Remnants of the Past

I have been playing phone and email tag with Judy from Remnants of the Past Vintage Show over the last few months; but we finally connected a few weeks ago, and she mentioned that her daughter had seen me and Laura at the Rose Bowl flea and that she really loved our booth.  I was thinking she was going to ask about the fall, but she offered me a space at the June show, which is this weekend June 1st and 2nd.  What could I say, sure!  I quickly called Laura,  and she and her daughter will join me.  I have always wanted to go to this show, it’s a really great one, so I’m really excited to have a booth here this weekend.

I’m going to Burgundy again soon, and frankly, at this time I’m a little light on merch to sell; it’s all gone.  But that’s ok; I still have plenty of baskets and rolling carts, and linens from my personal collection that I can sell, and I started to go around the house looking for things my parents and I might want to part with.  Yes, plenty of things.  Love our little family baby shoes, but I think it’s ok to pass them on.

I’m going to sell the Italian angel I used in the Romantic Homes Christmas shoot; she was on the buffet in the dining room.  Love her, but ready to find something else; I added the ostrich feathers behind her at Christmas last year.

I also visited my friend Leah, who is downsizing her antique business; and came back with a car full of vintage French baskets and signs;

as well as a great vintage men’s bathing suit.  Made in England, of wool, it has this great anchor belt.  These look great framed, but I can’t imagine bathing in a wool suit.  It’s hung on a pair of ten-light doors I have had in the garden for many years; the other side is green; I painted the pink side white, and tomorrow morning I’ll finish these off with hinges, to make a small screen~

and Mom and I decided to sell the vintage doll pram; I played with this in my bedroom all the time as a child; it held my dolls and I would wheel them around the room; now I would only use it to wheel my Honey dog around, but she’s not too into it….

so this weekend it will go to the show; I put a lap-quilt and few bears in it; it has a great little porthole detail.

One of the best things in our booth will be something my Dad has urged me to sell, which is the collection of English marionettes my Parents bought us in 1968.  A few years after the movie version of The Sound of Music, weren’t these the rage?   We five children all played with these for many years, and used them in hundreds of shows for our Parents, Grandparents and friends.  There are eight of them, and a little folding theatre with red curtains.  I spent last night untangling some strings and mending others, and my Parents both had a huge laugh as I put on a mini show for them.  Though we have loved these, the grandkids somehow never got into them, or we thought they were too precious, and so we are going to sell them, being very sure that someone else should have and use these rather than having them sit in the closet.

I know kids are so into TV and computer-everything today, but marionettes are really a wonderful way to express and develop creativity; we never had a problem coming up with all kinds of stories and voices, of cats and witches,  kings, queens and dragons…so much fun, so many great memories; I wonder who they will now go to.  I’m going to look for someone special to have them~

The back wall of the booth will be all crates, and filled with all the other stuff I have set aside: vintage French lace, zinc tags, a 19thc French candlestick, linens and more more more.  I have a pile set aside that will be packed tonight, and today I decided to add in some naturals, so there will be a lot of white hydrangeas as well as several pots of fragrant thyme~

In the cubbies of the crates there will also be a series of birds nests.  I have so many from the garden, as found, and I thought it would be ok to sell a few.

I was looking around for something great to mount them; finding nothing suitable I took inspiration from this hummingbird’s nest, which was built into a small branch; I marvel at their construction; the hummingbirds pick up spider webs to hold their compact little nests together.  Our wild birds are busy here year-round.  So I put all the others on a series of twigs, and set each one on a piece of potato.  Yeah, I know, not super elegant, but they work….whoever takes these home can figure something else out!

There is a very good chance that mid-next week I’m going to be in Paris and Beaune, so I figure it’s a good time to raise a little money this weekend so that I can support the French economy as I say, and buy a bunch of new stuff!  I’ll show you how the booth looks in my next post.

And if you are in San Luis Obispo this weekend, be sure to come by and say hi~