Antiques in the Park, in Richland, was a blast . . . great vendors, great customers and lots of sunshine!  The cateyegirls' space was picked over pretty thoroughly . . . a good thing for customers and a source of inspiration to dig a little deeper to assemble new displays and vignettes for A Vintage Affair, in Prosser, WA, the following weekend.

We love old quilts and refer to them not as quilts, but as "a year of someone's life."   The one shown was completely hand-stitched . . . which might have consumed more than a year of someone's life.

We've seen vintage license plates repurposed into purses with Swarovski crystals to make them sparkle like none other.  Cut them up and you can write out your favorite inspirational saying . . . leave them alone and you can decorate your garage or actually put them on your old jalopy.

We love old car parts and so do our customers!

We learned long ago, in a far away land to look at the backside of a finished piece of embroidery . . . to see the integrity of the work and the skill level of the person who did the embroidery.  Fine work looks nearly as good on the backside as it does on the front side!  And, the stitches . . . are evenly spaced and perfectly executed.  Fine work indeed.

There is something extrordinarily different about the linen and cotton used in old pillowcases -- it's softer and on warm nights seems cooler than new ones.

Here's Ted E. and his pal Jinx the Cat in a picnic display at American Primitives at Clayson Farm.  The two of them went to three funky junk shows with Agent 99 . . . looking for their "forever" home. 

They were adopted in Waterville at the Rustique Diva's Vintage Market (August 2011).  Jinx was adopted first, as cat's are easier to care for than bears . . . :)

This is the coolest, oldest, most primitive camp box that we have ever found and pairs nicely with the "Bonanza" mugs!

Canisters are fun to repurpose into hurricane lamps, as the wrapping for a wedding shower gift or as a cheery vase.  In the recycling and repurposing end of what we do, we are always saying, "it doesn't have to be what it is!"  Our funky junk is then liberated, hindered only by our imaginations.

Nothing says "vintage," "quirky" or "interesting garden element" quite like concrete and steel does. So what do you do with the base to a birdbath that lost its shallow basin? Marry it to some railroad finials! It's a match made for a garden.

Railroad pinnacles, more commonly known as finials, were used as decorative caps that were affixed to railroad crossing posts when common things still had a little flair. The two finials shown are common sizes, though if you are determined you can find railroad finials 17-18 inches tall.

Railroad finials typically fit a 5" pipe and have a set screw that fixes them to the pipe. Railroad finials make great caps for driveway gate posts or a topper to a flag pole.

The pairing of steel and concrete make for an interesting, whimsical garden element that adds both height and structure to your perinnial beds.