Switching Gears to an Occasional Shop

For a loooooooooong time, I have wanted to switch our shop to an occasional shop. Until yesterday, we were open 5 days a week. Since our shop depends on vintage items and handmade/upcycled craft projects, and since I run the shop alone, being open 5 days a week was a real drawback.

I need to be out picking to keep fresh antique & vintage treasures coming in. Bless his heart, George would go out picking once in a while, but I hated to have him take time out of his busy schedule to do that on a regular basis.

And I need to keep crafting. I have so many ideas floating around in my head, and I have lots of supplies on hand. But no time when I'm so tied down to the shop.

I have always wished for a barn just outside of town to do once a month events. But the cold hard reality is that I am never going to find that setting, and even if I did, I wouldn't have the money to buy it.

I was afraid doing the once a month thing in my location in town wouldn't go over well. George would say, "why not?" And I would tick off my list of reasons.

Then one day I couldn't think of a reason.

Let's do this!

I'm very excited. I'm thrilled to know I now will have much more time for picking and crafting. We are putting our plan into action immediately.

This Friday & Saturday, we will have a storewide 20% off sale to clear out some inventory. This will make room for all the new things coming in. (Sale excludes eggs, jelly and bath & body products). If you have been thinking about buying something we currently have, I would advise you to do it then. By the time we are open again in July, it may not be there even if it hasn't sold. We walked around the shop one day, coming up with lots of upcyling ideas for many of the current items. So, what you see right now may have taken on a whole different look in July.

Speaking of new looks, that is the idea of the occasional shop. Our goal is to have a whole new look each month, with lots of new treasures. This may turn out to be more work than being open 5 days, but luckily, George and I both like to create and go junkin', so this should be fun. Exhausting maybe, but fun.

Note that we will be open each weekend in December until Christmas. Gotta take advantage of the Christmas shopping season. Santa needs somewhere to shop!

We spent last evening re-doing the display windows. I took pics, but it was getting dark, and they didn't turn out well at all. So, I'll take more pics in the daylight, and post those later.

If you are one of our egg buyers, we want to accomodate you. Knock on the door on Tuesdays from 11-2, and I will have eggs to sell. I'll be in the shop, working in the background. You can also buy them from Howard Family Farms on Saturday mornings at the Wheeling Farmer's Market. It's held in the parking lot of St. Mikes on National Road in Wheeling.

The occasional shop concept has become quite trendy. We hope and pray we can do it justice. Wish us luck!

We are the Mom and Pop of our Mom and Pop Shop

Since it's National Mom & Pop Business Owners Day, it's a good day to reintroduce ourselves.

We are George & Barb, and we opened our shop in 2002.

What a ride! 

Some days are incredibly rewarding.

Some are incredibly frustrating.

Most fall solidly in the middle, and that's just fine.

We have met so many great people.

Picked some really cool stuff.

Smiled when the cool stuff went home with great people.

If you haven't had a chance to stop in yet, we hope you will soon.
Find us at 318 Jefferson Avenue in Moundsville, WV.
Hours are Tue - Fri 10-5, and Sat 10-2.
Follow us on Facebook for lots of updates, and any notices on hours changes for bad weather or vacation. Or the occasional days we close to go pickin'.

The struggle is real. Be open, or go pickin'. Sometimes pickin' wins. 

Ahem.

Also look for us on Instagram, for a glimpse into both our shop life and our farm life.

Full disclosure: this photo is from LAST spring. We haven't had decent enough weather yet this spring to set that much stuff outside. But hopefully soon!

Spring can't hide forever!

Fun with Frames

Frames aren't just for photos anymore!
Are you familiar with Sheldon on Big Bang Theory?
And his Fun with Flags series?
Here's my version of Fun with Frames...

I started playing around with our vintage frames the other day, hanging them on the wall, then looking for something to hang in them. There are no end to the possibilities.

I like how the star on the oval frame. Fun look!
And the black frame really makes the cotton ball wreath pop.

I painted the flower sign on a slab cut on our saw mill. It juuust fit inside the wood frame.

The basket on the wall is a freezer basket. I should have placed something in it, but.... I was getting tired and just didn't! ha!
What is that behind the smaller cotton wreath you ask? I'll tell you. It's a treadle off a sewing machine cabinet. Cool architectural piece!

A sheep painted on an old pair of sheep shears. Seems appropriate!

And another sheep painted on an old heart shaped baking pan. I like to paint sheep.
Can you tell?

I ran out of wall space before I ran out of frames! 

Grandma's Kitchen

There's something about vintage kitchenware...

Sometimes we get something in, and I have no idea what it is. Such was the case with the scissors like item in the front. Thanks to several followers on my Facebook page, I learned it is a meatball maker. Why didn't I think of that?

Love, love, love blue canning jars. Clear ones too, but blue? Be still my heart.

So pretty in pink, despite the crack. That just adds character.

I can almost smell the pies and cakes baking.

And the cookies.

The old metal utensils had so much more charm that our modern day plastic ones.

Ahh. Grandma's kitchen, a walk down memory lane.

A February Ice Storm

It was a dark and stormy night day. Cold. Rain. Sleet. Fog.

It was supposed to warm up enough to turn to rain.

Yeah, yeah. That clearly didn't happen.

We don't get this much ice all that often. It was beautiful. And thankfully, our power never went off (though some folks in our area did lose theirs for several hours).

"What is that?", George just asked as he looked over my shoulder. It's a roll of electric fencing that hangs on one of our garden posts. Electric fencing coated in ice.

If it was outside, that was it's story. It's always interesting to walk through grass that is encased in ice. Every. Single. Blade.

We had the ice for a couple days, and then it warmed up enough to melt. And now it's raining. Again.
Maybe I should take a picture of the mud.

Nah. Nevermind.

Spring - we are patiently waiting on you!!!

Modern Farmhouse Style

We have been busy adding lots of white farmhouse style pieces.

. 

I absolutely love how this photo came out. A happy accident. I was taking a picture of the mirror itself, and the bench photo bombed it perfectly. 

I am enjoying the trends toward white. I admit I get tired of painting black and mustard and red and all the primitive colors. Sure, the primitive look I've carried all these years is great, and I see gorgeous examples of it in magazines and online and in photos customers show me in their own homes. But personally, I like a bit more color. The dark colors get a bit depressing to me personally. 

And what's great is that the antique treasures we carry lend themselves to both styles! So, whether you are into primitive, or are leaning more toward the modern farmhouse style, we have you covered!

Now if you will excuse me, I'm headed back to the painting table.

Cold Winter. Very Cold Winter.

What a winter! Not a huge amount of snow, but cold. As in COLD.

 A few weeks of single digit days and below 0 nights.

It did make for some pretty photos, though it was too cold to venture out and take very many.

We are very thankful for our wood stove, and the health to get in firewood. 

I've been kind of disappointed that most of the snow this winter has been so dry and fluffy. We need a decent snowman making snow! Maybe that will come in February.

We did finally get a January thaw. Check out this icicle that formed on the back of our shop during the snow melt. What a crazy angle! 

It's been a good winter to do what our new grandaughter is doing. Sleep! Ha!
At 2 months old, her favorite activities are eating, sleeping, and laying on the floor to wiggle.

And grinning.

She is getting quite good at melting Mimi and Pappy's hearts.

By the way, I see in my last post that I showed the broken display window at the shop. We got it fixed, and the guys did a great job on it.

This was it at Christmas. I need to get an updated one. Though I might need to wash the window first. And it's warmer, but not that warm!