A few of my favorite things

There is nothing like vintage treasures that you just love surrounding yourself with, that bring a smile to your face, or makes you recall a special memory of someone who meant the world to you.


Here are a few more of my favorite things:

I got these vintage binoculars in an antique store in Maine.  They have a gold, green, black patina and still work.  I like to keep them on my bookshelf and use them to look at the birds outside my window.

This shoe form was a purchase from a Barn Sale near Frederick, MD.  The size 8 intrigues me.  It has been well used, and it makes my imagination run wild with silly questions, such as who was the person who used this form to keep their shoes in form?  What kind of shoes did the person wear?  Leather?  Boots?  A heel?  Where is the partner to this shoe form? 

These pieces have significant sentimental value to me.  My grandmother gave them to me before she passed.  The first is a wood carving of a young girl looking up and off in the distance.  She is wearing a turtle neck and overalls and sneakers.  My grandmother told me that she got it because it reminded her of my mother on her first day of school.  The second is a small carved duck.   She got it when she was on vacation in either Georgia or Florida.  There was a blind native american boy carving them on the side of the road, and she just had to buy it.

This is also sentimental.  When I began to show an interest in sowing, my grandmother gave me some of my great grandmother's sowing treasures, including this thimble.  It has turquoise stones in it.

This patina-ed scale sits on my corner cabinet.

This cloche was a house warming present from an aunt.  Inside is a small bird's nest. 

This teacup and saucer were at an estate sale, and the daintiness of it was so appealing to me.  I put a dried white rose in the teacup.

I needed a narrow end table for the space next to my guest bed.  I found this ladder at the DC Big Flea.  The front two steps actually fold out and make perfect shelf space.  I was going to paint it blue to match some of the other colors in the room, but I think I have really taken a liking to the green.  There are so many layers of paint on this thing, and you can see red, yellow, blue, and white shining through.  I love it. 


And those are a few more of my favorite things :)

A Few Of My Favorite Things: Chippy Distressed Frames

I absolutely love distressed, chippy paint frames.  I think that frames are just as important as the painting/ picture it is framing.  I particularly fall head over heels for frames that are made out of reclaimed wood from old window frames, door frames, or molding.   The result is there is not only a story for the picture, but also a story and a historical context for the frame.  I have found these frames at estate sales, yard sales, flea markets, antique stores, and specialty vintage stores. 

This is a picture my friend's mom sent her of a gorgeous tatting that was done by my friend's grandmother (didja follow that?).  The colors in this picture were so amazing that I just had to frame it.  The frame is made of reclaimed wood from a door frame of an old house that was torn down in the Georgetown area of Washington, DC. 

This pink frame is made from reclaimed wood from the same Georgetown home of the frame above.  I love the crackles of the paint.  I have not yet decided on what should go into this frame, so I used black and white decorative paper for now.   This frame is so distressed that it will actually give you splinters if you are not careful.

This frame, which was featured in one of my previous blog posts,  is one of my favorites.  I am not sure if I love the painting or the frame more.  The distressed paint gives it such an amazing texture!

This turquoise/ teal frame is also made of reclaimed wood from a window frame of an old home, and as a bonus it came with a picture in it.  Not only do I love the frame, but I also love the picture of these women on the beach, sitting on an overturned lifeguard boat and posing in their bathing suits with swim caps and high stockings.  When I look at this picture, I can FEEL how much fun they had this day!  

 

 

This small frame is made of reclaimed wood from a home in "Old Town" Alexandria, VA, and also is filled with decorative blue and white paper until I find the perfect picture/painting.  Honestly, it might stay like this, because the color and details of the frame are so eye-catching that it will likely overshadow anything I put in it. 

This is me when I was little with my great grandmother (or Nana Nana) on the porch of her apartment in Newark, NJ.  This frame has wooden embellishments that are worn down with the natural wood shining through.   This special woman deserves a special frame.

This frame contains a picture of me and my friend and sits on top of one of my bookcases in my reading room.   Besides the awesome pale green color of this frame, I love how you can see the grains of the wood and all of the wood's imperfections. 

This picture of me and my cousin Kortney is in a distressed white frame that has a design carved into the wood.  I love it (and I love her too!!). 

This frame is made from reclaimed wood from a barn that was torn down south of Denver, Colorado. The picture is of me and my brother during my college graduation in 2003.  He looks so young here! (And he'll probably kill me for talking about him on my blog ...)
 

This distressed frame holds a postcard of a Van Gogh painting that I purchased in an art museum.  Besides the distressing, I also love the flower wood embellishment on top. 

And last, but certainly not least, is this frame.  This frame holds a special place in my heart because my father and I made it together.  I found this painting next to a dumpster, and I knew with the right frame it would be a keeper.  My father and I found old molding and sawed, glued, hammered, and cursed our way through until it fit the canvas perfectly.  Then I painted it a base coat of green that matches some of the green in the painting, and painted white over it.  I then distressed it until some of the green showed through.  After a few blisters, the result was this frame and a special memory of me and my dad.

(Disclaimer: This painting is only temporarily on the floor while I move some items around).

And those are a few of my favorite things.   


This was shared with:

Common Ground's Vintage Inspired Friday (and she is having a great giveaway too!)

A Few Of My Favorite Things: Fireplace Mantels

I don't have a fireplace.  But I didn't let a minor detail like that stop me from getting a fireplace mantel!

I envisioned a white, slightly chippy mantel that maybe has decorative touches like fancy molding or designs carved into the old wood.

Then I found this old vintage mantel at On A Whim in Lucketts, VA for $35, and had to have it :

I still might paint it white, but right now I am liking how the black contrasts with everything.  Even though it has simple straight lines and no elaborate molding or carvings, I still really like it.
 

It has five old rusty hooks along the front.  I can't wait to hang Christmas stocking from them!  (Side note: Since we are currently in a heat wave with a heat index of 118 degrees, thinking about Christmas right now is refreshing!)  That cute little metal bird was a find at Old Lucketts Store.  I <3 it.

The vintage window pane is the one that I picked up from Community Forklift.  I have been going back and forth about putting a painting here, but for now this chippy frame is just right.




On a similar note - one of my most favorite blog series is by Nibs Blog who did a Fireplace Mantel Series of 12 different and distinct ways to decorate the same fireplace mantel.  The transformations are so amazing! 


Here are just a few:

 

Unbelievably creative, right??  You need to check out Nibs' Blog!

And those are a few of my favorite things!

A Few Of My Favorite Things: Old Jars

A love of mason jars is not an unheard of concept in the blogosphere.  I have read many blog entries where the writer professes her devotion to mason jars of all colors and sizes.  This blog entry is not going to be much different from those other blogs, except perhaps my love goes beyond just old mason jars and expands to all old jars :)

Here is a table setting I used recently for a party.  It was three jars - one large ball jar, one medium ball jar, and one medium white jar - with yellow and white flowers in them.  Very simple.  I loved it!

You can also see from the above pictures that I drink out of mason jars - both canning mason jars and some mason jars with handles that I found somewhere along the way.    The cute table cloth is from Dwell Studios. 

  I absolutely love colored mason jars.  I love the extra "chicness" a blue jar gives a table setting.  I recently came across some violet colored mason jars on Etsy and haven't been able to stop thinking about them since!

Here is another Ball jar that I have on top of the white table I painted and posted about last week.  This particular jar is a widemouth jar, which I find to be much better suited for flowers.   I often tie ribbon or twine around the neck of the jars. 

This is a Royal Crest Milk bottle that I picked up at an estate sale in Denver.  I love the shape of it!  I have it in my basement bathroom.  It is amazing how much flowers brighten up a windowless room!

I picked up this bottle in Hallowell, ME.  It says "Dr. Pierce's Favorite Prescription For the Cure of the Chronic Weaknesses and Complaints Peculiar to Females."   I keep a linen rose in this bottle, because I am afraid of getting a drop of water close to that fragile label! 

This is a malted milk bottle that I also picked up in Hallowell, ME.  This beauty is currently the home to my feather collection.   When I purchased it, it had an odd grainy ash inside of it, and I had to ask the antique store owner to call the seller of this jar to make sure I wasn't purchasing grandma with the jar!  I still have no idea what was in it, but she assured me it was not grandma :)

And finally, these jars (two ball jars, one jar without any insignia) hold corks, buttons, and sea shells.  They are currently clustered on top of a bookshelf in my reading room.  

And those are a few of my favorite things :)