Grayslake Is This Weekend -- Don't Miss It!

We found lots of pieces that we're really excited about for THIS WEEKEND'S Grayslake Antique Market -- great sets of industrial stools, a totally-cool vintage department store cabinet, dress forms, mirrors, lamps, furniture big and small, and LOTS more. Come and see us -- details posted in the show sidebar!!

Chalk Talk

I've had a long-standing love-affair with chalkboards. I think it's just another chapter in my love story with school supplies in general. My chalkboard romance began back in the long-ago, before Joe and I started working together, when my BFF Tina Mullins had fabulous chalkboards made for her excellent little shop in Barrington, Illinois (which to this day I still miss terribly -- quick, get the tissues!) I used to supply her with frames for her boards -- it was a match made in our dusty little corner of heaven.

Switching back to the present, chalkboards have been excellent sellers here at rhubarb reign for the last several years. Hot frame colors have gone from green to blue to red, with ivory being a constant. The more unusual the frame, the better. Some of our favorites once housed beautiful Eastlake mirrors or ornate Victorian pictures. We've also used old rowing machines, doors, windows and metal games. Pictured above are two using bottle cap frames by Chicago folk artist Casey Lewandowski. Our boards have shown up in some wonderful places, including Mary Engelbreight's Home Companion, in stores from Chicago to Columbus, and on one of our favorite blogs (no, not just ours!)

This weekend's crop of chalks disappeared by mid-afternoon Saturday at the Kane County Flea Market. We weren't really sure what to expect with a soft raining falling on a cool Fourth of July as the show opened. But we were thankful to be steadily busy all day. Sunday was beautiful, with lots of shoppers strolling the aisles both inside and out. Small furniture, handmades -- especially jewelry and mirrors -- and ephemera were strong sellers. By the end of the weekend, we'd also sold a number of our larger pieces, including a lovely buffet and several ornate tables.

This week, we're off to the auction to stock up for Grayslake, and it looks like we'll be headed to the paint department to reorder, too. Come and see us on Saturday or Sunday. xo


P.S. A big thank you to Heather for trusting us with her jewelry and to the Boyds for the tremendously fun holiday cookout. (:

Come see us at Kane this weekend!

A little bit of holiday, a lot for summer fun, plus a great load of furniture, smalls, projects and more! See the sidebar for show details. HAPPY FOURTH!! xo

Thrift Store Thursday: Eeck-gad! Twins!

I was innocently strolling through the most excellent Goodwill Store in Rochester, Indiana, one Monday, minding my own business, when these two wonderful boys caught my eye -- twins, one black and white, one color. For a mere 50 cents each, I gladly adopted them. I have a small collection of these "woodies" -- actually, I'm not sure exactly what they are called. Maybe someone out there knows? They're pictures that were applied to wood, which was then cut out in exactly the shape of the photo. Like real-life paper dolls. From the clothing, I'm guessing they are 1930s-1950s. I'm assuming they were a craft, although maybe a photographer's studio would have offered them, as the saw cuts would have been kind of tricky. Two of my favorites were spotted on some one's sweater at a show in Kentucky -- they were pins, made as carnival prizes! I've looked for them ever since with no luck. Sigh. But I'm still hunting! Until next week...xo -- Sandy/rhubarb reign

All decked out: vintage campers

Soundtrack for today's post: The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs (thanks, Diane!)

Wanted to share with you the latest wave in antique dealer chic -- coming to do the show towing your adorable, decked out vintage trailer. After setting up your space, you can retreat to all the comforts of home -- retro home, that is -- to relax in style until the show opens.

At the Allegan Antique Market, our friend Peggy's trailer is much like her lovely booth --
barkcloth, florals and all things Rachel Ashwell. So yummy you want to sink your teeth in.

This little cutie hailed from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was totally retro inside. The owners said it had taken them several winters to restore. They pull it with a to-die-for matching pickup!

We overheard one lady saying she had just purchased her own trailer, nick-named "Saucy," and was cruising the market for vintage finds to start her renovation. She had just purchased some killer pink/green/yellow linoleum from our friend Rebecca, who incidentally, has been working on her trailer all winter and hopes to have it ready for the 4th of July. Lucky! I can't wait to see it at next month's show.

Allegan ended up being good to us again this month, despite rainy skies as we left our hotel (not our cute retro camper -- sigh) Sunday morning. The day turned out to be beautiful -- cool and sunny, but a little windy. We saw many of our favorite Indiana, Michigan and Illinois customers. Furniture, funk and garden sold well -- as did pillows -- go figure! Tomorrow, we'll start prepping for Kane and the 4th of July. Come and see us! xo

P.S. Thanks to my friend CJ for the adorable box of colored pencils!! Check her out at VanDaff's Interior Design and Antiques, listed on our blog roll. xoxo

Thrift Store Thursday: Here comes the bride!

After much trial and error -- included many e-mails, a phone call to my blogging buddy Joan (visit her great site, Anything Goes Here, listed on our Blog Roll) and accidentally deleting the first version of this post just now, I want to share with you my first attempt at participating in a blog party:


This lovely couple is my contribution to Thrift Store Thursday, a blog party featuring participants' fabulous finds for the week. I found them Wednesday at the Shipshewana flea market and adopted them for the princely sum of $1! I already got several nice comments from other party goers, which unfortunately were deleted with the first edition of this post, but I learned a lot, met some new people AND had fun. I'm definitely doing it again next week. Joan, better take your phone off the hook!! xo -- and thanks to everyone for their help and patience, especially you, J.

Come and see us at Allegan this weekend -- see the show sidebar for details!

A Collage is Born

A note: I hope this isn't cheating, but I'm sharing an older post for Transformation Thursday this week, because it's a favorite both of mine and of our customers. Hope you enjoy it!


Sound track for today's post: Allman Brothers, "Eat a Peach"

Once upon a Wednesday, I was in the studio alone, Joe off at the auction. Fabulous! Not because Joe was gone, but because it was Project Day, and, being alone, there was lots of room to spread out. I'd gotten these vintage shadowboxes in a box lot at the auction several weeks ago, and when some lovely beaded flowers turned up in our neighbor Diane's booth at Allegan, a collage was born.

Remember several posts ago, I wrote about that yummy 1890s chemistry notebook? Well, I layered one sheet over a ledger page from the same era. Next came one of the few English botanicals we have left from last season, plus two scraps of the vintage wallpaper that our sweet Burlington show neighbor Judy gifted me with.

Finally, I added a couple of antique prisms and Diane's beaded flowers of loveliness. Voila! Done.

I love to make collages because the pulling together of disparate elements is exciting to me; it's a great metaphor for life. I especially like the opportunity to go three-dimensional, as it adds an almost kinetic feel to the finished work. I really enjoyed making these pieces, as they had a neo-Victorian scientific vibe going on. I love works from that period -- scientific, but very stylized at the same time. Who else likes collage? Raise your hand! Well, maybe leave a comment and tell me about what you like to make. A tip: we discovered that 3M's Formula 44 works just as well as the 77, and is less expensive. Will still use the 77 for heavier materials.

By the time I'd listened to "Sweet Melissa" for the fifth or sixth time, I'd made several other collage pieces and a second installment of our "Amy" mirrors, crusted with vintage jewelry. Plus I got a load of framing finished. And I took up the whole room, thank you very much!

By Friday evening, it was all loaded in the van, headed for Chicago. And to our happy surprise, the show turned out great! Grayslake is usually a good show for us, but a schedule change at the fairgrounds had shoved it back a week. Generally, a change like that is never a great thing for attendance, but we had sufficient traffic to meet our sales goal. Smalls continue to be strong sellers, especially glass containers, graphics and garden. Furniture also did well, particularly small tables and anything pretty.

The collages went to a happy new home. I'm missing them already! But I think I'm going to explore the Victorian science theme some more. Next week, we're off to Allegan. Think 4th of July and summer fun! Come see us. xo