A Few Of My Favorite Things

I like old things. 

Vintage. Antique.

 Two great words to describe my style & taste.

When I go to thrift stores or antique shops I like to browse to see what they have to offer, but there are a few choice items that I try to keep an eye out for.

Things like:

Matryoshka Dolls

Vintage Tea Tins

Books (particularly old versions of Jane Austen novels)

Women's Handkerchiefs

Old Suitcases

& 

Tea Cups

A few stacks of my hankies. I still need to frame a bunch of them, sew others onto some bunting, and I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest.

A few of my favorites all spread out.

The pretty lady on the right is huge. The bearded man on the left is the average size of the largest matryoshka doll, so the beautiful Christmas doll is about 12 inches tall!!

Some more of my beauties. Note the little doggy in the bottom right-hand corner? He's a little cutie I named Basil. He's a toy from the 1930's & I rescued him off a dusty shelf in the corner of an antique mall.

It's a MATRYOSHKA PARTY!

A few of my tea tins hanging out on my dresser. (Also pictured: vintage souvenir Dutch clogs, my Great-Grandma's yellow tea pot with a tiny matching cup, a fake candle with the Eiffel Tower on it, a vintage tin tray on top of a bigger vintage tray both covered in my jewelry, and a piggy bank from Target.)

Another little tin nestled into a cozy section of my dresser. (Also pictured: blue vase I rescued from a dirty old thrift store, a tea cup & saucer that weren't made for each other, but I decided that they belonged together anyway, my Grandpa's old jewelry box, a spool of vintage fabric ribbon, and Dutch clogs the last time I was in the Netherlands.)

I was going to put off posting pictures of this great find until Friday so I could do a 'Great Find Friday' post, but I just couldn't help myself! I went to the local Antique Mall here in Monterey to have a little retail therapy after my dear friend, Melissa, left this morning on her big move back to the East Coast. I went to the corner where my favorite seller displays her items when I noticed on a little roll-top desk a few books sat. The first one I picked up:

Emerson's Poems!!

I adore the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

His philosophies on life are brilliant, and if you've never read anything by him you need to go hit up Borders before it closes & get a copy of 'Nature' or any collection of his essays and poems.

So I looked through this book & fell in love.

It was printed in either the 1880's or 1890's, the seller thinks (there is no print date inside the book at all.) & you can tell it was well-loved by it's previous owner, but it is still in excellent condition!

Great Find Friday!

So my dear friend, Melissa,  & I spent the day in Monterey and Pacific Grove. We weren't planning on doing much shopping, just going out to lunch and maybe walking around enjoying our town. Well Monterey had too many tourists running around & we decided to mosey on over to Pacific Grove to check out what I thought was a used book store. Turns out it was an independent book store with not much of a selection, nothing that Melissa was looking for, and too many little, colorful items that Layla couldn't stop picking up and messing with. So we got out of there quickly and decided to stop by 'Animal Welfare Benefit Shop' which is a sweet little consignment shop which, as you may guess from the name, benefits the welfare of local animals. I couldn't NOT go in this shop after knowing that! So we putter around & Layla and I find some cute stuff, but what really catches my eye is this beat up, ugly green shelf. It's exactly what I've been looking for!

One of the things I want to start collecting is Matryoshka dolls, but I don't want to start collecting them until I have something awesome to display them on! So I have been looking for something on a small scale that I can hang in my bedroom. No more than 4 shelves, and no less than 3. Preferably something a bit older that I can paint whatever color that catches my fancy. I've actually been searching for a while, and I basically gave up hope until this ugly little thing caught my eye today! I was thrilled! Plus, it was on $5!!! PERFECT!!

I cannot wait until I get this little thing sanded down and painted. Then I can start collecting cute little treasures from consignment shops & antique stores to proudly display on my latest & greatest find!

cheers,
Jenna.