Vintages has offered Cavallini's decorative papers, rubber stamps, gift tags and stickers for quite awhile. We have now added most of their products to our online sales site.  Cavallini creates products that are both beautiful and functional. Whether it is a 19th-century butterfly print or a well-loved piece of ephemera, they pull from a vast archival collection for the perfect image. They print their products on high quality Italian paper. We appreciate the workmanship and attention to detail Cavallini puts into their line decorative papers, stamps and notebooks. You will too. Cavallini decorative papers cover a wide array of subjects - from birds and nature, to Paris and London, to post cards and maps. These paper sheets are suitable for  framing, altered art, art projects, crafting, scrapbooking and, of course, gift wrapping. Their file folders co-ordinate with the decorative papers. We do not offer the decorative papers and file folders online, but we do carry a nice sele...

Christmas Express Train ($125) HoHoHo ($9.95) The Christmas Holidays seem to bring out excitement and creativity in just about everyone. Decorations, gift wrap, ornaments on the tree, lights strung across rooftops, nativity scenes on the lawn. Not all of it is high art, but every bit of it is from the heart. The bright colors, fancy garlands and welcoming wreaths support the spirit of giving that comes to fore in the Holidays. When it comes to Holiday Decorations, Vintages tries to add a touch of elegance, a bit of whimsy and new and different ideas to the Holiday decorating box of goodies. Believe Garland ($18.95) • Glitter Wreaths and Garlands ($25.95) This year we have silver and bronze garlands and wreaths, the new in colors for the season. But we have not abandoned the traditional reds and greens. Handmade Gift Tags (starting at $1.75 each) Here's a gallery of our Holiday Decorations in the shop. Come by and see the whole array of our Vintages Holiday . One-of-a...

The Christmas tree has probably been the number one motif in costume jewelry over the years. They can be found made of glittery rhinestones, spectacular Austrian crystals, bright enamels, polished silver and even fine gemstones. They can be simple or baroque, modern or traditional, whimsical, glitzy or even weird! With so many facets to collecting these holiday statements, it's no wonder that they are such a popular collectible. The fir or pine tree became a symbol of the Christmas Holidays back in the 16th century in Germany. The tradition was recognized by Martin Luther and eventually spread to the rest of the Christian world in the 18th and 19th centuries.  Victorian Christmas Locket The elaborately decorated Christmas trees of the Victorian times led women, and some men, to adorn themselves in bright jewelry with holiday themes. Victorian and Edwardian holiday jewelry featured cherubs and angels, bells and garlands, and later some trees. (The locket to the left is ...

For you shopping convenience  Vintages will be open 11-5 on Sundays until Christmas.   Holiday Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 10-6 Sunday 11-5 Also, we will be open on Mondays Dec 13th & 20th.

Seaplanes have always fascinated me. As a boy in Hawaii, surrounded by water, these flying boats held me in awe! Sometimes on the weekends, my dad would drive us down to the area around the Honolulu Airport, near Pearl Harbor, and we would watch the planes come and go. I especially loved it when one of the Navy's Mars seaplanes was around. These majestic machines were used by the U.S. Navy from WWII through the mid-1950s, mostly on routes from San Francisco to Honolulu. The Pan Am Clipper was an earlier seaplane that launched the first regularly scheduled trans-Pacific 75 years ago . After a test cargo flight from San Francisco to Honolulu and back, the Clipper service started commercially with a 59 hour flight from San Francisco to Manila, making four stops along the way. The celebrated San Francisco to Honolulu flight took around 18 hours. The San Francisco Airport's SFO Museum has an exhibit celebrating the China Clipper service that will be on view until early 2011. It...

Los Gatos is always a busy town, and even more so during the Holidays. The "official" kick-off of the season is on December 3rd with the tree lighting on the plaza, but Holiday events start even earlier.  Nov 26th-Dec 31st: Fantasy of Lights Come celebrate the 11th Anniversary of "Lighting the Valley with Fun" at Fantasy of Lights, a drive-through holiday lights display spectacular at Vasona Lake County Park. The shows goes on nightly starting November 26th and continuing through December 31st at Vasona Lake County Park from 6-10pm. Dec 2nd & 3rd: Homes for the Holidays The Summit League sponsors this great Biennial Holiday House Tour.  The tour will feature three lovely homes in the Saratoga/Los Gatos area. The homes are decorated by professional interior designers and florists. Definitely worth seeing and the proceeds are for a good cause. Dec 3rd through 23rd: Holiday Carriage Rides Enjoy a holiday tradition in downtown Los G...

  Years ago, people sent cards and post cards for all types of events. Alas, email and other social media have replaced these in many cases. But we love the old post cards and greeting cards.  The sentiments may be schmaltzy and the images pastoral, but they were sent with love and good wishes. Here at Vintages we have hundreds of old post cards, including Holiday ones.  Here are some of the Thanksgiving ones we have.  Enjoy!

Luis Gutierrez is a quiet, gentle man who has visited Vintages many times over the years.  In an article in Examiner.com, It's about ideas: Luis Gutierrez, artist , columnist Erica Gross captures a glimpse of Luis that I find familiar: Luis Gutierrez draws, paints, and creates collages and assemblages.   He is an inveterate collector, picking up things he finds on walks, and going through stacks of old photographs at antique stores.   Many of his finds – old toys, found objects, and game pieces – become part of his work.   His home on a quiet street in Los Gatos is filled with his paintings and drawings, as well as treasures he’s acquired along the way.   He taught art at San Jose City College for twenty-seven years, where he encountered people from a variety of backgrounds. The "Lost & Found" works are true folk, art stripped of pretense and making a simple, straightforward statement. The works range from mounted antique toys to hanging anatomical ch...

(This article was written for the November 2010 issue of The Quarterly Worme , the newsletter for the Canadian Corkscrew Collectors Club, of which I am a member. Hope you enjoy it.) I never actually thought about collecting corkscrews.  It just happened!  Susan and I were in London back in the mid-80s.  It was a business trip and she came along so we could add some vacation time to the trip.  While wandering the backstreets near Shepherd’s Market one day, we wandered into an antique shop.  There it was … this beautiful object with a turned ivory handle and an unusual brush on one side.  Since we loved wine, the fact that it was a corkscrew also made it practical.  I bought it, thinking how great it would be to open a bottle of old Port with this magnificent corkscrew. Three ivory and bone handled corkscrews from the late 1800s or so.  (L to R) •    Bone handled corkscrew with a diamond cut shaft, an original brush and a...