Victoriana ephemera collecting

It was my first real day of being back at work. My vocation is as a careers counsellor, but my scrapbooking and altered art, well they are my hobbies in between running the stores.

So I'm almost back at work, but because Tatjana was scheduled to be on today, I decided I would do a spot of retail therapy and check out some of the antique and second hand stores. I came across a delightful shop called Victoria Gilt in Auckland. This shop specialises in vintage lace, beads, curtains, sewing tools, costume jewellery, collectable and wearable clothing. I had a good ole fossick around collecting bits of ephemera, beautiful old fashioned Valentine cards, miniature envelopes from a museum, bits of lace and silk, antique brooches, flower motifs, postcards .... All this collection of stuff, I don't know what I am going to do with it all. I intend to add some of the work to my altered art, but feel I cannot destroy or even alter antique (and expensive) pieces of ephemera, so the best idea is to save it in a box, look at it, and wonder .... I'll do something with it one day. Maybe I'll do an altered art piece used as a prop especially created for the antique.

I also went into another antique store nearby and saw this quirky but quaint folk art diorama. They wanted $1,870.00 for it! Ouch I can't afford that. It was a little too shabby, maybe I'll make my own diorama, among the hundred of projects I've got going or are at least in my head.