Almost a New Year!

If you've been in lately you will notice that we are going through some changes. We will have some dealer spaces open soon and are interviewing for them right now.

If you would like more information about being a dealer in MY FRIENDS AND I just look to the left and click on where it says "click here to contact me by email". Send me your name and phone number and I'll get in touch with you. You can also call the shop and leave a message for me to call you.

Have a safe and Happy New Year's!

Carol

Baby it's cold outside!

WISHING YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As I told you in the last post we are in IL. and it's a far different Christmas than we're used to in the Bay Area. It's fun being all nice a warm inside looking out the window at the snow. I think it's beautiful, but as a native Fremonter (I was born in Niles) I'll take our weather over months of this. I would probably not leave the house all winter. LOL

Don't forget our after Christmas Sale starts on the 26th

Sad News

One of our dealers just lost her daughter to Cancer after a brave 5 year battle. Our hearts and thoughts go out to Kay and her whole family. Toni left behind 2 small children and a husband who will miss her terribly. Please keep them in you thoughts .
We will be closed on December 23 so that the girls in the shop can attend the service. I'm in IL. having Christmas with one of my daughters and family so I won't be at the service in person, but will be there in spirit. Kay is someone I consider a friend and part of my family.
Tell someone close to you how much you love them and count your blessing this holiday season.

We will also be closed December 24th and 25th.

When we open back up at 11:00 on December 26th all Christmas will be 40% off the orginial price. There's still plenty of cute stuff left in the store.

P.S. We are going to have a very white Christmas here in IL. snow every where.

Christmas at the Niles Plaza

The picture in the post below this one is the plaza during the day and all the fall color. This is actually a little after dark and when the Depot Christmas lights are on. BEAUTIFUL! I drove some of the back streets as I left town. It's defiantly worth taking a night drive through Niles.

Click picture to make larger

Beauty in Niles

For once I had my camera with me and so I was able to take this picture of the Niles Plaza and all the beautiful little trees turning color. All I can think about is how wonderful they are going to be when they grow up! Look at the hills they are trying to get some green on them.
My husband and I were driving around Fremont the other day and there are so many beautiful trees to admire I said "well that's one thing you can say for Fremont, they have really planted a lot of trees and THAT'S A GOOD THING!

click on picture to make larger.

cookies yum..............

I know I have linked this site before, but it's worth revisiting. She has a pretty site and great recipes to share. The recipe below is from her recipe blog Charming Vintage Recipes. Click here to see it.

How cute is this!

I don't know how many of you shop at Raley's but you need to go there and see these bags. I commented to the check out girl how cute the snowman was and she said "He is isn't he? Be sure to read the story on the back." What???? story on back. It's really fun and it's a continuing story! Talk about good marketing.

Sale

Sale

Starting today some of the girls in the shop are putting Sale tags on some pretty cute merchandise in their spaces. This is the first announcement about it. We need to make room for new merchandise coming in 2011. Come in and see what gets marked Sale from now till the end of December.

Niles events etc.

There is plenty of stuff going on in Niles this time of year. Did you know that Niles has a web site and you can get all the info about events etc. all year long? Click here and it will take to to the site and you can read about the Christmas Parade and tree lighting happening on Friday Nov. 26 also read about the Annual Christmas Home Tour on Dec. 11th and about the on going Tree Auction MY FRIENDS AND I and several other shops in town are participating in for needy Niles families. It's worth bookmarking the site and checking it often. Even shops advertise their special events there. SHOP NILES!

Fun site to check out

I'm always looking for fun sites with free things to print. Here's one for you to see. Click here
Lots of cute things.

Cute Fall Memory Game To Print

I was out in Blog land and found this site where you can print this very cute Memory Game. FUN for little and big kids alike. You could use larger value coins for the older ones or how about chocolate coins.
Heck I think my husband would play this if I made the coins worth more. LOL
To see her blog and print the game click here

More Books

These are delightful Golden books and other "like" Golden books from my own personal collection. I collected them for years and every Christmas it was a tradition to read them to my kids and then their's. Sadly kids grow up even Grandkids. I decided to sell some of them.

I did keep some of my favorites just in case I am fortunate enough to be around and able to read them to some Great Grandkids one day. (Not too soon, my Grandkids aren't old enough for that yet!)

New vintage items

just arrived at the shop. Pretty yellow vase marked USA on bottom (it's actually more yellow than the picture shows) and a cute little yellow flower frog. The darling baby picture is tin. Soooo cute.

Really pretty pair of pink lamps. It's not easy to find a matching pair.

Vintage books make great gifts.

We have quite a few vintage books in the shop right now and children's books are one of my favorites. Christmas is the perfect time to begin a collection for a child or an adult. The Billie Whiskers books pictured are dated 1903 and up. They have several titles in the series and we have 7 different titles available. Not only are the stories cute but the color illustrations are wonderful. The publisher is the Saalfield Publishing Company. By the inscription inside the book they were a gift to a child in 1927. A lot of people feel having an inscription inside a book makes it more special. Me included!

Franciscan and Gladding MCBean

The white Ivory 12"bowl in the picture is marked GMB on the bottom which stands for Gladding McBean and Co. They started making pottery sewer pipes, floor tiles, and dinnerware (what a combination!) in 1875. In 1934 the name changed to Franciscan Ware which is the mark on the pretty yellow 11 3/4" chop plate. The pattern name is Coronado. Any piece marked GMB is harder to find than the more common Franciscan mark, but both are desired by collectors. Wouldn't the bowl be pretty with a salad or dessert in it? My husband was thinking of Banana Pudding. LOL! I will be taking both pieces to the shop today. If your a collector or just love the look of these 2 pretty pieces, hurry in and check them out.

Halloween's over

BUT we still have some in the shop AND it's on sale. Come in and grab something for next year!

I couldn't resist this really funny picture I found on the web. Will people ever learn to stay off the phone while driving??? Even the witches are doing it!

I'm sorry

for being away from the blog for so long.
Now that the Open House is over I will really, really try and post at least 3 times a week, so don't give up on me and check back often.
Speaking of the Open House we owe all of you that came a BIG thank you! We were rewarded for all our hard work.
If you didn't make it during the Open House we'd like to invite you to come in and see how beautiful the store looks and see all the wonderful merchandise on display.
I took a few pictures, hope you enjoy them.

Santa is coming to town

along with Angels, Snowmen and other wonderful Christmas goodies.

Come to our

Christmas Open House

Friday the 22nd 6pm -9 pm

and Sat. the 23rd & Sun. the 24th 10-6

Remember we will be closed Monday the 18th and re-open Friday Evening.

HALLOWEEN

I know I keep talking about our CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE on Oct. 22nd, but we still have Halloween coming up. So I was playing around on the the computer today and for the fun of it googled vintage Halloween magazine covers and WOW there are a lot. It's fun give it a try. You could print them out, make cards, etc.

Only 19 days till........

Our Christmas Open House

and only 15 days till we close to get ready.

The question was asked the other day why we close for so many days before the Open House.

Well.........it's because we have tons of boxes to open, price and get in the shop, and all of us at
My Friends and I are getting older and everything takes us longer, a LOT longer! LOL
Seriously, if you've been to our Open Houses you know that they are really special and it takes time to make everything look wonderful.

With the amount of UPS boxes we have been getting this is going to be one of our best events.

Look to the left for the dates and go to the Sept. 30th entry for all the details

Only 22 more days till..........

Our Christmas House

Scroll down and read post from September 30th for all the details!

Christmas Open House

We were at the beach yesterday and talking about Christmas today!

Hasn't the year gone by fast?

We've had some email inquiries about our Open House so here's the low down.

My Friends and I

Annual Christmas Open House

Oct. 22nd 6pm - 9pm

Oct. 23rd and 24th 10am - 6pm

10% off everything

$100.00 Gift Certificate drawing

We will be closed Oct. 18th till 6:00pm on the 22nd

I'll be posting a lot of cute clipart this month. Check back often!

Day Trip

It was so hot here that we decided to head over to Half Moon Bay for the day. I know, I know, we're lucky dogs. I couldn't bring myself to feel too bad but I did think of all you stuck in the heat.
If you want to see Fall and Halloween you've got to take that drive over to the coast. Those folks in Half Moon Bay know how to decorate for the season. Be sure to plan some time to stop and take it all in. Pumkins everywhere!
The waves at the beach were the biggest we've ever seen there. Maybe the full moon.......who knows but we sure enjoyed watching them. Of couse I couldn't catch the full impact of them with my little camera I'd just miss the shot everytime. Try clicking on the pictures to make them bigger.

Things to Collect

I just remembered that Sept. is National Sewing Month. Even though Sept. is almost over it's fun to know these things!
Toy sewing machines are a huge among collectors. We have 3 really cute ones in the store right now. You don't have to be a sewer to collect them, just a lover of cute toys from days gone by. This darling Good Housekeeping cover shows how every little girl wanted to be like Mom and sew. I remember making doll clothes on my little machine and also on my Grandmother's treadle sewing machine. It was the only thing my Mother used.
Notice the little doll dress displayed with the toy sewing machine in the picture. Those are collectible too. Looks so cute hanging on a wall or of course on a doll. We have a few of those around the store too.

Favorite time of year

Mine is Fall what's yours? This morning looked like a fine fall day, cloudy and even a little light rain. Hope you like these cute cliparts I found and I hope it makes up for my lack of blogging this month. I promise to do better!

Halloween pictures

Forecast for hot weather this week BUT

we're looking to fall in the shop. Halloween and some Thanksgiving items are coming in daily. Come see what's new.

Got Peaches?

Looks delicious doesn't it?

For this recipe click here.

HoLLoWeeN pictures

Spooking things up in the shop

WHAT can we say?
After seeing Halloween and fall showing up in all the stores we decided to start decorating now for the season. We usually put it out by Antique faire ( August 29th) but we're early this year.
There are some awsome things in the shop right now and there will be lots more spooktacuilar things to come! We LOVE Halloween, don't you? Come see what's new at MY FRIENDS AND I!

Grab this clip art and more at

http://vintageholidaycrafts.com/

It's been a while

Yep I know I've not posted in some time, but I had a house full of kids from IL. and CO. visiting. They have gone back home and it always takes me a few days to get over the "missing them" funk I get into after we see them. But now I'm back to MY FRIENDS AND I business.
We still have lots of things marked down on the back patio and will be adding more stuff all the way up to the big Antique Street Faire on August 29th. Don't wait to come and find your "treasure" at our on going Patio Sale.
Remember to check out this month's giveaway pictured on the left. You could be a winner!

We have a winner

Names for July Giveaway drawing in cute tin.

The WINNER is Debbie

Congratulations Debbie and for you who didn't win, don't give up there is another drawing for August. In fact the cute little tin that I put the names in is part of the giveaway and as if that isn't cute enough I also put in a bingo button card, vintage button card and a sewing tomato. Remember to be entered in the drawing all you have to do is email me (click on email me to left) and let me know you want to win. Then if you do win pick it up at MY FRIENDS AND I. EASY!

YES! email button is back! See it on the left? It says click here to contact me. There are just 2 more days to be entered in the drawing for the Gooseberry book and buttons in pictured on left . Email me and let me know you want to be entered! I will be doing another giveaway in August. Will post picture soon. Same rules. You'll just have to email me and tell me you would like to win and I will put your name in the drawing. EASY!

I lost me email link for you to click on to enter in the July Giveaway. Please keep checking back. It should be back on soon. Sometimes I really hate computers! LOL

Patio Sale going on

Here's some pictures of the Patio Sale.

Don't ya wanna come and see what it's all about?

(click on picture to make bigger)

July's cookin' and so are we!

Wait till you see what we've been up to!

We've set up awnings and tables on the patio behind MY FRIENDS AND I and are busy filling it up. Everything out there will be on SALE and some items will be marked FREE if you make a purchase either from the patio or in the store. Everything is so cute it's hard to keep from shopping from each other!

The patio sale area isn't open to the public till Saturday BUT if you come in before that you can ask to see back there even while we're getting it set up. Just a little sneak preview for those of you who read our blog.

This is just the beginning of the SALE we plan on keeping the patio open until the first of September or longer if the weather permits AND you will want to keep checking back because we will be adding new SALE and FREE items all the time.

HEY ALL Have you emailed me and told me you want to win the cute book and jar of buttons pictures in the left side? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR???

I'm Home

BOY DID I HAVE FUN!

The only thing bad about the trip was the unusual weather in Portland 101 degrees!

There were about 300 booths set up out side (poor dealers!) and I shopped until I couldn't stand it any more then went into the 2 big air conditioned buildings. The picture below are some of the boxes we unloaded this morning into my hall entry way.

The shopping fun is over and now the work begins.

Getting it marked and ready for the shop will be a 2 or 3 day job, but I admit it's fun unloading and seeing the things I bought.

Keep checking back for more pictures.

I'm on a buying trip

LUCKY ME! We're in Oregon shopping every Antique Shop we can find on our way to the big Expo Antique show in Portland. We have to be in Portland by Friday morning for the start of the show. It really doesn't start until Sat. but you can buy a early buyers pass for $$$$ and go in when the dealers are setting up on Friday. It's a giant show, over 1000 booths!! The Friday pass gets us back in on Sat. which we will probably use. A 1000 booths full of Antiques are a lot to see in one day! I've already bought some really cute things to bring back for the shop. Will post when I get them in the store.

We have a WINNER

CAROL O. is the winner of June's blog giveaway.

Congratulations Carol

You too can be a winner.

This Gooseberry book and little jar of buttons is the July giveaway.

It's easy. Just email me that you want to win.