I loved my childhood. I was blessed with a great one. I grew up in a middle class family with a mom and a dad in the home and six children, made up of 5 sisters and a little brother.  Full house..yes..and I wouldn't change it for anything.  But as a very young child, I spent an inordinate amount of time at my grandmother's house. I sometimes get flashbacks, even though I was only 1, 2 or 3 when I was there!  It's pretty amazing when it happens. I know it happens to me because that was a very happy time in my life and happy times memories are as strong or stronger than sad ones. 
Lately, as my life at 52 became more solid, my plans coming to fruition in a good way, and really feeling more secure in myself and my state of affairs, I get even more flashbacks. I have been embracing the sights, sounds and memories of earlier times.  Those times include an era in which I never lived.  I, for some reason, love the early '40s.   I love the music, the way the people of that era dressed, the furniture and homelife and everything surrounding that era.  I cannot explain it. Maybe the world has changed so much and the traditional lifestyle is waning and I just wish subconsciously that it wouldn't.  I miss the old days so much that I am escaping each time I encounter something that reminds me of the old American traditional family and all the things that went with it.
In that vein I have, over the years, collected many cool things such as furnishings, decorative accessories, scarves, purses and

Thanksgiving Blessings

Some years ago I recall a time when I took thanksgiving for granted.  Being employed and having a home to call my own and a family around that cared about me was ever present. So, I got a little complacent, took the day for granted, and moaned my way through some thanksgivings that were spent seeing some people I didn't really care to see and trying to please everyone except for myself.  That's what you do though, and you try to do it without getting anyone angry at you.  It was such a small thing to just give of one's self just a little more.  I kept thinking my time would come when I would get more out of this particular holiday and tried to be grateful for "whatever".

Well having been through the last 4 or so Thanksgivings on a shoestring budget, having to rely on spending my day with others who did all the cooking and generally reminiscing about holidays where I was in want of nothing, I am truly grateful this year.  I hate to admit it, but it is a fine thing to have something more than life itself to be grateful for.  Who of us likes to look to others to provide the turkey and all the trimmings? Most of us are pretty self reliant and have our pride.  We often fail to find the strength to admit to others that we need help or need to be with them due to a shortage of all the resources we once had to put the holiday together.

On this day, this year, I am truly thankful.  I see brighter days ahead. I see my personal situation improving all of the time. I have wonderful new friends around me (thank you Lorraine, Joan, Shelly, Kelly, Dan). I see getting better acquainted with others that just entered my life. I have a place to call home and all the things around me in that space that I love and treasure.  At my job I have people of like minds in my corner, truly appreciative and supportive of my initiative and creativity and positive thoughts that vastly outnumber negative ones.

When you get together with your family this year, it is my hope that you enjoy the same.  I hope you at least have people that truly care about you in your life that invite you over and smile from ear to ear when they see you cross their thresh hold. I hope and pray that you and your loved ones are safe and really feeling the gratitude too.  I hope that any worries that you have are small enough to be set aside as you assemble around your table of blessings and a huge turkey and green bean casserole and pumpkin pie.  I pray that you are with people who can put their political beliefs aside for just one day and share commonalities.

Have a blessed day all.  Take care of yourself and each other.  Happy Thanksgiving Day!

The Blessings of Decluttering the Closets

How much room do you have in your closets, basement, garage and attic these days?  Have you accumulated more than you can actually store?  Are your spaces bulging at the seams with no room for even a set of salt and pepper shakers? 

A lovely Victorian wicker chair
I rescued from the trash!

 It amazes me how much stuff I have accumulated over the years.  When I moved into my house originally in 1992, I was amazed at all the closets, attic spaces, room in the garage and other storage spaces in my house.  I thought I went to storage heaven!  Without a basement, I had to be certain that I could live comfortably in my home and never have the main living spaces too cluttered. Well since then, I have had to re-evaluate my life style and take stock of what really matters when it comes to ownership of "stuff".  I suddenly found myself realizing that I had too much clutter and it has been said that a cluttered house leads to a cluttered mind..and I was cluttered. When the economy tanked in 2008, it didn't take long for me to realize that I needed to purge. I found my self in a protracted job search and scrambling for income and having to make hard choices about what I could sell to help pay bills.  What was more important anyway...my stuff or my family?  And finally, why should have have this accumulation when there were so many less fortunate that were having the same struggles meeting bills like I was, but have absolutely nothing near the stuff I owned? 

This reminds me of a small one that
my grandmother had hanging on her
LR wall all those years ago.

 With that, I began to sell things on EBay, donate to the Salvation Army and list on local Craigs List.  It became a game and fun too.  Even though I had to give up my actual things, I had my memories in photographs and the fact that I did enjoy many of the things I was parting with for at least a while..now I was moving on.  I cannot live with my surroundings being the same forever so changing it up and de-cluttering gave me a fresh new outlook on things. At least, too, I knew that when it came time to say goodbye to my home, there would be less to pack away and haul out to the moving truck. 

 

I discovered six of these in the
side lot of an antique store
that begged me to  take them or the
garbage man would!

A lit bit of money trickled in. I found myself packing up thing to mail to Ebay buyers, making trips to the post office and kissing goodbye some quaint china pieces that I loved. This became an easier task as I came to understand that there were others out there that loved my things as much as I loved them.  On Craigs list, I met people who had dreams and plans for the stuff I was selling. Like the woman who bought my slipper chair and planned to reupholster it in a lovely cabbage rose chintz material and give it to her daughter for Christmas with a refurbished art deco vanity she bought from another seller.  I think over the years I only made one grave error in selling,..and that was selling my Calphalon pots and pans ..all 6 pieces with lids for only $20!  Today, I could kick myself. I had two sets of pots and pans and this one was the heaviest and hard to take care of.  Oh well, someone wanting to emulate a fine chef is happier for my mistake!  Gotta find the silver lining in everything!

My point in all of this is to set aside some of your free time to prioritize your life. Are you hanging onto things you no longer need or love as much?  Do you want to help others by donating but do not have real cash to do so?  Do you think you could use a few bucks in your pockets?  Sell, donate, and redirect that extra space to remain empty.  Your home will feel cleaner, you mind less cluttered and feel good knowing that organizations like the Salvation Army are doing good work with the money they will make from your donation.  They are, in fact, the most trusted charity around and love to sort through your things.



A beloved Bessie Pease Gutman
print that I am selling now.



Maybe it is time to change up your decor and become the minimalist that you should be. Ask yourself, if you died tomorrow, would your family care about your things as much as you?  Would they really take the time to catalog your stuff or would they throw it on the curb or have it all towed off by 1-800-GOT-JUNK?  Have you ever seen families that enjoyed doing all the work associated with handling everything you left behind? Let's face it..all family wants from their loved ones when they pass is a clean break and a few bucks. It may be harsh to say it, but hey, it is the truth.

The moral to this post is to start cleaning out your closets now.  Ask for help from your family so that while you are alive you will know what they are comfortable with.  Maybe they want something of yours now that you feel comfortable to give them today instead of making them wait. Surround yourself with the least of "things" and work towards streamlining your life.  Things will change in other places in your life because of it. The changes will be noticeable and gratifying. I promise...you will see!

Cleaning House

How much room do you have in your closets, basement, garage, and attic these days?  Have you accumulated more than you can actually keep?  Are your spaces bulging at the seams with no room for even a set of salt and pepper shakers? 



I found six of these also in the trash at an
antique store in my hometown! Mint!



It amazes me that when I moved into my house back in 1992, there was so much extra closet space. I have come to learn that the more space we are given, the more stuff we find to fill it.  Even in a 4 bedroom house with a library and garage and double wide closets in the bedrooms, there is more stuff in there than any one person should be allowed to have. It used to be fun before to bring home a new find and stash the old stuff away for "future use" or "safe keeping" but now I ask my self, what am I keeping it for?  What is my payoff?



My Victorian Wicker Rocker
found in the trash!



After having to actually take stock in all that I have saved (with good intentions in mind) for later, the economy took a dive and I find myself re-evaluating my priorities:  When there are so many with absolutely nothing like what I have been blessed to own over the years, why should I have so much stuff just occupying all the airspace?  I began to take stock and purge my closets and spaces and made a few trips to the Salvation Army.  The things that I did not donate, I listed on Craigslist with some great results.  The more expensive collectibles, I immediately listed on Ebay.  You know what? Not only did I make a few dollars to keep my family in the house and with bills paid, food on the table, but I also was able to know that the items I donated were not useless junk even to me, and the good work of that organization would be able to move forward between my donation and that of many others who believe in what they do.



They let me have this for $9.00 at a
local thrift store!



I want to share photos of some of the stuff I have listed on the various sites.  I thought it might be fun for you to see the kind of stuff I buy or find on the curb, and then just allow to sit around taking up space before I actually do something with it. You can tell I love old things...for some reason their vintage appeal resonates with me and brings me memories of the past that connect me to my grandma and a traditional lifestyle that appeals to me. 



My point in all of this is...realize what is important in life. Must one really accumulate to no end?  If you died tomorrow, God forbid, where would all of your collections of stuff move to?  Is anyone in the family appreciating your things right now?  Would they want to have to sort through all of it?  It just comes to a point where we realize what is important in life and learn that "stuff" just isn't important to anyone...but you.

Out with the old and and don't buy new...live with what you actually need. Become a minimalist. You will find that you like the end to the clutter and having to take care of so many things, and equally gratifying, you will be glad to know that between donating and selling, your things were put to their best use.  Til next time......  



This Bessie Pease Gutman
print just appealed to me
at $7.



Moving on and memories.....

So I recently moved into an apartment. As the hard times descended, I found myself relenting to the inevitable and changing up my life...a lot.  It's not easy to have a home one minute and finally give in to giving up the next.  I have found, however, that a side benefit (if you must force yourself to find the silver lining in things) of moving is being forced to downsize, minimize and theorize that it is all for the best. 
I find myself giving stuff away.  My plaid sofa, french chair and heavy oak tables is going to a niece who will soon be moving to her own place as she is expecting to be a mom pretty soon. I have a sister who needed some furniture for an rental home she moved into when she relocated here from Colorado and could not bring her own things with her.  I gave my mother some lovely framed traditional wall pictures that she was admiring.
My apartment kitchen is tiny to say the least, and I could not possibly bring all of my vintage kitchen wares, so they will go into boxes and be stored. While I hate to give away and stow away (because I like to see the things I have that make me happy right there in front of me), I know that a happy life is not about our accumulations of the things we can touch. It is much more about the things we cannot...such as the birth of our first child, many Merry Christmas days, picnics at the metro park or an awesome fireworks display watched by all of your family on a breezy summer night under the stars.  We are fortunate to be able to pull up all of that in our brains file cabinet. So what if I cannot have my collection of cake plates in a nearby cabinet or heavy furniture that will eventually end up at the Salvation Army anyway?  Perhaps its time for all of us to downsize. Maybe we could find that the least we live with in material things, opens up a path to a life that is more meaningful and focused on the things that really matter.
I am sharing some pictures of my collections here, all of them important, but not more important than my life, my family, and most of all, my memories made here on earth that keep me moving forward through the toughest of economic times.  I wish you all well my friends.  May you all find the strength and wisdom to move forward as well.  Be blessed and make it a great day every day!

                          My Alexander, Mackenzie and Elizabeth under the Christmas Tree, 1999

Here's my little buddies, Maximus (looking up) and Kozm..checking out a squirrel in the yard most likely!

                                    First day of school 2004 in the house I have left behind..

                                          Christmas 2011...just the way I always wanted it...

My Special Little Buddy, Maximus....R.I.P. May 4th, 2012

Yes, it has been a long time since my last post.  I was quite busy, getting a temporary job.  It is an administrative position.  I love to be working and I love my job, but I miss my blog writing.  Sharing my insights and a little bit of myself with all of you while I painstakingly searched for a job kept my mind busy, my heart in good form, and freed me from the negative thoughts that so often crept in as I went from interview to interview.  This drama, while full of disappointment and despair some of the time, was probably one of the most emotional experiences (aside from the birth of my three children) I have ever had and without this page to cheer me I don't know where I would be today.

Being able to share photographs of the things I love and to talk about them straight from my heart kept me balanced and focused on what is important in life.  There are memories and happy thoughts that came to mind with each item I photographed and wrote about here.  Sometimes its the little things in our past when things were more stable that move me to keep trying.  This post today is about the things in our (vintage) house that keep us focused on the important happy times and provide the escape we need to bear the burden of difficult times, be it financial or otherwise.

Last week, my Westie Maximus died.  He had been with me since the fall of 2002, purchased from a breeder in Bridgeport.  I remember so vividly the day I picked him up and fell in love immediately.  He was so little, his big ears perched on his tiny head, everything puppy!  The gentleman I bought him from warned me to bring the money to pay him because he knew I would want Maximus (named after the Gladiator in the Russel Crowe movie).  Anyway, I have had him all this time when suddenly Maximus had begun to slow down and breathe heavy about four months ago.  He seemed to have to keep looking up at the high walls of my house in order to breathe.  The vet, after taking a blood sample and performing an X-ray, said that Max had an enlarged heart and liver and that his white blood cell count was high.  I asked about the pain level that Max was experiencing and the vet did not know how to measure that. As you may have heard, dogs do not always show they are in pain, they barely wimper.  It is a tough thing to gauge.  I was provided with pain pills, a steroid for inflammation (which may or may not work, but certainly cannot hurt) and an antibiotic to address the high white bc.  Cancer had crept into the conversation, but unless I was willing to open up Maximus and get to see his insides, there was no way to tell if that was the issue.

He lost about a pound a month. He continued to play, albeit at a slower pace, and he continued to eat and wag his tail.  While he never was really good about jumping up on the furniture without help from me, he continued to try to do it himself.  I knew that if one day he just refused to do any of these things, then it would be time to take him for his last visit to see the vet.

He was a great dog!  I would have him on my lap and rub his soft ears and whisper, Maximus...I love you!" and he let me.  He snapped at others if they got too close, but not me!  And he played with his buddy Kozmo, my other Westie, brought into the family two years after Max.  They were great playmates, and even though at the beginning Max was suspicious and standoffish with Kozmo, they eventually became joined at the hip, literally as I took them both for a walk and they trotted along. 

Max slept allot in his cage at night with Kozmo, but near the end, I eventually began letting the two of them sleep in my bed.  They were so well trained to trot into their cage as they heard the click of the TV remote signaling the end of the day.  But I decided I wanted to be close to Max as the end drew near and sort of wish I had let him have this sooner.  I took him to an All Dogs Playgroup through a Meet Up club and he ran around with other dogs and never became threatening or difficult to handle.  He stayed near me all the time in my house and always seemed to be looking up at me for something and I always addressed it.   He took off on me a few times out the door and down the street to the hole in the fence by the river nearby and would come home long after I had accepted that he ran away, his fur full of burrs and wet from walking around in the river.  But he always came home.

After what had to be a difficult four months, his heart, I am sure, finally gave out.  I miss him terribly but have plenty of photographs to share of him and memories of him and my children to last  me a long time.  I do not know if I will ever replace him.  I couldn't find another dog just like him with his soft and gentle demeanor, at least I don't think so from here.  For now, I will enjoy the company of his "brother" and buddy Kozmo and smile when see him running around, fake growling at his play buddy Dakota (a black lab that came into my house a year or so ago via the kids father) and just be glad I had Maximus for the time that I did.

Who brings you joy in your vintage home?  Is it a small dog, or a big dog?  Is it a bird or other type of pet?  Pets are a part of the fabric of families and life.  They help us to forget the tough times and are there for us when we are joyful as well.  They add a warm fuzzy flavor to our household and watch us when we forget to watch ourselves.  They ask so little and get so little in return sometimes. They love us unconditionally without negotiation or strings attached. 

If you do not have a pet and want t add something that will love you forever to your life, then adopt a pet.  There are so many homeless and wonderful animals in shelters now that need us and whether you admit it or not...you need them also!  Think about it and let me know what you did today to make this something you will do.  I want to know if you took my advice and are happy or are considering adopting a pet and are ready to make it a reality. 

Bye for now. 

One of the most enjoyable things that I do is visit flea markets, thrift stores and estate sale basements to find neat and undiscovered treasures, that most time, the seller has no real knowledge of.  I don't mean to say that I take advantage of the sellers, but I always say, if you are going to deal in antiques or vintage items of any kind, best to know what the value is. Most of the time, I find cool stuff that really just appeals to me for being beautiful and those are the things that I buy to look at and treasure for myself.  I happened upon such a find just the other day at the Royal Oak Farmer's Market in Royal Oak, Michigan.

I looked and looked. I was hoping to find that nice lady who had the vintage draperies and rods the last time I was there three weeks prior. I looked for the man selling the trinket box made that jewelry company that starts with the letter M.  Well, I could not find either of them there so just enjoyed checking out the other things that the other sellers had. On my way out, I happened upon a gentleman who had a curious glass bowl on display. There was no price on it, but something told me it was expensive. I inquired anyway.

"That's a Heisley glass bowl in the Orchid Pattern," he said. I picked it up and it was just the most beautiful pattern I had ever seen etched onto glass. It was footed and fanned out from the center like a lotus flower. "Remember that name, Liz" I instructed my daughter. "I have nothing to write this down and I want to remember it so I can look it up when I get home."

I looked it up on the different sites that deal in antique glass. It turns out that this Orchid pattern is one of the most coveted of the patterns by this manufacturer. Surprise!  A.H. Heisey company produced glassware from 1896 to 1957 in Newark Ohio.  The glassware was not cheap when it was produced and was the pride of many a new bride's first bridal registry pick. They began working with pressed glass using molds, and then moved on to the delicate etched patterns that look so much like crystal that we know today.    Sometimes you can find sets of glasses, water, flutes and the like in sets of 6. When you find them, grab them because if you want to collect them, the Orchid pattern is the most popular.  

 I think I would like to keep my dish and add some serving pieces to it.  I cannot think of a better table setting than one that includes daily shabby chic plates and mismatched teacups and saucers...and here and there, a sprinkling of beautiful Orchid patterned Heisey glassware!       

I will let you know when I find a set and will share a photo. Until then, I am off...on another buying trip and find another cherished treasure to display here!  Bye all!

that look