Now that I'm finally unpacked from Art & Soul and settled in enough to enjoy the autumn, I have time to share some of the treasures my mom and I uncovered in Oregon.
My mom has always been one of my very best friends and we've spent many a blissful hour scouring the antique and junk shops of Oregon and Texas. She's loves to hunt and collect worn, discarded things as much as I do and we have very similar tastes in treasures. We never have to worry about fighting over anything, though...after all, she's my mom and it's my honor to make sure that what mom wants, mom gets!
Besides, I've been hunting for small, jewelry related items for a long time now and, since she's not so interested in that stuff, she helps me in my quest.
One of the larger things I brought back with me this time is this amazing incense burner. It goes perfectly with the bon bon keeper that Maryam sent me.
One of my absolute favorite shops is one that you typically have to make an appointment to visit. I lucked out when the owner let me dig through a pile of broken jewelry and bits. In it, was this gorgeous strand of worn and mellowed, mother of pearl beads.
The red glass rosary beads were from the discard pile...
...as was this sweet, silver, Victorian pencil case.
I found several fobs this time around. Believe it or not, the tiny one was only four dollars! Don't you love a good deal?
I found two of these darling, little watch keys that were not a good deal but I took them anyway because I haven't seen many with numbers on them.
Love these lockets and dark mother-of-pearl buttons. The dark ones are a little more scarce than the white and these have a great glow.
Isn't she pretty?
My friend, Mija treated me to some goodies from her vast collection, including beads, milagros, hardware and this beautiful, glass heart:
It is the tiniest one like this that I've seen. Of course, it will eventually grace a pendant or necklace. Mija had a terrific booth at vendor night stocked with things from her store, Mecca. By the way, Mija has a brand new blog called "Loose Muse"...very exciting! I'm sure she would love for you to drop by and leave a comment.
Jean VanBrederode gifted me, during class at Art & Soul, with this incredible rosary case.
Inside the case, was this lovely, garnet colored rosary. I was so touched...thank you, Jean.
My sweet room mate and friend, Crystal, insisted on giving me this magnificent holy water font. Crystal has a large collection of the best stuff. I had a good time digging through her wares at A&S vendor night. Check her Etsy site.
I haven't come across many, if any, round cabinet cards so I had to snatch this one up. Unfortunately, the dealer had put the price tag right on the front, at the top, and it didn't remove well. Still, a treasure!
Religious artifacts and medals are some of my favorite things to collect. They seem to be getting more and more scarce.
These two medals were the find-of-the-day at a buck each.
Of course, crosses are high on the list of things I look for when hunting. These mop crosses are gorgeous...
...and this reliquary crucifix has a tiny screw at the bottom which, when unwound, releases the cross to open. Inside is a space for sacred reliquary items. They were missing this time but I'll fill it with scriptures.
Silly, I know, but this tiny, plastic ballerina is one of my best finds. Not because the dealer threw her in for free (thank you!) but because she's just so dad-gum pretty! Are you tired of looking yet? Because now we must take a trip to the circus...
I don't know when I became addicted to all things spun cotton but there you have it. My sister in law helped me find these lovelies.
Are they not just the sweetest?
I believe they were used as cupcake picks. They can join my party any time!
Many of these items were made in Japan.
I think I first got hooked on spun cotton, years ago, when my mom gave me this little
spun cotton, skiing snowman that had belonged to my Grandmother.
In addition to the circus animals, I picked up this little snowman pick...
...this tiny cotton and glass santa...
...and this itty bittiest, darling angel. Believe it or not, I haven't shown you a few of my most favorite things. I'll have to do that in another post.
Reflecting on my trip to Oregon, I see what a strange trip it was...a bird in the engine of our plane, another plane that was declared "no good," an episode with my bad back, an extremely intense migraine on the first day of my class, a bad reaction to pain medication, being locked out of my room, a brass pole falling on my head...let's see, is there anything else?
As bad as some of it was, I never really felt like it was that bad. There was so much good. Spending time with my family, a great visit with my brother, nearly perfect flights (nearly!), a full class at Art & Soul, fantastic students, an awesome assistant, an equally awesome room mate, terrific classes with one of my favorites-Richard Salley, wonderful greek food with Susan, Jane and Sheri, time spent with new and old friends, beautiful weather and, oh yeah...terrific treasures! It would have been easy to focus on the negative but so many small, wonderful things outweighed the bad. So many blessings...it was quite a trip.