WELCOME TO I HEART EVERYTHING the blog
How it all began...
Thrifting, junking, dumpster diving, curbside scavenging... whatever you choose to call the abundance of ways you can come across cool old junk... I have been doing it since I was a tot. My mother gets the credit for turning me onto collecting vintage stuff. She would tote us kids along on her dumpster diving and trash-day expeditions. All of the discarded treasures we found would either end up in our eclectic home (My mother once said her decorating aesthetic was "Early American Flea Market"). or was taken to the local Flea Market to help support our large family.
Thanks to my Mom, I had learned from the best. To this day I am still honing my skills. I am fortunate enough to live in a town that embraces the second-hand life. We have more thrift stores than you can count on your fingers and toes and there is a swap meet every weekend at our community college. Add that to the yard-sale friendly So-Cal weather and you get a year round calendar of bits and baubles to be found!
One of my first collections as a young adult were 1960's and 70's enamel flower pins. They were easy to find at just about any junkin' venue and were dirt cheap. The variety of styles and colors is practically endless and what started out as just a few ended up being a virtual garden of flowers! That's when I knew I was a dedicated collector. It is so easy to start a collection and I soon found myself with a lot of collections just waiting to happen. Vintage purses, clothes, jewelery the flood gates were open!
Sometimes a collection can flare up like a bad case of poison ivy (the collectors itch!) and no matter where you go you see the next great item that you just gotta have. This can get pricey really fast but fortunately for me, I have never really had a lot of money, so I've always kept to a budget. What I do have is my secret weapon, my mother's tutelage at being the greatest "free-finder" in all the land! Honestly, that is where my weirdest and wildest collections have come from: The Great Universe! Call it well tuned attentiveness or divine intervention but with the combined powers of Craigslist and my natural mojo I'm always out there scanning the junky horizons. Quite often wicked-cool free things just fall into my lap. It may be that cosmic pull that we junkers have that calls certain items to us, not the other way around. I dunno, but whatever it is I like it and I'm gonna ride that good karma wave baby!
Add two more kids and we have the whole crew
Thanks to my Mom, I had learned from the best. To this day I am still honing my skills. I am fortunate enough to live in a town that embraces the second-hand life. We have more thrift stores than you can count on your fingers and toes and there is a swap meet every weekend at our community college. Add that to the yard-sale friendly So-Cal weather and you get a year round calendar of bits and baubles to be found!
Taken in 2011 at a yard sale with a camera being sold at the sale!
One of my first collections as a young adult were 1960's and 70's enamel flower pins. They were easy to find at just about any junkin' venue and were dirt cheap. The variety of styles and colors is practically endless and what started out as just a few ended up being a virtual garden of flowers! That's when I knew I was a dedicated collector. It is so easy to start a collection and I soon found myself with a lot of collections just waiting to happen. Vintage purses, clothes, jewelery the flood gates were open!
Enamel flower pins
Sometimes a collection can flare up like a bad case of poison ivy (the collectors itch!) and no matter where you go you see the next great item that you just gotta have. This can get pricey really fast but fortunately for me, I have never really had a lot of money, so I've always kept to a budget. What I do have is my secret weapon, my mother's tutelage at being the greatest "free-finder" in all the land! Honestly, that is where my weirdest and wildest collections have come from: The Great Universe! Call it well tuned attentiveness or divine intervention but with the combined powers of Craigslist and my natural mojo I'm always out there scanning the junky horizons. Quite often wicked-cool free things just fall into my lap. It may be that cosmic pull that we junkers have that calls certain items to us, not the other way around. I dunno, but whatever it is I like it and I'm gonna ride that good karma wave baby!
Weird and wild collections, you say? Tell me more you say?
Well sure, break my arm why dontcha...can't you tell by now I love to talk about this stuff?
Well sure, break my arm why dontcha...can't you tell by now I love to talk about this stuff?
I have discovered that the diversity of my tastes has helped me become the "Collector of Collections" that I am. To put it succinctly, I HEART EVERYTHING!!! (You just had an a-ha moment didn't you! a-ha! That's the name of this blog!) My favorite time period of stuff is "Mid Century" that gray era of time somewhere between the late 1940's and early 1970's. I mostly adore the 1960's. I have adopted 1963 as the bulls eye of my fixation because of my old car ( a Dodge Dart Station Wagon) and my old canned ham camper (a no-name Shasta knock off) both from that year. Anything within a year or two of that date is an instant hit with me, but that isn't the cut off. I like just about anything that is older than I am or stuff that I remember from my childhood in the 80's. Feel free to browse through this blog for a Show & Tell of all the things I heart! I'm sure you will see things you remember and love. Also, please feel free to leave a comment or two (I heart comments!). Thanks for stopping by and please enjoy your visit!
Sincerely,
Amber Von Felts
of I HEART EVERYTHING
