Chatelaine purse

I have finally found one! It is small and light enough to wear around my neck and it was reasonably priced at an outdoor antique market. It’s from late 19th century and I really like the ornaments on the frame. It isn’t in perfect shape (this is why the price was ok), some links are missing in the silver mesh, but I don’t plan on really using it for coins :).  The holes are not visible when the purse is closed and maybe I will get it fixed at some point, if I really want to.

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays and Vintage Charm parties.

This morning

Because of the daylight savings, I see the sunrise again on my way to school… for a while, till the sun will raise earlier, as spring progresses.

Pocket watch and ephemera

These were some finds from a quick visit to the flea market yesterday. A notebook from 1909 that has illustrations for each month and two ethereal old photos.

A gold plated old chain.

A tiny knot ring that goes so well with my Art deco sapphire eternity ring.

And a pocket watch case, without the watch itself. I plan on fixing the cover that is not closing anymore and use it as an oversized locket. It is silver and very beautifully engraved and I really like the small character with a bird. The other silver watch case, with the acorn and leaves, is an old flea market find also.

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays and Vintage Charm parties.

 

The window

Taken with my homemade pinhole camera.

A sunny day in the past

 

I took these photos in June 1998. I perfectly remember that sunny and carefree day. I was with Oti, my childhood friend and Liviu, her boyfriend and lifelong partner and my friend. We were visiting these courtyards and staircases of houses that were a background for our childhood games. Oti lived in one of these houses and I used to visit her often. These were old buildings nationalized by the communist regime and transformed in apartment buildings for regular people like us. Most of these apartments weren’t the most comfortable places to live in (some of them had shared bathrooms and most of them didn’t have central heating) but they were beautiful and fascinating places for me. I always lived in socialist apartment buildings and Oti’s place, with the big rooms and high ceilings and unusual layout (we could run in a circle from room to room) seemed so mysterious and beautiful and intriguing. At some point, Oti’s family sold the apartment, but I’m quite sure that in the day we took these photos it was still theirs, accessible to us to just walk in if we wanted to.

When we took these photos, our childhood was not so far away yet, felt still accessible to us and also these courtyards were still the same.

I don’t think many regular people are still living in these very central and very expensive apartments. Most of the apartments are now lawyer’s offices and such. I entered Oti’s building once to go to a notary office and I had such a ghostly feeling of familiarity and strangeness. Oti told me she prefers not to enter her old building.

Something much more important and sad and life altering than these courtyards changed too since that day.

When I searched for the film to scan it, I hoped to find also pictures of us on it. There’s only a pretty photo of Oti, but Liviu or me are not in the images. I would have loved to have now a photo of Liviu from that day. I’m sure Oti feels the same.

 

 

 

Plein air

I have found this box yesterday at the flea market, for quite cheap. It’s a small size case, with some of the original tools still inside: a metal bottle for turpentine, a dipper and a metal charcoal holder. The palette is not there, unfortunately. There are also some pastel sticks and 2 old brushes with bamboo handles marked Japan. Also some newer pencils. Obviously, this box was used in a really long time span or had different owners using it.  It was made by Sennelier Paris, an old and famous art store. Their logo is different now and I couldn’t find any listing of their previous logos, so I could have a definite answer regarding the age of my box. But, I think the box and the original accessories are from the thirties or forties, from the feel of them.

I don’t plan painting en plein air again (something that I was very fond of when I was 15), but it’s a very nice box to store some of my drawing and painting supplies in, while trying to imagine who were the ones using it before me.

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays.

Sunset

I have this celluloid pendant since a long time, now but I have recently rediscovered it in one of my boxes. I like to wear it on a silver chain. It is even nicer in reality, with inner layers that imitate amber catching the light. Like a little piece of sunset around my neck.

Linking up with Vintage Charm party.

Colors of today

A chipped glass and silver pendant that is pretty to me exactly because is not perfectly round, my vintage silver and enamel ring and a bracelet I have string some years ago from different stones such as chalcedony, blue sunstone, amethyst and turquoise. (I forgot what the magenta and orange ones are).

Evening

I love my evenings lately. I’m usually too tired to let space for worrying thoughts. I’m happy to be in the small, safe space of my room, with my familiar things, with Souris sleeping peacefully on his pillow. Just silence and small rituals, arranging the pillows, watering the plants, eating some chocolate, looking out for a moment at the quiet street. The Parma violets are full of flowers and one of my cacti bloomed these days, too.

Smena Symbol

I really like Smena cameras, they are small and relatively reliable, kind of quirky, too. I have a few different ones, from different periods and I kept thinking that I should take a group photo of them all at some point. Till then, this is a Smena Symbol that our friend Oana gifted me. It was produced from 1970-1993, but I think this one is from the eighties. It’s practically like new, I don’t think it was ever used.

Most of the images are taken on my way to school, in the morning. I was hoping the long exposures would be sharper, but even if I did put the camera on the bridge railing, still it was difficult to keep it steady when I’ve pushed down the exposure lever. But blurry as they are, I think they are kind of realistic for my sleepy morning walks.