The Kitchin Sketchbooks I bought from Julia of have proven to be just the beginning.  Since the two of us first started talking about the sketchbooks, a friendship has been formed over our appreciation of history and a mutual love of antiques.  When Julia shipped out the box of sketchbooks to me, she said she included a few little bits and surprises for me.  As someone who loves mail and happy surprises, it made me even more excited to receive the package. The sketchbooks were, no doubt, the star of the show in the box… …but I was delighted by all of the thoughtful little things she included. This small tin of goodies was my favorite to dig through… She sent a lovely old pair of sewing scissors (pewter, I think), a bone and wood crochet hook, a small metal crochet hook, and a couple of lead holders. The bone

When I was asking for blog post/theme suggestions back in March, one of my readers suggested sharing some of my collections.  I have done that in the past, posting about ironstone and other things that catch my eye, but it’s been a while since I wrote a post specifically sharing about one of my collections and the reason behind it.  In today’s post, I’m going to share about my affinity for vintage and antique flatware specifically sets and pieces from the mid-1800’s/Civil War era. I am pretty sure my love of flatware started with Bakelite about 10-12 years ago.  I remember seeing this pretty flatware with creamy handles in some of my favorite magazines and I started to keep an eye out for it when I visited antique shops and markets.  When I was first looking for it, it didn’t seem to be very plentiful and, when it did surface,