Vintage Collections

I am a collector.  I know you are shocked, thinking, "NO?  Really?  I would have never guessed!"  Well I guess it is no news flash.  I think I have been since I could walk.  I remember as a child making boxes of materials for "experiments."  There were containers full of flour, salt, dirt, dyes, etc.  There were spoons and funnels and mixing dishes.  It was fun to concoct and pretend to be a scientist, but the part that really got me going was assembling the kit.  Making a collection of utensils and items and organizing them in the box, really was the best part.  It was the birth of the collector.  As a teen, I collected tea cups and Christmas ornaments and dolls and goodness knows what else.  When I worked as a preschool and kindergarten teacher, my favorite part (I have to be honest) was not seeing the children every day, although I did love them.  It was the teaching stuff!!!  Gadgets, gizmos, pamphlets, art supplies, shelves of books, discovery kits, the dress up area, you name it.  I loved the collections of stuff we supplied to get the kids motivated, engaged and on track to education.  Alas, the chronicles of a collector!!

So what do I collect now?  Everything, you answer!?  Well, not quite, but I do love a good collection.  A good collection makes a good display.  And a good display makes for good decorating.  And good decorating gives a home its personality of warmth and welcoming.  Here are some peeks at some of my collections/decor that happily grace our little mountain cottage tucked away in a little nowhere town in New Hampshire.

I collect vintage ladies' hats and vintage tablecloths

(the photos left and right are of grandparents, and yes I collect those too.  Photos, not grandparents.  The original sets are just about perfect, thank you);

vintage handkerchiefs (some framed, most not);

vintage kitchen and pantry items;

the occasional chicken;

vintage dishware;

and vintage service ware;

vintage bottles;

vintage seed packets (some framed, most not);

vintage hand crocheted pot holders;

vintage games, books and pastimes;

vintage cameras, too;

and last but not least (at least for now...) vintage thermoses in the theme of red.

I got to thinking about the cottage today because I haven't been able to escape up there for far too long.  We used to get away every other weekend or so, but the past two years it has been too difficult to make our way up there on a regular basis.  The older your children get, the busier they get with school, jobs and friends and the harder it is to find time away.  We will be heading up north for Thanksgiving, though.  I'll be packing my turkey on ice and hauling him and all the fixings up yonder.  I can hardly wait.  I'll snap a bunch of photos of our happy place while we are up there and show you when we return.  Can't wait!