Safe Ways to Display Vintage Halloween Decorations

October 16, 2018, 6 Comments

If you have frequented antique malls or flea markets this fall then you’ve probably noticed some vintage Halloween decorations for sale, most of which are made of paper, card stock, and thin cardboard. This rather delicate and disposable nature of decorating for Halloween meant a lot of decorations were easily damaged and often tossed after…

How to Restore & Reupholster a Dining Room Chair

How to Restore and Reupholster a Vintage Wood Dining Room Chair

May 31, 2018, 3 Comments

When my dad came to visit back in February, he brought with him four of my dream dining room chairs, the “dog bone” or “dog biscuit” style chairs by Heywood-Wakefield. The chairs had some issues, but they weren’t too far gone! Most of their iconic finish was still intact with some wear in a handful…

Our 1954 Home: Dressing Room Tour & Storage Solutions

April 20, 2018, 11 Comments

Awhile ago I did a tour of my dressing room on Instagram Stories, and I got loads of requests to do it as a blog post. So I am happy to say I am finally here with that much requested post! There was certainly a lot of photography gymnastics on Patrick’s part to photograph this…

Atomic Redhead’s Disneyland Tips

March 3, 2016, 5 Comments

June 2019 NOTICE: This post is somewhat out of date. I am planning an updated guide sometime in the summer or fall of 2019. Once a new guide is created, I will post a link to it, which will replace this current line of text. However, I have tried to make updates to this post.…

How to Tell Vintage from Repro Halloween Decorations

October 11, 2015, 9 Comments

Halloween in around the corner, and with it many people are shopping for Halloween decorations, including vintage lovers who do their shopping at antique malls. However in recent visits to antique malls I have noticed some dealers selling items that look old, but are in fact new! So, how are you to tell the difference?…

How To Organize with Stocking Boxes

February 18, 2014, 12 Comments

Recently Julie of V is for Victory Rolls was lamenting on Instagram about the difficulty of organizing many of her vintage accessories, and asked fellow vintage loving Instagram’ers to share their organizational tips. What is funny is that I had been thinking of doing a blog post on this very subject actually! I organize using…

Beginners Guide to Vintage Shopping

December 28, 2013, 16 Comments

In my numerous vintage shopping excursions I have observed many people coming into shops who are not familiar with vintage, and may be just starting out. Some get overwhelmed, others confused, so I thought I’d offer up some of my personal tips that I know make for a better shopping experience. Be Respectful When you…

Antique Show Tips & Tricks

October 28, 2013, 6 Comments

The Portland Antique and Collectable Expo is about the vintage lover’s equivalent of a marathon. Or remember those Black Friday ads that Target had awhile back of a woman training for it? Yeah, it’s a bit like that. But instead of once a year, it happens three times a year. With over 1,000 booths to…

How To Maintain Your Vintage Wardrobe

January 7, 2013, 16 Comments

Vintage is many things. On one side we love vintage because it’s unique, more flattering and of better quality than the majority of contemporary clothing on the store racks today. However, vintage isn’t without its problems. How many of us have suffered a stain or tear or lost a tap? Part of wearing vintage is…

How To: Remove Sticky Residue

July 27, 2012, 6 Comments

Lately it seems the price tag stickers from thrift stores have become, well, more sticky, leaving behind annoying sticky goo after removing the price tag. So, I’m here to tell you how to quickly remove such annoying goo with one of my favorite products: WD-40. I learned about WD-40 from my dad, who, like many…