The Stories

I didn't expect when I started selling vintage things on etsy.com that I would enjoy the stories and backgrounds about the items so much. Here's a couple of them...

A woman from New Jersey wrote me a really nice note about how happy she was to find this squirrel cookie jar for her sister. It's the exact kind her sister had in her kitchen in the 70's, she loved it and it broke, and she could never find another to replace it...until now. I think the buyer is going to sneak it on her sister's counter when she's not looking and surprise her.

This vintage child's chair/ stool was bought by a woman who had an aging dog and wanted something cute for the end of their bed to help the dog get up...and her husband's name is Thomas, how perfect is that.


A woman in Finland saw this sewing box in my shop and fell in love with it so much, that she paid over twice for shipping than what she paid for the actual box. I was worried when she got it that she would regret her decision, but she wrote me a very nice note and said she couldn't be happier.

I get such a kick out of the fact that all these things were basically forgotten in someone's attic or garage only a very short while - sometimes only hours or days -- before someone else saw them on etsy and were thrilled to find them.
I feel like Match.com for stuff.

Nostalgia

Since I have embarked on this new adventure of finding old stuff, determining if I think this old stuff is something other people would like to buy...and then trying to sell it to them...I have been surprised at some of the things people want - a beat up Thermos, a cookie jar shaped like a mushroom, or green plastic spoon rest in the shape of an owl.

Some of the things people buy I remember wearing when in high school, or maybe its something my grandmother put her leftovers in, or a brooch my Aunt Mary wore. Things that at one time seemed old and dated. But now, they're appreciated all over again, many times because of the feelings they evoke, remembered feelings of home and childhood, and even a little innocence. Things that you want around you again to remind you of when life was a bit more simple, grounded. Even things that just made you laugh. I love that my job now is to find these pieces of the past that make us smile, or feel pretty, or just look super cool in our renovated ranch houses.

This all became clearer to me this weekend when I returned to the far off and mystical land of my birth - New Jersey -- to be surrounded by the people of my youth - my family, in all its messy, loud, wonderfulness. I treasure these times more than all the vintage thermos, spoon rests and beaded brooches in this great big world.

So, as I like to put pictures here on the blog of either my "favorite" thing I discovered that day or the "strangest," I will give you both in one picture from this weekend... granddaddy playing with my nephew's Mind Flex game in full headgear.
I wonder if thirty years from now someone will be on etsy.com trying to buy one of those old Mind Flex games, they'll remember when their grandfather put it on at a party and acted silly...