Back In The Days

I am trying to make picture books for my children and grandchildren, using the internet, for Christmas presents. I came across some old pictures that brought back memories. Many moons ago, my husband at the time, and I opened an antiques shop in a small Texas town.

We had so much fun stocking that store. We went every weekend to auctions all across Texas and those were some pretty long trips because it can take 4 hours just to get to Texas' borders. My husband made a couple of runs out of state too, like to PA. to buy furniture and anything antique he could find.

The picture I have of the front of the shop is not good. You can barely see a house/shop on the far left and the sign on the far right says, "Nothin Fancy" but that was not really true because we did have some beautiful things in that store. People could not seem to grasp the concept that when gift giving time came around, some folks would have loved to have been given an old antique sign to hang in their home or some pretty, old lace and linens or some china or stemware, or a piece of majalica to add to their collection. They thought they needed to go out and buy the person something new. So the store folded and we went down for the count after about a year. Yes, we cut our losses and they were big and moved on from there.  Here are a few pics from it. 

That was a real spinning wheel.

The two other things I came across that caused me to even do this post were two oil paintings. But these are not just any oil paintings. What makes them so special  to me is that they are only 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" in size and yet you can see the detailing, the tiny brush strokes and the rich oil colors. They are even signed. You would think a person would have to have a magnifying glass to see to paint them!

It beats me, but here they are and my photos do not do them justice.

later!