27 Feb
Carrollton Antique Mall
Apparently these antique mall things are quite common. I called my mom expecting her to say “Oh wow! I can’t wait to come down and check that out.” Instead she said “You’ve never heard of an antique mall?”
No Mom, I have not, and I very angry that you kept such a magical thing hidden from me all this time.
If you also haven’t seen one before, it’s so much more than a regular antique store. It’s one big location (this one wasn’t like Wal-Mart size or anything, maybe half the size of a regular grocery store), where individual antique dealers “rent” spaces and store their finds. I don’t know if these dealers take the goods out and try to sell them other places, but with so many varying tastes throughout the store the selection is really diverse.
It’s going to be months before I can go back, because the antiques are the real deal, which means they are quite pricey. Here are the things I couldn’t pass up on this trip:
Bright red/orange bookends! I actually want to collect bookends (it’s so much fun when you collect something seriously because then people know what to buy you for your birthday), but they are usually very expensive, and always heavy. Couples that plan on moving at least 3 times within the next 5 years can’t fall in love with a bunch of heavy belongings. You all said I needed to add more color to my house though, so obviously had to have them (side note: I need to practice learning how to focus the D50, ick).
Don’t you like how the little boy is like “Hey girl, what’s shaking?” and she is looking at us like “Hello, doesn’t he see I am trying to read my book?”
A chair! I need something for my bridal shoots, because otherwise the brides either stand or squat if it’s before the wedding and they are worried about their dress. This means that even my “pre-wedding” brides will be able to have variety in their posing. (Don’t you love how I am optimistically assuming like I will have scores of brides to photograph one day?)
The salesman at the store said “Oh no, it looks like someone started to paint it red, or decided to sand the red off and never finished.”
I responded with “What do you mean ‘oh no’? This little touch makes the chair that much better!”
I love the unfinished finish, the red, the little bit of yellow that you can’t see in this photo. The curve of the back and the swoopy lines on the bottom.
And my favorite purchase of the day (maybe they are all my favorites this time, since I love them all)… completely useless kitchen decor items!
Silhouettes in cast iron skillet. I wish I were an artist, I would duplicate these and do a whole series. I have them hanging from a piece of twine in my kitchen.
I’m beginning to wonder if I really need to buy myself a summer wardbrobe. Wouldn’t it be better to have cute little antiques around the house instead?
I'm a farm-raised almost-crunchy stroller-pushing picture-taking lifestyle-blog-writing gastronomy-obsessed divine-seeking thrift-store-combing cheese-inhaling pavement-pounding laughter-sprinkling lover of individuality and taking chances.
I don’t think the silhouettes should be that hard to duplicate. Especially if you used that old light trace method and then painted in color. Then you could have yours and your husbands up.
That antique chair has a ton of character, it’ll look amazing in photo shoots.
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1Have you ever been to the First Monday sales in Canton? I haven’t been yet, but I keep hearing it’s a must-see for antique lovers!
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2FH and I LOVE going to antique malls. I love looking at antiques and imagining their new use. The one near me has a lot of old silver platers and serving pieces, we’re planning on going back their after the wedding to at to our silver
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3Where do you find all of these awesome surfaces to place items on for photos? I always have the hardest time finding a good place to set something when I want to take a picture of it.
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4Jenna! I love you! I just looked at all the pictures of Eli and Audrie on Flickr and I absolutely LOVE them! Thank you so much. Really, if you want to practice with them again, we are so there. You are the GREATEST!! Your pictures are going to be all over our apartment! Please post more, if you want to.
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5Not only do you have beautiful antiques in your home, the pictures of them alone could qualify as art!!
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6Ok in my defense. You have been to those types of stores before. You just could not wait to get out of them. Remember when I would stop at an antique store and you would sit in the car and read a book. Yep it was that kind of store. So maybe your heart already knew how cool they were but you head was not ready for the coolness. Now you are totally cool. Love the chair! Mom
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7Hee. The cast iron silhouettes are cute, but I’m also pretty positive that they’re ashtrays.
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Jenna Reply:
March 19th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
OH MAN! I think you are exactly right. Dang. I still love them anyways.
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