Painting a picture while asking you questions

Imagine if you will…

It’s summer – possibly June or July. The weather is warm if not downright hot.  The gardens are planted, flowers are blooming, tomatoes are ripening and there’s a song in your heart and a smile on your face because you’re planning to attend an amazing vintage event over the weekend to shop for something specific or perhaps for everything in general (my preferred method).

With that in mind, let me ask you this:  How would you feel if you turned a corner at this hypothetical summertime vintage event and came across something like this?

Please do not attempt to adjust your eyeballs. This photo is blurry.

Or this?

 Or this?

I brake for Shiny Brites. 

Would you stop and shop? In July?

Would you need to put your head between your knees and count to 10 to avoid passing out? (No, wait, that’s not you. That’s me).

I’m curious to know if anyone else shops for vintage Christmas year round like I do?  

I did mention there would be questions, didn’t I? See, there’s another one. 

I know if I came across a vendor in a middle-of-the-summer vintage event (or even during a regular non-holiday-season visit to a vintage mall), who was dedicated solely to vintage Christmas, regardless of what might be on my shopping list, I would stop dead in my tracks.

More blurriness shiny-ness.

But maybe that’s just me. Shopping year round for vintage Christmas is one of those things that feels perfectly normal.*

OR… maybe it’s not just me.  Maybe it’s you too. 

Maybe we’re all in the same secret, sparkly, shiny club and don’t realize it!  

And so because I know how I feel about the topic of vintage Christmas year round, I wonder how you might feel about it and would greatly appreciate any enabling feedback you’d like to provide.

Thank you and Merry Vintage Christmas.

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

* Disclaimer: I acknowledge that it’s entirely possible I may have lost my grip on “normal” some time ago.

PS I took the Christmas photos shown here in late 2013 when Magpie Ethel and I combined our vintage Christmas hoards at Monticello Antique Marketplace.  She wrote a fun post about it and you can CLICK HERE to read it. Lots of eye candy. 

You Are Getting Very Sleepy.

…and when I count to three, you will awaken, open your eyes and remember nothing of the past three months.

Which ought to be pretty easy to do because there hasn’t been anything here to remember.

Hello! How are you?

I. Am. Fine.  Just wandered a little too close to the edge of the internet and fell off for a bit.

Here’s how I’ve been spending my internet summer vacation:

Feeling rustic for Fall. 

Keeping my space at Monticello Antique Marketplace filled and fluffed while looking ahead to the vintage Christmas holidays. Still waiting/hoping to find that big vintage Christmas score out there, somewhere.  An abandoned Shiny Brite ornament factory filled with long forgotten inventory would be ideal.

Which brings us to…

Fortunately I didn't spend an arm and a leg on these.

Yard sale-ing with mixed results.  Is it just me or does it seem as though yard sales are getting less awesome by the minute? Out here in the country, they’re my main source of vintage treasure during the summer months so every weekend I head out with my fingers crossed.

…and then head home with not nearly as much vintage treasure as I had hoped. Where has it all gone? I double-checked and it’s not in my garage.

Well, maybe a little is in there.

Heaven on earth in Alameda, CA

Junking with Ethel.  Earlier this month, she and I made a speedy trip down to the Alameda Antiques Faire (aka The Vintage Mother Ship) in the San Francisco bay area, with many, many stops along the way at antique malls, thrift stores, junk shops and anyplace else that caught our eye.

Currently obsessing over these mini diorama vintage ornaments

Have a wonderful holiday weekend. Missed you!

From the eight of us

Can you believe how much Ed & Alma's kids have grown?

I’d like to join Ed and Alma, Glen & Helen Nelson and Bill, Lois and David in wishing you all the very best this holiday season.

Lots of peace, love and joy to you.   xo

Wrapping up a little vintage Christmas

The short story of a handmade, vintage wallpaper-covered box and the upcycled vintage Christmas ornament inside it.

In photos. 

With minimal words.

Just because.

Thrifted. 

Hoarded.

Upcycled.

I’d like to interrupt the silence here by mentioning that I continue to be hot-glue-gun-impaired and I get around this by using Aleene’s Glass & Bead adhesive (it comes in a tube!) which doesn’t smell all that great but works like a charm when you need something shiny & slick to stick to something else that’s shiny & slick.

Carry on.

Designed.

Prepared.

Constructed.

Packed.

Gifted.

Are you ready? It’s almost here.

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!

Remember when?

Do you recall how open and innocent and empty my antique mall space was the day I moved in?

Egads! (that’s me channeling my mother, by the way)

And yet, I must be doing something wrong.

Because as my mall space fills up, my house doesn’t seem to be any less full.

What’s up with that?

Don’t answer that. 

(I just returned from an estate sale. I’m starting to sense a pattern here.)

And if you’re wondering about those three dressers that were on the brink of becoming a permanent part of the scenery here, they are going, going, gone!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Memorandum

TO: Thrift Store Owners and Operators

DATE: November 27, 2012

RE: Vintage Christmas Inventory

It has come to my attention after an unannounced inspection of your shops this morning, despite the fact it is now 5 full days after Thanksgiving, many of you are not yet in compliance with the GYVCIOOTSN(P)* directive sent down from corporate.

As a courtesy, you will be allowed an additional 48 hours to bring your shop up to code prior to the next round of visitations.

Failure to do so may result in a fit and/or tears from one extremely disappointed shopper.

Please make every effort to prevent this.

With your cooperation, we can all have the very best vintage Christmas season ever.

*Get Your Vintage Christmas Inventory Out On the Shelves Now (Please)

Just another day at the office. And a winner!

 

 

The last few days have been spent pricing, packing, loading, hauling and unloading items for my antique mall space in preparation for what I hope will be an onslaught of holiday shoppers in the coming weeks.

Or better yet, holiday buyers.

I spent a large part of one day shuffling things from the left side of my mall space over to the right side and vice versa.

It really does work to promote sales, I promise.

 

Phase 2 will involve the addition of shiny, little Christmas doodads

 

Except for dressers, of course. 

 

Garage escapees.

Meanwhile, the team of accountants here at Into Vintage really burned the midnight oil as they tabulated the entries for the vintage ornament Christmas tree giveaway.

After much cutting up and folding of many little pieces of paper with commenter’s names on them, one name has been drawn from the hat and I’m happy to announce the winner:

 

From one Amy to another, congratulations!!

 

 

And to ALL of you: THANK YOU!

I am honored & humbled that so many of you took the time to enter -- you blew my doors right off their hinges! 

If you made the trip over here from Meadowbrook Farm, so nice to meet you!

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!