Vintage Finds

My recent most favorite vintage finds are actually both things OTHER people found, but gave to me as gifts! There's nothing like the thrill of digging through a pile of junk and coming up with treasure, of course, but gifts are wonderful in their own special way, because a well-chosen gift really tells you how well the giver knows you and how important you are to them! At least, that's how I feel, ha!


So the first wonderful find is this fantastic old camera magazine put out by Eastman Kodak in the early days of film photography. It's called "Kodakery" and this issue dates to December of 1924. My father found it and gave it to me for Christmas this year. It's really quite fascinating! I read through all of the articles and a lot of the advice given still has relevance today, being more about composition and photo ideas than about film speed and processing chemicals, or anything like that.

Perhaps one of my favorite things about it was seeing how some of the language has changed. The book often refers to "Camerists" instead of "Photographers" and the photo captions refer to being "made with" particular cameras rather than "taken with" them. I'm quite taken with the word "camerist" actually. I like that!


And the second find is a wonderful wee squirrel to add to my collection, discovered and purchased most sneakily by my partner in crime, my husband! Apparently, he found it while we were out antiquing together. I was a few booths behind him and he managed to not only pay for it but get it out to the car without my noticing his absence. He's a gifting ninja!!

My grandmother has a squirrel like this hanging on the wall in her kitchen....bigger, though. At an antique mall years ago, I found one just like hers. Since then, I've started collecting them in both the small and large size, and in both brown and grey, whenever I find them.


What have you found (or been given!) recently that you love? I always love seeing the things people collect and hearing about why they love what they love!