Three Vintage Photo Windows

 I bought all three of these windows last week for $4 each.

It is hard to find the multi-panel windows in such a good size.

I added "adopted family" photos to the first one and liked it so much
 that I also added photos to the other two.

 This one I did with all babies.

I should have taken some close-ups --

a couple of the mats had great graphics.

This was my "Be Happy" window.

It is not easy to find old photos of people who are smiling.

Altered Vintage Halloween Pictures

Click here to see some of last year's altered vintage Halloween pictures.  I did not like this year's Dollar Tree faux Halloween photographs. So I started looking around for more inspiration and used some authentic old oval photos in frames that I had spraypainted black.

Maybe not as successful as other Halloween projects I've done,

but it was simple.

  

Road Trip To Buy New Junking Van & Vintage Finds 10.4.14

I was trolling Craiglist this week for vans.  I needed a cheap older van with "stow and go" seating for my junking business.  So when I say "new", it merely means new to me.  We ended up road tripping out to Grand Island, Nebraska last Saturday to buy one. It meant blowing the whole day, and very little time for junking sidetrips.   But it turned out that next door to where we purchased the van was a yard sale.  So while my husband did the test drive thing, I did my junking thing. 

By the time I was done with an armload of items, the transaction was done and my "new" van doors were open and welcoming me. 

I bought several cool photos, prints and frames.

 

Then we stopped briefly Lincoln to show the van off to my dad and get a stretch.  We detoured a whole block out of the way to stop at my junkin' friend Cindy's house.  She had a few things I was pleased to buy: a corn sheller, bird cage, upcycled Christmas tree, mirrors, santa picture. So we were able to break in the "new" van (nicknaming it "The Silver Bullet") by having it haul some vintage treasures.

Old Photos: Pieces of the Past

There are those certain items.  We all have at least one.  It doesn't matter if they sell or not.  We have to bid on them.  They have to pass through our hands for a brief moment of time.  Maybe no one else seems to see their beauty, their history, their relevance to life today....

Okay, a bit dramatic.  But old photos call out to me.  They capture a moment of time so clearly.  And yet, we no longer know who they were.  Why it was an important time of their life.  What they did with their life.  Who they loved.  It only takes a generation or two to be lost and forgotten.

I feel like a late-on-the-scene caretaker.  I won't ever know who they were.  But I can respect that they were important in their lifetime.  That this photo was a piece of who they were.

Sometimes I display these newly "adopted" family members.  My ornate staircase is lined with them.  Sometimes I pass them on to others.  I get a weird satisfaction with being able to connect a vintage item to someone who will respect and treasure it. 

These all came from last Saturdays auction. 

I hope to help them find good homes.