Showing posts with label thrift. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thrift. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Mom's Button Collection

A few years ago I gladly inherited my mother's button collection.  


A seemingly ordinary thing can prove extraordinary if you look closely.  These buttons are a perfect example.



It's wedding season and I am planning to make a few of these adorable hanky favors.  I thought the buttons may work for some of the trinkets. 



Lauren Elise Crafted
Lauren Elise Crafted

I have a great collection of vintage hankies already, so I'll be laundering them gently and pressing them to perfection. After that, the fun will begin.  My sister has promised to help me - her talent and creativity will guarantee success. 

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

How I Got Here

Thrifting is in my blood.

When asked " Just how long do you intend to keep this stuff?" my parents would answer, "We keep it for seven years, and if we don't use it we keep it for seven more."

The youngest of five children, I have memories of my brothers bringing home bounty gathered from neighbor's trash piles.  The best ever was the stack of teen magazines.  I papered my bedroom walls with images of Bobby Sherman, Herman's Hermits, David Cassidy, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Jackson 5, Donny Osmond, and The Monkees.  What a thrill!  I was hooked!


In my teens my mother taught me how to sew and I began to develop my own creativity.  Patterns and textures, colors and embellishments, all these go into sewing a garment.  Not to mention the satisfaction of presenting the finished product.

In my twenties I married a man with a background in scrap.  (His uncle owned a scrap yard).  I have never met someone with such an eye for fantastic junk!  When I go to the junk yard all I see is piles and piles of metal.  But my sweetie can spot a treasure!  Whether it's a birdcage, or an industrial cart, or maybe an old iron gate, he is my American picker!

Fast forward to today.  The kids are grown and gone.  We have way too much stuff already.  But, the desire to hunt never dies.  That 's when my children convinced me to open an Etsy shop and sell vintage.  What a thrill to have a reason to treasure hunt!   I have been an Etsian now for about two years.  I also enjoy creating with vintage items.  I can't wait to share my findings and creations with you. 

I hope you will come back often and together we will see what becomes of it!  This thing called keepsacred.