Jeanette Janson-Mixed Media Artist

A day at the Flea Market

We spent the day at the antique show/flea market today and I thought I would share a few pictures with you.  It was one of those days that is both exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.  You know that feeling don't you?  I am now very satisfied as I look around me and admire my treasures.

Lara shared the day with us and found lots of her own goodies.

Button, button, who's got the button?  

I am really drawn to these old stoves.  If I had room I would have brought this one home...it was so small and cute!

 Things always look better in groupings, have you noticed?

 
These would make great plant stands! 

Stay tuned to see some of my wonderful finds in the supply shop.  And a quick reminder....everything is 20% off until next Wednesday!
 

20% off Sale

How time flies when you're having fun!  And oh my, what fun we have had this past year.....rising at the crack of dawn, scouring the flea markets, sweating like pigs during  summertime auctions and hitting the brakes for roadside tag sales.  All in the name of art!  Vintage Supply Co. began a year ago this week and it has taken on a life of its own.  To show our appreciation, we are offering everything in the shop at 20% off.  This sale will run until November 11th.  At that time, many items will go back to regular price, including the frozen charlotte dolls.  When you make a purchase, pay the full amount and I will refund you immediately through paypal.  I will reminisce for a few moments about some of my favorite finds during the past year....

Brass tags.  I am always on the lookout for them.  We don't have all of these available anymore, but have other styles to offer.

Skeleton keys... I can never get enough keys!  I love them all and continue to add new ones to inventory on a regular basis.

 
A staple for any mixed media media artist, rusty chain!  We rust this ourselves if you ever wondered.  It's nasty business with acid and bleach, but the results are great!

 
A book filled with autographs from the 1940's, belonging to a girl named Jenny.  A "Jenny" bought it from me and was thrilled to death with it.  I felt like it was meant to be!

Leather baby shoes in robin egg blue.  These were found along with about 6 other pair in the bottom of a box at a large sale.  I  tried to keep my cool, but I think I started hyperventilating when I saw them!

  I found several bonnets at the same sale.  So cute, I almost couldn't part with them!

Handwritten letters, a lost art.  I could spend hours going through these.  They usually don't say anything terribly important, but the sentiment is there.  I still have several lots of these available.

A small ledger, chock full of vintage notes, numbers and figures.  The little size made this booklet very special.  I think it went to someone who will really appreciate it!

I hope you will look through the shop and see if anything interests you.  If not now, please continue to check back.  We have LOTS of items in the wings, waiting to be listed. 

Happy Shopping!

Happy Halloween!

So, what are you doing for Halloween this year?  Going to a costume party?  Trick or Treating with your little ones?  We have a tradition that begins about a week before, we start watching scary movies.  It's really the only time of year I can stand them.  I like a good scare, but the blood and gore and graphic violence is not for me.  Here's a few of the movies we watched.  This, this, this and this one.  All pretty good.

Other than watching movies, I've been listing a lot of new things in the supply shop.  There's some cool watch movements.

 Supply lots

Brass tags

and hardware.

Next week will be our 1 year anniversary at Vintage Supply Co., so look for specials on all items.  If you want to wait until purchasing something, that's up to you, but it might be gone if you do!  Stay tune for more news!

And speaking of anniversaries, Happy #2 to my darling husband.  He surprised me with these beautiful pink roses today. 

Tomorrow is actually our day (you didn't think we got married on Halloween, did you!?) so we are going to go picnicking if the weather is nice.

Hope you have a good weekend!  
 

Preparing for the Holidays

I really cannot believe Christmas is right around the corner, but it's true!  What happened to those lazy, hazy days of Summer that seemed to blend together from one day to the next?  **Sigh**  I miss those days already.

I guess I am starting to feel a little "Christmasy" because I got my gifts for a "12 days of Christmas" swap ready to be sent off today.  I can't tell you what I made yet, but this is how they look all wrapped up.  I tied little brass tags on the outside with the number 10 on them because I had the 10th day.  I have these tags available in my supply shop if you need any for a similar project.

 I got a group of Charlotte angels made for a tree at our local art gallery.  I spent most of the afternoon setting that up.  I used vintage clip-on earrings for ornaments on the branches and small cream colored silk roses stuck in between the branches. 

I did take some photos to share with you, but they somehow got lost in between transferring them from my disc to the computer.  So aggravating!!!  Ever since I got my new Kodak printer weird things have been happening with my camera disc.  I don't understand what is going on, but something is not right. 

I will be making more angels for my etsy shop, so stay tuned for those.  I know my etsy shop has been woefully empty lately, but I hope to remedy that soon : )

 

Gallery Hopping

We are winding up another busy weekend here in our little home.  My mom and Deb came to visit us for a few days and we had such a great time with them.  Deborah is a wonderful artist and we had so much to share and talk about.  She has run galleries all over the country and is such a sweet and interesting gal.  You can see more of her work HERE.

Here we are having a laugh or two in the kitchen before they headed home.

We spent all day yesterday exploring galleries in Greenville....the Pendleton Arts District, a new upcoming area as well as some more established galleries. 

I absolutely fell in love with the Village Studios and Gallery.  Downstairs is a large open gallery space and the upstairs has sectioned off studios that they rent out to artists.  Very reasonable with utilities and everything included in the price.  I would love to do something like that, but it was a little too far from home to be handy for me.  What a great space though, to be around like minded artists, in your own workspace would be a dream work environment!

We met this artist and had the privilege of seeing his paintings in person.  So amazing!

And this lovely artist has a first rate studio too.  Here is a link to her blog.

So...after so much inspiration and stimulation to the senses, I am ready to jump back into my own artwork.  Good thing....my to-do list is long and ready to be tackled!

Bargains & Birds

The last few days have been busy getting Alex settled back into his civilian lifestyle.  I've been helping him get paperwork in order as well as getting his car running after it sat in storage for over a year.  With all of that behind us now, we headed out to the flea market this morning for a little shopping and family bonding : )

There's nothing like waking at the crack of dawn during a chilly October morning to hunt for bargains!  My DH and I found some wonderful vintage bottles, tins, typewriters and more.  My son was more into the Ipod "thingies" and speakers for his car.  I'll keep my fingers crossed that everything works once he gets them home.

Aside from that, I've been working on a custom order which included some assemblage birds.  I'll share a few photos of the finished product with you.  I have an upcoming article coming out about my birds, so you will see more of these in the future!

10 Miler

I've neglected emails and my blog for the past few days because we were out of town attending the Medoc Mountain Marathon/10 mile race.  We planned this way back in the Spring and the time had finally arrived.  This was a family event that I ran with my two sons.   If you remember, my older son, Alex, was stationed in Iraq for a year.  He arrived back home just in time to do this run with us. 

Here he is on the left at the beginning of the race.  His pace ended up being pretty good, we didn't see him most of the time as he was far ahead of us.

My pace was much slower! 

Here is Philip before the race.  We stayed together most of the time.  He was good company during those 10 miles on the woodsy trails.

And finally at the finish line.  Alex met me there and ran in with me.   By this time I was tired and pretty sore.  The real aches and pains set in though, during our long ride home that afternoon. 

I am feeling much better now after a good night's sleep.  So...it's back to work for me, catching up on things today.

Hope you are having a good weekend!

 

Rainy Monday

It's a dreary, rainy day here, so I am confined to the house....listing things in my etsy supply shop while listening to music.

OK, maybe not on this old Victrola, but it's a fun display piece that we have in our dining room. 

I have a bunch of Frozen Charlotte's painted and ready to be made into Christmas Ornaments in my studio.  The Holidays are approaching fast, so now's the time to begin on those handmade gifts!  I have Charlotte's in my shop on sale right now if you would like to try your hand at angel ornaments.

A few other items that are available:

A 1940's scrapbook

 
escutcheon plates with worn, chipped paint

ball chain for your altered jewelry

watch crystals

vintage correspondence     

 
and supply lots if you need a little bit of everything!  

Cups for Cancer benefit

We had the "Cups for Cancer" fundraiser tonight and it was a great success.  I don't have the final number of funds raised, but I believe people were very generous in their bidding and donations. 

This altered bra came to me in the mail the other day from Laurie Griffin.  I think she did a fabulous job...she flattened it and used it like a canvas.  Now that's thinking outside the box!

Here's a few photos of the displays and the event.  Many thanks to everyone that participated and lended their support.  It's not too late if you would like to be involved!  Please contact me if you would like to make a donation. 

View article and more photos here.

Thanks!   Jeanette

A new day

 

I took so many photos when I was away....these are some of my favorites.  Notice the words of inspiration on the steps of the church in the 1st shot.  I thought this looked really amazing.   

Well....it's the beginning of a new week.  Time to make resolutions and get back on track.   Today I will begin twittering about my diet.  I will list what I eat throughout the day and my exercise.  I figure if I put it all out there, it will keep me honest.  And honest I will be.  I will list the good, the bad and the ugly.  A bit more about my diet regimen...until I reached middle age I never had to think about a diet.  What the heck happens to our metabolism when we reach 40?!  I seem to go on and off diets now all the time, I do good for awhile and then fall off the wagon.  I only want to lose about 10 lbs.  Is that harder to do when you are not obese to begin with?  In the past, my mom, sister and I have done the "listing what you eat in a day" amongst ourselves.  We made a pact to email each other at the end of each day with a list of what we had consumed along with what we did right and wrong.  That was enlightening and proved to be successful to some degree.

So...I am going to do this for 30 days.  I'll be here if you would like to follow along.