Yesterday I bought a 100 pc. art glass collection which Mom & I spent 3 hours carefully wrapping in newspaper and packing in boxes for a trip from Picton to the barn.
I know nothing about art glass but am learning quickly.  This collection has vases, paperweights, animals, fish, clowns, people, bowls, decanters....  Some is signed, some have Murano stickers, some have nothing.  I see Vetri, Zeretti or is that Zenetti? Vistosi, Birks, Venini, Blenko, Marcolin, Loguille?? Royal de Champagne, Nasa Di Muran.
I have some research to do!

The other day my Mom was sitting the store and heard a customer scream in the back hall.  Turns out a lovely little Mama mouse had made her and her babies a little nest in the the top drawer of an antique dresser I have for sale.  Thank goodness the woman laughed it off.  It could have been a bad scene.

I didn't want to move them so I put a sign up hoping noone would bother them.  4 days later they were still there so I gently pulled the drawer out, set it in the back area of the barn and Mama moved her family to an undisclosed location.

I've been meaning to post something about the project Colm is working on.  He's making 38 tables for the Rotman School of Management at U of T through KPMB Architects. 
16 of the tables are 36" round disks, 18" high so you can imagine the tree he has to start with to get this size.  Heavy equipment only as they weigh 100's of pounds each. I bought 6 antique furniture carts last week and he's taken them over to move these beasts around.
He's had a machine fabricated (thanks Franc, Chris, and Jason) to carve them into perfect circles.
The other 2 styles are an 18" x 18" beam and 15" round disks (that are a bit cork like.)  They're all made from silver maple and are going to be spectacular!

Yesterday Jack and I went picking in Belleville and came home with a car full.  It's amazing what you can find when you're not looking.  I receive lots of calls from people wanting to sell things but more often then not they want twice what I would price it at in the store. 
Now to get into the barn and price it all......

This is our 4 year old barn cat, Ring.  Jack named him for the "rings" on his paws.  He lives in the barn full time and is not at all interested in becoming a house cat and regularly beats the crap out of ours hence the jagged ears.  Besides, the house cats eat Whiskas and he gets leftover fat, meat, eggs, cheese etc. so he doing well.  He's on the mend now but had a nasty infection in April and lost the fur around his neck so he's looking pretty ratty at the moment.  The photo of him lying down is his pre-infection winter weight.  He's in the store most of the time so you'll see him when you visit but be careful, he bites!

Here are a few photos of the store right now. It changes so frequently I feel I should photograph it weekly but of course never get around to it.  Maybe this will be the beginning of that habit.
The last 2 photos are the new loft with the teak beds I mentioned earlier.  Even with both set up there's still lo 

Hi there.  Cindy here.  I had Colm take a bunch of photos of me last weekend in and around the store and this was the best one, meaning the others were all terrible and this is less terrible.  How can someone who loves getting her photo taken take such a bad shot again and again?  Oh well.

We're open for our 4th season and it's busy already.  It's great to see new faces coming in to the store and all of the familiar ones returning to say hello and see what we've collected over the winter.  Our loft is open and full, with 2 teak beds, 3 dining tables and lots more. 

Jack & Colm woke me up this morning with breakfast in bed including a flower.  A great way to start the day.  Happy Mother's Day!