The good, the bad and the ugly....

So it's been an interesting week. I made some great antique purchases online ( which will be posted about) so everyday was like Christmas getting the packages and the excitement seeing it in person.  Some items were for my online store and some for personal keepsakes. I made a list in my head of items I would love to have for collection and one of those is Victorian mourning jewelry. I won a necklace in auction and I was so thrilled. It was not suppose to arrive for a few more days and saw in my tracking it said it already arrived . So I rushed to my mailbox and saw the package. As I walked in my house I saw it was ripped open and not in a accidental way. The jewelry box was in there however to my horror  the necklace was stolen out of it. I am completely heartbroken. I am very sentimental about the pieces I get, it's a cherished heirloom to me even though it is not a personal family one. So I am a bit shaken and will probably refrain from making online purchases for now until I can figure out a way to safely get my packages.

MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR MY STOLEN VICTORIAN MOURNING NECKLACE:

The necklace that will haunt me for the rest of my antique collecting days

Another thing that has got me a lil bummed is there is a local antiques show where the booths would be very affordable. It's only 2 weeks notice which I would be crazy enough to pull off however it's the transportation, We have a tiny car, 3 kids in tow (  due to me not being a driver) so there would not be  anyway near enough room in my trunk for a 10'x10' booth worth of stuff . So I thought "Alright, I have to rent a mini van for the day"  The car rental places do not allow one day rentals on weekends so I would be stuck with a hefty bill which would take up any potential profit margins and I would be incredibly lucky if I even broke even after that so it's a no-go. Impossible potential, story of my life haha

Good news is I got new goodies for show and tell posts. I been working hard getting my Etsy store stocked up. I did a short trial for a few items on Ebay with both auction & but it now option but no takers so it's put a lil damper on my optimism , I haven't formally publicly launched this blog so I am trying not to fret and everything is just part of the learning process, right?

UPDATE: They strike again in stealing my antiques! The next day, my " forget me not" album full of letters for a lil girl name " Lilly" just like my daughter and this website- I just have no words....I spent the week looking for both items in pawn shops and contacting local antique stores to see if the thief tried to sell them there for a quick buck. No luck thus far. Both of these items held such sentimental value to me and I just cannot shake this upset it's caused me. I will not be purchasing anymore items online for a while because I cannot trust the post office or that my mail is safe anymore. SO farewell precious album of letters, I will forget you not indeed ...

The Lilly Violet Mascot !

I been too overwhelmed the last few days to post. Mainly because I made a gamble and WON. What did I win you ask? THIS BEAUTY!

It arrived yesterday and I am scared to open the box- that is HOW overwhelmed I am hahaha The idea of touching fragile old things is fascinating yet terrifying to me! So to give you the story, my dream was always to own a PURPLE Victorian dress but I never sought it out due how expensive they are in general so I wanted to save myself the heartbreak. Somewhere this dress showed up on my Ebay feed and the bidding was pretty low so I kept my eye on it . I assume there would be a huge bidding war that would sky high but towards the ending time of auction it was still in an affordable range so it became even more desirable because it attainable . Now, I had lost every single auction thus far literally at the last second so I told myself not to get my hopes up. The more I looked at it the last hour the more I realized this was THE dress, the one that was everything I loved and symbolic as well as inspiring to keep me going with my passion. It was not in "great" condition, it had it's rips & flaws but hey so do I ;)  I prepared for another heartbreak to get outbidded, the bidders were getting aggressive so I put my poker face on and put in my max bid the last couple of seconds and the rest is history, my first bid war success! I *might* have shed a tear but I def was shaking like a leaf 7 clammy from the adrenaline rush. Now thank goodness my husband is supportive so when he came home from work and I told him the price of my new treasure he didn't walk back out the door- I just had to pick up his jaw off the floor . The price of being super frugal on a daily basis, makes what people normal priced items seem over the top so same goes with my antique shopping but I give myself some dangerous kind of freedom saying some things need to be " investments" ...You know like a antique dress I will never fit into! 

So I present to you ...The Lilly Violet Dress!

Here is the info on the dress from the seller:

Lovely antique purple print silk dress exquisitely made by CUMMINGS ST LOUIS. This dress came out of local historical house in Fort Smith, Arkansas' downtown district. It is quite tattered and torn throughout the the body of the dress, as the fabric is very thin, delicate and old.  Some of the tears are large and within the body of the dress and not along a seam.  The bodice is pin tucked and decorated with rolled medallions and several floral embroidered appliqués front and back, from the waist up.  The lace has a lightly colored daisy floral pattern, is trimmed in a blue braided trim and is in good condition on the front, back, and both cuffs.  The back is completely hook and eye closures.  The bodice is backed with a boned ivory cotton under bodice, and the dress is unlined below the waist. The CUMMINGS ST. LOUIS, MO. label is attached at the waist on a long ribbon that has a hook and eye at each end. Please note that the silk is discolored in several places from exposure to light, possible soiling and perspiration, even though attached to the dress are underarm perspiration pads, trademarked Kleinert Swan.  Still, it is a beautiful handmade piece that is well over 100 years old!

This dressmaker is infamous fashion. Check this out: http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/metro/news/history-museum-clothing-collection-covers-years-of-fashion/article_5e66e16f-1956-51c9-b4b6-7741d6a3b963.html

The famous Annie Cummings dress displayed at the Missouri History Museum:

Also I * believe* this was may have been Lizzie Borden's personal dressmaker, how awesomely creepy is that?

Anyway, this dress is a rare piece from the designer, I have only come across one other dress of hers online displayed at a museum and nothing else . I don't know if I would ever sell it because it is such a milestone for me . I am tempted to contact the museum to see what it would go for, maybe they can restore it to it's full beautiful potential and be burrowed for a display?

This is indeed the ultimate find in my eyes and now it's MINE :) 

My Adopted Ancestors

My biggest pet peeve is when people dispose or sell heirlooms. I personally don't have any heirlooms in my family because they were either stolen & hidden away or people were just plain ol' unsentimental. I have lost family over asking for copies of photos of my mother who I lost in childhood or even my own baby photos- it's sore sensitive subject to me. It would of meant the world to have something that was a grandparents or older so I cannot understand why some people simply sell these items or get rid of them. Photographs in the old days were so precious to them even then and it breaks my heart that their future family may have not felt the same. To be fair, in reality they could of been lost and found in the shuffle by strangers. What pulls on my heartstrings the most are the children photos because so many had short lives and that photo may be the only thing those parents had. A huge part of Victorian culture is Memento Mori , mourning fashion, jewelry , art and keepsakes. Most people would think it's morbid but if you think of how much effort & love that went into expressing their grief for their beloved- it's quiet beautiful.  PMs ( Post Mortem) Photographs are fairly common for that time and they are collectible hence making the expensive at time. I didn't even know normal original Victorian photos were accessible, purchasable or even existed like they do until I across I saw Victorian lovers like myself cooing over PM photos for sale. I don't think I would seek them out personally but if I found out I would buy it if reasonable just because I feel it needs to be cherished in honor of the family who originally owned it because it obviously meant a great deal to them. Okay so the whole Memento Mori / PM photographs is a huge subject that is going off track for the purpose of this post but wanted to touch on how this fascination began. Rewind about 7 months ago I was strolling through my local antique/flea mall and saw a lil box with card photos. I found Victorian cabinet cards & original photos! I was probably holding onto my chest with the amount of excitement I felt and I believe I spent $50 on photos that were probably $1-$3 a piece.

The start of my collection, I lost count how many I have now.

I feel primary drawn to ladies and children ( sorry you boring ol' fellas!) I had a couple more times I couldn't stop myself from buying a stack of photos thinking " I have to adopt them!I have to save them because there is no family to honor these precious snapshots of time of their ancestors" Part of me gets sad that they are not related to me but in protecting these keepsakes as my own, there is this sense love- these are in some way part of my family now, I need them like they needed me to honor them. Then I discovered there are entire photo albums for sale, I don't know if my heart is sinking in sadness for them or jumping for joy that I have a chance to " save" them too. Actual  Victorian photo albums are a work of art,  gorgeous ornate covers, brass latches , stands to hold them in display even the photo insert pages are pretty decorative. A filled albums from what I seen normally fetches $200-$300. Last night I found one on EBay, no auction but a Buy It Now for $35- you better believe I own it now! It wasn't in perfect condition but I love overlooked imperfect items so no loss to me. Green velvet damask like pattern cover with brass ornamentation with about half of it missing but pretty feature regardless and 17 portraits , there was only 5 shown but very unique nice ones so I am really anxious about seeing the ones not shown. A really odd unique feature I never heard of before was it has a (nonworking) music box built into the album. Just an incredible unexpected find I am so grateful I snagged but there are still soooo many online that are tempting to go on a auction frenzy for but trying to have some will power.

Imperfectly Perfect for me

Man, wonder if there is any chance the music box is rehabable? 

How amazing are those 2 babies on the right?

My Kindred Spirit

Maud Rosecrans....My husband's Great Great Grandmother. When my husband and I met in person , the first thing he talked about was how his ancestor was a red haired lady who traveled on a covered wagon and was related to a famous Civil War general William Starke Rosecrans.  As he was talking it was like a vivid movie was playing in my mind, this connection I felt is indescribable but it was as if I knew my future children would be descendents of these people. I knew there and then I would marry this man and breed with him. Funny but true. Fast forward we named our 1st born William Starke in honor of this ancestry however Maud was always a mystery. All anybody knew was that her husband abandon her & their many children (yes, that's the husband in the picture) and she soon remarried and they adopted the new surname . My husband and I were just so drawn to the mystery of Maud- there was no evidence she even really existed in the family rather then a game of genealogy telephone . I love love loooooove researching and I discovered her burial records, her tombstone photo and some other basic documents . My husband went to a local town group on facebook where his paternal family is from asking about if anyone knew such & such people. They sent him to a man who not only had pretty much all the answers to 5 generations of mystery , he was related and by some miracle he had a photo of Maud Rosecrans . We can see how much my husband looked like her, how much our daughter looks like her- there was no denying we received the ultimate priceless gift. 

I once went to a medium ( dont judge me haha) and after he asked " Who's Billy?" which is what we called our son when he was a toddler. Follow by saying there was a Civil War connection and that there was a lady with red hair who is like my guardian angel of sorts, she watches & protects me and out of nowhere this guy started hysterical crying sobbing , he didnt tell me why all he could say was " It's just so beautiful what she is doing for you , she's protected you so much" I am still startled by that, is this Maud? Is this why I am so drawn to her?  All I know is even is I have such incredible pride that  I contributed to her family tree , her life in her lifetime  is what inspires me and we hope to make her proud. 

Did I mention CAPES?

My ultimate weakness....Victorian Capes! First off, you dont have to worrying about it fitting for the most part because I am surely nowhere  near the size for typical antique tiny sizes. BUT CAPES- instant look , so dramatic, so mysterious, so darn 19th century and I must have. So I have found surprisingly a decent amount of them - ranging from $35 to near a thousand. Lucky me I found one the cheapest ones that is pretty grand for my starter collection.

And the seller also had boots for sale which I was on the prowl for so why not, right?

Now, my  antique fashion agenda- a bonnet or 2, mourning jewelry  and stalking auctions for cheap full Victorian mourning outfit. I just got outbided on Ebay on a dirt cheap choker so I am a lil frazzled (I need to learn how to bid better) however there's an outfit ending in like 5 hours with no bids that I must have. I belong to a few Victorian mourning collector groups and anything related is worth big $$$. This outfit would easily fetch for 10x the selling price. Im a newbie as a mourning collector so I am learning the ropes but I know an " investment piece" when I see one.

As of now the cape and boots as my personal collecting until I inquire a vast collection but it's pretty exciting - bodice, boots & cape in one week. To me the most thrilling thing to see is the inside seams where most stuff looks hand stitched . As someone who puts alot of blame of giving up my fashion career on not being able to work a sewing machine, to see it CAN be made by hand is a relief because I can sew,crochet or anything by hand- but sewing machines, no way. It gives me hope that I can one day with patience create some one of a kind inspired pieces by learning from my very own 19th century garments.

Pain in the Glass

I knew this experimenting with collecting carnival would not always be smooth sailing. Earlier in the week I went on the antique run looking for Carnival glass which there is an abundance of . BIG problem is there are thousands of pieces and types and there is no way to properly research a piece you find ( Okay, maybe if you have Iphone which I don't because I'm that vintage HaHa ) I will need to create a binder of print outs of what pieces to look for which would probably only be 1/4 of their pricing directory.  I snagged what seemed reasonable and of course I spotted some great pieces in the very overpriced antiques mall which is well...overpriced for me. I called my husband a few times to do some quick research for me when I thought I might of found an " investment piece" aka a price I didn't care for but is worth way more so I better get it. No luck there. They were priced exactly their worth.  So I came home with 3 bags of Marigold colored plates & goblets I blindly bought and rushed to research it's worth. Plates- total duds, worth exactly what I paid for them OUCH. Marigold water goblets turned out to be a better investment- spent under $20 but they worth a lil under $100 so not a total bust. It was " a learning  experience" and help me want to take a breather from living inside Carnival catalogs for a lil bit....Right now I have my eye on a vase auction that ends on Monday but it has alot of bidders but still low however I have a plan B if it goes higher then where I know where to find it elsewhere.

Im joining the Carnival....

I always been visually drawn to Carnival Glass especially because anything iridescent purple I am a sucker for and must have. I didn't know anything about it but know it's collectible and expensive but hoped one day I am stumbled across a dirt cheap piece for my own. Well that day came a few weeks ago. My fav antique store guy Roland, right away told me he had to show me something and said  " somebody told me it's worth alot of money so this is why I want you to have to have it "  Normally he sells me all glass stuff for a buck but this was $15 but it was something I always wanted regardless so I didn't mind. He was so worried thinking he was being heavy handed in his sales pitch but said " The guy said they are selling online for $400 so you will make alot of money selling it so I just had to tell you, don't think I'm ..." I was like " I WILL TAKE IT! I MUST HAVE IT!"  I trust the guy but regardless an affordable  Purple Carnival piece - YES PLEASE! Anyway, looked it up and it's VERY rare and currently would sell now for about 10k !!!! It's documented the last one that sold in 2010, 6 years ago for $ 8,750 . . I AM FREAKING OUT! Now I gotta out how to sell it which would probably be something a lil more professional then Ebay. 

My vase, the Carnival Glass spectrum of is a bit vast  for each color or is . The way the light hits it makes it confusing to determine it's true color and the MOST important thing with this vase is the ID it as REAL with the 18 point star! 

HOLD UP WAIT A MINUTE! I'm learning Carnival Glass is a complex sensory information overload where all the VERY confusing colors and patterns dictate all worth  ...And my head is spinning ! Due to the iridescent aspect some things that look like one color is really called another color and maybe what is I thought was a purple vase is really a " smoke" colored vase which the worth goes stumbling to 10k to $500...but lets not be greedy. that is still a huge chunk of change for something I got for $15. Now I found another one, identical but for $75- you dang right I am about to buy it up. The only other one I found online was a antique specialty website selling for over $500....So worse case scenario 2 vases for $90 total and I can easily make $1,000- sounds like my first antique flipping success!

Now , now . noooooow....I cannot help but become a devoted Carnival collector now and it will be a huge responsibility filled with lots of research ( which I tend to enjoy and am fairly good at ) The shapes, patterns, colors- Oh my....The headaches, the paranoia of fakes, the thrills and the high of finding  and obtaining a rare highly sought after costly piece. I know what I got to deal with is wanting for this to become one of my selected " treasure hunts"  but I am ready to go on the Carnival ride of a lifetime. 

The begining of " The Parlor"

We have a couple spare rooms in our house that was originally intended to be our children's rooms but it's in a too far away area of the house for any of us to feel completely secure about . The first 8 months it was a junky storage room-filled to the 14 ft ceilings and then we hit a goldmine at the thrift with antique furniture which was being shipped a few days later so we decided to clear the room out in preparation which we miraculously did in one night. We scored a very unique  green & cream stripped Victorian sofa for $30 and a matching velvet chair for $15 as well old wicker ottoman table for $5.

Then throw in random $1-$5 throws, pillows , artwork etc. It was a good inspiring start and talk about super frugal ! Now obviously the backdrop is a lil too plain with the white paint. It would look alot better with some moulding, color paint & wallpaper. I think with how high the ceilings are it is a lil intimidating but we got to do up the walls in order for this room to peak it's full potential ! We will probably hire someone to do it at some point but knowing us we will probably attempt to do it ourselves and  regret it HaHa. Along the way we got a dresser which was a a hefty $60 (we almost never go over $35 of a piece of furniture) which looks oldish but I am honestly not sure but from looks of the inside of the drawers is not as old as we would like . Also displayed is one of my first scores when we first got here and antique wash stand at $40 which turns out is pretty common find but is a popular among  collectors .  From research I haven't found a clear answer - I read everything from saying it's Victorian to the 1940's but still a great piece to have. 

There is an attached small vacant room that needs some repairs  but will be getting an extreme makeover. Our house was built 1940 but the interior has a feeling of a more dated design. So this was the start...Right now it's filled to the brim with boxes of antiques- so much glass &  large framed old prints I been hoarding  and stockpiling for a future antique's mall booth but at the moment I decided selling online may be better . It has great natural sunlight with the very tall windows so I will need to use it for photoshoots for the items I will put up for sale and to make videos in . I will show the progress underway when we start the renovation progress and the DIY trouble we will get ourselves into. Here's some of my fav inspiration photos for this room :

Solving a life long mystery.

I spent all my youth obsessing over becoming a Fashion Designer. Got into the top Fashion college ( F.I.T in NYC)  at 16 years old. traveled to Spain to study fashion design, interned & worked for many famous designers but at the end of it I was just like  " Meh...This is lame" I am not into materialism that the fashion industry evolves around, I loath designer /name brand clothing and I can only name less then a handful of designers I think were talented in my eyes ( Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Betsey Johnson ) . I put my fashion career on the back burner when I met my husband, someone I was trying to actually collaborate with for a inventive fashion show presentation but it was love at first meeting , a whirlwind of finding our soul mates where we  wanted nothing more then to quickly settle down so  15 years & 3 kids later it's deemed a rather successful collaboration alright HaHa Rewind to the day we first met in person, the first thing we talked about was his ancestry and it was like my life flashed before my eyes- him talking about his great great great Victorian Grandmother made me fall head over heels in love ( I will post about her inspiring story)  . The last 15 years we shared our interest of everything old, lucky for me he is like a human history encyclopedia who can is always educating me . If we could take a time machine we could lived in the 1800's, that is our idea of Heaven.  To us our grandparents and ancestors are our idols especially because they valued sentimental things, they collected things -ceramics, dolls, heirlooms etc..However our baby boomer parents didn't and we lost many of those treasures along the way due to that so it makes that much determined to preserve and value all things old, history you can hold in your hands and even though it could be a heirloom of a family who's descendant thought it was disposable enough to end up in a antique or thrift store and to be fair, maybe the owner didn't have anyone left to pass down to and it somehow ended up in a store however, I feel like I am adopting and acknowledging that person's history when I find something sometimes. I think that is way I get too attached to some items. Anyway, back to the connection of making sense of my fashion past , I gained interest in fashion industry when I was researching my interest in ....wait for it....Goth fashion during in my early teen years.

                                    ( Me as Goth Gal studying Fashion in Spain)


If you know anything about old school goth subculture you will know there is a heavy Victorian influence. To me, corsets and bustles was most beautiful things in the world and it drove me to want to become a fashion designer. I never knew what " Victorian" was until then,  there was no knowledge of that history and besides some of the old buildings in my Brooklyn neighborhood that I adored for unknown reasons.

( The beautiful Victorian  building school across from my childhood home in Brooklyn that I spent Kindergarten - 6th grade in and loved exploring ! ) 

I couldn't make sense of why  I wasted so much time on the fashion industry and I just realized recently that I wasn't really interested in fashion in itself, it was wanting to bring back the artistry of old fashioned clothing because that's all I knew of it that existed. When me and my husband moved to the suburbs of NY, he would bring me to older towns where they had *gasps* Victorian homes! Then there were restored villages from centuries ago ...I just couldn't get enough! However when we moved down to Dixie we discovered the almighty never ending goldmines that are antique and thrift stores. Wait, did I mention we unknowingly moved to the Victorian District of  our town! ? It's like God put us in the best place to discover what we are meant to do all this time. So when we got to our new home, long story short we were the poorest we ever been - it was bad, we had no furniture put a few mattress, nowhere to even sit. We found a huge thrift stores where we got velvet antique armchairs for $15 and super old long tabled dining room set for $80 and it began....Our obsession, our discoveries, our passion. Not even 2 years later and our house almost looks like a museum - we even have a spare large room we dedicate our a fully furnished " Victorian Parlor" . When I see really old houses and items , my heart starts racing and I literally get weepy, it brings some kind of indescribable joy . I been frustrated now in my early 30's, I haven't accomplished anything major milestone in a career well that is because I didn't discover my passion that is until now. Now I can begin, I don't know where it will lead- antique flipper or appraiser , working in a museum, opening a small shop or hey, maybe back to designing? I'm nervous, I'm excited and I have SO MUCH still to learn but I know I would never become bored or sick of this. I don't know what to call THIS besides " I am obsessed with old stuff!" , this is where my life's passion hid all this time and now I got to figure out what to make of it so here I start my journey....

One of my biggest life goals was to obtain real life Victorian garments...Today was the day it FINALLY happened! I got this perfect purple bodice!

Of course it is TINY ( because people were tiny then) so it *may* fit my young daughter so I may put it on her for a photo shoot and then frame & hang it in my Victorian parlor. This is the one of the most exciting purchases I ever made! Right now I am obsessing over capes, boots and bonnets....but of course the Holy Grail would be a gown however those are a rather hefty investment. But one day! I am thrilled I snagged this beautiful bodice in the meantime. 

Intro Time....

Hello and welcome to Lilly Violet. I dont have a clear answer to exactly what this blog will be about because it's a exploration and evolving journey of my interests to get me where I belong. What are my interests? I love antiques because I am very sentimental about preserving history and heirlooms. I always been obsessed with the Georgian ,Victorian & Edwardian era  especially the clothing which lead me into a early interest and career into Fashion. However, I decided to put that on the back burner while I settled down and had a family. I devoted my last 11 years as a mother to 3 children whom I homeschool and live a pretty offbeat eccentric lifestyle. I was born and raised in the mean streets of Brooklyn NYC but wanted to raise my kids on a polar opposite way- deep down South in the country so we finally did just that  in 2014. It's been a exactly what we were hoping for, for the most part but the most surprising and exciting thing we discovered is the abundance of antique stores, thrift & flea markets. It opened up a whole new world of interests- antique furnishings, well antique EVERYTHING....and insanely affordable at that! Our ultimate dream is to live in a big old Victorian house surrounded by acres of land but we are not quite there yet....Baby steps, however we try to live in that atmosphere until then.  I am very much still in the beginner stages of learning how to spot the real treasures and would love to interact with those with far more knowledge then me or share the same interests in learning the history of antiques,  DIY crafting, refurbishing, home decor and all things creative. As well as being a mother, teacher, homemaker- I work part time, do freelance commissioned artwork and an  inspiring entrepreneur. I will be featuring my finds- some I will sell and some are priceless to me ( I have the big problem getting attached to all my " treasures")  I will have an Ebay, Etsy store as well offer commissioned artwork  and will make Youtube videos featuring awesome finds , tutorials and sharing info in how to spot the real valuable goods and research on items as I learn myself . So welcome- let's discover old cool stuff together and bring back some of  the beauty the old world has left for us...