Me, Mike and the Phillip Morris bellhop

Me and Mike, with Danielle and my junk buddy Barb

Mike’s mom Rita, a sweetheart for sure

Hanging out at Pelo’s coffee shop

Beautiful LeClaire’s Riverfront View of the Mississippi

Okay, I admit it. I’m a little bit starstruck. Like five million other Americans, I’ve been watching AMERICAN PICKERS since it began airing on The History Channel last year. I learned about the program from my junk buddy Sue over at Vintage Rescue Squad. Once I saw the show, a little bell rang. I knew this guy. Yeah. When “Savannah Blues” was first published, way back in 2002, I got an email from this guy named Mike Wolfe. He told me he was a picker, and was intrigued that I’d written a novel about an antique picker. We corresponded, and he sent me a short video clip of his picking adventures, explaining that he was trying to sell a show to a cable network. Riiiight, I thought. Like that’s gonna happen. Shows you what I know. It took Mike seven or eight years of hard work, but darned if he didn’t sell a show. And it rocks. When my friend Barb and I set out on our Midwest Junk Junket, starting in Dayton, Ohio this week, Barb pointed out that our eventual destination, Champaign, Illinois, was only a few hours from LeClaire, Iowa, where Antique Archaeology is based. So…we drove to LeClaire. What the heck? I’d never been to Iowa, and maybe we’d run into Mike, the junk hunk. Suuuure. We got to LeClaire at about six Wednesday night, and drove around, trying to locate the shop. It’s a small, gorgeous town, set right on the banks of the Mississippi River. So picturesque, with neat little shops and restaurants downtown. No luck. So we turned a corner, to look for the library, and instead, drove right up to a building with the trademark Antique Archaeology truck parked around back. We got out of our car, decided it must be Mike’s house, but did not want to engage in what my daughter would describe as creepy stalker-girl behavior. We took pictures of ourselves with the truck, and then went to dinner at a restaurant just down the block. Wouldn’t you know it, walking back to our car afterwards, I spotted a familiar-looking guy walking two black dogs down the street. Mike? Mike! We stopped and chatted. He remembered our correspondence, and we agreed to meet for coffee this morning. If you ever get to LeClaire, definitely stop at Pelo’s, which is in a charming old building, run by the third generation owner. Maybe you’ll run into Mike, or at least Mike’s mom, Rita, who is just a total sweetheart. She plays Mrs. Santa Claus for the community children every Christmas. Love her. And Mike–ya gotta love a guy who spends time with his mama, right? And how can you not love a guy who sets up a facebook page for his Border Collie, Ruby? Long story short, we were lucky enough to spend an hour or so with Mike and his Mom. Did not get to meet Frank, darn it. We went to the shop, got to meet Danielle for a skinny minute, before she left to run errands, and best of all, we got to see some of Mike’s favorite picks, up close and personal–the giant Phillip Morris statue, the carnival games, the big red arrow, the Laurel and Hardy heads, ect. Mike’s passion for “rusty gold” is so genuine, so infectious, it’s no wonder his show is a huge hit. He’s like a kid who’s been given the keys to the candy store. And here’s some of what he shared with us: it takes a crew of nine people to shoot the show. They work two weeks on, then two weeks off. California is the next pick–starting in San Diego and working north to San Francisco. Danielle has become such a celebrity, they’ve had to hire three other people just to help clean up and sell their vintage finds, which they actually do sell, either through the shop or on eBay. They get an estimated 10,000 leads for potential picks EVERY WEEK! Mike has bought a shop in downtown Nashville, in an awesome old brick building that used to be an auto plant, and they’ll divide their time between Nashville and LeClaire. We saw pix, and it is going to be amazing, and very accessible to fans who want to visit, buy a T-shirt or an antique bike, and maybe even meet the guys. What else? Oh yeah. They definitely keep up on their tetanus shots.

It’s fall, y’all, up here in Ohio

Our great Midwest junk jaunt started Sunday with a trip to Columbus, Ohio for the Country Living Antique Fair. We had a great time, but the name “antique fair” is a little bit of a misnomer, because from my experience, the majority of the dealers weren’t selling antiques, but rather handcrafts, with some vintage, some new seasonal items, lots of vendors of gift-type foods, and yes, some antiques. I did spend some time browsing the booth of one of my favorite dealers from Franklin, Tenn., Scarlett Scales. Some of the crafts, especially those made from vintage ephemera, were really original and appealing. And don’t get me wrong, of course I managed to score some junk–including some gorgeous old linen sheets with hand-crocheted lace, three adorable old aprons–incliuding two Christmas aprons, and a sweet leaf-shaped wooden wall bracket. Saw lots of wonderful chippy furniture with good prices, since we were there the last day of the fair, but alas, I don’t think Delta will let me check a step-back cupboard in with my luggage.

Goin’ to hell in a Longaberger handbasket with Barb

The weather was perfect Sunday, sunny, but cool enough for a jacket. In fact, it was the first time I’ve had on closed-toed shoes since June! The setting for the fair was neat too, since it was held in the Ohio Village, near the Ohio History Center. The village is full of period-type buildings, and the grounds were decorated with hay bales and pumpkins and gourds and chrysanthemums and corn shocks–a beautiful autumnal setting. The Country Living magazine folks had lots of cooking, craft and decorating demonstrations going on all day, and there were tons of food booths. I stood for a long time salivating over the grilled pork chop booth, but finally my friend Barb and I settled for barbecue. Who knew Ohioans could do ‘cue?

Pickin’ and grinnin’ at the fair

I stood for a long time, listening to these two fellas, harmonizing on “You Are My Sunshine,” but then I had to get back to the business of junking. Finally, Barb and I dragged ourselves back to her home in Yellow Springs. We fixed a quick dinner, then headed out to her town’s movie theatre, The Little Art, where we saw “Get Low.” I always love Robert Duvall and Bill Murray, and it was especially fun sitting in an Ohio movie theatre, watching a movie filmed partially in Georgia. This morning, we headed out for Indiana, specifically Old U.S. 40, also called The National Highway, and it’s “Antique Alley.” I scored so much good stuff today I’ll end up shipping back some of it. Will try to post pix tomorrow, but in the meantime, wanted to share this Addams Family type house we spotted in Greenfield, Indiana. We halfway expected Uncle Fester to come popping out of the shrubbery!

It’s creepy and it’s spooky…mysterious & ooky…

Sorry I’ve been away from the blog for two whole weeks. But life has been crazy. I finally finished the last set of revisions for TFB (the friggin’ book). I’m beyond ecstatic about the final product, which is called SUMMER RENTAL, and which should be out next summer. And then I had to launch immediately into coming up with an idea for the book for summer 2012. And I did. I really love this idea and can’t wait to get started. And then I had to go down to Tybee and get The Breeze Inn ready for Boomerang Boy’s birthday celebration. He and a “few” of his closest friends gathered there this past weekend, and the good news is that there were no arrests and the place is reportedly still standing. While I was there, I stocked my booth at Seaside Sisters chockful of excellent treasures. You should go check it out, and check into The Breeze Inn. Did I mention, it’s still standing?

Chalkware kittycat
As soon as I got home from Tybee, it was time to take off for Lake Oconee, where some posse members celebrated our friend Shay’s double-nickel birthday. The guys golfed and the girls shopped. We had a great time junking in Greensboro and Madison, where, of course, HISSY FIT is set. I picked up the chalkware kitty for a song at an antique mall in Greensboro.

This adorable toy ironing board and iron came from the Madison Marketplace antique mall and reminded me I might need to catch up on my ironing. No maker’s mark that I can find, but I just couldn’t pass this up, or the Tom Thumb toy typewriter at the top of the page. I seem to have a thing for children’s tin toys. I’ve sold at least three Tom Thumb cash registers, a couple of tin phones, and now the above typewriter, which I’m tempted to keep, since I do make a living from typing, right?

Madison has so many cute shops, including a great vintage clothing consignment shop, where I found this cute black faille pocketbook with lucite fastener and handles. It’ll look great with the vintage black satin slips accented with rhinestone bling that I put in the booth last week. I can just picture some cute young SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) girl wearing these for a fun evening out.

And now? I must sail away, although not on this spiffy chalkware sailing ship bookend I found in Greensboro. Busy week ahead with starting proposal for the new book, and then on Saturday, I’m headed for Ohio where I’ll team up with junk buddy Barb for a trip to the Country Living Antique Fair in Columbus, followed by a junk junket all the way through Indiana and Illinois to Champaign, where I’m giving a talk for the library Sept. 30th. Hope to see some of you along the way!

I left the life of a newspaper reporter way back in 1991, and since that time, I’ve worked at home, solo. My first “office” was our dining room table. Since our children were four and eight at the time, I pushed aside the mounds of unfolded laundry and toys, and wrote there. Later, I converted a closet into an office, setting up my very first huge desktop computer. Several years after that, my husband built me an office in a shed left-over from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. It measured 10-by-10, was heated and cooled with a motel HVAC unit, and was frequently visited by bugs and birds, who figured out how to get in through the eaves. We moved to Raleigh, and I got a nicer, bigger office, in the back half of our garage, from a room that had once been a work-out room. Hah! When we moved back to Atlanta three years ago, my office was set up in a former sewing room. All this time, as I said, I’ve worked solo. But now there’s A MAN IN THE OTHER ROOM. Mr. Mary Kay is working from home these days. Gulp. Our home. His office abuts mine. I can hear the squeak of his office chair. He can hear me muttering under my breath. He doesn’t like the way I sort the mail. I don’t like having to share the morning paper. But we are working things out. Since he’s in such close proximity, he actually agreed to read the latest draft of my next book, and he had many amazingly helpful suggestions. Of course, some of them were amazingly pain-in-the-ass comments. I mean, come on, we’ve been married for centuries. Many days, he pokes his head in the door and wants to know my thoughts on lunch. Usually my thoughts run to….leftovers. Or M&Ms, but I never tell him about those M&M lunches. MMK’s thoughts run to something hot, and specially prepared, because for all these years, he’s used to business lunches. So…as I said, we’re working it out. Now that what I hope (and pray to GAWD) are the final revisions for SUMMER RENTAL are in, I’m noodling around with ideas for the next book. I’ve had this weird vision of an opening, and I’m trying to figure out what the story is. Yesterday, I sketched out some ideas, and showed them to him. His general reaction was…WTF? There’s no book here. Which was true,all I had was a name for the main character, and a description of her ex-husband, which was to say that he was an asshat–a phrase MMK had never heard before. Today was one of those very special days. I suggested a lunch place to him, barbecue. He agreed. On the way to the restaurant, I filled him in on the conversation I’d had with my agent, and told him I needed a family business for my character to run. I suggested one, and he quickly came up with another suggestion. WHICH WAS GENIUS. Truly. We went to lunch, and my mind was running a mile a minute with ways this could work. So. Maybe I’ll have to overlook the squeaky chair and the picky lunch notions. Yeah. I think I’ll keep him.

With summer is drawing to a close, I figured it was high time I awarded the prize in my Book Club Beach Basket Giveaway. As you may recall, I invited anyone in a book club to share their most memorable experience. Reading all the e-mails gave me a nice break in the action from revisions on my next novel. There were some great entries—many which reminded me of exactly what I love about taking part in the two book clubs that I’m in.

I heard all about cocktails and BBQs in backyards, on decks and porches while gathering to talk about books and life in general. I heard about Andrea and the Chick Lits’ trip to Savannah, GA, Kathy’s club’s adventures on Fripp Island, SC, the time Kristi’s club got snowed in at a ski house, and Felicia’s long-distance club’s first-ever in-person meeting in Texas. Your stories about your club saving you with their friendship, seeing you through cancer, and surprising you with baby showers warmed my heart and had me reflecting on the true blue friendships I’ve made through my own clubs. Your tales of potlucks with food and cocktails inspired by the books, of girls’ days out and movie nights made me look forward to whatever adventure my club’s next meeting will bring. Ann-Marie relayed a story about her club sharing bar space with the local men’s softball team which reminded me of a school dance with the boys lined up on one side of the gym and the girls on the other. (The more things change, the more they stay the same.) Several readers wrote in to say how much they enjoy having the author join their discussion by phone and Skype. I loved to hear this because, as an author, I so enjoy meeting with clubs who are discussing my books; as a reader, I’m thrilled when my own club manages to get an author to join our chat. I propose a toast to Jennifer who wrote that her favorite moment with her book club is trumped every time they meet again!

OK, now for the envelope please. Again I found myself with the familiar dilemma of not being able to pick just one winner. So I will be sending out two baskets.

The first goes to Michelle Swindle Pardue whose Barbie Book Club sounds like a heckuva good time to me. OK, so they did read my very own Savannah Breeze on a group trip to Tybee Island, GA, but their excellent taste in books and getaway destinations did not sway my decision. It was their incredible spunk, their “togo Bloody Marys” fixed out of the trunk of a car, and their “happy place” under a pink and green beach umbrella that really got me.

The second winner is Sheila DeChantal who wrote in about The Bookies’ annual tradition of crowning a queen at an event complete with formal wear and a talent competition. The queen gets to be the tie-breaking decision on book selections and meeting places for the entire next year. Sheila, I bow to you and your fellow members.

Congratulations to Michelle and Sheila. Enjoy the baskets with your clubs in good health. Thanks to everyone for entering. And for anyone who is not already subscribed to my e-mail list, be sure to sign up. Another newsletter will be coming out soon featuring a recipe, a giveaway, and other good stuff.

Cheers!
MKA

Innocent-looking Chemcraft chemistry set

Friday’s round of estate sales started with an early-morning outing to the far suburbs of Atlanta, which was unusual for me, since I usually stay ITP–or inside the perimenter. The sale was in a subdivision of large newish homes–again, not somewhere I normally stray, simply because I assume the good old stuff will be found in dinky cottages in in-town neighborhoods. But the sale ad looked promising, so off we went. Everything was clean and well-organized, laid out in the large driveway and garage–again, not the norm. I’ve gotten so I actually don’t trust a potential sale unless there’s a towering pile of mouldering mattresses at the curb, a dumpster in the front yard, and the heady aroma of cat piss and mildew wafting from the front door. Can you believe it–the pros running the sale had a basket of fresh-baked brownies and cold complimentary bottles of water at the cash-out table. Say what??? I was highly suspicious, to say the least. But the stuff was actually pretty good, and the prices were only slightly inflated.

Willlow child’s rocker, globe, pick-up stix

I managed to score a willow child’s rocking chair, a Replogle globe, the USA pottery pitcher and creamer, a Pickup-Stix game, a repro ice tea decanter, and an intriguing 1940s Chemcraft chemistry set. Went on to another sale, where I found an awesome hand-caned shabby chic chair and a pair of cool industrial looking lab stools.

Shabby chic cane chair & ice tea decanter

Still later in the day, at an intown sale, I bought a huge chippy picture frame, and what I’m assuming is a repro tin Coke bottle thermometer.
Once I got home, I took a good look at the Chemistry set and was astonished to find that it promises fun with atomic energy! WTF? There are lots of nifty test tubes and beakers and stoppered bottles of chemicals. Oh yeah, and a bottle containing an alleged URANIUM ORE as well as a Radio Active Screen which looks a lot like cardboard to me.

Hand-dandy radio-active screen plus test-tubes

Cork-stoppered glass bottles of chemicals

Um, yikes. I’m actually having second thoughts about putting this in my booth at Seaside Sisters because I’m afraid some little kid (or Tybee miscreant) will yank it down off a shelf and smash all the glass bottles–or swallow some of the alleged strontium, not to mention accidentally set off some not-so-fun nuclear incident. So…all you pro junkers out there–any suggestions on how to sell a vintage chemistry set without harming life on this planet as we know it?

Joel and Mr. Mary Kay with the pause that refreshes

So sorry for the interruption in bloggosity. What with finishing revisions for TFB (the friggin’ book), construction projects at The Breeze Inn, and a LOT of company, I sorta got sidetracked. But no worries. I’m back, and ready to “share”–as they say in school these days. First off, here’s a look at the construction projects completed by Mr. Mary Kay and good friend Joel, who came in from Birmingham just to tackle the difficult, sweaty stuff.

The challenge was to enclose our skanky old carport into a garage, where we can secure our bikes, beach carts, yard tools and yes, my extra junk inventory for my booth at Seaside Sisters. After taking a look around at lots of the original Tybee raised cottages on the island, MMK decided to give our humble garage the same kind of look by enclosing the carport with 1-by-4 vertical boards. He and Joel sunk posts in concrete, then built headers and footers, and screwed down the boards. They even built nifty barn-doors so we can lock up our stuff. Cool, huh?



Our new Garage Mahal

Once the garage was complete, they turned to the outdoor shower. We’d had an area beside the screened porch at The Breeze Inn plumbed with a shower two years ago when we were restoring the house, but had never gotten around to building an enclosure. Again, they sunk posts in concrete, then built the enclosure. For doors, they incorporated two of the old wooden shutters I’d been hoarding from my last trip to the Brimfield Antique Market. Then, they put down a boatload of concrete pavers for the floor of the shower and the area next to the garage.

Pam checks out the new shower

Finally, for privacy, Mr. Mary Kay put up a towel rod on the door, so that someone who decides to shower in the buff can simply drape their towel over the crescent-moon cut-outs in the shower door. He also installed four towel or robe hooks made from four old chrome faucets i’d been hoarding from an Atlanta estate sale.

Old faucets make great towel hooks

Once the outdoor projects were finished, we decided to play catch-up inside. In the dining room, we hung the two gorgeous bird paintings I bought in Destin while I was on book tour in July, and created a new sleeping area downstairs, moving furniture around and de-cluttering. For the bed there, I bought a pair of beat-up mahogany headboards at the Scott Antique Market for $50 in August. I painted them the same bright turquoise as the hall tree in that same area, and the Mister hooked them up with a pair of salvaged bed rails from our basement in Atlanta. We took a trip into Savannah and bought a nice new pillow-top mattress, and a pair of new feather pillows and mattress pad at Homegoods. And then the fun began. Rummaging around the closets and crannies at The Breeze Inn, I found a perfect white matlesse bedspread from a forgotten yard sale, two huge linen euroshams with a nautical blue piping, a pair of blue and white ticking striped shams, and yet another pair of blue and white quilted shams left-over from the Better Homes and Gardens shoot last summer. Accessorized with a quilt bought at an antique shop in Tennessee last summer, I think the bed looks pretty and inviting. Best of all was the fact that I had all the bed linens pre-hoarded, er, stashed.

We finished the new sleeping area with only hours to spare before my college roomies from UGA arrived for our chick weekend. We had a great time reconnecting. All of us met when we were living in Creswell Hall at UGA in 1974–except for Sheryl, who roomed with some of us our junior year. Pam and friend Linda are south Georgia girls who come from farming backgrounds. Pam arrived with the best kind of hostess gifts–food! Pecans from her orchard, gorgeous fat blackberries from a friend’s garden, and frozen corn she’d put up herself. We had two nights of feasting. Friday night MMK and I fixed shrimp and grits with shrimp right off the Lazaretto Creek boats.



Mr. Mary Kay’s Really Big Redfish

On Saturday, he went fishing and caught a gorgeous redfish, which he fried up for the girls. A Tybee neighbor gifted us with okra from his garden, which Linda expertly fried up. Pam cooked her creamed corn, and baked an awesome peach and blackberry cobbler for dessert.

A feast fit for old friends

Sunday morning, we prevailed on Pam to fix us homemade biscuits and sausage before we walked down to the beach for an hour or two. We had such a fun time we’re already plotting our next getaway. And Mr. Mary Kay, who’d originally planned to vacate the premises when the girls arrived, will definitely be part of the proceedings again–because who else is going to provide us with seafood? Or build a garage? Or help us figure out the remote control. Ya see, it really is good to have man around the cottage.