Moonglow is back!

It’s been almost a year and a half since I’ve posted on here. And if you read my last post, you know that Brian and I closed our business in Ellicott City in April 2021 and moved to western PA in June 2021. It’s been a crazy adventure! We renovated our 102- year-old house, spent months learning our new town and surroundings, getting everything settled, if that’s even possible. It’s been quite a change. Brian is still getting used to working from home after being on the go for decades. But we’re doing good. It’s been the right change. 

Family and friends wondered when we’d start selling vintage again, and for a long time just the thought of going through our packed basement and attic was enough to make me want to take a nap! We have so much stuff! But it’s always been our intention to sell again. We miss auctions, the thrill of finding new treasures, learning about them and finding them new homes. And I miss my friends from The Antique Depot. I wanted to find new vintage-loving friends here. 

So this summer, armed with determination, I started the process of digging out the crowded basement. By August, I was organized enough to know and remember what I have.  I contacted the owner of the antique store I’ve been following on social media for years. The 119 Antique Trading Post is an antique mall with 40+ vendors, is family-owned and has been in business just seven years but has won the “best antique store in the county” award. Chrissy, her husband and her daughters are a joy and I was happy and lucky to have secured a booth just weeks after my initial inquiry. 

On September first, we began the process of setting up and filling our new booth. It’s taken us a solid month to fill it completely, and I’m happy to report we’ve been selling faster than I thought! It’s been interesting trying to figure out what our new customers want, and pricing, as always, is a challenge. But we’re doing it! Moonglow Treasures is back in business!

Here’s a visual story:

Thanks for sticking with us! Until next time–happy vintage shopping! 🙂 

Moonglow will be back

What can I say? It’s been a long time–too long. Last year was a year unlike any other I’ve known. I won’t get into personal issues because this is about our little vintage business. Moonglow Treasures is nine years old, and it’s been an amazing, fun, exciting experience. Learning about antiques and collectibles, discovering our customers and delivering what they love, bidding and buying at numerous auctions and enjoying all the people we’ve met along the way. It’s been a wonderful journey.

For now, though, the journey has halted. Last year, the virus changed everything about our business and, last fall, we were forced to close one of our booths. We hung on through the holidays, but knew that come this spring, we’d be finishing our time at The Antique Depot. Brian and I have decided to move out of Maryland and up to PA to be closer to family. We have mixed feelings, but are excited to begin a new chapter in our life together. Moonglow Treasures is over in Maryland, but we intend to continue it in PA. I don’t know when or how, but please stay tuned, because we love this business too much to say a final goodbye.

Moonglow will be back.

For now, I’m including some photos of our initial downsize in October and our final clearing out last month. Leaving The Antique Depot is like leaving our little family there, but we’re grateful and blessed that we were a part of it and beautiful historic Ellicott City. 

 

Thank you for your interest and support and always remember to buy vintage!

Bye for now,

Trish and Brian @ Moonglow Treasures 

Where are the Christmas Shoppers?

Hi everyone! It’s been a long time since I posted here and I don’t have a good reason. Life is busy and life gets in the way. We’ve been through house repairs, family visits and health issues. We haven’t gone to as many auctions as usual and weeks have gone by before we were able to work in our booths.

Something else happened a few months ago as well and has carried into this Christmas season. Our customers disappeared. That doesn’t mean people stopped coming to the store. We still get a lot of people coming in and looking around. But that seems to be all they’re doing. Aside from beanie babies, comic books and dvds, we don’t sell much anymore. Where did our vintage-loving customers go? Many weeks, we don’t sell anything over five or ten bucks. Selling small stuff is great, but it doesn’t make a business great. We’re not making money and barely making rent.

I’m not sure what happened to our amazing customers that couldn’t wait to see what we put on the shelves. And I miss finding new, unique treasures and seeing them find new homes. The joy isn’t there for us when all these new customers buy is a paperback or comic book for a couple of dollars. And we’re not alone. Many other dealers are having the same problem.

I know antique malls are slowly becoming extinct. Online retailers are killing it and even some of them are having problems. Too much competition? Too many choices? Too many cheap customers? Whatever it is, it’s here and we have to figure out how to go on or if we do at all.

I love this business and I want to find a way to continue it. We will most likely downsize to one booth and see how that goes. Should we try online selling? Maybe. Aside from Marketplace, I don’t do it but I’m open to something new.

In the meantime, we’re still here and I snapped these photos of our booths last Friday during the town’s Midnight Madness.

When you shop this season, don’t forget to shop small business and buy vintage! Thank you and Merry Christmas! 🙂

Spring is Here!

Hi everyone! Well, it’s finally Spring here in Ellicott City and I’m enjoying the warmer weather and longer hours in the day. And I always get anxious to shop at flea markets and attend more auctions. We’ve had a couple of opportunities to help clean out houses and grab whatever we want. That’s always fun!

I’ve started the Spring booth clean-out and I’ll be spending the next couple of weeks pricing more cool stuff and making our booths look so fresh and amazing that customers will be instantly drawn to them. 🙂

Here are some pics:

And here’s the awesome antique post office front Brian scored from an auction a few weeks ago. Amazing piece and looks great in the shop!

This is the sign we made to help advertise The Antique Depot on Main Street. People are coming back and now that Spring is here, shoppers and diners are excited to spend the day in Old Ellicott City.

Hope you have a beautiful Spring and if you’re in the area, shop Old Ellicott City and check out The Antique Depot. (Don’t forget our booths-123+124)

As always, thanks for looking. 🙂

Some Memories

Hi everyone! I was looking through some pictures recently and decided I needed to write another post. In my absence, I missed showing you some of the cool things we found and others we re-imagined and sold. Plus, there was Christmas in old Ellicott City and the town hosted another Midnight Madness that was lovely, successful and just what we all needed after a hard year of challenges and losses.

First up are the blue metal retro chairs I was excited to buy at auction. I liked the blue but decided on a different color scheme. Plus they needed some sanding and work. So here is the before and after:

Brian is very creative and handy, and he took an old snap-on shop machine and turned it into a cool, one-of-a-kind bar cart that would look good in any man cave.

I love everything architectural and salvage and when I found these beauties in a shop in western Pennsylvania, I naturally snapped them up. I sold them in the fall to an artistic lady who adored them and had plans for them in her house. She said she’d send me a picture of them when she finished, and I hope she does.

When Brian spied this at auction, he had to have it. And since he already owns a big fishing boat, we sold this one in the shop. It didn’t take long for someone to fall in love with it.

The old Ellicott City tree-lighting ceremony was on the corner of Main Street and Maryland Ave, right across the street from The Antique Depot. Great community spirit and gorgeous tree:

To attract more customers to our shop, Brian grabbed a Santa hat and a bell and lured people to our awesome vintage store and the free pizza, cookies and drinks we supplied all night. 🙂

It’s Friday and I hope it’s a good one for you and an even better weekend. Thanks for stopping by, looking and reading. Wherever you are, I hope vintage shopping is in your plans! God Bless.

Still Strong

Wow, it’s been a long time since I posted here. Business has been different after last year’s devastating flood. The Antique Depot was one of the first businesses to open its doors, but the customers were few. Main Street remained closed, there was little parking and most people didn’t even know we were there and open for business.

Even after Main Street reopened and more businesses opened again, there was little foot traffic. Two devastating floods in two years scared a lot of people and for good reason. Historic Ellicott City has always been prone to floods but these last two were different from the hurricane floods of the past. We know that because of over-development and lack of storm water management that Main Street will flood again. It’s a situation that nobody really knows how to handle. There’s a lot of discussion but no real answers, nothing that will save beautiful Ellicott City from future floods.

I could go on and on about this delicate and tragic subject and if you want to know more, there are many articles with information and opinions online. Keep this wonderful town and its residents in your thoughts and prayers.

Despite all this, we have continued with our business. We don’t go to auctions every week like we used to, but we still go and we still love the thrill of buying awesome vintage treasures. We still stock our booths with antiques, collectibles and fun stuff that will appeal to just about anyone who walks through the door. We love the business. We love our customers. We love The Antique Depot and we always love Ellicott City.

If you’re in town, please come down to Main Street and visit us and visit all of the businesses who survived and are excited to have tourists and customers once again. Here are a few pictures of our booths and some of our goodies.

Thanks for reading, looking and your continued support. Happy vintage shopping! 🙂

ECSTRONG

It’s been a long time since I posted here. And I’ve been meaning to and I have pictures and thoughts and so much to share. So I’m sitting here today, three days after another devastating flood destroyed my adopted hometown. Words are hard. They’ll never express the feelings, the heartbreak, the anger over what happened this past Sunday. And the pictures and videos that I’m sure everyone has seen–horrifying and unbelievable. A brave man lost his life. Residents lost their homes. Business owners may never recover.

I love Ellicott City for its history, charm, inspiration and its strength. The people who live here are strong, courageous, intelligent, creative and work together like a family. They did after the 2016 flood and they will now. We will all support each other and keep our faith for this special town. I believe Ellicott City will survive and recover. Nothing, not even another devastation like this, can make us abandon the home we love.

I’m a small business owner based in The Antique Depot right off Main Street. There was flooding in the basement but no other damage. The dealers in the basement will recoup what they can, clean-up, and start again. I did it two years ago and they will do it now. We will all be there for support.

There are many fundraisers happening if you’d like to help Ellicott City’s recovery. Check out pages on Facebook and Twitter.

So I wasn’t going to post pictures of my latest finds and my booth, but I decided I want to remember going into The Antique Depot just a couple of hours before the flood. We brought in a gorgeous library card cabinet. We went to The Phoenix next door for lunch. It started drizzling when we decided to go home, not knowing what we avoided. Our friends and some customers were trapped on the second floor until later that night. So many scary stories. Please keep Ellicott City and its people in your thoughts and prayers.

Here’s a few pictures:

Thank you for reading, looking, and keeping Ellicott City in your thoughts and prayers. I will post an update soon.

Winter Treasures

It’s February and in Ellicott City that means cold! We aren’t fans of below-freezing weather with snow and ice, but at least we can say Spring is next month. 🙂

We hit a fantastic auction this past weekend and scored some awesome vintage collectibles. Some are already on the shelves and we’re working on pricing the rest. I love getting new treasures and refreshing our booths.

Here’s a look:

We love our new stuff and there’s more to come! Also, I’ve released my first novel on Amazon! Historic Ellicott City inspired this story and many others. If you’re interested you can go to https://www.amazon.com/author/patriciakirsch and check it out.

If you’re cold this winter, stay warm, shop vintage and always have fun. 🙂

Thanks for looking!

Vintage Madness!

It’s December first, the day that I truly welcome the Christmas season. This year, it’s also the day for Midnight Madness in historic Ellicott City. The shops will stay open for your shopping pleasure until midnight and you can enjoy special sales, refreshments and listen to the groups of carolers along the way. It’s a beautiful time and we go every year. Our booths are ready for the occasion too. Have a look:

It’s vintage madness at The Antique Depot and our booths! If you’re in the area, come on down and have some fun. And enjoy this joyous time of year.

Thanks for looking. 🙂

A look before Halloween

I love Autumn and I love Halloween. I don’t have a costume picked out yet, but I need to work on that! For now, I’m offering a current look at my booths. We’ve been attending auctions and stocking up for our Christmas shoppers. After Halloween, the holidays come very fast.

We’ve been loving all the unusual, cool stuff we’ve been finding and we’ll continue hunting for more. Here’s a look:

 

 

So what are you going to be for Halloween? Have fun and thanks for looking. 🙂