So. Five days on the Georgia coast. Not bad work, if you can get it. Last Friday I loaded up Mr. Mary Kay's biiiggg car, and headed down to Savannah and Tybee Island. But first, I stopped at a couple estate sales. Excellent finds there. The first sale of the day was an estate sale in Brookhaven, run by Vicki Taratoot. Vicki's sales are mostly in the Buckhead area, and this one was a goodie. I bought a small wicker coffee table (which I later painted sky blue), a big wicker lidded basket which is going to replace the ugly white plastic trashcan in my kitchen, a great quilt that looks like it's never been used, two blue and white quilt tops, and a white matelasse bedspread. I thought I'd put the quilts in my booth, but I can't quite part with them...so far. Stay tuned for pix of my current house project, which is summerizing my living, dining and sunrooms. The next sale was only a few miles away in Brookhaven, run by some gals who have a shopping problem that seems to rival mine. I bought a pair of great antique Jenny Lind twin beds, which I then painted a soft jadeite green, to put in the booth at SEASIDE SISTERS. Also a pair of lovely lamp bases, which are glass, decoupaged with vintage prints of seashells. They are also a part of the summerization scheme. I've already topped them with the lamp shades from my red lamps--which have been sent down to the basement annex for the summer. I finally got on the road by noon last Friday. Friday night I checked into my adorable cottage, which was the former mess hall at the old Ft. Screven at Tybee. As always, this Mermaid Cottage was the perfect place to bunk for the weekend. Saturday I went to an art in the yard party with Diane Kaufman of Mermaid Cottages, and two other friends. The sale was at the home of artist Pam Martin, who paints fun, kitschy folk art. Of course, we were forced to junk on the way down there, and I bought four great retro rattan swivel barstools and a vintage tin breadbox, which was lined with a 1960s-era copy of The Savannah Morning News, which was the first newspaper I worked at after college. Sunday, I hung out at our tent sale at SEASIDE SISTERS. Didn't sell as much as I'd hoped, altho it was fun hanging out with my friend Polly. Monday, I cruised on down to St. Simon's Island. I met friends Keith and Chrys for lunch at Christy's, a fairly new restaurant in downtown Brunswick. I was a bad, bad girl, and ordered mac and cheese with ham and artichokes. Lawwwwd. It was some kind of good. Chrys and I then proceeded to junk our way around Brunswick, which has four excellent antique malls. I picked up a cute Lloyd Loom wicker endtable for my booth, and a great vintage cadet blue shower curtain with chenille anchor detailing. Spent Monday night with old friends, the Johnsons, who have a wonderful house in the village at St. Simon's, near the village. On Monday, I finally got around to the real reason for my coastal visit, which was a talk and booksigning at The Sea Island Golf Club. What a gorgeous setting! I could get used to living like that. Later in the day, I had another signing at GJ Ford Booksellers, where owner Mary Jane Reed always makes me feel like a rockstar. Dinner last night was with friends Jimmy and Miriam, and Pam and Charles. Pam was my roommate at UGA, so you know we go waaaaaay back. The setting, at the Cloister, was beyond beautiful. And speaking of rockstars, when you check into the Cloister, that is how you are treated. I've spent time at lots of lovely hotels over the years (courtesy of HarperCollins), but now I know I was only slumming. I spit on the Ritz-Carlton. Ptttooey! I had my own BUTLER at The Cloister. I lolled in a bath of luxurious seasalt and watched television. I had personalized stationary waiting on my desk in my riverfront suite. I was totally out of my league. I kept waiting for somebody to tap me discreetly on the shoulder and quietly escort me off the premises. Fortunately, I made it out of there before they discovered my trashy background. And now...back to reality.

Here we are--the junk posse, including daughter Katie (lower left), and great junker/dealer fans Kathy Singer (second from left in pink shirt), Corinne and Barbara (I think). Kathy emailed me a couple weeks ago to let me know that she and her friends, who also include Glenda and Faye, had put together a junk market to be held this weekend in the old mill in Clarkesville, Ga. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for a posse field trip, especially since Katie would be in town, and the husbands had a golf day planned. What a beautiful spring Sunday we had. When we got to the old Clarkesville Mill we found 30 dealers with a choice array of antiques--at reasonable prices. We're pictured above with some of our treasures. Katie is holding a box of vintage Scottie notecards, which she presented to Susie, bottom right, who collects Scotties because she is an Agnes Scott alum. Susie's holding the silverplated flask she bought for her college-bound son, who I'm sure will fill it with healthful milk and juice. Jinxie, who drove, is at bottom center, holding the neat faux bamboo shelf she bought. That's my sister-in-law Jeanne, top left, holding her iron squirrel nutcracker. I'm in the center top, holding the turquoise McCoy vase I bought. Susie also scored a divine swine family of painted concrete, including a polka-dotted mama and her four little piggies, which have already found a home in her vegetable garden. Jinx also bought a metal garden bench. My finds included a summery white quilt with blue and green patches, a set of six '50s juice glasses in a beachy turquoise and white design, and a cool painted child's wheelbarrow. I also found a framed Gould bird print for my friend Diane, of Mermaid Cottages on Tybee. Diane has a great collection of Gould prints on the walls of her cottage. Some, but not all of my finds (I'm keeping the quilt!) will be headed down to Tybee next weekend, where I'll be re-stocking Maisy's Daisy for our weekend Gypsy Junk Extravaganza at Seaside Sisters. After we tore ourselves away from the antique market, we drove down the street to the Clarkesville square, where we had a lovely lunch at The Attic. A perfect spring day--family, friends, junk, lunch!

Labels: Last Train to Clarkesville

It wasn't all writing last week--on Sunday I joined a gorgeously attired group of fans for a Book-Lovers Tea put on at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library. A good time was had by all!

Okay, so DEEP DISH fell off the New York Times list for the coming week. I'm a big girl. I can take it. We were on for four weeks, so it was a nice ride. And I accomplished my goal--making the printed list at #13.

And while we're on the subject of goals, I basically reached my stated page quota for the day--only it was nine pages instead of ten. But it was a chapter, and I finished it, and now, I'm back in the saddle again with THE FIXER UPPER. Yippee-Cay-Yi-Yay. Of course, the whole motivation for reaching my page quota is so that the posse can go junking on Friday. See, there are these two rockin' estate sales tomorrow...

It was fun while it lasted, this book tour thing, but mostly it's over. Oh sure, I still have a few more scattered book signings for DEEP DISH--including one this Saturday at Dog-Ear Books in Madison, GA., but as far as my editor is concerned, there are no more EXCUSED ABSENCES. She wants pages, and she wants 'em now. So yesterday, I whined and procrastinated. I looked up the last chapter I'd written of THE FIXER-UPPER, which is my book-in-progress. I was horrified to learn that the last time I'd tinkered with it was waaay back in February. Now I've got to get re-acquainted with Dempsey Killebrew, the protagonist of TFU. It's hard, picking up your knitting after having dropped it for six weeks. Last night, it seemed absolutely crucial to world peace that I watch both American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. Finally, right at bed-time, while I was watching LAW AND ORDER, an errant plot-related thought crossed my mind. I ran for a pen and yellow legal pad. Therefore, my written output for yesterday--in fact, for yesterday and all of March was.....one lousy paragraph. So. Here's my pledge. I will meet you back here tomorrow, by say, noon, and I will be able to report that I've written at least ten pages. Stay tuned.