Hi, My Name is Hope...

Hello. My name is Hope and I am a flea market junkie. Actually, I also love antique shops, tag sales and thrift stores, so, I guess it is fate that I am one of the new members of Tag Sale Tales (thank you Jenny, for letting me a part of this great site - I hope I live up to your expectations!) That is me up there taking a photo of a vintage Christmas ornament. I am the girl behind Paper Relics and known as thesoulofhope on Flickr. But for those of you who do not know me, my weakness is antique paper. Anything pre-1920 really, but I swoon over things from the 1800s. I love old hand written letters, tin type photos, postcards and advertising (in magazines or trade cards). I also adore old worn buttons and vintage velvet ribbon, old pieces of jewelry (especially shiny ones) and of course I am thrilled when I stumble upon a unique piece to put in my studio for storage or display.

I was born and raised in Connecticut. Tag sales were tag sales and I always have loved them. I now reside in Maryland, and no one here knows what I am talking about when I say TAG SALE. How can you not know what I am talking about? They call them 'garage sales' and 'yard sales' but never TAG SALES. It drives me crazy! I say I went to a tag sale over the weekend and all my co-workers are looking at me blankly having no idea what I am talking about! Oh well, tag, garage, yard, whatever you call it - I still love them!

I thought it would be fun to share my finds with you, and then take it a step further and show you what I do with them. So you will see things I purchase as well as things I make. I have started a flickr set for all the photos I post on this blog that can be viewed here.

My most recent find, and my first to share with you, was an old wooden crate with writing still on one side. It was actually quite a surprise to stumble upon. I went to an art and craft show this past weekend in a small town in Maryland. The entire town comes out for this event and people had tag sales lining the streets. I came across this one sale run by this sweet old man (who told me I had "a beautiful mop of hair" - how could I NOT purchase something from him?). I found a few goodies, an old journal with sales recorded in it and some buttons. I was happy and started to walk away. But, my eye caught something tucked under the corner of the table. An old wooden crate. It was in excellent condition, the wood is high quality (the photo does not do it justice since it is bottom up - my cute pup, Tuala, is in the photo to give you an idea of the size - she is a 28 pound Beagle). I picked it up to check it out and the price tag was $9.50. NINE FIFTY! I ran over the man to pay for it, and in all my excitement, I tripped (of course, you will all soon see what a klutz I am), and he told me he thought I was falling for him and next time to let him know so he could have his hands out to catch me (what a charmer!).
He gave it to me for $9 even.

It is so nice to be here - I look forward to sharing with you all! And stay tune for more tales soon... I am off to New York City this weekend to meet up with some blog friends (Dawn and Jes) and we plan to hit some flea markets while we are there!