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Fresh and juicy strawberries from the farmers market are the best!
The Ginger Apron---Pink Strawberry Oilcloth @ modernjune
Lucite Strawberry Cabs @ atomicveggiecom
2 STRAWBERRY LOCKET @ WanWanCorner
Its Strawberries Earrings @ Crazy4jewels
MIlk Glass Strawberries Mug @ nijoli
CHILD OILCLOTH APRON @ polkadotssquare
Embroidered Cotton Nightgown @ inky56
Vintage Strawberry Teacup and Saucer @ handmadebliss
Do you know how excited that I am that it's almost farmer's market season?! I absolutely love tugging the family along to pick our fresh produce and flowers for the week all while supporting my local farmer. I'm even more excited this year, because the local high school to me is hosting it's first one this year! Thats Independence, KY at the Simon Kenton High School if anyone in my town is reading. Today's Daily Swank is a must have if you visit the farmer's markets in your town and a really good idea to start using during your trips to the grocery store as well.
Today's Daily Swank is from The Craft Pantry. These market totes are made of super soft and durable 10oz. weight, 100% recycled organic cotton, Fair Trade/ Fair Market! They also feature the original illustrations of shop purveyor Cammie Cole. I love them for their vintage and retro style. Top left is the Dairy Fresh Tote, featuring an original photograph/ digital illustration. Top right, is the Happy Camper Coffee Tote. Bottom left is a new design from The Craft Pantry for 2008, the Farmer's Public Market Tote. Lastly, bottom right and one of my most favorite designs are the Personalized Family Market Tote. You can add your family's name and "year established" to make this tote personal, isn't that fun! Head over to The Craft Pantry today, as they are hosting a wonderful sale and also offer cards, tags, lunch bags and more!
UPDATE: The Craft Pantry has generously offered Vintage Indie readers 20% off the single tote of their choice now through April 11th. Simply mention you found me on Vintage Indie and I will post a RESERVED listing for you with the tote of their choice at 20% off. One tote discount per person.
Gather & Prepare your swap package and mail by March 31st.
Once you have mailed out your swap package and received your package post photos on the Dream of Spring Vintage Swap Flickr Page here
and announce your partner and what you received. This will
automatically allow you to participate in the next swap if you choose.
Thanks & Have a great weekend!
Welcome to the Spring Swanky Swag Giveaway/Contest! This giveaway is full of fabulous indie & vintage items all donated by the most wonderful sponsors!
To enter the giveaway/contest: You'll need to check out the sponsor sites located below (not the sponsor sites on right) Find something you Dig from their site and post a comment with their URL of the item you dig in the body of your comment.
The RULES:
You must be 18 or older to enter (void where prohibited)
You may enter once or a dozen times, but each entry must have one URL from one of the sponsor's sites from an item that you dig copied and pasted into the body of your comment. (The URL Space with your name is for your website or blog if you have one)
You have until SUNDAY March 30th until 11:59pmEST to enter.
Monday March 31st one winner will be randomly chosen and contacted via email,so check those boxes for the winner announcements and this month's newsletter!
Annie's Wearable Art - Scarf & hand knitted cloths
Glittery Blue - 2 pair of earrings
Charming Sam Studios - Necklace
Ric Rac Sally - 2 Pillowcases
Ikonic - 2 Picture Frames
The Vintage Butterfly - Vintage Candle Holders
The Vintage Kitchen - Teacup & Saucer
Want your business t o participate in the next giveaway/contest? Follow this link for details.
I'm so excited for spring! Usually this means the openings of outdoor vintage & antique shows. Visit Vintage Indie often for some of the hottest shows. 
Spring is the time for a new fashion season but for many
people, new can mean used and recycled AND VINTAGE.
The proof of this
is when the Vintage Clothing, Accessories, Textiles and Jewelry Show and Sale
returns for the 2nd year to the Police Athletic League Building, 25
Hayestown Road in Danbury, CT (06811).
There will more than thirty booths brimming with yesterday's styles, now today's latest fashion. All ages and both men and women will find one of a kind items to make them stand out in a crowd. A prime example of this occurred at the last Oscar ceremony when one of the stars was asked, “whom are you wearing?” The reply was that she was wearing “a one-of-a-kind vintage dress.”
Dealers attending will be offering nothing newer than the 1980s. A sampling includes What Was is Vintage, Merrick, NY, presenting a booth of antique costume jewelry, Bakelite, vintage clothing and accessories such as hats, handbags, eyewear, shoes, coats, jackets, dresses, sweaters, men's hats, ties and cufflinks.
Cherished Treasures will come from Newtown, CT, bringing clothes from the 1940's - 60', vintage buttons, sewing items and fabric, and vintage hankies.
Also attending will be Funky Fashions from Brick, NJ; The Town Peddler, New Rochelle, NY; and Vintage Couture Jewelry offering clothing, scarves, chain belts, purses, couture shoes and hats from Easton, CT and many more!
WHEN: April 5th and 6th from 10 AM - 5 PM.
WHERE: The PAL Building is just a short distance from I-84 Eastbound exit 5, Westbound exit 6 (signs will be posted). By train, the Danbury Railroad Station is only 2.6 miles from the show. Take the Metro-North Danbury Line and call ahead for a taxi, 203-792-8294.
COST: Admission is $6 (under 13
free). One admission is good for return visits and food will be
available by Riverfront Deli of Valhalla, NY.
For further information please see CordShows or call 914-273-4667. During show hours call 914-589-1355.
If you haven't had a chance to check out the Indie Wedding Guide, now is a good time. I just posted the 1st Giveaway/Contest!
Head over there now to check it out & enter to win!
There is a rockin' new indie shop on the block called Modern Material.
Mix UK Royalty with a little Rock and you've got Modern Material. They offer a line of paper, apparel and accessories to fully get your fashion fix. My favorite of the line, their Vintage Collection of course. It's full of retro chic illustrations and old school images. Check out Modern Material today and shop indie!
I'm always looking for fun and unique items that are "Vintage Green" and created from recycled components.
Check out these Bookish Coasters from Pitter Painter made from recycled vintage books and sewn by hand.
Head over to Pitter Painter for other cool recycled products handmade from vintage materials.
Vintage Indie would like to welcome the author Walt Kolenda aka Auctionwally blogs at Auctionwally.com where he conducts online antiques appraisals. He's a licensed MA auctioneer and professional appraiser, there are over 200 archived articles and appraisals on his site, all are free to view. He also blogs at Myweekonebay.wordpress.com
It wasn't that long ago that vintage collectibles weren't taken very seriously at all in the collectibles marketplace. In the last 5 years items in the 20 to 40 year old range have exploded in value and demand. It's a good thing too because the business is in much need of new blood. There's a lot of whispers in circles that 'you just don't see enough young people interested in antiques anymore', so anything that draws new recruits into the fold is a good thing. Vintage collectibles are fun, quirky and like just the thing to attract newbies, at the same time, getting some of the stuffed shirts to take things in a lighter manner.
As a veteran seller it's been interesting to watch things rise from the bottom of the totem pole to the tops of the pops in prices and demand. Here's my take on a few of the revered collectibles of today that were dogs 25 plus years ago when I broke into the business.
Syrocco Wood: I remember this being the butt of many jokes at auctions in the 1980s. Back then you would want to get the phone # of the 'sucker' who was foolish enough to purchase a box of this junk for $5.00 or $10.00. After all, if they purchased this fake wood product, you could probably sell them anything, yup, this would be a good person to try to dump that crate of left handed pencils you got stuck with at the last auction. No one's laughing at Syrocco Wood any more, at least not me. Last month on eBay, I got $331.00 for a Franciscan Monk made from this vintage material. Now where is that phone #...
If you hunt the fleas, yard sales and country auctions, you can find Syrocco in the form of ashtrays, thermometers, wall plaques, covered boxes and many other common household items. It's not all that rare, but it's rare to find anyone laughing at it or pricing it at giveaway prices.
Orange Carnival glass and Indiana glass: This would go right into box lots with Avon bottles and those dime-a-dozen white milk glass vases you got free from the florist. If it wasn't old Carnival glass, no one wanted it. It was considered a horrible reproduction back in the day. The most common pattern among Indian glass was the grape pattern. In fact Gus William, who's auction I pushed for in Westmoreland NH used to call it 'that damned grape pattern'. It was useless, no, actually back then it was worse than useless because if you had a box full if it, you couldn't get anything for it, but you still had to get rid of the box! The Orange carnival glass was the barely a little better. If you had 10-12 pieces, you might get a $5.00 bill for it,... make sure to get that phone#! Now I see these things bringing what the Older pieces like Northwood and Fenton used to bring back then. If your lucky you can get between $15 -$35 on eBay now for the right piece, which is about what an average old Northwood dark purple carnival bowl would bring in the mid 1980s.
Pyrex Good clean Pyrex was always salable in the old country auction houses, but 20 years ago it was a good seller because people wanted it to use in the kitchen, it wasn't collectible by any means. The primary colors sets would always sell, but at about $1.00 per bowl and not much more. The clear Pyrex would bring almost as much as the colored, it was all about function. I have a dealer friend who has a wonderful large collection of Pyrex in her personal collection. She's got tons of colors, every serving and mixing piece you could imagine in Pyrex, but she mixed her cake batter in Tupperware, she'd NEVER use her good Pyrex for something like that. Early 80s price for a set of Pyrex matching colored bowls. $5 to $10. Today, I've gotten from $35 to $65 a set at my live auctions.
Old Photo Albums: If you were an auction runner with an old family photo album in your hands, standing in the auction block line, the pusher or auctioneer might scold you telling you to 'put that down and get something good, it's too early in the evening to be selling the junk!' Old photos were only salable if they had an unusual subject or theme, IE: A train conductor, a ship, an Indian. Parades were good and scenes of General Store as well, but if the subject were just your average American Family on vacation, forget it. Now people are very interested in these old albums and will pick them up at the right price, especially if it includes a soldiers photo journal of WWII. Unless there are some interesting and unusual photos, they won't hit the stratosphere, but will get you a steady $25 to $50 each on eBay. Back in the day, $2-$5 each, if you could even sell them at all.
Ah, the good old days. Of course there are a lot more examples of items that not so long ago were worthless and now sell well. Perhaps a better question is 'what's selling for low prices now that will be worth a small fortune tomorrow?' Now where are those phone numbers?
The lovely Storque (news publication for Etsy) is hosting a fabulous Handmade Weddings Series this month.They were kind enough to feature the Indie Wedding Guide (hosted by Vintage Indie & Eco-Chic Weddings) with a blurb from me.
Be sure to check out this fabulous series for more indie contributors and some fabulous handmade wedding goods.
Feeling refreshed? Well, hopefully after today's Daily Swank full of refreshing eye candy you will. I'm in love with Pink Lemonade Boutique. If you haven't had a chance to check out their shop, and you "need" a new bag for spring, you should really take a gander over there.
I'm in love with the Verdant bag (Top Left), probably because it's my colors (greens) but the green trim and the grown up base fabric is such an eye pleasing combination.
Pink Lemonade Boutique really does go over the top with clean lines and does a fabulous job blending fabrics for the, most perfect spring bags.
Check out their sold items as well, they have done some amazing custom bags in the past, and are currently taking custom requests.
Inspirational Canvas
By Francine Clouden
Supplies Needed
Two colours
of Ranger Perfect Pearls (I used Sparkle
Yellow and Rust)
Ranger
Embossing ink
Ranger
clear embossing powder
Acrylic
stamps and fabric butterfly: Alpha Stamps
Two spray
bottles
Paper
towels
Rub-ons: 7
Gypsies
Sticker:
Daisy D’s
Trim: Prima
Marketing
Instructions
1. Ink your
stamp with embossing ink and randomly stamp image across the canvas.
I did my stamping in a trail across the canvas
because of the follow your bliss theme I was going for.
2. Cover
with embossing powder and tap off the excess. Because the canvas is textured
make sure to really tap it against your table so that it adheres only to the stamped
image.
3. Use heat
gun to melt embossing powder
4. Mix
lighter colour of Perfect Pearls with a little water in a spray bottle
And spray
over entire canvas.
Don’t worry
about any drips or drabbles, that will only add to the effect J
Let dry
entirely. If you’re impatient (like me!) you might want to use your heat gun to
speed this process up a bit.
5. Once dry mix second colour of Perfect Pearls
and spray over canvas, making sure to concentrate on the areas of the canvas
that are still white.
6. At this
point you can use a crumpled up piece of paper towel to dab into the wet “ink”. This gives a nice texture to the
pattern
7. You can choose to either stop at this point
or add another layer of colour.
Once the canvas is dry use a clean paper towel
or soft cloth to wipe colour off the embossed image
8. Now you
can decorate the canvas to suit your theme!
A Special thanks to Francine Clouden for sharing this wonderful tutorial. Please take a minute to visit her links for her designs and more!
Personal Blog:
Designs Blog:
Etsy shop:
© 2008 All Rights Reserved
black and sterling earrings @ PoeticPurl
vintage wall paper framed in black @ MoxiePhotoDesign
raffia & bakelite handbag @ CherryTomatoVitage
black sugar bowl @ LiftedIndustries
black birds @ a2zDesigs
little black dress necklace @ Agnieszka
I'm amazed at the indie alternatives I come across every day. Like this gorgeous ring bowl from Paloma's Nest.
Head over to the Indie Wedding Guide to see more of this neat handmade indie wedding alternative.
I'm always intrigued about the types of things people create and what medium people fall in. In today's Daily Swank, I fell in love with a box made of wood that came to life with this artist's touch.
You can find these wood burned boxes at Sixth & Elm. Each one unique it's own way.
The first one is a French Script Wood Box. It's burned with French script of "The Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise,". A truly unique treasure box, that would make perfect for gift giving, and a keepsake in one.
I'm also drawn to vintage maps, I think if I could, I would have them all over my home. There is just something about them. I grew truly fond of this Antique Map Box, it's fictional maps have been burned onto the surface and sanded for a vintage look.
Head over to Sixth & Elm I think you'll agree that this art form is truly fun, and enlightening... not to mention the gorgeous picture frames you must see!
Enjoy!
Thank you to Shabby Miss Jenn for the beautiful graphics, now being used to beautify Vintage Indie. Frame Created from the SMJ Egg Huntin' Time Holiday Kit.
It's almost here... will the weather hold out? I'm hoping for no more snow, aren't you! I'm talking about the fresh fresh air of spring. The cool crisp mornings of birds chirping, coffee steaming and dreams of what will become long warm summer days.
It's easy to get lost, isn't it? I feel the same way browsing throw the market at our Featured Sponsor shop, Painted White. Excited things happening over there, like this Painted White Peach Rose Easter Basket. It's full of vintage trinkets, including an adorable bunny brooch.
You can also find original artwork at Painted White, by "Mrs. Painted White" herself, shop owner and artist Alice W. A perfect touch a spring is this Spring Birds Nest Collage Painting. I love the vintage sheet music background.
Head over to Painted White today for a delightful mix of spring goodness, vintage and of course Painted White treasures.
I've been meaning to tell you about today's Daily Swank for awhile now. Baby Goes Vintage is one of my favorite baby and child stores. It's full of vintage warmth and loads of charm.
Look at this darling wall art. I love the old school look of this Girl Feeding a Cat. It's a paper illustration backed by wood and comes with a creamy white ribbon for hanging.
Dare to be different in your princesses room. I know I wouldn't mind this Stella Chandelier in my own bedroom. It's real crystal drops make is something special, worthy of passing down.
Lastly, complete the vintage look in your sweet child's room with this 100% cotton Dick and Jane Bedding. Each set is made by hand to order and other fabrics are available as well.
Vintage
Vavoom (2007, Clarkson Potter, $35.00, 218pp.) by the editors
of Romantic Homes magazine might just as well be called Vavoom!
This just-right-sized book packs a wallop for lovers of all things vintage,
and we are nothing if not that here at Vintage Indie.
As soon as I knew Jacqueline deMontravel, the editor of Romantic Homes, was spearheading this, I was on high alert for it to come out. For those of you who put down your Romantic Homes several years ago after one too many cabbage rose and Victorian lace vignette, fear not.
The magazine has been rehabbed into an of-the-moment, authoritative handbook where new and vintage collide in a romantic whirlwind of breath-taking rooms, little shops, gardens and get-aways. Add to that the contributions of editors-at-large like Sandra Evertson and Tara Frey, and RH is one of my top real zine picks each month. And, the book is no different, just bigger and by that, better.
Gorgeous photography again takes center stage. I did not see a lot of reprints from the mag in use. That’s always good. There are also great instructions, shopping lists, tips from designers, even tips on HOW to shop (as if!).
From the opening advice of creating a notebook, each chapter includes “workshops” as they are called, to help one get decorating and collecting ideas down on paper, complete with encouragement to sketch.
All styles and time periods are given equal appreciation here, from the kitschy 1950s to the Wedgewood and Flow Blue of the late 1800s. Chinese is represented as is nautical, western, classic/traditional, colonial and more in the many themes depicted for both decorating and collecting. Advice is also given for cleaning and preserving treasured vintage items, such as linens.
Perhaps my favorite chapter is on color-everything from a bold palette to bold splashes with dots and stripes to an even more delicious group of photos of all-white displays. Ideas for every taste make for a one very appealing book. It’s a must-have for any decorating library.
- Guest Author, Gina Smith
{All contributed content Gina Smith © Lilly*s of London*ish}
Woodland Brown Nesting Bowls by Pyrex @ WhiteElephantVintage
Denim + Vintage = Wonderful Handbag @ KarenMeyers
lil brownie holiday @ elgatodicemeow
Copper Rose Beads @ Runonthesun
Greener Pastures @ raydelphotography
Brown Clutch Purse Retro @ thatsswell
Hoot Hoot Owl Tags @ INeedThat
Good afternoon everyone. I'm still sick with the flu, but I've found enough energy to tell you about the awesome Handmade Wedding Series going on over at the Storque on Etsy.. I'm thrilled that Vintage Indie and the Indie Wedding Guide as well as many other fabulous bloggers are going to be apart of all this fun.
Here is a little taste of what's in store. This is the fabulous front page of Etsy right now. Isn't it gorgeous, AND it's handmade, "woot".
Stumble It!
