In Jersey we're wearing zip ups and jeans right now. The flip flops are left at home and we're jumping over puddles and ducking the lightning. I think we're gonna have almost a whole week of this weather. Nothing about the outdoors indicates August and for me it's a welcome change. All of the sudden we've got pseudo-antiquing weather!
Yesterday we took full advantage of the unseasonably cool damp climate and went down to our favorite junkshop. As we walked the isles I felt so much guilt for not having a camera with me. This place is amazing. It's located in Englishtown NJ, a very very old town, with tons of beautifully rotting country architecture. In Jersey when someone says Englishtown you only think of one thing...the gigantic weekly flea market. But unfortunately, it's not the kind of flea market for us ( and when I say 'us' I mean you and me). There's a whole lot of new stuff there...cd's, dvd's, knock off purses etc...so the flea market should be avoided if you're a connoisseur of great old stuff. That's why we head to the junkshop. It's housed in, I believe, an old grocery store and run by this really cool girl Leah and her dad. Imagine keeping an old, smaller supermarket as is, but instead of food filling the isles it's junk! Three entire isles of old dinnerware, two whole isles of holiday junk, rooms full of kitchen stuff, hallways full of books! Anyway, here are just some treasures I brought home without too much digging. Can you believe the aqua mini tea set?!And I absolutely love all the tarnished silver! Mr. Crow is walking among it just to give it all his little nod of approval. And I acquired Christmas balls galore as well as a dazzling array of apothecaries.
I promise a full profile on this place with some detailed interior shots soon. I assure you all that you'll be floored!
While me and Aar were there we ran into some friends of ours, Mario and Bill, who own a shop way up in Bronxville NY...(very far from Englishtown on the map!). But like us, they covet this place and would travel as far as it takes. Anyway, besides being a super shock running into them there it was also super cool, Mario and Bill were THE first store owners that ordered from us at The Gift Show, so they've always held a special place in our hearts. The Gift Show is this unbelievably gigantic trade show at the Javits Center in NYC and tens of thousands of retailers show up to buy wholesale from people like me and Aaron. There we were, in a sea of a million artists and vendors, and we had no idea if we'd succeed or fail miserably. On opening day Mario and Bill walk up and start pointing at our stuff, saying "one of these, one of these, two of these..." and I can honestly say that it took us a minute to realize that we were supposed to be filling out an invoice...and... seriously on our way into the world of wholesale. So after a fumbling minute we filled out their invoice and after that the floodgates were open. Within thirty days we were shipping to stores from Tennessee to Seattle and everywhere in between.
So ok, Englishtown didn't disappoint. I dug through catacombs of wonderful junk and Aaron got lost in a room of floor to ceiling dusty paperback books. (quick aside: he was reading from a book published in 1950, of "dirty jokes"...sample "dirty joke" from 1950- 'how do you tell a male sardine from a female sardine? just take a look at what can they come out of!'----I guess were supposed to blush at the bathroom being called a can!) Anyway, bad dirty jokes aside after an hour or so of junking you have to scrub your hands like a surgeon, which we did at the nearest Quick Chek.
After that we went to visit Aaron's Grandma at the rehab center. She recently had a stroke and her recovery has been excellent. We hung out with Grandma for about three and a half hours and you would never ever know that she suffered a stroke a week prior. She was clear as a bell and quick as a whip. We had a fun time despite the location and the circumstance. Rehabilitation places/ nursing homes are a bit hard to deal with. After Aaron's car accident he lived in one for a couple of weeks and all of the memories come flooding back. But for Aaron the new perspective is twice as meaningful because he knows first hand how much it meant when he had visitors. He'll never forget those that came to see him and sent him cards. He says he keeps them in a little pocket in his heart...so we hoped to return the favor to Grandma, who sent countless get wells!
Last post I said I'd follow up with some pics of the Christmas cards and tags I sent to my friend Suzy for our Christmas in July swap. Definitely outside my usual color palette, well mostly with the tags. Three of the cards feature shrunken down prints of our Christmas paintings. I like how the Christmas cupcakes card came out, I guess I'm just really partial to pastels!
Ok, gotta get back to work, a new painting is coming soon and we are PSYCHED about it! You guys will see it first,
xoxo Jenny
