How Antiquing Became Cool For Me

When I was in highschool, it was the 90's and the country was in a deep recession. Too make matters worse my mom was in real estate and times were grim. Nobody was buying or selling anything and my mom had two kids to support. To survive, my mom rented out our house and she and I lived above our garage in a small room/apartment that she created. I helped out financially by babysitting and keeping a part-time retail job. This allowed me to buy all of my own clothes, pay for gas, occasionally help buy groceries and pay an electric bill. My mom, being a "war baby" taught me how to "stretch my pennies" by shopping at thrift stores. At first, I hated it. But, in time, I came to enjoy our adventures in thrifting. Because my mom had been a seamstress--she knew about fabrics and imparted that information onto me. I learned about beautiful silks, wools and fine materials . I also learned about how to hunt for unique treasures and antiques. My mom showed me how to purchase neat pieces of furniture and things for my room. She grew up in England during the factory times and she also knew about antiques and the value of them(her father had been a furniture polisher). As these years marched on, my mother and I collected things for my room and as I got older--antiques and treasures for my home.

Then, there came a time when I got married and I left thrifting behind, trading these shopping adventures for Target and the great malls. However, now having my own children and also being motivated by ways to help protect the environment, I am returning back to my roots of antiquing. Recently, my second "MAKING A DIFFERENCE" project, the gloves, is made from wool and silk recycled sweaters. Over the holidays, my mom and I did quite a bit of antiqing and treasure hunting in the gold country. Because of these adventures, my children recieved some WONDERFUL treasures for christmas--Annie got an adorable antique play kitchen from Wolverine Toys--it is their Sunny Suzy collection. We found it in a small antique store in Murphy's CA. As for Beech, my little artist, we stumbled on an amazing, old school house desk...still on the orriginal tracking. It has a gorgeouse mural painted on it that my mom touched up and spent hours fixing the chips and paint. AND..there you have it, my children recieved wonderful, thrifted treasures for christmas. What is even cooler is that my son, Beech who is almost 5 also loves to go aniquing with me--he has found some very old, collectible books and action figures. I am so thrilled that he is enjoying treasure hunting too. We do alot of our antiquing in the gold country because there are many antique stores there. And...I am now able to start to teach him the value of good products and how recyceling them is good for the earth and...the pocket book...just as my mom taught me.