Grandpa's Jacket

I'll never forget the biggest thrift haul of my life. A whole retirement community, that is located just a few blocks from my house, was having their annual neighborhood yard sale. Of the 50 or so houses in the neighborhood, more than half of them were participating and had all of their goods displayed nicely in their driveways and garages. These are the types of sales that people like me drool over and I was there bright and early with a larger than average budget and an empty car waiting to be filled.

The very first house I went to on that day nearly wiped out my budget and filled up half of my car. I couldn't help it. Everything in the house was being sold and the prices were set to sell fast. I went over table after table of knick knacks and kitchen goods and sorted through box after box of clothes. As I searched, more and more stuff kept flowing out of the home. I could've stayed there all day.

This Old House - Sterling, IL

Even though I live in the desert and am happy that I don't have to drive on ice in the winter, I still long to move somewhere that has all four seasons. Illinois is my first pick since that is where I grew up and where most of my family still lives.
There are some gorgeous homes in Illinois. There you don't often find cookie cutter neighborhoods where every house looks exactly the same like you do here. And there are some very old homes there as well. I've looked around the Phoenix area for old homes and have trouble finding anything made earlier than 1950 and even the 50's houses are few and far between.
Recently I came across a house in Illinois, that I would move to in a heart beat. Even if it has ghosts, I would move there today. It is almost 100 years old, having been built in 1920. It is a little bit more rural than I would like, but I feel like if I lived here, I would never want to leave anyway. If I did need to get my big city fix, Chicago is about 2 hours away, so...

I mean, look at this beauty! It's stunning!

The Goldberg's Fashion Inspiration

My last fashion inspiration post from a tv show was all about Freaks and Geeks and now this one is all about The Goldbergs. I guess I'm stuck in that 80s/ 90s aesthetic. That was the style I grew up in, so I think I'm naturally drawn to it. Both the 80s and the 90s could be described as simultaneously being the best and worst times in fashion history. I don't foresee the gawdy embellished jumpsuits worn by middle aged moms in the 80s ever making a comeback. However, the bright, bold colors of that time still echo in modern fashion. The grunge look of the 90s has been cleaned up a bit, but there is still something beautiful about flowered baby doll dresses with plaid flannel and doc marten boots. My love for these decades may be driven mostly by nostalgia, but that's ok.

Mini Trees for the Mini Me's - DIY

With the leftover branches I had after making our half Christmas tree, I was able to make two mini trees for my mini me and my husband's mini him. They each got to decorate their own trees however they wanted and proudly displayed them in their rooms.

All I did was take two branches and zip tied them together. I used three zip ties on each one; one each for the top, middle and bottom. I happened to have two baskets for the stands. I stood the tree in each one and wrapped old sheets and fabric around the base to secure them in place. Then I fluffed out the little branches.

Here is how they turned out.

Hers

Retirement Community Sale and A Car Load Full of Stuff

I recently had the biggest thrift haul that I've ever had in my life! I think it was the first time that I literally stuffed my car full of yard sale finds all in the matter of a few hours. I'm talking stuffed, too! Every available spot in my car was filled to the brim and I couldn't even see out of my rearview mirror and only had a little peephole to see through my passenger side window. I guess you could say it got a little dangerous in that way.
I couldn't help myself. There is a large retirement community right around the corner from my house and they were having a neighborhood wide yard sale. Let me add, that these usually make for THE BEST yard sales. Not only are they conveniently all located close together, but they always have the oldest (true vintage) and most unique items ever. I hadn't even planned on thrifting that day, but when I saw their community wide sale, I had to go. And I'm so glad I did! Not only did I come away with a car full of great stuff for the shop, but I also met some really nice folks AND came home with a giant ocean painting for free.

-insert ocean painting here-

but i can't because i'm having technical difficulties uploading the photo.

damn.

I'll try again tomorrow.

But, I'll tell you, it's pretty great.

Picture a beautiful, blue and foamy white wave about to break, close to the shore, but no beach.

Just a few rocks in the foreground.

And a calm, blue sky with just a hint of clouds in the background.

Surrounded by a nice, golden stained wood frame.

Trust me, it's nice.

And big.

It's about 2 ft x 4 ft

And it looks nice in my bedroom.

I Promise

I vow, with my whole heart, that I will never ever do an "upcycle" project that will ruin the integrity of a beautiful vintage item. I will never paint wood that should not be painted. I will never destroy a book to make a trendy house decoration. Books should be read. I will never paint a globe, so as to not see the land divisions of that particular time. That is a part of history and history should not be forgotten. Also, I find that shit really interesting. I might chalkboard paint something, because chalkboards have always and will always be cool. However, I will not chalkboard paint a mid century dresser with dove tailed drawers. I won't melt records into bowls... Actually, I have done that, but to be fair, I did listen to the whole thing and it really wasn't anything to brag about on facebook or anything and I was pretty sure that no one else would be yearning to hear that particular record, so.... yea. I might fuck up some records every now and then. Just know that I will make sure to give the record a fair trial before I cut it up and make a purse out of it. I'll never bastardize a designer dress or make a shitty skirt out of a perfectly excellent vintage t-shirt.
I'm giving this vow, because with the power of the internet, idiots are out there blogging about how they re-created a vintage piece, copying another shitty blog who destroyed a perfectly built hutch and painted it into a trendy nightmare, thus ruining the finish and patina that the item was intended to have. It kills me sometimes that people will paint an item to be look "shabby chic" when in reality, if you think an item "needs" to be painted, then it probably already is "shabby chic". Sometimes, re-paints are necessary. And sometimes they stray far from it's original finish and look really cool, but what happens when every skillfully carved victorian dresser is painted silver long after the silver trend is over? Do you strip and re-paint it? Re-store it? Long to have a blonde wooded dresser the way they were made back in the day?
Here is the long and short of it folks. I think the 80s are a good marker for when the manufacturing business changed. True craftsmen of quality goods were pushed aside to make way for a more "economical" business model. Meaning that, manufacturers wanted to save money by using the cheapest materials possible and pay the least amount of money to hire people to make said products. And now we have pressed wood entertainment centers that fall apart after a couple years. Dresser drawers break the minute you put away your sweaters and and hastily sewn seams unravel after minimal wear. This has become the norm. This is what its come to.
When your grandpa says, "Back in my day, people used to care about what they built. They would take pride in it and make it beautiful. A piece of art." He's speaking the truth. Everybody's grandpa has said that, in so many words, at some point in time. Or our dads or uncles... They've all said it and they're all right. "Back in the day", shit was built to last. And last it did. Except for maybe cars. Cars have come a long way in their available safety features. They may not always look as cool as they used to, but I got to give it up for science and research on that one. And big up to engineers who designed my car so that I would have better chances at getting from point a to point b safely. But, in the general sense of the term, these general goods that we use on a daily basis, are being manufactured to fail. The older items, however, were built to last. Grandpa, Uncle, Daddy, Brother was right.
So, when I see some of these bloggers out there posting upcycle projects that destroy genuinely good vintage pieces, I can't help but cringe. Don't get me wrong. I love a good upcycle project, but not when it destroys the integrity of a well-built piece of history. Please, crafters, do your research on things before you chop them up and paint them! Make sure you're not ruining the value of something by changing it. Think about re-storing things to their original grandeur first, before painting it a trendy color that will be out of style next season. By all means, don't stop fixing things up, don't stop upcycling. Don't stop saving things from going into a landfill. Just please make sure you do your research first and consider preserving vintage rather than changing it. They don't make these things like they used to and if too many people jump on the upcycle band wagon without the proper knowledge of the things they are potentially destroying, pretty soon we won't have anything left.

There is something quite charming and magical about vintage items. They can take you away to a different place and time. They can show you a small slice of history, like, what the standard style of dress was in a certain decade or show you that at one time, telephones were not mobile and were attached to a wall in a home. Back then, when you were “on the phone,” you were almost literally “on” it or wrapped up in it by an immensely long, curly chord. These vintage items tell a story and you get double the story-telling with a vintage book.
When listing reasons why I love old books so much, I absolutely must begin with the smell of them. If you are a true bibliophile, I challenge you to go to a book store and NOT sniff the pages of the books you skim through. Even the new books smell great with that scent of fresh ink on new paper. However, the older books have more distinct and intoxicating smells. It has been proven that smell is a powerful memory trigger. I won’t go into all the scientific details of why, but if you want to learn more about that, click here.  I think that might be why so many people love the smell of books; because those smells remind them of something. Sometimes I smell books that remind me of early school days and other times I’m taken back to my Grandma’s living room. The scents from these pages can trigger so many memories and emotions, that your mind starts to imagine what kind of home the book lived in before it came into your hands and what kind of person sat up late reading it by a bedside lamp (or candle if the book is really old).  Speaking of candles, if someone made an “old book scented” candle, I would probably buy it by the case.

It's true. I do. Nearly every one that I pick up.