My Vintage Soul

Glads and a Bonus

Today I'm glad for glads (gladioli), especially these lovely white ones, which were a gift from a neighbor whose middle daughter was married over the weekend.

Aren't they beautiful?

Their unexpected arrival sent me searching for just the right vase. And inside the vase, which I hadn’'t used in about 10 years, was an assortment of odds and ends that included this note from the Tooth Fairy. It’'s to my youngest daughter, Grace, who must have been 6 or 7 at the time.

It's ironic that these flowers, which were at the wedding of one grownup girl, triggered some memories of my almost grownup girl who’'s heading off to college very soon. She still has that beautiful smile, probably because she's still brushing.

Glads, by the way, are sometimes called sword lilies. According to telaflora.com, gladioli symbolize strength and moral integrity, as well as infatuation. They're also the August birth flower, which is my birthday month. Just about everything you need to know about growing glads can be found here, Giddy over Gladiolus, courtesy of the North Dakota State University.

This Old House

I live in a new house.

And it's a very nice new house, although after 17 years, it's not all that new. And we're getting to the point where this needs to be replaced and that needs to be fixed (again). And I'm really dreading replacing the roof in a year or two (hopefully two).

But I've always loved old houses, so I collect them.

Like this one, which I happened upon last summer. I look at it and I wonder about who lived there over the years.

At one time, probably before there was an auto repair shop across the street and a railroad track practically in the back yard, she was a beauty.

Even now, with the shabby roof and the peeling paint, you can still see the potential. That stained glass window? Love.

Those details on the porch? Love them too.

So if I ever move again, it probably won't be to this house, which recently sold and is being restored. But maybe it will be to my very own old house.

Good Things, Small Package

As part of my new pledge to buy less, I'm introducing what I think will become a regular feature on this blog. It's this: Good Things, Small Package, which roughly translates to little treasures that leave me with a big smile.

 

The package can be as ordinary as, well, an ordinary paper bag.

 

But look closer and you're intrigued. You know you have to look inside.

 

And when you do, you find an unexpected treasure -- vintage Christmas bulbs, the miniature ones that might have been on a net tree. And there's not just a few boxes in that bag. 

 

There's a whole dozen.

 

Red ones.

 

Blue ones.

 

Chartreuse-y green ones. 

 

And jackpot! Aqua and pink ones.

And, finally, teeny-tiny ones from Woolworth's, which make you long for the days when it truly was America's Christmas Store.

What good thing in a small package will you find next? Stay tuned.

 

Heaven Scent

If your computer was a smell-a-puter, then you would smell vanilla when you look at these lilies. A few years ago, I planted some bulbs to fill in after the peonies had finished blooming. And now, these lilies have taken center stage in July because of their sheer size (nearly 5 feet tall) and their intoxicating fragrance.

But more than smell good, they also glow, especially in the early evening when the sun hits them in just the right way.

I wish I could tell you exactly what kind of lilies they are but I'm not sure. A little Googling makes me think they're an Orientpet, which is a cross between an Oriental lily and a trumpet lily. In any event, they're a wonderful way to savor summer.

Less is Really More

There is a dirty little secret about junkin' and it's this: It's a heck of a lot easier and more fun to acquire things than it is to get rid of them.

Which explains how I had gotten myself into a bit of a predicament.

Vintage has been a lifelong passion but it became an obsession when I began to blog. At the time, it seemed like a reasonable venture to buy something cheap, sell it for more and make some money. And so, over the last few years, I have been spending a lot of time, actually too much time, accumulating. I've sold some, but there was clearly more than I could handle anytime soon. It became evident that the mass of stuff in the basement had become a critical mass that was overwhelming me and controlling me.

To deal with the monster that I had created, I've spent the last month removing items, refocusing my energies and obviously not blogging very much. There's still plenty of stuff to work through, but with what I've sold recently at the antiques show and the garage sale, plus several donations to the thrift store, I can see a little light at the end of the tunnel. And that feels really great.

Getting to this point has been painful but necessary. The process of hauling out all those boxes and bags made me think about what I buy and why. I came to the conclusion that I had been trying to cover too many bases: linens, holidays, wallpaper, millinery, etc., etc. I mean, really, did I actually need eight boxes of Bingo cards? Of course not.

And now, with the elimination of maybe a third of what I had, I feel so much better and a lot less guilty. From here on out, I plan to junk less but enjoy it more. I've rebooted the Etsy shop with some fresh items (a few are pictured here), with more to come. To keep more stuff moving out the door than coming in the door, I hope to list similar items and sell some "instant" collections.

So what will I blog about, seeing how this narrative has evolved mostly into tales about me and my junk? Well, I will still share the great sales but probably not as often. You'll probably see more posts about a single treasure that I love. Maybe if I'm junking less, I'll have time to garden, craft and who knows what else. Perhaps I'll even share a recipe or two.

Time will tell. My little blog and I are works in progress.

 

Yankee Doodle Dandy

 

Happy July 4th and Happy Birthday America!