Labor Day Spotlight: Queen of Hearts Leasing Managers Jeannie, Vickie and Jenny

The Queen of Hearts prides itself on our savvy dealer-merchants. They are so creative and talented and we thought you would enjoy learning about the three wonderful women behind the scenes that are responsible for leasing space in our stores and getting to know a little bit about them. If you are interested in becoming a dealer in one of our stores, fill out the online application by going to our website at www.queenofheartsantiques-interiors and clicking on Become a Dealer!

JEANNIE RICHEY – LEASING MANAGER FOR ALPHARETTA QUEEN OF HEARTS

Jeannie grew up in a small town near Pittsburgh, PA, and has been married to her childhood sweetheart for 47 years and they have 4 children and 7 grandchildren. She loves spending time with her family, interior decorating, and cooking.

Jeannie graduated Cum Laude from Fairmont State University with a degree in education and taught computer science at Woodward Academy and Pace Academy in Atlanta and The Episcopal School of Dallas, Texas. After retiring from teaching in 2002, she followed her dream of having an Interior Design/Gift Store called Simply Sophie in Dawsonville and Alpharetta. She became a dealer at The Queen in 2010 after closing her stores, and later became part of “The Queen” staff because of her love of retailing and we are so glad she did!

As leasing manager, she feels like she is the interior designer of the whole store and every month is a unique puzzle of placing new and veteran dealers in the perfect spot to showcase their merchandise. She looks for dealers who are serious about having a business and who are willing to work at their business several days a week. This means not just “fluffing” their booth, but regularly changing their merchandise. Jeannie knows with all her experience in retailing the hard work involved for dealers to be successful, so if dealers are looking for a little part-time hobby, the Queen may not be the place for them.

Jeannie is always looking for dealers with different or unique merchandise, especially wonderful antiques, whether that is vintage, retro, or repurposed, and is constantly in awe of the creativity of all our dealers. Her stewardship and commitment to finding the perfect dealers for our Alpharetta store is a major component of our success and has helped to make "The Queen" the best antique mall and why our customers return week after week!

VICKIE ROBINSON – LEASING MANAGER FOR BUFORD QUEEN OF HEARTS

Vickie has been married for 38 years and grew up in Snellville, GA. She has 2 daughters, 1 granddaughter and 1 grandson. She previously worked for Barrow County Schools for 20 years and has owned her own store called Vintage Grace. She enjoys collecting sea glass, shells and spending time with her grandchildren.

Vickie started working for the Buford Queen of Hearts in 2011 and is one of the main reasons the store has become the success it is today. Her favorite part about leasing space at the Queen is trying to find the best dealer-merchants for the Queen. She says that the dealers who are most successful at the Buford Queen are the ones that come in the store and work their booths at least twice a week, attend our free dealer-merchant training classes, and ask for help when needed. Dealers who get involved with the Queen’s events and promotions are also successful.

At the Buford Queen, she would like to see more vintage, antiques and primitives and less DVDs, CDs, and dollar items. She looks for dealers who work hard to adhere to Queen policies to make their business a success and who take advantage of the advertising the Queen of Hearts provides with their own social media. Vickie knows what it takes to be a dealer at the Queen because she is a dealer herself and knows that hard work pays off in great sales.

What advice does she give to potential dealers? Be dedicated, enjoy what you do, be involved with The Queen of Hearts activities, take advantage of Thursday late nights, Meet and Greet and the 1st Sunday of each month when we are open for dealers only from 9 to 12 to provide dealers time to work without customers! The Buford store has blossomed under her experience and leadership and she has done a great job of leasing booths to an assortment of dealer-merchants for every style and preference!

JENNY RAY – LEASING MANAGER FOR MARIETTA QUEEN OF HEARTS 

Jenny Ray was born in Mesa, Arizona and moved to Alabama when she was 2 ½ years old. She grew up on a farm in Fredonia, Alabama raising cattle and hay. She is currently single and has a son who is 37 years old. She worked previously at Kimberly Clark before starting her own business at the Queen of Hearts in 2003. She began working as staff for the Marietta Queen of Hearts when the original Marietta store opened on Canton Road in 2006, and helped to move the Marietta Queen to its new location on Sandy Plains Road in 2014. Her efforts and hard work paid off when we opened the Marietta store in November, 2014 with all spaces filled and a waiting list of dealers wanting to come in!

Besides finding treasures for her own booths at Alpharetta and Marietta, Jenny enjoys hiking and reading good books.

Her favorite part about leasing space at the Queen of Hearts is matching booths to dealer’s needs. All booths are individual work spaces and all dealers have their own individual looks and finding that perfect spot for them to showcase their merchandise is important to her. She finds that her most successful dealers are the ones that carry furniture and work their spaces 2 to 3 times a week. She encourages dealers to bring in more furniture, fill their booth spaces and keep stock rotated.

Over the years, her slogan has remained constant - Part time work equals part time pay. The Marietta Queen is lucky to have her expertise and guidance and she works hard to find the best fit for each dealer-merchant at the Marietta Queen!

We love our staff, dealers and customers - this Labor Day we give a big thank you to everyone who does their part at the Queen to make it a wonderful place to work & shop!

Queen Dealer Spotlight - Terry Ledwell of Vines and Designs by Terry

Each month we will be doing a blog about one of our dealer-merchants from each of our three stores that offers unique, one-of-a-kind antiques and merchandise for your home and garden.  We have a lot of creative, savvy and talented dealers and we thought you would enjoy getting to know them!

Terry Ledwell (Dealer VINE) in our Buford store grew up in Lowell, North Carolina, which is a small town between Charlotte and Gastonia.  He loved growing up in the mountains and seeing the beauty in nature.  As he likes to say, the good Lord put it there for us to enjoy and gave him the talent to see the beauty in twigs, branches and greenery and put it together in ways that will amaze you.

Terry has a booth on Market Street in our Buford store and loves to incorporate his floral arrangements in his booth.

He has been married for 24 years to Caroline, has 5 children, 7 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren and currently lives in Atlanta.

Terry recently led a workshop in Buford in December on making wreaths, garlands and floral arrangements from greenery you can find in your backyard.  If you missed it, you missed a real treat.  Terry will be doing another workshop for us in March during our Spring Fling and you will want to mark your calendars for Sunday, March 22, from 2 to 4 pm to see what his wonderful demo in using greenery from nature to make beautiful arrangements!  You will not want to miss what he has to show.

He has a wealth of knowledge and experience and loves to share his techniques with everyone, which is unusual for a dealer in the trade.  What a treasure we have in our Buford store in Terry Ledwell, Dealer VINE.  Be sure to stop in and see him on Sunday, March 22, in our Buford store from 2 to 4!

Queen Dealer Spotlight: Lannie Bittinger of Sports Cards & Collectibles (SCC)

Each month we will be doing a blog about one of our dealer-merchants from each of our three stores that offers unique, one-of-a-kind antiques and merchandise for your home and garden. We have a lot of creative, savvy and talented dealers and we thought you would enjoy getting to know them!

Lannie Bittinger (Dealer SCC) has been a dealer in our Buford store location for 9 years. His booth, Sports Cards and Collectibles, is located on Calhoun Street and he specializes in autographed memorabilia and sports collectibles.

Lannie says that he really enjoys being a part of the Queen, working with staff, and meeting customers and discussing their collections and working with young collectors.



Lannie sells autographed memorabilia and any kind of sports collectibles. Besides the autographed pieces, he also likes to focus in on collectible sports figures and bobble heads. Most of the autographed pieces he sells are obtained by him, but any pieces he sells that are not obtained by him in person are guaranteed to be 100% authentic.



He works hard to keep the booth updated and it changes with the sports seasons. Events that he attends on a regular basis to obtain autographs are Braves Spring training in Florida ( 1994-present missed one year), Cactus League spring training in Arizona last 4 years, Atlanta Falcons summer training camps, Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Thrashers events. The golf events that he attends are both LPGA and PGA tournaments, which include the Masters, the Fed Ex Cup, RBM Heritage Classic, TPC Sugarloaf, Regions Memorial, Father/Son Orlando, and many more. He has also attended the Michael Jordan Celebrity golf tournament in Las Vegas Nevada the last three years, and will be in Arizona for the 2015 Pro Bowl, Waste Management Phoenix Open Golf, and the 2015 Super Bowl.



Lannie grew up in Moultrie, Ga., graduated from Georgia Southern College, and worked for General Motors for 32 plus years. He retired from the General Motors Doraville plant in 2008. Since his retirement, he has enjoyed traveling and attending all these different events to meet and obtain autographs from sports, music, and entertainment celebrities.

Next time, you are in the Buford store, be sure to stop by and see his collection of sports memorabilia. He is usually in his booth on Calhoun Street on Friday afternoons and will be available during our Spring Fling event on Thursday, March 19, from 5 to 8 pm and on Friday, March 20, from 2 to 5 pm. He was also featured on the Fox 5 Good Day Atlanta segment that aired on Monday, February 23.

Queen Dealer Spotlight:Scott and Milinda Griggs of Lindy's Trains

In 1975, Scott started his first model train business in his parents garage in Findlay, Ohio and his love for trains has continued through the years. Scott says his wife, Milinda, has been amazingly supportive through the years and is an unbelievably supportive and patient person and great wife. "I don't know how she has put up with me all of these years, but we recently celebrated our 25th anniversary. That's the story from when I started at eight years old to where I am now. I still really enjoy trains and just thoroughly enjoy the business and bringing happy train memories to new generations." 

Scott and Milinda have done everything from selling on EBay, going to train shows, having their own stores, even working in the corporate world – and now currently are in 11 antique malls and run a specialized train website, Trainz.com. Their life is busy travelling and keeping all the antique booths stocked and organized. 

Melinda says, "We have been busy opening up a network of booths in the best Antique Malls we could find. We typically restock each booth two or three times per month and we have hundreds or thousands of items at each one. Every Mall we are in has at least 15,000 square feet and dozens or hundreds of other dealers, so come out to see the trains and toys, but plan on much more! Make a weekend out of it and follow the Georgia Antique Mall Trail – Lindy’s way."

Because they spend so much time traveling between their booths, they especially love that gas prices are going down!

We are proud to have Lindy’s Trains in all three of our Queen of Hearts locations. They have thousands of model trains, die-cast cars and trucks, plastic model kits, Hess trucks, vintage toys, Nascar items, Department 56, ceramic buildings and other fun and collectible toys. Come and learn about them!

Come visit them in all three of our Queen of Hearts locations! Like them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LindysTrains or visit their website at www.trainz.com.

Queen Dealer Spotlight: Dari Brown of "I Need This, Antiques" (DBW)

Dari Brown, owner of I Need This, Antiques (Dealer Code: DBW) has been a dealer-merchant at the Queen of Hearts for 6 years, an appraiser for about 12 years, and has been in the “biz” buying and selling all over the United States for over 25 years. Dari has this to say about antiques, “They do not provide food or shelter that we may live. Why then do we "need this?" Because they make our lives worth living with the joy of the hunt, the successful acquisition, and most of all...the history, the beauty, and the energy these pieces bring from another time and place.” With two spaces on Church and Queen at the Buford Queen of Hearts, Dari says her most popular space is the Victorian booth located on Church St.

Customers and Queen staff have said "it is like walking into a Victorian parlor," and young people are especially fascinated by the authentic pieces that were the mainstay of life during the 19th century era. The Victorian booth carries almost 95% genuine antiques (items 100 years or older) and she finds these at various auctions, estate sales and thrift shops.

Her second space is located on Queen St and offers a general line of antiques, vintage items and upcycled furniture. This space offers a variety of antique transferware, American primitives, vintage prints and a display case packed with vintage jewelry, antique cut crystal, Civil War memorabilia, militaria, toys, and other interesting items.

Dari says that there are too many “favorites” about being a dealer-merchant at the Queen but shares that it is the excellent business model that provides a pro-active and attentive staff, lots of customers and the ability to sell a bit of history. Being an antiques dealer allows you to enrich ones life with beauty from another era. Additionally, the trend to upcycle or repurpose “found” items, especially antique furniture, that has seen rougher days, into renewed and unique purposes is exciting. It is so much fun to see utilitarian items transformed into lighting fixtures or coffee tables. Just about anything goes these days and the more interesting the greater demand for the item.

Dari started out as a collector, and in order to “feed the collecting habit” became a dealer. Dari collects antique clothing, laces and needlework, Native American basketry, rugs and pottery, Victorian jewelry, quadruple plate, American Brilliant cut crystal and Early American Pressed Glass (EAPG) compotes, to name a few. She also has three spinning wheels, two are genuine antiques, and adores spinning fiber from all three of them. It is a meditative process and brings her joy along with beautiful handspun to knit.

Dari was born and raised in New Jersey and then began traveling at the age of 12. She says she has gypsy feet and enjoys living in new locales. With 7 grandchildren scattered all over the U.S. and overseas, she has the opportunity to travel quite a bit. She presently works, full time, for a global communications company located in Lawrenceville, GA and (with 6 years left to go) is looking forward to when she can retire from corporate America permanently and meander through small communities in search of treasure, expand to another larger booth at the Queen, visit her grandchildren, and scuba dive the world’s seas in between the antique hunting.

Visit Dari's booth in the Queen of Hearts Buford on Church and Queen St., and visit her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/INeedThisAntiques to see all of her gorgeous finds. You can also read her blog, Musings of a Sea Witch.

Decorating your Home for FALL! Guest blog from A Bit of Décor

When we think about decorating our homes for fall, we think of heavy fabrics and darker colors. When we come out of the summer heat, we want to cool down; we want to change things up.  Don’t get me wrong we love the summer and the bright colors, but there is something about fall that makes us want to change it up and bring that sense of home and comfort back into our lives. So what do we do it? How can we make our homes reflect ourselves and the themes for the fall?

Darker fall colors can be added in the throws or pillows that you use, or through decorative accents you might add to your home. Throws can add texture through knits like cable, faux fur, or even a depth in the nap of the fabric. A pillow can be something that you can throw on a chair, or on the floor even, close to the fireplace. Look at the basic colors that you have throughout your home, and pick a darker color to coordinate with those colors in your rooms. Many decorate or update just a room, or a few rooms, you can easily do it throughout your whole home. Think about it – add a throw to your bed, or the chair in your room, or even in your home office. Just add one ruby red, mustard yellow, bright orange or deep purple fall colored pillow or set of decorative items on your end tables.

Many of the decorating books and magazines serve up examples with each season. There are always the predictable, but use your creative side and sense of whimsy to update your home. It doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult to do, especially if you know what you're looking for. Here are some ideas:

Better Homes and Gardens presents this view with the addition of fabrics, throws and pillows.

Adding just a fall themed pillow will add that sense of whimsy and accent for your home. Check out the dark colored ruby red chair and we LOVE this acorn pillow!

A Bit of Décor at Queen of Hearts – Antiques & Interiors in Marietta, GA offers a variety of throws, accents, along with pillows and general ideas to help with your decorating for fall.  All of the dealers at Queen of Hearts have many things available as well to accent your home for fall and the upcoming holidays - come in and take a look!

This blog was written by dealer Amy Ahrens, of A Bit of Décor (WACL) on Calhoun St in Marietta - like her page on Facebook to see all of her fabulous finds!

https://www.facebook.com/ABitOfDecoQueenofHeartsMariettaWACL