The house is so quiet.

My sister and niece flew back to Alaska yesterday afternoon. The house is so quiet. You would think I would get a lot accomplished today. Not so much. I did get a second coat of paint on the new floor trim for the studio done.....and then realized the door trim wasn't painted like I'd thought. So I sanded and painted the first coat of paint on six eight foot sections of door trim. Oh, and I watered all my pots outside! Woohoo!! Still, it's only almost 2pm. There are lots of hours left in the day!! Perhaps I'll get some studio time in afterall!!

First though, I'll share a few pictures of the Portland Antique Expo. Here is my sister, Michelle. My niece, Sarah. And me. We were waiting in line to get our tickets. Silly me thought the Expo opened at 8am. Ha! Try 9am! So we were a little early!!

It was hard to get photos of the booths. The Expo was jammed with shoppers!! There are three buildings full of booths and an outside area as well. 1850 booths in all!! As is always the case, the weather was perfect....sunny and warm!! Bill and I always shop the outside area first thing in the morning. Otherwise, it's just too darned hot in the afternoon!! This day was no exception. When we left at 2:30 it was 89 degrees!!

I didn't find a lot of goodies this time. However, I was specific in what I was looking for. The most wanted item on my list? An antique italian tole chandelier in soft shades of yellow, pink and green. There were quite a few tole chandeliers but the colors or the size were all wrong. Bummer. As much antiquing as I do, one is bound to come along at some point!! Patience.

My great find of the day was this little 1930's compo baby doll in near pristine condition. Now this isn't just any compo baby doll. I look for the dollies with the molded loop in their hair for a ribbon. Isn't she just the sweetest little thing?!!

Other items that are always on my list are vintage posies. I found lots of those!! Antique baby dresses were available in abundance. However, the prices on most of them were outrageous!! I did bring home one very pretty little dress for a lucky bear at what I felt was a fair deal though.

My sister ended up buying lots of lovely things. She was lucky she didn't put a couple of things down after looking at them. If you put things back down after looking at them.....it's fair game for whoever picks it back up!! Michelle caught on pretty quick to this idea. Darn her, she just wouldn't put that little red 1940's Christmas box down!!

Warmest bear hugs, Aleta