Sunday, January 25, 2009

Collecting treasures....

Hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend! Just when I was complaining about my estate sale rut, I came across a fabulously fun sale on Saturday. It was an old-school sale, old house full of junk, stinky and packed. I spent most of my time in the basement. I came across these gumdrop dolls from the 80's and immediately thought of this sweet lady.
Then in the corner of a little room in the basement that was full of sewing supplies and trims, I came across these vintage knotty chenille rolls. I immediately thought of the wall of these in Jennifer Murphy's studio.
What a find! Although, I have no idea what I'm going to do with them. Just stare at them for now:)
Then began my project for the weekend. After seeing Kristina's Anthropologie book here, I decided that I wanted to create an album housing all my estate sale pictures and memorabilia. Definitely in line with my Year of Color theme, I found this wonderful album at Michael's and matching paper in the Que Sera Sera line by K and Co. and so it began...
I printed off more than a hundred pictures from the last 5 years of estate sales. Many of the items in the pictures have either been sold or "re-purposed" for use in my art. Some of you may may even be the current owners of some of these treasures! I'm so glad I take pictures of all these gems. Now I can house them all in one place.
The first several pages of the album has tabbed pages that have pockets on top. More room for receipts, packaging or labels that are worth keeping. As you can see, I have journaling tags that still need to be filled in. I'm sure I will add more to the pages as well.
Since these pages did not have page protectors I could embellish them with lots of chunky bits of trim, millinery and other odds and ends.



Then begins the pages with page protectors. Since there are dozens and dozesn of pages to share with you, I put six pages together and laid them out to photograph. They are each 8.5"x8.5". They look all bunched up here, but you get the gist.








What a project! This book is already so much fun to page through. I cannot wait to keep adding more to my treasure collection!

26 comments:

Lilli in Vancouver said...

What a Fabulous idea, Kari! Your book is so beautiful, chock-a-block with inspiring images. Thanks so much for sharing the vintage love :)

Geralyn Gray said...

That is amazing...you are so inspiring. I can't wait for Spring for a good garage sale, too. The auctions are pretty dry around here, too.

Stars Fault said...

Oh my goodness, this is simply wonderful! I really lke the idea - and the binder is beautiful, big, generous size and 3-ring. I'm going to see if our local shop has them too.

Blessings ~ Eileen @ Star's Fault

Kristi Prokopiak said...

what a great collection! and even more wonderful to document it all in such a pretty, personal way.

Angela Harris said...

What a gorgeous book. My favorite photo is of those new pink chenille rolls! Oh my goodness. What a find!

Heather Simpson-Bluhm said...

A super fun book!! Perfect for preserving the memories all those treasures and a few mementos too. That is sure to provide plenty of inspiration when needed!!

Sarah said...

Wonderful collage-album! What an explosion of colors! Lovely!

Anonymous said...

Wow! I have only recently discovered your blog but I had to comment on this post. What a beautiful collection of treasures and what a lovely way to display the photos! It's definitely something I would like to try to document my collections.

Dede Warren said...

Hey Kari, do you mid telling em how you print your photos? Is it at home, or at a lab? They look great and so does the project, thanks for sharing it with us.

Celia said...

Yes it is a real treasure!

Anonymous said...

What a treasure trove of beauty and cutness - I wish I could sit and page through them with you Kari!

Shell said...

A wonderful book. It is simply beautiful.

Charlene said...

What a cool idea. I am kind of new to all of this & was wondering how to keep track of what I buy where & what it cost (as in if I keep it & then choose to sell it...) The bookeeping end of this is almost scary! Good thing the book is pretty to look at or we might just pretend all the paperwork didn't exist. Thanks for sharing.

snowbear said...

Kari what a wonderful book!!! I so enjoyed the pages!!! I noticed the vintage old maid cards on one page... I could cry thinking about all those years ago when i threw away such things! Maybe if I rumage through a few old boxes i might find something worthwhile!

chris a said...

How clever and beautiful! I love thrifting and have scrapped pix of some of my treasures but your book is inspiring me to do some photo ops - my personal versions of Victoria layouts. I'm thinking about combining this with the year of color and organizing by color. Speaking of color, what about the cookbook Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros - the recipes are organized by color and although there are no blue recipes, you can find blue bowls etc in the multicolor section. Jamie Oliver's cookbook Jamie at Home is also very color oriented as is Jane Brocket's the Gentle Art of Domesticity. Good reading and good eating.

Laurie G. said...

Some day can you share some info (here or on year of color) about what products/system you use to print your photos? I like the white borders--how do you achieve that?

I'm wondering if you have some type of photo-printer that your camera attaches too, or do you print them out of your computer and if so, what type of printer, inks, settings, etc. I'm inspired, but lacking some of these basics. Thanks!!

Anonymous said...

JUST GORGEOUS and I love your new finds.

bethchien said...

THat book is soooooo beautiful!!

Anonymous said...

I grew up on garage sales, so I know the feeling of rummaging and finding diamonds in the rough. This book truely is amazing. Thanks so much for letting us all in.

PS-An estate sale with sewing stuff?!?!?! And, now we know what Heaven is like.

Corey said...

Oooh, what a fun book to look back through! I wish I knew more about going to estate sales (or had someone to go with), because I'm sure that's where the best stuff is! I saw a photo of the little doll trunk you gave me in your book- still one of my favorite possessions!!!

Unknown said...

What a great way to showcase past projects and items used. I've had portfolios for my oils, acrylics, sketches and watercolors to use with clients as a 'show and tell', standard black issue, but this. Can you imagine having this at a craft show for attendees to peruse?Thanks for the inspiration and the idea for improved customer service for custom design inquiries.

~ ~ Ahrisha ~ ~ said...

Your blog is beautiful and you are so organized.

Anonymous said...

What a great book! So fun and colorful!!

Anonymous said...

I have used bump chenille to make wreaths, trees and candle holders so far. All very vintage inspired: the wreath is made up of poinsetias with each leaf two bumps, all in one long strand as shown in Mary Englebreight years ago. Even quicker is sticking one bump strand into a tree styrofoam and gluing a glass garland bead on the end. They are adorable! Hope you try it.

Unknown said...

Hi Kari,

What an incredibly beautiful and amazing book! I love it so. Thanks for sharing. Hope you'll keep posting photos as you add to it.

Best,
Marilyn

Sarah K. said...

What an incredible project! That book is amazing and has gorgeous photos.