Bonus -- What are you so afraid of??

We love to do creepy windows at the antique mall, mainly for two reasons.  One, we love Halloween and it's that time of year again.  Two, well -- let's just say we love a little dark and quirky and odd in our lives.

Since we're such collectors ourselves, we were interested in showing what a room would look like of someone who collected phobias.  We did research -- did you know the fear of clowns is coulrophobia?  And the fear of clocks is chronomentrophobia? Or the fear of string is linonophobia?

We tried to find the creepiest, weirdest things to put in the window.  Like dolls with no eyes, a metal rat sculpture on a marble base, an old dangerous-looking hackle with sharp points, black cats, and poison bottles.  We labeled everything with their phobia names, using large, old-fashioned style manila tags with twine.

The background was a find at a thrift shop -- a 1970s gold crushed velvet bedspread -- picked up for $4.  We took the fluorescent tubes out of the ceiling so we would just have the spotlights; it set the mood instantly, changing the super bright overhead lights to dim, moody lights.  Our handy faux brick panel, usually used as flooring, worked to cover the nook, acting as another wall.  We love to change the space, and make it feel different with each window. 

The real star of the window is the display cabinet.  It's got just the right amount of quirk to fit in perfectly...

We found an amazing radio that filled in the last space near the end of the window -- it sold a day after we finished the window.  Then one of the hands sold.  We know selling the items is the point of it all -- but after we've carefully curated it all, it's hard to see something go.

And here's the whole thing all together...

On the Radar -- How the Cookie Crumbles...

I have a confession to make. 

I'm an addict. 

The other Blackbird knows how my addictions work -- they can last from 2 days to 2 months to 2 years.  She has seen my obsessions come and go through our years together, and she has learned to deal with it.  She even encourages them sometimes.  Like my newest addiction.

This is the oatmeal sandwich cookie from The Table Farmhouse Bakery here in Asheboro.  (Sorry the photo's kind of blurry -- it was snapped with my phone a split second before I attacked it.)  We both love this new restaurant; it's amazing.  When I saw this while waiting in line last week, I had to get one.  Big mistake.  By this past Saturday I was jonesing pretty bad for one.  Good thing my dearest Blackbird buddy decided to pick one up for me on her way home from work. It was soooo good. 

And yeah, I had another one yesterday. 

OK, so I know you're probably thinking, "Um, isn't On the Radar about trends?"  And yes, you're right, it is.  I promise, I'm getting to my point.

A few years ago, the craze was cake decorating.  And like all of the other people in the world, I jumped onto the wagon.  I did some fair to good cakes before I moved on to what I really fell in love with -- cupcakes.  (And yes, so did everyone else.  See the point I'm getting to?)  But instead of making them all cute and junk, I really got into mixing flavors and playing with the icing -- my famous flavors are my cranberry-ginger ale cupcakes with lime cream cheese frosting and my "crack" cupcakes (aka peanut butter buttercream on chocolate fudge cake).

But I've been bored with cupcakes for the past few months.  I need something new!  And I found it -- in a cookie sandwich. 

Drum roll, please.  Those of you who know me, try to control yourself.  But I think cookie sandwiches are the new cupcakes.

Let that sink in while you look at these:

These are from The Cookie Sandwich Co., here.

Millie's Caramels has these Hazelnut Nutella cookies, here.

Peanut Butter Marshmallow cookies from Baker's Royale, recipe here.

So, get yourself a cookie sandwich.  Or make one.  That's what I did today.

By the way, did I mention that I had a chocolate chunk, pecan and dried cherry cookie from The Table, too?  I might need another one of those pretty soon...

Bonus -- We Do!

Time to share our newest window for Collector's Antique Mall.  It's been done for a few weeks now, but sorry!  I've been too busy to post photos.  I'll make it up to you now...

We have this beautiful Alfred Angelo wedding gown from the late 1940s that we've been holding on to for a while now.  It's in nearly perfect condition -- so very lovely.  We decided that since June is the traditional month for weddings, we'd have one of our own!  We wanted to include our vintage tuxedo, too, but it just didn't work out.  This window is for the ladies!

After throwing around several ideas for the theme -- a bridal dressing room, the actual ceremony -- we finally decided on the concept of a bridal boutique, mainly because we liked the idea of a window within the window.  And...we also fell in love with the amazing -- and HUGE -- hall tree.  It needed a window to shine in.  Moving that thing was a beast, but well worth it for the impact it has! The "store window" was made from window molding with a clear vinyl "window" that we painted in reverse to give the effect of depth.

The sweet touches of pink throughout really finish it off, we think...

And it was fun to highlight some very specialized collections...

This window has gotten quite a lot of attention.  We're thrilled that everyone loves it -- because we do, too!

Bonus -- Supersized Nature Window

Dandelions! (check out the sky background!)

So, we've had this dream to do a window with huge nature elements for a while -- specifically giant mushrooms.  It's finally happened!  Yay!

We always try to think of things a little differently for Liberty windows.  That's what we call the windows that coincide twice a year with the Liberty Antiques Festival in Liberty, North Carolina.  The mall gets tons of traffic during those weekends -- people from all over the southeast make the store an add-on to their Liberty trek -- so we like to make it count!  In Blackbird girl-ese, "we're doing the Liberty window" translates to "we're doing a super-crazy-quirky-oddball window."

Add to this the fact that Collector's Antique Mall is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and we knew the first Liberty window of the year had to be giant-sized, off-the-wall crazy.

Mushrooms and wooly worm (we call him Philbert)

This was a giant build for us.  We had to make soooo much time in our schedule to get the parts together, and then find room to store the ginormous pieces and parts.  The large mushroom cap started as a big umbrella, layered with papier mache, screen, tape, etc.  It's over 6 feet tall, with a span of probably 2 1/2 feet.  It was delicate, it was fussy, it was time-consuming -- but it ended up looking fantastic!

The worm is faux fur sewn into a tube, with a newspaper and wire armature inside.  We roughly taped off stripes and hit it with orange and yellow spray paint.  We used landscaping burlap on the walls to cover the peg board (mainly because it was natural looking, and well, we already had it!).  The "grass" was made from laminate flooring underlay we had leftover from our house.  It was a foam-y plastic material.  We spray painted it all different greens, using up odds and ends of paint we had leftover from different projects.  Once dry, it rolled up easily, and I cut freehand blades right before we installed them.

The sky was made from two thrift store white sheets, spray painted with pale blue paint.  We just kept the paint very splotchy and misty to mimic clouds.  Once installed under the lights, across the window, the sky just came alive!  I wish the photos could capture it -- it really looks like a blue sky!

The dandelions were a happy accident!  We knew we wanted to do some flowers, but what kind?  When we came across a box of 3000 drinking straws at a Goodwill for $3, it all fell into place.  The center of the puff is a decorative ball from a craft store, and the straws were hot glued to it.  Some of them were left as they were, and some were clipped to make a frilled tip.  The dandelion flower is a straw hat with layers of yellow crepe paper streamers, cut into petal shapes.  The stems are slim PVC pipes, covered with green crepe paper streamers.  For even more whimsy, we hung frilled straws from the sheet sky, to look like floating dandelion fluff!

In our window world, we imagined that someone would want to picnic under a giant mushroom, so we merchandised with springy, picnic themed items.  A vintage quilt in yellow and turquoise, combined with turquoise glassware, stacks of picnic baskets, and insect themed finds completed our dream.

What do you think?  We're really excited about it!  It's in the running to be considered our favorite window... AND we have 2500 straws left. Hmmm...