Mostly Orchids

I don't get to join Friday memes a lot so I am excited to link with Cindy for Show and Tell Friday at http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

Glenda for Fertilizer Friday at http://www.tootsietime.com/

and with Claudia's Finding Beauty at http://www.dipityroad.com/

I have always loved orchids and I would buy them with flowers but after the flowers wither, the plant never blooms again. It's always been that way even when I lived in Florida. So I had about 6 orchid plants near the house that were looking pitiful, losing leaves and all.

Then, I remembered, when we moved from Florida, I had my daughter and her family stay in our house there and left an orchid in the screened in porch. One day I went for a visit, I saw the orchid, not only was it still alive, it was blooming. My daughter never watered it, not a single time cause she does not do that, lol.

I came up with the conclusion that they do not like me to take care of them and they just want to be left alone. And that's exactly what I did. I moved 5 orchids in the gazebo and just left them there.

Look what happened! They are all blooming, lol!

Aren't they just the prettiest flowers?

Since they are tropical plants, I will bring them in during the cold winter months but I will put them back in the gazebo in the spring but right now, they are still doing fine in there.

This hot pepper plant is not in the gazebo but I just wanted to show you all the peppers coming out. Looks like it is a late bloomer.

These lantanas are planted in the front corner of the garage. I took pictures when I saw 2 butterflies just flying around and then resting on the flowers.


Now, back to the gazebo. The store finally had trumpet vines and they called to tell me so I bought 2 of them and planted them so they can climb the gazebo. They are evergreens so they will be fine during the winter. Aren't the orange flowers pretty?

I hope they don't compete with the star jasmines. I have 4 of them climbing there too. They died last year because we had a really bad winter but they came back and they are just starting to bloom.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the flowers still blooming in our gardens. Let's all see the other beauties out there and visit Glenda, Claudia and their participants.

Thank you all for coming by.

Transferware Tablescape/Display in Store

I missed all the tea and table top memes last Tuesday because there was just too much to do but I thought I would join Tablescape Thursday even if I just post a small table, another half table in the store. It's more like a tablescape and display combo.

Susan is hosting Tablescape Thursday and you will find a lot of beautiful and creative table settings so check her blog out at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com

I bought this set from a catalog store a while back and just stuck them in the garage closet. After several months, I decided to open them ( 2 boxes of 4 place settings each) only to find out that 1 salad plate is missing and 1 tea pot is chipped so I decided to take them to the store to sell. I do have a lot of other blue and white dishes anyway.

Sorry, I had no flatware to add to this table. The only ones I have left are fall colored ones. All the stainless ones that I brought to the store were all sold and I couldn't bear to part with my other flatware collection at home. I need to go shopping again, lol!

Those 2 framed tiles used to hang in my home in Florida but I have no walls to hang them here so I decided to sell them also.

I did not even have a blue table cloth or placemats at the store so I just pulled a blue and white dish towel, lol. I think it worked.

The table is a little too full because I just stuck all the other pieces there too to display.

Thanks, Susan, for hosting another fun event and thank you all for coming.

Met on Items For the Store

Here is the latest Magnolia oil painting I just did. I did not take a picture of a blank canvas but I am sure you all know how it looks like.

I cannot believe it's another week again. Time sure flies when we are having fun, isn't it? And I am really having a lot of fun. It has been so busy for me doing oil paints and refinishing items to make them look more presentable so I can sell them in the store. The store has been doing very well. The store keeper/landlady said I am neck to neck with another lady when it comes to top sales. Really not bad for just a month since I opened huh? And she said there are a few ladies who come almost every 2 days just to check if I brought anything new. She said they go straight to my store but she is happy about that because after they are done with mine, they do walk around the other booths too, so my store brings them in but everybody else benefits. That sure makes me feel good.
I am linking today with Susan for Met Monday at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

and Debbie for her B + A Party at http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/

and Mellow Yellow at http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/

I bought this table from the vendor on the other side of the wall for $18. The US map, only 3/4 of it, was glued on the top. You might think it is still too much for $18 but I like the fact that it has a shelf underneath so I can use it to display more items in the store and do a vignette on top.
As soon as I got home, I pulled the map out.

John said there was no way I could take all the glue and paper out and he suggested I throw and soak the table in the swimming pool, lol. Can you imagine what that would do to the wood? ROFL! He must not know the reason we use coasters to put our glasses with drinks on the table.

Of course, I did not take his advice. Instead, I pulled and pulled and sanded and sanded until I got all the paper and glue out. I had to lay a wet towel on it for the most stubborn glue and paper to come off.

Success, finally!

I painted it with more yellow.

and then distressed it a little, just copying what I have read on the blog and here is how it looked finished. I like it and it is in the store now, holding some items for sale.

I bought this milk glass lamp from a charity second hand store here, called St. Andrews. I forgot to take a picture before I cleaned the bottom part but it was almost black, very filthy.

I thought the lamp is really cute with the hobnail base.

It was marked $2.50 but when I went to pay, the lady said everything is 50% off until Friday so I got it for $1.25.

I have to tell you that every lamp that I take to the store have sold. Last week I decided to sell the pair that was in our family room. I got them on Ebay about a year or 2 ago but they did not match our decor there. John was carrying them in and they did not even make it to my room. They were sold before we could even lay them down, lol.

Anyway, I painted the wood part a cream color and distressed it and spray painted the gold part with black, cleaned the globe and this is how it turned out. I tagged it $12 and delivered it to the store last Wednesday. We went back to the store on Saturday and it was sold. It makes me wonder if I should have raised the price a little higher, lol.

Yesterday, John said we will go to nearby small towns to go junking. Ahhh, my kind of enjoyable thing to do, lol. But there was nothing in the next 2 towns so we went all the way to Vicksburg. I found lots of goodies there. I will post more about it for this coming Sightseeing Sat. so you can see how charming the town is.

Anyway, I saw this really tarnished antique Victorian Taunton triple silver plated pot. It was brown but I love the lion legs and the etchings and it was 40% off, so we bought it.

This morning, I took out my MAAS metal polish and went to work. I wanted to do it last night but I was exhausted from too much junking, lol.

Look at it now!

I was almost tempted to keep it because as you can see, I have a simlar tea pot with lion legs shown below with it but I think I will just raise the price high enough so it won't sell, lol. And if it does sell, it's ok with me too.

It's funny but as soon as John came home, I showed it to him and he said, "Keep it, don't sell it". We think alike, don't we? Must be because we were born on the same date. But I will keep my original plan.

Look at the close up to see the details.

We bought more items but I will share those with you on Saturday. I really had a great time shopping.

Thanks to our lovely hostesses for giving us a chance to share how we transform and make things more beautiful, and thanks to you all for coming by!

My Very First Auction Winnings

Hi everyone! I hope you all have a nice weekend!

I have talked about my first auction experience and I betcha, some of you are wondering what I could have possibly won that needed to be transported in 4 vehicles. As you might already know, my husband left me at the auction place at noon to go to work and I was nervous cause I have never been to an auction before and I told him I did not know what to do. He said if you like something they are showing, just raise your paddle. And boy! Did I ever raise that paddle, LOL!

Well, you are in luck today because instead of taking you somewhere for Sightseeing Saturday, I thought we will just do a sightseeing around the house to find all the items that I won on that very memorable day, all 31 pieces of them.

Since there are so many pictures already, I hope our hosts do not mind me not posting buttons of the memes that I am linking with. I will enter the links at the end of this post.

The first one I am showing you is this solid mahogany canterbury magazine rack. It is in the family room and it holds a few of my scrapbooks and magazines and newspapers where hubby and I are featured, mostly hubby. I am just an extra sometimes. I also keep some games there.

Next are 6 side Chippendale dining room chairs. These probably took the most room in the vehicles. They are now in our kitchen

2 matching arm chairs, which are in the formal dining room in front of the windows.

2 gold oval mirrors that are in the guest room.

Here is the other one on the other side of the bed wall.

2 oval ornately carved tables with marble tops. They are in the formal living room.

We had a realtor for dinner one evening and another guest asked her how much she thought we bought the table for and she guessed $8000, lol! I don't think I would buy that for that much.

I might as well tell you cause you might be curious about how much I spent of hubby's money that day. (I say hubby cause he is the only one working, lol, but of course we share everything) . I spent a little over $5000 for everything. I don't think it is bad cause I really got a lot. I think it is 31 pieces all in all so that averages to just a little over $161.00 for each item. And these are all good, heavy solid wood furniture and the compotes are mostly, if not all, French porcelain with bronze ormolus.

Here is the other table.

an oil painting of an Italian scenery with an ornate iron frame hanging by the bar entrance in the kitchen

A pair of golf leaf torchieri lamp, which are in the living room.

Here is the other one.

Meissen "4 Seasons" compote

It is now on top of the computer armoire in the guest room.

A pair of Meissen Lady compotes

Here is the other one. They are sitting on the marble top tables in the living room, which I showed you above, also won from the auction.

Blue Meissen musical ladies compote.

When I won this, all the while I was putting my paddle up, I thought I was bidding on an occasional chair, lol. But I was not disappointed when I saw the details on this. This is the only one I took 2 pictures of because I want to show you more details below.

Aren't those faces so pretty and the handpainted flowers gorgeous? It is on the corner cabinet in the formal dining room.

A pair of framed oil painted jars, which are on the bathroom wall near the kitchen.

A pair of porcelain Celeste blue Sevres lidded jars.

Here is the other one. They are now on top of the dining room table.

A Sevres compote with cupid supports. Oops, I lied, sorry! I took 2 pictures of this too but I have them both in 1 mosaic. I just wanted you to see 2 views.

A pair of Sevres porcelain eggs with bronze ormolu.

Here is the other one. They are both sitting on top of our wall units in the home office.

These are my favorites! What am I saying? They are all my favorites that is why I placed a bid on them, lol.

The following is a pair of Sevres covered hand painted jars with bronze ormolu.

Here is the other one. They are both on top of the living room mantel.

A Victorian porcelain hunting scene figure. This is big, about 2 feet long, and very heavy. I cannot lift it, that is why it is never moved. It is on top of the French Provincial cabinet in the dining room. Do you see the cobalt blue base, Sally?

Last but not the least is the Tiffany style lamp that is on our master bedroom dresser.

At the end of the autcion, I called my hubby at work and told him "I need a truck!" LOL! He asked, "What did you buy?" LOL! I said, "a lot!" So he contacted our handy man and asked him to bring his truck. When they got there and after seeing what I won, our handy man Mitch, called his wife to bring her car also, so I had my SUV, my husbnad's mini van, Mitch's truck and his wife's car to haul all my winnings away.


This was also the beginning of John's obsession to Sevres and Meissen pieces that everytime, we go to antique places, he looks for them and buys some when he finds affordable prices. Nothing's ever compared to the prices that I got though. He even flips figures and jars over to see the signature of the maker when we tour antebellum houses, lol, and I always have to watch him not to do that because most of them are antiques and irreplaceable. So, do you think he liked my items? I think so because he did not get upset at how much I spent at all. In fact, he thinks it is funny and makes a good story so he tells all his friends about it and tells them I learn pretty fast. LOL!

I hope you enjoyed seeing these as much as I enjoyed bidding and winning them. These were put up on an estate auction. They were owned by Jimmy Pippen, the pioneer of the antiques row downtown, who unfortunately died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 55. He was found in his garden still holding his garden sheers. He owned the biggest antique shop downtown, owned 2 antebellum houses also located downtown which were packed with antiques and had a warehouse full of merchandise.

They had to auction the items for 3 straight days. That is how much there was. The auctioneer said it was the biggest one ever that he has ever handled. They even auctioned a Vampire killing kit that went for $18,000.

We went back the following day, Sat. (hubby was off) but did not bid on anything because everything went so high. I lucked out on Friday because there were very few bidders. Similar tables like the one I got were going for $3000 each on Sat. and to think that I got the pair for $350.00 ($175.00 each)

I also want to mention that Laurie was the one who told me about the auction. She is not even from here, lol, but I guess she is a true bargain hunter. Thanks again, Laurie! John and I are forever grateful.

Thank you so much for joining me on an exclusive tour for Sightseeing Saturday.

I am linking with:

Claudia's Finding Beauty at http://www.dipityroad.com/

Cindy's Show and Tell Friday at http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

Courtney's Feathered Nest Party at http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Beverly's Pink Saturday at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Laurie's A Few of my Favorite Things at

http://bargainhuntingwithlaurie.blogspot.com/
Debbie's Garage Salen at http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/

Sally's Blue Monday at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/
Cielo's Show Off Your Cottage Monday at http://houseinroses.blogspot.com/

Diane's Second Time Around Tuesday at http://diane1876.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much to our lovely hostesses for all these fun memes.