show last year and she practically sold out on the first day!
So this is the reason I have not been able to blog as frequently as usual. Every waking hour I seem to be making stuff, thinking of stuff to make, pricing stuff I made, packing stuff I made and generally freaking out in the mess my house has become.
Here are some pictures of the chaos which has become my life.
Large tote filled with handmade books of all kinds.
This tote is absolutely stuffed with handmade December Dailies, Gratitude journals, altered mini compo books, junk journals and up-cycled denim and cashmere flower pins.
Some of the finished arrangements.
This is just a sampling of the arrangements I will be selling. As you can see, they are mostly finished.
Empty arrangement containers.
These containers are patiently waiting for me to make their arrangements.
Empty containers.
These are waiting too.
More empty containers.
Yep, these are too.
My magic workshop, aka our dining room table.
This is where I will be spending the good part of the next two weeks. I hope to have all the container arrangements done and the totes that are full of supplies emptied, or mostly emptied.
So now you can see the glitz and glamour that is the life of a crafter! If you would like information about either of these shows, please see my upcoming events page.
Secret Happy Mail And A Little Project
This post is going to cover two recent events in my life. The first is the receipt of some Happy Mail! Who doesn’t love to receive goodies in the mail? My Happy Mail carries a little mystery with it though. The envelope it came in has a name and a return address, however, I’m not sure who it is. It could well be someone I spoke to at a show and I’m just having a senior moment. It could be someone who follows this blog. Or it could be someone who knows me through my Etsy store. Anyway, it’s kind of fun trying to figure it out. But while I’m figuring, let me show you what this sweet “mystery” Happy Mailer sent to me.
Happy mail received from a sweet mystery gift giver!
I got lots of sheets of deli paper which I have never had before. I can’t wait to “play” with these. I also received two fun shipping tags for altering. I’ve never seen a red tag before! How fun. I want to thank Marnold for sending me these wonderful goodies. You really made my day!!!
Now onto the other event in my life. I entered another challenge on YouTube. This one is sponsored by a very talented lady named Shemi Dixon. Her challenge is in honor of her birthday and she requested that the entries be handmade postcards. If you remember my post titled “A Little Piece Of Myself” I made brightly colored Scripture cards. I loved the process of making these so much I made some more of the large sheets and decided to cut one into postcard size for Shemi’s challenge. Here is the postcard I sent her.
Front of postcard for Shemi’s challenge.
And I stamped the back with an appropriate stamp.
Back of postcard.
If you would like to see the video where Shemi opens my package check out her channel Shemi Dixon on YouTube. She uploaded the video on September 17th and it’s titled, “Happy Mail and More Amazing Postcards From Maggie, Angela, Helen, Michele”. She is such a gracious host!
I had a lot more of this sheet left so I decided to try making greeting cards with some colorful blanks I had on hand.
Greeting cards made with my flower artwork paper.
I think they turned out really well. I know I will be making more of these!
It’s nice to get some Happy Mail and be able to paint and doodle in the middle of my big show season. It keeps me from getting too serious! Thank you Marnold and Shemi for giving me permission to play!!!
The Many Faces of Success
I’m back from participating in the Virginia Beach Antiques Show and I can happily call it a success. Some people think a show is successful only if they make a large profit. Large profits are always nice, but there are other ways to measure whether a show was successful or not.
Every time I do a show, my booth looks different because my merchandise is always different. So if I can set up my booth so it looks good and showcases my merchandise I consider that a success. Here are a few pictures of my booth.
Table spaces in the booth.
Handmade cross-body bags from vintage fabrics.
Handmade ruler pendant necklaces with various charms.
Mantiques. Something I rarely used to have.
A dose of girly goodness!
Lots of fun vintage wares.
Another way I gauge a shows success is by the people I meet. You can have crabby, demanding customers or you can have delightful, happy customers. This show was filled with the latter. The same holds true for the other vendors, particularly those who are right around your booth. I definitely had a successful show in this area. Three dealers in particular helped to make this show fun and friendly. First is Libbie Hiner from Rusticity Decor. I have participated in a previous show with Libby, but never really got a chance to talk to her because our booths were not close to each other. Thankfully we had some time to talk and get to know each other better this time. Her booth was absolutely the cutest one there. She certainly has a knack for design. You can find out more about Libbie and her designs by visiting her web page at http://www.rusticitydecor.com.
Libbie Hiner from Rusticity Decor.
Right across from me was Mike Prieto from Barrel-Art. Mike is super talented and creates the most beautiful and amazing items from old wine barrels. He makes everything from chairs and pet beds to lazy susans and wine racks. The list of what he can create seems to be endless. Please excuse my blurry picture and check out his web page at http://www.Barrel-Art.com to see his impressive creations.
Mike Prieto from Barrel-Art.
Then there is Liea Spano-Baily from Rusty Cottage Antiques and Vintage. Liea and I have done several shows together and are plotting to do some more. She has the most fun and cool stuff in her booths. She sells antique and vintage jewelry as well as other antiques. Her vintage offerings are also to die for! You can check out Liea on eBay as vendor liea2004. You can also follow her on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/LSRepurposedChic.
Liea Spano-Baily with some of her awesome wares!
So to me this show was successful because I was able to set up a pretty booth, the customers were friendly and the dealers around me were super talented and friendly. Of course, the profit was nice too!
It’s Almost Here!
As many of you know, I not only have a brick and mortar antiques shop and an Etsy shop, but I also do a few shows each year. My favorite show, The Vintage Home Market, is coming up very quickly and I have been busy planning and making. Martin and I even have ventured to make a curtained back drop for my booth to give it some extra character!
In a previous post I gave you a glimpse of some of the goodies that will be for sale at the market but now I have more to show you. These are all things that I have made. I will take pictures of the booth with the antiques also when I get it all set up on May 2nd.
Cute Little Baby Tags
Close-up of some baby tags.
These are baby themed hang tags that I made using German die-cuts. Each tag is a little different but I think they all turned out really sweet. These tags can be used on a baby gift and then hung somewhere in baby’s room for a decoration. When baby outgrows them, they can be put in a scrapbook.
Lots of vintage fabric utility aprons.
Horrendous close up of me wearing a utility apron.
I can’t believe I am even including the picture of me wearing one of the utility aprons but I wanted you to see how cute they are on. Instead you can see a very unflattering picture of my stomach looking poochy because my belt got stuck under the strap. These aprons really are cute when worn correctly and the pockets are large and deep so they hold lots of stuff!
Up-cycled vintage train case.
Top of train case.
Here is another worn train case that was rescued with vintage sewing patterns and pictures. You could use this for make-up or art supplies when you are on the road!
Four drawer house.
A little scrapbook paper, distress ink and Mod Podge transformed this boring little drawer unit into a cute hiding place for all sorts of treasures.
Regular sized spool necklaces.
These regular sized spool necklaces have already been seen on my Facebook page, but I wanted to include them anyway. I also made a batch of tiny spool necklaces that have lace around the spool instead of patterned paper.
If you live, or are visiting, the Richmond area around the first weekend in May, you MUST come see this show. Everything at the show is either vintage or made (up-cycled) with vintage elements. Each booth is set up beautifully and with a lot of thought. Come on out and see the cutest show in Virginia. And plan to pick up some one-of-a-kind goodies for yourself, family and friends. Look for the Mossy Cottage sign and please introduce yourself if I don’t already know you. I love to meet new people, that’s my favorite part of the show!
A Christmas Sneak Peek
I am sorry I have not been blogging as regularly as usual, however I have an excuse (don’t I always?). This little elf has been really busy buying, making, cleaning, ironing, pricing and packing for the Christmas season. Today I finished setting up the shop for this weekend’s Christmas Open House. Then I have two shows, back to back, November 21-24 (see upcoming events menu on top of this page). I may be adding another local show at the beginning of December. Why do I do all this? Because I love it! I absolutely delight in making Christmas crafts and gift items. So to get all of you normal people non-shop owners ready for the Christmas season, I am giving you a little sneak peek at some goodies I have made for my shows. Keep in mind that this is just a sampling, as a lot of stuff was already packed up before I decided to give you a peek.
Little decorated tart tin ornaments with retro pictures, figurines and foliage (a 10 cent word for plastic flowers and ivy).
Decorated tin star ornaments with all kinds of layered goodness.
My own design of cross-body bags. Some are covered with pieced together vintage lace and some are made from vintage Christmas linens. I still have a couple more of these to make.
Here is just a close-up of the front of one of the bags. I really loved how these turned out.
Tons of old yardstick and charm necklaces. I even made some fancier ones with beaded necklaces. These are super fun to make and no two are alike!
And here are some “good intention” cones. I had good intentions of finishing them today. Oh well, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen does it?
And here are some “good intention” altered bottles. They still need a lot of embellishment and I need a lot of motivation time to finish them.
Well, there you have it. My excuse for not blogging as faithfully as I wanted. I really hope some of you dear readers will be able to come to “Ladies Night Out” in Bowling Green on the evening of November 21rst or to the Vintage Home Market in Richmond on November 23-24th. I would love to see my old friends and I always have time to make new ones!
glitteronmyface 