family matters

luckily for me, my parents and other members of my extended family like my grandmother and cousin all enjoy garage saling and old, pretty things. while everybodys interests lie in totally different fields (my mother's mostly enjoys vintage ceramics of different genres and classifications, my father recently picked up an interest in vintage instruments..) its nice to be supported in my search for wonderful vintage things and never feel like im dragging someone along for the ride every sunday.

in recent years my moms collections have grown through her discovery of ebay, and mabye forgetting the embarassed feeling of buying vintage items produced in the year of her birth in favor of the gorgeous lamps, vases and boxes she could have if she let go of that fear of getting older. its nice to have my mom as a frame of reference, because i admit im not completely schooled on what look came out of what era, what to look for as a sign of old age, and so-on. typically, a daughters interest in her mothers nicer things decreases as the mother grows dowdier and as i would have become more accustomed to fancy things and bought them for myself, but with MY mom im always impressed.



my mom has a really beautiful 40s vanity in her bedroom, one with a huge circle mirror, and i envy her for it. you can see that black and white slip rose box, she has like 20 of them probably.



recently, my mom has picked up a taste for old pictures and leaves them scattered around her room and other places in the house. we buy them from Mr. Favorite Seller at the swapmeet, who always gives us wonderful deals on them. you can see a nurse, and my favorite, the little girl in the drum majorette uniform, which we bought two more pictures of last weekend: one with her family, and i think one of her in the splits.



my mom would probably be embarassed about this little elf being so dusty, but its really cute. you can see another old picture, and behind that one a picture of my little brother when he was little, wearing glasses.

swapmeets usually make for good ends to the weekend with my family, and its nice to atleast have something in common with them. it makes me sad that my mom works on saturdays now because we cant go to any estate or garage sales, but i make up for it, usually, by sunday. my mom's favorite thrift store just moved onto the same block as my favorite other two, so ill be excited to check out the new diggs and never have to argue with my mom about what stores weve got to scrap before closing time.