The work continues.  Now that the new dining room floor is done we have been piling all the din. and living room stuff in there so to work on floor and walls in new liv. room.  Meanwhile I am still schlepping stuff out of old dining room so I can finish new office.   I told my sis in law Becky that the fung shui in our house is temporarily fung shitty!   We unearthed some orange 70’s colonial wallpaper tonight while taking down old paneling. Yikes.

So to keep myself and hopefully you entertained until my webstore gets improved I bring you a few pics of my dearly loved teeney weeney garden!  I’ve had bigger gardens in the past but with my back this is my favorite one because it’s small enough to keep up and I love the little pond Rick made for me.  Even in this tiny space,  I get loads of birds and butterflys.  My pond even has a frog!  All birdhouses statues etc. came from junking expeditions.

While Vintage JoAnn’s shop inventory is being cleaned out and organized to be listed on the internet store, my new office is being set up and other overwhelming projects are under way-  I thought I’d post a few pictures of my kitchen and sunroom.

Our kitchen was pretty worn out and remuddled quite a bit 3 years ago. Our goal was to make it look like it had been done in the 1940’s or so and maintained since.   This required a new checkerboard floor,  ripping out dropped ceiling, plastic wall panels, new beadboard ceiling, new walls, repaired moldings, new wiring, light fixtures, replacing rotted lower cupboards, painting original upper cupboards, new appliances, adding built in dishwasher, tile backspash, black granite tile counters, restoring a red vintage kitchen table and chairs plus cart,  and then piling in all my 34 years of collectable stuff.

WHEW!   My husband rick did all the work himself.  When people visit they say,’what a cute old kitchen!” They have no idea what we did and that is just what I wanted. I hate new kitchens.

I included a few snaps od sunroom and our 19 yr. old African Grey parrot, McBeth.    I took a lot of garden pics today, but that will be for a later post.

I continue to clean out and sort.  What is making this so challanging is that Rick is busy refinishing floors and restoring plaster walls in what was the shop and will be our new living and dining rooms.  That means all the shop inventory has to go somewhere because the rooms upstairs that will be my new workspace are now full of the furnitue etc. that will be moving into the newly refurbished space.

In other words, there are piles everywhere! We are semi organized but I find this huge transformation stressful.  In the middle of all this I am trying to work on the web store, and mantain a sembance of order in our lives.

What kind of nut would get a puppy in the middle of all this?  ME, of course.  I can’t wait til Collette gets here, it will be a nice distraction.

Meanwhile, my back pain slows me down a lot ( the whole reason for going internet sales only)  but Julie and I got to Roots markt again where I scored on some fab yardage of vintage fabric for window treatments in my new living space. 

Hilariously, folks keep calling to SELL me more stuff as it is oozing and exploding out of my hallways and rooms!  I’m way behind on returning messages, etc. Please be patient with me, friends. I don’t feel so great a portion of everyday.

This is just a quick preview- they all need pressed and the blue cotton dress needs a zipper repair.  Almost all the other dresses are silk.

All are about a modern size 10, I have not taken measurements yet.  They are larger then they appear in the photos as I pinned them in the back to better fit the dressform.   I will get them listed as soon as I can.

When I get a more permanent photo area set up I’m going to use some live models such as Julie’s cute daughter M

eredith and her friends.

cutie patootie

Our new puppy Colette. named after a French writer who also had red hair. She is a miniature red poodle. She can come home in 3 weeks.             Ziggy will be a little jealous but he loves other dogs and I’ll give hin xtra attention

Of course, Rick and I have to complicate things by deciding to refinish floors and add crown molding while we have rooms emptied out. I’ll post some pictures soon.  I am looking forward to having the living space downstairs, a nice office up stairs and storage for all the viintage goodies I sell.    I’s happening but it takes time. Give us a month and Rick and I can move a mountain.  I will continue to add things to the internet store.  Be patient, I have gorgeous coats, plus sizes and antique childrens cothing in storage!

Thank you, Julie, Becky, Ken, and the vintage spouse, Rick, you were all so much help. Especially since i couldn’t sleep the night before and was in a lot of pain.  So many vintage goodies left the shop! Sales were fabulous. It gives me a nice nest egg to advertise the new internet shop and buy new inventory.

 I’m up to my fanny in chaos, breaking down the store and inventoring what’s left.  I started taking pictures again today which will be added to the site tomorrow of new items for sale.   I will be adding weekly.

I did cry a little when it was all over, this was my dream and baby, but I just can’t handle the hours any more with the scoliosis pain.

Oh—- I am getting a new puppy!!!!!!!!!  In about 4 weeks she will be able to leave her mama. A darling little girl poodle.  Ziggy loves other dogs and I can’t wait.   I’m going to be posting pictures soon.    Love to all!  JoAnn

I’m especially excited about (go ahead, try to guess…) the PIN UP CONTEST. Vintage JoAnn has been used to supply many an outfit for pin up style photography. Check out some of the photos in our Models section.

I’ve got to admit that I am not a motorhead and at first wondered about the organization’s name: Karbkings. It took me awhile to realize they were referring to carburetors and not those bad ingredients in all the food you love. The kind of food you’ll be able to enjoy while watching the PIN UP CONTEST for example.

For more information: Mobtown Greaseball Homepage
To request more info via email: MobtownGreaseball@gmail.com

8/22/10 Update – More info on the Pinup Contest here!

C’ya there!!