FOUND Holiday Calendar
Here is our schedule of special events for the holidays:
November 4 & 5. CLOSED while we work some holiday magic.
November 6th. 9:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. First look at FOUND's 2014 Collection!
Friday, Nov. 8. Holiday Kick off Party. 5:00-7:00 p.m. Gift with purchase.
Sunday, Nov. 17. Kerrytown Open House. 20% off storewide + Merry Multiples!
Closed for Thanksgiving.
November 30. Small Business Saturday specials.
Friday, Dec. 6. Midnight MADNESS! Sales ALL day until midnight.
Dec. 13, 20. Festive Fridays - open til 9:00 p.m.
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When you mix old and new and handmade the way we do at FOUND, figuring out how to fit it all into the shop and not have it look like a big messy mess is tricky. Especially during the holidays! Right now the big messy mess is where I live. My home has become preparation central this week as the final push to clean and price the fun vintage finds that will be incorporated into our holiday displays goes into high gear.
Seasonal merchandise from our vendors and artists starting arriving a couple months ago. We have that stowed away boxes at my house and in my son's basement. Now it's time to get the vintage things ready. Decided to give you a sneak peak with photos.
Above is what's on my kitchen table today. And below is my dining room table. I generally try to keep both kitchen and dining room tables for their intended purpose. But not this week...
The breakfast bar is filled with vintage silver. It'll be great with the antique mercury glass I found. And the wonderful new platinum trees and ornaments in natural colors. And of course, all the wonderful candles and holiday decor that we will put out.
Even the ledge by my stairway is filled with Christmas to come, like these 2 unused rolls of cotton batting "snow".
Most of the action has been taking place in my garage. It's filled with display pieces that I picked up at an antique shows over the last couple months. Things have been pretty crazy as I scurry to get everything cleaned and priced to incorporate into displays. Earlier this week, I spent half a day Briwaxing seven vintage sleds, a green stool, 2 1930's tricycle, a tripod, 2 old crates and a surveyors tripod.
Today, the weather was wonderful, so I pulled the truck up in the drive, loaded a junky old porch swing on the tailgate and worked some magic on that peeling paint and crumbling wood.
This swing will be hanging high in the store, filled with packages and other goodies by this time next week. Lots of elbow grease, brushes, rags and heavy duty gloves are my helpers.
I still need to clean out a cubby desktop cabinet, use the chalkboard paint on some shelves, clean and do something about Santa's workbench (which has been in the back of my van for over a week). But that's on tomorrow's list.
Remember, we'll be closed Monday and Tuesday (November 4, 5). Can't wait to show you how these vintage pieces accentuate all the other wonderful things in our holiday collection this year!
The colors and smells of autumn are in the air. Crisp apples and cider, pumpkins, gourds and squash of every type are in abundance at the Farmers Market outside our window in Kerrytown. And our friends at Green Daffodil Candleworks have been cooking up the best smelling pumpkin candles in the state!
I'm really enjoying all the fun, creative costume ideas on Pinterest. When we were in college, my roomate and I made giant paper mache heads one year, and I loved dressing my kids up on Halloween (and helping them eat their candy...). Don't need to make any costumes for children lately, but I'm looking forward to seeing what the neighborhood kids dress up this year!
I found over a hundred pairs of vintage sleepeye sets of doll eyeballs at the Alameda Antiques Market when I was in San Francisco in August. The counterweight mechanism and piece that would attach into the nose makes it so they stand upright. Reminds me of something out of A Bugs Life or Toy Story. Fun to have on a shelf or play with.
At the Allegan, Michigan antique show, I found a huge lot of drawer pulls. Only have about 8 left, but they would be wonderful on kitchen cabinets.
Like old photographs? I added lots of new snapshots to the fifty cent box this week. And we have hundreds of loose cabinet cards and this wonderful old album filled with antique photographs. I also bought a collection of over 250 postcards, mostly addressed to young Nellie Jones. Some of my favorite Halloween postcards sold already, but the rests are all at FOUND now.
Remember - if it's old - it's on sale this month at FOUND!
A toy surprise in every box! Though the caramel coated popcorn and peanut treat was first introduced at the 1893 Colombian Exhibition World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, the name Cracker Jacks wasn't trademarked until several years later. And it wasn't until 1912 that the infamous prizes began to be found in every box. Early prizes such as baseball cards and metal toys are highly collectible today. Today the brand is owned by Frito Lay and the prizes are not that exciting - with stickers and temporary tattoos being the most frequent surprise.
Do you remember the excitement of scarfing down the contents of the Cracker Jack box as a kid to get to the secret PRIZE at the bottom? I don't actually remember the prizes, but the anticipation of some tiny terrific treasure that the box might hold made me want to save up my coins and take them to Della's store on Front Street to buy a box.
Recently, I found a fun stack of vintage unopened Cracker Jack prizes in an antique show booth. Can you guess what's inside? the package asks. Actually, though I wouldn't mind having some fresh Cracker Jacks to munch on right now, I'm more charmed by the vintage packaging for the prize than by the prizes themselves. The little envelopes feature jokes and riddles on the outside. These nostalgic graphics and typography would lend themselves well for scrapbooking or altered art projects. We have about 2 dozen vintage prizes in the shop right now. The candy boxes (and the tasty treats) are long gone, but the memories that these prize packages bring back are delicious.
So, can you guess what's inside?
With the temperatures and humidity rising this week, I'd like to go jump in the lake! I'll be doing that NEXT weekend, but in the meantime, these mugs and signs from a Georgia company called Go Jump in the Lake bring a grin to my face. A new shipment came in last week - great for the cottage this summer.
We had a ski boat when I was a teenager - what fun! I'd like to say a terrific water skier, but my best tricks were crossing the wake without falling and letting go of the tow rope with one hand long enough to wave at the people in the boat. Then I usually fell. It was fun anyway.
I know I showed you these frames made from water skis before - but I'm just fascinated by this clever upcycling - here's what the back looks like...the hardware and foothold hold the frame up!
Enjoy these summer days. And remember: if you're lucky enough to live on the lake, you're lucky enough!
Katherine is also the graphic designer behind our FOUND ads and a personal friend. It's been a pleasure to get to know this multi-talented woman - not only has she written and illustrated numerous children's books, but she is also a trained opera singer, makes custom fairy houses, does fine art portraiture and plein air painting, creates Ann Arbor ornaments, presents school assemblies, builds props and generally just knows how to get things done. On her 
