Accessories Of Old

A great Christmas gift idea

Now that the holidays are around the corner why dont you go over to our sister company TJOMIES VINTAGE STATIONERY and order some christmas cards for your family and friends.

What we offer is a service where we take any of your old (or new) photographs and hand paint them with a whimsical touch...and then print them onto a greeting card... great idea?? I think so...

Take a look ...I took this one of my mother in law as a child and hand painted the background...

The great thing is we can put any greeting you want on the inside our outside of the card....

x Lisa
  

The winner of our "name change challenge" is....

We posted a while back asking if all our loyal customers and blog followers would be kind enough to give us their input on either keeping our existing name Accessories of Old or changing it to something new.

Thank you all so much for the feedback and taking the time to give us your views.

We have infact decided to remain with the name ACCESSORIES OF OLD  as it has been with us for seven years now and we have a wonderful following.... and so on that note thank you BOBBI POHL for your input and we have gone with your suggestion..

So Bobbi please drop us a line at lisamainz@verizon.net so we can send off a little treat from our new store.

Just by the way our new address is :

151 N Market Street

Frederick

Maryland

for all of you that have been waiting to come and see our new location .... WE ARE OPEN... COME ON IN>

Window display 1

Last week I got to the stage where I was ready to focus on the window display in the new shop.. not a easy task as there are two windows on either side of the entrance and both are at a angle...

However I managed to pull it off and liked the end result.... take a look.

In the one window I used white eyelet lace, purple and lime green ribbon to dress up my wire figure...

Love this old vintage brooch that I used to embellish the waistline..

Always have to add a few vintage dress clips... nothing more pretty in the world..

add a vintage millinery flower and voila..........

My dress form all ready to be shown in the window of the new Accessories Of Old

 

This is how it all tied in at the end... felt like I was caught in a spiderweb by the time I was finished!!

From the street view...

 
  
 
 
 
 
  

 

We are getting there... one step at a time...

Well, as you can tell I still have not got back to my daily blogging as I am still trying to find my head amongst all the boxes!! Good news is we are getting there..slowely but surely.

I must say everyone walking past has been so very friendly ..all popping their heads in and wishing us good luck and very excited to see us open.

So, here are some recent pictures of the store so far.. take a look

From this.....

to this....

We varnished the floors to a deep mahogany wood which look great and are now putting in the finishing touches....

 

gettting there slowely but surely... even the buttons are now up..

I promise to put up all the rest of the pictures of the store once its totally done.. which holding thumbs will be this Friday....

xxxLisa
 
 
  

Getting ready to open our new storefront

I have to apologise to all those that follow my blog for my lack of blogging.... honestly I have been so busy trying to get the new store ready that have simply not had enough hours in the day.

Here are a few pics so you can see what has been keeping me so busy..

The first thing I put up were the ribbons... was so grateful all our fittings were perfect for our new space.

trying to rearrange all the furniture, fittings and stock has been a challenge in itself and the floors that were once covered with old carpet have finally been exposed and varnished....

So... my apologies and I promise to keep you all up to date with when we are going to open... at this stage it looks like this coming weekend..... xx

Keep checking this space.

Lisa 
  
  

London - pure eye candy

So, having a full week to myself ( no kids ) and being in London..I went off with my camera and soaked in all the wonderful culture and sights...

There is something so romantic about this balcony that caught my eye... wanting me to step inside ...

I simply adore this building as the shade of olive green is one of my favourite colours ..

On the way to Primrose Hill ... to me is one of the most charming places to be...

The top of the hill at Primrose Hill park... the grey skies are so dramatic and yet so beautiful all at the same time...

...and then there is the wonderful side cafes and charm that London holds ..

Oh what would life be without all the eye candy that surrounds us??? 

St Pauls... so beatiful with so much history..

...and then of course at the end of the day I made time for a lovely cuppa tea with a English scone filled with cream and jam!!

 
 
  
   
  
  
   
 
 

VV Rouleaux -London

One other place I visited whilst in London is a fantastic little shop called VV Rouleaux.

This shop is filled with beautiful trims and is a must see if you ever get to London.

Have a look at their display really sweet too..

I just love this display they had on the stairs leading to the lower level of the shop.

Have a look at all the trim and fringing.. looks like another Accessories of Old doesnt it??

So, pencil this store into your things to do when you are next in London... 

xx  
 
   
 
 
 

Cath Kidson - London

On my trip to London I obviously had on the top of my list my very favourite place to visit and that is Cath Kidson...

Off I went and spent hours just soaking in all her colours and prints... take a look

..just adore the polka dots.. don't you??

So... when you are next in London be sure to go and check Cath Kidson. I so wish she would open here in the USA... wonder why she has not?? anyone know?

   
 

I am back!!! (from London too)

For all of you that follow my blog you would have noticed by now that I have not been as regular with my blogging as normal. Well, I am back.. with a new amount of energy.

I was away for the week last week .. was in London where I went to get some eye candy and recharge my batteries before we move into our new store.

I lived in London for six years a while back and have always loved the place. Before I went I made myself a list of all the things I was going to do for me and me alone...

One of these was to lie on my favourite bench in Primrose Hill and watch the clouds go by........ and that is exactly what I did!

xxx Lisa 

Possible store name change......challenge

Hi to all our vintage buddies

As most of you already know we are smack bang in the middle of our exciting move to Frederick, MD.

We should be in the new store and settled by the third week of October with a few things still to be done. The store is being painted and transformed into hopefully a delightful vintage emporium.

However.......a name change would also be a new clean, funky, fun and catchy addition to the new digs.

So we are proposing a name change challenge with all your help using every unit of creative and spunky talent you may possess. this is the time to blurt it out.

All participant will Receive a "participation gift" and if there is a winner then we are talking a monster prize which can be customized to suite your needs and wishes within all practical boundaries. So again, we would love all or any assistance, ideas and or input of whatever sort you have to offer.

we are looking super forward to opening and seeing you all again and meeting new people who want a piece of fun too.

Lisa and Andrew

151 N. Market Street

Frederick, Maryland 

Cell: 301.602.1212 

Making a necklace

I needed to give a gift to a very special friend of mine and so wracked my brain as to what to give her.. then I remembered she had once given me a pendant that she had bought and gave it to me as a gift... I always loved it and knew she did too and so came up with an idea to make her a necklace using the pendant she had once given me...

I found some other hand carved charms I had stashed away that I had bought at a show..

 

I then took out some beautiful semi precious stones that I have together with some pearls and swarovski crystal started to bead..

 

 

I then took out some pearlised seed beads and together with everything came up with a really wonderful necklace..

 

 

and then last but not least the pendant that inspired it all...

 

 

I thought it came out really well and she was thrilled... nearly as thrilled as I was to give it to her..

 

For all the swarovski crystal beads as well as the pearlised seed beads you can go to my website at www.accessoriesofold.com

 

 

Dupont Circle - Washington DC

Living in the Washington DC area or in any area for that matter we tend to take places that surround us for granted at times.... this morning I needed to go downtown to Dupont Circle and so decided to take my camera with me.

I forget how beautiful some of the building are, and all the detail surrounding them ... take a look..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

and of course as always each outing wouldnt be complete without something sweet!!

 

 

So, next time you visit the DC area make sure to get off at the metro stop Dupont Circle.... lovely shops, restaurants and a whole lot of other eye candy to be seen..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hand painted photographs

In our sister company Tjomies Vintage Stationery we do a really neat service..... what is it?

well, you asked!!!!! We take old black and white pictures and hand paint each one with whismiscal details.

Take a look at some examples...

 

 

 

The great thing about the service we offer is we then can put the image into greeting cards with any saying you want.... now how is that for original???

 

For any enquiries go off to www.tjomiesvintagestationery.com and we are happy to help.

 

A leaf doodle

The other day I was sitting chatting on the phone and I started doodling ... this is how it all started..

.. all started with a few single leaves..

..which went onto a wreath...

..and continued ..

... .. then I decided something had to go into the center...

... and so I added George...

...after adding George it did not feel right ... so added some color...

.... you know that expression 'money doesn't grow on trees... well....

.. if anything it looks good amongst leaves!!

The Daily Doodle

As I have mentioned before my partner in Tjomies Vintage Stationery has a very special talent.. and that is to doodle.

A few months ago he started his own blog called THE DOODLE DAILY where he blogs everyday and shows off all his fantastic doodles.... anyhow today he was featured on 99.5 which is a local radio show here in DC. What he had done was taken a picture of the DJ whose name is Kane and doodled him.. he then sent it into the station and boy did they love it...

Take a look... 

   

Cannot wait to see what he comes up with next....