It's in the genes...

From time to time (usually at art shows) people ask me where I get my ideas and love of all things old/vintage.  It's in my genes, I think.  My parents were antique dealers (my dad was also a dentist and my mother, a nurse).  They did antique shows at the Ann Arbor Antique Show in Saline, Michigan and had their own shop (The Peddler Shoppe) in Sylvania, Ohio.  When I was really small my mother would keep me busy at the shop with "little guys", as she would call them.  She cut tiny figures out of old cardstock and I would embellish them with pencils and crayons.  I loved those "little guys" and thought my mom was the coolest for making something so great out of discarded supplies.  My sister and I also helped out a bit with the antique business as we grew up.  We attended and helped set up (begrudgingly, at times, as we had to get up at 3 am) to set up at those Michigan shows.  It was a family affair.   At some point both my sister and I said that when we grew up we wouldn't have antiques in our houses...only "new" stuff.  We loved the shag carpeting and mirrored walls at some of our friends' houses.  It was, after all, the 70's at that time.  As time passed, however, I grew to love the idea of taking something old, rescuing it, fixing it up and giving it new life.  I refinished my first piece of furniture as a teenager, and I was hooked.  I loved going antiquing with my mom and finding the diamond in the rough.  She inspired me to use what I had and to decorate in unique ways.  Everything in our house told a story, and my house is that way, today.  I love to use vintage papers, books and albums to create something unique and purposeful.  My mother and I still like to shop together and come up with new and inventive ideas.   I think my dad would be proud, too, that I am following in a bit of his footsteps.