This little end table by the Mersman company was in such poor condition no one would buy it at an online estate auction. So when I went to pick up my other items, the auctioneer said, 'Are you sure you can't do anything with that little Mersman?' What a sweet little table with its triple column base and splayed legs, albeit it at 3 different lengths and missing trim. I thought it had tons of potential. So, I made an offer and brought it home.










Mersman is a furniture company in the United States that has made tables under many different names since the 1870s. My favorites are their Mid Century tables. They're always excellent quality and have great lines. Though mass produced in their later years, they have become a hot collectors' item. Do a search on Ebay and see how hot this brand is right now!

So, I brought this little guy home and played with it a bit. I sturdied up the legs, did a little sanding, gave it a coat of "Tiffany" colored milk paint (my favorite) over the top of hand cut paisley patterned tape appliques I made to reveal some of the beautiful wood tone through the new paint.



When it dried and I removed the tape I felt it still needed a little something, so I added some hand painted white paisleys to the top. Then I felt like the white was too stark. AH!! So, I sanded the whole top again. Oooh. Now I liked it!




Threw a coat of natural beeswax furniture wax on it and wallah! I hope someone gives this little Mersman a new home Friday or Saturday as it'll be on sale at the Parlor City Indie Market and Craft Faire.

Watch for these tables at antique sales and flea markets or call me if you have any you want to unload. I'll even take the uglies and try to give them a new lease on life.

Bench Retro Redo

Here's a nice little Mid Century bench. Good and solid, but the wood is a little scratched up and the fabric is gawdawful. Poor thing. It wants a makeover!

So, we start by taking the top off - SO easy, it's just attached with 4 screws.

I used my recently purchased 100% natural Ginger's Milk Paint in Eiffel Tower Gray. I mixed it with bonding agent because I don't want this piece to be 'chippy'... that would be the WRONG look for this style of furniture. I can't say that I love using milk paint yet. It's like trying to train a wild animal, you just never really know what's going to happen with it.

But, this time, it came out perfect!

I recently bought a piece of vintage fabric at a flea market. This is straight out of the 50s. I just love the funky little pattern. I'm an orange fan and grays are SO in right now, I decided to go for it.

You put the fabric on, make sure your pattern is straight and start stapling! Always start in the middle on one side, put about 3 staples in (or about 6" attachment) then go to the opposite side, pull the fabric nice and tight (without causing creases) and staple on the opposite side of the staples you just put in. Next you do the other end, then you work from the middle sections to the corners leaving about the last 2" loose. Once you have the sides all secured your goal is to have taught corners without loose fabric or hard creases or corners of fabric sticking out. You can achieve this by working your way around the corner, making small creases in the fabric, pull it all tight and staple it down fast before it gets away! Don't get your fingers!

 

Then put the cushion back on the bench with the original 4 screws! Easy peasey.

Talkin'bout Crazy Cool Medallions

This makes me laugh: http://www.hulu.com/watch/274881 

Check out this crazy cool medallion.

Rehearsal for Death! A Mystery - Just in Time for Halloween!

Calling All Ye Theater Folk! Calling North High grads! Calling the class of 1954!

Help us solve the mystery of the “Rehearsal for Death” vintage poster from 1954.

See picture – who was “The Guild”? Who remembers seeing this play? How can we find the list of actors who performed in it? Are Raymond Merchant’s relatives still around?

Was it a good production? ;-) Ok, it's not necessary to answer that question, but it would be fun to hear about it! At any rate, people weren't paying ALL that much to go, 75 cents for adults! Not bad.

This poster is for sale for $28. unless the mystery uncovers a famous actor appeared in this performance! However, help us solve the mysteries and tell us a good story and get this for $20!

Gentle-Ride, My Ass

I’m notoriously cheap. I am one of those types who sits around and evaluates the 10 available scenarios of every purchase to determine the cheapest option. As a result, there are times I have stories that blow peoples’ minds with what I’ve been able to save. Other times, well, let me just tell you what happened yesterday as an example.

I needed to rent a UHaul vehicle to move a bunch of furniture I bought and then help my cousin move. So, I evaluated the options - a big van is $20 per day, a truck up to 18’ long is $30, a truck 20’ to 26’ is $40. The catch is mileage which is an additional 79 cents per mile. OUCH. The guy pointed to the trucks and there was the 26' truck with a lovely tortoise painted on it looking all peaceful and the side advertised "Gentle-Ride." I only had a 4 mile trip to take, but I was thinking between the time it would take to drive back and forth and the fact that each 8 mile trip would cost me nearly $7 plus gas, I should just get the biggest truck possible and load it once and take one trip with it. Right? 

God was I wrong.

First off, I’ve never driven a 26’ truck. I had NO idea the ass of the truck can wipe out house decks if you don’t take corners wide enough.

I didn’t really take the deck out entirely, honest. But, I did move it about 3’. Don’t worry, I put it back and also checked the structural integrity before leaving. I’m qualified, I swear!

Second of all, here’s something you might never think of (I know I didn’t), if you’re pulling off a road up a hill, the ass end of the truck (and that damned 8” extension of a trailer hitch) is getting lower and lower to the road you’re leaving.

So, at the end of the a grueling 7.5 hours of loading the 26’ truck full to the gills, I’m driving up upper Court Street at the blazing speed of 40 mph (the fastest the truck would go) and somehow I missed the turn into the storage facility. No problem, I’ll just turn left into this motel and loop through their parking lot then hang a right into the storage facility. They had a nice (so I thought) pull-through driveway – albeit upgrade, but it wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do with any other vehicle I normally drive so I didn’t think anything of it.

 I hung a left and drove and upwards. Suddenly, I came to a stop. I was like, huh? Is this too steep for the truck to climb? Are you kidding me? So, I pushed on the gas a little harder then I heard this strange sound of tires spinning in mid air. Huh? I was so confused. I put it in reverse, same sound. I was struck with total confusion. I put the truck in park and got out.

Well, would you believe as I pulled off the road up the grade, the hitch of the truck (that damned hitch) got so low that it ground about ½” into the pavement and my rear tires were barely touching the ground? (!) The entire truck was hung up on the hitch!

I laughed. I cried (you know, not really, but kind of like, oh frick, what am I going to do now!?!).

I walked to the storage facility and found John the manager (and miracle maker) and his buddy, maybe his name was Anthony, I’m not sure (I’ll call him Great Smile Guy). Anyway, Great Smile Guy said, don’t worry, John is THE MAN and he’ll figure out how to help you. John went and fetched a forklift and risked his life picking the entire truck up while Great Smile Guy and I risked losing our hands by sliding 4x4 blocks of wood under the tires and we moved the truck 18” at a time by having John lift the truck up from behind while I backed the truck up the length of the 4x4s we had (24” long ha!). For each 18” maneuver, Great Smile Guy would stop all traffic both ways on Upper Court Street while John was BEHIND the truck holding it up in the air while I was backing up. Crazy. I kept thinking, please don’t let me kill him, please don’t let me kill him!

All of the workers from the business across the street came out to watch as did a couple drivers who pulled over just for the entertainment – or maybe to be there in case someone got run over. I was blazing red with embarrassment and anyone who knows me knows I am rarely embarrassed. At one point I thought, thank god no one would know it’s me in this Uhaul. ‘Bing’ goes my phone, “Alexis, is that you at the motel in the Uhaul? I was just driving by.”

No. God no, that is not me.

So, moral of the story is, if you’re not an experienced truck driver, you (ok, I) have NO business driving a 26’ truck. And unless you have miracle makers on-hand like John and Great Smile Guy, you are going to be royally screwed if you get yourself in a pickle which you’re very likely to do and it’ll end up costing you a fortune. Not to mention the deck. As it turns out, 3 trips with a 18’ truck would have been just peachy and well worth 79 cents per mile.

My First Weekend on the Road with Sixela Company

This was my first weekend setting up a booth and I did it two days in a row, phew!

Saturday we set up in Oneonta for the 34th Annual Grand and Glorious Garage Sale. I arrived half an hour earlier than my Mom and Amy. Mom was selling her recycled rugs and purses and Amy was there to help (and help she did!). As we unloaded the truck I would just point or tell Amy where to put things. She’s so great, before even setting an object down, she would say, what am I doing next? We slammed that booth together in about 40 minutes which is miraculous considering it was our first time and I had only planned the booth out on the canvas in my head. Amy and mom were teasing me about not wanting to have anything ‘that didn’t match’ hung out. Amy said, yeah, because it has to match, but not match, in the Alexis matching without matching sort of way. I liked that.

Well, we barely had the booth finished and people were coming in and buying stuff! It was so exciting. The Mid Century black faux leather chairs had three inquiries and sold within 5 minutes of putting them down! I had painted some wicker screens someone gave me for free because the loops connecting them had fallen apart to look sort of like abstract daisies to match my 50s-70s theme I was going for and we barely had them set up before someone came and asked about them. I said I hadn’t planned to sell them and they were held together with zip ties, but I suppose if someone really wanted them and would let me use them for the rest of the show I would sell them – and they bought them!

But, the biggest hit in Oneonta was the vintage clothing. I had no idea Oneonta had such a hip crowd. Very fun people.

The best part of the weekend was how many times people complimented the booth. People even thanked us for being there and for having such a nice booth. I’d call that a successful weekend! 

Cookson, Haeger and McCoy, OH MY!

I’m not a lucky person by nature. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I have ‘bad luck’, I’m just not lucky in general. For instance, I never win on scratch-offs, raffles, sweepstakes, quick draw and I’m sure I’ll never win the lottery.

Oh, and I’ve never found a four leaf clover.

However, lately I’m starting to think; maybe my luck is just highly focused on particular items or types of items. What got me thinking this is I’ve ‘lucked into’ several rare vintage items junk sailing over the past couple of weeks. But truly notable is that my luck seems fixated on any pottery marked USA and most often Cookson, Haeger or McCoy.

Mitch went to a yard sale with me and noticed a guy putting a box of planters out at the curb – as garbage. Guess what was in the box? About six McCoys. Son of a gun.

I took my cousin Amy’s kids, Maryjane and Adam yard sailing with me a few weeks ago and Maryjane called to me from the other end of a long table, “Alexis, I found a vase I think you would like.” Sure enough, check out this sweet Haeger find! Talk about luck! Nice that Maryjane knows my taste so well. Guess I’ll have to take them sailing again soon!

I found a few new pieces recently that weren’t marked any of the above, they were marked Brush, so, I thought, ‘ooh, cool’ something different! I got home and started researching.

Guess who made Brush.

McCoy.

Wow. I just can’t get away from them.

I think my Lady Luck may have a crush on USA Potters.

2 of Hearts

I'm having a hard time letting this stoneware jug go. It has SO much character! The brown glaze on the top drips down creating great color variations. The left side of the jug dips in a bit and you can just picture the jug in sitting in its raw clay form slubbing down under its own weight. There are crystallized brown pieces of its use memorializing its history that I just don't have the heart to scrape or clean off.

There's a great story about the hunt to identify the maker of the heart logo on here: http://www.santafetradingpost.com/jugs.html under the box: The Heart Logo Mystery. I hate to spoil the story and skip to the end because it's a terribly fun read, but in case any of you won't want to read it, the logo was identified as stoneware from the Barley & Winter Pottery Company from Crooksville, OH. The jug was likely made in the early 1900s and if you read the story you'll find there aren't many of these around!

So, you see, I just love this jug that I have come to refer to as "The 2 of Hearts Jug" so
you may have to peel the jug out of my hands if you buy it at the bargain price of $50.