A Place to Shop for Vintage Fashion, Decor, Jewlery & More
by JoAnn on 12/11/11 05:16 pm
For a surprise he whisked me out of town fri. and wouldn’t tell me where we were going. We spent the day driving and stopped at a few thrift shops and antique stores along the way which of course was great.
After hours of driving however, my back hurt and I was turning into JoAnn, the vintage crabby bitch as soon it was apparent we were in downtown Pittsburgh. I kept thing, “what the hell is in Pittsburgh that he made me spend the day in the car???” I zonked out early and slept like a rock.
The next day I felt better and he informed me we were heading to the Homer McLaughlin Co. to shop the FIESTA WARE outlet!!!!
I didn’t even know this place existed and is the mecca for fiesta ware collectors.
When we got there and I surveyed the emense 2′nds warehouse space I felt weak in the knees and short of breath. THOUSANDS of every color and pattern! It was a beautiful sight.
Then, when I realized the prices, I really got happy- for instance the large size tea pot which retails for about 60 dollars is 15 dollars , a vase is 3 dollars, dinner plates were about 3 dollars, etc.
Rick gave me the budget and we filled the trunk of the car with enough fiesta to start a restaurant!!!
Happy Happy JOY JOY!!!!!
One of the weird things that happened on the trip was at one thrift shop we stopped in I bought a coat for 3 dollars- a Woolrich wool coat in fiesta ware striped colors. I even looked at Rick and remarked,”Look honey, it looks like Fiesta ware !” He still kept the surprise!!!
Well, I guess this is kind of a materialistic post, so sue me, but I am very pleased with my spouse. What a guy!!! What is it with some women and dishes????
LOVE and Christmas Joy to all of you!!!!!!!!!! JoAnn
by JoAnn on 07/25/11 09:50 pm
by JoAnn on 06/05/11 09:01 am 
Look what greeted me when I got to the Living section of the York Sunday News this morning! The reporter, Leigh Zaleski, had called me about 6 weeks ago because she was doing on article on vintage clothing and someone had given her my name as someone local and knowledgeable. After discussing the article she was working on she decided to do a follow-up article on Vintage JoAnn.
You can find the article here: http://tinyurl.com/VJNews
Thank you Leigh! It’s fantastic.
by JoAnn on 05/19/11 06:59 pm
The weather wasn’t so hot this trip but we still had fun.
During my scaveging on the way there last Sun. I bought an absolutely lovely circa 1890s dress. I have already displayed it in my victorioan parlor on a dress form. I also found some lovely ladies portraits from the same era with ornate frames. I also found a coach purse and several 50s dress to sell on etsy.
I was thrilled with my loot and had to do some picture rearranging today and retire some to the sell pile. Here are a few pictures of the dress, pics, etc.!
by JoAnn on 04/10/11 07:23 pm 
Mary Deluxe of the great blog Deluxeville has thrown out the challenge to show some photos of 5 favorite vintage finds. Here are a few of mine, although this changes constantly!
The chandelier in our bedroom was a $10 light fixture I found on the floor in a junk shop but with shades, trim, etc, it looked great with the Frenchy victorian theme I’ve going on in there.
The large headvase I got at the local goodwill for $1. The same goodwill that charges insane prices for anything they think is new!
My $10 victorian rocker from ebay(I did have to drive to MD to pick it up).
My $5 framed picture in our living room that I got at a thrift store.
I love the little blue glass deco table I paid $12 for.
The cool lamp came from a garage sale for $5, the shade a gift from my friend Julie.
Last- I recently found this vintage fabric at the Roots flea market.
Notice a theme? I tend to enjoy the things that were the best bargain- I’m such a cheap ass(excuse me, I mean frugal)
by JoAnn on 03/16/11 10:44 pm I really appreciate all the support I’ve received from my fans and customers since we closed the brick and mortar store and moved totally online.
I recently decided to move my online store to Etsy for a couple of reasons.
First of all it is a collection of similar shops allowing a prospective customer to search the entire site and find multiple items to choose from. While this may sound counter intuitive because you can be judged side by side with your competition, more people will actually find your items. If you have quality merchandise at a fair price point you will get your fair share of sales. It is similar to having an antique store among a cluster of other antique stores. You end up with much more traffic than if you were miles and miles away from any other similar stores because people will gravitate to destinations that they can spend 4-6 hours at vs a one stop shop. In short it’s good for the customer as well as the quality seller.
Secondly – Etsy has very carefully cultivated and maintained a reputation of being an outlet for either articles made by hand or vintage items. High volume, off-shore sellers need not apply. The buyer does not have to wade through search results that show all 30 instances of an item that someone listed on a site like ebay or with a description that includes “vintage like”. Etsy actually polices this kind of behaviour and will remove the seller if they persist. Etsy is still very much a community.
Last of all – Maintaining the e-commerce software side of the website has become as much work as finding and listing vintage items and not near as much fun. Etsy does all that behind the scenes leaving me more time to do what I’m passionate about – find and present vintage fashion items that appeal to me.
The Etsy store can be found here. If there was something you saw at the online store before Etsy and you don’t see it now, drop me a line. The odds are it just hasn’t been listed yet and I’ll get it set up just for you.
I’ve set up a coupon code that readers of my blog and customers of the VintageJoAnn.com store can use to take 10% of any purchase from the Etsy store. Just type in VJStore in the coupon code block during checkout.
by JoAnn on 03/06/11 07:27 pm
by JoAnn on 02/28/11 01:35 pm 
Rick power washed all the winter grime from the front porch yesterday. Living on a busy street creates tons of dirt. I know it’s not officially Spring yet but thats where my head is at and I spent a few hours decorating the front porch and the little backyard seating area under our balcony.
The theme this year for the back garden is red as you can see from the pictures. Soon my red tulips will be coming up. I plan to plant a lot of red geraniums and petunias in all my containers. I have all kinds of perrenials and flowering shrubs.
The front garden and porch are pink this year. There are already a lot of pink and purple perrenials out there ready to come up and I will be planting coleus and pink begonias.
Except for a few purchases from the Christmas tree store(they are selling spring things now) I have been gathering things from around the house and collecting things from thrift shops in the past few weeks. Some of the chair pads are covered in old table cloths and duck taped in back. This project was all make- do and little money spent. I look forward to warmer weather when I can add real plants to the porch and fill the hanging baskets and planters.
Happy first day of March tomorrow!
by JoAnn on 02/23/11 12:33 pm Well it snowed again and although it bummed me out, the sun is shining today and I know March is on the way. It was so warm last week Rick and I got the entire garden cleaned up and I noticed some bulbs peeking through. I have been gathering items to decorate my porches come warm weather and can’t wait to garden.
Today I am making the best of it and working on my netbook in my sunroom. I love this room and it’s probably the main reason I wanted the house in spite of its then run-down condition. Our victorian house is not very sunny so being able to have plants and light is great. My African grey, McBeth lives in this space and as I write the dogs are snoozing on the wicker sofa. Here are some photos to get you in the spring/gardening mood.
by JoAnn on 02/17/11 06:17 pm 
I’ve been without my car this week as it was undergoing major(expensive) repairs. So today I tired of this house arrest and spent a few hours walking about our small town, Red Lion, PA.
Rick and I both grew up in the area but spent over 25 years living in other states, including MN.,MD.. and Illinois. for Rick’s career.
When we were young we were desperate to leave small town life and experience other places. So we packed up our baby son and were off ! I regret nothing and It was so good for us. Somehow, after the children were grown we found ourselves drawn back to home. Life is different when you hit 50 and a slower pace life looked great. York County is one of the most beautiful areas of the country- when we were young we were too boneheaded to see that.
We ended up in Red Lion because we found an old Victorian house cheap that was sorely in need of restoration. We bought it from a young couple who had started working on it and we just picked up where they left off. 4 years of work, sweat and every spare cent we are pretty proud of our home. We replaced moldings, installed antique light fixtures, removed miles of dropped ceilings, repaired plaster, installed a period senstive bath and kitchen, painted miles of walls and trim, outside painting, and created a garden with fish pond. Tons more to do but that is the nature of reviving a victorian–it’s not just a house, it’s a lifestyle.
The best part is all the great folks we have met, small business owners,and neighbors. We have been invvolved with local govt. Like many small towns on the northeast coast we are a town that struggles. Red Lion was incorporated after the civil war and was extremely successful manufacturing cigars and furniture, up and down the streets you can see the old tobacco factories now made into apt buildings and such. During those days a lot of money was made and some beautiful homes were built.
That heyday has passed and Red Lion has struggled to find a new idenity. We have a cute main street and many have started businesses. We do have empty store fronts, and are supportive of new businesses. The housing stock is amazing- a virtual treasure trove of Victorian architecture. of all sizes and prices. Many people have fixed up properties and they are beautiful. Many more are crying to be saved. With the housing market crash, all properties are a real buy, if you can afford to invest. There are so many people here who care about the town and work constantly to improve. it.
I took pictures within a 2 block radious of our house- I live near the square.
My apologies to all the businesses I missed, we have a lot of great places, I also didn’t make it to our great park, library, or high school. This is just a little overview of our town that I have come to love and consider my forever home at this point.
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