I Just Want to Light You Up

"I just want to light you up, Light you up like a fire, I just want to turn you on, Turn you on and take you higher"... Shawn Mullins

Now Shawn meant a different kind of light you up but I just couldn't resist using that chorus for a blog on chandeliers... I'm always happy to do a shout out for a local guy who has "done good"... Really nice guy, met him on one of my flights but I digress...  Can we talk lighting???

Atlanta is all about subdivisions. These have three or four models and 400 copies.  Each builder has their standard and upgraded features but rarely do they upgrade lighting.  Additionally, most will not put special pieces in for you.  I've had two homes built here in the past 20 years.  One lower budget and one that made me scream "TARA!" Both left me to change light fixtures as I found the time and money to do so.  Lighting can make or break the ambiance of a room.  The rooms in our house that don't require ceiling fans, all have vintage lighting to go with the other vintage decor.  Like other aged pieces it shows our personality instead of the builders designers who I never met.

I have an obsession with chandelier crystals.  I grab them whenever I see them in sales.  All shapes, colors and sizes - the only common denominator is that they are old.  I don't do new crystals.  They're made cheaper.  I love the old ones that have been taken off old broken down chandeliers and pieced out.  I used to grab them from Bandit's Down Under when Lakewood was still around.  Dave would be upgrading old beauties and I'd come clean him out of his stock.  Miss his little store in Lakewood.  Ran into him recently at Scotts and asked him where Bandit (his dog) was... His response "On the mantle waiting for me"...  Funny guy!!!  When Lakewood closed that was an end of an era for alot of us for sure...   Anyway, I keep the crystals I find in a box for future projects.  They glam candlesticks and chandeliers up with vintage beauty in no time.

A girlfriend just moved.  We went over to her house to see what she needed to downsize and she pulled these two chandeliers out of her basement.  The heavy metal one had an ugly three armed yellow globed piece hanging in it, but I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it... and when she handed me the vintage brass one... my heart started to sing...  "Yes puhlease!!! I'll take both of those babies!!!"  I had visions of where they'd hang in our booth... and pulled up pictures of my visions for the restoration to show to Bill.

Bill's job this time was to clean up the chandeliers and rewire them.  When he started on the brass piece he pointed out that the brass was too damaged to make it look right.  We decided that he should paint it a dark rubbed bronze color.  It totally brought out the design and made it pop.  We went looking for the piece to go into the heavy iron piece and couldn't find one the right size that called my name.  I figured that job would be shelved for a bit... until I went into our master bath to get ready the next day.  I turned around and saw it...  You see years ago when I bought this house new, since the builders wouldn't change the spec, I had my father (this is BB... Before Bill... my dad LOVES Bill) change out the canned lighting over my master bathtub and hung a small crystal chandelier I found at an online garage sale.  From boring to PRINCESS in an easy upgrade.  Over the years I felt that the chandelier could have been bigger but I haven't bothered to change it out... that morning I grabbed my tape measure and went running into our workshop...  "Honey!!! I've got the piece for the heavy iron chandelier!!!"


"Where?"

"In our master bath!  It'll fit.  You don't mind taking it down do you?  We can find one we like better at Lowe's or somewhere else this weekend."

"(grumble) It'll work.  Ok."

I've told you my hub is ever suffering... he loves doing projects but let me tell you what he HATES doing... changing light fixtures.  :)  Did I mention he loves me?  I'm grateful for that... he'd kill me otherwise... 

As he worked his magic in the workshop, I poured a glass of wine and sat down to work mine with the crystals on the newly painted brass chandelier.  I hung upwards of 200 crystals on that piece.  It started off lightweight and now that puppy is about 40 pounds of bling.  About halfway done I realized I had a problem.  Other dealers, you'll feel my pain here... I fell in love.  When you're a dealer, nothing other than family items are sacred.  Your decor rotates as you bring in pieces to up-cycle.  Some just can't leave home when you're done.  I finished that piece and told my husband...  "Good news and bad news... Good news... you don't have to go light shopping with me for our new bathroom piece... the bad news is we've only got one chandelier for the booth... I want to keep this one."

"So when we move, we'll take out all the antique chandeliers in the house and change them out?"

"Yup."

"Ok.  That'll look pretty upstairs."  Then he hung it for me today with my help.  OMG that thing is HEAVY... but its beautiful... see?!?  He'll totally want to kill me the first time he stands up from taking a bath and hits his head... but I'll remind him again how beautiful it is and how much I love him for hanging it... and he'll grumble again but not kill me... again...

Back to the other chandelier, which we WILL sell... The two irons were different colors so Bill had to paint them to match.  He's rewired the piece, and the crystals have been rehung.  It's a glorious juxtaposition of bling and metal.  Masculine and feminine.  We think you'll love it as much as we do.  It will be put in the booth this week.

It's a glorious fall day but we hope you will find us at the Queen of Hearts in Alpharetta.  Crow on Broad Street.  Come out and see us soon!

This is the Beauty of the Vintage Lifestyle...

This is the beauty of the vintage lifestyle... old things come with old stories, and your story just becomes the latest chapter.

I read this line in one of the many vintage magazines I grab as I'm running through the store.  I thought.. EXACTLY!!!  I love that I'm recycling, saving, up-cycling or simply just using something someone's Grandmother put in the cabinet for "special occasions"... With the exception of my Spode Christmas Rose (not the tree, never the tree... too mainstream for me) china, I use everything I have daily.  Nothing is so special that it's only saved for those one or two lifetime special moments.  I love that most of what you see in my home is something you'd never find in Ikea, Hobby Lobby or Target.  As I've said many times before, I don't get caught up in trends. 

Christmas is one of those seasons that you can walk into my home and see exactly how un-trendy I am.  I have two large Christmas trees and a myriad of smaller trees around my home.  Each tree has a theme, and the themes are filled in all vintage ornaments.  My small bird tree in my foyer... my blown glass lady figurines that I've collected since I was a child are in my living room tree... Disney ornaments (also from my childhood) grace my family room tree along with blown glass Santas.  All the tree toppers are 50's glass beauties. 

Now don't get me wrong, if you're one of those bow and feather Christmas tree people... I think they're gorgeous... they are just not me... because again, a feather doesn't hold my memories like a glass ornament from the past.  Each Christmas season I tend to buy one or two new ornaments that fit into my theme.  I've done this since I was a teenager so that today each piece has a memory for me.  I think that's why I love vintage shiny brights... they are memories from my youth.    I smile at the lanterns, bells and pine cones... and can't resist buying them.  Every Christmas in our booth I have a tree that is filled with these for sale.... and another tree that has some sort of theme.  This year the theme tree will be covered in 50s plastic Santa head light cover ornaments and white birds.  The red and white pops on the green tree.

We'll be totally gutting our booth for the holidays... to bring our house to yours...  along with the two trees you'll find vintage ruby red and green compotes and other glass ware... green depression glass candlesticks... green metal stars... deer figurines... holiday postcards... green french seltzer bottles... barnwood candlelabras and many more vintage lovelies.

I'm also excited to be finally cleaning up this beautiful baby and bringing it in for the holiday season... I think it'll fit in perfectly next to the vintage trees.  I finally talked my husband into letting me sell it.  We've been holding on to it for the past year thinking "what if we get our dream home 3-4 years from now..." and fighting the need for space in our workshop...  we'll probably hate ourselves for selling it... so once we've got it cleaned up and in our booth... if it's something you've dreamed of having, grab it quick because we're still in love with it...

That's a quick peek into whats coming to our store the first week of November.  As always come see us at the Queen of Hearts in Alpharetta.  Crow on Broad Street.  There's 71 days til Christmas... once Halloween is over it's GAME ON!

Waste not want not

"There must be a reason why some people can afford to live
well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we could use"... Mother Teresa

It's been a while since we've been in our workshop and even longer since I've been able to sit down and write about our adventures.  Both Bill and I disappear with our careers every summer... and maybe for a trip or two on a rare day off...  we are both thrilled to be winding down and back for the fall/winter to do this hobby/passion that we love.  

Bill and I look for different things when we're out junking.  We'll walk in opposite directions through the same places and meet back up with each other with items that the other person didn't see.  Together though, our visions match and blend nicely.  Over the next couple of days we'll blog about what we're planning for our holiday extravaganza next month... but today I want to talk about reclamation at it's finest.

We are certified barnwood and stone junkies.  We drive by a property being torn down and we pull over faster than when we have flashing red lights behind us... we grab every item that can be recycled that can fit in or on top of my Jeep.  Bought that Jeep before Bill because I come from a long line of Jeep lovers... but I tell you, since Bill, I can say that Jeep was probably one of the best purchases I have made in the past 10 years.  It's the little engine that could and we've have loaded it down beyond imagination at times.  We have a beautiful stack stone wall all around our garden from the fireplaces that have been torn down near us and a garage full of different timbers that are just waiting for the right project - like the sideboard wine bar currently in our booth.

When Bill works on a large scale project he doesn't toss any scraps from it.  He's got a large can filled with pieces of wood.  Sometime last year when I was watching my Master Mudgie in all his glory in our shop, I stared at those lovely chunky bits and an idea started to form in my head.  Bill has a love hate relationship with those moments... because it means more projects for him... and they usually start with a "could you do this to that"... and they finish with him seeing my vision and hitting it out of the ballpark.

This one evening, I saw the scraps of barnwood and thought of all the sugar molds new and old that are out there in shops and asked if he could drill holes the size of votive holders.  I had a bunch of glass holders left from our wedding... and I grabbed a few to show him what I was talking about.  His response was "Yes, of course, and would they sell?"  Then he made a few to try out in the store.  They quickly flew off the shelves.  I recently bought a large lot of silvery glass votive holders to make these pieces more "holiday festive"... and my sweet husband decided that I needed one for my birthday... so he made a custom piece with birds "two crows" for us... he's currently making a bunch for the booth for the holidays, and another custom piece for a special event coming up that I'm not talking about further in case that person reads this...  

I love that we found a way to not waste these pieces... and a niche that no one else is currently doing... it's a twist on the sugar molds that everyone went gaga over the past 10 years... and trust, each one of these pieces were from a building torn down in GA.  How cool is that for local history lovers?  Why fill landfills with trash when you can make a treasured piece as gorgeous as these?

While we are using ours on our breakfast table, we did take it outside last night for a romantic dinner on the patio... fireplace roaring (we LOVE fall), and candles glowing...  I am in love!!!

You can find these in our booth currently.  We're adding more in the next couple of days.  They have 2 to 4 holes and fit anywhere from corner tables to coffee tables to mantles to dining tables.  Imagine throwing small pumpkins and leaves around it for the fall and then greenery, vintage shiny brites (coming soon also to our booth) and berries for the holidays.

As always you can find us at The Queen of Hearts in Alpharetta.  Crow on Broad Street.  Come check us out between the 5th and 9th of November.  We'll be revamping our booth for Christmas and the Holiday Extravaganza on November 9th.  Until then, enjoy your fall, football and fun times on your patio... it's bbq season y'all!!!  With love from our home to yours...