vintage

Lately my frustrations with not having an Etsy shop are really mounting. Soon I'll done with school, and then I can become a working girl! Recently I decided that in addition to opening a shop for my photography, I want to sell vintage, too. Though who knows at this point if I will sell on Etsy versus my own e-commerce site.

It's still too early for me to begin to think about that process, but whenever I start a project, it has to have a name. My photography is easy enough, I just use my full name. But the vintage shop has to sound great. And like when I'm writing a fictional story, and I cannot begin writing until I think of the names of the characters, I can't even start fantasizing about my shop until I have at least a working name. Does anyone else have this sort of problem?

So now I bring to you my three favorite vintage shops on Etsy. What I recognize as great about them really comes down to presentation. Great photography all around and very professionally run shops. It's so hard to look through pages and pages of ill-lit goods to find something you like. But if it looks good, I'll buy (or at least drool!)


Vintage electric sign, $40; 1960's letter G flash card, $15; glass flour and sugar jars, $30; and art deco globe, $65, from White Elephant Vintage.


Porcelain lotus bowls, $18; framed owl print, $19; set of 20 postcards, $9; and frosted glass owl paperweight, $9, from Bouquet Thrift.


Three piece red Birkdale suitcase set, $120; classic rotary phone, $30; pyrex mixing bowls trio, $36; and classic onestep land camera, $18, from A Touch of Vintage.

buy the buy

We finally made it to the Brooklyn Flea today! It was hot and not as many vendors were there because of the Labor Day weekend. Also, in our lack of familiarity with Brooklyn, I made us get off at the Clinton-Washington stop on the C train, and we had to walk far, when we should have gotten off a stop earlier at Lafayette, just a few blocks from the flea. D'oh!

The main attraction for me was the food. We ate a Latin lunch from the Red Hook Vendors, and it was delicious. Then we looked around at the mostly overpriced booths. Finally I found the Whimsy & Spice booth. I talked to Mark and sampled their cookies, but I walked away with a package of marshmallows (so airy and delicious!) and two dulce de leche brownies (one is already gone!)



Near the end I made my one great purchase. A small piece of framed art for $5!



At the same stall, I had to pull the boyfriend away from the night vision binocular for $150 (how can you even tell if it works!), but I did buy him a vintage Zippo lighter for $10.

When we got home, I was still in the mood to be thifty. So I went over to Good Will and actually scored! I got another framed piece, an empty picture frame and a tray for $15.15.



Good Will, I will be back!

Neat Finds at Rainbow YCS (ACE Hardware)

My original goal was to get Mod Podge, the Plaid website said that Rainbow YCS carried it and I'd been meaning to go there for a while. In the window display is everything from dressers to paint cans. Rainbow is a department store, but what does the YCS stand for, I wonder? It reminds me of Bazaar, Bed Bath & Beyond, a hardware store (Rainbow is part of ACE Hardware) and Pearl River Mart in one.

Well, they didn't have any Mod Podge, but I did find an appealing selection of wall hooks. Besides the candy shop hook from Anthropologie I was thinking about, I haven't seen anything that is worthy of holding my jackets up off the floor! This one’s three times cheaper and I might just decoupage it later, but I digress.

In addition to what is pictured above, I also snagged some grout in a tube for the shower, a muffin pan, a belated birthday card for my stepmother, a new shower curtain liner (I might have to blog later about how quickly they gather mold) and cup hooks for lights on a string I bought a while back. Total cost $75.

I didn’t buy it (yet!), but I spotted a solid, glossy tray for $16 that would be ideal for decorating. Rainbow is perfect for people who like to spice up ordinary items, though they don’t sell the supplies, like textured paper, embellishments or glue, to do so.

A list of some of the products available at Rainbow: Paint supplies, hardware, tableware (Pearl River’s selection is ten times larger and cents cheaper), glassware, kitchenware, small appliances, almost anything you can also get at Duane Reade, furniture, lighting, storage, bed and bath, frames, mirrors, cleaning supplies, towels, electronic accessories, and much, much more!

Rainbow YCS
1449 1st Ave (at 76th St)
212.288.4868

1815 2nd Ave (at 94th St)
212.876.5995