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!"