Vintage Rescue Squad

Way Ahead of Ya #8: Hoarding

So it's come to this. Pottery Barn's new catalog is not-so-slyly exploiting and exposing our weaknesses. Oh, sure, PB has always preyed on certain weaknesses (vintage-inspired or not), but who thought we'd see the day when they targeted HOARDERS? Who else but me has a bazillion framed things junking up their walls? OK, so mine aren't so carefully cultivated, but my basement has loads of merch-in-waiting on the walls—just not so thoughtfully grouped.

And what junker worth her ironstone doesn't have every.single.shelf in her home jam-packed with stuff? OK, so just not so prettily.

 

They're even onto the trick of stashing junk UNDER junk. Seriously, they're just indoctrinating the unsuspecting general public into buying more stuff. They just didn't need to go so far as to expose what we all do:

 

Vainly believing these tattered books are worth keeping.

Way Ahead of Ya #6: Team and Group Photos

When the latest Restoration Hardware catalog arrived yesterday, I nearly plotzed! Right there in the first few pages was a whole WALL of group/team photos.

"Discovered in antique shops and flea markets, our photographs of men's sports teams from the British Isles and New Zealand date back nearly a century. Documents of a bygone era, the giclée* reproductions capture every detail of these evocative images in their original black and white. Each is framed uniquely to enhance the found-object provenance."

 We all LOVE these photos (especially me), and I've sold a bunch of them—still have a few—and I have a ton of the yardlong military/corporate events ones. I can't wait to bring in the catalog clipping to the shop.

 

In the meantime, I'm an idiot. They mass-produce these and sell them at $195 each?!?! I need to revisit my M.O.

N.B. According to Wikipedia, giclée is "a neologism for the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing. The word 'giclée' is derived from the French language word 'le gicleur' meaning 'nozzle', or more specifically 'gicler' meaning 'to squirt, spurt, or spray'. It was coined in 1991 by Jack Duganne, a printmaker working in the field, to represent any inkjet-based digital print used as fine art."

Um, you mean SCANNING?

Way Ahead of Ya #5: Decorating with Letters and Numbers

 

When Family Circle* has figured out that letters, numbers, and game pieces are a cool thing to decorate with, my prized possessions seem cheapened. 

 

I've got to admit, however, that I can't stop looking at these photos. I'm digging the styling! 

 

We've all been hoarding and/or creating these items for YEARS, so either we'll be selling a lot more, or they will become more difficult to find. 

*Lame replacement for one of my now-defunct subscriptions. I've tried and tried to get them to stop sending it to me, but to no avail. 

 

Way Ahead of Ya #4: Skeleton Keys

 

Really, Tiffany? Any self-respecting junker mom would MUCH rather have an authentic skeleton key than one of your snooty pricey ones (ranging from a paltry $225 to $6,825 for the diamond-encrusted platinum knockoff). Hell, I'd do cartwheels if I found just one more rusty one! Today's newspaper had this full-page ad, causing me to nearly choke on my DDP.

Way Ahead of Ya #3: pert-near everything

I intend absolutely NO disrespect to the high priestess of junking, but Sue's post on Junkmarketstyle last month made me giggle. In it, she predicted the "Top 10 for 2010: Ten Very Good Reasons to Buy Junk". Among the top 10: grates, suitcases, frames, and concrete garden statuary. I have to slap a "way ahead of ya" tag on that, with a concession that Sue is also educating the masses, not necessarily us junkers. Let's just imagine that the "Today Show" picked up on that and did a story on her predictions. That would lift us all up! Nevertheless, anyone that knows me knows my weakness for those 4 she mentioned, dating back YEARS....

 

 {photo cribbed from Curious Sofa blog}

And, way back in October, Debbie of Curious Sofa featured religiana HEAVILY in her upcoming holiday displays! My religiana, sprinkled throughout my booth, is always moving. It helps that I'm kinda the only booth in our shop that regularly carries it. I wish I had the cojones to devote as much real estate as Deb does and make a big splash! Her displays are outrageously inventive, and I'm still drooling 4 months after seeing this photo.

For this "way ahead of ya" post, I'm not ragging on the MSM, but showcasing what every junker knows: we all love the same things! Sometimes a junker is merely out there, buying what she is drawn to, what she thinks is cool, what she thinks will make her booth look faboo and will SELL—with no concrete evidence that it's a good thing. And sometimes it pays off. From perusing all my fave vendor-bloggers' posts, it's evident that those of us who sell what we dig (and secretly want to keep) have the most vibrant and innovative booths. 

In my travels, I see booths all the time that are filled with "sensible" (viz. brown) antiques and china and Blue Boy knockoff paintings that are so staid—that scream "I know this is what collectors are supposed to like." SNOOZEFEST. Give me an eclectic booth with some crusty, rusty, chippy, and tarnished flawed junque, and I know that grrrl has a vision! And here's the secret: we're not necessarily doing it to make money. I, for one, am doing it to see if anyone ELSE "gets" what I like, if I can anticipate my buyers' needs, and if I can somehow—WITH JUNK—be a bit forward-thinking. Does that even make sense? When we find that perfect find, we're not squealing because we can make $35 on it, but because we FOUND it. 

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I initially wrote this post right before the big snowmageddon hit the DC area last week. In anticipation of FINALLY getting out to junk tomorrow (and re-stock and re-foof), I need to get back in the swing of junking. As Arlene astutely commented on my last post, I need to do some junking calisthenics. I'm woefully out of practice! I'll be stretching, deep-breathing, and carbo-loading. Too bad the estate sales have been postponed. I even had to (horrors!) resort to ebay shopping this past week. It felt like cheating....

Way Ahead of Ya #2: circus fun

I've been somewhat quietly (and sometimes boldly) buying vintage circus. About a year and a half ago, I bought these killer photos of girly, daring young ladies. Last month, I bought the vintage programs and the albatross circus poster/placard/printed thing. Oh, sure, I knew that circus stuff is cool and somewhat hip. But until alert readers and my sister told me, I had no idea about THIS: 

 

Yes, that's Anthropologie's February catalog! I've got to admit, though, I'm LOVING their shoots for this catalog, and lusting after many items. If the poster would sell quickly, I could buy 2 or 3 pieces.... Check out the loveliness: 

  

How much do you want EVERYTHING in these photos—the props in particular?!? This, my dears, is how a junker looks at fashion. We notice the props FIRST.

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BTW, it's snowing HARD here. Today, thus far, we've only got about 6", but the DC area is expected to get between 24-38". All the estate sales have been postponed, once again I won't get to re-foof, but the Lucketts Groundhog Day sale has been extended to ALL WEEK. Looks like I'll be taking a day off this week! I also predict loads of VRS posts, FB time, and possibly etsy progress. I've already spent waaaayyy too much time on ebay! 

As long as my home has power, I'm a happy girl. But, if the power goes out, I'm comforted by the fact that Cody can feast on my frozen corpse for sustenance, thus outliving me. Gruesome thought, but today is our 11-year anniversary of becoming an inter-species family; I'm feeling particularly loving and have been smothering him all day!

Way Ahead of Ya #1: floral frogs

The new edition of BH+G Country Gardens devotes 4 pages to vintage floral frogs. Good thing I picked up an additional 8 yesterday to add to my stash! 

Way back in September, I blogged about how someone at Pottery Barn is vastly overpaid, given that their catalog looked like they trolled our blogs for new style ideas. Then, I reported that Anthropologie debuted "Man Shops Globe," a TV show about scouring the earth for vintage styles. 

Lately, I'm seeing much more of this, and have decided to call out MSM (at least the shelter/decorating arm of it)! Yep, they're copying US and what we've been collecting for years. Our secret is OUT! Though (tee-hee) I'm secretly pleased to affirm our superior junking abilities. With the now-trendy (and hopefully eternal) mindset of * Reuse * Recycle * Repurpose * Redecorate* our style could be around for a long time.... 

"Way Ahead of Ya" will become an ongoing VRS blog feature. I've already got 2 more posts in the proverbial hopper. If you spot something, holler!