Gold Coast Art Fest

Hi Everyone! Hope all is well.... Second Chance Art & Accessories was at the Gold Coast Art Fest this past weekend - the weather & the crowds were great! Here's a few pictures from the weekend...

My sign, painted on a portion of an old door (shocking, I know!)... I just love the leathery texture of the old varnish!

Here's a booth shot before the show started.

Another booth shot....
Here's our "office" behind the tent...

Husband pretending to sleep... probably so he doesn't have to talk to me... does anyone else have this problem?

This sideways picture is the husband actually sleeping. I'm a little worried he might tip off the chair, but that would be pretty funny, wouldn't it? Of course, I tried to rotate this one - but decided to leave it to demonstrate my awesome technical skills. Ha!

Here's our feet - My Mom & I... for some reason, I haven't posted many feet photos this year. Last year, I had many of these. I'll have to resume the tradition.

Beautiful flowers in a planter outside the "Flair House" - which was behind my booth...

Okay... because I'm fascinated by small dogs that are truly just companions, I asked permission to photograph a few. I loooove dogs, but mine are sort of "utility dogs." In my mind, this means they have a purpose other than companionship (ie. running partner, newspaper fetcher, etc.)

This cutie above has his own doggie sunglasses!

Talk about relaxing... this dog remained in this position the entire time I talked with the owner.

I cannot imagine either of my dogs riding in a backpack. This priviledge must be reserved for those less than 10 lbs....

This little guy is just plain cute.

Alright, here's my own cuties sunbathing on our back steps. Polly (aka "the bacon") looks relaxed as usual. Olive, the scruffy one, is about to get all of her hair clipped off due to her owner (that's me) neglecting to brush out her matted fur. Shame on me! Spending too much time making art again....

Here they are again, sitting on the landing as I make them "Staaaaaay." They love to rush down into the basement, trampling all in their path. Polly looks like some sort of ghost, as usual. I have a very difficult time capturing her yellowish-brown eyes. She always comes out evil-looking. Olive really does look a little evil due to her mottled eye color (both are combos of blue & brown - she looks, and is, a little crazy!)

Anyway... enough rambling for now. Thanks so much for stopping by the booth this past weekend! The next show for Second Chance Art & Accessories is the Frankfort Fall Festival over Labor Day weekend, so I'll be getting ready with some new seasonal artwork. Take care - Amy :)

Is it psychic in here, or is it just my mom?

Recently, while helping Amy prepare some frames for future use as Second Chance Art, her mom, Carol, made an interesting discovery. Not only did she find something valuable tucked inside a flea market find, but she kind of knew it was there before she found it.

Here she describes the experience in an e-mail:

"Yesterday I spent the day at Aimer's helping scrape windows and clean mirrors. I worked on her dining room table. She worked in the garage. While we were eating lunch I said I daydreamed about taking one of her mirrors apart and finding money taped to the back side of the mirror.

"An hour later, I slid the back off one of those perfume trays she makes into 'Powder Room' signs. There was an envelope. I held my breath for a second. I turned it over and could see through the small see-through window that there was money in it.

"I put everything back and went to the back door and called to (Amy) in the garage if she could come in for a minute. Then I hurried down to the basement and asked Derek (Mr. Second Chance Art) if he could come up for a minute. In the kitchen I told her that my daydream had come true. Then I showed them the tray, took off the back, turned over the envelope and took out the money.

"There were four ten-dollar bills and a five. They were from the 1950's and 60's. The envelope said JL Hudson Co, Detroit. I used to babysit for the JL Hudson family when I was in high school. They were the owners of Hudson's, but came from Detroit on weekends to their "get-away" house a short ways from my Oxford house.

"It was so fun to find the money. We decided that Amy should use it to buy a new dress for the Gold Coast Show."

The money


The envelope




Carol, with Amy in Amy's new house.

Thanks North Shore!

Hi Everyone! Here's some pictures from the North Shore Art Fest this past weekend, in Skokie, IL. It was definitely a hot weekend - but thanks to the kind staff of Amdur Productions who delivered periodic ice cold bottled water to the artists, we did not melt.

Here's some booth shots:

This photo was taken pretty early, right before the show opened.....

In the next 2 weeks, I'll be producing as much new stuff as possible for the Gold Coast Art Fest, August 8-10th. Hope you can stop by & visit the booth! thanks - Amy

Production Frenzy

Hi Everyone! I can't believe it's almost August - this summer has definitely flown by! The picture above - is something you might commonly see in my living room this summer. It's a "pile" of almost finished art, waiting on deck for the next assembly party.

Notice I'm using that word "party" again - in my ever-continuing effort to convince my volunteer helpers (aka family) that we are having fun putting things together. (some family may agree with me more than others).

Anyway.... every few weeks I've been schlepping almost finished art over to my parents, where I enlist my folks to help me put on all the finishing touches. Most of these touches involve a table saw, windex, scraping & cleaning glass, etc. Not exactly the glamorous part of the artwork, but necessary to build my finished products. I am so grateful I have family to help me with these things as I grow my business. I have also adventured into the world of hiring help (for sanding, cleaning & taping, etc) - which has allowed me to get a lot more done. But I must say, my family's help has been invaluable!

Coming up for Second Chance Art: North Shore Festival of Art, at Westfield Old Orchard Mall in Skokie - July 26, 27 (10am-5pm); Gold Coast Art Fair (Yes, I just found out I've got a booth!) Chicago, IL - August 8-10.

thanks for stopping by! :) Amy

Oak Brook photos

Happy July 4th!

Hi Everyone - Hope all had a great July 4th weekend. I'm in full "production" mode, which means I'm trying to create as much finished art as possible before my show this weekend, at Oak Brook Center. Here's a couple of new items I'm excited about:

This piece is for a bath or powder room. I've mounted some cool old faucet handles for hanging towels, along with vintage label holders - so you know whose towel is whose!

This is a close up of the hose nozzle we've mounted onto a garden-themed piece of art. The nozzle is being used as a hook to hold a mason jar for a flower bouquet or tealight.

No- this piece isn't finished yet! This is the latest installment of "potentials" I picked up at the West Michigan Antique mall over the weekend, on our way back from a family trip. Lucky me, we had just eaten lunch & the cubs game was on the radio- making my hubby happy to sit in the car & wait for a very long time, while I picked through the huge antique mall. This piece know sits waiting in my storage room.

Here is a funny pic of a car we were following up to Michigan. There was a cute little Boston terrier sticking it's head out the window, with jowls flapping in the wind. Once it crawled back inside, I thought the silouette was funny! Looks like a bat....

Hope all is well... thanks for checking in! If you've got time, stop by my booth at Oak Brook Center this weekend (sat-sun, july 12-13). My booth is right across from the Land of Nod store. Take care! Amy :)

Sandwhich Antiques Market

Hi Everyone -

After checking out the local Marley, IL flea market this past saturday, I dragged my hubby to the Sandwich Antiques market on sunday, June 22. I know I have some date conflicts in the future for both Kane County Flea Market & Sandwich Antiques Market - so I figured I'd better stock up on more finds while I can! Here's a peak at some future Second Chance Art:

Cool old hose nozzles - I think they'll make great peg-type hooks for something.... Here's a "lovely" chandelier - needs a little help at the moment, but I can picture this one cleaned up & working....
Here's the back of our truck, with about half of what we picked up removed. I did get a few interesting windows with great old privacy glass. Only time will tell what they'll become.....
It's the bin pull army! Actually, I'm thinking I'll save these for a future kitchen renovation that my hubby & I are planning. Lucky me, I found about 20 matching bin pulls of 2 different styles. Hopefully my dogs won't want to sit there & lick these. (they have a penchant for licking cold metal objects.....I don't get it).

Thanks for stopping by! Take care - :) Amy

Flea marketing

Amy combed the Marley Church flea market Saturday morning, snapping up treasures like a bag 'o door knobs, a squoval-shaped mirror and a bench. And some old feed bags.






Some items that did not make the cut for Second Chance:

Thanks Wells Street!

Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by my booth at the Wells Street Art Festival this past weekend. We had a great show! It will take a couple of days for the dust to settle - as I'm updating my website, going through paperwork, unloading my trailer, etc. Then I'll be gearing up for my next show - July 12-13 at Oak Brook Center.

By the way... the last post was from my sister "moviegirl." She did not identify herself, but she's a terrific writer - a professional one I must add. She probably wants to remain anonymous, but I wanted to reveal her as the mystery writer. Sorry Jan!

We did take a break last night for a quick "garbage date" ( see my previous posts!). Here's what we found - an interesting chair that needs a little love. Here's a picture of it in the back of our truck. The second photo is of my hubby (aka chairhead) carrying it down to our basement. He said the chair smelled like "a grandma's house" - which we've determined to be a mixture of smoke, mustiness, chicken soup, and maybe a little pet hair? This will probably be a longer term project for me, but I thought the chair had a great 30's-40's art deco-y feel to it.

To convince my hubby to go on a garbage date, I usually have to include some sort of coffee or ice cream. We opted for ice cream this time - at Walt's - one of our favorites. Their sign is very retro, as is the menu, which I couldn't resist taking a picture of. Here's the slush flavors - anyone heard of "pompagranite?"

thanks for stopping by - bye for now - Amy :)

Wells Street Art Fair: Day 1

Mr. Second Chance finally gets to eat some sahsage. Mmm.





From time to time, random people took over the Second Chance chairs. At one point, as I sat in one and saved the other two with my bag, a man carrying a half-full bottle of Guiness offered to buy them AND me for $3,000.
"Only $3,000?" I asked.
"Well, that's just for the chairs," he said.

The girls (Carol, left, and Amy, right) take a very short break in the booth.