We just went out for ONE garage sale, honestly!

...And came back 2 hours later, 5 sales later, the car full. Jeez, we thought it was late in the morning to be sale-ing, but I guess the weather (coolish and overcast) was on our side; and most of the shoppers MUST be at the mall.

I was getting a wee bit panicked with 2 shows coming up quickly in January and so much of our inventory tied up in the retail store. We really stopped doing any kind of serious buying months ago and have been working on trying to sell our existing inventory, but since one of the shows is the second Sunshine City show, the sister show of the one we did in October, I had that deer-in-the-headlights feeling that we'd better not have the same old, er, old things to bring. So we found some new old things today.

A glass topped bamboo cocktail table. A 1970's era framed abstract floral needlepoint in the colors of the age, orange, green, and gold. A Penguin round ice bucket (I love these!!) - every time we find one of these, we flip it fairly quickly. It needs a bit of TLC that my newly-tended to elbow can now give. Two cute vintage mini Santa mugs from Japan, very timely. A 1948 Zenith radio in a beautiful Bakelite case, a Tone Register model. The cord looks like it would set a house on fire nicely. A very pretty set of Alessi salt and pepper shakers from Italy - stylish and they have that instant vintage look about them. And a green glass sugar bowl of a pleasing shape. Oh, and what we went out to shop for - some assorted Wedgwood Queensware dishes in cream-on-cream.

I can relax now. Ahhhh.

Antiques are Green!!

Say it again. Repeat. And again. It's true! This year, National Antiques Week was promoted and celebrated in Great Britain during the week of November 23 - 30, 2009. This week long event with the theme Antiques are Green came at a pivotal time for the antiques trade when public and media interest is heightened by campaigns such as "Antiques Are Green" spearheaded by Nigel Worboys and the petition on "Antiques" designed to persuade the British government to provide more support to the Fine Arts and Antiques Industry.

Why hasn't this caught on here in the land of consumerism and mass consumption? Oops, wrong question. Why aren't more people educated to the high value of recycling housewares, decorative articles, and furniture that are widely available in the antiques and collectibles market?

Let's take a look at some facts about the purchasing of antiques as recycling:

Purchasing antiques antiques results in minimal greenhouse gases; no rainforests are depleted, and no additional minerals are extracted from the earth. Their carbon footprint has long been eradicated.

When looking at purchasing antique furniture, look for pieces that are solidly built and made to last - in stark contrast to the made to items that eventually self destruct, but provide instant gratification that are manufactured for big box stores today. Also, it's helpful to try to buy local - look for styles that are native to your region, rather than ones that might have been transported at great cost over long distances to end up in the antiques store.

With a little bit of effort, we can each do our part to encourage our customers to appreciate the impact that they can have on the earth by recognizing the recycling process in purchasing antiques and collectibles over newly manufactured products.