Living A Vintage Life: Sweet Dreams

'Diary Of A Quilter' Gives Old Sheets New Life

Submitted by Three Chicks Vintage
I remember a lot about the sheets and pillowcases I slept upon as a child. My dear Grandma Alice's white sheets were pressed and starched and her pillowcases were lovingly embroidered with flowers and fancy ladies. Even now as I close my eyes I can smell the starch and feel the gentle scratchiness of grandma's freshly made beds. When my Dad remarried, my stepmother had a closet of striped sheets - it was the 1970s and the sheets were white with stripes in fashionable color combinations - yellow and orange, pink and gold, blue and purple. I was especially jealous of my little stepsister's sheets - wild, mod arrays of flowers in bright pink. How I longed to choose my own sheets! When I finally got my chance, sometime in junior high, I picked lime green sheets scattered with yellow-eyed white daisies. Green, no matter the shade, is a calming color to me, and at that time in my life I longed for the calm and the freedom to choose that those sheets represented.

Another vintage sheet project from Amy.

Nowadays it is rare for me to purchase new sheets, (unless I find good, Egyptian cotton on sale) instead I pick up beautiful, high thread-count, vintage percale at second-hand stores. For a couple of dollars I find a sheet that will outlive almost any sheet I could buy new AND I get to pick colors and patterns that remind me of childhood. But I don't just pick up vintage sheets out of a sense of nostalgia or thrift, I pick them up because they are simply beautiful fabric. Holding them at arm's length I can imagine them as quilt squares, little sundresses, hair bandannas, valances ... Of course my imagination is much more active than my needle, so I've a healthy stash of vintage sheets and pillowcases awaiting a resurrection or a sleepy head!

Fortunately, there are folks who actually put their stashes to good use. Amy Smart is one such person - the smiling face on her 'About Me' page suggests that she is a colorful, creative person and the pages of her blog, 'Diary of a Quilter' confirms it. The project I discovered in her blog post 'Vintage Baby Sheets Quilt' looks like my own sheet stash come-to-life. In her quilt I can see both sheets I have and sheets I have slept upon.
Her vintage sheet projects include hangable art and sundresses too!
So ... you have a stash, you have the inspiration, now you have pictures and the instructions to guide you through a vintage sheet project!
Do you need to start your own vintage sheet stash? Or build on one you already have? Search etsyvintageteam bed sheet or etsyvintageteam pillowcase to get started!

Living A Vintage Life: Vintage Valentine's Clipart

Life is the flower for which love is the honey.

  ~Victor Hugo 
We *vintageophiles are often creative people, looking for ways to incorporate our passion into our everyday lives whether it be a snuggly vintage afghan, funky 1970s blouse or in the gifts we offer to the ones we love. Valentine's Day is no exception as we seek vintage heart jewelry, trinkets and timeless sentiments on aged greeting cards. Even if we were willing to part with our long searched for greetings, we would probably be hard-pressed to acquire enough to give to all the loved ones on our list. Fortunately there is another way to send vintage sentiments: we can create our own Valentine's cards using vintage graphics.

There are many sources of free vintage Valentine's graphics on the internet, you just have to make sure you are truly accessing free clipart. To make that task a little easier, I've swam through some websites for you and came up with a few links.
The Graphics Fairy has a wonderful selection of vintage images and craft ideas. 
Hub Pages has dreamy graphics too!
Vintage Holiday Crafts has gorgeous images for Valentine's and other holidays.
The Stock Solution has free graphics as well as images for sale.
Want to fore go the fuss of printing, pasting and glitter? Fun and free vintage style e-cards can be found at Hipster Cards.

From my vintage heart to yours - Happy Valentines Day!

*vintageophile - a person whose every waking moment is consumed with the thought, pursuit and possession of vintage goods!

Living A Vintage Life: Bird and Birch

"Green" has been on our lips for years now and unlike many trends that inspire their own buzzwords, green isn't going away anytime soon. Vintageophiles* have an approach to green totally unlike environmental conservationists or traditional recyclers, rather we lovers of vintage take yesteryear's remnants and develope them into a passion. This passion drives us into both known and unknown territories in search of timeless morsels that amuse, excite, calm and express our personalities. Birch and Bird Vintage Home Interiors is one of those special places that every vintageophile should visit at least once (although I recommend regular visits). Their ideas exhibit how exciting it can be to live a vintage life!

Lily and Rachel, Birch and Bird proprietesses and bloggers, share their trips to wonderful antiques markets, decorating ideas and personal insights, all beautifully photographed. Many of their interiors tend towards comfort and calm punctuated with color. Unexpected touches like cuckoo clocks painted in green and blue hues, marry modern and vintage in inspiring ways. Even traditional settings bear their personal touch, as exhibited in their recent blog post Warm and Cozy Fireplaces; while their post on Bohemian style suggests the wide variety expressed by this timeless movement.

Be sure to scroll down through all the photos or else you will miss the herringbone floor made of reclaimed shipping pallets (hint: it's most of the way down the Home page); click on the "You might also like" at the end of each post to jump to more beautiful vignettes and amazing market adventures, and don't miss the tiny keywords (Posted in) beneath post titles to further your surfing through the blog.
Now, grab a glass of fresh apple cider, put on your favorite old holey sweater and settle in for a delightful afternoon with Birch and Bird.

*Vintageophile (vin-taj-o-phyle) - one who passionately embraces and is inspired by vintage goods to the point of changing their lifestyle.