Hey Chris! How can I found out what cool merchandise is for sale this week?!?

Well, I'm gonna tell you: We usually keep about a dozen listings up each week on chicago craigslist (http://www.chicago.craigslist.com/). We post our phone number (847.345.4711) in the ads, so if you put the last four digits "4711" into the search box, just our ads will pop up, with the occasional oddball vintage Schwinn Spyder bike with 4,711 miles on the odometer...

Soon we should have the website www.midsummergardens.com up and running with links to photos through Shutterfly, Picasaweb, or somesuch, as we've purt near worn the fingerprints off reentering and reposting on craigslist.

And of course, there's the phone (847.345.4711) and email (clyngso@gmail.com). Ciao!

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Fine Landscape Design, Vintage & Antique Home & Garden Furnishings & Accessories

Fine Landscape Design, Vintage & Antique Home & Garden Furnishings & Accessories
Pocket Garden showing Swiss Stone Pine, Rugosa Rose, Witchhazel, Fountain Grass, Cranberry Viburnum and Purple Dome Aster

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Intentional Home Environments Inside and Out


I'm a huge proponent of designing our inside and outside environments to intentionallly reflect our values, our core being, who we are. That means every plant, every decorative object, every piece of furniture is in place with a useful and sometimes whimsical purpose. Re-use, borrowing from the past, breathing new life into something vintage for a new purpose really float my boat! I'm often amazed and the mixed bag of "crap-ola" that I have on hand at any given time to hawk.

What's the common denominator? Generally, you'll find something that would be useful in your garden, your sunroom, a piece of art that suggests where you'd rather be if you weren't working for "the man"...Something nobody, not even Martha herself, would have thought of to organize your life, plop your bills and junk mail into, put your feet up on, or settle your weary tush into after a day tilting at windmills.

If you're handy, you can sometimes catch these things in "pre-restored" state. Usually, they'll be spritzed, dusted and prepped for you, and more than likely ready to go. Often, the best value is retained when there are still scuffs, scrapes and a little rust. The love-handles and varicose veins of vintage garden accessories and furniture.

We'll try to whet your appetite with what's fresh from the fields, what's on the restoration table or at the sandblasters, or what you blinked and missed. One thing right at this moment that I'm looking forward to having ready for you are custom trellis panels made up from vintage farmhouse storm windows and storm doors. Yep!

We've got a couple of metric tons of vintage wrought iron patio furniture in stock for 2010, in singles, pairs, dining tables, bistro / conversational tables, deep seating sectionals...names like Salterini and Woodard...There are a gorgeous pair of weathered carriage house doors, and even a massive Victorian era chimney pot like the one pictured only better! Call us, email us, follow us on the blog or facebook, or give us fair warning and drop on by!!! We're looking forward to a great 2010 season...

What's Fresh on the Shelves at Midsummer Gardens


Company coming? Want to doll up your guest room with something unique? Set your bedside table with a wonderful vintage German-made travel alarm clock by Phinney-Walker. Round Alligator Leather case, gleaming brass trim, radium highlighted dial, keeps perfect time. No up and coming Mad Men era salesman would've boarded a Constellation for a business trip to Chicago without this in his Samsonite! Windup mechanism...just the right touch with a vintage lamp and water carafe.