Panoply Vintage Finds in Covid Times

The last time I gave y'all an update to my Panoply vintage finds was in an August 2020 post. I've done a lot of shopping since then! Whenever my Panoply sisters and I shop together, we often do a show and tell once we're back at home base, so that's what I have for you today: highlights of my vintage finds in Covid times since last August. It's a long post, but lots of eye candy. Grab a drink, let's go armchair antiquing!

Two Years Later: Before and After

Most of my readers who've been with me over the years know that in 2019 we made a major downsize, going from a large home and garden to living in a loft. I have no regrets, and am very happy with a downsized lifestyle. 

A couple weeks ago while walking in our old neighborhood, we ran into the wife of the couple who bought our former home. She invited us in to see what changes they've made to both the home and garden.  I thought you might like to see a few of the major changes they've made.

The Courtyard: Before and After

Fun with Food and Flowers

I do not know where I saw it (probably Facebook, as I'm not on Instagram, and I rarely scroll Pinterest), but a recent recipe caught my attention that inspired some fun with food and flowers: egg salad filled 'carrots'. 

Early Spring, Easter '21 Tablescape

The official start of spring is just days away, Daylight Savings Time has begun, and I can see and feel new life energy around me each day. Welcome to Panoply, where I am celebrating my favorite season at the table! Several other bloggers are joining me today, and you'll find links for their tables near the end of this post.

An Unpretentious St. Patrick's Day Tablescape

Welcome to Panoply! Today I'm sharing my St. Patrick's Day tablescape with you, labeling it as unpretentious. 

Tales of the Traveling Tote #26: Antiquing, and Giveaway

Welcome to the Tales of the Traveling Tote #26, and Happy March! Our tales began in 2015 (go here to get the story behind it all), and here we are in 2021, still journaling our tales each quarter. You can go here for my personal travel history with my totes, Miss Luna C and Miss Charley C.

Probably the most significant trips I've made in this past quarter are two outings for the COVID vaccine. That's both me and Mr. P. pictured below (and Miss Charley C), getting our second shots in the latter part of February, almost one year since the pandemic began. BREAK OUT! We are now counting the days until we can feel a little more relaxed to eat out, shop in person, and actually travel! Let's just hope these vaccines will be effective against variants.

Most of my readers know one of my favorite pre-COVID activities was antiquing and vintage shopping. My two Panoply sisters and I have rented spaces in the South Charleston Antique Mall since July, 2008 in WV. The 3-story (+mezzanine), 18,000 square foot building (pictured below) was formerly a retail department clothing store in its heyday. Now its purpose is an antique emporium!

Since my travels during the past year have involved little more than my [mostly] weekly trips to the antique mall to restock and fluff our booth spaces, I thought it might be fun to have Miss Luna C take you along for a mini tour of our antique mall. I'll share several of our dealers' spaces, and give you a look at our current spaces as they're styled for early spring. Miss Luna C was excited for this excursion, and I hope you are too!

Our starting point on first floor is the corner of one of our spaces. We'll circle back at the end of our trip to see more of our spaces.

Still on first floor, we go to the far back and find one of our favorite dealer friend's booths. She buys a lot of big furniture, as you will see in another photo. Miss Luna C sits on an English washstand in the corner.

More of the same dealer's goods, let's see what's cooking (besides Miss Luna C in the large apple butter kettle!). Crates, curios, brass beds, large stained glass windows......

Pictured below is some of the really big furniture this dealer hauls in. Look at that massive secretary and corner cabinet. My sisters and I don't sell large furniture like this, and we never did. We now limit furniture items to what may fit in an SUV.

Moving up the stairs to the mezzanine level, this cigar store Native American is on the lookout for good deals. 

Ahh, yes, just up a few more stairs to second floor, we see a dealer who sells all things Fiesta, which is manufactured in West Virginia. 

This was late February, so he had already made green the starring color, but just around the corner of this aisle display, there was still a bit of red and white for Valentine's Day. He switches his color scheme displays monthly, and stocks more colors on the racks behind these. 

Miss Luna C wants some rock and roll. This dealer stocks an excellent variety of vintage vinyl LPs.

This dealer nearby has a vintage library with a couple chairs for customers to peruse the inventory.

A West Virginia antique mall without vintage glassware would be like a candy store without candy. Blenko, Viking, Kanawha, Rainbow, Fenton - they're all in our antique mall. Check out these fun facts on this iconic WV artistry on the state's Tourism website. We have several dealers who sell vintage glass.

On the third floor of our antique mall, we have a dealer who caters to us dish lovers! Check out that Windsor Ware harvest fruit in the cabinet! There was a beautiful china set on the table too which I hurriedly walked past without taking a photo. It had a pink rim and roses.

This booth has a nice set of chairs hanging on the wall. That's a trick we often use (and are currently doing in one of our spaces!). Those barrister bookcases like the one on the floor below the chairs are consistently hot commodities at auction, estate sales and even antique malls. It won't last long here.

Coming back downstairs to first floor, we'll make one more stop, right next to my sisters' and my booth. This dealer specializes in postcards. Miss Luna C is propped up on the section of travel postcards.

I promised a few photos of our booths as they are currently styled, so the rest of the photos you will see are of mine and my sisters' rented spaces. This first space is what we refer to as our main booth. It's directly beside the dealer with the postcards.

Not pictured in the photo above, but barely visible on the right are one, double-sided rack of our vintage linens.

Directly behind the right side louvered dividers of our main booth is our mall's service elevator, and the aisle turns right. If you think of the floor layout as shaped like a U, we would be situated at the base of that U. You'll perhaps have a better idea of that as I show the additional spaces. We have a space directly beside the elevator. We refer to this section as our "mantiques". The guys (and gals, too) gravitate toward it.

Directly across the aisle from mantiques is yet another space. This space is sort of a mixture of vintage  country/farmhouse/primitive items, seen below. Through the shelf and louvered shutter divider at center, you can see the staircase that leads to the mall's upper floors.

See the backside of the lamps on the right? Here's the front of that table (picture below), which is on that aisle that turned right from the service elevator I mentioned earlier. 

Lastly, we end up where we started this mini antiquing adventure, at our space on the corner of another aisle, at the foot of the staircase. From here, you can look back all the way to our mantiques section. It's one continuum, with a left turn at mantiques taking you to our main booth. 

Behind the repurposed chifferobe pictured on the corner above, we have the space behind it also. The wall is pictured below. There's that chair I mentioned we hung on the wall. We work around space restrictions such as the HVAC system ductwork, and optimize what space we have.

I know that was a whirlwind tour, particularly of Panoply's own spaces, but I want you to now read about our giveaway and take some time to visit my tote tribe sisters! I'll try to show our antique booth spaces in more product detail in a future post. We have a lot of fun inventory, both vintage and antique.

NOW, ONTO THE GIVEAWAY!

(Update March 8, 2021: Barb at the Sewing Knit Loft was randomly chosen as our winner by Jackie Williamson. Thank you to all who left comment entries!)

The Traveling Totes Tribe is offering another giveaway and Jackie at Purple Chocolat Home is our giveaway sponsor this time. One lucky reader who leaves a comment on Jackie's post today will have their name thrown into the hat for an opportunity to win this MacKenzie-Childs Tulip Tea Kettle Dish Towel. This is a perfect accessory for welcoming spring in your kitchen! 

Be sure to check out my other traveling sisters' posts to see what they've been up to during these past few winter months.

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch

Patti with Miss Kenzie and Miss Taylor @ Pandora's Box

Jenna with Miss Coquille @ The Painted Apron

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply (you are here!)

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Jackie with Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home

Ricki Jill and Countess de Monet @The Sketchy Reader

Join us again on June 1, 2021 for another edition of the Tales of the Traveling Tote. I'm dreaming of a real vacation!

Thanks so much for your visit. I love reading your comments, and be sure to leave one on Jackie's blog for a chance at our token gift. Stay safe, and Happy March!

Rita C. at Panoply

Sharing: Pieced Pastimes, Love Your Creativity, BNOTP, All About Home Common Ground, All About Home Follow the Yellow Brick Home, Apple Street Cottage, Grandma Ideas, A Stroll Thru Life, My Wee Abode, Thistle Key Lane, Bluesky at Home, Zucchini Sisters, French Ethereal SYS, Katherine's Corner TFT, Grace at Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, Our Hopeful Home, Karin's Kottage Centerpiece Wednesday, My Hubbard Home FWF

Party of Two, Please

Hello, readers, hello February! We are nearly halfway through winter, and that is worth celebrating. Add to that a Valentine's Day celebration, and I'd like seating for a Party of Two, Please.  

For this Valentine's Day tablescape I've set a simple yet thoughtful table for just Mr. P and me, in front of our loft's fireplace. Playing it safe throughout the pandemic, we have not been to a restaurant since early March 2020, nor have we gathered with family or friends indoors. Although we are still mostly keeping to our home base, it makes me happy to create and set tablescapes at home. We generally eat casually at our kitchen counter, side-by-side, so this face-to-face setting elevates our normal dining experience.

I am one of several stylists among a group organized by Chloe Crabtree from the blog Celebrate and Decorate, bringing you what we hope to be a visual feast of inspiration. 

My idea for this table evolved as I was planning it. I started with a plan to use my winter cardinal dinnerware and play off the tiny red cardinal perched in the birch tree design, but soon took a creative detour.  The real inspiration came from a ceramic heart dish, which is actually a trinket dish.

Always one to look at an item and envision more than its intended purpose, I decided the trinket dish would make the perfect salad plate. Offsetting the heart dish on the dinner plate gives better visibility to the tiny cardinal and tree design. The cardinal is often interpreted as a symbol of a loved one passed or vitality of the living spirit, as explained in this tablescape here, when I used the china set several years ago. 

The Quimper vase on the ledge in the background is filled with tulips and magnolia leaves, and its handpainted windswept image suggests winter is very much still present. I am using nice quality faux florals and greenery, something that can either stand alone or add volume to real arrangements.

My glass chargers are also fitting for a winter tablescape, symbolizing ice patches typical in winter. Similarly, the vintage sterling flatware and silvertone napkin rings also seemed fitting. The lighted tree in the background on the opposite side of the fireplace ledge mimics the tree motif on the plates, bare in winter. 

The textiles I'm using are a mix of cozy and crisp. A snow leopard throw and velvet placemats lend comfort like winter layers, while the white linen napkins evoke a crisp feel, like winter air.

Our setting this year may not be in a restaurant, but with just a little added attention to detail, it can feel every bit like that of one. 

Our restaurant comes with a pretty nice view, too!

 Party of Two, Please Source List

(provided for information purposes only, no affiliate sponsorship)

Snow Leopard Throw, Glass Chargers, Silver Napkin Rings - Pier 1

Winter Cardinal Dinner Plates - Kohl's

Heart Dishes - MacKenzie-Childs' Taylor Ceramic Cabbage Rose

Placemats, Napkins - Crown Linen Designs

Vintage Prelude Sterling Flatware, Pink Glassware  - Auction Finds

Vintage Quimper Vase - Antique Mall find

Faux florals - Afloral

Lighted tree - Celtic Serenity

If you enjoy tablescaping, the links below will take you directly to each of the blogs participating in this tablescaping event. Reading these posts is comparable to leafing through a wonderful special interest magazine, full of ideas! Be sure and visit each of the bloggers listed for a variety of Valentine-themed inspiration. A special thanks to Chloe for organizing us!

Celebrate and Decorate

Home is Where the Boat Is

Design Morsels

Mantel and Table

Debbee's Buzz

Corner of Plaid and Paisley

Me and My Captain

Zucchini Sisters

The Painted Apron

Calypso in the Country

Living With Thanksgiving

Everyday Living 

Our Crafty Mom

Sweet Sensations

My Thrift Store Addiction

Panoply (you are here!)

Red Cottage Chronicles

Belle Bleu Interiors

The Little Yellow Corner Store

My Hubbard Home

Life and Linda

Thank you so much for your visit today. I appreciate your readership, and invite you to return again and encourage you to leave a comment. Stay safe, and be well.

Rita C. at Panoply

(A special thanks to Rebecca at Zucchini Sisters' Celebrate Your Story #268 , to Michelle at Thistle Key Lane's Turn About Tuesday #86 , to Barbara at French Ethereal's Share your Style #292, and to Suzanne at Pieced Pastimes' Saturday Sparks #412 for featuring this post!)

Sharing: Pieced Pastimes, Love Your Creativity, BNOTP, All About Home Common Ground, All About Home Follow the Yellow Brick Home, A Stroll Thru Life, My Wee Abode, Thistle Key Lane, Bluesky at Home, Zucchini Sisters, French Ethereal SYS, Follow the Yellow Brick Home TFT, Katherine's Corner TFT, Grace at Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, Our Hopeful Home, Karin's Kottage Centerpiece Wednesday, My Hubbard Home FWF