An example of some of my jewelry that will be for sale at the French Flea, just in time for Holiday gift giving.
Julie's home 2007
Fall is definitely in the air, in Minnesota. The days are brisk, sunny and the leaves are falling fast. Not too much more time to decorate with these wonderful pumpkins, squash and gourds, so thought I'd best blog about them before they turn to mush from a hard freeze. These photos are all of our front porch, which is what will greet you when one arrives at our home.
Julie, of the French Flea, made the fabulous Fall flower pot (2 photos above) and my friend, Carolyn gifted it to me. Love it! I leave it up year round and just rotate it for the rest of the season to its back. It just so happens to be perfect for our front porch. The wonderful birds nest was gifted to me by my husband, Jon, as he found it on the ground while mowing one day. The hops were gifted to me by my friend, Robyn, also at the French Flea. The fabulous white chippy table was a $5 find from about 7-10 years ago at an indoor Flea Market setting. The little pumpkins were purchased at the pumpkin farm I recently blogged about as, are all of the rest of the real produce included in this post.
Love the stacked produce here. Easy to do, as I used a flower pot that was already in this location and just stacked them on top of each other, largest on the bottom to smallest on top. A fun thing to do. 
I grabbed this little rusty three legged holder for .50 at a tag sale and thought it was perfect for a pumpkin riser. I found this white pumpkin at a barn sale, but otherwise the rest are from the pumpkin farm I've made reference to.
A mix of found treasures is brightened up with the addition of the etched "give thanks" pumpkin. This lower tier of a table on our porch is a mix of rusty metals, old bird houses and found branches with moss growing on them. 
This metal stand once held tacky pottery that has long since been broken and was gifted to me by my mil. I plant flowers in it during the summer months and thought why not display some pumpkins come Fall.
I believe Sue Whitney may have created this beautiful rusty art above, with old screen, tin cut out hearts, rusty keys and wire. I bought it at her summer garage sale and knew it would be perfect on this vintage bird cage I had on our porch. Dried hops again are from Robyn.
I have a mix of old framed white/ivory mirrors on our front porch wall and added in this tin tile I recently purchased at Junk Bonanza. The fellow that makes them said it came from out East and it had a wonderful green patina paint underneath that was exactly like our house paint, so snapped it up for the porch.
I just recently purchased the two Adirondack chairs and foot rests for our porch, as I had some cool furniture there before, but it wasn't comfortable. Sold the Jenny Lind style bench and replaced it with these more comfortable chairs. The wreath I'm afraid hasn't been brought down to the new chair level and is still where it was fitting for the bench, so please excuse. I'm not one to be anxious to put too many holes in our siding, so haven't moved it yet until I know for sure how I'm going to keep things.
A view of the area to the left of our front door. I'm afraid my time with the pumpkins is coming to an end soon, but hopefully because they are all on or around our front porch they may be more protected and last a bit longer before the killing frost does them in for the year. Just a wanted to share a quick peak at some quickie Fall decorating. 
Necklace 1 is a strand of knotted faux pearls with a beautiful rhinestone attachment, roundel bead and faux pearl which is then connected to a vintage pocket watch dial with flying sparrow.
Necklace #1 is $49.00
Necklace #2 is $49.00
Necklace 3 is a strand of larger faux vintage pearls strung with a vintage rhinestone encrusted bead attached to a vintage mother of pearl white button, layered with another grey mother of pearl vintage button which is then topped off with a another vintage element of jewelry layered to top it all of.
Necklace #3 is $44.00
Necklace 4 is a strand of vintage faceted white opaque Czech beads with vintage rhinestone elements and than attached to a white vintage porcelain pocket watch face. A sterling silver tea pot is the final focal element on this design.
Necklace #4 is $49.00
Necklace 5 is a variety of vintage elements that have been lovingly designed to make this one of a kind necklace. Paris style #5 necklace with pearls (SOLD).
Dreams Do Come True
This was my October area of display at the "French Flea" shop in Anoka, Minnesota that I am currently selling my jewelry at, as well as through this blog. If you're interested in anything you can just email me at gretchen.schaumann@comcast.net and we can talk via email. The French Flea is an occasional sale shop, and generally that means a shop that is open for 1 week-end a month. Our usual sale dates always fall on the second Thursday - Sunday of each month. There is current talk that we will be adding new Friday/Saturday dates to our venue of open dates so to add to the availability of holiday shopping for you our customers. Stay tuned for more on that.
Now to the dream part of this blog post. I bet you thought I'd never get to that didn't you? lol I am a wordy woman, I know.
I have been working on improving my jewelry display space to go with the theme of our shop (French and European), as well as find display elements that compliment my jewelry designs. So along comes one of our great vendors, Ms. Anne. Not only was she able to provide me with the ability to purchase this wonderful buffet in the above and below photos, but she also supplied me with the answer to a long awaited dream. A mannequin. See below photos. Thank you Anne.
New Buffet for Jewelry Space
Ms. Isabella
Meet my newest acquisition, Ms. Isabella. I call her our shop mascot, but she is much more than that to me. You see I've always wanted one of these in my repertoire and alas, she's mine. She wasn't in perfect condition, but she's perfect for me. I love her vintage appeal, and the cuts and scars show her true vintage self. Poor girl was patched up with duck tape in two colors and white medical tape, which actually kind of made a mess, but I knew she had potential and since she's for me and not resale, it was a must have.
The various tapes were carefully removed, and the above photo shows you here chest area afterwards. Better looking than all of that tacky tape. Literally speaking on "tacky".
I brought in some colored pencils and this is me trying to color in the tape with my right hand while photographing on a macro setting with my left hand me coloring the white tape area. Sorry about the blurriness.
Still working on getting the right match for the mannequin tape messes that were left over from the medical tape, but I love using the mannequin for photographing new jewelry pieces. She gives a customer not only a close up of a necklace, but also a vision of how it might lay on oneself as well as the length of it.
Still working on creating my dream display area, but two great pieces accumulated in October, are bringing me closer to that realization. Stay tuned for more updates as they come.
It sounds like our next sale dates may be November 6th and 7th, which is 10-5 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday. Start thinking Christmas shopping!!!
Ring 1 - Side
Ring 2 
Ring 3 - Front
Ring 4 - Front
Ring 5 - Side
Ring 6 - Front 
Ring 6 - Side
Ring 7 - Front
Ring 7 - Side
Ring 8 - Front 
Ring 9 - Front
Ring 9 - Side
Faux glass vintage pearls w/vintage pocket watch dial and sparrow
Necklace - 1 
Vintage faux glass pearls w/vintage porcelain pocket watch dial and silver toned sparrow
Necklace 2
Bag 1-Front
Bag 1 - Back
Bag 2 - Front 
Bag 2 - Back
Bag 3 - Front
Bag 3 - Back
Bag 4 - Front
Bag 4 - Back
Bag 5 - Front
Bag 5 - Back
Bag 6 - Back
Bag 7 - Front 
Bag 7 - Back
Bag 8 - Front
Bag 8 - Back
Bag 9 - Front
Bag 9 - Back
Bag 9 - Side details
Bag 10 - Front
Bag 10 - Back
