It's Christmas everywhere!

I don't know where the time goes.  Last time I posted on this blog, it was Halloween and the store was filled with scary stuff.  And now it's Christmas and there are Christmas trees and twinkly lights everywhere!  I have an excuse for not being around lately.  A really good one.  I had a bug.  Not the crawly-spider kinda bug.  I had an animal bug.  Swine flu!!  I'm better now, so don't worry about picking up any germs from me.  And I'm loving all the new stuff I'm finding in the store.  I'm also feeling kinda of playful, and since I don't have anybody around to play with, I'm choosing YOU as my playmate! 

So here's how the game goes...I'm gonna post a whole bunch of pictures.  One 'thing' is in every one of the pictures.  Let's see if you can find that 'thing.'  Here goes! 

Well?  How did you do?  Did you find the one thing that was the same in every picture?  No?  Well, I'll give you  a little hint....I'm in every picture!  Me, Vinnie Mouse! 

What?  You can't find me?  Okay, I know I'm kinda small, but really.  You gotta try harder!  I'll give you another hint.  In two of the pictures I'm rocking. 

Now do you see me?  No?  What are you, blind or something?!  Okay.  This is the last hint you're gonna get.  This is a pic of litte ol' me, all by myself.
  

Well, duh, I guess you can find me now that I've told you exactly what...I mean, who to look for!  But thanks for playing with me.  It gets really boring around here, when I'm the only mouse around.

Do you like my dress?  This really cool lady named Charlotte made it for me.  Oops.  That's a little white lie, and I've got to be really good so Santa will come and see me Christmas Eve, so here's the truth...Charlotte really didn't make the dress for me.  I 'borrowed' it from one of the dolls in her booth.  Charlotte sews all kind of things!  Hot pads, toys, books, doll clothes and stuffed animals, too.  If you think my dress looks pretty in the picture, then you just gotta see it in person.  It's too die for!

Well, I better scoot.  It's almost time for Mike and Brenda to arrive to open the store.  Until next time, it's me, Vinnie Mouse, saying, "Au revoir!"

I'm skeered! Somebody come and save me!!

I don't want to sound like a chicken...I am a mouse, after all! But I've run across some really scary things lately at the shop. Take this for instance:

Cats! The number one enemy of mice!! And not one cat, but THREE! The big tall one is the scariest, but if you'll look in the lower right corner of the picture, you'll see a couple more. I nearly had a heart attack when I stumbled across these felines....and I do mean stumbled! I accidentally stepped on the paw of the biggest one and it was kind of 'cushy.'  And can you believe it? I literally stepped on one of 'em and they didn't even chase me!

If those cats weren't enough to get my blood pumping, while I was beating a fast retreat, I ran straight into this...

Now, I've heard the expression 'a fox in the hen house' before, but I've never heard of one in an antique shop! I swear, I think the whole place is being taken over by animals. They're everywhere!  And I do mean everywhere!  Check out this bad boy...

A tiger!  I probably would've had another heart attack, but about the same time I saw this ferocious beast, the light hit him just right and I realized he's enclosed in a glass cage and can't get out.  Whew.   Lucky me.

Since I keep talking about the store and all the stuff that's in here, maybe I should give you an idea of the layout. When you first walk in, there are a whole bunch of shelves and tables filled with stuff like this:

I know the picture is kinda fuzzy, but when I snapped it, I was still shaking from my encounter with those dad-blamed cats and tigers! But aren't these people a hoot? I heard somebody say they were 'shelf sitters' and that's all I've ever seen them do....sit on the shelf. (Unless they're going out the door in some customer's shopping bag, that is!) These shelf sitters are all decked out in university colors and emblems. The ones in this picture are a couple of University of Texas fans. They have 'sitters'  for Texas Aggie fans, too. If you have a team you like better than the Longhorns or the Aggies, I bet Mike will order them for you. He's a pretty nice guy...or he is as long as long as he keeps those dang mouse traps in the closet where they belong! There's also a big wall filled with all kinds of other university paraphenalia. Koozies, signs, flags...you name it, Mike's got it.

Right beside the big checkout counter, there's a door that leads to a HUMONGOUS room that's divided into all these smaller rooms. Above the door is this sign:

Pretty funny, huh? Makes me giggle every time I see it.  Once you pass under the sign, that's where you find all the dealers' booths. And there are a ton of 'em! If I walked all night, I doubt I could make my way from one end of the building to the other. There's this one booth that has this crazy sign. Here's a picture of it...

Now I've heard of some pretty dumb stuff, but a palace for cows?  Who thinks of this stuff?!  Right at the front of the Cow Palace booth is where I had my second major heart attack of the night.  There's this round table with an orange tablecloth with all this creepy stuff on it.  Ghosts and spider webs and all these black thingys....  Ah, heck.  It'll be easier if I just show you what I'm talking about.

Wait!  Do you see what I SEE?  Right there in the front.  Candy corn!!  My favorite Halloween treat.  Uh, excuse me, but I gotta go.  My mouth's watering and I need to snag me some of that candy before it's all gone!

Until the next time, this is Vinnie Mouse saying, "Au revoir!"

New on the block....uh, I mean blog.

Hi. I'm Vinnie--short for Vintage--Mouse. Bet you never heard of a mouse blogging before, huh? Well, you'd be surprised what all we mice can do! I live in a small mouse hole inside an antique shop located in Killeen, Texas. I moved in about the same time as the new owners, Mike and Brenda Wilhelm, opened up shop. There's a big sign out front of the building that reads 'Oma's Flea Market, but that's the old business' name. It's now called Paply's Antiques. You'll have to drop by and ask Mike or Brenda how they came up with the name for their store. I overheard them telling the story to a customer one day and it's a pretty good one.

There's lots of neat places for a mouse to hide in this huge building...lots of different rooms and the coolest furniture and stuff. Check out this, for example:

How cool is that?! I heard a lady refer to it as a vintage doll house, but I say it's the perfect size house for ME!

And would you look at this! I have my own personal Ferris wheel!!!

Okay, so maybe it's really an antique spinning wheel, but it's better than those exercise wheels I've seen in hamster cages. And speaking of cages, there are a whole bunch of bird cages around the shop. Big ones, little ones...I've tried them all out and they're pretty neat. But I've yet to find a bird inside a one of 'em. Hmmm.

Living in an antique shop, a mouse picks up all kinds of lingo. Here's the newest phrase I've learned: shabby chic. In mouse lingo, it translates as, "old and with lots of chippy paint." And right along with the shabby chic items I've seen in the store, there's this other stuff they refer to as "romantic." If you're not familiar with the term either, here's what it looks like:

In case you can't tell what's in the picture (mice don't make the best photographers, you know), it's a lampshade made out of satin ribbon, tulle and antique buttons. And those buttons make pretty darn good picture holders!

Well, I better scoot back into my mouse hole. Brenda and Mike will be arriving soon and if they see me, they're liable to start putting out mouse traps. {{shudder}}

Check in with me fairly often and I'll keep you posted on all the new arrivals in the store. There are over 30 vendors who display their wares here, so there's always something new to play...uh, I mean tell you about.

Until the next time, this is Vinnie Mouse saying, "Au revoir!"