After several months of contemplating the idea of blogging I am finally putting "pen to paper", or shall we say "fingers to keyboard". This has been an overwhelming idea for me because there is just so much I want to do in this blog. I want to share the products of my collecting obsession, share some personal work and share my wish list and love of vintage items.
I should have known that finding vintage items would be a hobby for me. Ever since I can remember I have been fascinated by items with a history. The earliest memories that I have of this passion are from yearly family trips to Guatemala, Quetzaltenango to be exact. My mother's aunts, who cared for her as a child, lived in a Spanish Colonial Mansion that had been partitioned by the time that I came into existence(more about the family history at a later time). I remember this mansion as being cold, damp, and quite frankly I did not appreciate it at the time save for this one room. This one magical room, which was kept under lock and key, contained many whimsical treasures. In retrospect, it must have been a sitting parlor back in the home's heyday. There was a round table in the back with a strange, but interesting nonetheless, hanging lamp. My memory may be faulting me, but I think there was a piano as well. The room was dark, and had wall-paper that had long been deteriorating. For some reason I remember thinking of it as the Blue Room.
This Blue Room contained one last thing, a glass cabinet filled with a generous collection of miniatures. This was the object of my affection for years. As a child I would stay in this room for long periods of time, just looking in amazement at all of the little wonders. Every visit to this home required a visit to this room, it became my ritual. My great aunts' must have known how much I loved these little treasures because when they passed, I inherited them.
Now I guess I have always been a bit of a strange cat. As a pre-teen, I searched the weekly newspaper ads for a curio and I organized this collection. In essence, I curated my own little museum. I cannot think of a pre-teen today that would find joy in this. Nowadays if it does not involve some kind of hand-held electronic device then it just is not worth the trouble, but I digress...
Along with my visits to Guatemala, thrift store shopping also furthered my love of items with a history. The idea of finding a discarded quality item was thrilling. However, I did not buy every item that I thought was a good find. I would only buy those things that I thought were really special, or that I could see myself using in the future. This blog will be a catalogue of my collections.
I can assure you that future posts will not be nearly as long as I am not fond of writing, but every so often I do feel inspired to do so. I also want to openly thank my boyfriend for being incredibly patient and loving, it is because of him that I have been afforded the time to reflect and rediscover my passions during these tough times.
