My Vintage Blog

Come see! I have just posted on my new blog with a recent find of roly poly glasses.
The picture taking process is a chore! I took over 200 pictures this past weekend, playing with settings on my camera and dealing with lighting issues. And pretty much all the items I photographed weren't even my vintage finds... they were jewellery. These items will most likely be listed on eBay when the time comes. 
It's my goal to be as true to the items in quality and colour as though one is viewing the item in person. My integrity is of utmost importance so my images must represent what I'm offering. Learning curves are good, not fun, but good. 


http://fabfindsgentlertimes.blogspot.com/

If you were a 'slogan', what would you say?

I've decided to create a new blog for my 'store'. I think the artwork looks fab! LOL! I had removed the halftone pattern from my retro gal but realized later that  she's large enough that I can keep the 'effect' so I put it back in... you know, those vintage romance comic books with giant dots in the flesh tones. (I could explain those dots in a technical manner, me coming from long career in print, but that's just boring and feels too much like work).

What I hope to do is showcase items and link to my esty store. I guess I need to network and link up with fellow vintage junkies and hope to get some traffic to my store. I never knew there would be so much to just putting stuff online to sell but I've been doing my homework for a long time and I'm sure this is the reason I've been dragging my butt. And, what if I run out of stuff to sell? I have ideas running through my head on that one... local auctions and a gal pal that I need to contact to see if she'll drag me along. I'd be lost at an auction and maybe even a tad intimidated.
 
Anyway... I need a slogan for my blog. Take a peek ... http://fabfindsgentlertimes.blogspot.com/


There's a large gap under 'from gentler times' and I feel the need to put something in there. But what? Any suggestions are welcome. Perhaps I should just leave it as is. At any rate, I need to keep moving on this for some reasons I can't get into... reasons that makes me crazy to even think about so I'll spare the details. Mostly though, this vintage venture is a passion I've wanted to pursue for a long time.

My shop name and banner...

I have just finished my first draft of the banner artwork for my esty store. It's within the required dimensions so I was a little bummed that I couldn't make my retro gal stand out more. If you click on the image, you might see that I put a halftone dot on her, much like the comic books but it's just lost in the banner. Now, I'm thinking I'll have to start a blog with my shop name and larger version of my 'banner' and a link to my store. More work to do. This just better pay off but even so, what a great exercise. 

Whatcha think? My vintage gal came from a magazine I purchased. A 1958 Rawleigh's Good Health Guide / Almanac and Cook Book. 

New-to-me 40's Mirror

Recently, I took a drive to the Bouctouche Dunes to see what level of damage was done to the dunes themselves. I knew the 2 km boardwalk was taken out in places but only heard the 10 km stretch of dunes were broken up into three parts. The day I went was sunny, but windy and cold. I didn't get much of a look but I tried. You can see some of the damage here....

I only wanted to know about the sand dunes themselves so I gave up on doing a beach walk and headed home. Better days ahead for that. My favorite little antique shop along the way (which I blogged about last year) was due for a visit so I dropped in and had a pleasant visit with my gal pal, Cheryl and her friend who was visiting that day. 

I love vintage mirrors. I never find them within my price range and I'm all about finding the best deals. So, I wait till a great and affordable thing comes along. If I pay full pop it must be a "I can't live without it, it's too good to be true" sort of deal. yeah.. so, anyway...

Well... she had so many new things and, of course, I had to take it all in. And guess what she had there! A 2 ft x 2 ft 1948 mirror at a price I knew would be twice the city price. I had to have it. But... would it suit my retro red room and the vintage prints that reside on that wall... the ONLY wall where my new-to-me mirror and prints can go?  YOU be the judge. I think it's OK as such....

Dog Sitting

Last fall, I had the 'experience' of doggie sitting a beautiful Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever named Tofu. I was certain he would be Mikey's new best friend because Mike is the lover of all dogs and Colby Blind Guy is just too much energy for most other dogs. I was wrong. This video is a glimpse of how much of our weekend went (actually, it was three days).

I have a photo booth!

Things are progressing along at a snails pace with my online vintage store. I'm hung up on a name but I have something I can see in my mind's eye so I'm not telling till I can show it. If I pull off what I have in mind, then the name will suit the graphics. The name by itself is not getting much in the way of "Oh... that's a nice name." It has to be seen and I might create the banner and go YUK!, thus starting all over again.

My photo shoots to date have not been satisfactory... well, some are OK. I tried to re-shoot some of my vintage wares using my kitchen table and white fabric and still not happy. I had issues with glare or shadows, wrinkles in my fabric (gasp!) and fuglies showing up in the background because my backdrop was not high enough. Hubs went googling on my behalf and told me he'd build me a photo booth. And he did! See?

I purchased the two black lamps for $12.99 each (had that yellow one for years), the card stock from the dollar store was only 25 cents per sheet so I have a couple in white and a blue one, the white fabric came from a sheet purchased at a thrift store and the wood was on hand. 

I'm planning on recycling my books at a thift store but glad they came in handy for adjusting the height of the lamps. My only issue is those fluorescent bulbs I put in are too warm (soft white) and I need higher wattage. They put a yellow cast on all my photos regardless of my settings (which I suck at in the technical sense). I'm in a learning curve here but learning is good exercise for the brain, right? These two examples are not tweaked... I will be using my photoshop skills to crop away empty space or even remove some cast or lighten some shadows; however, removing yellow cast from every photo is not going to happen.

Too yellow

This is better but was taken on my kitchen table.

I'm still going ahead with this venture but not rushing. My work schedule has picked up some and I'm so behind on spring cleaning and keeping it current, which would really make the work load lighter if spread out everyday. And I need to make time for exercise. It's becoming a real necessity because I'm feeling the effects of not being in shape. My knees... I strain them and don't even know how, then it's a slow healing process. Red flags waving!