The Southern Mercantile Blog

Vintage Market Days - Mobile, AL

3/31/2017

A couple of weeks ago we found ourselves on the road again, headed to Mobile, AL. We set up shop at Vintage Market Days of Mobile, a show that has become a bi-annual event there.

This show had a garden theme so we packed plenty of old windows, vintage pots, plant stands, and garden furniture. We decked out our old windows with a few of our favorite wreaths, made by Roxie, Terry and Aunt Janet.

Little pots, votive holders and vintage garden accessories were tucked away throughout the booth, just waiting to be discovered by treasure hunters!

Our handmade flower crowns were on display and caused quite a stir! These are on trend for spring and are perfect for weddings, graduation pictures, and fun parties! You can check out our selelction of handmade flower crowns in the store. We are happy to chat with you about a custom flower crown for your event, just shoot us an email!

We are expanding our little collection of handmade wedding items. Be sure to check out our hand embroidered vintage hankies and our handmade ringbearer pillows HERE.

We were so excited to make friends with LeeAnn from Sweet Auburn Studio while we were in Birmingham and we are now carrying a selection of her work. Her necklaces made from vintage pocket knives stole Roxie's heart! Keep and eye on the website as she will be showing up as our newest Southern Mercantile Maker!

Our antique elevator indicator was quite an attention grabber and one of the coolest treasures we have found!

We can't go anywhere without cute dish towels and our favorite Maileg Bunnies!

We're having so much fun on the road, but must admit we are glad to be home for a few weeks! Our next trip will take us to Braselton, GA April 21-23. You can always keep up with our schedule on our events page! We hope to see you at one of our next stops or come see us anytime in Ocilla, GA!

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Carrot Cake

3/24/2017

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With Easter around the corner, I started thinking about what recipe to share with y’all. A couple of years ago, I wrote about Deviled Eggs. You can even find our Blue Cheese and Bacon Deviled Eggs Recipe Card in our Recipe Archive.

One of my favorite desserts has always been carrot cake. I mean, what better way to get your veggies than in dessert? Apparently, carrot cake has been around for centuries in Europe. Carrots were used to sweeten the cake instead of sugar, which was much more expensive. It became popular in the 1960s-70s in the United States. As is the case with so many things, here in the South, we’ve perfected carrot cake and made it our own. I’m not sure if carrot cake is a traditional Easter dessert for everyone, but it certainly is in my southern family!

I’ve seen carrot cakes decorated with cute little carrots made from marzipan or icing, as well as some that include candied ginger for a little extra zing, but my favorite is generously iced with the perfect cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with extra pecans or walnuts on top! Of course, like any cake, it’s imperative that carrot cake be moist. There’s not much worse than a dry cake. I enjoy a glass of milk with a piece of cake, but I don’t want to need the glass of milk to wash it down!

This recipe is precisely that perfect balance of moist cake and sweet, creamy frosting. Brenda, Roxie’s mother, created this cake for Terry, Roxie’s father, after he went wild over the carrot cake at the Smithsonian Museum restaurant one summer. She tried different recipes, then put together a patchwork of a recipe by combining parts of several to come up with the one Terry thought was wonderful. Terry likes to see and taste what is in the cake, so the pecans aren’t chopped very fine. Using crushed pineapple helps keep the cake moist, and Brenda is known for ensuring there is plenty of frosting to go with each bite of cake. She also saves a step and a bit of time by freezing the grated carrots when they’re close to going out of date, so she can be ready to make a carrot cake whenever she wants.

Click here to go to our Recipe Archive to find the Carrot Cake Recipe Card to print! We’d love to know if you use Brenda’s Carrot Cake recipe this Easter or any other time, for that matter! Take a picture and tag us on Facebook, so we can celebrate with you! If you have any other tips or ideas for Easter, feel free to share those with us, too!

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Cottontails Birmingham

3/17/2017

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The first weekend in March we traveled to Birmingham, AL to be a part of Cottontails Village, a Birmingham tradition for the last 25 years. After a late night drive on Wednesday, and a long set up day on Thursday, we ended up with a beautiful result!

We carefully chose our favorites for Spring to fill our Southern Mercantile
mini-shop. We had a blast choosing fun pops of floral and bright colors to fill our space.

We took a nice collection of old windows to spruce up the walls. We are happy to announce that all of our old beauties went home with happy treasure hunters!

The peach and white floral dish towel turned out to be one of our favorites, and you can now shop this look online!

With this being our first Spring show, it gave us an opportunity to showcase our handmade wedding items! We completely sold out of our Vintage embroidered hankies, but don’t worry, we will be restocking soon! Our flower crowns turned out to be a hit as well. Did you know that we will do custom orders? Just shoot us an email to strike up a conversation!

We can’t go anywhere without our favorite Maileg bunnies and Jellycat friends. The Jellycats were a hit with our customers, young and old, perfect for Easter baskets!

Folks loved trying our homemade jams. These delicious jars are perfect for serving at your next brunch and even make wonderful hostess gifts. Shop our selection of jam year-round online!

We had such a good time meeting so many sweet people and making new friends in another Southern town. In fact, we enjoyed our time at Cottontails so much, that we plan to be back in Birmingham in November. Look for us at Christmas Village Festival! We have a few more trips planned this Spring, so keep up with our travels on our Events page! We hope to see you at one of our next stops!

Shop our Cottontails selection now!

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Blessings

3/10/2017

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Jorjanne

August 11, 2015. An event that day changed my life. A single-car accident on a curve around which I’ve been driving since my husband and I started dating in 1995. That day has become a marker of time for my family. You know, was that before or after the accident? It was a terrible accident, but I walked away with only broken bones. Yes, it took surgery to heal one of my broken collarbones, but I made a complete recovery. Looking at my car after that accident, it seems I am lucky to be alive. Every conversation about my accident included the phrase “You were blessed!” Even now, when someone brings it up or asks if I have any lingering pain, “You are so blessed!” is always their response.

I have no doubt that I was and continue to be blessed. I was blessed to walk away from what could have been a tragic accident. I continue to be blessed because I have very little pain or residual effects, except for the scar on my left collarbone from my surgery. And, those are just the blessings related to my wreck.

I’ve been blessed abundantly in every aspect of my life. I have a large, loving extended family, a long list of friends, a much shorter list of close friends, two smart, handsome, and talented sons, and a good-looking, hard-working, adoring husband. I live in a beautiful home outside a small town located in a country where I have freedoms and financial security that many in this world only dare to dream of.

There are days when I don't always feel blessed, though. When I begin to think about what I don’t have, and what I see others do have. Certainly after my accident, when I couldn’t wash my own hair or put dishes in the cabinet because I couldn’t raise my arms, I didn't always feel blessed. What I’ve come to realize, though, is that a blessing is more than a feeling; it’s an action straight from God. There are principles that God put into place when he created this world. If you follow these principles, certain things are going to happen. And, with sin’s entrance into this world, there are principles that have followed us since Adam and Eve. Sometimes, like in the case of my car accident, God steps in to save us, and blesses us with more than we deserve.

Here is what I’ve struggled with more than anything since my wreck. It is evident that I am blessed beyond imagination, whether I feel like it or not. So, why me? Why not the other mother of two boys who was killed in a single-car accident a year later? What did I do to deserve God’s blessing, or what did she do not to deserve it? The answer is: nothing. I have done nothing to earn God’s favor, nor is there anything I can do to earn it. There was nothing the other mother could have done to deserve it, nor was her death punishment for something she had done. That’s not the answer we want to hear, though. I really wanted to find a better answer, but as much as I’ve wrestled with the question “Why?” that’s the best answer I can find.

There are so many hurting in our community. From death and devastation left by terrible storms nearby, to pillars of our community ravaged with disease, from the loss of young people in senseless tragedies, to beautiful families torn apart by divorce, there is so much pain in our little community right now. We look for answers to solve the puzzles of life and death. My pastor, who firsthand knows the pain and suffering of tragic loss twice over, often quotes, “God is God, and I am not.” This side of Heaven, we will not understand why some experience such hurt in this life, while others seem to have it so easy.

What I do believe strongly is that even in those times we don’t receive God’s blessing, we still have God’s presence. Those who have lost their lives in tragic accidents, those who are struggling financially, those who are battling disease - none of them have to go through it alone. God is still with them. Take the story of Job in the Old Testament. Satan told God that of course Job would worship Him, because God had never allowed anything bad to happen to Job and had blessed him beyond his imagination. So God allowed Satan to take everything away from Job, and although Job wavered a bit in his faith, he still knew that God was with him. Even in the midst of great and tragic loss, Job still worshipped God.

I do hope that I never have to experience the total destruction that Job did, and I certainly wouldn't wish that on even my worst enemy. Yet, I know people who are hurting as much as if they had received complete devastation. All I can say is that even in the absence of God’s blessing, you can still feel God’s presence. I hope that you will allow Him to wrap His arms around you and bring you the peace and comfort that can only be found there. And, as wonderful as God’s blessings are, how much more glorious to be in His presence eternally! When we mourn the loss of loved ones, may that reminder bring us solace.

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Vintage Market Days - Mobile, AL

Carrot Cake

Cottontails Birmingham

Blessings

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