And The Winners Are....

Congratulations to Rosie and Another participant who wishes to remain anonymous for winning the essay challenge! They both submitted some great essays on what the word "Vintage" meant to them. Both essays were very detailed and featured some "old timey" favorites that truly inspired a nostalgic wander down memory lane. So grab a cup of tea and set down with them to explore what the word Vintage means to these two awesome winners!

.Rosie's Essay.

When I think of the word vintage I envision Victorian houses, old costume jewlery, my gram's original Burger King "king" doll, Rosie the Riveter. I think of flapper girls and little diners from the 1920's and 30's like in the movie Forever Young. That is one of my favorite movies of all time. I think of the movie "The Notebook" as well. I think of grape Bonkers candy, and my mom's 1968 Mustange that got totalled when I was around 11 years old. I think of pin-up girls and old postage stamps.

I love vintage photographs. My father's mother has so many old photos from when she was young, and I don't even know anyone in the pictures except her. She was born and raised in France. She only moved here when she met my grandfather during World War 2, while he was in France driving ambulances for the army. She used to let my siblings and I look through her photo albums and she would tell us who the people in the old black and white pictures were and stories to go along with them. I do hope I can get some of those pictures when she passes away so I can scrapbook them. I am so very curious and intrigued by my French ancestry.

I get chills up my spine and goose bumps on my arm when I get my hands on real true vintage things. I think about the history behind it all and if I don't know the original owners, I imagine who they were, what they were like, how they lived. I love knowing the history behind antiques, vintage clothes, old photographs. Stepping into an antique store or museum full of vintage and antique goodies is like going back in time. Just pick up a piece of jewelry or a skeleton key or an polished silver tea pot and images of the past immediately flow into my mind like they are my own memories.

I love vintage style for scrapbooking and art projects because it gives character and life to all my photos and crafts. I use all the old costume jewelry I inherited from my gram on my layouts and keepsakes. It makes me feel close to my gram even though she is no longer with us. I can proudly display my works of art and tell everyone that a part of my gram has gone into each thing with a piece of her jewelry adorning it, kind of honoring her life.

Vintage just absolutely fascinates me! I want a Victorian house, filled with antique furniture. How awesome would it be to own a houseful of history, so each day you wake up and are surrounded by it? If I could only have one style, make things one style, live one style, vintage would be it. The Victorian era to be exact. But I am not saying I wouldn't be happy with another era!

I think of my childhood. I think of our old farm house and the skeleton key we used to lock our doors with. Some of my best memories are from when we lived in that house. Climbing out my bedroom window onto the sun porch roof at night and looking at the thousands of starts in the sky. It's funny, I even liked the old, crumbling, peeling wall paper that was up before my parents painted over it.

A feeling of nostalgia comes over me when I scrapbook my childhood pictures or pick up an earring from my gram to put on one of my many projects, and it's a good feeling. It brings good memories of good times. I love vintage, I love the history behind it. I even love the odd creeped out feeling I get from antiques!
Vintage is a very good thing, the styles are endless, the stories, the feelings, there's nothing else like it!

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Anonymous Entry.

What does word ‘vintage’ mean to you? It means ME and just about anyone over 40!!!! I must admit that every time I look in the mirror and see another wrinkle – I think vintage. Every time I see another age spot (I tell my husband I am taking on sepia tones) I think vintage! And every time I say “I remember when or when I was younger” I definitely KNOW I am vintage!
I do believe that ‘vintage’ by itself is actually more of a concept and I was surprised some time ago when I went looking for a definition that there really isn’t one. Vintage as a word always seems to be attached to something such as vintage wine, vintage era, vintage times, a good vintage, a fine vintage. All of these of coarse give the impression of age and I think that is probably what most people think of when they think vintage. The word ‘antique’ also tends to fall in this category and yet antique seems to relate to more physical objects like furniture where as vintage is more about the concept of age or the era.

For me personally, I think the word vintage represents a different time, a time that seemed so much gentile and romantic, the Victorian era of beautiful dresses and hats, afternoon tea parties, large estates, carriage rides. Of course I doubt if you were one of the maids or butlers providing all of these things it didn’t seem such a wonderful time - just a lot of hard work!
I think that is also one of the odd nuisances of the concept of vintage as, in general most people tend the remember the beauty of a certain time and tend to dismiss what life was really like for the average person. But vintage has also progressed, through the flappers and gangsters’ era, prohibition, wars, and the retro era and even into the hippie generation. I always think it funny to see ‘vintage stores’ selling tie dyed clothes from the 1970’s as vintage – especially when I can remember wearing some of those things!!!

One thing I am constantly amazed at when I look at old photos from the 1900’s through to the 1950’s is how beautiful and vibrant the women were and it wasn’t just about the growing use of makeup or the fact that they had the freedom to do away with long hot dresses and stuffy old corsets…. it was the bone structures of their face, the petiteness of size and I think that is something we rarely see anymore – that classical beauty that so many refer too. Vintage is therefore what ever you choose to be, taking the best or certain eras and enjoying a momentary memory of what life “use to be like.” So am I vintage – you bet! And just like any fine vintage wine, I just keep getting better with age!

Thanks to both ladies for great essays! Your prizes will be shipping out in the

next week!