A warmest welcome to all sfgirlbybay readers!  Thank you for visiting — and thank YOU to Victoria for your lovely feature of some of my favorite vintage decor pieces.

May I introduce you to Roy G. Biv’s vintage office?  While some believed Mr. Biv was OCD in how he color-coded all of his vintage office supplies, he was merely surrendering himself to the rainbow acronym for whom he was subconsciously named.

From my collection of vintage office supplies (left to right), we have an array of colored red pencils and pink erasers for “carbon documents” (why on earth don’t erasers come with built-in brushes anymore?!), a vintage watercolor palate, an orange manual pencil sharpener, a yellow tape measure, a green wooden two-hole paper punch,  a green eraser for “original documents,” a cobalt blue inkwell, two blue-tipped “general” erasers, a Tru-Rite typewriter ribbon tin (with the original, sealed ribbon still inside!), and a purple two-toned antique Remington typewriter from the 1930s.

Memo Addendum: Roy G. Biv sincerely hopes that I find more vintage office supplies on my treasure hunting journeys.

Do any vintage office supplies capture space on your desk?

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Hello friends!   Thank you for all of your sweet words about our baby and wonderful advice on combating first trimester sickness!  I am happily back in sunny San Diego and steadily settling into our new home.  As we sold many of our furnishings in preparation for our move to Hawaii, I now have the pleasure (or angst, depending upon how fruitful my treasure hunts are) of refurnishing our home.  I look forward to sharing one of my new refinished and repurposed furniture finds tomorrow!

You may also have noticed that the Poetic Home Etsy shop has enjoyed a mini-makeover in its collection.  With the baby on board, I realized that we need room for the nursery — and not my extensive typewriter collection, which has slowly grown from one closet into a presence in every room.  I’ve begun cataloging, photographing, and putting into the shop typewriters from my collection that I hope will become treasures in loving new homes.

As an ode to my typewriter collection, I’ve also created PoeticTypewriters.com, a current work in progress, as a storefront dedicated exclusively to antique and vintage typewriters in immaculate working condition.  As always, I welcome and sincerely appreciate your feedback and comments about the site design before the “grand” opening!

I’m very happy to be back in action and look forward to visiting with you once again with our regularly scheduled vintage programming, starting tomorrow!

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I’ve always loved the allure of antique wooden shoe forms…but when it comes to my decor philosophy at home, I like to choose treasures that hold both form and function.   Yet the patina of old shoe forms is difficult to resist.  With that said, I wanted to share a few ways one can repurpose antique shoe forms to be both fun and functional.

On a desk, a repurposed shoe form penholder holds a treasured writing utensil – ready to create when inspiration strikes.  I find that I enjoy this special pen, which was a birthday gift from the hubby, much more displayed on top of my desk than tucked away in a drawer.

Shoe forms lend themselves quite well to becoming repurposed lamp bases, whether or not you have a shoe fetish.  Talk about a conversation piece!

While you would certainly need to ensure this shoe form is not left unattended, using them as repurposed candleholders is both quaint and a bit industrial.

How do you feel about antique shoe forms?  Are they finding a spot in your home?

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My husband and I are happily celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary this week!  Handmade gifts and treasures have always been a part of our relationship, including our wedding cake toppers above.  My husband made the “mini us,” and I made our canine daughters all out of clay.

This year, I wanted to give him something that we could add to each year as our relationship grows.  Thus, the Catalog of Love was born as a perpetual anniversary gift!

This is an antique wooden library card catalog box that now will hold the chapters of our relationship and life together.  I created faux Dewey Decimal catalog cards, where the book number is replaced by milestone dates, chapters of our love overwrites book titles, and important locations substitute publisher cities.  One day, when we are both old and wrinkled, I hope we will be able to fill the box completely with our life’s chapters together.

If you want to create your own Dewey Decimal cards, which can be used on a variety of gifts, such as birthday cards or present tags, visit the Catalog Card Generator.  I’d love to see what you create!

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