Antiquing Near Asheville

 I went to visit my sister who lives in Mars Hill, 

North Carolina which is a little north of Asheville.

She took me to two of her favorite antique

 (and more) stores that are near her home. 

The first store is Fiddlestix which is 5000 square

feet of antiques, ecclectibles, and handmade local art. 

This is one of the bittersweet wreaths that my sister makes in the Fall and sells at Fiddlestix.

If you would like to see photos of my sister's eclectic home, see the post A Collector's Cottage.

Fiddlestix has more of a booth-type arrangement so

there are many different categories of items all

over the store depending on the booth owner's interests.

Fiddlestix

 37 Library Street

Mars Hill, NC 28754

(828) 689-4532

Just a short drive from downtown Mars Hill is

another fun shoppe, Reliks Home and Garden. 

Cosmos and other flowers bloom among the gardens 

items for sale outside the store.

All of the items in Reliks are for sale by a single owner.

Not everything in the store is an official antique

 but even the newer things look old.

The owner is downsizing from her large home so some

 items in the store are antiques from her own personal home.

Reliks Home and Garden is located at

929 Parkway View Road

Mars Hill, NC 28754.

Phone number (828) 689-5352

If you are in the Asheville area and like to find unique items,

I recommend both of these very interesting stores.

Store hours vary according to the seasons so call 

for store hours before going to the great shops. 

I am sharing this post over at 

"Oh, the Places I've Been" @ The Tablescaper blog

Black Birds Of A Feather Flock Together

After seeing this photo of a table setting in a recent

"People" magazine, I was inspired to copy cat some

of the elements in it for a Halloween display.

I did use the branch with birds, the candlelabra, and lantern

in my table setting but instead of food, I will be offering

Halloween-ish faux libations and morsels.

Take the covers off of old thrift store books to use them as stands/elevators for your props.

The product that looks like ice in "Night Crawler" jar the above picture is actually those 

beads that expand in water that you can find in the floral section at craft stores.

To learn how to make your own Halloween-ish bottles, 

click on this post Quick Easy Cheap Halloween Decor.

Did you know that those items that "grow" when you put them in water take a WEEK to fully expand?

Want to make your own insect displays? Learn how by

reading this blog post...Critter Cloches. 

Michaels has a good variety of black birds for sale in the Fall. 



All the imbibing of the "Bat Juice" and "Mysterious Elixer"

will be under the watchful eyes of the old folks

(who look like they might get a little crazy too after

the sun goes down).

These are those funny portraits from Michaels that change

 from sedate to  scary as you walk past them.

Here is the sweet little old lady from one direction... 

...walk past her and she changes into this:

Hope you get all treats and no tricks!

Skeleton/Snake/Spider/Skull Specimen Display

I'm getting ready for my trick or treaters with

a Halloween display on my dining room buffet.

A few of the elements in this display have

already been blogged about. 

The items in the framed collage were made to look old in

the blog post Aging Paper.

The snake wreath DIY is in the blog post Snakes On A Wreath.

Spiders in specimen jars were made for a magazine

 copy cat challenge over at Debbiedoos.

 That blog post is Critter Cloches.

The candelabra were from a decorator shop's tent sale.

They used to be gold but were painted a few shades of

bone color to go with their skeleton friends.

To add to my skeleton items, I found these tiny dinosaur

skeletons in the toy section at Dollar Tree. I tried to make

them look like scientific specimens by

 putting them in a glass terrarium.

The snake specimen jars on either side of the wreath were

made easily by putting the mosss, twigs and plastic snakes

simply down into the jars. Actually that was much easier than

the spider specimen jars that were built on the lids of upside

down jars...which do you like best?  

The skulls got a "teeth whitening" with light color paint.

I think it makes him look like he is smiling.

Happy Halloween!

Critter Cloches

I'm so glad that Debbie Doos is now planning to have her

Magazine Copy Cat Party once a month.

I have always enjoyed participating and it makes

reading my magazines even more enjoyable as I

am now on the lookout for a good project to

copy cat for upcoming party entries.

I found this magazine copy cat project in the

latest issue of Goose Berry Patch's

"Best of Halloween".

With their glass domes, these upside down jars

remind me of cloches.

I painted the lids of my jars black to make them 

 look more like a specimen jar in a laboratory.

Then I built my spider display using moss, sticks,

plastic spiders and Halloween spider webbing

on the inverted jar lid. 

Here are the individual specimen jars...

The magazine picture had the jars on a tray

so I put mine on the only tray I had on hand.

I was disappointed in the late afternoon photos I took of

my copy cat project inside so I took a few more

pictures outside the next morning.

I think the tray kind of overwhelms the critter cloches...too deep of a tray and too much moss...

live and learn. 

Update: The spider cloches were used as part of a

larger Halloween vignette:

Getting ready for tricker or treaters in Skeleton/Spider/Snake/Skull Display.

I took the critter cloches off the mossy tray and onto a large candle holder for this display. 

I am sharing the critter cloches at Debbie Doos Blogging and Blabbing

Magazine Copy Cat Challenge.