Summer Travels and an Anniversary

I have been remiss in my blogging of late; I have been off and running with my boys (excuse me, young men) this last month and haven't stopped long enough to sit down and put two thoughts together.

My excessive wanderings have been prompted by the realization that this July is really the end of an era for my sons and I. Carefree summers with easy schedules are coming to a close.

By next summer we will probably all have jobs (in addition to the etsy shop) and sundry sports and Boy Scout activities that are already making way more black marks on my calendar than I care for...life flows on.

However, in all our activities of this last month - as I squeezed out as much fun and memories as I can possibly fit into this precious summertime -- you know I've made time for some pickin' too.

On our camping trip to New Hampshire, I found this great, hand-tooled leather briefcase in a thrift shop. It sold two-weeks after we got home.
A few weeks ago, I was able to go out in the van with Linda, her mom and my aunt to a tiny burg in south-eastern PA, their community center was having a fund raising sale. I found this, one of the prettiest pieces on Milk Glass I've ever come across...shaped like a bird's nest.
The boys have found a few nice things too on our travels. Will picked up this green, Russel Wright baking dish.

Evan found this fun 70's ice bucket.


And while I was off camping, my one-year "etsy anniversary" passed. On July 8th my etsy shop had been open 365-days, and I had sold 408 items...yay. My goal had been to average an item a day and feels very good to have passed that goal.

I do love etsy.



twoblondsandavan.blogspot.com

The 70's Rule

After I used my curling iron to make two perfect rolls of hair to be feathered away from my face, I slipped on my clogs, kissed my Davie Jones poster and went outside to jump on my banana-seat bike and meet my friends at the 7-11.



Sorry, channeling my childhood in the 70's. They might be slightly fashion impaired years, but they are still good memories of a simpler life and a time when people were challenging old ways of thinking, and doing it in killer hip-huggers (my father's personal favorite part of the 70's).



It is this nostalgia that has people not much older than I was when the 70's were upon us, now buying little pieces of that time to decorate their homes and themselves.
















I have a lot of fun searching yard sales and thrift stores for little bits of the past, my past, that make me smile and I know will make someone else smile too.

The pictures in today's blog are items from the 70's I have recently sold in my etsy.com shop.

Think Real

A few months ago I was walking around a beautiful shop in Philadelphia admiring their very pretty, and very expensive wares, when I was struck with how much an antique-looking enameled pitcher (like the one pictured above) looked like one I had just seen on etsy.com from a seller of vintage items.

When I reached up on the shelf to take the pitcher down and look more closely at it, I also noticed there were about six behind it exactly like it. Mass produced pitchers made to look like an authentic one-of-a-kind one from the past...and more expensive than the original.

Here is one (pictured below) I found in an etsy .com shop that got its chips and character by being passed around the family table on a farm for a generation or two (or three). And it costs less than the imitation.


And there are so many choices, too, and you won't find any two exactly the same. Here is an adorable one with a Pennsylvania Dutch design, and it's only $10!

So when you are looking for something special to decorate your home or give as a gift, consider something authentic. It doesn't take any more time to go onto etsy.com than on crateandbarrel.com, or go to a local antique shop than the Pier One store - let yourself be delighted and surprised at the really special and beautiful things you will find.

Beginnings, Endings, Beginnings

I feel like finding vintage things for my etsy shop is part of a cycle. The things I hunt down were once new, treasured, then became "old" and unwanted, tucked away in the corner of the garage or attic, and then years later are taken out again to either have a little sticker with ".25" stuck to them or put in a box for Salvation Army. But then they are rediscovered, bought again by someone who treasures or collects that exact vintage thing-a-ma-bob.

On this rainy, gray Monday, I finished putting together a cover letter, synopsis and manuscript for a publisher. This is the last manuscript I finished and one of the last publishers I plan on approaching for awhile, so in some ways I'm feeling like I'm in a cycle myself. Putting aside what I have been pursuing for the last several years to explore new things, but I still have hope someday I'll rediscover my passion when the time is right.

So on my way home from the post office, I stopped at the local Goodwill just to poke around. In addition to finding some great old enameled refrigerator tins (just put them up in the etsy shop)I also found - I hesitate to say "strange thing" because I think it's great - not Monopoly, but...




The game was sealed so I couldn't peak in, but reading the side it looks like it was a fund raiser for a Temple in Baltimore.