Saturday in Carlton

Have you ever been of Carlton, GA? No? You aren't alone...most people have never even heard of this little gem, much less been there, intentionally. My fiancé (now husband) and I stumbled upon it while out roaming around one day on the way back home from Athens. I wanted to go to the nearby state park, Watson Mill, that has a lovely covered bridge (coincidentally, this covered bridge is in Madison County, GA and for many years I though The Bridges of Madison County was about this place in GA...I was wrong). 

As we pulled up to the park and went through the bridge, my fiancé, asked, "what's down this road?", and since I had no clue and we're both curious creatures, we set off to have an adventure. Not even a mile beyond the bridge, we started to see several old homes and a railroad track...we just knew we were coming up to something interesting and we were right!

A small row of old commercial buildings and a post office stood just on the other side of the tracks and judging from the amount of stuff on the porch, it was my kind of place! I was right and the rest is history. We've been visiting Carlton for about 4 years now and every time we go, we find something we can't live without! 

Our trip last Saturday was basically necessity. My husband and I had both had crazy weeks and needed a break from normal life. So, Saturday was the day and Carlton was the place. This was the scene on driving up to the store...

Every time we go, they have new items. Lots of architectural salvage, vintage clothes, glassware, furniture and things I can't even put in a regular category. 

(My husband HATE this doll...I'm sure I'll buy her one day, haha!)

And yes...that's an antique vacuum cleaner. If only I had something really interesting to use it for...

Rows of vintage clothes (like heaven for me)...

And hats...

Even with all the fabulous stuff calling me name, I ended up only purchasing a few old milk bottles for an art project (one of which had "Edisto" written across the top and I had to have it because Edisto Island is my heaven on earth). But, you can't get everything you want all at once because you have to leave something to draw you back for the next time.

Believe me, it's the perfect place for the curious, weird, creative and inventive. It's the type of place that you will find and always go back to. So, pay a visit to Jimmy and tell him Jenny sent you ;-)!

The next installment of Adventures in Vinage Wonderland will include a great DIY project on decorating Easter eggs! It was a traditional craft that mom and I did when I was younger and we're bringing it back this year (and sharing it with you)! 

Thanks for reading and remember... 

 "But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."

"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here." 

Happy adventuring everyone!

First adventure of 2014!

Now that the holidays are finally gone (leaving a wake of destruction in the form of storage boxes, Christmas decorations and a few extra pounds around my mid section), it's time to get back to regular routines and that means antiquing adventures! 

For the first excursion of this new year, I stole my mother away from her domestic chores and drove to one of our favorite places in Augusta, GA, Mema Had One. 

If you've never been to this little piece of paradise, take a day and visit...you won't regret it! 

We had two motives for this mission: to find architectural salvage and household items for a new art venture (a new mother-daughter thing...more to come on that very soon!) and vintage jewelry for my current art project, Vintage Wonderland Designs; we successed on both accounts. Yay for us!

Upon entering the store, you are transported back into time.

The cashier's area is setup like and old general store complete with mid-centery music, a Coke machine (that works!) and old fashioned candies to name a few things. From the beginning, this place has you hooked!

As you start to move through the old rambling house, you'll stumble upon lots of fun items...

It's the perfect place for those that want fun project ideas and those that would rather buy the ready-made items and save some time.

One of my favorite parts of the store is Sweet Ludie's Vintage. It's all vintage clothing (men, women and children's), shoes, purses, hats, sewing patterns, etc. Vintage vixens from all over to come Sweet Ludie's to find the perfect vintage gear...don't you want to join the "in" crowd?!? 

Throughout the store, I saw SOO many things I wanted (and still may go back for) but they weren't part of the plan...for now. For instance, wouldn't this be the hit present at a bachelor party?

We did our rounds and found some great pieces.

My new 1950s evening gown from Sweet Ludie's (it wasn't in the "plan" but she was having a sale!).

Our other items included two vintage platters (just wait til you see what fun things we have in mind for them),

Vintage pasty tins, for miniature scenes (we use them a lot at Christmas time for ornaments...I feel a DIY post coming on), and

two beautiful new brooches for my jewelry designs! Mission accomplished and then some.

Hope you've enjoyed my first blog post for my adventures and I really hope you will visit Mema Had One located at 2328 Washington Rd., Augusta, GA http://www.memahadone.com/ 

A new blog for a new year!

Happy 2014 everyone! I'm Jenny and if you could sum me up in one sentence it would be "I love old things and new experiences". So, in this new year I'm trying some new things and I'm keeping a chronicle to share with others that like adventures too! I am an artist (in all senses of the word) and have a small business where I upcycle old jewelry into new, one-of-a-kind works of wearable art, it's called Vintage Wonderland Designs. I also have a blog for that but it's on vacation right now (and most likely will be until things change with my schedule). But this blog will be dedicated to my antiquing adventures for finding things to use in my projects- jewelry and otherwise- and showing the outcome of said projects.

Also, starting a new art adventure with my mom that includes repurposed items and southern sayings! More to come on the subject when we start getting things rolling.

For now, I invite you to come along to my favorite antique/salvage/junk places across GA, SC and where ever else life takes me (I think a European trip may be in my future, yay)! Hopefully, you'll find some inspiration and maybe visit some of these places too. I've found the most wonderful spots over the years and met amazing people that have become dear friends....people that love old stuff have kindred spirits.

I hope to get to at least one special spot this weekend but until that time, here's a little list of some of my favorite places in north and middle GA:

-Heritage Heart Pine in Carlton

-Mema Had One in Augusta 

-Sweet Ludie's Vintage (in Mema Had One)

-Bowman, GA (the while square has great shops!

-Aunt Tique and Uncle Junk's in Thomson 

Will report back soon with pictures! Thanks for reading :-)!