March 24, 2009
This Old House Journal has an incredible feature on new old kitchens. While the arts and crafts and bungalow kitchens featured in the piece are worth a click, the Victorian kitchen is simply breathtaking. Want some kitchen envy?
That photo is just one of three from that featured kitchen, and each is just as lovely. Anyone in the mood for some kitchen envy, or perhaps some kitchen inspiration, should head on over to This Old House Journal.
March 22, 2009
The rising cost of food along with the renewed intrest in “green” thinking is leading to a gardening revival. As one website suggests, now is the time to revive the Victory Gardens of World War II. According to Revive the Victory Garden, in 1943 Americans harvested nearly a third of all vegetables consumed in the United States from their victory gardens.
There’s no reason we can’t revisit the days of home-grown vegetables, and rising food prices are an excellent reason to start planting. Plus, there is a certain comfort in knowing where the food you put on your table has been (ever see Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares? I feel much better when I know the history of what’s on my plate!). Planning out a garden for the first time can be a daunting task. I’m working on my own victory garden plan right now, and I’ve taken a few preliminary steps to figure out what to plant, where, and how. I’ll continue this Victory Garden series of blogs as my garden progresses.
What do you like to eat? The most practical way to determine what to plant is to ask a few basic questions: what do I like to eat? What foods do I use the most in my cooking? What vegetables would I love to cook with, but sometimes pass over at the supermarket due to the price? Asking these questions helped me make a “wish list” of the vegetables I’ll be planting. At this point, I’m not worrying about time or space constraints, or even growing conditions. We’ll narrow that down later. My “wish list” so far includes: lettuce, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, pumpkins, sunflowers, red and green peppers, and green onions. These are all veggies that we use a lot in our cooking, so they would be smart choices for our victory garden.
What can you grow? Not everything does well in every climate, and some veggies will require a lot more babysitting and hand-holding than others. The internet is obviously a great source for determining the growing requirements of certain plants. From my research, I’ve been able to cross carrots off of my list because successful growing in my area takes a lot of skill and effort. Don’t forget that seed packets also typically list the seeds’ growing needs, including sunlight requirements. Examine each item on your “wish list” to determine whether it will grow well in your environment. I have now narrowed my wish list down to: lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, pumpkins, sunflowers, red and green peppers, and green onions.
Plan your Planting. Before turning a trowel, just a little more research is needed. Planting the garden is something that will need to be done over time based on the needs of the seeds, as some do well when planted early in the season, and others do not. Further, some plants need a lot more room than others. Pumpkins, for example, love to sprawl, so if I do decide to go with pumpkins, my pumpkin patch will likely take up more room than the rest of the garden. If your space is limited, you may want to consider planting space-saving techniques such as planting lettuce (which has shallow roots) in between your rows of peas (which have deep roots). Some plants love lots of sunlight, while others thrive with a little more shade. These are all things to work out during the planning phase of the garden so that when the time comes, you’ll be putting the seeds in their optimum places in the garden.
Our Victory Garden has been planned. Next step: playing in the dirt. Stay tuned for Part Two of the Victory Garden blog. In the meantime, here are some great planting resources:
March 22, 2009
Oh, dear. When I posted my blog a few days ago about testing bakelite, I think I created a monster. I’ve been really developing a serious case of bakelite envy. I spent Saturday combing through my usual antique stores searching for a carved bakelite bracelet. I swear I saw a few just a couple of weeks ago, but now they were nowhere to be found so I have turned my search to the Internet.
+w(344))
A beautiful bakelite specimen from Vintage Jewelry Online
There are a lot of antique and vintage jewelry sites online that feature a limited selection of bakelite, but two sites in particular really stand out, and I visit them again and again.
Vintage Jewelry Online has an incredible selection of bakelite broaches and bangles. The site features multiple photos of each item from various views – sadly, that attention to detail is a bit of a rarity on antique jewelry sites.
Bakelite Boutique has a huge selection of bakelite jewelry, including some stunning bakelite bracelets. Sadly, the site has a bit of a primitive feel, and the photos are limited, but nevertheless I have seen some incredibly beautiful pieces there.
I haven’t purchased my bakelite beauty yet as I still have other antique stores in my area to comb. If I can’t find my treasure locally, though, I’ll likely turn to one of these two sites.
March 22, 2009
On Craigslist today:
Are those to die for, or what? If you are in the SE Wisconsin area and feel like paying twenty bucks a pop, these colorful lovelies can be yours. Here’s the ad. I hope someone can enjoy these beauties!
March 22, 2009
Since jadeite has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, pieces of new manufacture touted as vintage originals have been cropping up on eBay. Without the benefit of an in-person inspection or a lot of knowledge about jadeite, a new buyer can easily be duped into spending a lot of money for a new item, believing it to be a rare vintage piece. Today I came across a website that had some excellent information on reproduction and modern jadeite pieces.
“Sparke Plenty” is a lovely site showcasing all kinds of depression era glassware. Their jadeite “reproduction alert” page features photos and descriptions of jadeite pieces of new manufacture. Their information is good and it even identifies the origin of some of the “fantasy” or reproduction pieces. This is an excellent resource for anyone new to jadeite collecting, and a good read for anyone who has been wondering where all of these crazy jadeite pieces have been coming from.
March 22, 2009
Bag Lady University is an amazing site that collects articles and information about vintage handbages, including our beloved lucite and bakelite purses. The site, in Wiki format, is a little strange to navigate for those unfamiliar to the Wiki layout, but it is well worth exploring for the wealth of knowledge that lies therein.
The site is most usefully organized by material and by manufacturer, so browsing lucite purses generally is a few clicks away, and reading about a particular maker, such as Rialto or Charles Kahn, is simple. The real value in the site, however, is the existence of a ton of source material. Dated magazine clippings and adverts are the real gem at Bag Lady University.
From Bag Lady University:
BLU is my first stop whenever researching a new purse, and it is definitely one of the most extensive collections of source material related to lucite and bakelite purses. Enjoy!
March 22, 2009
Whenever I go out with one of my beloved lucite purses, I get comments and compliments. Lucite purses are striking, and quite frankly they are unlike anything that you can buy at the department store. Sadly, they just aren’t terribly useful. Most are small, making it hard to stow keys and a wallet inside together. They are often pricey, so when I do use mine I often worry about cracking the lucite or damaging them somehow. These drawbacks haven’t stopped me from acquiring quite a few lucite purses.
My most useful lucite purse is a Rialto model. Rialto Products, formerly known as Rialto Button and Wood, was a New York Company that became known for its lucite purses with heavily carved lids. The Rialto that I have sort of resembles an ice bucket, but it is large – it is one of just two lucite purses that I can actually fit my wallet into. Sadly, the clasp is broken so it doesn’t close properly. Since the purse is tall, it is prone to tipping, which results in everything spilling out. This purse is my “beater” lucite purse, as I purchased it at a large discount due to its existing damage, so I don’t mind if it gets banged around a bit. While a fine Rialto purse can run well into the hundreds of dollars today, they retailed for between $11.00 – $15.00 in the 1950′s.
On the other end of the spectrum is my Majestic. My Majestic is a clear lucite purse with a tan basket weave embedded into the plastic. This purse was never used, and there is not a nick or scratch on it anywhere. In fact, it came with a pristine booklet touting the quality of Majestic products. I’m absolutely terrified to use this lovely purse, so it adorns a shelf.
In between, I have a number of other lucite lovelies. I have an unlabeled “picnic basket” style tortoise purse with a clear lid – there are usually about 5 of this particular model for sale on eBay at any given time.
A Very Common Lucite Purse
I have a delicious carmel colored purse with broken handles – I’m hoping to find a mate for it that has pristine handles but a broken purse so that between the two of them I can have one nice carmel purse. I have a lovely gray purse with a delicate metal filigreed clasp – that one wins the “most useless purse” award because it is ridiculously tiny. My favorite is a gold-trimmed tortoise colored purse that I found in pristine shape at an antique store. That was the most I’ve paid for any lucite purse ($120) although I suspect it is worth more.
It isn’t hard to see why these purses fell from fashion. They are striking, colorful, and they do turn heads, but at the end of the day, it is so much easier to cart your goods around in something more flexible and less prone to damage.
Want more information about vintage purses? Check out Bag Lady University, or see my review of BLU’s site!
March 20, 2009
I love whimsical things. Whimsical, pretty things with no real useful purpose are particularly appealing to me. That’s probably why I think wall pockets, or wall vases, are really neat.
I guess you have to give credit to the first person who looked at an unadorned wall and thought “hmm…this wall would be way more useful if it had a bird-shaped pocket on it,” thus giving birth to something that looks like the picture above.
Perhaps I don’t give wall pockets enough credit, though. Technically, being a pocket, they are marginally useful. You could put things in them, like flowers. I’d probably put spoons in one, although my spooner would get a little envious.
They really aren’t meant to be utililtarian, of course, and that lass pictured above would look pretty funny with spoons sticking out of her head. A fine, well-placed wall pocket will just ad a nice vintage touch to the retro kitchen. A few dozen wall pockets on the kitchen well…well, that actually seems to be the norm in wall-pocket collecting. Apparently you can’t have just one. I haven’t descended into that madness quite yet. But I’ll admit, I haven’t met a wall pocket that I didn’t like.
March 20, 2009
I love finding vintage furniture on Craigslist. Sadly, the fine item for a good deal is a bit of a rarity there. It is frustrating to wade through page after page of utter crap to get that one diamond in the rough, but it can be worth it. Some types of ads – and sadly these are common – merit my wrath and sarcasm. Here are a few of my very, very real favorite types of Craigslist fails.
Why throw it away when I could ask $300 for it? Sometimes even vintage trash is just trash. When the mint green 1960s sofa is so bug-eaten, food-stained, and odiferous that your Craigslist listing actually has a stench to it, there’s a good chance that no one is going to pay a couple hundred bucks for it unless it is something stunningly special. And it rarely is. In a similar vein, yes, that little angel figurine of grandma’s is great, but it would be even better if it hadn’t been dropped, chipped, and poorly reglued. Things like that do tend to affect value. Just because you saw the same thing in mint condition on eBay for a fine sum doesn’t mean that your broken facsimile is worth a dime.
Eeewwwwwwwww
Um, what are you selling again? No one should have to be an expert at antiques in order to sell grandmom’s treasures on eBay. However, it is amazing how some of these ads that don’t always correctly identify the item being sold seem to be accompanied by price tags that suggest that not only has a full appraisal of the item been completed, but that there is some incredible and rare aspect to the item that we, as mere shoppers, couldn’t possibly appreciate which would warrant the extravagant price. I suspect most of the time, these ads are driven by a cross between ignorance and wishful thinking. No, Bobby, that isn’t a vintage rare Irish crystal antique decanter. It is the dimestore glass that Nana kept her dentures in at night.
Pictures are worth a thousand words. A personal favorite of mine is the Craigslist poster, typing from his shack somewhere in the far off boondocks, who lists an item very generically (“Antique Chair”) and throws in “Must See!” and some fantastically high price, without including a picture. Sure, just let me get in the car and drive for an hour and a half only to find that you are asking a hundred and fifty bucks for your late mom’s lawnchair that has outside resting against your garage for the better part of two decades. Thanks, but no thanks.
Good pictures are worth even more. Another favorite of mine is the fellow who posts “Antiques – make an offer” along with a dark and blurry photo of what could be a table covered in garden gnomes, tools, old beer cans, or hell, nearly anything because without some sort of sixth sense there’s no way to tell what on earth was being sold.
The Winner. Sometimes an ad combines all of my favorite fail elements into one. Ah, here’s one now. High price tag? At $7,500.00, you betcha. Crappy picture? Item for sale is off in the distance, and obscured by shadows – check! But the kicker for me is the text of the ad: ” vintage, 1876 butler table, signed. maybe worth more, or less.” Maybe worth more, or less. No truer words have been spoken, I’m sure.
Oh well. Even though it means that Craigslist is filled with nonsense on a daily basis because the ads are free, at least once in awhile someone really, legitimately needs to part with something nice. Until my next big find, I’ll keep wading through the fail, and every so often I’ll share some of my more failtastic finds here.
March 20, 2009
Is there anything more elegant than serving coffee and dessert to your guests on a lovely snack set?
Snack sets appear to be one of those “must-haves” that disappeared into obscurity over time. I suspect very few brides would put a snack set on their wedding gift registries these days, and that’s a shame. Snack sets are absolutely lovely.
I have been very fortunate to find some great snack sets for sale at Goodwill. I guess no one knows what to do with them anymore. However, I do have the story of “the one that got away.”
I saw it at an antique store, complete in its original box: a pink and black snack set. It was beautiful, and pink and black are my favorite colors. I just couldn’t stomach the $35.00 price tag though. And then, when I finally resolved to bite the bullet and pry open my pocketbook, it was gone.
Someone out there has my snack set.
I’m not bitter though, as I have 1.75 lovely snack sets now. One is complete – service for four on bone white plates with elegant rose filigree. The other is only service for three, but it was such a beautiful clear blue color that I couldn’t resist it. I recently used them to serve key lime pie and coffee, and I have to say I think the lovely plates made the pie taste even better. Or maybe that was just me. I’m nuts about things like this.
