I Love Antiques! and always will....

Often I wonder about just carrying completely "new" merchandise and simplifying matters at the shop. With the economy headed in the direction it sure seems to be headed in...it sort of makes since...until you stop and think about why we are proud of our heritage...proud of our family heirlooms and look forward to passing those things on to our children and grand-children....
You see...if I only had to buy "new" items for the shop...I would save a lot of time, heartache and money to boot!!! But....I wouldn't get the satisfaction of "a job well done", I wouldn't fulfill my dream of owning an antique shop and helping other's design around a beautiful antique piece of furniture or piece of art, etc...and I certainly wouldn't be passing on my heritage to my children and their children....I would simply be selling "new" items that really have no history behind them whatsoever!

When I first opened my shop almost 12 years ago it was from a deep, deep love of collecting antiques and  learning everything I possibly could about them! It was from a love of family, of "wondering" just where I came from and what mysteries there might have been in my past! I would sit in my great grandmother's attic for hours while my mom and grandmother talked in her paneled family room in an early 1930's-40's house that seemed bigger than life to me!!! It had a cellar where my great grandmother kept all of her canned goods that she had put up herself...it had large rooms with tall ceilings and beautiful wood floors that creaked with every step...and I loved every part of it!! Every time we visited I remember vividly the smell of chicken cooking for homemade chicken and dumplings! And I am not making any of this up....Sometimes I would sneak off into her living room and literally stare forever into her bookshelves filled with rows of beautifully bound books and dream of having them! I would see statues that I would long for and beautiful trinkets galore....and the quilts....I wouldn't even know where to begin with those!! They go back to my great-great-grandmother's quilting days and then on to my great grandmother and my grandmother!!! They are treasured items that I will never part with!

 In the end....after my great grandmother passed away...I was the one that coaxed my own mother into going back and getting some of those treasures that I had longed for! She didn't want them at the time...now, she is truly grateful that she has a piece of her past! And that's what selling antiques is all about to me!!! I don't want to sell all NEW items! I want to sell a piece of the past to people and to help them appreciate the quality and workmanship that goes into every piece they buy! I want people to appreciate their heritage...even if some of it is shameful!!! As we all have in our families! I don't want anyone to take for granted their family, their past or their chance to appreciate a fine antique or simply a family heirloom even if it only means alot to just them!

Today...my bookcases are lined with my great-grandmother's books...and I love them!!! My English Secretary in my living room is filled with those trinkets and those statues that I longed for so many years ago! My beds are often covered in the quilts from my great, great grandmother...and I treasure every memory...every smell....every last detail of "Big Mama's" 1930's era house that sat on the most beautiful land I had ever seen in my 10 year old brain! I knew then, as I know now...I love antiques!!!!