The one with the attic treasures......

Hi Everyone!

Happy Saturday morning.  I have been all kinds of excited this week to post photos of my first "Attic Treasures" project.  Last weekend, my younger DD and I spent the weekend in my parents attic.  For me, this is one of the most magical places on earth.  It is the convergence of 170 years of the history of my frugal family.  Everything was used beyond its usefulness, and then stored in the attic.  I don't expect to ever find any Antiques Roadshow worthy artifacts, but I never fail to unearth treasures that give me a personal buzz! 

Spending time in the attic with my dad, who has spent countless hours organizing and sorting, my mom, who can give details on almost every article there, and my daughter, who loves vintage clothing was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had in a long time.  A highlight was watching my daughter try on my mom's vintage 60's and 70's clothing.  Yards and yards of polyester cuteness!

Anyway, as soon as I got home on Sunday,  I was itching to throw together a project.  It started here:

 My huge plastic bin of "attic treasures"

 

That, friends, is my great-grandmother's sewing basket!  Complete with scissors, wooden thread spools, and vintage notions, bottles and tins. 

 

I pulled things out, added some other treasures and ended up with this:

 

 

See that trendy cloth measuring tape?  It's authentic!!!  I'm in love!  Here is a top view of the bow I made with it:

 



The tin box has a funny but typical story attached.  I found it laying around, filled with cancelled stamps that had been cut from envelopes, and a cut out bird graphic.  Clearly, I have paper crafting in my blood!  Unfortunately, the other contents of the box were hundreds of dead fly parts!  You have to have a high gross out threshold to spend a weekend in the attic!  I put the box aside, and carried on with my search.  A bit later, I found a manicure set that belonged to one of my brothers in the 80's.  It had a great pair of tweezers, which I later used to separate those stamps from the bug parts.  My mom was totally skeeved by the whole process, but secretly happy, I think, because it justified her insistence that nothing be thrown away.  (And those tweezers are being put to use daily in my craft room!)

 

The photo is of someone unknown.  He is a bit of a looker, I think!  The background piece is a fabric sample envelope from Jordan Marsh.  My best guess is that my great-grandmother ordered samples and fabric to make drapes for the large addition to the house that was built in 1910. 

 

A close up shows the text on the spool end, a fabric dye box, a vintage button and pin.  If you look closely at the first photo, you can see that I put  some of the rescued stamps to use, as well as a Bakelite handled button or corset hook. 

 

 

Here is one last photo of my project, in its new home in my cubby display unit:

 

 

I made photocopies of the photo, stamps, and sample folder, so that I can preserve the originals for later use.

 

 

Thanks for allowing me to share a bit of my excitement about this project.   I will be posting more of these in the future.  (The very near future, in one case, as I have already completed a second project!)

 

 

I wish you all a rewarding weekend,

 

Elizabeth