Gross, or Not Gross?

Question:

Are you "grossed out" by photos of items for sale being worn by a model? Especially jewelry - in particular, earrings - and also hats?

Would the fact that the item is modeled by a real live person be so completely repugnant to you that you would NOT buy the item, no matter how cute it was?

I ask, because of an interesting thread on the Etsy forums concerning this subject. Some people are so grossed out by models wearing earrings in the photos they never buy and move on to un-modeled earrings.

Others are grossed out by even bracelets and necklaces worn in photos. Some sellers that get returns get mad because they have to throw the earrings away because they've been worn by someone else.

Some of the people refuse to buy hats if they're worn in the photos. (Mostly handmade hats.)

When I buy vintage things, I try to only buy items in the best condition; even new, unworn condition. But obviously with vintage, it's old; so you can safely assume the item has been worn before.

I suppose most people who have a "thing" about wearing anything previously modeled by a real live, potentially smelly, dirty, oily, germy person, would also not be buying anything vintage. I also assume any person who shops for vintage is aware of the fact that vintage = worn by someone else in most cases. Unless it is dead stock or MIB.

But I dunno. That's why I am asking. I try to personally model all of my items; it best represents the shape, size, and look of an item. I never thought about grossing potential customers out before.

I am generally a very clean person; and not stinky. I usually wash my hair before modeling any and all hats. Is it still "nasty"?

I guess I should not care so much; I have managed to sell a whole lot of hats and things in the 10 months or so I have been on Etsy.

But I just wanna know:

Modeled Hats - nasty?

Modeled earrings - super gross?

Modeled other jewelry that touches skin - creepy?

Modeled clothing - heebeygeebeys?

Little Diggers

This weekend we harvested some of our potato crop. My nieces and nephew are the best help for digging 'taters.

Kevin and Eli used the tractor to break up the potato rows, and my sis. in law Sherry and I started hoeing the mound to expose the potatoes.



The kids treat it like an easter egg hunt.




Brendan grabbed a hoe also..... and found 'taters all by himself.



Abi, the actress.





This is what I get for raising my chickens in the house: pet hens who want to be held.

This is a great way for children to grow up knowing where food comes from: working on the farm.

Dreamy

I thought I would post today, but it's too hot. It's about 100 degrees out, feeling like 110. No kidding.

That, and I found the most amazing post at one of my new favorite blogs, "Dandelion Daydreamer", written by an Irish girl living in south France, who also runs a amazing vintage Etsy shop of the same name.



The post is about a fairy cottage...... *sigh* Please take a look, it is absolutely dreamy.

Anyway, I went shopping this morning and I am so glad I did; I picked up a LOT of new hats, including this one:




I love the feather. This one I am planning to keep in my personal stash, as I can actually WEAR it.

I also scored this pair of shoes, that I believe are from the 70's, all leather, with a leather sole and wooden heel.

A Few Things

First, Kevin started his NEW JOB today! He has been unemployed for almost exactly one year, when the large seed/sod company he worked for out of South Carolina pulled the plug on their bio-diesel project. My husband was in charge of building the plant, which he had done, and making the fuel, using vegetable oil. Until they decided it was "too expensive". :( Forget cutting edge, eco-friendly, renewable-source, clean-burning and all together groovy, it was just too expensive.
Anyway, since that time, he has been doing farming here, as well as fence building contracts, automotive repairs in our driveway, selling off HUGE piles of lumber he had invested in, etc. etc. Things got very tight for us financially; but we were making it ok. The money I was making on Etsy saved our bacon a couple of times.
Anyways, the new job came out of the blue, all of the sudden, just this weekend; Through my brother who works for a company that builds portable storage sheds. The company contracts with a private hauler, and business is so good (who knew anything was "good" in the economy right now?!) the owner is expanding to two hauling rigs, and was looking for a driver! He called Kevin and offered the job! The money is good, the schedule is amazing, the job is easy on K's back and shoulders, which have been giving him fits. God is so good to us.
So anyway, Kevin is going to the NC coast with a huge building today. I am excited, because the "boss" says a lot of his deliveries are to the coast; which means I might be able to go along with Kevin sometimes, and spend the weekend on the beach as part if his business trips! Woot!

- We're getting a puppy!! Our friends the Hobbs have a yellow lab momma dog and she just had 9 puppies. We decided to take one; a girl. We got to hold them all yesterday; at 8 days old. Their eyes are still closed, and they haven't reached their peak of cuteness, but they're pretty close! We're so excited, and trying to agree on a name. Ideas are welcome.

- I don't know if I mentioned it here or just on my Etsy Facebook fan page, but a few vintage hats from my personal collection and from the Etsy shop were used in a local off-Broadway production of "Annie", in which my niece played one of the orphans. I saw the musical and my hats on the actresses; it was a thrill!


(Here is one of them....on the left. That is the character of "Grace", Daddy Warbucks' assistant!)

Anyway, that is only half of the story..... the director of "Annie", who also works as a professional actress, model, production person, etc. etc. is going to be doing some kind of vintage - themed photo shoot for a regional art-music-theater-tourism-travel-culture magazine called "Showcase". It is a big, glossy thing, full of the coolest stuff in the NC/VA region where I live.
Anyhoo, she is going to be using my hats in the photo shoot for a feature in next month's issue of the magazine! I am so pumped. I don't know if I will get any credit for the hats being mine at all; frankly, I don't care - it's still pretty cool! I am in the process of offering her the use of my entire personal collection of not only hats, but everything else I have, for her photo shoot.
I am also looking into some advertising in the magazine (and *whispers* fishing around for the possibility of a feature on my collections/shop? Who knows!)
Regardless of what happens with it, she said I can use the professionally done photos they do with my hats in them, for Etsy or whatever.
I would love nothing better that to get "in" with some models/photographers and do some more vintage style shoots with vintage clothes and stuff..... just for the heck of it. :) Yay!

- Still enjoying boundless tomatoes from the garden, and inventing other ways to enjoy them besides BLT - here is a recipe I did the other day and it was very delish.

Well, I am going to trot off and take some photos and read up on crate training puppies......!! See ya.

Tea Cups

I collect tea cups. What lover of cottage-y decor doesn't?

I didn't always collect them; in fact, I rebelled against cottage-y convention and collected sugar bowl and creamer sets, instead. And soup plates.

(When I visited my brother in Las Vegas one year, I found a set of 12 blue transferware soup plates and bought them. I then boarded the airplane for the long flights home and held the things on my lap for the entire trip. Hauled them through the airport terminals, also. It was crazy. I never lost one, and I still have and LOVE those soup plates.)

But anyway - back to tea cups.

I owned blue willow tea cups and saucers for a long time, but that was it. Then last summer I accidentally acquired my collection. I bought almost all of these at two places: a yard sale and a thrift shop.



This one, though, I have had for years - sort of. The cup was given to me when I was about 16. I was feeding the neighbor lady's cats while she was out of town. She happens to own one of the antiques shops in my historic home town in North Carolina.
The cup sat on the counter in her kitchen with the $20 for feeding her cats and a note: "The cup is for you......."

Years later, I was at a Goodwill store, when I stack of saucers caught my eye from under a pile of other glassware. I pulled them out, and was delighted to find that the saucers matched the cup I had had for so long!



This is a sweet little thing with two handles. I bought it to sell on my Etsy, and changed my mind. As usual.



This is my favorite. I scored when I bought this for a quarter. It appears to be hand painted, and is an unusual shape. The inside is painted as well. And it is covered in crazing, so it is old.


Here is one without a saucer .... but I love it.


Here is another unusual one, as far as shape goes. the cup has little feet. :)


A child sized Moss Rose.


This one still has the price tag on it. I have 2 of them.



Here are some more:

The one on the bottom is white with gold. I have 2 of those. Second from the bottom is one of four W.S. Geroge "Blossoms" from a set of that china I bought. It's dated into the 1940's.

Then is another of my faves, because it combines roses, fruit and berries:



The top one is an unusual looking pink and gold one, and the finish is pearly; kind of like carnival glass. I don't know what you call that, but it is pretty nifty.

The sad part is, these stay packed up. These, and all my violet china. My china closet in my dining room, and my free-standing china cabinet are chock full of all my other china..... I actually have gotten a third china cabinet, but it needs some fixing, so I gotta wait for Kevin to fix it before I can fill it up with all of this stuff.....or get rid of some of it. Or all of the above.

Good Grief.

So I popped over to the Pioneer Woman website. (I just LOVE her. I love her photos, I love her recipes, I love her humor, I love everything about her ....website. :)

Anyhoo, I saw where she is giving away three Canon Powershot Digital ELPH point and shoot style cameras.

You know how these blog giveaways work; you leave a comment and get entered in the drawing.

So I though, why the heck not? So I scrolled on down to leave my pitiful little insignificant comment and.........

....There were 17,656 comments left on there. And counting. The giveaway just started today; and ends tomorrow.... there could be twice that amount by midnight tonight.

Seventeen.Thousand. Six hundred. And fifty-six.... people read that blog today and entered her giveaway.

*deer in the headlights face*

And I blog why?

Blueberry Memories From Childhood

I found myself picking blueberries not long ago, and I had memories of a book my mother used to read to me called "Blueberries For Sal". (By Robert McCloskey.)
I then realized that I don't own that book.... so I immediately ordered a copy from a vintage book seller on Etsy.



Written in 1948, the story is about a mother and her young daughter going blueberry picking on a hillside in Maine.



They encounter some bears, and the bears encounter them, and - well - you just need to read it!

"Now, Sal, you run along and pick your own berries. Mother wants to take hers home and can them for next winter."



So I had these berries, and I had this book; and in the midst of it all, I had this distant memory of eating a pie that had something to do with blueberries and sour cream..... but I couldn't quite place the exact time, place, or taste.

I turned to one of my favorite forums - the Mary Jane's Farm Farmgirl Connection - and inquired about blueberry pies made with sour cream. I tried a couple of the suggestions, but none were like the faint memory of the pie I had eaten.

Then one day, I mentioned to my mom that I had gotten some fresh blueberries.

"Oh, you should make my sour cream and blueberry pie," she said.

I was all excited now. Questioning her, I found out that it was my mother's pie I was remembering. She quit making it when I was little, because my brothers decided they didn't like sour cream any more.

So today I made the pie - and it was exactly what I remembered.... a little taste of my childhood.



You can find my mom's recipe here.

Try the pie; and read the book!

Summer Continues

 

 

 

 

Here are a few recently listed, and soon-to-be-listed, items in my Etsy shop, continuing in a summer theme.

(Except the 1970s brown herringbone flares. The more I think about it, the more these give me an Autumn vibe. Would you believe I found these in a box of stuff in one of my barns upon moving to this farm? Yeeees.)

I reached 100 sales this past weekend, so I decided to treat myself to a gift. I am having trouble deciding, however. There are so many cool things to be had on Etsy.

Thanks to all who made 100 sales possible - assuming any of my customers also read this blog, that is. :)

My Number One Summer Activity

 

 

This is what I harvested in one day from my garden, the neighbor's fruit tree, and another neighbor's blueberry bushes.

 

 

So, you can see why all I do these days is can veggies. (But I love it.)

I will try to post about something more interesting than vegetables this week; I promise.

Something Beautiful

I love this photograph..... I love everything about it. I love the dresses; I love the bride's bouquet, I love the expression on her face, I love the whole thing.

 

I don't know why but I felt like sharing this random piece of beauty.

I haven't felt much like blogging recently; mostly because I think my life is boring and uninteresting.

I haven't been lurking around any cool yard sales recently; I haven't pounced upon any unsuspecting roadside dealio or unappreciated vintage treasure.

I have been helping my mom deal with some of my Grandmother's things, and feeling kind of melancholy.

I also can vegetables almost daily. I have done about 40 quarts or more of dill pickles, 20 or so quarts of green beans, and a dozen or so quarts of tomato sauce, salsa, and stewed tomatoes.

My garden is hopping and so is the kitchen.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summertime!

In Other News....

(Karen O'Connor)

For those new to my blog, you may not know that in my other life, aside from Etsying and vintage collecting and vegetable gardening and home canning and thrift shop stalking and yard sale lurking, I also am an avid horse lover, rescuer, rider, trainer, owner, and instructor.

Yes, yes, yes. I know. Bor-ing.

Nevertheless, if you're interested, you can pop over to my much-neglected horse blog and view some photos I took this week at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, VA at a O'Connor Eventing Team camp I audited.

Ok. That's enough horse talk....... ttfn