Shopping for Zoe

This morning, my friend Janice and I headed out to Leesburg, VA to visit Old Lucketts Store and other antique offerings in the area.  The purpose was to find items that I might use in decorating Zoe's interior space.  Janice is the antiquing expert and was the perfect person to guide me on this journey!

We arrived at Old Lucketts Store shortly after they opened at 10 am.  We started first by exploring the outside "sheds" and then moved into the main house.  When we first walked in, we were looking at the beautiful displays everywhere when Janice pointed out how they had used an old mirror frame to help create a centerpiece.  When I looked closer at the centerpiece design, I realized that the bowl making up part of it was exactly what I had in mind for one of the pieces at the store!  We immediately disassembled the centerpiece and took the bowl to the counter for safe-keeping!

We encountered room after room and floor after floor (there are 3 floors in the main house) of beautiful displays and items.  Even if the items weren't what I was looking for, I got so many great ideas!  I also found a small shoe ornament and a vintage purse that I also purchased there.

We walked across the highway to another antique store that has a significant amount of iron items.  When I went into the store itself, I was immediately taken with two gorgeous metalwork mannequin forms.  While they are not a full size that I would use to show clothing, they will be a beautiful way to show accessories.  Each one has delicate metal flowers worked into the design.  After some creative seat moving and maneuvering, we were able to get both mannequin forms in the back seat of my car.

All this shopping made up hungry so we made the quick drive to downtown Leesburg to replenish our strength at a delicious restaurant called Lightfoot.  Lightfoot Restaurant occupies space that used to be a bank and they have left much of the old marble, wood, and architecture intact.

Our strength renewed, we moved the car from their parking lot to a nearby parking garage and restarted our shopping.  We looked in a number of antique stores (like the trip to market, it begins to become almost overwhelming at times!)  I saw a beautiful armoire at one store that I really, really liked.  I need to sleep on it to consider if it would be a good fit in the store.  (Believe me, it was not going to fit in my car!)  At the price and in its condition, I fear it won't last long there!

Tired but happy that we'd had a successful day, we trekked back to Alexandria.  Now my mind is exploding with ideas...if I only had a space to put them in!  Of course, I have to provide the latest lease update.  The Landlord is still working on the handicap access requirements so I have no new lease yet.  Part of the hold-up on giving me a new lease to review is that, depending on the outcome of their inquiry with the municipality, my square footage may change slightly.  They want to reflect the proper square footage in the lease.