I’m super excited, it’s almost time to head out to my magical pop up shop! Really, it’s the most magical holiday pop up shop EVER! Because, it’s INSIDE the bottom of a gigantic Christmas tree! I mean, how could I resist this invitation for my brand!?! Perfect! It’s my busiest time of year so this adds an extra layer of planning and making but that’s never shaken me before. I can’t wait to show you the finished shop!
Stop by if you’re in the Chicagoland area. I’ll be at Westfield Old Orchard, you know where to find me, yup, in the bottom of the giant tree! And yes, I’m going where most independent handmade designer makers detest, the MALL. Let’s do this folks, let’s show the world that independent, small biz, and handmade matters. Power up and support this cause in the middle of a mall.
I’m celebrating over 9 years of living this life and dream. Designing, making, marketing, running this business. Making a choice to live a more meaningful, creative, and thought provoking life. One that makes sense in the context of my life. From so many childhood experiences shaping who I am it’s all smashed together into this wonderful company I call artgoodies. It’s an extension of my life, my ideals, my style, my passions, me. I’m thankful to have those experiences to draw from, supportive parents who’ve always told my brothers and I that we are capable of doing anything we want, and for their continued support on this journey. It’s a challenging one. Just like building out a stop sign shaped tree shop.
In lieu of color of the month, the annual home for the holidays December edition!
I’m hustling and bustling as usual over here and getting ready to go to Chicagoland in a week for my magical pop up shop INSIDE the bottom of the giant Christmas tree! So I’m extra busy, no time to waste!
It’s fun to mix up the holiday display a little every year! A change in the boxes including the addition of a little house shaped one, some new blow mold lights, a plastic Santa cookie jar, new bottle brush trees, a few new colored reindeer, and a few new small friends too! I have sold some pieces in case you’re wondering, and you might wanna head to the vintage shop to scope out the well stocked vintage holiday section there! After the feature in Vintage Holiday Magazine Fall 2015 issue I felt like I could let a few pieces go and begin to rotate a bit.
A nice shot of the dining room table and the credenza display!
Table setting Dec 2015! I LOVE the icy winter look of this! The vintage moonstone glass dishes lend themselves so nicely with the blue! A few blue corsages add a nice touch, and a little Shiny Brite table top tree is always a favorite holiday accent of mine, plus you can’t go wrong with an artgoodies snowflake towel!
Hard to believe it’s that time of year. I’ve been hustling and bustling in the studio, working hard listing vintage, making product, building displays, shipping, planning, marketing, starting work at 4:15 or 5:15 am, yep, that’s early, 15-16 hour days are pretty standard for this time of year. Tomorrow on Thanksgiving it’s going to be super low key. I’ll need it to be to be able to keep up with the season. By now you know how important I think it is to support small business, independent designers and makers, and once again urge you to continue to do so locally and online. Below you’ll find the scoop on artgoodies and vintagegoodies Black Friday, Small Biz Saturday, and Cyber Monday Sales. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone! And thank you for your support as I continue 9 years in business this year!
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a pop up shop and I’ve been pondering one again for awhile. I started with pop up shops waaay back in 2007 before it really caught on. I turned my garage into what I called Garage Gallery, continuing it on and off over the years. Making my garage into a beautiful gallery and vintage store. Sometimes including other artist makers and in recent years just artgoodies and vintagegoodies. Someone recently asked me when I’d be doing one again, realizing it had been awhile and knowing others were missing it, I began thinking harder about one this fall but with impending unpredictable chilly weather I thought I’d wait until Spring. And then, I got an invite I couldn’t refuse for the biggest, most magical, most fantastical pop up shop EVER! Announcing artgoodies Holiday Pop Up Shop Dec 10th-13th INSIDE the GIANT CHRISTMAS TREE at upscale Westfield Old Orchard in suburban Chicago! Stop by and say hello, see new holiday products, and experience this truly unique shopping event! Here’s a link to the event page, let me know you’re coming and share with your friends!
And suddenly, just like that, it’s November! I’m busy working on some new products and projects, more on those soon. Plus holiday prep continues! For now, let’s get right to the festive fall color of the month!
Fave vintage: 2 different recipe boxes, peach straw weave bowls, duck glasses, gurley turkey candle, juice glasses, and embroidered linen
Fave vintage: bold striped vintage tablecloth, melmac plates, gold leaf Libbey glasses, orange juice glasses, gourd and feather centerpiece. I’ve been holding onto this huge striped tablecloth for awhile, what a great colorful statement piece. The gourds are from my tiny friend Tyler’s pumpkin patch and the feathers from my brother’s farm!
Well, one night away, but it felt like days and days which was exactly what I needed! One of the awesome stores that I sell to here in Michigan, Found Gallery, click here to check them out, moved into an absolutely amazing new space and had a grand opening party featuring their artist makers, so of course I went! The owner Mary truly has a talent for gathering amazing items and merchandising them like a dream, plus her staff is wonderful! If you’re in the area drop in, you won’t be disappointed! I guess I was so busy chatting it up and checking things out I didn’t take interior shots! What, I know, sorry! I did however nab a pic of a couple artgoodies towels they carry in this awesome vintage bakery display rack!
I had originally planned to nab a Priceline hotel outside of Ann Arbor on the cheap heading back towards home. BUT, for some reason the hotel prices were absurd that weekend, maybe someone was having a college football home game or something of the sort or maybe the prices in the area have increased far beyond what they used to be when I stayed there all the time. Anyway, my brother’s guest room in Lansing was booked for the weekend, it was farther than I hoped to drive after the opening, so I hopped on Airbnb and found myself a darling cottage for the night for cheaper than I could nab a dumb hotel. What! Yes please! It was on Portage Lake, about a 25 minute drive from Ann Arbor and just the thing I needed for a little mental break getaway.
This little place couldn’t have seemed more like it was meant for me! Darling from the outside, great vintage pieces on the inside, I immediately felt right at home! Even though Sue the owner was out of town I felt like I met a kindred spirit just by being at her place. Many of my favorite things were abound, check out the pics, you’ll see! Pyrex in the kitchen, vintage Beauty Queen cabinets with new boomerang countertops, scallop shelf accents, great mid century furniture pieces, vintage glassware, I mean come on! And if you’d like to see more and have a lovely getaway book it here! Sue responded lightning fast, I’d definitely book again, and you could even sleep someone on the couch! Great for yourself, you and your darling, or you and your best pal! Do it! I think it would be great all seasons! I enjoyed the hazy fall morning and watched hundreds of migratory coots come in, an eagle fishing, saw 20 some odd swans in the distance, and a gorgeous heron, among other wildlife. See! ALL of my absolute favorite things! The perfect blend of a getaway for me!
vintage glassware
vintage enamelware
vintage pyrex and glass reamer
vintage fiestaware and a scallop shelf plus a fun sign
This vintage chair, and green and blue my fave!
vintage Beauty Queen cabinets, and new boomerang countertop!
October. My all time favorite seasons are coming to an end and the busy season is starting up and the chill is beginning to edge in a bit. Honestly, this time of year always makes me feel a little blue as gardens wane and leaves fall. There’s nothing like the growth,green, flowers, color, sunshine, and warm fresh air of spring and summer to feed my soul and make me feel whole. I’m still taking advantage of those beautiful days outside, even though I slipped into a pair of boots for the first time last week, NO! You know how much I hate socks and wish I could just run around barefoot in flip flops all year long! It’s a season of change, and this year I’m seeing some extra things happen around me with the people I love. Some wonderful things are happening that are exciting and then there are some things happening that are hard and are just breaking my heart as their season brings big change. Life, like the natural world, has so many seasons. And so, color of the month October 2015 seems ever so fitting as blue.
Color of the Month October 2015! Fave Vintage: blue speckled Ransburg canister set, assorted awesome glassware, super old chalk tin, owl home saying spoon rest, Pyrex in the horizon pattern from my own personal mixing bowl set.
Color of the Month Oct 2015 table setting! Fave items: the awesome oak tablecloth, a great twist of color to the season! Melmac plates with saucers for a pop of color, ombre cocktail glasses, milk glass mugs, blue stripe napkins, and my usual twin star silverware by Oneida.
I’m SUPER excited to share this with you! Check out the Fall 2015 issue of Vintage Holiday Magazine! It’s a special issue from the editors of Cottages and Bungalows on newsstands NOW through Nov 10! It features my vintage holiday collection, an interview, tips, quotes, and I was even the photographer for this one!!! PLUS don’t forget I’ll be stocking up the holiday section of my vintage shop with TONS of vintage holiday from now through Christmas, so check back often as I list amazing treasures, no doubt even some from my own collection! A HUGE thanks to editor Jacqueline deMontravel who was awesome to work with on this project! On the cover you’ll see some of my little deer saying hello in the first circle, then flip to page 16 for 4 pages of vintage holiday magic! Check it out below along with some extra shots and if you’d like to see more flip through my past Dec blog posts, or click on over to my flickr holiday page for a few more shots starting with its humble beginnings! One last thing! You just might need some artgoodies holiday products to go along with your vintage holiday collection, say a NEW knee hugger elf or all over elf tea towel? Check out artgoodies holiday items here, OR now you can conveniently shop right here on the main artgoodies website! SO many options for my customers! Have fun looking around everyone!
Seen here: Vintage rubber reindeer and a few blow mold reindeer pals along with a selection of bottle brush trees.
My favorites seen here! My rare blue vintage holiday Japan collection, and a few pink pals in the mix too! Blue reindeer, snowmen, trees, angels, elves, and a blue glitter Santa too! Rubber, plastic, spun cotton, etc.
Rare pink Rushton Santa, AKA “baby Santa”, large celluloid reindeer, Gurley candles, sawdust reindeer, NOS blue musical tree in box, Japanese tabletop tree, bell corsage, and a felt tree skirt with blue and pink details!
Seen here: My bathroom shelf decked out with little snowmen. Some happy, some kinda mad, I love them all!
Seen here: A colorful collection of hard to find Japanese rubber reindeer! White, yellow, orange, pink, red! I’ve alwasy got my eye out for blue and other color friends!
Seen here: A menagerie of white and gold, green and red. This is as traditional as I get. My favorite are the weird poinsettia pals on the bottom, the round headed white reindeer, Christmas list box, and card mailbox!
Seen here: The towering holiday display from last year that was mentioned in the magazine article. It was fun to have most, not all of course, of the collection in a condensed area to take it all in.
Seen here: A shot of the great wall of all holiday display with a Shiny Brite tabletop tree and plastic folding sleigh with knee hugger elves. I have SO many more vintage holiday items I could show you! Stay tuned for this year’s Home for the Holidaze posts for those!
September! That means Labor Day Weekend, which means we’re inching closer to fall. I’m a little more at ease with it this year for some reason…at least for now. I think this month, with a lot of ivy in the mix, I was subconsciously inspired by the bittersweet vine that grows on the fence in my side yard. It grows SO fast sometimes I feel like if I stand there long enough it will grab ahold of me! So here it is, color of the month September 2015! Green and glorious and full of vining ivy!
Fave vintage: both sets of salt and pepper shakers! ivy bowl, ivy glasses, the little bbq spice jar, plaid tea towel, little buffalo china plate, and the stunning refrigerator dish that I just received from my great Aunt Wanda, love it!
Fave vintage: ivy tablecloth, Fire King plates, plaid napkins, pedestal mugs, little ivy doily, and zinnias from the cottage garden.
Some folks are acting like the lovely weather is over with back to school and labor day creeping up, and I feel the need to make a little public service announcement of sorts. Guess what! there are plenty of beautiful days and weekends left for gardening, enjoying the lake, and being outside! Get yourself to the farmers market, a yard sale, have a picnic, pick some flowers, open a window, breathe in the air, and be mindful to enjoy this before we are all locked inside our homes during the frigid winter months, especially here in Michigan. It’s beautiful out! ENJOY it!
