starting to collect

Although vintage, retro and "friends" walk hand-in-hand with GREEN these days, collecting
nostalgia started for me when I moved to Port Elizabeth from Cape Town nearly 42 years ago.
            I clearly remember the first item bought at a Vigne & Howard auction: a small oak bookcase.
It must have come out of a chicken coop, so dirty it was. After scraping the top layer of muck off,
it started to show its beauty. A meths and fine steelwool treatment followed.
           The transformation was completed with a bit of furniture oil. This item has followed me into a marriage and has for the past 30 years lived in the entrance hall of my Edwardian home.

The idea

The idea of starting a blog came this morning just before I left for church.
    Dressed in a vintage "elder's suit" (outydse manelpak), lilac gloves, purple floral blouse and blue hat with rose trimming, I popped into my daughter Kia's room to say goodbye...
    "You should start your own blog," she said. "Combine your love of writing with your love for everything vintage and retro ".  
    That's it, so here I am...