Here to make friends in Niles

My Friends & I, a 14-dealer co-op on Niles Boulevard in Fremont, CA is going the extra mile, marketing-wise, by having a gift basket drawing every month. You get a chance to win with any purchase. Gift baskets are a popular drawing prize, and the prospect of winning one assures that shoppers coming to the well-known Niles Boulevard antique row will likely include My Friends & I in their stops. 

Another marketing tool that takes a little effort but potentially could help attract more clientele is the blog that Carol, the store owner, maintains at www.myfriendsandiniles.blogspot.com. Blogspot is a free blog hosting site, and she posts anything from photos of newly-arrived items to open house sales like the one they held a couple of weeks ago, to uplifting quotes or even photos of special dishes being served at nearby restaurants...shoppers have to eat too, you know.

Here's a photo of the gift basket for the drawing in April.

Three Bloggers from Niles

The homely pickle never looked so good as when enthroned in one of these spectacular ruby glass pickle castors, at Les Belles in Niles, CA

Fellow bloggers in the antique world are starting turn up one at a time, and I'm adding them to my bloglist. Today I hit the jackpot! Three in the same town, Fremont, California where an antique row is situated on Niles Boulevard, a historic railroad center.

This morning one of the owners of Les Belles called asking me to add her blog address to her listing in the new Collector's Guide we're working on now, and mentioned that two others in town are blogging too: My Friends and I, and Lealind's (one of the "friends" of My Friends).

A selection of pressed glass, milk glass, footed glass bowls, salt and peppers, and a pretty handpainted bowl at My Friends & I, a multi-dealer shop in Niles

Everything you need for an elegant, old-fashioned ice cream social, in Lealind's Gifts, a space at My Friends & I

Another link on each of these blogs takes you to the Niles Main Street Association, which is gearing up for their annual antique bash, the Niles Antique Faire and Flea Market, August 31.

Just to give you a taste of what these stores have to offer, I'm sharing photos from their blogs, but click on over for a better look at their selection. What a great way to preview a store, and see if your tastes coincide!

Lo Maximo! Over the Top!

My friend Gary, who has been immersed in it since its beginnings, has concluded with a disgusted shake of his head that "The Internet is loaded with junk!" Having just spent a couple of days digging through the junk and jewels for some choice blogs for my linklist, I have to agree that much of it is either:

• impossible to wade through because the sites are too busy with slapped-together graphics, the type is too tiny (four point! who's going to read that?) or too large, and there are too many crudely done flash animations and unrelated litter, or
• nothing but text, sometimes without even paragraph breaks, for pity's sake! Or,
• so blatantly dedicated to a single agenda, i.e. making money, that it neglects the principles of being entertaining, appealing to the eye and (hopefully) informative, or
• assaulting the ear with raucous music, or
  
• all of the above. With such a combination the visitor hits the back arrow button as fast as possible!
  

So it's good to see we can use some positive reinforcement, such as an award, to point out blogs that have achieved higher standards. As an example, Arte y Pico, an art-related blog, has created a special award, which we are invited to bestow on art and craft blogs, following these guidelines:

1. Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribution to the blogging community, no matter what language.
   


2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog.


3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that presented him/her with the award.


4. The award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link to "Arte y Pico" so everyone will know the origin of the award.

And here's the award. Muy bonita, si?
So who is Arte y Pico and what does she do? A doll artist from Uruguay, she works in recycled materials. So, her awards will be going to craftspeople, artists, perhaps a few decorators. Perhaps anyone who just does a tasteful and valuable blog about aesthetic topics.

We're not all artists, but most of us know what we like, what makes our hearts beat faster and our pupils dilate: a pleasingly-arranged page with beautifully-detailed photos, harmonious color, easily-read type, judicious use of spell-check. My point is that artists and craftspeople aren't the only ones who create beauty; I've seen some exquisite blogs on the subject of antiques and décor.

When you visit Arte y Pico you'll find much of it in Spanish, but there's English, too so don't be daunted if your español is poquito or none. Her award title, in English:

"...translates into a wonderful phrase in Mexico, “lo maximo.” LOL! It will never find its counterpart in English, but if it HAD to, it would be something like, Wow. The Best Art. Over the top."

So now I'm inspired to do some delving in the coming week and bestow the first annual Cochran's El Maximo awards to five antique blogs. In the process, I'll learn a lot more about what's appealing, what's genuinely valuable and what entertains, cybernetically-speaking.

Who do I think I am, presuming to hand out awards? My credentials may not be impeccable, but I've been in journalism 37 years, edited and published Cochran's Antiques and Collectibles monthly for 11 years, and have now been co-publishing Cochran's Collector's Guide for 20 years. Will that do?

I'm inviting you to spread the wealth, too. Following the guidelines above, you may choose five antique blogs you believe deserve the accolade "EL MAXIMO!" Send your list to me and I'll pass them on to my readers. And it would be only right to list them, on your own blog as well, if you have one.

While we're all looking for the most deserving blogs, my partner Jim, the graphic artist in the family, is doing some delving of his own, looking into a new banner design for this blog. For a theme, we're thinking along the lines of Art Deco, maybe with a sleek 1920s Rolls Royce in the background. Hmmm, did they make Rolls in the 20s?

Oh, and I'd better ask him to come up with a design for the Cochran's award, too! He's going to be a busy guy.