where the old tin comes from

i love this picture... he gets the old tin for the fun flowers i got in springfield....its in texas i think...

a family affair....

my best buyer and my best buyer...jon networks with several guys who work hard to get dd all the buffets she needs.....this was a load of 10 for her.....her finish is beautiful and a lot fancier than ours.... some look like alligator when she gets done with them.....
www.bellachicinteriors.com

the king of the castle of the dogs

what a cute bike!!! one of our customers , with a neat business http://www.markaydog.com/farm.html

around the store

this week we got a lot of roseville..... some with little chips, some real nice.....
and these geraniums , that never need water...
i have been getting out to buy more and found a nice pile of crocks, lots more windows, some good flow blue, and lots of fun little cheap stuff..plus several nice pieces of stained glass...and a good set of texas ranch oak.....

.the cute locker baskers i got in springfield are almost gone...i should have bought them all when i had the chance....
...jon has our rough room full again...lots of chairs, lots of tables, great desks, a couple of nice vanities, a darling victorian day bed, more wicker, and little bits here and there around the store..
.truly, antiques and used furniture is so much cheaper than new.....and its real wood!!!!
we are packed....and saving the overflow for our yardsale which is august 3....i have a little building just for the yardsale stuff...just waiting...

bloom where you are planted

bloom where you are planted...
.thats my motto....here we a re in the corn belt..kind of isolated from the major design centers of the world...but still we can explore all the style ideas .....and we have all kinds of customers who enjoy the styles and great trends from all over................. we hoosiers have neat stuff too, and a lot of it, and really indiana is one of the cheapest places to buy antiques...so in some ways its kind of nice to be a hoosier....

here at green oak ..we dont ship our things...and we dont make special orders....but we do have lots of cool furniture at reasonable indiana prices....

i get a lot of emails from people all over wanting to buy from us.....it kind of hurts because we always need money.......i try and get them to come here....since we dont ship ....and our neatest things are one of a kind.......we have always been rooted here and dont really want to go national or travel too much....
our stuff does get around tho..we wholesale to dealers who show in texas, atlanta nashville and lots of other places...and we have good customers in stores all around indiana and m ichigan....... you probably see our cupboards around if you shop in our area.....and i sure appreciate any good words my customers have for us when they send store buyers to us....we have helped set up florists, landscapers, kids stores, beauty shops, and all kinds of gift shops ...our furniture is tough....its good wood and locally made.we try to be big and useful and reasonable....

ww1....trash to treasure

heres some trash to treasure from ww1....trench art.. this one is called the argonne vase...
...its made by the soldiers from old shells....kind of war souvenirs....sometimes they have the date and flowers....we have one right now and always look for them.....

antique talk

from what im hearing the shows are going great this year.......and some auctions are going great.....
2 of my old buddies had a divorce auction.....and the prices were sky high!!! congrats and condolences.....they had built a wonderful collection of early american primitives...he was the auctioneer .....

i talked to a big glass dealer and he said you couldnt believe the book prices at all....not even half.....due to ebay probably.....
people are calling me to sell stuff, but unfortunately its not usually anything i can use..... im mostly interested in things before 1920....still i always apppreciate the chance to hear about things for sale....we buy every week...and love it when something inrteresting comes in...we dont do consignment.....

garden party

did you get this in the mail? its our postcard for the annual garden party...
hope you are coming.....we will have a free plant for you, as long as they last anyway..... this year we got lots of nice plants from an amish greenhouse....as in my question, can you deliver,, now mam we only have horse and buggy, his answer....
but they sure are pretty plants and reasonable too....

a customers yard

one of our gazeboes in the hands of a master!! isnt it beautiful........

she sent us this for our pin up page on the website http://www.greenoakantiques.com/

we have one just like it right now....all ready and waiting for someone at our garden party this weekend....

another hoosier at springfield

a long term junking buddy he had a wonderful store long ago but now travels the country with his art.... ive bought lots and lots from him over the years and got my first antique lessons from his grandmother...

she was really fun..the way she did business was::::: be nice and honest

always have money

and , no mercy, she would buy from me but never cut me any slack...and always somehow got me down to my lowest price...

actually she was illiterate, i would have to fill out her check but she could sign her name....she was from down south, , and really old when i met her, but she was really smart and could do math in her head upside down...like when i would be adding her up she could get the total ### before me, looking at it upsidedown...

i can see her now, she usually paid cash, she would get it out and say , here comes my pretty money....she had exquisite taste and always ready to buy more if it was good enough...thats pretty much how i learned about antiques,from dealers like her who knew a lot about certain categories, ,,,,,, if she rejected something in victorian, her favorite, that told me a lot.......

road trip

dh took me to springfield ohio!!!! to the big extravaganza...

country home had a booth and the famose junk girls were there....but to me the thrill was all the fun stuff for sale from the 2500 vendors!!!!!...there was neat stuff everywhere, and way more to se than you cuold do in one day.... we went on the early buying day, friday........it was a ball and i think we got some fun , interesting and reasonable things to bring back for the store..

,,,we got a whole truckload, mostly things for our garden party..... german tubs, fun flowers, birdhouses, and some great spindles and posts and windows , and cute wire baskets that could be planters.....also a new batch of garden iron......and a batch of glove molds.....

in real antiques ; a big pile of flow blue and several good pieces of oak furniture...some pie birds and old candy containers...

and for myself that cute painting of a house.....and an english chimney pot for my garden....

http://www.springfieldantiqueshow.com/

http://www.texasrust.com/

most of this stuff now at http://www.greenoakantiques.com/

today with julie on the way to ohio

all this is at julies now....jon and i found it up here in corn country......the chaise was georgous...so french and in great shape..... the chairs have a setee too...the little chairs i see she painted already.....these pictures are from julies newsletter...
i have big big metal figural lamps from the same lady here at the store...and a beautiful french desk with matching chair....and a big french couch with carved birds, and a big gaudy deeply carved mirror....would love to have seen that house!!!!

www.bellachicinteriors.com

we delivered this for julie on our way to springfield.... a pile of purple....if you ever get to carmel indiana go see her...

the pictures are from her photographer.......

........

a good buy

this is all true, as far as i know... its about a guitar.....
..a guy who hauls low grade stuff from a big city had it in the auction....it wasnt a fancy auction....
jon was there, a guy who we buy from was there,,,the owner tried to show it to our friend,,,who bought the fiddle instead... ... and the guitar sold for 60$..also to someone we know......anyway!!!!
he put it on ebay and

it sold for $40,000!!!!!!!

he said he bid on it because of the case, he was pretty sure it was a gibson case.....
all the guys who were there are kicking themselves of course.....soome who are long time dealers....
it wasnt even a gibson...

p.s. .i saw it on ebay it went for 40,600....i wouldnt have known anything if i had been there..i probably would have bid more than 60 tho because it had such nice wood.....maybe 100 ...but i probably would have resold it in the store if i had gotten it........ i tried to download its p picture for here , but couldnt get it ....

off to springfield ohio tomorrow....for a big flea market....hopefully will be back with some wonderful goodies!!!! taking the big truck....

around the store

junque dealer to the queen?

one of our customers just won the democratic nomination for gov of indiana....if she wins in november -- would we be the junque dealer to the queen of indiana?
http://www.hoosiersforjill.com/

shes a great person, nice and very well qualified.... and we hope she wins...we ahould have some bumper stickers for her soon...

the beloved ex gov...otis bowen has shopped with us too...

the current gov wants to make us 31 a limited access highway....if that happens and our road is closed...we will probably be virtually ruined.....we get a lot of business off the highway....

trash to treasure crafts

the picture is an old memory jug...pretty valuable in the antique world....the scotties on top date it to probably the 40s....i dont know how they applied it.....


mosaic work is something i like but never get around to....i have lots of ideas and the material is everywhere..and so cheap.....like the beautiful chipped dishes in my half price room....
. nice ones here...
http://brook-thehomethatlovebuilt.blogspot.com/

i wanted to make big garden pieces with mosaic...full of cool natural stuff...shells, rocks, maybe glass..... big pedestals or birdbaths!!! or large planter boxes... it would be neat...
and i love mr flannerys suggestion below in the comments.....

you can see really fun t to t crafts here... http://www.greenbeanworkshop.blogspot.com/
and here... http://www.robomargo.com/
and dont forget http://www.tamponcrafts.com/

...i colllect tramp art....made from old cigar boxes by tramps...and maybe traded with nice housewives for pie or a chicken...its so expensive i have had to curtail my desires....

dear dh......

dear dh....

i really need a turret...im sick of doing my projects on the basement....its noisy and dreary down there..... a turret would be so perfect....and it could fit right in on the back porch...and i could look out into the woods....and have all my paper stuff around me.....

it would need lots of windows....

fluffers and floppers

at the store,we divide ourselves up into 2 groups...the fluffers and the floppers.....the floppers are the ones who move the big furniture in and out and to the back and from the back and help rearrange....and unload the trucks...and take the cabinets from the paint shop to the cupboard barn....etc etc......
the fluffers are the ones who figure out where stuff goes and make it pretty after it gets there.....and fill it up right....and fix the walls...
if something ever looks real bad you can bet a flopper got roped into fluffing..... or maybe something sold and isnt off the floor yet...but unloaded and in an aisle...

i go both ways...i can still carry most of it , but mostly i fluff ....and try and find room for everything and still have it look pretty good....luckily our customers can stand a little mess....they dont expect perfection....we get lots and lots in every week so it keeps us hopping.....
imho,the fluffers have great respect for the floppers but the floppers dont usually appreciate the fluffers.....

we never quite get it all done ...but we try!!!!!
i believe the great designers cant actually tell you how they do it....
..

connections

the best part of this business is the people........

..the most fun yesterday was a mom.....her sons in college and her job is to decorate his bathroom...... hes going to be a diesel mechanic...

. her first stop was the junkyard, for some hubcaps and then she came here.....

and found this sign.......

we think he will love it!!!

she also got some wierd old truck lights..

trash to treasure!!!!