Behind the Scenes - Preparing for the Biggest, Baddest, & Best Spring Market Ever

Image source:  National Archives; archives.gov

It seems like last week I still had months left before the fair.  It hit me when I was doing the schedule for the shop and It's almost May...Reality check it's three weeks away and I hope all of you are excited as I am...The theme this year as BIGGER BADDER BETTER, those of you who know me know I will deliver!

I have been shopping, planning, shopping, calling, shopping, and drawing hundreds of schematics of who and where since December of last year (thank goodness I started then!) I truly have needed every minute of it. One would never know what all is involved, but rest assured I got this...

I spent the first few months in search of healthy food vendors (they don't exist) or pretty porta loo's (yea there not out there either)...So what I did come up with is Happy Feet a new food vendor this year who is a 501 organization (non-profit) to support children with down-syndrome..And realized the theme for the porta loo's is R-E-S-P-E-C-T....(you'll have to see this).

Also moving the Fair to the shop side this year gets rid of all the "NOs" that came with having it at the community center.  Come on, have you met us?  We hate that word...YES you can bring your dog (please clean up after them and watch them at all times!) YES we will have wine pouring/selling (thanks to Melissa from The Winery At La Grange).

So in a nutshell on 4/29 my leg/brain work is complete, and now the real stressful part starts.  What I like to call the "depending on other people stage".  The tents, the signs, the postcards, the dumpsters, the loos, etc., etc. to be delivered when they are supposed to, (ok so maybe Lisa was right I just may be a control freak - I like precise better but I think it's the same thing)..Not that this shows at all by me calling these people every Monday at 10am to make sure they haven't forgotten about us! (not really but almost).

So I am on brain break (refueling until May 14th) My son's 23rd birthday Happy B-Day Hunter!

From the 14th-till  the wee hours of the 20th, my fairytale will take form, so back to the theme:

• BIGGER= 60 MORE SPACES ADDED (sold out)
• BADDER=BIG NAME VENDORS (THE ONES YOU ARE READING ABOUT IN THE LATEST MAGAZINES AND BOOKS (you will have to come see who! we're giving a sneak peak for a few of them here on our blog)
• BETTER= TBD.  I'LL AWAIT YOUR COMMENTS AFTERWARDS  ; )

With all this rambling I MUST say this..I would not have been able to pull this off with out the tremendous support I have received from my fellow Lucketts crew with kind encouraging words and faith in me....just to mention a few

• Suzanne for having faith in me to pull this all off!
• Anne stepping up at the counter when I am being transferred from the county office to permits to VDOT back to the county, sending faxes, and answering my cell phone about the color of the grommets on the banners all at the same time.
• Ted for his intimate understanding of a condition he calls "fair on the brain"
• A big FAT thanks to my magical computer goddess Emily..who I am not sure if she gets me or prays like hell she doesn't turn out like me! What she can do is hear the words that come out of my mouth, sorts them out, and puts it into action before I am even done...(do you know how hard this is?)
• To my wonderful husband who strangely enough like Emily gets me, I dropped off a box of wood, glue and a few nails said what I needed and he puts his twist on it and voila!  --- a super cute 22' entrance gate for the Fair has been born! And for once again letting me borrow your 40' race car trailer to bring all of this to the shop..(and for you driving it and helping me unload) YOU'RE THE BEST!

So that's it for now....

<3  Heather

Please continue to enter our Lucketts Spring Market $100 Gift Card Giveaway.  The Giveaway ends Saturday at midnight, so get your entries in!  We will be announcing our winner on Monday!

Items fresh off the wagon this week and other news

Gift Card Giveaway.

First things first.  Please continue to enter our Lucketts Spring Market $100 Gift Card Giveaway.  Click here for more information on how to enter.  The Giveaway ends Saturday at midnight, so get your entries in!  We will be announcing our winner on Monday!

 

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Fresh Finds for This Week.

Please check out our Fresh Off the Wagon page.  We feature a few of our finds each week on our website.  New items this week include:

A to-die-for oversized sofa

A piano from the 1800s repurposed into an oversized desk --- yes, really!

And a slew of newly discovered architectural remnants for you to peruse. 

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We know what Mom wants for Mother's Day.

She wants a  peaceful afternoon sipping mimosas while taking in the beautiful, serene Design House at Lucketts!  She wants to pick up something for herself...maybe a new pair of flip flops or a scarf ... but most of all she wants time to relax and be inspired.  

The Design House WILL be open for you and your favorite mom on Mother's Day weekend.  Friday, Saturday, & Sunday - May 6th, 7th & 8th    10am to 5pm all three days.

Does this information sound familiar?  Great, then you must have just gotten it in your email today.  If it doesn’t sound familiar, that means you’re not on our e-mail list.  Click here to join our email list and learn about special events.

Gift Card Giveaway!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ENTRIES!  THIS GIVEAWAY CLOSED ON APRIL 30TH 2011.  PLEASE FOLLOW OUR BLOG FOR ADDITIONAL NEWS AND FUTURE GIVEAWAYS.

In celebration of our 12th Annual Spring Market, The Old Lucketts Store is giving away a $100 gift certificate to the shop!

How to Enter:  Visit our website and check out the details for our Spring Market.  Come back here and let us know one cool fact about the market and post it back on our blog as a comment to this post.

To increase your chances, you can also enter the following ways (just be sure to post a comment back to this post letting us know what you did):  1) follow our blog by clicking on the link on the right of this page; 2) post the details of our Spring Market on your own facebook page; or 3) post the details of our Spring Market on your own blog. 

We will select one comment at random to win a $100 gift certificate to our store in Leesburg, Virginia.  

This giveaway ends Saturday, April 30th at midnight EST.  We will post the results on our blog and notify the winner by email on Monday, May 2nd.

Come on, we know you want a gift certificate to the greatest store on earth!

Spring Market & Other News

Holiday Hours.  Yes, we are open this weekend, Saturday, April 23rd (10am-5pm) and Sunday April 24th (10am-4pm). 

May Design House Added.  We had so much fun at our April Design House, that we're adding another date to our schedule.  Our Design House WILL be open May 6, 7 & 8 (Friday-Sunday) for Mother's Day weekend.  So bring your favorite mom and stop by our Design House the first weekend in May for some mimosas and great shopping!

Spring Market Update.  The postcards are almost ready to go out.  We've purchased more bright orange plastic fence than we care to admit.  We have added some new information for our out of town guests on our site.  Click here for more information about hotels, places to eat, and things to do around the Leesburg area.  We'll be featuring posts on several of our Spring Market vendors on our blog the first week in May.  Get ready to learn more about the great artisans and vendors we have lined up for our Spring Market.  Mark your calendars for May 21st and 22nd.  Really, do it right now so you don't forget.

Watch this space! 

We'll be offering a $100 gift certificate to The Old Lucketts Store for our blog readers next week.

Understanding Silver

Just what kind of person knows the difference between a strawberry fork, an olive fork, and an oyster fork?  At the Old Lucketts Store, we have a resident expert, Ted Busch, who can tell you that and much more about silver.

Ted was always drawn to silver.  Like most children, a lot of his childhood was spent tagging along on his mother's shopping trips.  As a child, Ted was fascinated by the different pieces and 100s of patterns on Victorian flatware.  He wanted to know what each unique piece was used for and why it had a certain shape.  As an adult, Ted prefers silver because it's an easy thing to collect - functional, relatively easy to find, and doesn't take up too much room.

"When shopping for silver, you can't simply rely on a manufacturer's mark" Ted says. Several companies have been around for over 100 years, but at times their production went into a decline.  Ted explained how companies allowed use of their names on silver that wasn't to standard, had lines of lesser quality, or outsourced production.  Ted recommends buying heavier pieces and avoiding pieces with a lightweight tin feel.  Look for a good base metal.  For large pieces, silver on copper is usually of a much nicer quality silver plate than say, white metal.  For flatware, nickel is the preferred base metal.

Ted enjoys collecting unusual Victorian flatware and hotel plate sliver, which is very heavy silver made for hotels or commercial use.  Hotel silver was predominantly made in 1890s-1930s and is usually marked with a manufacturer's mark and the hotel or company it was made for.  Pieces most often include creamers, teapots, butter dishes, and plate covers.  The most popular items are associated with popular hotels, mainly out of New York City.

Victorian flatware is known for its intricate patterns and variety of pieces. Victorians had dinner, luncheon, brunch, salad, strawberry, olive, cocktail, pickle, oyster, ice cream, cold meat, and asparagus forks!

Ted says it's fine to mix and match patterns.  That's part of the fun!

Ted makes decorative bows from demitasse spoons and puts them on gifts.  He's also made Christmas ornaments from flatware.  While traveling in Europe, he left a rose tied with a ribbon and a demitasse spoon as a gesture of appreciation to servers.

Ted recommends Wrights Silver cream for polishing.  Put flatware in a drawer with a piece of chalk to help control humidity.

Silver is great as a hostess gift.  Find an unusual piece, or add a knife to a block of cheese, and you'll always be well remembered.  A piece from the 1890s that costs only $14-$40 today is still a one of a kind gift.

Please look for Ted and his wonderful silver pieces at The Old Lucketts Store.  Ted's silver is on the first floor --- immediately when you enter the shop, and he has a flatware display on your immediate left when you enter the big room.

Lucketts Store - New Items!

We just had several items come in "Fresh Off the Wagon".  Each week we take pictures of some of the new items that arrive in the shop and feature the photos on our website. 

The best part of doing this weekly feature is that I never know what I'm going to find as I root through the store.  The hardest part is deciding what to feature.

This wonderful 21 1/2 foot long sculling boat with oars is available from dealer CNS for $1,900.  Use it or hang it in a great room as a large conversation piece.

I just love this planter!  This was an old claw foot bathtub that was "upcycled" and split into two planters.  The pair of two is offered at $1,180 and the dimensions are 4' long x 23" high x 15" deep.  It is offered by dealer RMB.  Who said a bathtub in the front yard isn't classy?

This French wine rack holds a ton of wine and has such a distinct look.  I'm putting this one in my imaginary wine tasting room.  This is offered for $285, dealer code PJM.

This is just a small sampling of what's new this week.  For more items Fresh Off the Wagon, check our website each week or stop by the shop at 42350 Lucketts Road, in Leesburg, VA 20176.

High Point Road Trip - Part Deux

As part II of the post highlighting our trip to High Point, NC last week, we wanted to share some great ideas we saw for displaying colletctions

When these antique glove molds were displayed en masse, you start to see and appreciate their individuality.



What a wonderful way to display a glass bottle collection - hang them from the ceiling!

The functional becomes art - the chairs in this warehouse were grouped and hung on a brick wall.

A grouping of great vintage posters.

Cogs grouped on a wall give this space an instant industrial feel.

Even stacks of books just looked right at home in this shop.

Road Trip!

The ladies just came back from a four day trip to the High Point Market, which is the the largest home furnishings industry trade show in the world.  Suzanne, Amy, Lisa, Kim, and Gina were on the hunt for fresh trends and ideas, new sources for great finds, and beautiful pieces to bring back to Lucketts!  Unfortunately the Market is only open to the trade, so we all have to live through the lucky team that was able to go this year.

Great Friends, Great Finds - Kim, Suzanne, Lisa, Amy, & Gina attend the High Point Market in April.

Suzanne inspecting a beautiful carved headboard.

 Each showroom was more incredible than the next.  This showroom was an old warehouse designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Gorgeous collage of star burst mirrors.

 Lisa fell in love with this industrial table.

This was a great antiques shop in town.   The industrial look is here to stay; we just loved these metal industrial bins.

        

Amy daydreaming in a leather chaise.

Check back later this week for part two of this post.  We'll be showing some great ideas for displaying collections that we found on our High Point trip.

About High Point:  More than 80,000 people descend on High Point, NC for the show.  The Market has 180 buildings, 10 million square feet of show space, more than 2,000 exhibitors, 106 countries represented, and tens of thousands of new product introductions.

Our Newest Addition

The Old Lucketts Store would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest addition, Ms. Marian Parsons, from Mustard Seed Interiors!   Marian has endless talent and we are so very proud to welcome her into our family.  

Marian's history with our shop goes all the way back to when she was in middle school (yikes! are we dating ourselves?).  She later became an avid shopper about twelve years ago when she first discovered her love for antiques.  Marian drove by the Old Lucketts Store several times and the lure of all of the amazing pieces visible from Route 15 was finally too great to resist. 

Marian is truly an artist.  She is a self-proclaimed Jill-of-all-trades, but specializes in painted furniture, hand painted signs (made to look antique), and slipcovers/reupholstery.  She likes to put her stamp on almost everything she sells, so when people see a piece, they know it’s hers.  I asked Marian what she thought she brings to the shop that is unique and fresh.  She felt that her signs were the clear stand out ---- she custom designs and hand paints each one on antique doors and wood and adds antique hardware for an authentic look.

Marian loves  thrifting, antiquing, going to auctions, and all things DIY and home décor.  Marian said that she loves her job because "with this business, I don’t have to worry about having the right place for something I find.  I enjoy the freedom in creating pieces to sell.  It doesn't have to match anything in my home.  I can just create whatever is in my head."   She also enjoys reminding her husband to stop at yard sales, because after all, it's her job!

Of all her pieces, Marian is most proud of her Union Jack Dresser and upholstered French chair.  I can attest firsthand to the splash her dresser made back in February.  We took a picture of the dresser, posted it on our Fresh off the Wagon page, and within a few hours it was sold.  We received so many compliments and questions about it the entire Groundhog Day sale weekend. 



Marian is “over-the-moon excited” about having her new space at Lucketts.  She said that she’s loved the shop for so long and it’s an honor to be among the ranks of such talented and creative designers, antique dealers, and artists.  This year, she is also looking forward to the continued growth of her blog, and any opportunities that may come out of that. 

We are truly excited to have Marian at the shop, and wish her continued success.  Welcome to Lucketts, Marian, we are honored to have you!

About Marian:  Marian lives with her husband, who is a youth pastor, and her two preschool-age sons in a 1940's era home near Gettysburg, PA.  She is a freelance tutorial writer for HGTV.com and Cottages & Bungalows magazine, and the author of Miss Mustard Seed blog.