this week.....

some of our signs...made here by lisa and me...

...for our steampunk fans...
i think you will l ike this site.....

look within and see lots of great interiors...

http://thesteampunkhome.blogspot.com/2009/07/practical-magics-victorian-apothecary.html

we are on the look oput for steampunk furniture and parts all the time...its mostly in our industrial section out in the cold under the awning....also lots of little parts on our etsy http://www.gypsymarket.etsy.com/

and our love signs under the awning... steampunk is a big deal with some of our show dealers and i really like it too...
will it ever get big in corn country? probably not...but you can always see a bit of it the store!!!!our latest steampunk coming in.....big wire waste baskets.... more locker baskets... a cute metal table with fat feet..... and lots more watch parts on our etsy....and 2 more LOVE SIGNS... FUNKY OLD TELEPHONES... guages and dials....more old typerwriters...from 30 to 50$..
lots of metal tool boxes...and tackle boxes....they would be fun for
steampunk jewels.

customers this week...

#one has so many books she put them in order with the dewey decimal system .

#several took piano lessons on the concert grand we bought... !!!

#lots told me how well things they had bought from us fit into their homes....

and did i mention that i was at an auction with a guy who paid 10,000$ for a coon dog?

we had a great weekend...lots of customers came in some had been up all night at the other places!!!

we are getting ready for our WINTER WONDERLAND ~~PART 2.... next weekend...refreshments, a drawing some good sales plus a trunk show on saturday with a great jewelry artist....lois miller... http://www.vintagekeepsakejewelry.com/

aLL OUR DECEMBER CANDLE SALES WILL HELP OUR LOCAL MINISTERS ...WE ARE GIVING 5% TO THEM ... they help a lot of families...and have little or no overhead.

son jon has a blog and added some new items today. ...you can see him doing a balancing trick as well.. http://www.jonsdecoratorapprovedpicks.blogspot.com/

we were busy refluffing the store today....and taking off the sold items.... also we set up an ornament sale.....buy 2 get one free.... till further notice...

i got someold duck decoys....

support your small businesses

youve kept us going another year!!!!!! thank you....

ITS BLACK FRIDAY AND WE HOPE PEOPLE WILL try and get out and support their local businesses......ESPECIALLY greenoak !!!! .......our cupboards and counters are made right here in indiana, keeping 3 groups of carpenters busy ....and most of our big chicago cabinets and mantles are rehabbed here in indiana ...and 10 people work here at the store........ so you really are supporting a lot of people when you shop with us.........we really appreciate your business and hope we have some stuff that you just cant resist!!!!

WE KNOW YOU DONT WANT A WORLD WITH JUST THE MALL, WALMART AND DOLLAR GENERAL...
................heres what we look like lately.....and who knows what will come in today!!! ..................

we have about 4 of these big beautiful morrors....mostly from chicago and rehabbed here..

christmas is all over the store!!!!

lots of angels in this section...and gold...

one of our lanterns.... these are great housewarming presents or hostess presents....

lots of harvest tables right now...this one is 7 ft long and 525$ and look at the neat chair benches....put together by the amish crew....

we have about 10 counters/islands/cashwraps/bars right now..... this big guy is one of the largest....see, hes made out of an old door and house trim on the side...525$ some in the 400$ range.

sorry,fluffer failure, i guess we are so full we just had to put snowmen and water skiers in the same section...

these plates are so popular...!!! great words and make easy gifts . lots under 12$

we went big for red thisyear!!!!

one left....we call them bungalo buffets....big and georgous...oak

all the dishes have been displaced by the christmas ....so be sure and check out the china cabinets they are full...

happy thanksgiving everybody!!! and thanks for visiting my blog... i love writing it and love hearing from you....in comments or in the store.... ...

i have so much to be thankful for...... heres MY little partial listof 7...

1.my friends and family....

2. our wonderful customers....you entertain us all the time...you pay our rent, you inspire us, you make it all possible....i hopoe we can be of some fun and use for you this coming year....

3...the store..and our great crew of workers.....im so thankful for all the fun parts!!! the variety and flow of lovely people , ideas and stuff is such a pleasure...im so glad to be out there in the store and on the trail and doing what i really like... with our wonderful hardworking crew and family...i can hardly believe how long ive been out there ..time flies!!! i cant imagine ever getting tired or bored with this...

4...home at night with dh

5..living in a woods... in total touch with nature and my garden ...

6...the web world..the blogs, the chats, the pictures,that the internet opens up to us.... ..and all the cyber friends ive made.... its a whole new world to me and im so glad to have met so many of you out there....i love the challenge of navigating the web...and looking into so many fun spots made by creative people all over the country ...

7. uh, my health, netflix, living in a free country where i can do my own thing, colin firth, jane austen, bbc, bloggers,packrats, junkers, my new studio,music..the hottub on a snowy night... well I COULD GO ON AND ON....

the week....

the week in customers...

the cutest.... a pair of 90 yr old twins....

the happiest....the one who bought the piano...

we had a great week....and im so thankful for our customers.... its nice toto know we have the kind of folks who can walk in and be faced with a concert grand piano and just make it theirs.............we really suprised her!!!....i didnt even know she was interested ..... the sweet husband saw it first and said ....your piano is down that row.... actually we had another person real interested in it too....

so it was a good week at the store....

incoming this week..

.

chair benches

a big primitive harvest table 9 ft long...old pine, 3 board top

several big mirrors

nice black buffets

black couch tables

doilies and linens

a big fancy dining room set

grey and white counter

black counter

cute little pink shelves

dressers

3 big chicago cupboards in the rough....

WE SELL WHOLESALE TOO....ESPECIALLY OUR CUPBOARDS AND COUNTERS TO NEW SHOPS WHO WANT AN INTERESTING outside the box LOOK ....THAT ISNT PARTICLE BOARD OR PLASTIC..... we have cash wraps, store displays, islands plus lots of great antiques for staging a store..... WE REALLY APPRECIATE OUR CUSTOMERS SENDING NEW STORES TO US.... we have sold to bars, salons, restaurants and lots of country stores garden stores and boutiques...... we have so much to pick from they can usually find their look here....from industrial to SHABBY TO GARDENY TO cottage to traditional to wild and eclectic....

anyway...if you helped us by sending someone THANK YOU!! and if you told someone where you got your fixtures thank you too!!!

link round up

this week i found some new sites and revisited some old favorites..
the web seems to be a normal part of the day...now including facebook
SO ENJOY..

1. HERES SOME GREAT INFO FOR ANYONE LAUNCHING ANYTHING ON LINE.... my fav blog and tekk person http://www.ittybiz.com/


2. i love this site...and wish i had some of her jewelry skills ...http://www.artsyfartsyfinds.blogspot.com/


3. usually im not much for self help or improvement things... have laughed at way too many of them...and the whole self esteem movement seems like bunk to me...but i like this site ...she seems cheery and nice http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/


4. more fun guys.... this one is in the junk business up in minnesota http://www.hogsandroses.blogspot.com/ andi would love to meet him.... in real life!!!


5. this one is one of the most inspiring people and sites i know... shes fun too...and has a great eye as you will see here http://www.peacockparkdesign.blogspot.com/ she featured her visit to our store on her blog too!! she likes the same kind of stuff i do...big and georgous and old

6... LOOK HERE FOR GREAT CHRISTMAS IDEAS WITH YOUR FAMILY PICTURES... http://sassytrash.blogspot.com/ SHE HAS SO MANY good ideas and is great with a camera...

our kirkman grand piano

you never know what will turn up at an auction....this big beauty is about 7 ft long.. a pre 1900 grand piano, made by the kirkman company in england...we did come to a price....4000$ and hope to sell it here at the store....
its just beautiful...

good grief....my son jon, who bought the above piano, and hauled it home... ....now has a blog..

..whenever he brings something home thats really great he calls it decorator approved...we joke about it but being an auction buyer he knows the huge value and influence the decorators have on our world and the prices... .... heres his blog..on its first day... http://jonsdecoratorapprovedpicks.blogspot.com/

.

fun

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/ i dont usually go for self help.....but she sounds pretty interesting....and sensible

dh got me a new thing...a dover disc with victorian images.....

i like this one....she looks like an aspiring blogger!!!

probli--tunity

heres my biggie of the day....we bought something big and beautiful....i have someone coming to see it.....the value is between 500 and 40,000.....i need to pick the right number by noon today.....
if the appraised # is 40,000 i figure the green oak number would be 1/4 of that....

so my job this morning is to get the right info....as fast as possible......i dont want to be greedy or stupid....and my best buyer has already seen its feet,its still on the truck, and is sending her dh....
this job keeps you humble...theres always something you dont know about!!!
the item was bought at auction....the people were world travellers and rich.... back in the 1800s....when this big concert grand piano was born....
pictures later in the day..

..UPDATE... its a kirkman concert grand piano.

its pre 1900...exotic wood, and imho...prettier than lots of the $$40,000 ones we saw on line..but in the same big gaudy style of the day... its 7 ft long.....we didn find the exact piano....it plays but out of tune.... my guess...is restored and at a big piano dealer it would be at least 20,000...if its way more i couldnt find that....there is hardly any in this age under $20,000...that makes the green oak price/ our very wild guess.... about $4000....unless we find out more......our guy didnt come yesterday...so its out on the floor....if we sell it for that and find out later we messed up it would be part of the experience.... i should feel lucky that jon focussed on it and went for it...and that we can handle something that big....we had to call in our other box truck...since we had bought a whole truck load already...lots of cool garden stuff mainly...and some down filled love seats...and a whole lot more...

...and now for something completely different....WE ARE ON TV....who knows if it will work...its just in rochester but take a look... our winter wonderland commercial

the faces around the store

dh....our hero....

this is our newest member....terri, jons wife....she does our website and mailing list and etsy and lots of other tekkie stuff and now shes helping behind the counter 3 days a week.... we are trying to teach her to fluff as well as all her other jobs...

the faithful wade....here in his yardsale duds..... and on the floor saturdays and sundays....

wade has been here for about 20 yrs!!! and we are so thankful.....

carol and i... at the garden party...

lisa and ruth....the fluffer and the flopper can be friends...lisa is my right hand ..she has mechanical abilities, can carry, and does so much of the heavy ikky work with a smile.... and makes our big junk signs...and shutter shelves...

jon and john....so good they can move furniture without unloading it....dont try this at home!!!

ruth, the master of the lanterns , and so much else around the store........these are so neat....and you can take out the winter scene and make a spring one later...
the battery candles in them last so long!!! several weeks...

and carol...dressed up for the open house.... and the master of the big christmas ball wreaths. ....these beauties are kind of tricky to make!!!!! but carol manages them... and the counter!! a BIG JOB...
you can see her at the counter all summer and fall...then she DESERTS US for the winter. and goes south..

WILD IDEAS FROM OUR CUSTOMERS....

TODAY I HEARD 2 FUN. WONDERFUL trash to treasure IDEAS FROM PEOPLE IN THE STORE...

1.....BOYFRIEND SKIRTS..... this creative person made skirts out of the boyfriends flannel shirts.... she said they turned out great and looked so cute with leggings.... i think she cut them off at the pockets...and added eLASTIC

2....i cant believe i never thought of this one.....a 5 $$$ item.... CONSOLE RECORD PLAYER CABINETS.....lets turn them into tv stands....they are the right height and shape..just empty out the mechanical stuff and paint...... it would be so easy ...they would be nice and low...i have seen so many go for nothing at sales!!! ill be trying that one!!!...WE WILL PAINT OURS BLACK OF COURSE...

IN THIS WEEK....STAINED GLASS...

A BIG POTTING BENCH

HARVEST TABLE

HALF MANTLES

LITTLE VICTORIAN FRAMES

GERMAN STEIN

NICE BLACK BUFFETS

and so much more....all spread thruout the store.... come see for yourself.... lots and lots of stuff....maybe the biggest pile of antiques in northern indiana.... just north of indy and south of south bend...

OPEN HOUSE...

if you came to the openhouse

we thank you so much....it was great to see so many people having so much fun..and liking the big selection we tried so hard to figure out for you.... for a while there it was kind of a dull roar!!.

the winner of the 100$ gift certificate..is .sue alexander.....

and we raised 100$ for the local ministers with our be an angel for christmas promotion...5% of candle sales..

.....we tried to get more email addresses thru the drawing....when we send things by snail mail...just the stamps cost 900$$$$ so we want to use email more....but we arent droppping regular mail for our main events...

the MOST POPULAR THING seemed to be the battery candles ....they run for weeks....and our lanterns....original here i think... and definitely our word plates ....

coming up ....WINTER WONDERLAND ~~~PART 2~~~

featuring a TRUNK SHOW on saturday.... with a jewelry artist i think everybody will really like.....and some other goodies....that is the weekend of dec 6..more on that later...you can see her work here http://www.vintagekeepsakejewelry.com/ ...

NEW FOR NOVEMBER...OPEN WEDNESDAY NIGHTS TILL 7..... STARTING TONIGHT...

thats for all you working girls who dont get off till 5... so keep us in mind....

one more piece of news.... carol has left for key west for the winter,,,we will miss her....but she will be back with the robins...

..and dont forget we are on facebook...come be a fan... its greenoakantiques....

again thanks for supporting us and keeping our store in your mind for your christmas needs....

as always our goal is to help you DO YOUR OWN THING!!!!

christmas

if you came today....THANK YOU

after a hectic week we are all ready for our annual
WINTER WONDERLAND OPENHOUSE...STARTING TOMORROW

LOTS OF COOL LANTERNS TO PICK FROM....THESE ARE FULL OF CHRISTMAS ...AND BATTERY CANDLES...

the word plates...lots to pick from...

one of the white sections.... some nice angels in here...

happy holidays....