Shopping for Mayberry

My husband and I spent most of this afternoon driving to some local waterfront shops in the Kemah/Seabrook/Bacliff area..... we were looking for nautical accents that weren't too beach-looking.

We found lots of stuff in the Kemah and Seabrook shops, but because of the tourist attractions there, the prices were much too high. (Do the tourists really buy all that stuff at those prices?)

In Bacliff, we found a shop owned by one of the dealers who used to sell in our friend J's antique co-op. The name of her store is called "Junk and Disorderly." It is indeed just that-- disorderly. But it's also a lot of fun to poke around in. However, because the building is so huge, the owner can't afford an air-conditioning system large enough to cool it. So there we were today, inside this hot building..... over 100 degrees outside, and surely more than that inside. We found a few interesting things that we're thinking about, but we didn't buy anything.

Off to Galveston we went...... across the bridge and over to the Island, headed for a nautical shop that we've been to a couple of times before. We never bought anything there because we just didn't have anyplace to put that stuff. Now, however, that's what we're looking for.

We bought a wonderful old life-preserver to hang on a wall...... very vintage, with interesting markings on it. There were at least fifty to pick from, and we just looked through all of them to find one with the best name on it. We also bought two fishing nets...... one for the cottage, and one for C's cabin. I'm sure C will be hanging her shell collection on her net. I don't know what we'll do with ours, but we will find a good spot for it.

My husband also found a wonderful old boat that was made into a bookcase. This isn't one of the new ones that you buy in Target or Wal-Mart, but a really old boat that looks like it has a lot of history and stories behind it. A great find, and we bargained with the shop's owner and got it for less than the asking price. The boat/bookcase wouldn't fit in our car, so my husband is going back tomorrow to get it...... using C's mom's truck to pick it up.

While we were looking at tables and chairs in the Galveston shop, we found a beautiful carved bust of a woman... she looks to be from one of the Caribbean Islands, with such an expressive and kind face. I saw the statue first, but didn't say anything because we were supposed to be looking for furniture and nautical items today. But as we were walking away from the statue, my husband turned around and put his hand on the statue and said "You like this, don't you?" I told him I did, and he picked it up and said "I knew it." So he bought that as well. We've named her Minerva, because she reminded us of the voodoo-priestess in Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil.

On the way back from Galveston, we stopped at another antique/resale shop in League City, owned by another friend of ours. I found a great kitchen table there, but we didn't like the chairs that went with it. If we buy that table, we'd have to hunt around for chairs. We ran into the owner of that shop, and she let us look around in her warehouse, and I found a nice sideboard for Mayberry's country-kitchen. Both the table and the sideboard are the same wood, and they're from the same period, so they would look great together..... but we'd still have to find chairs. So we're thinking about those two things for a bit, before we commit to buy them.

And tomorrow is a yard sale day, and so is Saturday..... so I may just find something at the sales. Our house here is getting a bit crowded with all the stuff we've found for Mayberry Cottage, but that's fine. I'm glad we didn't have a summer party planned, with all this extra stuff around.

I saw our neighbor across the street yesterday, and I was telling her about Mayberry. She was happy for us, and can't wait to drive up there to visit when we get it all set up. ML also gave me a comfy club-chair and ottoman that she had from her old living room set. Nothing wrong with the chair.... she just wanted to change her furniture. Her daughters took most of the other pieces, but they didn't have room for this one big chair and ottoman. ML told me I was welcome to have it for Mayberry. It's a perfect reading chair, so I told her we'd be happy to have it. What great neighbors we have.