Beautiful Buttons

I recently inherited a bag of buttons, increasing my collection from about 10 to an overflowing cookie-tin's worth! There is something about buttons...

Treasure Chest

I had the most exciting antique-ing find of my life last weekend when I came upon this wonderful treasure chest at the Five Corners Antique mall in Essex.



I have no words to describe my excitement. Look at all that thread! Those colors! And the bias tape collection in the bottom? Simply perfect.



Now that I've taken pictures (I wanted you to see it in all its original glory!) I get to organize it all, sort through and decide where everything goes. Oh my, this might just be too much for me!

A new venture...

A few months ago my Craigslist.org perusing landed me an antique Chandler and Price tabletop letterpress, formerly of the Pioneer village near Port Henry, NY. It is currently sitting in my mudroom, as I slowly find and accumulate the necessary parts to make it run. A trip to some antique stores while in Tucson early in the spring resulted in this beautiful little collection:


And I have just received notice that two sets of beautiful cursive font I ordered have been sent! Now I need to spend some quality time with a wire brush and get the press into working order. There are several other parts still needed, including all the necessaries for putting the type together and setting it in the press - if anyone out there has suggestions on where to find these things on a very limited budget, I would love to hear from you!


I am incredibly excited about the metal type, but there is something about wood letters that just gets me. The lower case "e" especially - I could have bought en entire army of those happy little fellows.

This Little Piggy

These little piggy salt and pepper shakers came home with me today from my new favorite local antique shop. The "Shed" is run by an elderly man, who, I have a suspicion, doesn't really want to part with the hundreds upon hundreds of items in his care. And I do not exaggerate the extent of his inventory; Christmas ornaments, Tiffany-style lamps, and kettles hang from the ceilings; old library card catalog chests hold corks in many sizes, old power cords, hundreds of decks of playing cards, drawer pulls, and knitting needles; There are buckets of door handles and spigots and an entire aisle of salt and pepper shakers. There really is very little room to walk and the prices are a tad high (as I said, I don't think the owner really wants to sell), but if you are in need of an antique cane, or a Hall escargot server, this place is tops!

The Red Suitcase

Over the weekend, last weekend that is (where did the week go?), I travelled to Toronto to help my parents with packing for a big move. It was finally time to pack away all the little treasures I had never taken away with me, mostly the little treasures that I would not want to lose, but that are not really vital to every day living. To pack them away in style, I went thrifting and found a perfect small red vintage suitcase.

In the course of packing, I came upon some of my grandmothers Vogue magazines, salvaged from her attic years ago (there are actually boxes of these waiting in storage for me - so good).


My packing was slowed down somewhat my the perfect picturesque-ness of the vintage mags in the vintage suitcase - perhaps I was procrastinating.

Antique Treasures

When my parents were here for graduation weekend, we took a little trip to some local antique stores. In my mind there are two types of antique shops - there are the places just packed full of stuff, where you dig through stacks and peer behind dusty frames to find that one amazing piece, and the austere, clean places where each item is a treasure, handpicked by an antique expert and usually quite pricey.

For me, the first kind is exciting in a way I feel in the pit of my stomach, with the possibility of coming upon the most wonderful treasure unexpectedly in each pile of brittle magazines or stack of discarded license plates.



I came home with three purchases. This ceramic cup, which I am considering a vase and which has such a perfect shape for holding that I carried it around the rest of the afternoon like a toddler with a security blanket.



An old-fashioned egg beater, something I have been wanting for along time. When I was little, there was a certain lady I used to visit who had a miniature version of this along with other tea set items. The rest have become faded in my memory, but I always thought the eggbeaters were terrific and wanted one of my own. And now I have one!

The third item was the striped rug in the pictures of the rotary press. Its a bit worn, but I feel like that means I can use it without trepidation.