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....