Pardon My French
Last weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a very cool, very fun vintage pop-up event in downtown McKinney called Pardon My French.
Here I am at my table. I purchased this antique wine table in Round Top several years ago and people at the event wanted to buy it! I wouldn’t let them, though bc I love it so much. If you’ve read The France Dance, this was the inspiration for Aunt Simi’s “lavender table” where she eats lunch every day. P.S. The hydrangeas are from my yard. Aren’t they beautiful? Let me know if you want a blog post about growing hydrangeas.
When my sweet friend, Stephanie who owns Wild Ember Designs asked if I would like to participate in Pardon My French, explaining that several local vintage vendors would be styling the gallery of MPAC to look like a Parisienne apartment for a one day only shopping event, I knew The France Dance would be right at home.
My job was much easier than the other vendors. I brought James and Caleb to help me set up my little bookshop at the entrance of the gallery, but these ladies spent hours gathering, pricing, and styling the event space with some of the coolest, vintage pieces around.
Antiques vs Vintage
So what’s the difference between antiques and vintage? My understanding is that antiques are at least 100 years old whereas vintage is at least 20 years old. I’m not the expert here, but that’s my understanding.
Why do I love vintage?
Now I definitely love antiques, but vintage is a different type of shopping. One, buying vintage is much less expensive than buying antiques so there is a little more freedom there. Also, because I am “vintage” myself, sometimes I see items that I remember from my childhood which is kind of fun.
The Event
The VIP ticket holders began arriving at 9:00am for a private shopping experience. The first 25 to purchase a ticket were gifted a swag bag which included a printed copy of my first book 11 Days in a Carry-on, which previously had only been available as an e-book on Amazon! If anyone would like to purchase a copy of the printed copy, please send me an email! They are $9.99 plus tax. My email is lauren@laurenpalmermedia.com.
People shopped all day until 5:00 that evening. Vintage lovers, mother/daughters, girlfriends, husband and wife teams on the hunt for treasures. I saw friends I hadn’t seen in years, sweet girlfriends that came to support me, someone from my old church, a neighbor, and met so many sweet people who purchased The France Dance!
Along with these lovely vintage dealers, Maria from Pattiserina was there selling her ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL macarons. I bought two boxes!!
Maria and me
Also Victoria Eaglebear Art was there with her beautiful paintings…and she was even painting live at the event which was so neat to see!
If you knew me in my previous life as the publisher of The Art of Living Beautifully, you already know that I am a very big supporter of small businesses and women in business. If you are too, or if you love vintage, please support these women when you can. They are truly wonderful and I look forward to getting to know all of them even better.
Stephanie told me they plan on doing another event in the fall with the theme: Country Club Cowboy. Very Ralph Lauren-ish from what I understand. I don’t have that genre book to be able to participate, but I may just need to write one because I loved working with all these women so much!
