Antiquing fun
In these waning days of winter, I’ve spent many enjoyable afternoons antiquing with a friend. We’ve had so much fun exploring the dusty corners of giant antique malls and some charming smaller shops, too. Some have beautifully curated displays with themed rooms and neat, orderly arrangements. Others are more like flea markets with little organization but some cool finds if you are willing to dig for them.
It really is true: one person’s trash is another’s treasure. I have always appreciated upcycling, or recycling something in such a way that the resulting product is of a higher value than the original item. You can do this a lot with items like old picture frames, shutters, or furniture that might just need to be stripped and refinished.
To me antiquing is like a scavenger hunt. It’s fun to explore all the items and occasionally hone in on something that you can really use or that will fit in perfectly with your decorating style.
I am always searching for items for the cabins. Recent finds include an array of mixing bowls, framed mirrors, a darling (and very sturdy) kids’ chair for the playhouse and, my personal favorite, a beautiful metal dustpan that won’t warp like the cheap plastic ones. So many things we consider “antiques” today were really built to last!
When walking through an antique shop you’ll also see many framed faces of people who are long passed and mostly unidentified. This always makes me a little wistful, wondering who these people are and how their framed portraits ended up here, for sale.
When my neighbor Walter passed seven years ago I purchased a small, framed photo of him from the estate sale. Walter was a widowed nonagenarian who had lived in the same house for two thirds of his life. When I saw the photo of a very young, handsome Walter I wondered if it was the one his wife had cherished and had prominently displayed on her desk or bureau. Everytime I look at it today I remember Walter and his kindness.
This little picture, like so many antiques, tells a story.
Walter c. 1935.