Check Out Our New Space!

Our friends at The Trove have expanded, and you can find Willow Tree Antiques in a new space in the expansion.

The Trove's expansion is in a separate building behind their first section, just down the driveway, next to the Electrical Wholesalers. You'll find my space along the back wall, to the right of the exit door. When you hit the booth with a ton of drawers, you've found me.

See? Drawers. I may have a bit of a problem. And some great vintage shutters with a conveniently seasonal pine tree cutout.





Here we've got a really, really awesome barrister bookcase. An antique Globe Wernicke with four traditional glass door sections and one double-door cabinet. Not really pictured, but the sides have beautiful copper fittings with a nice dark patina.

Inside we've got my sister's collection of vintage Nancy Drew books. And on top is a little New Year's collection: ice bucket, champagne flutes, and noisemakers.

To the right, an antique table in new white paint with a dark finish top. The poor thing was in rough shape and I was happy to rescue it. I also love the paint on this old dresser. A chippy green with tan drawers and a flower detail.

Here's a close up of the flowers.

On the dresser, we've got shiny stuff! A Cambridge Glass Co. epergne, mirrored vanity tray, a round antique copper tray, a little goldtone midcentury-style tray, and a pair of silver candleholders. Clearly taking pictures of lit lamps isn't my forte.

Hanging over the dresser, there's a great old picture frame in gold paint with this neat detail on the top.

This set of antique silhouettes are one of my favorite things in the booth. If they don't sell quickly, I won't be sad because they may make their way back home with me.

Continuing my other thing of "things with chippy paint," here's a bookcase in white and dark gray. From the bottom up, we've got vintage light up faux fireplace logs, various Limoges and Noritake china, a red wire market basket, and an adorable child's stool. "This little stool is mine / I use it all the time / To reach the things I couldn't / And lots of things I shouldn't!"

Moving up, we've got a sweet vintage toy rocker shaped like a swan, and a 1972 National Geographic globe and stand.

Back down to...you guessed it, another chippy paint thing, this time a shelf.

And over to the table. This table is great, antique and made for small, old kitchens. Bright red paint on top and vibrant apple green on the legs, making it a great piece for Christmas. I'm using these Victorian sewing drawers as shadow boxes for all sorts of little neat things: dog figurines, a silverplate coffee scoop, antique tin ice cream sample spoons, a brass snail, and a transferware bowl, among other things.

And again with the chipped paint! Turquoise in the kitchen cupboard with Pyrex butterprint bowls and dishes.

Detail of the cupboard to show off the neat aqua paint beneath the white.

And here's one of my other favorite things, this set of amazing old industrial drawers. Given their style, I'm guessing military from around WWII.

I made the little number labels to slip in.



And last but not least, let's take a look at these great antique sleigh bells on a leather strap.

17 old bells.



And that's all for today! Stop by The Trove and check out the space, or keep an eye on the Etsy shop as always.

Be my Valentine!

So it's a good thing my New Year's resolution wasn't to blog more often, because that would've been a wash! In my own defense, January's flown by. It seems like we were just putting up the Christmas decorations! Now they're down, and we're all decked out for Valentine's Day. So here we go:

So we've done some shuffling around! Our table now has a pretty pink flowered cross-stitch tablecloth, the white cabinet's now filled out in red and white, and our tree's been repurposed with some glittery red hearts. In the cabinet, we've got a cream and red reproduction coverlet and a set of Royal Staffordshire Safe Harbor pattern china. On the cabinet is a Mason's Trefoil Pink creamer and sugar (here on Etsy), a red painted box, and some off-white pitchers.

Now here we've got a soda crate on its side filled with all sorts of pink and white knickknacks. The vintage lamp has pink and green roses handpainted on a white background, and there's a Hazel Atlas Moderntone pink creamer and sugar (here on Etsy).

The mantle's shiny and red with a silverplate serving dish and cake plate, a cut glass vase and creamer and sugar, a pair of Avon champagne flutes, and jars full of peppermints.

Pink Depression glass in the entryway. Can't tell from the picture, but there's some very pretty details on these pieces. All these are on a backless white bookcase on top of a little retro table. Next to the table we've got an adorable little pink painted bench with roses on the seat cover.

More red and white, with white flowered plates, ruby glass, and a set of charming restaurant-ware cups with pink flowers. Also some vintage Valentine's cards are in there somewhere.

Now for two big new pieces! Gorgeous old dresser; the mirror has some wear, but the detailing on the front of the drawers is beautiful. To the right, a vintage spindle bed, full size. The bed is complete with headboard, footboard, and rails (not pictured). In front of that, we've got this great glossy bench.

And last but not least, primitive kitchen has made its way to the closet. Here we have an old shelf painted in New England red on top of a drop leaf table, also New England red. Then all sorts of old kitchen tools and pans and two shabby spice tin sets (here and here on Etsy).

Well, that's it for the displays, but I do have some other cool news as well. As of last week, I'm volunteering as a leader/moderator for the Vintage Lovers Team on Etsy. Check it out for discussion, help, and all things Etsy-vintage.

I hope everyone who celebrates had a Merry Christmas! Now that the holiday's past, we've got discounts of 20-50% off all Christmas items.

A phone call yesterday reminded me that I was remiss in not posting my holiday hours here. That post got unfortunately lost in the Christmas rush. So for future reference, I’ve edited my basic information post to include a list of days we’re closed or close early.

In the ongoing saga of "Emily is not a photographer," I got a new camera for Christmas. I've gone from a 7 year old 4 megapixel behemoth (relatively speaking) to a slim little 16 megapixel with all sorts of interesting bells and whistles. So far, I’m quite pleased. Lovely color, easy to use, good performance in low light, gorgeous screen. Of course, that means I’ve been playing with my new toy incessantly for the past few days, trying out all the new features.

Clearly I need to practice some more if I’m going to be trying to take panoramic pictures.

You can see more of my test shots on these Etsy listings:

• Teal Ironstone Transferware Plate
• Antique Dentist’s Tools
• Hubley Cement Mixer Truck
• Vintage French Tourist Guides & Maps
• Assortment of Vintage Clock Parts
• "Lose Weight" Gag Gift

I’ve also spiffed up the entryway a bit for New Year’s celebrations.

Here we’ve got a whole bunch of vintage noise makers (also available on Etsy), an old silverplate ice bucket, a pair of Avon champagne flutes, a Reed & Barton silverplate bowl with red enamel inside, a silverplate butler’s tray, and a silverplate cocktail shaker (also available on Etsy).

...And Now

And here are the pictures from the Anniversary Sale & Open House, after the jump. Readers with slow connections, beware, there are a lot of pictures here!

Now: Saturday, December 3rd, 2011

A "Then and Now" of Sorts

I've finally uploaded my pictures from the Anniversary Open House to the computer! Yeah, I'm running a bit late with that. Oops. But going through my folder of store pictures, I realized I still had a whole bunch of pictures from the Grand Opening last year which were never cleaned up or posted, so I figured I'd do them now for a little contrast. There's quite a few pictures between last year and this year, so I'll break it up into two posts. Firstly, the Grand Opening.


Two things to note:
- This isn't all the pictures. Quite a few were, shall we say...not so post-able. See my tag "photos are difficult".
- Wow, we have managed to fit in a lot more stuff over the year. Really. Wow.


So, after the jump, Then: Saturday, December 4th, 2010

Clearly I must be in a blogging mood this month, because this will be November's 6th post, as opposed to my usual 2 posts a month. Maybe I am getting better at this thing!

So we have the start of some Christmas display pictures, finally.

First, here's some from Debbie. A distressed green shelf, white dishes, bottle brush trees, and some cheery fun vintage Christmas ornaments. Some of these old ornaments are so neat - pinks and greens and glitter and shiny stripes. Love them!

Again from Debbie, some more traditional Christmas colors. A neat shabby old green dresser with a New England red shelf on the wall over it, with all sorts of other red, green, and white bits and bobs all over.

Unforunately, the picture doesn't really do this one justice; it's so pretty in person! First, a great old cedar chest on legs...the house call we got it from was frankly a little terrifying, I thought the attic floor might fall through and send us falling. But the cedar chest came down fine, and now it's here full of all sorts of things - on the right, this lovely 19th Century table, perfect as a side table or nightstand. On that, we've got a silverplate bowl with an acorn motif (a little out of season, perhaps, but still pretty). On the left, more silverplate nestled in a lit garland with poinsettias.

Now for some non-holiday stuff. I really love how this corner of the room came out. Here we've got a bookcase and vanity table painted the same gorgeous teal-y blue. On top of the bookcase sits a little old dresser, either doll-sized or a salesman's sample. Next to that is this cute glove holder - three clips shaped like pairs of gloves hold little white child's gloves.

Let's play a game! Here we've got a jar full of miniature billiard balls, more jars of game pieces, Bingo from the 1930s (on Etsy), and Elgo Plastics' American Skyline building set (on Etsy). On the second shelf, we have a vintage baby dish, some old baby clothes, and a set of child's toy china (on Etsy). On the floor, we've got a Radio Flyer bicycle with Teddy, a wagon, a teddy bear print, and in the corner there, an antique plank seat child's rocking chair.

And here's the vanity table, bench, and mirror. On the vanity, we've got a clear glass vanity box, two lipstick holders, a 1920s powder puff wand, an atomiser bottle, and a neat shabby half-doll lamp (on Etsy).





I've also got some holiday stuff up on Etsy now, like clip-on Christmas tree candleholders, a box of vintage candles, and some great old child's ice skates. And then there are these guys. I'm not sure if they're supposed to be some kind of odd fish, Christmas whales, or tomatoes with tails.

Happy Small Business Saturday! If you haven't already, please do try to get out to a local business or two and help support your local economy!

Another big push to get the winter and Christmas things out today. It's still not photograph-worthy unforunately, but we've got lights and things up, so that's an improvement. One thing you never actually realize as a customer - you walk into a store and one day, it's suddenly covered in Christmas stuff like magic, but wow, yeah, it doesn't really appear all at once.

The main point to this post is to give a big thank you to Melodye Whatley, who came and gave us a lovely show with her bowed psaltery this afternoon.

It really is a beautiful instrument, and makes quite a lot of sound for such a little thing! If you'd to know more about the bowed psaltery and Melodye's work, check out the pdf version of her pamphlet here.

Also, a quick reminder, 1st Anniversary Sale next Saturday and Sunday! I'll be posting the Etsy coupon code at the end of the week, so keep an eye out for that here and on Twitter.

Anniversary Sale & Open House 12/3 & 12/4

5 weeks, 3 days until Christmas! We've been slowly starting to pull out bits and pieces of the Christmas stuff for a while. I'm trying not to rush things and overwhelm the whole store (and myself) by putting out all the Christmas items at once. But they have to come in sooner rather than later!

Of course, whenever we do this much rearranging and such, I make a giant mess, like so:

I've got to get it all cleaned and picture-worthy up fast, because for the store's first anniversary, we'll be doing a sale and open house kind of thing! So if there's anything you've been dying to have, the first weekend of December, 15-20% off regularly priced items over $10, 20% off many items under $10, and an additional 10% off items already marked down. I'll also be running an Etsy coupon that weekend, to be announced later. So!

Willow Tree Antiques
Open House &
1st Anniversary Sale
Saturday, December 3rd &
Sunday, December 4th
10:00 - 5:00

Come, have some snacks, work on crossing a few items off that Christmas list, and celebrate our anniversary with us!

Here we go again...

Power outages! Panic in the streets! Pandemonium! Didn’t we just do this a couple months ago? Around six inches of snow here, so not quite that bad. The store got power back late Sunday afternoon, which is really good. I was worried for our namesake the willow, but it’s still standing, thank goodness.

Our pear tree at home wasn’t nearly so lucky, unfortunately. But we didn’t lose power there at all, so I suppose we dodged a bullet with that one.

But if this is a preview of what this winter’s going to be like, then the birds have the right idea – migrate south!



Some minor changes to the blog layout today as well. A couple new things in the sidebar, a couple things moved around. I've also stuck my Etsy banner at the top here just to give it a bit more color. I need to find something a little less glaringly white, I think.