Road trip to Sisters', don't you wish you could go too...

You betcha...all the Christmas has been stashed for another long year and Spring is on all of our minds...can't wait to see the new goodies Barb has dragged in...
it's always eye candy when you walk through the doors...I'm on my way...

The blues and blahs of winter...

OMG...it took me an hour to post this lil' diddy...what is going on out there in our virtual world...anyway, while the South is freezing, we are up to our eyeballs in beautiful Iowa landscape, dead in the middle of winter, but undaunted, us hardy Northuners move into it with the knowledge that...it is what it is...there it is again, my new mantra. We can't change it, it's winter, it comes every year...but...

...the winter blues can be delightful, as this basket of flow blue plates shows...

...a basket full of knobs, is visually blah, 'cept to the eye of a junker...it's a harvest of posies and jewels to a seasoned eye...

...and more dreams of summer of birds and begonias fill our days...

...and rust, sweet rust, doesn't get any better'n this, as my winter blahs are sweetened by the things I love...Junk and Sister's Garden and Bloom...

Shadow Shot Sunday-The Patch

garden dreamin...
it never ends
in my frigid world
I'll spend the long cold months
wandering my frozen plots
memories of each fragrant patch
the lily
the rose and
the wild sweet William
sweet old scents
that never fail to please
are n'er far from my heart

I'll always be a gardener
no matter how old I stray
when I'm too spent to lift my tools
my porch swing on a sunny day
will guide my mind's eye
to the cultivars past
as sweet scents
drift 'round and round
my soul
and my ruddy bare toes

I still see the greens
and the colors there
mixed with weed seed
and garden flotsam all 'round
it's all part of my task
to bathe in the soil
and the sun of my retreat
I'll still revel in the heat
and the sweat that comes
with the pact
and the dirt on my toes
and my knees

in my lil' patch


s.wilson

Don't know about you other Northuners, but the seed catalogs will start arriving soon, as we dream of sifting through the warm soil of our land for the veggies and floras that fulfill our
need to grow stuff...stuff of beauty and stuff to munch on...4 LONG MONTHS, seems like an eternity.

In the meantime we'll play at Harriet's House with the rest of the Shadow Shooters..OK...

ARGH...7 inches

ARGH...WINTER...

MMMMMMM...SUMMER...

Dreamin'

It smells like Spring...

...well at least at The Pink Chateau...soaps are ready for the trip to Sisters', the fresh scents of floral and fresh air fills my home and soon will tempt travelers to the upstairs at Sisters'...more new scents coming to Bloom too, as Friend's Candle Shed and I conjure up new fragrance for Piper's store too. There are thousands of them, so you'd think it would be an easy thing to do, right...

NOT!!!

Out with the old and in with the new, as we wrack our brains and take a chance on scents that will please all...however, many of our popular scents will remain.

See ya soon at Sister's Garden and Friend's Candle Shed!

MY world is a vignette...

Think about it, really...a woman's world is made up of little vignettes, settings you have created in your world...your home, your children's lives growing up, your marriage OR NOT...

Everything has a certain order to it...right...I think that's why the antique biz, as I see it, is so appealing. Everyone sees their world a little differently from the next, which makes life filled with diversity...and change.

Have I mentioned that I love my job(s)...so now my little vignette settles in, The Junk Asylum is ready to roll and I can resume all that it takes to fulfill my vignettes and move forward...which means SOAP!!!

Better get busy, I have miles to go before I sleep...hope your holiday was filled with visions of vignettes for a prosperous new year...TWENTYTEN is gonna be DA BOMB!!!

RIGHT!!!

Shadow Shot Sunday...The Embrace...

hush
listen
do you hear it
the Buddha song
the song of winter

the dream catcher waits
at the gates of dawn
in shadow
as an awakening
all around stirs

cloaked in promise
of Nirvana
crystal robes warm
a pilgrim on a journey
into light

I hope to awaken
in spirit
all that is good
embrace suffering
know that it exists

shun ego
and breathe...
breathe in winter
as it embraces new life
that after winter's death
is life...and
Nirvana


s.wilson


Baby it's cold outside...below ZERO!!! But we're toasty inside with our thoughts and our Shadow Shots, check us out, we got New Year plans ahead, hope you all had a great holiday!

New Year wishes from Sweet Repose...

We step cautiously into the new year, knowing it could be rough, knowing there will be hurdles, but in our typically American style, we push forward not letting the details get in our way...
So I'm wishing you the most excellent of new years to come...
LIVE WELL AND BE PROSPEROUS...

and check out the 'White' blog...

More bones...

How do you build a booth...well, you take 3 blonds, two screw guns and a heap of wood...and this is what you get...VOILA...a gazebo...Piper, Lorie and myself crawled around on the floor, up and down ladders wrapping poor man's linen(burlap) 'round the beams, pushing this cute lil' structure to fruition...Friend's Candle Shed!

Today Piper is working away in the shop producing candles for her new location. We thought the 'GREEN' theme would be perfect for her space, since her candles are soy from farmers in the USA and her candle tins are made of recycled metal, all made in the USA by a family in New Jersey for over 100 years.

I don't know about you guys, but I feel change in the economy, us Americans don't stand around long and let 'em beat us down...we get up, dust ourselves off and head out for a little retail therapy!!!

Lorie and I have been amazed at the interest in the new location. People are emailing from all over the area, many drive by, stretching necks to see what's going on inside their mini-mall that's been vacant for quite some time...dealers are scrambling to get a space, two more yesterday, word is traveling fast!

So call us up if you want to be a part of the new look in antique malls, or as we like to call it...SHOPS IN A SHOP...as everyone will be hanging their own shingle, advertising their own shops...dealer helping dealer...
Call-563-285-JUNK

Check out WHITE...

Dem bones...

Well, we got the bones built for 'Sweet Repose'...looking like the Beverly Hillbillies, my truck was piled sky high with wonderful old doors and screen doors to serve as walls for the soap garden of Sweet Repose. It will be filled to the brim with fragrant soaps and stuff, 'Kelly Aarons Mosaics' will also be inside the garden of Sweet Repose...and if I ever get the time, 'The Wild Thing' necklaces will grace these walls too.

Today, Piper and I will construct the walls of Friend's Candle Shed, a little sub-station of wonderful soy candles. Piper decided to join the inmates and bring her candles to Scott County...though, keeping with her new green theme, the candles will all be in recycled tins...all made in the USA...how cool is that...no China labels on these tins!!!

But you can still get all of her candles at the Muscatine shop too. Check out the White blog for more shots...