[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, I'm Sarah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Megan.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're two women in our 40s who live in different states and have a lot of different interests between us.
[SPEAKER_01]: On this show, we talk about all the midlife lady leisure pursuits we're enjoying at this stage of life, like travel, hobbies, food, wellness, style, and more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm excited to talk about old stuff, vintage and teaks, all of the things we surround ourselves from a different era.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am excited about this too and today's episode is brought to you by our exclusive season sponsor and a longtime partner of ours, Vionic Shoes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to shout out the uptown Willa slip on sneakers I had these on earlier today.
[SPEAKER_01]: So comfy and cute like all my other Vionic Shoes and they are available in some really great colors.
[SPEAKER_01]: Use the promo code midlife at Vionic Shoes.com for 15% off when you log into your account.
[SPEAKER_01]: And be sure to check out the special page we've set up where you can see our favorite vionic styles.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look for that in the show notes for this episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, Megan, you are a little bit on the hot seat today because I think of you as quite a stut in your collecting of old things.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will save for myself and I don't think I'm very astute in this area.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love
[SPEAKER_01]: having things that are thrifted, that are secondhand.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love things passed down from my family or my husband's family, but what I don't feel is very, I'm not very tuned into what era's aesthetic I like or what.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's my approach is not at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: curated.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's much more like, oh, something, something secondhand.
[SPEAKER_01]: I come at it a little bit more from that, like, sustainability mindset, maybe, or like, why buy something new if I could repurpose something.
[SPEAKER_00]: The satisfaction of using something older.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I've always admired how knowledgeable you, at least it seems to me, that you are on both what what eras things come from, you can tell just by looking, but also what you like, it feels like you've really developed sort of an aesthetic and your own style for this kinds of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: So do you want to just like give the background of like where that came from and then what yeah,
[SPEAKER_00]: So I've always loved old stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like since I can remember, I grew up, well, until I was about six, I lived in, you know, just kind of a your typical try-level 70s house, I guess I would say.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then my mom and siblings and I moved into this old house, it was built, I believe in 1896.
[SPEAKER_00]: 1890s like on the like the cover and it had been at one point broken up into like a townhouse and we had to basically turn it back into a single family residence.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had to uh
[SPEAKER_00]: put a door back through the wall that led to the stairs.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was one of those, I think it was a kit house because there were three right in a row that were identical.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at least identical layouts inside, but they looked pretty different on the outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I loved this house.
[SPEAKER_00]: I loved everything about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though this was like 1984 or something like that, definitely this house was not in any kind of style.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no carpet.
[SPEAKER_00]: that was, you know, 80s was all about crime.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was nothing like, I don't know there were these like old French doors and built-ins and that fireplace and it, I, it's just captured my imagination in ways that like, I guess newer houses just never really did.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that kind of started me down that path and then I lived in a series of older houses.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dad and step mom also lived in a really old, very cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: former mansion house that had been, like, sort of, half-referred.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I was in high school, and that was awesome, and my stepmom and I used to go, I mean, taking a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I've kind of gone through phases as far as, like, what eras I was really into.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think when I was little, I just, like, things that were,
[SPEAKER_00]: old and I think like as old as possible kind of like possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: But at that point kind of the oldest stuff you were really going to find was probably going to be Victorian.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I wasn't going to walk into an antique store in Michigan and find something from the Renaissance or something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was kind of my, my, my,
[SPEAKER_00]: that was sort of my starting point was like was this from the late 1800s.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then over time, I really started to settle into more being drawn to this sort of 30s and 40s.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say kind of maybe spilling into the 50s a little bit, but not 50s like not like space age 50s, not super mod.
[SPEAKER_00]: But more of that, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm thinking of like
[SPEAKER_00]: Big strawberries on them like that kind of and like the mint and the red and the jadeite like that kind of a look So sort of like late 30s through the 40s maybe slightly into the 50s so that is kind of where
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say I'm the most drawn, which is not to say that I'm not also interested in other eras, but I feel like that's kind of, I don't know where I've settled, if that makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've collected different things over the years that have made sense in my life, for things in different eras, and then find sometimes er at times in my life for that collection just doesn't make a lot of sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's kind of, yeah, I didn't float.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, how?
[SPEAKER_01]: How comfortable are you with mixing and matching your old things?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you said, like if you had a Victorian taper candle holder that you loved, like, or does it feel like, do you feel pretty focused when you're...
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm very, I'm very fluid.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what helps me to think about is like, how would a house have looked in, let's say, 1940?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you would have had the furniture that maybe you got in 1920.
[SPEAKER_00]: You would have had a great time with your grandparents.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like nobody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless you're in a museum, nothing all looks one way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And actually paying very close attention when I go into,
[SPEAKER_00]: historic reproductions like in museums where they'll have a room set up that's like a reproduction you do see that mixing and matching because that's real that's how people really would have lived so i'm very comfortable with it okay that's a great point we talked about those reproduction rooms when we did our reading plaques episode and how much we both love them
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's a great point that nothing, no real family is ever truly like living in the aesthetic era that they're in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless every year they're just throwing everything out and starting again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think there are maybe people who do live that way, but it feels very sterile.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Agreed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I guess this is a two part question, but where are you looking for these things?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like tell me a little bit about like what kind of antique stores are online, then then are you looking for like useful things that would actually like that you, you know, replace something in your modern life with this older version or is it more aesthetic decorative?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it furniture?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it like big stuff?
[SPEAKER_01]: Little stuff?
[SPEAKER_01]: Does it depend?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so I'll answer the question about where I find it first.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really like to go and teaking.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a lot of great antique stores around here, some of which take a little longer to get to than others, so it depends how much time I've got.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would actually really like to work into my regular routine, just popping in a little more casually.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes I have to make it, I feel like I have to make it a big thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and so I don't go as much as I
[SPEAKER_00]: I look everywhere that has it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would say in my area, there's like three different classifications that I just made up on the spot of anti-phores.
[SPEAKER_00]: One is sort of like,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of just a second-hand shop slash thrift store that maybe is trying to lean in a little bit on vintage.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got a few of those here.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's like a good will, but they've got like a little vintage section or something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's why somebody's doing some curating.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's how it's doing some curating.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes I feel like you find really great bargains and sometimes I feel like they don't really understand the value of things and they weigh price that like over person I think the internet has not helped with this Sometimes I want to be like just because you call yourself a good real like a goodwill boutique does not mean this is
[SPEAKER_00]: that your stuff is worth 10 times, what it would be if you didn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that some, I would have said 10 years ago that maybe 15 years ago that I would have better luck in those places.
[SPEAKER_00]: I almost feel like they're becoming
[SPEAKER_00]: Almost no luck because probably people who are resellers are coming in and buying up the good stuff right away.
[SPEAKER_00]: They know, yeah, they know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I'm not getting there like on the day they put the new stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not that invested that I know what day and stuff goes out.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then there's like the antique mall.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have multiples of those and those are the ones where you go in and it's like,
[SPEAKER_00]: Lots of vendors, they eat a little stall.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the little stalls are very well curated.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some always have sales, some never do, but you're gonna see a lot of stuff, and it's all in one place, and I love that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I love nothing more than on a Saturday just strolling through any antique mall, and just seeing what there is, I almost never go in with an idea in mind about what I want, I just go in and look.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if I see something I love,
[SPEAKER_00]: Or sometimes I'll kind of have a vague idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, oh, I'm looking for, you know, a piece of furniture for this wall or whatever, you know, sometimes.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I know that I'm not going to find it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But expectations are so low or so like just I'm my expectation is just to look at cool stuff and have fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about like what I find.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the other kind we have around here is the very curated expensive ones.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those can be really fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: to look at.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd have to be pretty motivated.
[SPEAKER_00]: to buy a really specific thing to probably shop.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or actually spend the day because I do think, you know, you're paying partly for the curation and the link, but it is lovely.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love looking at them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes it's like a store with mostly new things, where some like maybe it's like a very, it's a store with new high-end home furnishings and then a few vintage pieces kind of circled in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, it is what it is, and then I do sometime shop on Etsy for vintage, especially if it's something I've had like zero luck finding locally, and I'm trying to find a really specific thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we lived in the last house that we lived in before, Eric and I got married, our house was very, had a very 70s kitchen, and I knew I wasn't going to remodel that kitchen, so I just decided to lean in and I really went like,
[SPEAKER_00]: bright yellow, um, temperament.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like I really leaned it on that and I just wasn't finding what I was looking for locally.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I did end up buying some stuff on Etsy, but it's not as fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's, you know, the pay for shipping and yeah, I feel like it doesn't have that same sense of discovery.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I will do that, but it's not, it's definitely not my first choice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, as you're talking, I can picture all three of those types of shops.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we have all three of them here.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a good reminder to go into the price year more curated.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can just make the blanket assumption that like this is out of my price range, but framing it as looking and learning and exploring, it's a good reminder not to
[SPEAKER_01]: not to write those things off.
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually got a, well, this is a sweet story.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't buy an old typewriter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Brian went back and bought it for me later because I had decided I didn't need it and it was maybe a hundred dollars or something.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a little more than, but that was in a very high-end or to me it felt high-end antique store in Laguna Beach a few years ago, but it had,
[SPEAKER_01]: This typewriter that's still on my office, shelf that I love and is special to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I should remember to go into those shops.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you asked of what kind of things I'm looking for.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I answered that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, man, it really depends on, I guess,
[SPEAKER_00]: like what I need or what I'm looking for and I've gone in waves so I had one I had one little era of my life probably a five year span where I was collecting pyrex serving like cooking and serving where from the 50s and I
[SPEAKER_00]: Collected as much as I could find of one pattern, and then I collected one other pattern that kind of Coordinated with it I guess and it was like a very specific look I was going for I really wanted it and then I kind of moved out of the era of my life Where I was cooking these huge like these castables and yeah like storing all the leftovers in these big ceramic dishes So now they're just in storage and at some point I'll probably pass them on like
[SPEAKER_00]: maybe sell them, maybe, I don't know, trade them, maybe ask my kids if any of them want them because they have value and I don't want them just sitting in a box, I'm not ready to part with them yet, but truthfully in this iteration of my life, there's neither, they don't really hold a utilitarian purpose anymore, which is why I bought them and I don't really have a place to display them and if I did, I probably wouldn't because that's not what I wanted to display right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's an example of how things can kind of
[SPEAKER_00]: flow in and out of your hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess if you kind of hold it loosely, I have collected linens.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love like napkins and like cloth napkins and table cloths and old aprons things like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now I don't have a great place to display them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's kind of unhold, but that's the kind of thing I'm always looking for furniture.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would always choose a piece of antique furniture first if I could.
[SPEAKER_00]: the problem with that is it takes forever I find to find the just right piece for the space that you have for the need that you have that's in good enough shape to use that's not a million dollars.
[SPEAKER_00]: So those yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take years to find.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did we talk about this already?
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe when we did our historic plaques, or maybe when we did our visit.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know we've circled around old things in other ways.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did we talk about how old something has to be to be vintage versus antique and how those terms are, I think vintage is like, 25 years?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or is that cars?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that a car is considered a vintage car if it's 25 years, and antique is like 50 or more, I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, um, let me, I'll just quickly Google that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know me too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, vintage is 20 to 99.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and antique certainly is to 100.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that's interesting because I would definitely consider something from the 40s to be an antique and it's not, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would not consider something from 2006 to vintage.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I guess it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think somewhere in my mind I knew that antique was a hundred.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just, um, yeah, vintage is pretty funny.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad we got to Google that in real time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I guess the thing right now that I've been kind of keeping my out, my eye out for is vintage teacups and teapots, because that's definitely an idea of mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love, like, a jumble of different kinds of teapots or
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is when you know you're going for a jumble, it's really hard to start before you get to the jumble.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like starting with just one or two, it just looks so weird and sad.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you don't want to go, you can't, I mean sometimes these, even like it just a teacup is like 25 bucks, sometimes if it's a good one.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, or more, you know, or more.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I don't, I'm not going to go drop all of my money.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: to have an immediate collection.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's also not how I want to collect.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to collect.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I was going to say that is sort of would take away the fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, um, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's like, I feel like I'm in the awkward stage right now where I don't have quite enough to gather them together and make them look like a thing yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will.
[SPEAKER_01]: That one will feel feel worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I understand the awkward like growing out your hair or something.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's like the awkward phase where you can't tell like what's the intention of what's happening here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your teeth don't match.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, well,
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, these are physical objects in a limited sized home and you're talking about collecting and curating I'm glad you mentioned like with the pyrex just letting things go at some point and they go back into the world and they make somebody else's vintage dreams come true
[SPEAKER_01]: So when you are in a collecting phase, like with the tea cups or the linens, where do you store and display these old things?
[SPEAKER_01]: And do you think these old things?
[SPEAKER_01]: And do you think they replace newer items?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like are you getting rid of, you know, your target tea mugs because you have the vintage or is it, are they kind of living alongside your modern day stuff?
[SPEAKER_00]: um it really depends what it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they they serve such a different purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I'm not going to probably replace my kitchen hand towels just as an example right vintage ones.
[SPEAKER_00]: They they feel different.
[SPEAKER_00]: They wear different.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't want to mess them up necessarily.
[SPEAKER_00]: I probably would buy something like that to be a little more decorative um or maybe to get pulled out for certain uses but not
[SPEAKER_00]: But even saying that, I'm not sure because sometimes I do want to rotate them out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want things to just sit in a drawer and yeah, linens are hard to display.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless you have the right display case or some kind of a rack or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't currently.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I have stitched on vintage,
[SPEAKER_00]: linens actually i think of the napkins that i sent you were vintage i think i bought those in a name store yeah um so that's been one way for me to like collect them and then get rid of them use them and then pass them along in some useful form um the teacups i would not replace my everyday mugs with that that would be a different
[SPEAKER_00]: Use different category.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's different category.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like furniture.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's to be that's to be furniture We have vintage like almost I'm gonna say half of our furniture on our first floor is vintage in some ways like our We have our display stuff our table and chairs are you know dining table and chairs The thing I keep like my tea and herbs on
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think it just really depends on the item.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes, old things don't work the way you want them to work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes the operation of them is clunky, maybe because they're old and they're just not as functional as they used to be, or
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they never were that functional, you know, so it's like a, it's a case by case basis.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, does that answer your question?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, yeah, it just totally depends.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I, but I don't really ever go, I very rarely go thinking, I'm going to buy this thing and replace something at home that I was already using unless, unless it's like something like a canister.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or um,
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I'm trying to think it's a tray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like some of that maybe just kind of sits there anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I'll just swap out the old just used to sit there with the new.
[SPEAKER_01]: I find that when I am in one of those antique malls that you described, and especially the ones that are so artfully, each little nuke is so artfully arranged, and I find myself wanting to buy things that I have no idea what I would do with.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some examples would be like,
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, well, books and old magazines, old, like things like that that I just, I love, I love the moment in timeness of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but it's almost like I think I'm trying to emotionally capture being in that little noken and antique mall.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when I get at home, I'm like, but I don't know what to do with a record album cover.
[SPEAKER_01]: From 1967.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know I mean like it doesn't totally fit into my regular life.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I as you're talking I'm thinking about the value of collections the value of like knowing what you're looking for and having a collection to add to Or maybe something that's actually useful like that, you know, so after That has been my struggle in the past is I love this thing emotionally, but I don't know where to put it or what to do with it
[SPEAKER_00]: So, here's how I get over that because I have the exact same feeling.
[SPEAKER_00]: For, I'm just going to throw an example out like last, I'm going to say last summer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eric and I went to an antique store and there was this issue of, I think it was life magazine.
[SPEAKER_00]: from like the 70s that had, I loved the cover art and there was a story in it about, no, it was the 50s.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was older than I was thinking.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was from the 50s and it was talking about freeways and how they were re-shaping basically the United States.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like how freeways were.
[SPEAKER_00]: had taken villages out, completely changing the way people were interacting with their communities, like changing everything very, very quickly, much faster than we really knew what to do with.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, what an interesting story.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to read it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, okay, well, this is a six dollar magazine.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I wanted to read something online badly enough, I'd pay six bucks for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it took it home.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I read the story, and it was very interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I was like, well, I don't now need to keep this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I have now,
[SPEAKER_00]: just donate this back to the next vintage-y type place I go into.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we happen to have a place down the road from us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a nonprofit that has a thrift store, but then if you donate something that they think is higher value, they send it down the road to their more curated one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's all going to charity and it's all good, but it's also not like,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not like they're going to look at and go, what's this and throw it away because they don't want you to do with it like they know this is something they know they know yeah so it was like I got to just have the experience of taking it home yeah and reading it and then I just passed it along and it was fine um I've had and then I thought what when else will I have a chance to read the story I'm sure it's not archived anywhere it doesn't exist except for in this you know in this print form
[SPEAKER_00]: So, um, that's a little bit different than if it was something that was meant to be decorative, but I really think you can sometimes take something into your house for just a little while.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, especially like you said, if there's a thoughtful way to pass it down the line, yeah, um, I love that, um, is there anything that you are aspiring to acquire or something you're drawn to, but can't really figure out what to do with, um, or maybe a next collection.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like what's in the future of your midlife old things.
[SPEAKER_01]: So gathering.
[SPEAKER_00]: My house, unfortunately, right now is just not set up for displaying these, I'd like all of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like in houses I have lived in before, they've been older houses with lots of like little
[SPEAKER_00]: little nooks and shelves and windowsills and our house now just it's there's less wall space because of the open concept yeah one thing I don't want it to feel like a museum in here and I think there's something that would be not quite right about this house well okay open concept one entire wall is windows so you've basically got one wall that's a staircase one wall that's
[SPEAKER_00]: There's really not a whole lot of places to put on.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, there's not, there's not a well-space I've been in.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so...
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know the answer to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I could buy a little cottage someplace that I could just decorate, I would have like vintage aprons hanging on that's something vintage aprons.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But where am I going to put them?
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would have them all hanging on little pigs along the wall or I would have shelves, like just rose with all of my little tea cups and then under it, I would have towels.
[SPEAKER_00]: hanging.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, but then it really would start to feel kind of a little bit like a museum.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, there's in my head, there's this ideal that I just kind of know I can't have because I don't live in a museum and I don't live in an antique store.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so I don't know what in this stage of my life leaning in to
[SPEAKER_00]: collecting is gonna look like because I just haven't landed on the thing that will group together in such a way that it like makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I'm a little stuck.
[SPEAKER_00]: Birds though, I have noticed lately that I've ended up by accident collecting a lot of pairs of birds.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got
[SPEAKER_00]: No, sorry, the little the brass ones are quail and the ceramics are doesn't and so now I have these two sort of mid-century Bird duos and I'm like well, maybe there's something there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe those can go in the one little desk area We have that's more just Just for display and maybe I'd build something around that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just I haven't quite figured it out yet I love brass first of all.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just very drawn to it but holiday
[SPEAKER_01]: Christmas has been one way for me to focus my old things collecting just because I tend to basically redecorate my house at Christmas.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's a little less pressure for it to match or go or like a little less overthinking about like,
[SPEAKER_01]: General aesthetics, to me at Christmas, because it's just like, oh, I found this little Santa, I found this little reindeer.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that has been, that's a good entry point, and then you mentioned giving gifts.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that might be another fun way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every time I've received something vintage as a gift or antique, I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love that someone else chose it for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Utilitarian purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just like it's a shiny object that someone else picked out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that could be special.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I think another thing just I like to keep in mind is that I don't have to have it now.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't even mean like there's lots of like different stages of life left where I'll be able to express myself via
[SPEAKER_00]: via vintage and via antiques and also that like what I'm into today might not be what I'm into later so I don't have to hold on to it so tightly like the idea and it'll just kind of flow through and if it's if it's the right time for me to have that thing or or really lean in on that thing it is and if it's not that's okay you know in 10 years I might have moved on to something else and there's other ways to scratch that itch so yeah
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, everyone, just a reminder that you can find our expanded episode story with photos and links on Substack at midlife-ladyleisurepresuits.substack.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's also where you'll find this special page we have set up with some of our favorite
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, thanks for being here everyone and just for your podcast listening planning we will be on a break and have all new episodes for you back beginning April 7 so we will talk to you then.