Run-Away Vacation

My husband has recently started his own business. Which is hard. It's hard on him; he's been putting in 13 hour days 5 or 6 days a week now for months.  It's hard on me; he's not around much anymore. It's hard on our marriage; see previously mentioned reasons.

Now don't get me wrong. So far, his business has been quite successful, and I am very proud of him.  We're just adjusting to a new reality.

Anyhow, with Monday's Columbus Day holiday, I had a long weekend.  AND hubby can set his own schedule.  We found ourselves Saturday morning, staring at each other and both desperately wanting to take work and shove it... so we did!  I got on hotwire and found a great deal on a hotel room in a small town on the other side of Lake Michigan from us.  A three hour drive later, we found ourselves far enough away from home to call it a vacation and the perfect reason for hubby to abandon his cell phone and computer.

We had NO plans.

NONE whatsoever.

And it just so happened that right near the hotel was an antique mall. And in that antique mall was a map that the local antique dealers had put together called "The Antique Trail."

I was able to bat my eyes and smile sweetly, and a good portion of our weekend was spent visiting antique mall after antique mall.

I had so much fun, and hubby tolerated it. Thankfully, all the malls had a good selection of "Man-tiques" in the form of militaria, weaponry, industrial tools, and unrecognizeable jumbles of cast iron and wood.

I made quite a few finds, and assuredly paid too much for several items.  On the whole, though, I think I got a good deal.

I am WELL aware of the fact that antique stores are not the place to buy stuff if you're planning to re-sell. They aren't my first choice of purchasing locales, as you're paying pretty close to retail there.  I much prefer estate sales (I checked, they didn't have any that weekend) and flea markets (again, I checked, none in the area.) Good deals are to be had at Antique Stores though, if you're willing to dig!

And dig I did!  I found several verified Juliana pieces that were marked WAY below retail (very surprising), some great thermoset pieces, and a Whiting and Davis bracelet.  I have the necklace and earrings that match so now I can put together a full parure!  I was also able to pick up several other fun and funky pieces!

Randolph Street Market Finds

This past weekend was the last full Randolph Street Market of the season, and I found some fantastic pieces!

I was able to pick up several fantastic pairs of cufflinks, from some watermelon rivolis to a set of silver toned beer steins, to  fantastic set featuring men in armor sword fighting!  I also found a gorgeous demi parur featureing topaz toned rhinestones and some amazing molded glass leaves!  The mesh thing up in the upper right corner is about 5 feet long! It makes a fantastic mesh scarf that can be tied in many ways for many looks! (It has to be my favorite find!)  There's also some amazing brooches and bracelets. Ooooh, and in the upper left corner is a bee brooch with a genuine piece of amber!

I've been on a buying spree lately, but my listing hasn't been at the same speed.  I'm hoping that within the next few weeks I'll get more things listed in preparation for the upcoming holiday season.

In the meantime, enjoy looking at my finds and let me know if anything appeals to you!

Recent purchases

With the jewelry party that I recently had, I discovered that I have a lot of stuff in inventory to go through and get listed. Because of that, I haven't been going to many estate sales or flea markets. Kind of a bummer, but I'm running out of places to put jewelry while waiting to get things listed.

Last week, during the party, I banished my husband. He went out to some estate sales on his own and picked up some pieces for me. (In the picture it's the set on the right and the brooch in the bottom right corner as well as the small grouping on the left)

And then this week, I was driving around and came across a couple of small estate sales and garagesales. So I picked up a few pieces. (The bangles and earrings on the top and the necklace on the bottom left, the fish on the pink card, and the silver jewelry on the bottom middle)

Vintage Jewelry Party

As an experiment, I hosted a "Vintage Costume Jewelry Party" at my house.  I took out every single piece of jewelry that I have in my collection, laid it out nicely on trays around my home, and invited just about everyone I know in the area to come and look.

Here's what the invitation said:

You are invited to come learn about and play with vintage costume jewelry.

Do you have pieces of vintage costume jewelry that you're curious about? Wonder if that vintage costume jewelry you inherited is worth anything? Bring it and we'll find out! We'll research it and determine a value. Heck, I may even buy it off of you!

OR

Have you been looking for that perfect vintage piece for an upcoming event? Want to be environmentally friendly and re-use pieces instead of supporting big-box stores and Chinese factories? Be chic and original with vintage pieces! I have a bunch available for sale if you want.

OR

Just come and play! I've got jewelry to try on, books about jewelry to look through, and websites available to look through.

Just come when you can, you don't have to stay for the entire time.

We'll have treats and beverages, mirrors and of course sparklies!

Feel free to bring a friend if you want.

 

All told, I sent the invitation to about 60 people and 11 people came! 20 percent of those invited actually came, which is just about average for a party of this sorts, so I was fairly happy.  I did some good business, and a couple of people brought some jewelry they had questions about. I had a really good time, and I think that my friends did also. 

 

It took me 4 days of sorting and tagging all my items in order to get ready for this party. As of right now, 11:00 p.m, it looks like it will take me all of tomorrow to package the jewelry back up.

 

The dining room table covered!

I'd like to think the experiment a success. My mother, a member of a "vintage ladies" group has suggested I do a vintage jewelry night for one of their upcoming get togethers, with more a discussion of what might be of value in their current collections as opposed to purchasing jewelry. I can't wait.

 

Randolph Street Market

On Saturday, I took one of my oldest friends for her first trip to the Randolph Street Market in Chicago.  We had a blast looking at all of the great antiques, vintage items, jewelry, and quirky things!  We even saw a pair of Laurel and Hardy lamps!  My family has a love of all things Laurel and Hardy, as my brothers are essentially Stan and Oliver re-incarnated. 

You can see so much other great stuff in the background of this photo!  I absolutely adore the market.  They had some amazing food vendors.  The lovely french nuns were there selling their baked goods from the St. Roger Abbey. Both my friend and I purchased incredible chocolate croissants and my friend also picked up a blackberry poundcake.  We also had lunch at a crepe stand at the fair also. (Unfortunately, I've forgotten the name of the crepe stand).

Anyway, of course, I purchased a bunch of jewelry while there.  I picked up several sterling silver brooches, some really cool cufflinks and a gorgeously stunning 1940s trembler brooch (top right of the picture).  It's not a huge haul as I did have to pay higher prices due to the venue, however I think I did well. 

Vacation Photos!

You can tell that I'm a vintage jewelry collector at heart.  I was in Utah and California for a combined total of almost 2 whole weeks and every day, I wanted to find another antique store / flea market / estate sale to go to!  As it was, I was only able to go out and buy jewelry 4 days out of the 12.

Not a bad haul, huh?

Anyway, my first trip was to an antique market in Springville, Ut called "Treasures Antique Mall."  It has two huge buildings and is right off of I-15. In the time that I had, I was able to go through only 1 building. I had hoped to go back for the other one later, but that never happened.

This is me making a pouty face. :(

Anyway, I was able to find some great deals! And one of my sisters-in-law found a multi-stranded freshwater pearl necklace worth a couple hundred dollars that was marked $30.  The staff was incredibly helpful and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. 

Here's a better picture of the haul from Treasures:

The next day, I was talked into going to Deseret Industries, Utah's version of Goodwill or Salvation Army thrift stores.  We went to three "DIs" before I found one that had jewelry.  Unfortunately, they were all bagged together in mini lots, so I felt I was taking a risk, and I didn't come out with much.

The "good stuff" were a couple of Coro / Corocraft necklaces and a funky purple glittery beaded necklace, as well as a bunch of beaded necklaces that I'm selling as a "lot" on Etsy. 

After 5 days in Utah, I then flew out to LA to visit my brother and his wife.  I had a marvelous time there.  One day, we went to six estate sales, and I got a load of great jewelry!  Seeing the different architecture there was really neat too.  We were in Playa Del Rey, Venice, Santa Monica, and Marina Del Rey. I found an incredible beaded purse from the 1920s! I also picked up some great cameos and brooches.  The brooch in the middle is a Weiss! 

Another day, we went to a prop liquidator who sells off stuff from closed down theatrical productions, TV shows and Movies.  They had all of the jewelry from the "One Life to Live" soap opera.  I was able to pick up 6 vintage necklaces.  Unfortunately, the would not provide any proof or documentation that these pieces were on the show, so I cannot resell them based off of that information.  However I can add it as a neat story.  Supposedly the copper necklace on the bottom right corner of the picture was worn by the character "Dorian."

The whole reason for this trip WASN'T to buy jewelry, I can't forget that.  So here's some of the real reasons!

Chiropractic Adjusted Jewelry???

An interesting thing happened while sitting in the waiting room of my Chiropractor a few weeks ago.  I was chatting with the receptionist about her mother, costume jewelry, and my shop. Another patient waiting for her appointment asked me more details, and I talked about how I buy from estate sales, clean up the pieces and sell them online. 

She then said "I have a bunch of old jewelry that was my mothers that I don't know what to do with!  I won't wear it, it's not my style. Would you like to see it?"  I wasn't going to turn that offer down.  The next time I went to my chiropractor, the receptionist told me that she had a bag of jewelry and a phone number from the patient I had been talking to.

This lady trusted me enough to leave the jewelry for me to look through!  I excitedly took all the jewelry home to find that most of it was in original boxes! One of the sets in the picture (on the bottom left corner) appears to be much more modern than what I usually deal in, maybe late 1980s / early 1990s. Another set (in the top left corner with the pearls) is so covered with verdegris that I'm not sure it's salvageable. But most of it is right up my alley! Check out the Laguna crystal set, in orginal box, with original hang tag!!!

Clockwise from upper left: Faux Pearl Demi parure, light blue "butterfly"
rhinestone necklace, Laguna Crystal Demi Parure, Jade Parure, Topaz / Jonquil
rhinestone necklace, Clear rhinestone set in "Winston Jewelry" box, Pavé Rhinestone Parure

Anywho, I called the customer and talked to her about the pieces.  I explained that it is exactly what I'm looking for. I also described each set, explained what I would price it at if I had it in my own shop, and then offered her a price that worked out to be about half of what I would offer.  She took it instantly, no haggling!  She then said "I trust you on this. I don't know anything about it, and I don't wear the stuff.  I'm just happy it's going to someone who will find people who love it."

She ended by telling me that she'd drop of another bag of jewelry at the chiropractor's office in the future. After my conversation with this lovely lady, I called the receptionist (whose name also happens to be Joanne) and told her about the arrangements.  She said she didn't mind being an intermediary, especially as she'd get to look at all the jewelry ahead of time.

I really am blessed to have my store's business improving like it is! It is truly exciting to be making so many connections and networking the way I am!

Today's Haul

(click to zoom)

I love going Estate Sale-ing. I can usually find some great pieces and keep my costs down for my shop. Unfortunately, the sales have been a little depressing lately, with not much good stuff when I get there.  Yesterday was a rare day when I got to go sale-ing on a day that wasn't Saturday.  Of the 5 sales I went to, 0 had any good jewelry.  Today though, Hubby and I went to Estate Sales and bought all this from just 4 out of the 8 sales I went to.  Hey, a .500 average is great in Baseball, it should count for something in the Vintage world!

Anywho, one of my favorites from today is that ring in the bottom left corner.  That's sterling silver and Israeli Turquoise.  There are some shell cameos up on the top, and some funky clamper bracelets too that I'm digging on. The necklace on the top left is Hematite, and the top right is Majorica pearls.

I'll be a busy girl photographing and listing all this great stuff. Gotta inventory it and do some cleaning first!