Crazy about Chartreuse

Not so crazy that I am going to dye my hair chartreuse like in the Louis Jordan song BUT I have collected chartreuse pottery beyond my fair share most likely! When I was looking for my current house, I had to put a dining room set on layaway  because I hadn't found the house yet. Thank goodness for layaway because this was the perfect dining room set for me. 1960's  honey colored wood and chartreuse covered seat cushions, so I couldn't pass it up just because I didn't have silly thing like a house for it! Now normally I like dark wood which is kind of anti-mid century modern I'll admit, but I inherited a few pieces of dark furniture so I've built around it. I've done just fine in finding darker wood pieces in the era, but I drew the line at the dining room set. Regardless of the color it was coming home with me. Once I settled on the house, I realized that the existing paint color in the dining room lent itself quite perfectly with chartreuse. For those who want to know, the paint is Kelly Moore Everglades. Kind of a greenish bluish medium grey (it looks bluer than it is in the pictures).  I highly recommend it for blonde or honey colored wood, although i do rather like the color CollectoratorOne chose for her new dining room, that same medium grey but with more turquoise.

In any case, upon move in I had NOTHING that was chartreuse to decorate with. GASP! So I promptly remedied it and bought several pieces to display. I've slowly expanded my collection to the current state.  I really wish I knew who the manufacturer is of the set on the left in the picture. Can't seem to find anyone that knows. My favorite piece is in the center which is Claire Lerner California Pottery.  I'd like to find the free form shallow bowl to stand the birds in, someday. Lastly there are two Bennetts California Serpentine vases. I've seen a 4 inch tall one as well...next on my list!

As much as I love looking at this cheerful chartreuse pottery I am packing most of it away. Yes, you read that right packing it away because I have started the tick tick tick of the moving timeline! It's time that we found a bigger house, only partially due to my Collectorating habit (is 80% really partial?) Granted, it may be six months to a year before we move, but I want to be ready to move fast when I find that perfect house. It's also the perfect opportunity to start a new blog series to highlight everything I'm packing away! I'll think I'll leave the Claire Learner birds out for staging so someone else sees how perfect this paint is with chartreuse!

Game Day 2011 - Collectorating Style

Ok it's no secret that I am a big UT Longhorn fan, not a big football fan, just a big UT Longhorn fan. Those two things are VERY different.  I earned every bit of that right to be a big fan given my 13 career as a professional student at UT. Before anyone pokes fun, I did get three degrees out of it including a Phd so by averages, three degrees in 13 years is just about right. I would have tried for 14 but I got a little tired of as an adult having to say "I am a student" to the question of "So what do you?" Not to mention I was well into my Collectorating addiction by that time and I needed a real source of funds to support said habit.
Even though I've put almost a decade between me and my last day on campus as an official student (October 1, 2002 for those who need details), I am still a UT Longhorn fan through and through. Now, for me it's not about the game, although I do care if we win but for me it's mostly all about the century old team spirit, traditions, and burnt orange fashion (of course!). I have almost enough outfits (shoes included!) to make it through the whole season of game day outings, but I can always use more.

Lately I've begun collecting accessories to make it all come together or go overboard as it may be... My favorite is this vintage basket purse adorned with a vintage cartoony Bevo. But my orange rhinestone and white bracelet is a close second . Pair that with some burnt orange gloves and hankie inside the Bevo purse and you've got yourself one touch-down-cannon-shooting-game-day outfit! Now, if we can win today, that will be even better, and I can go out and buy a new accessory item! Oooo, I see the start of a new tradition! Go Horns!!!

Extreme Collectorating = Tablescapes!

Well meaning friends say there is a fine line between collectorating and hoarding... To them I say you haven't found the beauty of well functioning tablescapes yet!!! So there... cough... In any case, my new favorite thing of late is creating works of art with my favorite collectibles. Only trouble is it gives me more excuses to buy more things (like I need anymore excuses). Case in point these two lovely birds. I can honestly say I bought them for the sole purpose of standing next to this McCoy Floraline vase.


A worthy purchase I think.  My favorite trio of late though is one that came together on its own over time not through a tablescape-need-justification. A nice, sunny yellow combo of Alamo and Shawnee vases and a Maddux Chinese Pheasant. It makes me happy just looking at it even though the bright yellow reminds me that it has been exhaustingly sunny for waaaaaay too many days this summer. What would make me feel better is if I could find the running pheasant in the same Maddux series which still frustratingly alludes me! Ok, I'd settle for 80 degree weather for awhile instead.

So what may seem on the outside as over-collectorating is really functional on the inside. I found that I actually make the effort get the pieces out and arrange them in new ways and funny so does "the boy." I'll come home and find his own carefully assembled scape filled with flowers. Now that's love. So not only am I enjoying all the pieces I've found, I'm actually using them too which makes me very happy even if I don't have the Maddux running pheasant! oh that fast 'scaping bird... Tune in for more tablescapes coming soon!

Love Not Granite

Omg, I cannot believe it has been since the summer since I last wrote here. That is no way to start (maintain) a blog! Well, in my humble defense, a lot has happened since then... I quit one, basically, part-time job and started another full-time 8 to 5 job that unfortunately takes me out of the house every day now. What an adjustment that was! I actually have to find clothes that match again and deal with trying to do everything I did at 2pm now at 5pm when unfortunately everyone else is trying to do the same thing... and on top of that I got married. So needless to say it's been quite a busy half of a year! Don't misunderstand I am grateful for both. The new job = more (Collectorating) money, no travel, and no more allnighters trying to meet continuous deadlines and of course love is, well, love and worth every drop of time and effort, but both have really thrown me for a loop time-wise.... In the meantime, though, I have some how found the time to do a ton of Collectorating (chalk it up to priorities). To be honest, I have done way more than I should have done especially given I was leaving one job for the hopes of a better steady income and probably should not have been Collectorating at such a rate... (yeah...well...it's an addiction and I'm an addict...what more can I say?)

But thanks to this Collectorating I have one short story, ok two, to share....

Story 1:

CollectoratorOne and I went to an estate sale in this house in my neighborhood that I have driven past at least 400 times, and from the street I'd have never have known what we were about to walk into... upon entering it seemed like any other estate sale house of the mid-century era. This house, though, was packed with stuff even on the 3rd day. Of course, my first thought was if I don't get my Collectorating habit under control or start selling some of it off now this was going to be me very soon.... once we walked around a bit in the seemingly normal smallish house we realized there was much more to be seen... Not only had the previous owners converted their garage into a room with floor to ceiling shelves all along one of the walls, they had converted the laundry room to include floor to ceiling shelves as well on the main walls. What's more, they had built on what looked like a work room out of the back patio, and also on every wall save the work bench area there were floor to ceiling shelves... Enough shelves??? You'd think... but you'd be wrong... Built onto the back of the work room and down the full side of the large yard was another giant room filled with nothing but shelves. I repeat, nothing but shelves. There were shelves on every wall, floor to ceiling and shelves down the middle. not kidding. I was starting to get the feeling either we were in the most organized lady in the world's house or were in Austin's version of the Winchester House. That back room was filled with nothing but special occasion and holiday decorations (and I mean every holiday including the obvious Christmas from which I got this star topper for my tree http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratortoo/4196146779/). The inside shelves were filled with pottery. Tons of it. In her defense, I pieced together that she at one point had a craft store (the inside bedrooms were filled with craft supplies) an obviously she had made flower arrangements possibly for occasions such as wedding etc, so I am sure all of those decorations and pottery at one point or the other had some practical use. or maybe I am just justifying her obsessions for her...bad habit...

Now the normal (read boring) person would think, "oh no! Is this the tragedy that could become of me? will I sooner than later be known as the crazy-pottery-laden-shelf lady???"...but not me.... no... the first thought I had was this lady had an AWESOME husband who built her all of these shelves to support her habits, and how can I convince mine that we need to replicate this shelving system soon???? my second thought was hmmm maybe it'd just be easier to move into this house instead. Unfortunately, I did not move into that house and I did not have my camera on me to take pictures (lame I know), but I don't think I will ever forget that house and I think you get the picture...

Story 2:

So this story takes us to the NICEST part of town, and the one of the oldest parts of town. I have always pined to live in that part of town ever since I moved here 20 years ago, and it irritates me to no end that many people who move here just want to live close to the center of town and not in those areas just because they are old and full of history and they want to preserve it. As soon as they move in they "renovate" and with that process they typically destroy the most glorious kitchens and bathrooms. Given now that I am commuting again, I see the appeal in living close to downtown, but at the same time I just want to paper the town with fliers that say "save the pink bathrooms...at least... (of course you must be familiar with http://savethepinkbathrooms.com/ who would, I am certain, be campaigning right behind me... ) but I'd like to make a special plea here in my own forum to save the vintage kitchens (color not specified) as well. It's not that I don't like granite, heck our capitol building is built out of the most amazing pink granite you have ever seen... but not only would I break every glass/plate/bowl I own on a granite counter top, granite just looks, well, just WRONG in old house... there I said it...I might be thrown out of this city for saying it, but honestly someone has to start saying it, so I'll gladly volunteer. If it saves one bathroom, one kitchen then it was worth it.

ok onto the story... so this house was unbelievable and in not in a "crazy shelf" way but in an "omg, I want to move in here right now, what if I just don't leave what will they really do" way. It was 1 story house, but it had a BASEMENT. not a real basement.... we live in Texas which means you can barely plant a pansy in the ground without hitting limestone, so real basements are out of the question, but if your driveway slopes down enough, well you can sort of fashion a basement. CollectoratorOne will probably say no it was more of a workroom complete with an told timey washroom, storage area, and Speakeasy! But I am going to defer to the judges and say basement because it had a door from the main house leading down some kind of creepy narrow stairs into this room... and in every horror movie I have unfortunately ever seen the actors have always gone down those creepy stairs into the basement while the ominous music plays despite the fact that I am yelling "no don't go down there!!!!"

By the time we had arrived at the sale in the main part of the house, it was pretty much picked over, but we did get a chance to tour the inside of the house, which again I'll never forget. Not only was it amazingly gorgeous inside, the lay out and features of the house were like I've never seen in a 1930's house. Every room connected to the next in a square with a big, long, narrow room at the back end of the house and nice generous hall down the middle of the house. In between two of the bedrooms was this amazing, and I mean downright amazing, pink bathroom... I am linking to it here because CollectoratorOne was actually smart enough to bring her camera (I have so much to learn from her still) http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratorone/4041599960/ (check out the related photos as well). Not only was it the largest bathroom I have seen for a house of that era, the tile was just beautiful.

Next, in between the bathroom and the master bedroom were large his and hers CEDAR lined closets which unfortunately no longer smelled of cedar, but you know at one point every time the owners opened up the doors they were like....ahhhh.... Then, if that wasn't enough there was a matching green bathroom off of the third bedroom. http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratorone/4041014641/ Are you seeing now why I wanted to stay there and never leave???

I thought well it can't get any better than those closets and the two amazing bathrooms (why do I ever think that) until we walked into the very yellow kitchen. Anyone who knows me would know that kitchens, well, they should just all be yellow. We did not get any overall pictures of the room, but you can tell from the link below that the kitchen was fully committed to being yellow, and frankly I have had sink envy ever since we left... http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratorone/4042771075/

I don't even want to know when that house goes on the market because I cannot begin to afford it given where it is located. The thing that keeps me up at night though about that house is worrying that someone soon will go in and wreak havoc upon those bathrooms and that kitchen. No they weren't in perfect condition, the tile was a little faded here and there, but those bathrooms and especially the kitchen just needed some love... not granite....

Why Red Pie?

It's no secret... I obsessively love vintage cookbooks. It started out innocently enough but don't all collectorating obsessions? Honestly, my first cookbook that I acquired wasn't even vintage. It was a high school graduation present from my mother. I think either she was trying to make up for not being a better kitchen mentor (certainly not her fault, she was a single mom by night and teacher by day so she didn't have a lot of time, but what she did teach me I still cook to this day). Maybe though, she was just terrified that I was moving off to live with my father for college, and if I didn't have some directions about cooking I'd starve to death. Her reasoning was probably closer to the truth than mine. The cookbook she gave me was Betty Crocker's 40th anniversary edition. I admittedly didn't use it that much until I lived by myself, and at that point I thought there would never be a reason to own any other cookbook. It had most every recipe you could want and so between that book and recipes from my mom, grandmother, and two closest aunts I couldn't imagine a reason to buy another cookbook.

Until one day in 1997 when I saw the brand new Joy of Cooking cookbook. I had never seen such a compendium of recipes before. Suddenly I decided, I must have that, and then I'd really never need another cookbook...right.... That resolve lasted two years when I happened upon a brand new version of Betty Crocker's original Picture Book at Restoration Hardware. I thought to myself why would you release a new version of a vintage cookbook that you could still find in perfectly good condition at the antique store?? I passed on the new version and promptly went on the hunt to find a vintage copy, which I did thanks to the new thing I had recently discovered...ebay.

By then, I was cooking often. I really enjoyed comparing the recipes between the three books, and I started to notice something interesting...sometimes the older recipe was just better. It had fewer ingredients, had more distinct flavors, and it was easier to make. And like any good Collectorator has thought one time or the other, if one is good, then two might be better. So it was, I had to find more vintage cookbooks. I stuck with the Betty Crocker thene for awhile in a valiant effort to "collect" something finite. I mean, if you just collect vintage cookbooks, well, it could go on literally forever. I started with the spiral bound speciality cookbooks like "Dinner for Two", the "Cooky Book" etc. Eventually, I found all of those, but the obsession did not go away. There were so many others that seemed interesting for one reason or the other....Better Homes and Gardens, Fannie Farmer, The Culinary Arts Institute, Helen Corbitt....I realized I had more cookbooks by then that I probably would or could ever use but really does that matter?

Somewhere in the middle of the obsession I discovered that my aunt who is considered the best cook in our family was a strictly a recipe/cookbook chef. I say this not to diminish her cooking skills but to raise them to a new level. Somewhere down the cooking line the definition of a cook really got lost. It seems now to be considered a good cook you have to practically be able to cook with your eyes closed or only cook things that have the most bizarre or unique combination of ingredients.

I don't subscribe to that, my aunt was and is one of the best cooks I know, and I aspire to be as much like her in the kitchen that I can be. That feeling has inspired me to buy even more cookbooks mostly old but also a few new ones too. I want to learn how cooking has changed, how recipes and ingredients have changed, but most of all I want to get my hands and cooking utensils on those recipes that make everyone think "now THIS is the perfect comfort-food". Along side some pretty bizarre recipes (check out reclark's blog on Wednesdays for the Mid-Century Menu http://www.nopatternrequired.com/ where her and her husband bravely try out the weirdest recipes they can find from vintage cookbooks), there are some really, really good recipes in these vintage cookbooks that are better and more fulfilling than anything new I can find, especially lately.

My absolute favorite that demonstrates just this point is Meta Given's Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking. This two volume set is pure vintage culinary comfort. For a long time, I wondered why this particular cookbook set was so expensive though. I thought maybe because it was old? But there are older cookbooks that sell for less. So why do you sometimes see this set on ebay for $100 or more? CollectoratorOne finally pieced together a set for me for a lot cheaper, and I finally got to see inside these books. Honestly I love the set, but at first glance it didn't help me understand why it is so expensive. I could go on for pages and pages why I love this set (and I will soon), but I couldn't point to any one thing that made me think oh now I understand why some could sell Meta Given's books for over $100 and someone would pay that much for them....

A similar conundrum occurred lately for me regarding Betty Crocker's red pie cover cookbook from 1969. That one is not even that old, not nearly as old as Meta Given's books, but you'll see it on ebay for $100 as well, and that cost is sometimes for a 21st printing in 1972...why??? Then the epiphany came to me one day recently looking for a favorite recipe in my Betty Crocker's 40th anniversary cookbook that I have cooked out of for almost 20 years now. Books like Meta Givens and Betty Crocker's red pie cover book (and now my 40th anniversary book) are the culinary bibles of people's lives. Our mothers and grandmothers had these books. They are like a family history in food if you will. Every recipe, every page in these books can take you right back to a certain meal or a certain holiday or a certain every Sunday and they allow you to recreate that feeling or moment at any time.... I feel that way about my grandmother's recipes and cookbooks that I have inherited as I am sure we all do.

I found an article somewhere online recently that described this lady seeking to replace her mother's favorite cookbook because she had just buried her mother with it... That's exactly why someone will pay $100 for a 1970's cookbook that was so widely printed that you can almost find one in any one's house. I don't know why this didn't occur to me before. I guess I was hoping there would be some wow-factor about this or that vintage cookbook that made it somehow more special than another one. I can only imagine I thought like that because of the new perception of cooking I have witnessed that insists a meatloaf recipe has to go where no meatloaf recipe has ever gone. Why can't it just be meatloaf anymore? It has to be "sun-dried tomato meatloaf with red-wine currant sauce"... now I am not saying that isn't a good recipe, I am sure it is fantastic. I just sometimes want plain old meatloaf, and likely I have everything in my pantry and refrigerator to make the plain old meatloaf. So, no, my vintage cookbooks do not contain any magical, awe-inspiring tricks that hold the key to cooking other than they remind me that food, and life, can be simple, sometimes weird, but mostly just comforting.

I am ecstatic to say I have the Betty Crocker red pie cover cookbook now thanks to CollectoratorOne who snagged it the other day for $2, yes just $2(!!!), at an old library book store. It is on my nightstand right now awaiting me to discover all its culinary family secrets that are tucked away inside.

Estate Sale Adventures

I'll be honest, despite my love of Collectorating Estate Sales are really difficult for me. It's definitely a quandary for me because I love old stuff, and I know the best old stuff comes from Estate Sales, but I am 9 times out of 10 more willing to pay the middle man to go retrieve it from the sale so I don't have to go myself. I have a really hard time watching people pawing over someone's stuff that is splayed out all over a table, stuff that they had meticulously collected and stored away their entire lives. It's particularly difficult for me when stuff is still where it more or less was in the house and people are stepping all over stuff, pulling and shoving, and generally grabbing up items without even trying to keep like things together. Maybe it's because I imagine this scenario happening to the things I worked so hard to collect all these years. I really wouldn't mind it if I knew my collections were going to someone who would appreciate the effort it took to find all of these things, and who would take care of them for me, but just going to someone who is going to carelessly break sets apart just to make a few bucks sickens me.

I fully realize that this is the scenario I am facing when I go Collectorating in retail stores. Likely all the good stuff came from such situations, but I guess when I am not witnessing it happening it's easier to take. And I should be clear, I am not against honest people making an honest living, but it’s hard for me to go to these sales and watch everything being snapped up in a rush without much of a glance and admiration for this person’s life and things, just to turn a profit. I owe at least 90% of my collection to dealers who tirelessly get up at the crack of dawn every weekend to go to these estate sales, but I guess I want to believe that most of these people truly appreciate what they find and consider themselves conduits to get the stuff to people who will love and value it.
So for these reasons I try to get out of going to Estate Sales as often as possible much to CollectoratorOne's chagrin. I am trying to be better about it because my Collectorator sensibilities know the value in going, and I have extra time right now, but it's not easy for me by any means. Both CollectoratorOne and my boy have said to me one time or the other that I should just think of it as we are doing our part to preserve some small part of what the person had worked so hard to keep in their lives and to keep the dealers and hoarders from just snapping it all up carelessly out of greed. Regardless of going into it with that in purpose in mind, today's estate sale was a perfect example of what I dislike about Estate Sales, but I think I had an epiphany today on how to make it ok in myself to continue to go....

The lady's house we visited today, Mary, was the most organized pack rat I have ever seen, and I know pack ratness when I see it as I am a confessed pack rat myself. Not the kind where you keep random crap, but the kind where you obsessively collect many examples of the same kind of thing (see my flickr site for evidence of my pack ratness). In any case, this lady was a very organized pack rat. She probably had about 50 scarves and 100 hankies but they were organized together by color in old hosiery boxes that were labeled with what was in them and what dresses they went with. It's organization like hers that I aspire to have! And as I was realizing this amazing quality of this person, I was watching the dealers scrambling to grab all those dresses that were written on the labels of those boxes right of the racks without even looking at them, just for a profit. All I could think is don't you want the scarf or hat that is specifically labeled to go with that dress???? So there I was on the floor with the little labeled boxes of scarves caught in my usual Estate Sale maelstrom. I almost had to leave... BUT I moved my focus away from the dealers pulling and stacking and focused in on the large collection of purses. I was certain that the innocent purses also went with the dresses that were being whisked away, so I compulsively found one to grab onto so I could maybe salvage some small piece of Mary's life and incredible fashion sense that was being destroyed right in front of me.

I thought rescuing that one purse might be all I could do, so I wondered out of the room to maybe just go outside for awhile but on my way out I saw a sewing room and I went in there, no one was really in there so it was quiet and I regained my focus and went through the patterns. Sewing has certainly saved me more than one time in my life. Mary had some fun patterns and she obviously liked to sew. It seems maybe that she didn't really start sewing much until the late 50s from what I could tell from her sewing collection. Most of the patterns, notions, and general things were from the 60s, which I admire but do not collect. She had two sewing machines, one from the 1960s and another from the 1930s, which I surmise was probably from her family or childhood. In the pattern collection I found a cool Vogue pattern to make a fur stole. I have never seen such a pattern before. So I held on to that hoping I might find the stole she made somewhere in the house. I never did, but she obviously made everything she had a pattern for as they were all used and the little pieces were all tied together carefully with thread as to not lose a loose piece later.

While I was regaining my composure, CollectoratorOne rummaged through the rest of the clothes, looking for anything that maybe the dealers didn't find and stashed away a few for us to look at later. She eventually joined me in the sewing room and focused in on the nightgowns. This lady was like me, she had tons of nightgowns. I overheard someone say why would you need so many bed jackets and all I could think is that they go with all the different nightgowns that's why! I let CollectoratorOne look through those for us and I focused in on the gloves because I am having a real glove obsession lately. They were mostly plain which was somewhat disappointing, she had all this flair in her hats and scarves I thought for sure the gloves would be good. I singled out the only unique pair in the box, white with red polka dots...and again all I could think was there was probably a smashing white dress that these gloves went with that those dealers grabbed and took away without its matching gloves. Luckily for the gloves, Mary's fashion legacy, and myself I have a really cute white pique dress with red polka dots that they will be fun with....

We wondered into the bathroom next, which was cute - it had green and white tile and double vanity areas with really cute gold star printed light fixtures. I salvaged a little blue kleenex holder that CollectoratorOne has a matching one of in pink. CollectoratorOne found this amazing set of sheets and pillowcases still in their original box. It’s funny because it’s this common design that we both have pillowcases already in but CollectoratorOne had just been talking about wanting a sheet set that went with the pillowcases too and lo and behold there they were! The box they were in was so beautiful that it brought up a discussion about the lack of quality in packaging these days. CollectoratorOne thinks that the extra effort put into packaging back then as well as the general esthetic detail in most everything vintage is the reason we are attracted to things from the past. I definitely agree. It’s like marketers and manufacturers were all trying just a little bit harder to sell that product to you. Maybe they had to. People may have just been a little less willing to part with their money than they are now. It just seems like today you go to a store and buy something and it comes in a crappy plastic package that you can in no way save. Looking at this lady’s life, all of her collections were tucked away in all of these fabulous old boxes from stores or just from buying a pair of nylons…. Something just seems so wrong about how it’s done now. As CollectoratorOne pointed out, now you have to go to a store to buy a boring plain plastic box to organize your collections into.

We wandered through the rest of the house doing an overview of what we might want to go back and look through more later. The house itself was nice, it was built in 1960 and still retained the majority of its 1960-ness. The carpet was newer, but most of her furniture and decorations went with the 1960s era. There were three main rooms, a very large den with all her books, a smaller “formal” living room and a dining room with a sitting area attached. Her Hifi was over in that area so I was envisioning all the dinner parties she might have thrown. Mary seemed prone to having parties as she had tons of glass serving dishes and boxes of very organized table cloths. I saw myself in so much of her things in both the amount and kind of things she had. The kitchen was small but long. It had an area for a kitchen table with a pull down light fixture and a laundry room (all laundry rooms should be in the kitchen!). The kitchen itself was right out of 1960. The original turquoise Hotpoint Wall oven, the contrasting yellowish/beige cabinetry, and the counters... they were the most amazing I have seen. They had seen better days but nevertheless I wanted to take the Formica right out of there and home with me! It was white with blue stars. So amazing. Her kitchen stuff in general wasn't anything that we really wanted but like us that girl loved glasses. Mary had a ton of glasses. She also had the Fire King tulip mixing bowls I've always wanted to collect, and many of the Pyrex things I do collect. It's so weird to see yourself in someone else's collection of stuff. We looked through the tablecloths and CollectoratorOne got some killer placemats in her favorite combination of green colors: chartreuse and dark green with leaves on them. How perfect is that. =)

We spent a good deal of time in the den with her books, and that's where I had my epiphany that maybe will make future estate sales easier to take. We were kind of piecing things together about her throughout the morning. I had heard someone say she was a single lady in answer to where the men's clothes were. So that spurred me on to want to know more about this wonderfully organized lady and I realized that maybe if I just learn about Mary through her stuff it will be ok to take her stuff and preserve it as long as I can. You can really tell a lot about a person through their collection of books, and Mary hardly had any pleasure books at all. They were mostly all old Marketing, Advertising and Business books from the 1940s and 1950s. Our first thought was that perhaps she had a husband who had died long ago, and that these books were somehow related to whatever business endeavor he had been in, but as we looked through book after book it was HER name that was inscribed in the front of each! It was then that we realized she had never been married after all. All those business-related books were all proudly sporting her name, not some man's name. She had a lot of these books, and she had kept them for a very long time, which told us that not only had she had educated herself well but she took huge pride in that education. Given the era the books were from, it definitely is something she had every right to be proud of.

Based on the books it didn't seem like she had a lot of other hobbies than sewing. For instance, she only had about 4 cookbooks one of which was one of those community cookbooks which I snapped up. She had several decorating books though so you can tell she put a lot of thought into how her house looked. She had them from all eras, 40s and on. She had some gardening books and some game books one of which was from 1938 that I took home with me. The Complete Book of Games... how fun! I discovered through some loose leaf paper in the game book that verified she probably liked to have parties. There were several sheets of paper with lists of games to play like other people might make to decide what food to serve at the party.

We discovered she graduated from high school in 1938 based on a pamphlet we found. There were also several old memento-type things within the house that she had kept from her sister indicating she was close to her sister. In the graduation pamphlet her name was listed with another similar name so maybe they were twin sisters. It wouldn't be unheard of to have sisters graduate at the same time in the 1930s that were different ages, but I am going to just believe they were twins. It's a better story. CollectoratorOne found an interesting datebook she had kept in 1953. Mary was a Lieutenant in the Air Force at that point! I had seen a hat earlier in the day that was definitely an Air Force hat, but other than that there wasn't a large military presence in the house. The datebook was strange. It was almost like it was documenting the bad things that were going on with her in the Air Force. The entries said things like so and so stabbed me in the back... or so and so was responsible for such and such thing happening. They were very specific with full names and dates, which made it seem more like a documentation of facts than just casual notations. We decided maybe she didn't have a very good time in the Air Force. I am sure being a woman in the Air Force, not to mention a woman Lieutenant in the Air Force, in 1953 was probably not the easiest thing to do. As we first were reading some of the things she had written down we thought she must have been paranoid and had a “the world is against me” syndrome, but then we realized that given she was a female Lieutenant in the Air Force in the early 1950s … everyone WAS probably against her! CollectoratorOne said, and I agree, that it is difficult to imagine being in that position where everyone was trying to conspire to push you out likely just because you were a woman in a man’s world. I hope she stayed…

Mary went to New Orleans in 1958 and saved her plane ticket and her receipt from the hotel she stayed in. Maybe just a mark of a pack rat, but I also think she was probably pretty excited or really wanted to remember the trip for some reason. Maybe she just liked to travel. She went to come college classes in 1960s, and maybe some college before the 1960s as well but we are not sure. All of those Marketing books were from the 40s and 50s so either she was continually learning or she had several rounds of education. She wasn't in any of the local college yearbooks I have from the 1940s but I believe her sister was. So who knows, maybe she just came to live here with her sister or maybe she was stationed here for the Air Force and then just stayed. Our current airport used to be an Air Force base, so that is highly possible.

All I know is I developed a huge respect for her after looking through those items. Here was this tremendously independent woman at one of the hardest times to be an independent woman who made herself into what she was and acquired this fabulous house and all its obsessions and obviously led a fun life all on her own. It was very inspiring. I guess I once again saw myself in that picture I was painting of her while looking through her belongings. I think it was that combination of piecing together things about her life and seeing myself in her life that made it ok for me to take things from her house. And it's not just things I found on a shelf in an antique store, it's her things. I have little bits of different aspects of her life now, and I will always know they are hers and tell everyone about this fabulous woman I found out about today through those things.

We did at some point finally go through the few nightgowns and clothes CollectoratorOne had picked up for us to look at, and we both got a nightgown (my gloves would go really well with hers, it was a really cute red and white one). The clothes dealers somehow missed one of the dresses, or maybe she just hid it away for me to find. It's a super sweet Nelly Don plaid late 50s straight dress with a matching jacket. I haven't tried it on yet but I bet it will fit. I went back into the bedroom in a desperate attempt to find a scarf that might have matched it but it was to no avail. I did find a nice white one with blue on it so I got it to represent the scarves she did have.

On the way out I snagged a couple pieces of jewelry as well. It was pretty picked over, but I did find a couple rhinestone hair pins and some really cool star burst earrings. I figure I can wear them together in memory of Mary. And maybe next time CollectoratorOne wants me to go to an estate sale with her I'll say yes as long as we can try to find out a little about the person's life while we are there and honor that life in the things we take with us.

Hats Off!

I recently acquired the most perfect hat for me. You see, I'd really like to be a hat person, and I finally have a hair cut that looks good with hats. I just haven't gathered up the nerve or maybe it's the capital to fully commit to both the hat collecting and hat wearing obsession. In truth, maybe it's because as a woman everyone looks at you like you are crazy if you wear a hat when it's not 40 degrees outside or you are not at the Kentucky Derby. Actually, I find the role reversal of hat wearing one of life's greatest ironies. It seems to me women used "own" hat wearing. Not that men didn't wear hats, find me an old movie where there isn't at least one scene with a man outside wearing a hat. But, back then, for men, it seems there wasn't much to their hats, they were all pretty similar give or take a few variables like color, the height, brim length, and bands. But for women's hats the variety was astounding. It seems like it was something extra-special or extra-glamorous for women back then, and frankly it was required in some circles (think church). It added that final touch to the perfect outfit, and it was quite utilitarian at times. It could be the perfect veil for secretly spying on someone or hiding from them when need be (ok I've watched too many old movies! but can you imagine how different the last scene of Casablanca would have been if Ilsa wasn't wearing that awesome hat that allowed her to hid her tears and at the same time make him just a little bit sorry for the beauty and glamour he was giving up...). Now, though, a man can don a hat any day of the week in any setting, and it's 100% accepted and even complimented. Baseball caps, cowboy hats, fedoras, you name it. A woman puts one on outside a honky tonk, beach, or her own backyard while gardening, and people look at her like she's lost her mind. I wish I knew when and why this shift happened. Maybe it happened in the 60s when feminism took hold. But why.... I realize it was probably difficult to find and afford the hat, shoes, gloves, purse, jewelry etc to match, not to mention finding the storage place to put all the matching hats. Or maybe it was a negative symbol of women's former role in society. Or maybe they stopped making good hats. Or maybe women just got tired of it. Or maybe haircuts changed so drastically hats just didn't look good anymore. Or maybe it was just something antiquated and women started wondering why do we have to wear these dumb head coverings anyway.... I don't know. All I know is I wish it wasn't so shocking to today's society if a woman puts one on now just to go out to dinner. I guess for me it's just another little piece of femininity that has eroded. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, a lot of glamour and femininity in dress has gone the way of the hat for women. I guess I'm just trying to do my small part to bring femininity back. Anyway, enough of my rant...onto my hat...

This is my most recent acquisition...it's cute, sweet, and has BIRDS ON IT!!