Can I get your autograph?

I wrote a lame title for this post and I just couldn’t bring myself to use it but it’s dorky enough that it seemed a shame not to share.  Ready?

Vintage Junk Rocks!  

Random junk photo taken on the same day as the other photos in this post... 

Ok, I’ve probably written worse but if you knew how much over-thinking I put into things, you’d understand why I consider that kind of cringe-worthy and once/if you read this post (unless that last sentence was enough to make you turn off your computer or put down your phone or abandon your tablet and leave the area) you’ll understand how lacking-in-subtlety (yet easy) that title would have been.  For me.

Did I mention the over-thinking? Good.

So.

Ditto on this photo. 

There’s been a series of totally random yet very delightful emails showing up around The Land of Into Vintage lately and here’s one example:

Hello,

I was wondering if you would be interested in letting us use the attached photo on an album cover for a small up and coming band called Surviving Allison. It will be used in good taste, and we would give you full credit for the photo on the album.

What?!

You may recall a post from back in the olden days when I took myself out for some birthday junking and snapped these photos while in an antique mall in Astoria, OR (Hi there, Phog Bounders Antique Mall).

 Then that random-yet-delightful email arrived and before I responded, mad googling commenced in order to check out the band, Surviving Allison.  I just wanted to make sure they don't sacrifice unicorns or anything like that.

They don't.

And so my response to the email was a big, ol’ YES.

Days later, this appeared in my inbox.

The designer told me each object with a sales tag represents a member of the band.

No words except maybe “Vintage junk rocks!”

Click here to go to  Surviving Allison's website. 

Or follow them on Instagram here.

------------------------------------

P.S. a HUMONGOUS thank you to everyone who took the time to wish my dear Auntie a happy birthday on my previous post. You are the best. xo  

Mile marker 90.

Please indulge me while I type up this tribute to a favorite vintage person who also happens to be very modern…

She is someone who defines optimism as “…an 80+ year old woman who renews her passport.” (And uses it!)

She’s on Facebook. She’s an email pro and has been for years. 

She knows what in the world airbnb* is and finds it pretty interesting. 

She takes selfies!

Selfie taken while dining on roasted duck & fig crepes from "Planet of the Crepes" food cart

She has a resume that contains the following titles: Award-winning Author, Gourmet Chef, Restaurant Review Writer, Business Owner, and Hotel Social Director.  (There are more. This is just the highlight reel. )

Former Social Director at the beautiful Broadmoor Hotel

She found her great love at age 80 and married him.

She is a tireless cheerleader for reconnecting far-flung family members.

She induces anxiety by asking this visiting short order cook to prepare dinner for her. (See previous reference to “Gourmet Chef” and “Restaurant Review Writer.”  Sheer terror, I tell you.)

Celebrating something or another 

She reduces anxiety by introducing visiting short order cooks to Prosecco, Limoncello, and Bellinis.

She shares a rare genetic disorder with yours truly that involves the acquisition of pretty vintage dishes. So many dishes. We can’t be stopped but probably should be.

She appreciates beauty all around her, especially in her home and her garden. 

She dresses so stylishly that someone needs to put her on the pages of Vogue.

She reads my blog, refers to me as a writer and encourages and supports all of my endeavors.

All of this (and much, much more) describes my Auntie Phyllis, who turns 90 today.

I would love and appreciate it so much if you would please wish her a “Happy Birthday” in the comments below.  Thank you.  ♥

Photo borrowed from her Facebook page 

Ninety!  Love you, Auntie!  xo

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*airbnb.com

Before They Were Bloggers

In a desperate attempt to unearth some sort of vintage Christmas treasure at a local thrift shop, I turned to a part of the store I usually never even slow down for, let alone browse in.

It's that place where old vinyl albums and cassette tapes go to collect forever-dust: The Record Department.

And that’s where I found it.

A very rare, out-of-print album featuring an extremely collectible cover, designed by two well-known vintage crafters before they turned their talents to blogging, spun-head collecting and vintage-Christmas-ornament-locating.

My hands were shaking as I slowly turned it over in order to find the tiny, telltale evidence that this was the gem I suspected it might be.

Ah yes, there it is.

An Ethel & Oodles original.

My lucky day!

Pin to Vintage

Maybe by now you’ve had a chance to check out Pinterest, the website where you can ‘pin’ photos from the internet to your personal ‘pinboards’.

Occasionally you might even come across photos from your very own blog!

WARNING: I have found Pinterest to be extremely addictive and now know it should not be viewed unless one is prepared to abandon all previously scheduled activities and perhaps be willing to skip a meal or two while under its spell.

 If you want to see if a photo has been pinned from your blog, replace the xxxxxx with your blog's name:  http://pinterest.com/source/xxxxxx.blogspot.com/

For instance, to see what’s been pinned from Into Vintage, I would use this: http://pinterest.com/source/sointovintage.blogspot.com/

One photo from this blog that’s been pinned is this vintage ornament tree I made last year.

And yesterday another vintage-loving blogger, Charlene, emailed me to share her version of the ornament tree:

I love it! And she was so clever to do this on a real door – why didn’t I think of that?

See all of her photos on her blog, Willow & Paisley.

Now I’m wondering…are there more of these vintage ornament trees out there?

In other news, the exciting Third Annual Academy of Vintage Christmas Ornament Arts and Sciences Award Ceremony (um, does that name get longer every year?) is underway over at Oodles and oodles.

This year’s winners have been announced including the highly anticipated “Best Christmas Ornament Reminiscent of a Joni Mitchell Song.”

You’ll see.

PS You can click HERE to see what I’ve ‘pinned’ onto Pinterest.

I’m going to stop saying ‘pin’ and just say pin now.  Pin.

Two for two

In addition to my addiction to vintage Christmas and vintage dishes (and vintage fabric and vintage tablecloths…), I am now officially addicted to selling at vintage events.

It is So! Much! Fun!

This photo courtesy of Plucky Maidens

At least after all the hauling, unloading, sweating and setting up is done and even that’s pretty fun.

As I type this, I realize it’s possible I have a twisted vision of a good time. 

Last week was my second vintage event as a vendor, this time at Plucky Maidens Junk Fest in Portland, OR and it was as terrific as my first experience but in its own unique ways.

Yet another fabulous venue, throngs and throngs of shoppers (on a Thursday afternoon, no less) and even a celebrity brush with fame!

Here are some of the things I sold at this event:

Furniture of all sorts – a gray & white painted dresser, some Mid Century Modern side tables (wish I had a hundred of those), a vintage wood settee frame with rusty coils, vintage typewriter tables and an Adirondack chair.

Milk glass vases of all shapes & sizes.

Little bottles. These were voted ‘Most Popular’ by the other vintage items in my booth.

Vintage cameras. Far and away the winners of ‘Most Likely to be Picked Up, Examined & Used to Take a Pretend Photo.’

Vintage yearbooks – I sold several from the early 1960’s. I still wonder what the man in a suit & tie who bought them will use them for?

This photo courtesy of Plucky Maidens

Hand-painted vintage signs. I live in the Columbia River Gorge (aka The Gorge) and so do these buyers.

Vintage chalkware fruit and vegetables.

Vintage ice cube trays. As if on cue, every person who touched these said, “I grew up with these!” (So did I. Many memories of my fingers getting stuck to them…)

Laurie, Emily and yours truly. Thanks to Laurie for this photo!

Oh, and the brush with fame? Emily Henderson of Secrets From a Stylist and last year’s winner of one of my must-watch TV shows, HGTV’s Design Star, stopped by after I posted a comment on her blog letting her know about Plucky Maidens. 

She and Laurie/Ethel and I were just hanging out. J 

Such a fun day!

Where I grant one of you a wish come true

You may recognize this photo from my last post where I was definitely not discussing the regrettable lack of judgment that locked me in its grip one evening years ago, long enough for me to make a very unfortunate decision regarding paint color for this bookcase and then, sadly, to act on it.

As happens from time to time, an alert reader will be so kind as to look right past the embarrassing situation on display only to inquire about that thing in the corner of the frame of the photo.

In this case, that reader was Betsy of My Salvaged Treasures who politely asked not once but twice, “What the heck is the thing with the drawers?!”

Or something like that. J

This one’s for you, Betsy.

click to enlarge

That thing is another rusty metal piece I found half a block away at a neighbor’s yard sale. Junky man-cave-workshop-assorted-bolts storage one minute ... glamorous vintage industrial the next!

Many of the drawers were filled with these tiny light bulbs -- hundreds of them. And I did what I always do when I don’t know what to do with something.  I put them in my etsy shop.

Tomorrow morning I head out to this week’s yard sales, hoping for more of the same luck I had last week, some of which included this:

It feels like a minor miracle that a souvenir map vintage tablecloth can still be found for a quarter

 And this:

 Fingers are crossed in hopes of finding a little vintage Christmas this weekend.

Hope you find some great junk too.

Because one is not enough

Thanks for all of the happy birthday wishes / camera sympathy notes on my last post. I have a new camera now and we're slowly getting to know each other. I'm not sure yet if we're a match made in heaven but since we've just met, I'll see where this goes.

For now, it looks like it's going on a roadtrip!

New Camera and I are hitting the road in a few weeks for ten days of antiquing, thrifting, junking and flea market-ing and I'm pretty darn excited! I plan on attending the Sacramento Antique Fair and the Candlestick Park Antiques & Collectibles Faire and the rest of the time I'll be 'free-styling'. 

(When did I start speaking American Picker?)

My upcoming roadtrip and recent conversations with other vintage-loving bloggers made me realize with the 2011 vintage markets, shows & sales upon us, there are vintage events popping up all over the place that I was unaware of. How did that happen?! And more importantly, how can I prevent it from happening again?

So I had an idea...

What if the information about vintage markets, sales & shows all around the U.S. was available in one place online? Wouldn't that make it easier for us buyers and sellers to be aware of upcoming vintage events?

I hope the answer is YES! because I've created a new blog just for this purpose and it's called Vintage Market Guide.

It's a piece of cake to use because all blog posts will be sorted by state or month/year, making it easy to locate vintage sales & events near you. There's also a google search bar in case you want to search for something more specific such as posts with the word 'barn' or 'junk' or Iowa' in them.

As often as possible, I'd like to include links to bloggers who may be selling at these shows in addition to information about nearby antique malls, thrift stores and architectural salvage shops in case you want to make a day of it. Or a week of it.

I can definitely use your help too, please.

I'll be adding vintage market listings as I come across them but if you know of a can't-miss vintage sale, large or small, and would like it to appear on Vintage Market Guide, email me or leave a comment with any information you might have (show name, dates, address, website, etc) and I'll post it and link to your blog if you like.

And I'll still be blogging away here at Into Vintage. It's because of the many vintage-minded folks I've met through Into Vintage that I was inspired to start Vintage Market Guide. Thank you!

Now let's get out there and do some vintage treasure hunting!

A Tale of Two Birthdays

A little something made by Laurie (aka Magpie Ethel)

Disclaimer: I am another year older today. I disclose this information as it's the only plausible explanation available for what you're about to read.

Act One.

Late one night, Detective Magpie was prowling around the internet with one thing, and one thing only, on her mind.

She had some vintage crafting to do.

She came across this pincushion and realized what was ahead of her: A long night surrounded by spun heads and a hot glue gun. She made some coffee and got to work.

The next morning she emerged from her studio, satisfied. She had done it.

She had created a tiny yet perfectly formed vintage birthday gift, bearing an uncanny resemblance to its recipient (with the exception of the fabulous ensemble worn by this little figure who is clearly a much snappier dresser), right down to the giant needle in her hand.

{  Thank you Laurie, for making this incredible, one-of-a-kind birthday gift for me. I **love** this happy little gal! }

Act Two.

This year I was ahead of the game. The gift for her was made and wrapped. All I had left to do was wait for the birthday luncheon to roll around.

And then I saw her blog post about collecting vintage Oregon state souvenirs. Everything changed after that.

I headed to the Doily Factory.

I had never felt so alive.

I cut and chopped, avoided holes, skipped around stains and was left with just enough 'good parts.'

 

Then a little sewing and before you could say "All done," I dropped my camera. On concrete.

Because I don't do things halfheartedly.

The camera is no longer with us.

But you can see the finished birthday pillow over here. 

The End.