Nov 8 Go Vote

I walked the streets for you......

 I talked the talk for you .......

I fought the fight for you and won ..........

Now Go Vote Today!

Happy Halloween!

from our Sunday bulletin at Christ Church Unity of Rochester NY.

Estate Clues

The fun part of working with vintage items is doing the research for the items and the estate from which they came.  Over the years I have always made private estate buying my main mode and getting direct information was much easier!   But now that the B&M shop is closed, I find myself intrigued by the auction world again. It's a fun way to keep up with the happenings in the business.  Thanks to the internet, product identification is a possible goal! 

A recent auction showed an abundance of very nice jewelry so I had to go.  The auctioneer mentioned only one fact about the woman's estate:  she traveled extensively.  One region for sure she traveled to is in the UK, Scotland, Ireland region!  How can I tell?  Take a peek at these wonderful jewels from her collection!

Robert Allinson

The upper sterling two piece Celtic pin comes from RA jewelry of Scotland.  The lovely thistle pin is enameled sterling silver.


My lady traveled even further north into the Baltic Seas around Norway and Sweden.  The next pin has very faint etchings on the back.  I can make out: Finn and also Made in Norw... (Norway)

Norway

Another region she traveled was in the American southwest.  These Native American silver jewels are still under research, but surely the Zuni and Hopi artists were obviously favorites of hers!

Happy Cockadoodle Day!

Well thanks to the many wonderful customers... and Etsy Treasury creators... and super team members all around the website... and the Vintage Village.com, today I marked my 700th sale!  It's very exciting and confirming that focusing on just one shop can be a good move.

Something that I struggled with for over a year has proven itself:  simplifying in the internet business world is good  housekeeping.  Every new site that comes along tells me ... "We can do more for you!"  or "join us - we're the fastest growing..."   The claims always sound great and on the surface it looks like a major event.

But for any newbie in the internet business world, I have one solid piece of advice:  pick your corner and work it consistently.  Every thought and every little pebble you cast, causes ripples beyond your wildest imagination!  The more I remain focused on one store and a small handful of social networking sites, the better the sales.  Without a staff, it is just impossible to spread the time over too many places.  I refuse to work like a workaholic any more.  What is the point?  Life is too short and there are so many roses yet to smell!

So, Thank YOU! to all my followers and customers.  You make working with my vintage goodies fun!

Where is your Thought going?

Some time ago this little ditty arrived in an email:

Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions;

Watch your actions; they become habits.

Watch your habits they become character;

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny

 From my personal spiritual work and growth through Unity and other teachers, I have learned that "thoughts are things" is not just a catchy little idea - it is the truth of life.  From Old Thought to New Thought to physicists & science - the connection is real and evident.  If you have doubts about the concept, then I invite you to do your own experiment.  For one week, speak only positive thoughts.  If you catch yourself with a negative idea, melt it away in your mind before you speak it forth.

 Watch the magic happen.  You will be amazed. 
Today is a great day to start.

An Old and True Thought

I wrote this piece a couple a years ago, and it is still one of my favorite writings.  So with the newer format of a Blog coming into being, I'm sharing it here.  Enjoy!

Thanks to the quite early morning hours of the day, there's always time for coffee and quiet contemplation. One day, as I was reading the morning dose of doom --aka the newspaper-- it occurred to me that we merchants in the antiques business attempt to thrive in the toughest business on earth! 

The major grocery stores easily beckon your dollars week after week. Why? You need food, obviously. Your body takes it in, works it over, attempts to live in spite of it, and then throws it out. You need more of the same.

The automotive industry works on the same principle. As we build bigger and bigger communities, the need for the 4-wheeled monster grows. It demands your money day after day. You fill the tank, drive to work and drive home-- drive to school and drive home-- drive to shop and drive home. Drive till the tank runs dry. So goes the spark plugs, the tires, the muffler and the rest of the vehicle as well. You need more. 

The big business of education has the same philosophy too. When you look at the long term goal of smarts and degrees, how could anyone argue? We send our little dears off to pre-school, then kindergarten, then elementary, then high school. Now they go on to college for 4 and then on to masters and eventually doctorates for some. The more certificates on the wall, the better we seem to feel. Somehow more is better. 

But the antiques business has it all backwards. We who have chosen to keep the flames and artifacts of history alive and well don't get it. We don't accept that an endless supply of "a thing" is necessarily a good thing. We try to convince our customer that this "XX" will last another 100 years because it's made so well. Or we say, this "xx" is rare and only a few exist. It's unique. We insist that recycling life's goods is a good thing while we seem to live in a sea of throw away needs. 

Ours is a special task and one that needs the fires fanned by the guard at hand. Antiques merchants are faced with the job of re-training a customer base who have been grossly conditioned by the mass producers of the throw-away world. Lasting quality is a virtue. Non-throw-a-way goods are an asset. A cheap look-alike is not necessarily an equivalent substitute. Quality may seem to cost more upfront but it is always cheaper in the long run. 

Some things you just can't duplicate. It's the variety and uniqueness of each lasting treasure that makes life interesting and worthwhile. Ours is the business of nurturing that thought. The job is to keep it alive.