hunting & gathering--not the usual

At auctions, where I get most of the goods for my store, there are a few things I never ever buy: jewelry, clothes and purses. I broke those rules at a recent vintage clothing and textiles auction. I went hoping to score vintage linens (and did--more on that another time). The clothes at auction were awesome--civil war dresses, tons of beautiful Victorian whites, fine examples from every era through the 70's, in mint condition. Of course I didn't buy any of that. I did buy a small trunk full of hand made children's and doll clothes from the 50's. I'll post some pictures when I've sorted through them. Meanwhile ...

I bought a small lot of purses. Some funky 60's-70's Indian fabric types and some older tapestry clutches. Don't know yet if this falls in the category of impulse purchase mistakes. Probably. The clutches are kinda sweet.

I also bought a lot of earrings, something I normally run away from at auctions. I got about 20 pairs and most are over the top costume jewelry, but a few are really pretty. (I know my pictures suck--I'm working on it.) Why did I do that?