I admit to being a total sucker for twee little shops and boutiques lining historic old streets.  I mean, really -- who wouldn't?! For those who live in the area, I'd like to recommend a perfect, Fancy day trip/holiday shopping excursion -- head out to Snohomish for the afternoon and get your browse on!

The Bird couldn't help but share this latest antique store find! I came across a cache of vintage Stratton compacts at a little antique store along Monroe's Main Street. Monroe is the small city "as the crow flies" about twenty minutes from Duvall, where I live. I do enjoy browsing the sparkly finds in both cities, as they have their share of small vintage shops dotting their respective Main Streets, but I've probably found my most favorite things along Monroe's Main Street, including my very Jaunty jewelry box, an old tool/fittings storage box that was just made for holding all my sparkly finds. 

I love the look of old compacts. Aside from the fact that they're more sturdily made than the contemporary ones, which are either built for disposal or novelty use, the designs of vintage compacts are a little touch of classic, ladylike glamour. This particular one has a pheasant design that came out around the early to mid 1950s, as best as I could research on the interwebs. Stratton is a British company, and has been making compacts and mirrors since the late 1800s and they have a long history of being favorites for collectibles, since they've had so many different designs over the years. The shop had some of Stratton's signature "Princess" compact shape, which has a floral scalloped edge and had more of a classic-era look to them, but I went with this smaller, more modern round shape with the pheasant design. It had more potential to be used as an elegant pill box, the inset space for where the powder sits could cradle a few aspirin in a very ladylike manner. And it could still be used as a working compact, as this still had its original puff, although I would think one would want to keep that intact.

I loved this, but it wasn't meant to be in my possession for long, as I gave it as a birthday gift for a good friend's birthday. I have a corny birdbrained notion that objects contain a little bit of a past life, and when we can make a connection with that past life with someone's current life, there's a bit of magic that happens. So here's to magic and lost treasures being found. 

Jaunty Fine Print: Photo by Denise Sakaki

Al Gore is going to hate the Magpie, as she had to go through about a landfill's worth of packing material to uncover a treasure trove of old family heirlooms. The spirit of spring cleaning bit this Birdie on her tailfeathers one Sunday afternoon and the whole rest of the day was spent carefully unwrapping several boxes full of old Japanese dolls that have been in the family for several years. They were happily residing at my parents' house, but my Jaunty Mother must have gotten a spring cleaning inspiration of her own and wrapped everything up to send to me.

Sure, non-sentimental people would wonder why I'd keep such dust collectors, but they clearly haven't understood why I'm called a Magpie. And the classification of "Hoarder" hasn't quite been diagnosed. I managed to get rid of all the throwaway packing material, so don't sign up this Bird for any TLC or Discovery Channel behavior dysfunction shows just yet. At the end of the day, it was just a nice relief to have the boxes unpacked and get the contents on display in our home. And if anyone's interested, take any of your surplus of packing materials like styrofoam peanuts to a UPS store, as they will take them for reuse or recycling. Make the most of rainy springtime days and get those living spaces Jaunty!

Jaunty Fine Print: Photos by Denise Sakaki

 

Call this Bird crazy, but I am a fiend for organization. Not that anyone would think that after seeing the catastrophe that is my work desk, but when possible, I love when things are in their place, as I hate clutter.

I love looking through antique stores, but I also kind of dread it, as I inevitably find something I love more than life itself, but am then at a loss over what to do with this life-changing dust collector. Logic tends to win the argument and the object of desire is left behind, except for a recent weekend trip. I was with Mr. Magpie, browsing the antique shops in the city of Monroe, not far from our Duvall home is, and there was an adorable shop that had a wide variety of things to make this Magpie's "ooh, Shiny!" alert go off like mad. The item that captured this Birdie's heart was an old tool chest sitting in the window that looked to have held nuts, bolts, screws, etc. It had that great patina of age that, really, after enough years, "dirty" becomes "charming."

What really got my heart racing was the individual dividers in each of the deep metal drawers. I had been looking for a jewelry box that could hold my collection of costume jewelry, and keep it organized. It's a far more Jaunty container than what I had before, which was a set of plain small plastic drawers that were a better fit for fishing hooks or scrapbooking. I decided this would be my birthday present to myself (well, an early one), and whisked it off the shop's hands. An hour of cleaning and putting small squares of scrap fabric on the bottom of each little section, and a unique jewelry box was born. I have a feeling it was maybe a tobacco hiding place, as it had a bit of that sweet, earthy smell to it. I kept as many of the old paper labels that noted which fitting was what, just because I thought they added to the charm of the piece.

Jaunty Fine Print: photos by Denise Sakaki