A vintage clothing auction

About three weeks ago, I received an email from Ryan Auctions announcing their next vintage clothing and textile auction. I checked out some of their online photos and I cleared my schedule.
the auction was today.

The object of my desire was a French folding screen. I've been looking for an antique fabric screen for a while but they're either too big or not my style. This one was smaller and definitely my style.
It had beautiful fabric front and back and beveled glass. It was perfect.

Someone had left a bid of $475. so I was already out of the bidding before it ever really started. I couldn't justify spending that much money on it. It ended up going for $525. It was beautiful and it went home with someone else. I was very disappointed.

I met some very nice ladies at the auction. We ended up sitting together and chatting. Jen has a store in Haverhill and she also sells on Ebay and Etsy. She is a blogger too.

Jana travelled all the way from Nantucket and it was her first auction. Jen was a pro at auctions so she was coaching Jana.

Paula works for Home Goods. She travelled about an hour to the auction.  She bought the dress in the photo above. It was really lovely and an excellent choice. I hope she has a wonderful event to wear it to. She is tall and blonde and I am sure she will look gorgeous in it.  She made some very nice selections in the items she bid on. She purchased a few vintage beaded evening bags, perfume bottles, a piano shawl, opera glasses and another lovely dress.

Jana bid on some vintage Hungarian peasant tops. The embroidery was phenomenal on them. She said she would not be denied! She won the bid. 6 lovely tops went home with her.

 

I thought this set was really pretty but I did not bid on it.  Two men were bidding on all sterling silver dresser sets. I think they won them all.

Of course I bid on these little beauties and I was the high bidder! These will look great on my bookshelf.

 

There were lots filled with hats, some interesting and some just plain ugly.

 

 

 

I, too, bid on evening bags. This one was a favorite but I didn't bid on it. I will show you the ones I bought later. I ended up with two vintage evening bags. Who knew I was a collector?

 

In addition to the cameras and vintage evening bags, I left the auction with a ladies linen coat, a French footstool, a vintage suitcase, and one very unique tea strainer. I will post photos of all of them in a future post.

 

Guess what brought in the highest bid at the auction? You'll never guess, It was an old leather football uniform. The winning bid? $2,100.

 

If you love vintage fashion or just unique items from the past, I encourage you to check out an auction. Bidding can really get the heart rate up. Does that count as exercise?

 

 

F. Scott Fitzgerald was right

So I have been continuing with my random acts and I love seeing the reactions of people when they receive a simple gesture of kindness. F. Scott Fitzgerald said it perfectly.

Since my last post I did a few more of the 26 acts. Again I was waiting until an opportunity presented itself. I read a story that really touched me and there it was my opportunity to help a perfect stranger.

I read online about Brandy Jones, a woman who had a fire in her apartment building in Manchester, New Hampshire. On February 5th, she was in the shower when smoke filled her apartment. She got out of the shower and immediately tried to find her pets. She grabbed her dog Sadie and put the leash on her and got out of the building. Sadie, a 2 year old pit bull mix, was so panicked she slipped her collar and was off and running. Sadie was nowhere to be found for days and then there were some sightings. Brandy searched for her even during the blizzard which was a few days later.

Brandy lost everything in the fire,her home, all her belongings. 3 cats, a bird, and a hamster. There were some sightings of Sadie and volunteers continued to search for her. Then the most devastating of news, Sadie's body was found in the wreckage of the building. She had apparently run back into the building and into the fire. The sighting were not of Sadie. She had been killed in the fire.

I cried when I read about Sadie and Brandy. The paper said donations of clothing and gift cards were being accepted so I sent a Target gift card to her along with a handwritten note. There is a fund in Sadie's name as well. I hope my gift card brought a smile to Brandy's face, she certainly deserves it. Act #6.

I was at the gas station the other day and the weather was just miserable, cold and rainy. It was a full service station so I didn't have to pump my own gas. The attendant works all hours of the day and in the worst of weather conditions and always greets me with a smile. He is such a positive sweet man. So when I paid for the gas I gave him a Dunkin Donuts gift card so he could get himself something warm to drink. He was thrilled and it was so nice to see the smile I brought to his face. Act #7.

On Twitter, I follow a woman named Nicole Martin who writes a tea blog called Tea for Me Please. She tweeted about an organization called Kiva and she said she made a loan to a tea farmer. Kiva gives loans to people all over the world by collecting donations. It is a cool concept. They were having a free trial and the other Kiva members donated money so new members would join. So I loaned Percy $25. It went to his bathroom fund and didn't cost me anything. When I joined Kiva I selected Nicole's team so Nicole was awarded another $25 and she made a loan to a second tea farmer since that is her interest.

I checked out all the possible borrowers and  I decided to pick a loan recipient who needed a house loan.  After all, I work as a mortgage originator so housing is my thing.  I looked at all the housing loan possibilities. I wanted to find someone who had an achievable goal. There was a person who was at 37% of his goal. So meet Percy, he lives in Peru. He needs to build a bathroom in his house. I was able to donate $25 towards the $675. he needs. And how cool is that? His name is Percy! My little Percy cat would be proud. Act #8

The last act of the week was at a Starbucks in Reading, MA. I had 5 gift cards of $5 each. I wanted to hand them out but there was always a line of more than 5 people. I want to make people happy not tick them off.

I ordered my drink and suddenly just 3 people in line. 3 men of different ages. I said to each one, " I am buying your coffee today" as I handed them the card. They were shocked. Then they smiled and the last guy said, "You really don't have to". I said, "I know but I want to".  He had the biggest smile on his face as I walked past him and out the door. Mission accomplished. Act #9

What an adrenaline rush! I get such a high from each one of these acts.  After I complete the 26 acts I will continue my acts of kindness for sure! And if you want to be kind and donate to Brandy or Sadie's fund please email me and I will send you the info.

The beginning acts- #26acts

Remember I mentioned that I had committed to doing 26 acts of kindness?  Here's the post about it. Well I had only done one act until recently. I wanted the acts to really mean something and bring joy to the recipient so I've been taking my time and really thinking about it.

Here are acts 1-5:

1. Bought items and a cake for a birthday party for a child living in a homeless shelter.

2. Gave the guy selling newspapers outside of Dunkin Donuts a gift card. It was snowing that Sunday morning and he was clearly freezing. I thought a warm drink would do the trick but since I didn't know if he was a coffee drinker I gave him a gift card.  As I walked out, I handed him the gift card and I just said, " Coffee's on me".

3. I was driving down a street in Melrose when I saw an older woman taking groceries out of her car. She left her trunk open and headed into the house. She walked unsteadily on her snowy walk. I stopped my car behind hers and grabbed the remaining bags of groceries and closed the trunk. I carried the groceries up her front steps and put them on the top step. She was surprised to see them when she came out of the house. She thought I was a neighbor and when I said, "No, I was just driving by". She smiled and said, "Thank you dear."

4. I was doing some sales calls and I stopped for lunch at the Blue Moon Grill in Wakefield. An older woman came in and sat at a corner table by herself. The waitress brought her a menu and she ordered a salad. I decided I was going to pay for her lunch. I was almost finished and ready to pay for my meal. I overheard the woman ask the waitress if she could change her mind. I waited while she made her selection of chicken cacciatore.  The waitress gave me my check and I asked her to add the woman's meal to my bill.  She said, "Really?" She was stunned. I said, "Yes." The waitress asked if I knew the woman. I said, "No". She said, "That is wicked nice of you". I had the waitress tell the woman her check was paid after I left the restaurant. I would have loved to see her reaction but I didn't want to make a big deal of it.

5. I heard about an organization called Granite State Dog Recovery.  They are comprised of a group of volunteers who help people find their lost dogs. They do really good work and they have helped reunite a lot of dogs with their families. There is a dog who is missing in my hometown and they have been helping coordinate the search. Anyway, last week the organization had a really bad week. They had to report that one of the missing dogs was hit by a train and another one died from injuries from a fight with a neighbor's dogs. Then they found out that a woman had urinated on a feeding station they had set up for one of the lost dogs. She destroyed a blanket and the dog's food. And then someone stole one of the have a heart traps. The trap was for a large dog and it was a bolted to the ground.  Someone actually used bolt cutters to steal the trap! So, I donated enough money to purchase a new large dog trap and actually six people donated traps that day.  So something good came from all the bad.

I have to say it really does make you feel good to do something nice for perfect strangers. Most of the recipients are shocked by acts of kindness. That's kind of sad, don't you think?

I have not set a deadline for completion of the 26 acts. I think I will just contribute if and when there is a need.

A new find-Camp to Castle Consignment

It's a rare day when I don't have anything scheduled but today was that kind of day. It was snowing but the weather wasn't too bad so I ventured out to Reading.

First, breakfast at Aroma Cafe with my sister.  Then on to Camp to Castle Consignment, a fairly new store on Route 28 in Reading, Massachusetts.

Furnishings and home decor from a variety of eras were on display. This little green stove caught my eye immediately. So cute!

I wish I had room for it in my kitchen! I have a spot for it but I would have to move my antique black chest elsewhere in my condo.  The chest is good for storage too and the stove? Well not so much.

These hatboxes were adorable. I did take a second look at them but they did not go home with me.

If I had been looking for a table I would have liked this one. I am drawn to the half moon shape.

I am always on the lookout for a good tea/coffee set.  This one was a beauty!

I have a growing collection of vintage suitcases. So this one went home with me.  I love to use them as extra storage since I have a lack of closet space at home.

The previous photos I took with my phone's camera. This one I took once I got the suitcase home. It is a vintage leather Samsonite and the inside was in very nice condition.

I also collect vintage rhinestone pins. Sometimes I wear them or I use them as package toppers or napkin rings.  I might also make them into magnets. The top one is actually a belt buckle.

I also bought this set of 4 pins. I must confess I really only wanted the key pins but they were sold as a set. The candle pin is cute too.

Camp to Castle Consignment was doing a brisk business today. A young woman bought a table and a rug and a couple bought some items too. So happy to see this small business thriving in a tough economy. The owner, Lauren, told me they get new merchandise in every day so I definitely see another visit in my future.

Catching Up

Well, we're all dug out from the major storm of about 10 days ago.  This is the front walk to the condominium building where I live. My neighbors were out fairly early trying to keep ahead of the storm.

One of the boys was standing at the end of the walk on a snowbank and he was almost level with my living room window!

I could barely make out the figure of my next door neighbor who was snowblowing his driveway.

They were making pretty good progress. The snow was heavy and wet. Sometimes it is light and fluffy but not this storm.

 

That's my car off in the distance.  I did not think I would ever get it out with all that snow. It looked like a daunting task.

The drifts had to be 3-4 feet. The plow guy did not show and so my upstairs neighbor, my sister and I dug my car out and then shoveled in front of my neighbors garage so she could get her car out.

 

The boys had done the back steps.

 

 

I shot this photo from the steps.

 

 

Percy loves to watch people doing manual labor. At least, he was safe and warm during the storm.

 

The final tally- we think between 22 and 26.5 inches. There were conflicting reports. I do know it was the fifth worst snowstorm in Boston history.

 

At least, I did not lose electricity during the storm. Friday night the winds were howling and the lights were flickering. I was stressing thinking at any moment I would lose lights and the heat so I went to bed. It was still snowing in the morning and since there was a driving ban nobody was going anywhere.

 

We hired another plow guy and he finished what we didn't. It was about 5:00PM on Sunday . I was mobile once again and Nemo was one for the history books. Good riddance!

 

 

 

Who can resist these Valentines?

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I stayed home with my 3 Valentines tonight.  We just lazed around and watched a little TV.  Here's Oscar looking dreamy as ever!

Percy was wondering if there was going to be chocolate involved tonight. And this was his face when he found out there wasn't.

And here's Molly. She is always looking for affection. That's her paw in motion at the bottom of the photo.  If you are near her and you don't pat her, you'll get whacked by her paw. She's a leftie like me!

I hope everyone had a wildly romantic day!

I am ready for the storm

I am ready for the storm. Got my heavy blizzard boots. Cell phones and computer fully charged. Bottled water at the ready. Batteries of every size and candles ans matches set to go. I bought soup, fruit, bread, and chocolate. I'll turn the heat up a little higher just in case I lose the electricity later on.

Latest prediction 16-24 inches, 30 in some areas and historically high snow drifts of 5 feet. Hurricane force winds.  Me and my kitties are hunkering down and will ride out the storm at home.

Yes, I am ready for the storm. To all my friends in the Northeast, stay safe! And thanks to my sister for turning me on to this song. I love it! Watch and listen to the video, you'll love it too!