Antiques

Are you someone who uses the word "antiques" as a verb....aka: antiquing?
I am.
In fact, it's one of my favourite pastimes.
This weekend, we spent a bit of time at the local antiques mall. It's always full of ideas, memories, and fun stuff. We didn't buy anything this trip. Just took our time and enjoyed wandering around...

1946 headlines

I was scanning a bunch of old photos from my Grandma's photo albums. At the back of one of the albums was a newspaper clipping from March 17, 1946. (if you can't read the text, just click on the picture to make it bigger)...

I'm not sure which story was the reason that Grandma kept this clipping. I'm thinking it was the mice story. I guess I'll have to remember to ask her next time I'm at her place. Maybe she knew that Bert Samson fellow. Either way...I love the story. Only $34 damage. And the cause of all that damage? Mice chewing on matches. You can't make this stuff up! And it certainly couldn't happen today!!

The mighty Fraser

On the weekend, we spent some time walking around the dykes in Richmond, down by the River. The Vancouver area is built on the Fraser River delta. These are pictures of Finn Slough. It's a tidal fishing community, built between 1800 and 1950 by Finnish immigrants, and is still populated by about 30-40 residents. It's a tiny community in Richmond, but is probably the most photographed area of town, because of the history, the old houseboats, and the even older houses on stilts. And, yes...people still live and work here.






This post is dedicated to my Grandma, who (with Grandpa) owned a fishing boat, and fished the river for a living. Being a woman in the fishing industry was not an easy thing to do, but Grandma's "no bull-shit" attitude, and knowledge of what she was doing, garnered a lot of respect from her fellow fishermen. Pictures like these always remind me of the time I spent on the boat as a child, or being in the nethouse, or just being down near the river. I can still hear Grandma saying...."If you fall in the River, I'm not going to jump in to save you, so you better just not fall in!"
Grandma is 85 years young today! Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

more new antiques!

My Grandma, as you know, was diagnosed with cancer. I keep telling her she's going to live until she's 90, but she's determined to "clean up" her life before she goes. And that includes giving away her possessions to those people whom she wants to have them. It's hard to accept. But, it's what she wants, and you have to respect her wishes. Although, I keep telling her that she's going to give everything away, and in a few years (when she's still around, despite the cancer), she's going to have to ask for it back. She just laughed.

On the weekend, when we were over at her place visiting, she insisted I take a crystal bowl (that she got when she went to Sweden) and an old copper tub (which she made my husband climb into the crawl space to retrieve...spider webs and all).

She also had a dozen mismatched china cups and saucers, which she wanted to give 1/2 to my sister, and 1/2 to me. She had a bunch of other mugs too, but I only took the one mismatched china mug, so that she could give the rest of the mugs to my sister.

My favourite is the little blue one..

These items aren't worth much. But, they are priceless to me, and I will cherish them.

new antique

We received another hand-me-down from my Mother-In-Law this week. It's an antique dresser, and I love it.

It came with a mirror, and while I love the mirror, I don't think I'm going to set it up with the mirror. I might hang the mirror somewhere else.

In the meantime, I love the dresser, but I'm having a hard time figuring out where to put it. It didn't quite look right in the living room. I think I'm going to be rearranging furniture a lot this weekend.

antique finds

There was an antique fair this weekend that I dragged hubby to. :-) Despite his lack of interest in being there (yes, I literally dragged him!), I really enjoyed the fair. I love poking around antique fairs and looking for all kinds of neat interesting things.

This time, I bought 5 coasters for my Lavender Rose collection. I never seen coasters before. I can't find them on ebay, and have never seen them at the stores. So I'm not sure if I got a good deal or not. But, I talked her down a bit, and purchased them anyways. They had 5 of them. (the cup was not part of the purchase, it's just in the picture to show you how big the coasters were).
I'm currently using one for my tea...a cute little place to put my tea bag and spoon after making a cup.