Thrifted Thursday... The Portrait

The best part about going out hunting is the anticipation of finding something great. Even if you've been on a dud roll, this thrill keeps you digging until long after your hands feel grimy & you'd nearly give anything for a drop of Purell. 

Then it happens. The Holy Grail with an affordable price tag!

She sits on the mantle, and although now she seems like part of the family, there were many times when I'd look up at her & my mind would just reel at who this calm looking woman was. A friend or a lover? A widow or a mother? Maybe all

I guess even if I had some knowledge of her life, I'd never really know who she was. Which really is an extraordinarily great feeling selling vintage or antiques. It's both humbling and reassuring.

I looked up both the school & the names but came up with nothing.

And since the first woman started teaching there in 1878 & women had been taking classes here decades before that, the painting could've been done by either a man or a woman. 

But the final "this is meant to be!" moment came when I noticed the date 

APR 20, 1938

just happens to be my birthday (a few decades off!) 

What is your "Holy Grail" find?

Thrifted Thursday. The Pair of Purple Rugs

I started working at the Antique store when I was 15. Being a teenager I didn't care a bit about the old dusty things I was selling...

but cared a whole lot about my boss' sons

So I treated it as a job & measured a good weekend by smiles & flirts instead of old things with stories to tell. Needless to say, I didn't buy much

These two purple area rugs were something I couldn't pass up though.

These sisters, seem to have nothing in common but their colors.

(and here is where my adult historian storytelling heart is mad at my teenage self) There was a third full sized rug, that combined the two of these different themes, that I passed on. 

At antique stores, flea markets & yard sales I always keep an eye out, but I've yet to find it. I can only imagine where that gem ended up

Dreamy window. Curlicues. Window box full of colorful blooms. 

Vases filled with colorful blooms. A chandelier. Magic flower filled smoke billows.

The cats (at home) were hellbent on shredding these two, so instead of letting them sit in the closet for another 3 years, why not make my work cubicle (...ahem mansion) a bit less work-y!

And now! 

Puppy in a cubicle...tail wagging

Which one do you like better Victorian Scenes or Arabian Dreams?

Cleopatra Bones is having trouble deciding

Wordless Wednesday...A Peek into 1866

A Haunting

Sometimes it's hard to come to reason why things happen the way they do. For me & mine 2013 has been riddled with news that's hard to take. I've been just sorta floating along taking it, but these past few weeks have been hard. It's like I had hit my limit of sadness & just shut down. 

I'd flown to Kansas in a tornado & instead of trying to get home I just wanted to crawl under the house & leave the shiny red shoes just where they were. Which is what I did.

I found this transferred image of a person in a Victorian album. 
Something about someone taking all the photographs from this book, only to have one picture be left behind permanently on the opposite page...it's haunting and fantastic. A fleeting moment in time, hoped to be forever remembered by a photo. 

It reminded me of the Victorian post mortem photos that got a pretty big thrill earlier this year in the news. Can you imagine having photography be so new & expensive that the only photo you have of your loved one was one where he or she was dead?

Now, photos are everywhere. We have the luxury of taking so many pictures of ourselves & our loved ones that we can discard hundreds of "bad" ones & in only minutes.  

Anyways, clearly the person above was alive just getting a portrait. I've never seen a post mortem photo in real life, but it's interesting to think about how people mourn.

I included this really poor quality shot of another Victorian album,
 just for it's stunning detail. 

I hope you are all well & happy.
-Kait

Trash and treasures

just some victor records on a stone wall

lovely

it's all in the details

little fairy flowers

I found this Victor Victrola Record binder sitting outside the shop when I came in today. Just like this; I wondered briefly as the shutter snapped, if someone had placed it like this to take some pictures, or if it was placed there, forgotten, and the breeze had blown it open.

The record in the sleeve is called "Carry me back to Old Virginny" A song that was written by James Bland, a well known African American composer in the 1800's. The song tells the trouble many slaves faced as they were freed, as they had little safety or family aside from life on the plantation that they had left. A modified version of this song was used as Virginia's state song, until 1997 when it was deemed too racially offensive.

This is the version on the record, http://youtu.be/Y1GWRDL7PTs