Serving Up Vintage Finds

Boonsboro Days is next month (see sidebar). Emma suggested that we have a craft day with Lydia to get us going on making things to sell. So yesterday, we had fun with some of the vintage goodies we've found this summer. My goal was to put together a fruit and flowers arrangement. I started with a red transferware ironstone compote (bought at the DC Big Flea last weekend):
Then I sorted through millinery decorations
and antique and vintage ribbons I've been collecting for a couple of years.
Sometimes I use a few new materials, but usually I stick with antique and vintage things. I often build them onto a small base within the compote, vase, or stand. This time, I just started building directly onto the compote using a hot glue gun. I only put glue on the stems to fasten them. This process can be as quick or deliberate as you like. My approach is always slow--trying this and that until it looks just the way I'd like it to. Here was yesterday's result:I had a glass cloche at home, so I left room for that along the edge of the compote. Otherwise, I would have loaded more things on for a fuller, overflowing Furber look.

While I was working away, Lydia got the girls (Larissa, Saxon, and Emma) going on watercolor bookmarks. They produced some great work!Here are some of Emma's in progress:
Some pretty bling vintage buttons (also found at the DC Big Flea) called out to me to make pins. I also had a stash of yo-yos made of vintage fabric, one old ribbon flower, and a linen flower. With some linen and felt for backing (thanks Lydia!), I sewed some of them together and made these:
Emma made these colorful pins:Lydia was so busy helping everyone else and preparing food that it was difficult for her to do her own art projects! But she started making pretty ornaments using old porcelain dolls and doll parts. Can't wait to see the finished work--thanks Lydia for hosting such a fun day for all of us!

Shabby Chic, Primitives, Vintage, Garden, or what?

My son's middle school PTA used magazine subscriptions as a fundraiser. Two of my favorites were Cottage Living and Country Home--both of which have ceased publication in the last several months, along with Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion, which I usually bought off the newsstand. What gives? The downward spiral of the housing market led to a downward spiral of advertising in said magazines. Maybe the prevalence of home design blogs was a factor, too. (Chicken? Egg?) Without my magazines (oh, I still receive Country Living and the resurrected Victoria), I have been trying to get a handle on blogs and style.

The kids have complained that I have an art gallery in the powder room. We had some really dated pseudo-stencil primitive wallpaper in there when we moved in. After awhile, I convinced my other half to strip off the wallpaper and paint. Unfortunately, the shade of green we picked had a few more neon notes than we anticipated. But we're stuck with it for awhile.A small space is an ideal place for small pictures that could otherwise get lost in a larger room.

Great little mirrored shelves from the Pink Cabbage:The shelves hold a vintage chalk bird (bought at a nearby church yard sale) and an antique chalk box bought at Thoreauly Antiques in Concord, Mass.

I love the 19th century schoolgirl pencil drawing in its original frame. The dealer I bought it from in New Market said she got it on Eutaw Street in Baltimore. There is a girl's name written in script on the back of the frame's edge. She appears in the census in Baltimore in the late 19th century. It's great when you can connect these dots!
Being able to learn something about the person who created a picture or object is rewarding. You can enjoy a picture for its own sake, but the personal story makes it even better. What I collect fluctuates a little; I tend to go to all the styles mentioned above. Maybe these are Victorian Vignettes in their own way on a life-size scale!

From a kid's eye view- antiques and vintage shops

It's Emma the youngest of the flock. My brother would not post anything on my mom's blog for a million bucks so this whole section will be written by me (and edited by my mom). A good thing I learned from my mom is that you have to know the value in an object. One of my mom's biggest shopping pet peeves is brand new furniture made yesterday painted or distressed to look like an antique or vintage. Also having a good eye is a good quality when shopping. My mom and I share a lot of interests so shopping together is never a hard thing. We have a lot of favorite shops and we've decided to share:
- R. Trammell & Sons; Old Bowie, MD
- The Pink Cabbage; Rt.144 and Triadelphia Rd., Ellicott City, MD
- Lucy & Ethel's; Savage Mill, Foundry St Savage, MD
- The Vintage Shoppes; Main St., Ellicott City, MD
- Steele's Country; AAA Mall, Freestate Dr. Laurel, MD
- Antiques on Talbot; Talbot St., St. Michael's, MD
- Antiques Emporium; E. Patrick St., Frederick, MD

Those are all the ones that come to mind at the moment but there will be more. [Note from Mom: I love Jeannie Trammell's shop in Bowie for antiques. I'm a long-time customer-about 18 years. She has great taste and good things. Back to Emma.] The Vintage Shoppes and The Pink Cabbage have to be our favs (vintage). Very girly, prices are reasonable, and there's something that comes out with us every time! My mom and I recently did a yard sale at The Pink Cabbage called Strawberry Days from 8-5.

I'm really starting to enjoy doing yard sales and craft festivals/shows. Back in Sept. '08 mom and I did a show near Hagerstown called Boonsboro Days:
It was supposed to be a two day event but the Saturday was rained out by heavy rains by hurricane Ike. There was nothing else to do because we were an hour and a half away from home and we were staying with my brother's friend's family who lived 5 minutes away from the show who were also doing it. It was raining really hard and I was really bummed so mom and I found ourselves spending the majority of the afternoon at an outlet mall some 20 minutes away. Then the next day it was sunny and the skies looked really good so we did it. We shared a booth with the friend we were staying with. Our crafts are called Victorian Vignettes and hers were called Lydia Oh Lydia! Her blog is called " Beauty will surely save the world". So we are doing Boonsboro Days again this year because of all the fun we had last year and this year we have our own booth 10x10' under a tent! Wish us luck! Arrivederchi!
In the interest of equal time, even though he wouldn't blog himself, here is something about my son. He doesn't do much shopping. He'll help at a yard sale, but won't shop too much at one unless I'm there selling. And that can get old fast. His long-time interests are playing soccer and art. The mandala mounted with a yellow mat (pictured below) was on exhibit in the observation deck gallery at Thurgood Marshall/BWI International Airport last year. It was quite an honor to be among the middle schoolers in Maryland whose art was selected.
This year, his silk painting of an orangutan was on display at Columbia Mall. I love this painting! This was his third time participating in the annual exhibit of Howard County students' art at the mall.Hope you enjoyed learning a little about my children :) We'll have more to say about yard sales and antiquing in future posts.

Victorian vignettes &c

This is my first post on my blog--welcome! I make crafts that I have been referring to as Victorian Vignettes, but I have just learned that another blogger goes by that name. So the name of this blog could change. But this blog will be about the crafts and all kinds of other subjects-mostly related, but some probably not.

I work full-time, so craftmaking is a part-time thing for me. My primary home activities are dictated by my children's schedules--soccer, Girl Scouts, choir, and anything else they do.

Meanwhile, my crafts use vintage millinery flowers and fruit, ribbons, fabric, antique bottles, vintage porcelain figures, ephemera, and other items to make a picture. These are based on Victorian crafts like nature and flower shadowboxes or still lifes under glass domes.

This all started as a winter project with my daughter Emma in 2008. We would go looking for vintage items to use for crafts and then trying working on some shadowboxes together. Initially, Emma made lots of tags--really nice ones.


Then last September, we helped my friend Lydia at Boonsboro Days. She's an artist; we shared a booth selling artwork, vintage smalls, and antiques. The first day of the show was rained out by Hurricane Ike (yes, even in western Maryland), but the second day brought sun and crowds. We did well so we're doing Boonsboro Days again this year.

The shadowbox in the upper right sold at Lydia's Home Show last fall. Then I traded the one on the lower left with a fiber artist.

I participated in the Pink Cabbage's (http://www.geocities.com/thepinkcabbage/ ) 4th annual Strawberry Days Yard Sale last weekend; it's a fundraiser for the American Cancer society. The shop invited its customers to sell household things, their own crafts, or whatever! Here is a picture in our booth taken by one of the shopkeepers--thank you-I am flattered--of some of the crafts we showed:

We sold one shadowbox and one other craft. Most of the public took this show at its word-Yard Sale! So we sold lots of our house things--miscellaneous stuff that just seems to accumulate and multiply :) Emma and I have a lot of fun with this. I spend some of my free time scouting out more vintage things and antiques. And I'll share some of those adventures on this blog. I'll post when I can. Thanks for visiting!