My collection: Part 1: Vintage Chairs

I love chairs, can't help rescuing them from all sorts of places. I have way too many and currently my lounge room looks like it's waiting for a therapy group to arrive. 

All but one get used on a regular basis.

I've got 4 of these the came with the table.

I got this one for $20 and had it recovered in vintage linen.I remember getting it home from the op shop at Kurri Kurri in the back of my hatchback. Bossy Girl was with me and I had to put her in the front seat, she was still in a baby seat, I feel bad about it now.

This one was $4 and is perfect for this dressing table.

And this, I've got 2 of these they came with a miniature dresser and chest of drawers and doll wardrobe. Bought from a garage sale when Bossy Girl was a baby for $20.

I picked this up off the street last month, how perfect is it!

This one belonged to my grandparents, I painted and re covered the seat during my Shabby Chic phase.

This cutie came with the dressing table ($30 from SVDP last month) and I use it in my studio as a sewing stool/step ladder.

$5 from Cessnock Father Rielly's, makes a nice bedroom chair and is usually covered in clothes.

This one is fantastic, it was $20 and came from a man who used to be a chair salesperson. He had a garage full of similar ones, I really wished I had more room I would have taken them all.

I also got this one there for another $20. The daughter said the garage was used for family slide nights but the chairs had to have plastic over them, hence they are still in perfect barley used condition.

This one came free with a big lot of fabric I bought. I'll never forget that one, there was literally a whole room of fabric, it was magical!

This one is in the spare room and I've tried to get rid of it a few times but I just can't, it's not comfortable but I just love it.

Ever looked around you and realised you have a collection 

and you didn't know it??

Vintage Wardrobe Essentials

I've just had a huge wardrobe clean out and sorted also through my collection of vintage hangers. 

 

 

Vintage hangers are a must for any wardrobe as they add a sense of specialness to daily dressing. 

 

  

 

I hope that with the current craft resurgence the little added touches to everyday items, like hangers, will return.

 

 

When was the last time you had a good clean out?

It's a great way to start a New Year!!

meme - My Collection (s)

I wonder if you can make out what this collection is ? yes, my girl's teeth and hair. Too gruesome? Sorry. 

One day I'll share it with her and she'll get a big surprise. 

 *

I know I would if my mother suddenly produced such a thing.

There are no rules except she mustn't know about it. Also included in there are letters to Santa, the reindeer and the Easter Bunny.

 Thanks again Pip for inspiring me to blog!

Of course as a total hoarder I have many collections. This other is a favourite too. 

Inside these two card boxes are the labels off every garment I've bought for the last 8 years. Some are superb and I love the extra little bits, like the little pillow on the Peter Alexander one or the Keys on the Nolita one. I loved raised velvet writing, ribbons and little bags of extra sequins and beads. 

 

How can anyone throw them away!!

Blank wall project.

Ok while normal people are out frolicking in the beautiful spring sunshine I've been here locked in a tight embrace with Mr 3M. Here is the end result (not quite finished but finished for today) of the aforementioned blank wall project.  I've mixed up my small collection of Paint-by-numbers, my own art, blank canvases for 'someone' to complete and vintage chintz fabric sample pieces stretched over canvas.  I like it.

This is what 12 hours of packing fabric looks like.

I'm almost done! The top photo here near the vacuume shows half the fabric that I'm culling. I still have lots of random stuff, small pieces and fabric that was listed on Ebay yonks ago that I'm not sure where to put, I'm not really wanting to grab that lot first when I start listing again. There is more wallpaper and more craft stuff, I have no idea where to put that. But I'm done for the night. I'm super impressed I've fitted all my personal stash in the corner shelves. It all looks SO GOOD!!

3 more hours!

I've been at this for another three hours now. Second to last photo (from the top down) shows fabric that is currently listed on ebay. I have been culling fabric, please stay tuned for free fabric very soon! Ok back to it.

Moving Day! er WeeK!

Three hour's work. More today.

Orlando the Cat, Vintage Book.

Ok so I know you want the details of the book or you'll all be banging down the doors demanding!! And I don't want all that. So the book is called ORLANDO the Marmalade Cat Becomes a Doctor, by Kathleen Hale a reprint from 1949. And the reason these images are amazing is because they are Lithographs, drawn to plate by the Author, and I'm told that having these is as good as having the original art work. The colour is just superb and intense, the style very beautiful and it's one of my favourites. Enjoy some more photos while you contemplate your future.

A warning to hoarders.....!

...Don't leave your mess for your children to clean up or they might just throw it all in the bin. Today I was involved in an estate clearance. The only child was left to dispose of her mother's and her two aunts' possessions. The family had lived in the same house since 1912 so it was a veritable time capsule, or had the potential to be had the daughter not been left to deal with it all on her own.

She had been at the enormous task for three weeks and has filled countless bins lent to her by the neighbors for collection by the tip truck. She was down to what she considered to be the good stuff. So if you can imagine what had gone to the council tip you might have been quite sad that this treasure of three hoarding women has been lost forever. I was.

But this is not the only situation like this I've been involved in. One that sticks in my mind was the woman hoarder who died leaving a house chock a block full of stuff. Her son and his wife drove from Queensland and had one long-weekend to empty the house. I happened upon the place quite by accident and ended up dumpster diving all weekend, became good friends with the couple and came home with about 5 car loads of fabric, linen, tapestry, magazines, sewing boxes, curtains, cosmetics, wallpaper and more. The woman had saved Everything!! good and bad, new and old, I found grocery receipts going back to the 60s for milk and bread and every school book painstakingly written in by her two boys.

The Queensland couple filled and emptied three HUGE and I mean really huge (2m x 5m - almost as big as my new studio!) dumpsters of stuff. The good linen was taken by some aunts, the furniture sold for practically nothing to a local dealer and the old Holden they found in the garage sold for a few hundred dollars everything else (except the deeds and a coin collection) was thrown away. It was a weekend I won't forget. I cried, with the couple and alone, it was very emotional. So much time and effort in saving, for what. It's a lesson I think for all of us hoarders.

But I say thank you to those people who saved, I certainly appreciate the effort and not just because it's how I make a living, but these people also donate to museums like the Powerhouse, without them the past would be a black hole. The hard part is finding the right people to deal with the disposal of it all when needed.

So back to today, at the very bottom of a wardrobe on top of old newspaper dated 1945 were two beautiful scrapbooks full of delightful cards and other scraps. I held my breath wondering if she was going to part with them, she did. She is not a hoarder. She'd determined not to leave so much for her kids to worry about. It's funny isn't it, we all have scrapbooks as kids but some of us turn into hoarders some don't.