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Showing posts from February, 2010

Spring Has Sprung!

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We have such a mild winter here in the San Francisco Bay Area compared to folks up in New England or the Great Lakes area (or anywhere that has real snow, for that matter!)  Oh, we do get some snow here, but it is well-behaved, staying in the mountains where it belongs.  Never-the-less, it is always wonderful to see the first real signs of spring -- the bright green of fresh grass on the hills, the yellow flowers of oxalis and wild mustard in the meadows, the pinks and whites of the flowers blooming on the plum trees that are naturalized remnants of the plum orchards that once covered the Valley of Heart's Delight . We travel through the scenic Los Gatos foothills to get to Vintages every day the shop is open.  Driving aside the Guadalupe Creek and through Shannon Valley is a great way to brighten up our mornings.  I snapped these photos one day last week while it was raining a gentle drizzle, making the greens greener, the flowers sparkle and the turkeys take refug...

Shop Online with Vintages

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We are happy to announce that we now have a new online shopping venue!  For a few years we have offered antiques and some contemporary items online at our site on Trocadero.com.   We now have a second Vintages shopping site where we will list crafting items, handmade jewelry, artisan created products and such.  It will take some time to build up the inventory, but it is up and running now.  Check it out ... let us know what you think.

An Artful Journey in Los Gatos

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Cindy O'Leary organizes these wonderful artist retreats in the nearby Santa Cruz Mountains above the Town of Los Gatos.   Her tag line for these events tells the story: An Artful Journey!  Mixed Media Workshops & Retreats: Awaken your senses ... nourish your soul ... replenish your spirit ... learn.share.connect.    We first discovered An Artful Journey last summer, when a number of the attendees -- who come from all over the world -- stopped into Vintages and showed us their creations.  The first retreat of 2010 was this past weekend, and during the last week we have seen a multitude of enthusiastic ladies in town, using their free time to shop with us and explore what we have to offer.  They all sing the praises of the workshops and instructors.  The energy and creativity of these ladies just fills the shop when they visit ... and they all seem to be having so much fun! The next Journey Retreat is in July.  Visit Cindy's An Artful Journe...

Victorian Forks

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The Victorians must have been fussy people.  They had a penchant for gadgets, a tool for each and every task from putting on shoes to eating an olive.  Just look at the array of objects that comprised a well-set table at the turn of the last century.  Multitudes of dishes and bowls, serving pieces and individual utensils, each in its proper place and used at the proper time for the proper task! The typical upper-class dinner table was set with seven to nine or more pieces of silver flatware and individual serving pieces.  In her marvelous book, Antiques for the Table, author Sheila Cheefetz and photographer Joshua Greene present some beautiful prose and images of elegant formal table settings.  She describes a full service of Chantilly silverware from Gorham as having more than 100 different shapes (including) a cheese knife, a lemon fork, sugar tongs, butter knife, baby-food pusher, oyster fork, another butter knife, an ice-cream fork, a napkin marker, and a ...

Happy Valentine's Day

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Hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day! From Us to You, here is a gallery of some cute vintage Valentine cards from our collection.

Old Paper

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Now and then we have someone in the shop looking at our vintage paper who asks: "What do people do with this?"  Here's one beautiful example.  Marti Somers is a local artist with an international reputation for her colorful yet subdued art.  She set up Studio Believe in nearby San Carlos in 2001.  Marti loves old paper -- brown around the edges, a character defining stain here or there, maybe some writing on it, maybe not.  Recently Marti picked up a number of old French chaussure (shoe) receipts from Vintages.  These receipts have superb graphics, precise handwriting, a stamp or two, and that  characteristic age.  Here are two of her encaustic paintings that feature these receipts embedded into the background. At Vintages we stock a large variety of vintage paper, from letters and documents to wallpaper and wine labels.  Old French documents have been one of our favorites.  We have old letters, official documents, receipts, books a...