Exciting Things to Come

Exciting additions at Shabby Lane Antiques.  Our new location will be filled with new Shabby Chic, Vintage and Antique finds.  Make sure you are on our mailing list to receive our E-Vites.  Send requests to ShabbyLaneAntiques@aol.com

Change can sometimes be scary.  The unknown, the uncharted, the future.  But Change can also be exciting. Shabby Lane Antiques is changing.  We has re-evaluated our business plan and have decided to go on with our business in a completely different direction.  We will still be finding the most incredible items, we will still have great ideas for you and your home.  We will still be repurposing and painting and reworking old and unusable items into wonderful ecclectic art, furniture and more.
 Running an antique business from a shop front has had its limitations for me.  Being in the shop 6 days a week has limited me to finding cool stuff and doing all the creative stuff that I love to do.  I have decided to rent a Storage Room in a Storage Facility.  From there, I will be sending out emails, posting on Facebook and Craigslist inviting my customers to monthly "Events".  I will be opening one Friday and Saturday in the month.  My Storage Room will be set up just like a shop.  Only without the overhead.  I will be opening my shop once a month with tons of new and different.  I will  be having one of a kind objects.  And so much more.

I will also be able to make appointments for those of you who see something I have posted and meet with you in the shop when you see something that I have posted.

So stay tuned.  Shabby Lane is changing.  But we are changing for the good.  We are excited to see what the future holds for us all.

Charlie Picks

How many of you have ever heard of Divine Appointments?  Those are the moments in your life when you are  put in a particular place, at a particular time and moment in time to experience one of life’s blessings.  These are the moments we find inspiration, friends, happiness, blessings, and moments that we could not expect to find any other times in our lives.  It is those times you think to yourself:  Wow, I was just at the right place at the right time on the right day.  If you are shaking your head right now, you have had one of those moments.  You never forget them.  You play them over and over in your mind.  Because, you know it did not just happen by accident.  You know that it was meant to be.

Such things have been happening to me for quite sometime now.  Many more started happening when I became a single mom 3 years ago.  Many of you can relate to that.  Going on very little.  (One thin dime is stretching it). One of my favorites Divine Appointment moments was in Belks. My oldest daughter was looking for a Spring Fling Dress for high school.  She was trying on dresses in the dressing room.  She had her heart set on a dress that cost $98.  I was having her try on dresses from the sales rack just in case she would find one (and like it) that costs around $30.  About the same time I was standing there waiting for her in the dressing room, a mom came up with her teenage daughter, who was also trying on dresses.  She and I were standing at the dressing rooms waiting for our beautiful daughters to emerge looking way too old and much prettier that we ever imagined and we struck up a conversation.  I asked her to please tell my daughter that the $30 dress was beautiful.  A moment or two later, both daughters exited their dressing rooms, dressed in beautiful dresses and looking stunning.  The wonderful thing is that they knew each other from school.  So the mom and I began talking more.  The mom told us that she had a dress in her car that had just been altered and they did not make it fit her daughter right.  She said, “I’ll  just give it to you”.  The most wonderful part to this Divine Appointment is that it fit my daughter to a tee and she absolutely loved it.

Being the owner of Shabby Lane Antiques has been a Divine Appointment for me.  I am constantly amazed at the customers that may come in looking for something wonderful or a special gift.  They may be feeling low and come in to find a little joy as they run from place to place, carting kids to and fro. It is the mom who brings in her 3 small girls to find gifts with the money they have saved for something special.  Or it is the newly separated mom who I can share my story of hope and belief.

On November 30, 2012, Shabby Lane Antiques will be closing our doors on Capital Blvd in North Raleigh and begin the next chapter in our life.  We will be running our business out of a storage unit not far from our present location.  We will be having events monthly by sending out invites via email, Facebook, Craigslist and more.  These events will be focusing on bringing you fun, new inventive ideas and products for you and your home.  Make sure you are on our mailing list or Facebook Page to make sure you get an invitation to the first event.  

Vintage Wedding Dress with Veil and Sleeve Gloves

Great Chenille Bedroom Chair

Whimsical Display

GARDEN TOTEMS

Have a pair of these pink plates. Beautiful

Beautiful Dresser Set

Sterling Silver Georg Jenson Serving Pieces

Spider Pin (SOLD)

Blooming Flowers

I have never considered myself a gardener, but I love flowers.  I love flowers as much as beautiful floral china teacups.  I love flowers as much as I love sterling silver jewelry or painted furniture or no iron shirts.  I find myself drawn towards anything with flowers on it these days.  I am drawn to the paintings of gardens and floral arrangements.  I look forward to first going into the grocery store just to see the bunches of flowers over in their little refrigerator ready for purchase.  I even just purchased a simple little hooked rug that is simply a yellow rose.

I don’t know why I am so attracted to flowers. Maybe it is their simplicity.  Maybe their simple magic of appearing out of a tiny little pod.  Hydrangeas especially fascinate me by the simple fact that the main flower is made up of many small little buds.

Since I have moved into a townhouse, I am limited on the amount of flowers that I can plant. I have a limited amount of space.  And a limited budget but I seem to always have flowers of some sort.  But when fall comes around and the first frost, the flowers are more or less gone until the spring.  But I have discovered something wonderful……

This year I have been exposed to bulbs…….and the wonderful act of forcing them.  I am now sitting here at my computer and looking at the 5 hyacinth bulbs that I am forcing to bloom in the coldest months of the year.  I am forcing them to bloom early.  I am forcing them to be a flower before nature intended them.

I am so excited.  It won’t be long before the flowers bloom and fill my home with a wonderful fragrance and color.  And as I sit here at my desk on the eve of a new year, I can only look forward to not only 5 blooms but also a new year that has come fast and furious.  Not forced or pushed though.  It is coming, as my 5 little blooms with new experiences to behold and wonderful things to fill my life.

I hope each of you will find a new year full of blooms.  Those things that make your life just a little better, a little sweeter, and a lot more joyful.

Tea Pot Lamp

Baby Shoe Collection

Embellished Compact

Buttons Buttons

Shabby Lane Antiques

Oh So Shabby Tree

Tiny Nest

With spring just around the corner all things new and fresh are on my mind. The new leaves on the trees, the daffodils lining the walkways, the robins turning their heads to listen for the noisiest worms.  All these things we look forward to each year.  This year I could help but hurry up spring just a little by creating the sweetest signs of springs which are bird nest.

These tiny nest are my latest creations.  Made from wire, pearls or beads.  Turned into jewelry with a pin back or earring hoop.  A sure sign of the wonderful things to come.

Nests

Think Spring

Nothing speaks spring better than a bird nest.  When walking this morning through the neighborhood, I noticed many trees with the tiniest of blooms. Just waiting to burst into the world and welcome spring with their bright greens.  But as I looked through the many trees that I passed, I again noticed the empty bird nests left over from last spring and summer.  I have enjoyed these nest in the dreary months of cold weather.  They are a constant reminder of what is to come but also a reminder that things are always changing.  It may be the weather, or seasons or it could be the home that you are living in.  Whatever the changes that you are going through, remember the bird nest.  Always visible when things may be dark and dreary but a small reminder that with every winter comes spring and better days ahead.