Antique and Vintage

It seems that more and more people today are loving clothing, furniture, nicnacs and such that are "vintage" or "antique". This statement does not make me an expert in all sorts of antiques or vintage items. My observance of this is because I spend alot of time in antique shops or stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and less, but in Maine. This is because I am a New Englander and that is a pass time of mine. My family has tried to put up with it and my husband is pretty good at taking me or stopping with me and showing me his care for me in going in the stores.

There was one antique shop in the town of Haverhill, that has now closed but was a place I would find myself looking forward to going to as though it was a haven. This building was three floors, two floors of it opened to the public with booths filled with vintage and antique items; antique clothing, antique shoes, antique dolls, furniture, tools, stamps, coins, record players, dish ware, bedroom furniture, instruments, war items and on an on. The factory was split with a wall and both sides of the walls on both floors had booths rented by different people. I had favorite booths.

One booth was shabby chic. Her items were white,, lilac, pink, rusty metal, silk plants, white wood wall hangings. Another booth had kitchen items that reminded me of being a tiny little girl. The bowls were white with red flowers on them, alot of items were tin like the flower and sugar container.

Oh and my favorite was a gardening booth. I actually bought a garden gate from that antique dealer. I still have it. I used it in my house to separate two rooms. This year, I had it out in my yard on my patio and placed clay pots filled with red geraniums in the top of the gate where there is a flower box construction made of the same metal as the gate. I have kept the vintage gate just as is with the rust and chippy white paint.

I felt like I was in a dreamy dream when I would walk through there. When I first moved to Haverhill after being newly married, that antique world was the only place I could find and feel comfortable in. After 2 to 3 hours of lingering with such delight, I would then go home with my brown paper bag of items (except the garden gate of course).

I have found my old bottles, my bird cages, antique post cards and vintage photos in other various shops in the area.

I love old stuff!

Can I tell if something is older than another item? Mostly not, but if I like a crochet doily, it doesn't matter to me if it is vintage or not. I like the doily and I decorate with it. It just so happens that I love old crockery and have a couple of pieces that were left in my old house of Cherry Valley where one day I climbed up into the attack with a ladder and found two pieces of crockery left up there to collect rain drips. Those were quickly snapped up and used to decorate.

This fall, I will take one of those crocks and fill it with my yarrow and other herbs that have dried from my yard. Oh, the scent of dried herbs in a crock up on my hutch is so soothing during the fall and winter months. The combination of yarrow, mint, spearmint, artemesia, coneflowers, echinecia oooo, they are drying on my little porch right now getting reading to be an lovely ornamentation in my country kitchen.