My New Roomate

Anyone who knows me knew I had been on the prowl for a vintage dress form.  Trouble is, they are so hot right now, so scarce it seems, and so expensive!!  I pretty much gave up finding one close to me, and that left me having to pass on others that only offered pick-up or an additional hefty shipping charge.  I had watched enough on eBay to get an idea of what it was gonna cost me, and I drooled over many that I had to pass on. Last month I found one on Etsy and went for it........meet "Louise", my new roommate......

Does anyone else out there get daring with a rather, ahem, expensive purchase when it gets close to one's birthday?  I told myself that this was one thing I really wanted, that no one in my family would know how to find (or shell out the money for) to surprise me with.  I made myself wait a day, then asked the seller a million questions (he was so super patient, he offered to place a reserve on her for 24 hours while I took more time to think it over)  I think the clincher on this particular dress form was this.....

It took me no time to see that as a sign, since I was born in 1961.  Thank goodness for Visa......here she is!

She's missing her finial on top and the foot pedal, but I can still raise or lower her by hand.........

I am so glad I bought her, she has the perfect staining I was hoping to find, and just a few wears and tears to her.........

I'm having so much fun dressing her and piling on the pearls........I have some vintage clothing I plan to put on her, but so far I can't bring myself to cover her up...........

Is it silly to react this way?  It took me a long time to find one and decide to buy it, and I am so happy that I did, she is everything I wanted in a room mate, and she's my age too!

Thank you for stopping by the blog today, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!

                                                              devon :)

Goods for the Vintage Kitchen

I thought I would show off a few of the things in my Etsy shop today.......I went through a phase where I collected a bunch of unique things geared towards a retro kitchen, and as many of you know there are LOTS of goodies out there to get that look if you so desire..............

Love this, before the days of mega blenders and food processors.....this only does lo and hi.......

               

  there's an actual two sided vintage toaster underneath this cute cover...........

                                flour sifter...........gotta love those tulip graphics.........

                                                             depression glass reamer

                                                signs always look great in a kitchen...............

                              old silverware caddy in that great depression era green.............

                                                         don't forget the canisters............

There's something so cheerful about the vintage kitchen things they used to make......it's so easy to put a little charm in your day to day living with one or two period pieces perched on a shelf or actually doing it's job as a storage container or a tool to cook with.  I hope you'll come take a peek at a few of the things I've got listed.......if you see anything you like by way of this blog let me know and I'll take 10% off!

One more thing I wanted to mention, as many of you know Blogger is doing away with the old "following" type of format we're all used to when we want to follow each other.  Now they're using a system called "linky followers", and I hope if you aren't familiar with it you click on the link and check it out.  I've installed it on my sidebar and hope that you all will sign up so that you might continue to follow my posts.  Thank you all so much for your interest and support of my online musings!!


                                  Here's wishing you a Happy Hump Day!!!

                                                                    devon :)

Junk in the Trunk

   I wasn't fortunate enough to appreciate antiques and vintage items when my grandparents were still alive, although I do remember certain pieces like the old armoir that held toys.........or certain delicate looking trinkets on shelves.  And even though there was a basement full of tools that any man would've envied, there was never a trip to "grandmother's attic" when I visited.  I have imagined this scene lots of times from reading books and being a vintage junkie........there's a huge Victorian attic with lots of forgotten treasures hidden in the dark.......and there was always a chest.  You know, the big old chest that had linens and a wedding dress and quilts and tons of stuff put away in it, just waiting for someone to discover many years later.  So even though I never had a personal experience of finding such a thing on my own, I seem to have started one just out storage necessity.........

                                         It's at the foot of my bed in my bedroom.............

                     I realize I am very blessed with this piece, because even though it isn't from a grandmother or a great-great grandmother, it is an antique that my husband and I acquired a couple of years ago when his sister sold her house in New York, and with it some priceless antiques. This thing is ancient......

                                                            and it's pretty big................

                                                those are some heavy duty handles......

           Since I'm a collector and have always had more than I have display room for,
I started utilizing this trunk for storage.  It pretty much holds things I don't want
to part with or have just run out of a place for....

                                                         alot of my quilts are in here..........

                        There's a small collection of Steiff animals that I got as a child........

and a doll of my mother's, I always call her "Mary Jane"......she sleeps on the doll bed my grandfather made for me when I was little............

And I know this is kinda unsettling, but when I was about 6 I had a beloved
guinea pig, and when she died I held a wake on this doll bed.......I remember that so well; I know it's kinda morbid, but I was only 6, so I guess I can be excused on that one..........

There's some old hangers that used to be in my closet as a toddler.... I remember when I finally got the "normal kind" to hold my clothes up when these became too small.......

                             And then we come to the dressers.  For awhile I had this
                                               thing about vintage doll dressers.....

                                       they were sooo hard to find, and I never met one
                                                     I didn't love and had to have.....

there's just something so endearing about their small-ness (? is that a word?).....I'm a real sucker for anything miniature............

             and most of them have those adorable little graphics on them..........

                           this one has it's own miniature version of mirror-silvering........

I did find ways to use them...........a few of them still have little notes from my children tucked in the drawers

this one still has the little craft sticks my daughter made in elementary school to help her with chores.....

My idea was to somehow put these dressers on a shelf up high around her room, they're really kind of hard to display when you have so many. But the collection didn't happen overnight and I never got the shelf up. Eventually I knew she was way more crazy about animals and horses being in her room than old vintage dressers..........

so now the dressers are put away in the trunk, er, chest..........I'm not sure what I'll end up doing with them since I don't really have any space to display them;  It's hard to give up a collection of anything when you remember how long and passionate you were about it at one time!  I suppose if I keep them where they are, in that trunk, maybe, just maybe one day a little someone might be up in my attic snooping around, and open the lid to find these old toys..........

and while she turns away to go look for a box of something plastic to play with, her mother will get to experience the fun of going through an old chest in the attic!!!

                                            Here's wishing you all a wonderful week!!!

                                                                      devon :)


P.s. I've been adding to my Etsy shop lately, hope you will all take a look at the link on the sidebar and check out the vintage finds at Livin' In The Past !!!