vintage treasures

I am the new owner of two boxes of vintage treasures!

I was visiting my mother who is in an "if you don't love it or use it get rid of it" mode and I being a helpful daughter offered to assist her in her decluttering of a cupboard of old "stuff". I thought I would share a few of the treasures I walked away with.

I really did try to take good photos but we were in a basement with terrible lighting and no matter what I tried with my lovely basic point and shoot, I could not get any fabulous photos! I hope you can enjoy the treasures regardless.

I now have a number of old bottles (which are always fun to use as flower vases).

This one is my favourite. I love the original label!

This one has what I think is a rubber (?) stopper. I also walked away with a box of other vintage milk bottles that my mom began collecting in the eighties.

This Crush bottle isn't as old, but I love it. When I was very small my dad owned an Esso gas station. I used to visit him there on occasion. I can still remember the old vending machine in  his office where I would sometimes get a treat of an orange or grape crush in a bottle just like this one! I don't know why it is such a strong memory but I remember opening the door and tugging on the bottle trying to get it out of the vending machine and then trying to open it with the bottle cap opener - which I don't think I could ever do. Just looking at this bottle makes me smile because it is one of my earliest memories...

She had a few old tins that I happily took off her hands...

and a very cute, small, old lamp. I can imagine someone using it at the kitchen table after dark to read by...

This was found in the house my parents live in when they moved in. My mom and dad's house was built from 1929-1932 and they purchased it from the original owner/builder. It is a very cool, old (by Western Canadian standards) farmhouse. The house is very well built and if I had a couple million kicking around I would love to buy it. My mom has a few old treasures that belonged to the owners and I am happy to have something belonging to the "North" house.



I also got a few new vintage kitchen items to add to my collection. Now if I only had room to put out my collection...but that's another post!

Happy Saturday!

vintage kitchens

I love vintage kitchenware...I really love it. The older the better.

I especially love the pieces that were given to me by family members. My mother has passed on a few pieces that she has received from other relatives and my granny gave me some of hers before she passed away. They always help me think of those who used the pieces before I did.

One piece that I have always loved and love to use is an old colander; it reminds me of my granny. I remember it always being in her kitchen and I watched her using it many times.

It is definately well worn...but I love it.

I know that granny had it for as long as I can remember but I never knew where or when she got it.

Recently I was looking through some old photos of our first trip across Canada a few years ago.

While travelling from Regina, Saskatchewan to Winnipeg, Manitoba we decided to leave the trans-Canada Hwy. and take a detour. We travelled north to drive through a little town named Veregin...

Veregin is a very small town (if you can call it even that). I think it has a population of approximately 100 people. But, it is important to me because in 1911 my granny was born there. I have always wanted to see where she was born and so we decided this was our chance.

The town was almost deserted...there was really nothing to see until we drove up to the Doukhobor village museum site.

The prayer house and landscaping were beautiful...there was so much history to see and so much to learn...unfortunately, it was closed. Due to lack of funding, volunteers and interest the site is rarely open. I was a little disappointed (I always hate to see history being ignored because that usually leads to it being lost which I think is really sad) but the groundskeeper told us we were welcome to look in the windows and picnic on the lawn, which we did and enjoyed our afternoon very much.

The old grain elevator stood majestically watching over the site.

As I sat, I thought about my great-grandparents and what there lives must have been like. They left Russia in 1899 with their families and friends after suffering much hardship and persecution under Tsarist rule. With the help of Leo Tolstoy and Queen Victoria they came to Canda, settled in the Saskatchewan prairies and made new lives. Veregin is where those new lives began. I was sitting in the village where they lived, started their family and where my granny was born. It was a wonderful experience that I am so happy to have had.

I took many pictures as I wandered around the village and tried to take interior shots as I looked through the windows.

 I never really looked at the photos after I took them. But, just recently I sat down with my kids to teach them a little more about our family history and I noticed something that I hadn't noticed before...

There on the counter was my colander...exactly the same.

I think I now love it even more.