Tiny's Lambertville Spring Cleaning Sale

Stop by the shop this weekend and help Tiny make way for new inventory.  Select furniture and art up to 20 percent off! Sat 3/19 from 1-5, Sun 3/20 from 12-4.

Tiny's Lambertville on Etsy!

Announcing my virtual storefront: http://www.etsy.com/shop/dimadesigns

I am in the process of posting my inventory to my etsy site over the next month or so.  The reaction has been very positive! After a long winter, sales are happening and inventory is moving!

Thank you SO MUCH, Etsy shoppers!

Tiny's Lambertville: Punch Paper Motto Samplers

I have a huge fondness for Victorian punch-paper samplers: embroidery done on perforated paper.  There's something really touching about all that homespun-handcraftiness.  This Welcome sampler is currently part of Tiny's inventory:

Best of all, it comes in its original frame, with gilt lining.

Punch-paper samplers were quite the craze in the 19th Century, as they were cheap and easier to complete than other forms of needlework.  According to the font of all knowledge, Wikipedia:

Perforated card-board . . . first became available in the 1820's as plain sheets used for the creation of bookmarks and small mottoes and sayings, often taken from the Bible. By the 1870s the Victorian craze for this inexpensive and versatile craft material was at its peak. The invention of new printing processes made the pre-printing of mottoes and bookmarks on the perforated paper possible. These items were extremely popular and original examples, in good condition, can still be found today. The Victorian fad of embroidering mottoes on perforated paper died out around 1910 and was virtually lost as a needleart until recently being rediscovered.

Another good summary of the trend can be found at http://www.victoriana.com/Embroidery/perforatedpaper.html.

Keep antiquing!

Tiny's Lambertville: Recycle, Repurpose, Reuse

The weather is warming and Tiny is crawling out of her hole and back to the shop!  Given the brutal winter we've had, I'm thinking the shop will be closed from November through February each year -- Tiny's just not that tough to brave snow, ice and 20 degree temps, and neither, quite frankly, are shoppers.  But now that the sun's returning, be on the lookout for a March sale! . . .  details to come.

For now, Tiny wants to share these great eco-friendly finds!  One of her suppliers rescues old wooden window frames and repurposes them into chalkboards, bulletin boards and whiteboards:

I love how these retain the window hardware.  What a funky addition to the kitchen!

Also funky? Soda crate wagons! Back in olden times, before Target and Walmart, people did a lot of "make-do" around the house, especially when it came to kids' toys.  They'd take an old Pepsi or Coke crate, add wheels, and create a perfectly respectable little wagon:

Currently, Tiny's using this one to haul the girls, but come spring, picture it on your porch, filled with two pots of red geraniums.  TOO. CUTE.  Tiny has several of these wagons coming to the shop, but can't help but keep one for herself to store magazines, catalogs, etc.

Think you're "Green"?  Put your money where your mouth is!  Shop Tiny's!

Tiny's Lambertville: Character Culture & Citizenship Guide Prints

Tiny is so done with Winter.  This February feels like the demon spawn of a drunken one-night-stand between Mother Nature and Old Man Winter.  What with all the sickness, and snow days, and ice, and COLD, Tiny has seldom made it to the shop -- and her customers have made it even more seldom!  But Spring -- Tiny hopes, Tiny prays -- is coming in a mere month or so.  Time to stock the shop with some more great finds!

Ladies and gents, I give you two beautifully framed posters from the Nichols Character, Culture, and Citizenship Guides.  The Guides were classroom posters used in the twenties/thirties to promote good hygiene, moral fortitude, and red-blooded Americanism.  They are a pure hoot.  Plus, their deco-ish graphics are just delightful.

A vintage poster dealer told me it's a challenge to find these in good shape, since they were often used year-after-year, rotating from month-to-month in a special frame on the classroom wall.  Bends and tears are common.  These two posters, though, are pristine, aside from some slight browning.  Whoever framed them had the good sense to use a nice off-white matt board.

The pair makes such a fantastic set, since they both address hygiene.  I plan on hanging them in my dream bathroom.  You know, the one with white subway tile walls, black-and-white deco mosaic tile on the floor, a clean white pedestal sink, and nickel fixtures.  The bathroom in the historic home I own.

Wait.  I don't have an historic home.  Or a dream bathroom.

Then I guess I'll have to sell them to you.  Very reasonably priced at 100 each.  Collectors of this series know that this is a great deal, as unframed Guides sell upwards of this at vintage poster shops.  If you don't snap these up, there's no hope for ya'll. 

Tiny's Lambertville: Sacre Bleu! A teal blue vintage buffet!

Because winter puts me in a blue kind of a mood . . .  and because my friend Aspacia hooked me up with some lover-ly teal blue paint . . . I decided to finally haul myself out of my funk and paint/distress this adorable vintage sideboard/buffet.

Even in this dull winter light, she is pretty, no?  Piggy likes it, too.  He stays with us, though.  Tiny couldn't bear to sell Piggy.

I especially love the scrollwork detailing on the drawer:

Coming to the shop this week!

Tiny's Lambertville Is Cukoo for Couroc

I like to mix it up in the shop with a few mid-century modern items.  And there's no better Eames fix than a selection of Couroc serving bowls and platters.

Couroc of Monterey was a California company that produced a variety of servingware items out of their proprietary black resin -- like plastic, but rock-hard and virtually unbreakable (although prone to scratching).  The true artistry comes in the design:  Couroc craftspersons inlaid the pieces with brass, wood, shell, and other natural materials to create whimsmical animals, cityscapes and the like.

My favorites, and probably the most recognizable Couroc pieces, are the owls:

Nothing says 50s/60s retro like a wide-eyed hoot owl!

Couroc closed its doors in the early 1990s, so start collecting now while items are reasonably priced!  Stop by Tiny's for a fun selection.