Angie's House-Favorite Spaces Winner in STL Homes and Lifestyles Magazine

 

I entered my mom in a decrorating contest for boutique owners through St. Louis Homes and Lifestyles magazine.  Our customers are always asking if her house looks like the store, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to finally give them a peek inside.  We entered my old bedroom, now the guest bedroom, and she won!! Here's the article:  http://www.stlouishomesmag.com/article/favorite-spaces-angela-matheys-guest-bedroom

 

Here are some photos I took and some by the photographer the magazine sent(Anne Mathis):

 

I have the cutest mom.  She even wears a lot of white lol.

 

 Just about everything in the house is from The White Rabbit.  Imagine that!  She sneeks things home when I'm not looking. 

 

I love the idea of a message to guests on a chalkboard!

 

Below is us at the awards party.  It was so much fun.  I'm glad we remembered to snap a picture.

 

Since you guys are always asking about her house, I thought I'd share a few more pictures of it. I'll take more soon, but here's what I have so far. Here's my brother's old room.  It's also a guest bedroom now. 

Old suitcases are one of our favorite things to decorate with.  You can stack them, paint them different colors, hang them as shelves...etc.

 

She didn't specifically have a headboard for this room yet so she just hung a chalkboard behind the bed.  Voila!  Cheap headboard.

And last but not least, the master bedroom.  Yep, that is also my Dad's bedroom.  My dad lives in a house with my mom, 2 fluffy shih tzus, and a whole lot of pink and white.

 

See the trunk at the end of the bed?  Daisy and Bailey(shih tzus) like to sleep on it at night when they get hot in the bed.  It is too cute when they're both stretched out on it!

She needs some photos or notes on her memo board!  It has the pins but it's naked!  The word "Paris" is stenciled on there.  I love it.

Notice in the picture below that my mom must have thought the plant wasn't tall enough to balance the height of the statue so she stacked some books under it.  Easy fix right?  Try it!

I have a strange obsession with the vintage pink lamp below.  It has a glass base with pink flowers.  The pictures in the frames are me and my little brother when we were kids.

This antique wardrobe has been in my parents' room since I can remember.  I remember trying to get inside of it when I was little.  She likes to keep her change of season's clothes in here.  When I was little, it was stained a dark wood color.

My favorite part about this room is the vaulted ceiling.  You can see it below.

People ask us a lot of questions about balance.  They want to know if everything has to be matchy and the same shape.  You can see in the picture below that she put a mirror in the center and then balanced out the two sides with similarly sized items.  They don't have to be the exact same shape or color as long as they balance each other out.

Look for the article about my mom and her guest bedroom in the October 2012 issue of St. Louis Homes and Lifestyles Magazine.  I'm so proud.  I will take more pictures of her house too.  Thanks for reading :) -Lindsay

10 Flea Market tips from Angie and Lindsay

After a trip to Bloomington IL this weekend, we decided it would be fun to write a little guide to flea market shopping.  We 've been going to flea markets for a long time so we've learned a few tricks that we wish we'd known in the beginning.

1. Go REALLY early.  This picture I took was well after we'd gotten there and bought a bunch of things.  As you can see, the sun is coming up.  My mom always says, "The early bird gets the vanity!" 

  

    2. Wear tennis shoes.  Most flea markets are on dirt or gravel roads.  You will really regret wearing a pair of flip flops while trying to navigate a flea market, especially if you find a great piece of furniture that you have to carry to your truck or van.  See my mom below?  She has on tennis shoes and loose, comfy clothing.

   3. Bring a van or a truck!  There is nothing worse than spotting a really cool piece and realizing that you have no way of getting it home.  Every once in a while, you can offer a dealer extra money to deliver a large item for you but you definitely shouldn't count on it.  This is a picture of our junk from the weekend piled into the minivan.  To the right is a picture of my mom driving the truck with some goodies in the back!  

4. Just about everything at a flea market is negotiable.  We pretty much never pay what's on the tags.  Dealers will almost always accept a reasonable offer.  We like to point out a particular item and ask, "what's your best price on this?"  The last thing they want to do is go home with everything they just loaded and unloaded, so chances are, you'll get a great deal if you ask.  This cubby piece pictured below was a little more than we wanted to pay so we found a few more things in the dealer's booth and made a package deal.  





5. Be willing to look past dirt, bugs, and minor imperfections.  We have learned to look at the "bones" of a piece rather than the finish or the layers of grime covering it.  Sometimes really cute pieces have been painted hideous colors or have mud daubers in them.  The door pictured below was really yucky before we cleaned it.

 6. Bring a friend!  My mom and I always go as a team and call each other periodically to make sure that what we've bought will fit in our vehicle.  We also bring a tape measure if we don't have an open truck just to make sure that each piece will fit into the back of the van.

This is a little piece I found in Bloomington.

7. Bring cash!  It's very rare that you can pay with anything else.

8. Bring a little notebook so you don't forget what you bought.  I cannot even begin to count all the times we've been driving away from a flea market and been in a panic about whether or not we forgot something.  My mom has a red cart that she pushes around too.  It helps her to not leave anything behind.  I prefer to go without a cart.  It just slows me down!

Here's the cart!

9. Sniff everything.  Yeah, I know it looks a little weird, but you've gotta see if things smell like mold or smoke.  We have ended up with musty dressers and moth ball infused armoires in the past that just could not be cleaned.  People tell us all the time about tricks they use to get the smell out, but to be honest, we have never found anything that truly works.  I even sniffed the hat box in the picture below.

10. Keep your eyes peeled for celebrities!  While my mom was in Texas, she saw Tori Spelling (See below) and while we were in Bloomington, we saw Mike from American Pickers.

This Monday is Gypsy Caravan so get your tennis shoes, your cash, and your pickup trucks ready!  We'll see you there!

One of our Gypsy Caravan booths.  It was busy!!

Out Junking All Weekend

My mom and I agree that the best thing about summer is the never ending amount of garage sales, estate sales, and flea markets. This weekend was no exception. Along with the warm weather came lots of opportunities for finding goodies. We really get a thrill out of hunting for anything chippy and worn. We can spot a dresser with a bad finish and good "bones" from a mile away and we seem to have a radar that detects old, ornate frames that can be painted. I have actually seen my mom run past people toward something she's spotted ahead. Here are a few of the fun finds her and I wrestled out of other shoppers' hands this weekend.

We aren't 100% sure what this cool machine is, but I overheard a lady saying she thought it was used for calculating payroll. When you press any of the buttons, the total at the bottom changes. I tend to be more fascinated by this type of item than my mom. I like old buttons and labels and I'm really attracted to black and white vintage things. I would put this in my house as a piece of art, just because it's neat.

This is an old garden statue of a girl holding her skirt. It has the original paint and she is perfectly weathered and worn. I thought she was the sweetest thing when I picked her up and I knew we had to have her for the store. I'm pretty sure she's concrete because she's pretty heavy. I put her in the baby section and she's holding one of our little barrette sets.

I think my favorite find of the weekend is a collection of over 200 old photos.  I'm so intrigued by the clothes, the furniture, and the look of the people in the past.

Are you seeing what I'm seeing???  I couldn't believe it when I pulled this out of the pile.  He has to be like 10 or 12 years old.  It's so weird!

These two are just cute.

A fun old rocker with white paint and a little green showing through on the edges.  It would be to-die-for on an old wrap around porch!

This little old table has a towel bar that slides out of the side.  It has the original paint so it's perfectly shabby.

This headboard is going to be awesome once we paint it.  Knowing us, it will probably be white.

Some fun vintage purses and a hand mirror.  The blue bag says, "Made in Italy" inside.

A pink wire dress form.  So cute!

This table had ugly 60's knobs and I replaced them with glass and gave it a whole new look.

This half table was already pink when we found it.  Woo hoo!

Can't decide whether to do this one white or black.  Hmmm....

This old box with drawers could be used in so many ways.  I think I'll have to paint it because the yucky stuff on the front isn't coming off.  We use Windex to clean everything and it almost always works.  (A little tip though, don't use the Powerized Windex because it has bleach in it and it will leave spots.  Learned that one the hard way!)

Super cute baby booties, a lampshade with pink ribbon around it, and a baby image.  Another lady had the round baby picture in her hand and I kept thinking, "put it down, put it down, put it down," and she did!  I snatched it up right away for our baby section.

And last but not least:

I'm already collecting the charming retro Christmas goodies for a display I'm envisioning for Christmas.  Yes, that's right, us retailers have to think about the holidays when everyone else is thinking about relaxing in the sun.  It's really fun though because I think our customers are going to love it!

Well, those were just a few of our finds this weekend.  There are more pieces of furniture that need to be painted like a coffee table on wheels, a gorgeous sofa table, and lots of mirrors and frames.  Next weekend, we're setting up a booth at Gypsy Caravan, a huge flea market at The University of Missouri St. Louis.  Maybe you can stop by and have your own junking weekend!  See you there and pictures of the event will be posted soon after.  Can't wait!         -Lindsay