Collecting vintage hats, gloves & purses: Grandma's Beads

  When you take a peek into my guest room you will soon realize that I have a soft spot for vintage beads, hats & clunky vinyl purses. I think the gal who gets the credit (or blame) for this collection is my dear sweet Grandma Maar, who had a flair for fashion. My Grandma, Teresia Maar immigrated to America  in 1954 from Yugoslavia with her husband Rudolf and their six children, (my mom was six years old at the time). Their voyage across the Atlantic Ocean brought them through Ellis Island and the family made their way to Cleveland, Ohio where they settled and had one more child.

  I love looking at old black & white photographs of my Grandma in her younger years; although life was hard and money was tight, Grandma was definitely a woman of  style.  From my careful study of those old photos, I've learned Grandma had a thing for floral dresses, high heel shoes, scarves, hats and most definitely large strands of beads, clip-on earrings and rectangular shiny purses! Regardless of her fashions being second hand purchases from thrift stores, she was adorable as well as classy - all 4foot 11inches of her!
   Sadly, no one in my family recalls where Grandma's jewelry, hats & handbags went to when she passed away. Through the years I've pieced together a small collection of items that could have been hers; things that were all the rage back in those "good old days" when ladies dressed up to go to church, the grocery store, out to eat, and even while vacuuming the living room carpet (a lesson taught by those classic tv moms of the 50's and 60's). 
   I love scouring flea markets, antique malls and even Grandma's old stomping ground: the thrift store for all things old and sylish! Vintage beads are still fairly easy to find and you can nab a strand for about $3 to $20 depending on where you look. Hats and purses are more challenging to find, especially finding them in good shape; they tend to average between $5 - $45.

    I love showing off my vintage pretties in unique & unexpected ways. The old metal plant stand (shown above) painted white makes a great display for my collection of old hats.  Purses are adorable attached to a wall with beads, hankies and gloves hanging from the clasp (I used tiny brass nails to hang them). Beads look fun when dangled from an old coffee mug tree, piled high on a pretty cake stand, or placed in a beautiful bowl or in a special container such as an empty heart-shaped box of chocolates. When you dangle them from the side they look as if they're trying to escape and when they're heaped together in swirls of color they remind me of pirate's booty and of those sweet times when my children used them as props in their make-believe world of pirates, spies, knights and fairy tale princesses.

   Although the beads in my collection never belonged to my Grandma, there's something about them that makes me feel as if I'm connected to her and to women like her who lived in a world so different from my own. I am reminded of a generation of women who were ladies in every sense of the word; who knew that true beauty was just as much inward as it is outward, and who embraced their femininity and their roles as wives and mothers. As I said a few posts back - I grew up in the wrong era! Oh well, what can I do except clasp some dangly beads around my neck and get out the vacuum cleaner!

  



Collecting vintage brushes: Marked with Love

   My husband's birthday is coming up and I still don't know what I'm going to get the man, (after 23 years of marriage you would think that I'd have this down to a science). For the past two years on MY birthday he has given me gift certificates to my favorite antique shops, so I guess he doesn't have it down to a science either, (and I always thought I was easy to buy for). Last year, about four months before his birthday I found a beautiful old desk at an antique store and put it on lay-away, using my "mad money" to make payments so he wouldn't suspect, which he didn't. He was very surprised and quite impressed that I pulled it off, and I think he even liked it - an added bonus! This old brush, however, reminds me of one of his birthdays that I didn't pull off.

    I bought this vintage brush for my husband's birthday about ten years ago. I'm not sure what kind of brush it is - I always thought it was a shoe brush but now that I've been watching "Downton Abbey" episodes on the telly, I don't know what it could have been used for (those gentlemen seemed to have a brush for everything back then). It is made of soft leather, and the bristles are definitely made from some type of animal hair. The inscription reads: "R.O. Applewhite Christmas 1948" and is signed, although I can't make out the signature.

   I put the brush in an adorable little shoe shine box I found at a yard sale and filled it with a few more brushes, old and new, along with various cans of shoe polishes and leather conditioners. I truly thought he'd be impressed with such a gift, because, after all, he was as a Marine and had a thing for shiny shoes, boots in particular. As soon as my husband opened his gift I could tell that he wasn't nearly as thrilled to receive it as I was to give it. He politely said "Thank you" and put it down on the floor where it remained and eventually made its way behind the living room door. The funny thing is no matter where we've called "home" these past ten years, that shoe shine box always gets unpacked and placed behind the living room door (it does make an excellent doorstop). Thankfully, he's a good sport and doesn't complain; perhaps he has come to terms with the fact that his wife enjoys shopping at antique malls much more than going to shopping malls.

   Getting back to that old brush. I get warm fuzzies when I find an old treasure that has been marked with an inscription. It shows, in a tangible way, it belonged to, and was used by, someone who is no longer with us. It's almost as sacred to me as a tombstone in a forgotten old cemetery.

   I also love the fact the giver of the gift was kind and generous enough to go the extra mile and not only present something special, but mark it in a way that would always remind the recipient of a milestone or special event in their life.

   We hardly do that anymore. Maybe it's because things aren't made to last; most items are manufactured so inexpensively it's not worth the money to put an inscription on. Perhaps, too, it's because our generation seems to become tired and bored with our stuff - we like to change things up, get rid of the old and start fresh every so often. I'm just as guilty as the next person. The sad reality is we don't see things as valuable nor hold onto things to pass them down to others as generations have done before us.

   Regardless of the reasons, inscriptions make these treasures of the past all the more endearing because they have been marked with love. Now if I could only find the "perfect" treasure to present my dear husband to mark his birthday with love and make his heart go pitter patter as it does mine - wish me luck! 

   Question: What do YOU get for a man who doesn't seem to need anything?

Collecting kitchen tables: Chrome + Formica = FUN!

     There's nothing like a bright red formica table to welcome back-door friends into my kitchen. I adore these old dinette sets from days gone by  and I'm drawn to them just as a small child is drawn to collecting rocks or seashells.  Through the years, I have gathered a small collection of these kitchy darlings in various shapes and sizes, but, due to their size, it is impossible to display them all at once. Because of this factor, there are some tables that lie in wait in the closet beneath the stairs. Their "coming out" party will probably be when my kids leave the nest and are in need of furniture for their first apartments - no problem, I've got 'em covered. 

   My decorating tastes have evolved considerably since my husband and I were newlyweds in the late eighties; believe it or not, I started out with wicker baskets, bunnies, geese & gingham.  After a few years of marriage and a move to southern California, my decorating tastes morphed into out-of-control Coca-Cola craziness, which I blame on visiting the Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta, Georgia on our trip cross country. We got our first red formica & chrome table (pictured above), during those Coke years when our friends, Bo & Deb went antiquing in Pennsylvania.  Bo found it in the hayloft in a barn turned antique shop under a pile of hay, and, knowing that I was in the market for one, he called us in California and the rest is history!  It's the table my kids will probably remember most when they look back on their childhood.

   A couple of years later I introduced pinks, aquas, yellows and greens to my home making it the pastel paradise that it is today. My next chrome & formica purchase was a large oval yellow table with funky chrome balls in the pedestal and a leaf that made a great extension when company came over to share a meal. I had the chairs reupholstered in aqua vinyl to match a set I saw in Mary Englebreit's Home Companion magazine, [let us pause for a moment of silence to remember my favorite magazine now out of publication...]. The groovy aqua chairs are pictured above around my red table, but the yellow table now lies in darkness in the closet beneath the stairs.

   My yellow drop-leaf table (pictured above) is currently my kitchen "island" and I love it dearly. My daughter and I found it on our first trip to the Hillsville Flea Market in 2009 and purchased it from a vendor who came all the way from Ohio. I still remember the "walk of pain" my 13 year-old daughter and I endured as we carried it uphill for at least a half mile until our fingers were numb and calves were mooing in pain - a great memory now, but not so fun at the time!

   The blue oval one that currently sits on our back porch (pictured below) was purchased at an antique shop in the adorable town of  Elizabethton, Tennessee. I paid much more than I should have - but it's BLUE, and blue is not an easy find, so it was worth it to me. 

   I now have all the colors that I need, (two greens and another yellow are also beneath the stairs)...but I still have one more color to go - a PINK one! I saw one once when I was antiquing, but it was way too pricey for my budget so I passed on it. I still have dreams about it, beautiful pink dreams of the one that got away! 

     I don't know what it is about the intense colors of formica and the shiny polished chrome that have forged such an enduring place in my heart. Maybe they remind me of an era that could have been mine if I was just born a decade or two sooner. They remind me of the days of Lucy & Ethyl scheming up a plan or playing Bridge with Ricky & Fred, or of Aunt Bea serving up pot roast and apple pie to Andy & Opie. An era when folks sat around the kitchen table peeling potatoes and snapping beans, when it was fashionable to wear an apron and when it was okay for women to be housewives and raise their own children.  

    A friend of mine, who is in her 70's, visited my home and couldn't stop raving about the kitchen; she pointed out all of the various items that were in the room that were similar to her childhood home, including the chrome & formica table and chairs. It was fascinating to hear the details of her childhood that each item in the room had brought to her mind. We enjoyed a lovely afternoon of recollections from her past, and after she had left, it dawned on me that my children will have those sorts of memories too, but over a half century later - Wow! Talk about messing with someone's head!

   Hopefully our children will have fond memories of their childhood too; talking, laughing, reading devotions, playing games, shucking corn, enjoying pot roast with mashed potatoes & gravy - all those blessings that bring a family together around a kitchen table, no matter what the table may look like.

Beware: Color is contagious!

   I baked banana bread this morning and had to fetch the step stool to reach my favorite pyrex loaf pans from the shelf.  I got them down, rinsed and dried each one and, as I carefully sat them down on my little yellow table that I use as my kitchen island, it dawned on me how much I love the colors red, yellow and blue (aqua blue in particular). In fact, I realized for the first time that I love these colors so much that they show up, not just in quirky things I collect, but also ON my house! Take a look!  
   I give you exhibit A: my kitchen. First, let me direct you to the left of the countertop to my red & white striped popcorn bowl, which is where I keep my clean stash of dishcloths. When you look at the rest of the counter, it's not hard at all to figure out which colors I'm drawn to (of course there's much more color in this kitchen to show you, but that will have to wait for another time).

    Now I give you exibit B and exhibit C - the colors that I chose for the exterior of our out-buildings and house. Can you believe it? The funniest thing is that I obviously must have a thing for red & white stripes too, because there they are again on the awning of our little guest cottage (crazy huh?).

   When we moved into our home almost four years ago it was antique white with putty-colored shudders & trim, not ugly, but just not me. Choosing new house colors was a bit of a challenge; at first I thought pink with white trim and shutters, but the men in the family quickly protested - especially the younger one, who blurted out, "Come on Mom, I'm going into middle school, don't do that to me!" He had a point.

   Yellow was next in line and no one seemed to object; only I wanted to kick it up a notch and use something other than white trim - something like aqua and red. When the house painter painted the front door he asked me to come out and make sure that I liked it before his crew painted the windows to match. I had the kids come out with me. We walked straight out to the sidewalk before turning around, then turned at the same moment for the ultimate surprise. My daughter and I actually said "WOW!" in unison while my son, in a tone of frustration exclaimed, "Oh great - now we live in a circus house!" (who knew that an eleven year old boy could be so passionate about color?)
    A circus house? Hmm...well, I guess this would be a good time to show you exhibit D: the clown planter sitting on the other side of the popcorn bowl (he hides my stash of goofy things I save like bread clips, rubber bands, and caps from soda bottles and milk jugs).
   Why am I drawn to circus colors? Who knows? Maybe it's because they are so colorful and cheerful, or maybe because I was voted "Class Clown" by my high school senior class ...or maybe it's because I live with a bunch of clowns in our big yellow, red and aqua fun house, aka the circus house, aka Home sweet Home. Yep, I bet that's it.

   

Collecting the odd & quirky: Thelma & Louise

     I bought this little beauty a few years ago and she reminds me of a wild and crazy day I had with my friend Erika in Orlando, Florida.

    I was in Orlando attending a Children's Pastor's Conference with a group of gals from my church whom I served with in Children's ministry. On the last day of the conference Erika and I decided to play hookie and go antiquing. We rented a car and played "beat the clock" in an attempt to hit as many antique shops as possible before our mid-afternoon flight back home.
     It was a wonderful plan and a glorious day; the weather was bright and beautiful and we were two gals on a mission. We had plenty of cash between us, a vehicle that wasn't a minivan, and a lunch that didn't include a cheap plastic toy. We were dangerous.
   We were Thelma and Louise, only we didn't break any laws - we kept to the speed limit, each and every U-turn was legal, and the car's four tires remained on the road at all times (except for that little mishap on the curb).
   Unfortunately this shopping excursion took place in the pre-GPS days and neither one of us had great map-reading skills, but who needed map skills when you're two women on an adventure without men? We just kept asking for directions every few blocks or so until we hit an antique store and then we'd ask the clerk for directions to the next one on our way out. It was like a crazy scavenger hunt all over town - and it was fun!
   We laughed our way through Orlando for about five hours until we had to call it quits and ask for directions one final time and make haste to the airport. We arrived just in time and raced to meet our friends who were waiting at the gate for us; my beloved lady lamp tucked beneath my arm.
   As we approached our friends they stood staring wide-eyed at my lady lamp. Surprisingly, their fixed gaze was not in adornment but of shock, (Remember the 1983 movie, "A Christmas Story" when Ralphie's dad put his leg lamp in the front window? Well these gals had the same look as Ralphie's mom). When I asked the question, "Isn't she a great?" and they realized that I actually meant it, their mouths dropped to the floor in perfect synchronization.
    Oh well, it didn't matter, I loved my purchase and still love her to this day. In fact, my husband and children presented me with her twin as a Mother's day gift three years ago, (and sent me on a scavenger hunt to find her). Do you know what I call my lovely twin lamp ladies? You guessed it: "Thelma & Louise!" (thanks for the memories Erika!)