Yard Sale Fun(ny) Stuff!

It seems Patty was a little off her game yesterday when we got together to make up our yard sale signs.  I have proof:

What can I say??

And because it's us, we'll actually use this one.  I wonder how many folks will be paying attention??

* * *

Time Again for the Country Living Fair!

Our ticket to Country Living heaven!

The Country Living Fair 2012 in Atlanta, GA is gearing up, and Patty & I will be heading in that direction on Oct. 26th for a much anticipated overnight road trip.  And, get this.........both of our hubbies are going along for the ride!  Can't believe they actually wanted to go when we started planning this trip, but we're certainly glad they'll be with us to join in all of the OUR fun.  Besides,  we'll be able to use two pairs of strong arms to haul around the junk we buy!  

Since attending my first CLF last year, I'm a little wiser about the "equipment" required to enjoy this trip to it's fullest.  I didn't have near enough hands to carry all of the treasures I found, even with hubby Don's help.  So I was quite envious of the "Treasure Transportation Devices" that several folks were using.  Therefore, for my birthday this year, I've put in a special request for this little item:

Perfect for hauling STUFF!

A collapsible RED wagon for hauling around all of the fantastic treasures that we'll find.  I spotted one of these at Harbor Freight Tools for $59.99.  It will definitely be put to good use!

Also, I noticed that a really nice vintage inspired charm necklace seems to be a must-have piece of equipment for shopping the CLF!  So, Patty & I have both come up with our own versions, but since we've never photographed them, I found this example on Etsy:

Photo courtesy:  Urban Southern Charm

Can hardly wait for the end of October!  In the meantime, we're brainstorming a special vintage tailgate lunch to add some more fun to our trip.  AND, I need to make sure hubby doesn't forget to pick up my Treasure Transportation Device!

* * *

YARD SALE! YARD SALE! YARD SALE!

Weather permitting, we are planning an INDOOR/OUTDOOR YARDSALE/GARAGE SALE this coming Friday & Saturday, Aug. 31 - Sept. 2, starting at 6:30 a.m.  Come see us!  We are in the mood to bargain, so you can pick up some really great deals!

Follow our signs from the intersection of Hwy. 231 & Hwy. 14 in Wetumpka.  Sale address:  11846 US Hwy. 231, Wetumpka, AL (which is actually Wallsboro).

Hope to see you there!

Great New Treasures at Paint Pan Patty's

I haven't had a chance to do much treasure hunting lately, but what I have found has been really great and I thought I'd share with you.

Vintage wicker settee

Couldn't help myself when I saw this wicker piece up which I picked up  for an excellent price at a local thrift shop   All it needed was a little cleanup with some Clorox spray and it's ready to go.....STRONG with no broken pieces.  Can't you just imagine it with cushions made out of some groovy vintage fabric!!

Lovely little salt & pepper shakers

How cute are these??!!  Found them hiding out in a box at my parents' flea market.  As I unwrapped them, it was one of those moments where an honest-to-goodness treasure hunter will actually hyperventilate with the anticipation of what the unwrapping will reveal!  Come on now.........YOU know who you are!!

Vintage wood crate with great label

This wooden crate was holding a bunch of small tools under a pile of rusty stuff & plenty of dust.  I just love this little guy!

Vintage enamelware

I have to confess that I have a REAL weakness for vintage enamelware.  Makes my heart skip a beat whenever I run across it, and these three pieces were no exception.  Sometimes it's really hard to contain myself if I'm in a shop and I find great pieces like these.  My first thought is always, "OMG!!  How could anyone ever get rid of something like that??"  Of course, that's how I feel about almost all of the treasures I find!  : )

Do any of you out there see anything here that you're interested in??  Wondering when it's going to show up in the shop for sale??  You know, sometimes the treasures we find are so totally awesome, like the wicker settee, or just so darn cute, like the salt & pepper shakers, they never make it to the shop.  Just can't part with them!  

Or sometimes, they actually do make it to the shop, and they actually do get priced and put out for sale.  But then, either Patty or I will spot it, and here we go again playing our favorite game "Give Me Some Credit".  Yep, I walked into our Kitchen last Saturday and saw the dark green enamelware piece in the picture above and immediately started to SQUEAL!!  True, I'm sorry to say, because I am definitely not a squealy kind of girl.  Needless to say, Patty happily added the price of that lovely piece to the list of lovely little pieces that I already owe her for, and off it went to my house at Yellow Creek Farm!

Excellent Customer Service at Paint Pan Patty's!

Patty and I had a brainstorming session last week in an effort to come up with some new and innovative ways to provide excellent customer service for all of our excellent customers.  After tossing around a few ideas, Patty came up with something that we both thought would be absolutely great.......install a zip line across the shop!!!  Yeah!!  The shop is nicely uncluttered now since our big cleanup with lots of walking around room so we thought the zip line would be a great way for Patty to get to you really fast when you have a question.  I, of course would be standing up on my stool at the front desk keeping a keen eye out for potential customer service needers, and then I would point Patty in the right direction.  It could work like a charm! : )

So we spent a minute doing a Feasibility Study and took a couple of aerial shots of the shop to determine the best location for the zip line installation.

Aerial View No. 1

Aerial View #2

After studying the layout for quite a minute, and with some very careful planning, we've decided that a multi-directional zip line (do they even make those?) would best benefit our customers.  You can be standing anywhere in the shop and Patty will be there lickety-split!  Genius!!  Yep, that's why we make the big money!

We're always having lots of fun at Paint Pan Patty's!  : )  Have a wonderful day!

***

Paint Pan Patty's is Ready to Re-Open!

Hello again to all of our friends and family!  After MUCH hard work and and a WHOLE ♥ LOTTA ♥ LAUGHTER, Paint Pan Patty's is finally ready to reopen on Saturday, March 3, 2012.  Rain or shine (but not tornadoes!), we'll be there.  We've worked our fingers to the bone tearing down, rearranging, dusting, painting, and we're really anxious for you all to come and check it out!

Patty & my husband, Don, working on shelving

Gwen (me!) painting shelves

In between work days, we've also managed to slip out to some of our favorite junking spots and load up on new treasures.  Patty's been hard at work pricing the new merchandise.

Patty pricing new treasures

Those of you who have actually visited our shop will remember our backroom where anything we couldn't find a place for was dumped!  Well, it's a different story now.  Feast your eyes and take a look at these Before & After's.....

Our junky backroom BEFORE.......

Our junky backroom DURING dismantle, and.......

Tah-dah!!  Our beautiful new un-junky kitchen.......

We love the green door we mounted on the wall

Cute enamel top table and recycled blue cabinet

Our refrigerator rocks next door to the Pyrex cabinet!

We added everything AND the kitchen sink!

Great.......right???  I know!!  Patty and I are very proud of the fact that this whole kitchen re-do cost us almost zero dollars.  Of course, we operate on a shoestring at Paint Pan Patty's, and Reduce, Reuse, Recycle whenever possible, which turns out to be about 99.9% of the time.  For instance, Patty found the old Hoosier cabinet in pieces on a trash pile beside the road, brought it home, put it back together, painted it blue, and now we have this great old piece in our kitchen.  I purchased the old tool cabinet at an auction for $5 and gave it a whole new life with new green paint outside and yellow inside.  It now makes a bright and colorful home for our Pyrex collection.

We hope you'll come check us out when you get a chance.  We are so anxious to share all of this funky, vintage lovliness with you!  And for those of you who don't live anywhere near Wetumpka, Alabama, USA, we greatly appreciate you reading about our little shop in the country and hope you continue to enjoy our blog.  Patty and I are always on the prowl for great new junk, and there's usually a funny story or two that goes along with our adventures.

~♥~

Paint Pan Patty's Closed for the Season

Hi Everyone!  So here I am, back from an extended bout with what I like to call TECHNOLOGYOVERLOADITIS.  Happy to report that I'm doing much better now, and thanks for wondering :-))

Patty and I wanted to let all of you know that we have closed the shop for the winter and will let you know when we set a date to reopen either in February or March.  If you have any merchandise on layaway, or need to get in touch with us for any other reason, just give us a call at either 799-9630 (Gwen) or 320-8306 (Patty).  Or you can email us at paintpanpattys@gmail.com.

During our break, we plan on refurbishing and rewonderfulizing the shop, so there will be a new look for the reopening and lots of new merchandise because now we'll have more time to treasure hunt!!  Sometimes we just NEED a great big dose of that to keep us going! 

Treasure Hunt Bargains & A True Story

Remember this Hoosier cabinet that Patty & I rescued from the burn pile during one of our treasure hunts?  Gone!  A gentleman snatched it up last Saturday before Patty & I had a chance to work our magic on it.  It would have been awesome to see it all refurbished, but we're glad it found a good home. 

Anyway, you should have been there.  The guy was so excited to get this cabinet that he actually fell off the truck when we were helping him load, and a book case that he already had on the truck fell right on top of him. 

I tell you, I was scared to walk around and see the damage, but as it turned out, he was a pretty spry fellow!  Jumped right up and got back to business.  I like to call him Mosquito Man, the way he was flitting all around.  True story..... 

Also, if you had your eye on that beautiful carved rocker that we found in the same burn pile treasure hunt, it's gone, too! 

We get some pretty wonderful old pieces of furniture in at the shop from time to time.  It's always exciting to see what's going to turn up each week.  Check in with us often, as the merchandise changes fairly often, but as you can imagine, pieces like this don't hang around long!

Thanksgiving Holidays – Good Food & Family Time!

Happy Monday, everyone!  We're on the countdown now for Thanksgiving Day, so today I’m off to buy my turkey and get it thawing in time to pop in the oven early Thursday morning.  Got to gather my coupons (because no good Junker worth his salt ever pays full price for groceries), make my list, and head to town.

I get really excited about cooking good food, being raised in a proper Cajun family down in old Biloxi!  Those folks just don't turn out bad cooks, if I do say so myself.  And on Thanksgiving Day, you'll always see a delicious seafood gumbo, oyster dressing, and potato salad on the table.  Yep.....makes my mouth water just thinking about it!  And since we’re talking about all this good food, thought I’d share my favorite Sweet Potato Casserole recipe with you.  Check it out on our Favorite Recipes page.    I’ve been making this recipe since I found it in a copy of Country Living magazine’s 1985 premiere issue of Country Cooking.  Personally, I think it’s the best I’ve ever tasted.  Maybe you’d like to give it a try this Thanksgiving, and let me know what you think.

***

Big Christmas Sale!

Can you believe that another year has passed and Christmas is upon us once again? Patty and I will be working hard this week hauling all of our Christmas merchandise down from the “attic” and getting it priced and ready to put out for sale.  We’re looking to MOVE it, so we are ready to give you some really great deals!
Starting Saturday, all Christmas items will be sold for 50% off the marked price.  However, we want to do even better than that for all of our wonderful customers who have been so supportive.  In the spirit of the season, we are offering this coupon for an extra 25% off the sale price!

So all you coupon clippers out there, cut this one out and bring it in to get your extra 25% off.   We look forward to seeing you Saturday, and a big, fat Merry Ho Ho Ho!! from Gwen and Paint Pan Patty!

Tabletop Inspiration - Short & Sweet

Do you ever have STUFF sitting around that you don't quite know what to do with, but you couldn't possibly get rid of it because you may need it someday?  If you're a junker treasure hunter, like me, it could be anything at all, but my stuff looked like this the other day......

So I'm standing there studying this wonderful pile of stuff and wondering if I should just pack it away for another time, when a light went off.  Hmmmm.......why not just pile it all up together and see what you come up with.  Turned out like this:

 Which, I decided, would look absolutely groovy on my kitchen table.  What do you think?  What are some of your inspired creations?  We love it when folks share with us.

***

Honey of a Honey Hole!

Last Saturday, a local gentleman stopped by Paint Pan Patty’s and asked if we’d be interested in some junk his wife had sitting in the back yard.  We’re always a little bit hesitant at first, until we get the whole story.  You know, we don’t want to end up with a real pile of junk we just have to haul off to the dump.  So we ask a few questions and try to determine whether or not it’s an honest-to-goodness-treasure-hunter’s-dream pile of junk.  There’s a difference, ya know……..

I could see Patty in the first stages of cardiac arrest when the gentleman explained that his wife also had a nice burn pile going next to all this junk and wasn’t opposed to using it!  The next item on her list for the towering inferno was an old Hoosier cabinet that was dirty, paint peeling, and needed a little work on the roll-up door part thingy.  Whoa!  Eeerrrkkkkk!!!  Stop the train!!  Trash to some folks, but PURE LOVELINESS to us. 

At this point, I watched as Patty calmly (as in *trying not to shake*) wrote down her phone number and asked him to please have Wife call before she burned anything else so we could drive over and take a look.  We might possibly be interested. 

Of course, we couldn’t get up there fast enough, and when we drove into their yard yesterday, I couldn’t believe my eyes.  The Hoosier cabinet is in almost perfect condition but needing a little love.  We quickly purchased that along with a full size bedroom set from the 1940’s or ‘50s, some cast iron pans (one Griswold, rescued from the burn pile), ornate upholstered rocker, vanity bench, some old books, and several other items destined for the shop.  Honey hole, indeed!  We can’t wait to get it all set up and ready for you to see.

***



Our Favorite Game

Patty and I love to think of our shop as our playground.  One of our favorite games we play is called “Give Me Some Credit”.  It goes something like this:  Every Saturday after we open up, Patty and I start pulling out items that we’ve collected that week and brought in to price and sell.  Each of anxiously, yet calmly, waits and watches as the other unloads her treasures, hoping to see something that we just fall in love with.  These are called “Needful Things”, in case you’re wondering, and there comes a time in everyone’s life where you require “Needful Things”.  We just seem to have those times more often than most!

Anyway, when that certain item is spotted by either of us, the first question is,

Gwen:  “How much are you asking for that?”
Patty:  “Oh, I thought $25.”
Gwen:  “I just love it, but I can’t give that for it.”
Patty:  “Well, just Give Me Some Credit.” 
Gwen:  “OK!  You get $25 worth of my junk!”  and BAM!  a note for credit quickly goes up on the board.

The picture above of the little glass dog container is one of my favorite Needful Things I got off of Patty.  He now sits on my kitchen counter and holds my kosher salt.  I call him my Salty Dog!

Fun Times at the Country Living Fair 2011

 It was a wonderful time at the fair last Friday!  Country Living really knows how to do it up right, that's all I can say, and Stone Mountain Park makes a wonderful venue for this event. 
Of course, there were people by the thousands, but the set up is so spread out on winding paths underneath towering Georgia pines, that I hardly noticed a few extra folks besides me and my very tolerant husband!  He was wonderful and let me wander to my heart's content in and out of every single vendors tent, while he stood silently by trying to keep track of me.  I was like a kid in a candy store, trying to take in all of the wonderful displays, and getting pictures of some great ideas.  I was so enthralled with it all that I didn't even notice the "Please don't take pictures" signs up in most of the tents.  Husband patiently pointed this out to me :-)). 

We have already made plans with Paint Pan Patty and her better half to make the trip together next year and plan to stay overnight.  However, on that trip, we will take along our own food and tailgate, because the food prices inside the fair are pretty steep, and water is $3/bottle.  The parking lot is located very convenient to the fair itself, and you are welcome to wander in and out all day with the hand stamp you get when you first enter.  Other than the food prices, though, I think that admission at $13.00 per person in advance & $16.00 the day of is very reasonable for an event this well done. 

 

All in all, I highly recommend making your own plans to attend the Country Living Fair 2012, if you get the chance.  If you love antiques and cottage/country decorating, etc., this is an event you will absolutely love!

***

Country Living Fair 2011 = ROAD TRIP!

A road trip is in the works for Don (aka Hubby) and me, and I'm so looking forward to it.  The Country Living Fair in Stone Mountain Park, GA is this weekend, so we're taking off bright and early Friday morning.  I've always wanted to go, so I decided that this year it would definitely happen.  Should be lots of fun.  Country Living is one of my all-time favorite magazines, and I'm anxious to see "the pages of Country Living come to life", as they say!  I'm hoping to find some really good junk, or at least ideas for some that I can bring back to Paint Pan Patty's.  I kind of like that stuff!

OOPS!! Launch the blog and..........

Sooooooo.......see this picture?  That's been me for the past two weeks.  Well, almost.....I have dark hair.  The rest, yep...pretty much.  It's a well-known fact that for the general public, computers can be a source of great frustration when things don't go according to plan.  My plan was simply to launch the new blog for Paint Pan Patty's, push the button, and GO!  Long story short, didn't happen *PERIOD* 

What's in a Name? The Story Behind Paint Pan Patty

People are always asking us how we came up with the name Paint Pan Patty's for our little shop.  Well, there's a story behind that.....

Now, sister-in-law Patty and I like just LOVE to paint.  Our motto is, "Everything looks better with a fresh coat of paint."  So when we decided to open the shop, we were super excited because a new shop must mean lots of new paint, which was right up our alley.  We cleaned, scrubbed, and painted for about 6 weeks, trying to "girl up" the old garage bay that was going to house all of our treasures. 

One thing I quickly discovered is that when you paint alongside someone for that long, you get to know a lot about their painting etiquette.  Patty has none..........I was shocked to find out that even though she creates some beautiful stuff with that paint brush of hers, she never washes out the paint pan or cleans the brush!!!!   Just lets 'em dry right up and pours new paint over that for her next project.  For me, that's like fingernails on a blackboard, and you might as well rip my eyeballs right out.  Keep in mind, now, that through all of this, and with our Grand Opening coming up very soon, we're still searching for a name for ourselves.

One day when we were hot, tired and nearing the end of the clean up/paint party, I turned around to walk to the sink to wash out my paint brush, when I stumbled over the remnants of Patty's last paint project.  Without even thinking, I shouted called out to my girl, "You've got to move your paint pan, Patty!"  Tah-dah!  ....and Paint Pan Patty's was born.  *The End*

You Meet the Nicest People

Hey Folks!  Had a nice little bright spot in my day while on a quick fix trip to TJMaxx.  Kevin & Layla Palmer of The Lettered Cottage just happened to be walking out across the parking lot.  I recognized them right off because I really HEART their blog and have been a faithful follower for a couple of years.  Now, I'm not one to see someone and say, "Hey, aren't you so and so???"  But I couldn't help stop myself this time.  They are really the NICEST people and it was such a pleasure to talk to them for a few minutes and let them know how much I enjoy what they are doing.  If you haven't seen their blog, you really should take a few minutes and check it out at http://www.theletteredcottage.net/.  You won't be disappointed!

Hi There and Welcome to Paint Pan Patty's!

Thanks so much for stopping by our new blog.  Paint Pan Patty's is a small flea market in Wetumpka, AL that is the brainchild of two sisters-in-law.....Patty Barber and Gwen Carswell..... who LOVE junk and treasure hunting!! We've been trying to decide for a WHILE whether or not we should let the rest of the world know where we are. It's been a definite fear of commitment....LOL :-)) So the other day, we just said "Heck with it!" and now we are officially whatever we are.......flea market, gift shop, junk store, treasure hunting heaven, or just a place to come sit and visit.   We're a little shop in an old garage with lots of great old stuff.  Come see for yourself!

             



Fall is in the air at Paint Pan Pattys!

 Fall is trying very hard to make its appearance this year, so this great picture from last year at the shop is a great reminder of what's to come. We love fall at Paint Pan Patty's! Be on the lookout for our upcoming Fall Open House announcement.......free hot dogs & sodas.......date & time coming soon!!