Past Due Tuesday ~ Vintage Silver

Welcome to Past Due Tuesday, where all things "vintage" get their due by sharing them with others!

Thanks to you that joined us last time! If you are new and would like to participate in “PDT”, please follow the instructions below. We would love to have you join us!


Vintage silver and silver plate dishes & trays

A lot of folks now-a-days don't care for silver service. Why? Because they don't like to sit down, and mindlessly polish it.

Then there are others who LOVE silver. Why? Because they like to sit down and mindlessly polish it! (We like it a bit dark and tarnished too, which works out just fine.)

Silver napkin rings, cream & sugar set

Silver is extremely affordable these days. We find that the gleam and warmth makes adding a touch of elegance to your table so easy. We're unsure just how many holiday and fancy meals some of our current stock of silver may have seen, but be it marked or unmarked, it all sparkles just the same to us. A true blue ROOMIE who uses her noodle knows it's great to use a pretty silver dish for soap in the powder room or that a silver tumbler adds beauty to a flower arraignment placed on the kitchen window sill too.


Silver covered pedestal dish

Have you ever looked at the details in a pattern on one single spoon, fork or knife? That's a work of art you're holding as you gobble down your holiday turkey!

Now it's your turn! Please share your passion for vintage items by following these simple guidelines:

1) Post a picture of something vintage that you love, on your blog and tell us all about it! What’s the story behind it? Do you have an entire collection of them? Where’d you get it? Who did it belong to? What do you use it for, etc?

2) Add a link to your blog (in the MckLinky area at the bottom of this post).

3) Feel free to add the "Past Due Tuesday" button to your post or your blog’s sidebar.
(To add the button & image to your sidebar, follow these steps:
A. Save the image on this post to your computer.
B. Go to your add page layout page and click on the sidebar Add Gadget.
C. Scroll down to where you see add picture, click on that. Now select the image from your computer to download.
D. Now add the ROOMIES blog link in the link window and click save.)

(Please be sure to have your post up before linking in.)

4) Test your links and make sure they’re working! If your link gets deleted, it's because you missed one of the guidelines, so just reread them and repost again!

5) Visit and comment on as many of the other bloggers who are participating in “giving vintage it’s due” as you can, and have fun reading & learning about vintage items every Tuesday!

Tie One On! Vintage Aprons In The News

It's that time of year when we all get cookin' for family and friends in preparation for the upcoming holidays. Gotta stay clean, and you can stay cute too,
with vintage aprons! Any true ROOMIE worth her weight in soft calico cottons already knows that vintage aprons are cute as well as collectible, but it sure was nice to see these delicious traditions being served up in the new Country Living (November 2009) magazine. Highlighted in the article is a brief history on aprons, what to look for when buying them, their worth, parts of and types of aprons, all of which may be something you didn't already know.

Of course every true ROOMIE knows where to find them; Room With A Past!

You'll be happy to know we've unpacked a Hoosier-full of them in all colors and styles for November's (Nov. 12, 13, 14 & 15th) sale!

You can stay clean, and be cute without missing a beat while serving your holiday meals. (Heck, they're so cute you can just dance around in the kitchen wearing one. We won't tell.)

Past Due Tuesday ~ Czech Opera Purses

Welcome to Past Due Tuesday, where all things "vintage" get their due by sharing them with others!

Thanks to you that joined us last time! If you are new and would like to participate in “PDT”, please follow the instructions below. We would love to have you join us!

Can you tell which came from Czechoslovakia and which were "Made In China"? These popular purses were usually fashioned with flowers stitched on a white medallion over a black background.

According to my research:

Petite and precious, the early 1900's petit point opera bag is an original and has remained in outstandingly pristine condition only due to the fact that it was used on rare occasions. The number of such events in the new Czechoslovakia were as bright and colorful as the bouquet of roses, tulipans and forget-me-nots delicately petit-point stitched upon the opera bag. Colorful as the occasions may have been in a time of nearly a century past, and colorful remains the brilliance of each stitch meticulously crossed, pulled, and tied into a bouquet as fresh as the day the flowers were "chosen".

These were particularly unique to the Czech culture, for it represented not only the acute needlework skills of the women, but the choice of native flowers near the villages in which the women were living. Patterns of flowers vary in these petite purses accordingly, with wider abundance of periwinkle or bachelor buttons in some areas; larger or smaller roses in some, and forget-me-nots and lilies of the valley in clustered bouquets in others. Frame styles also varied according to areas in which they were produced. The more elaborate being made closer to the larger cities. Entirely hand worked, the petit point was a skill ascribed to few of the day and laborious time and effort in accomplishing the artistic creation upon the black background was a work of art! (ANSWER: The bottom purse was Made In China)


Now it's your turn! Please share your passion for vintage items by following these simple guidelines:
1) Post a picture of something vintage that you love, on your blog and tell us all about it! What’s the story behind it? Do you have an entire collection of them? Where’d you get it? Who did it belong to? What do you use it for, etc?

2) Add a link to your blog (in the MckLinky area at the bottom of this post).

3) Feel free to add the "Past Due Tuesday" button to your post or your blog’s sidebar.
(To add the button & image to your sidebar, follow these steps:
A. Save the image on this post to your computer.
B. Go to your add page layout page and click on the sidebar Add Gadget.
C. Scroll down to where you see add picture, click on that. Now select the image from your computer to download.
D. Now add the ROOMIES blog link in the link window and click save.)

(Please be sure to have your post up before linking in.)

4) Test your links and make sure they’re working! If your link gets deleted, it's because you missed one of the rules, so just reread them and repost again!

5) Visit and comment on as many of the other bloggers who are participating in “giving vintage it’s due” as you can.

Guess Who?

We love all of our customers, but we had some special visitors at the Room With A Past October sale! See if you can guess who they were before their 1000 watt smiles give them away: they write articles for HGTV.com and numerous magazines, star in how-to videos for Lifetime.com & FineLiving.com, have authored a book titled Funky Shui, and have a website called Inspiration For Artsy Crafts & Decor and a blog called Running With Sisters. (How do they do it? I'm tired just saying all that!)

It was those two effervescent, crafty and organized women, Kitty and Jennifer O'Neil!


The O'Neil sisters get into shopping mode at Room With A Past

Jennifer had been in to the shop before, but this time she had sister Kitty in tow. They roamed around the shop checking every nook and cranny before discovering some teacups which were just what they needed for an upcoming craft article. But more than that, what we really hope they found was a fun and welcoming place to shop for fabulously priced, one-of-a-kind items so they'll be visiting us again real soon!

Past Due Tuesday ~ China Cabinet

Welcome to Past Due Tuesday, where all things "vintage" get their due by sharing them with others!
Thanks to you that joined us last Tuesday for our very first Past Due Tuesday! If you are new and would like to participate in “PDT”, please follow the instructions below. We would love to have you join us!


Today, we again share another beautiful piece of furniture (can you tell we're furniture addicts?). In the five + years that we've been in business, this is the only cabinet like this that we've come across, so we're guessing that there aren't that many around. This cabinet has a center glass-front door with a hand cut, scrolly wood fretwork, a long drawer and turned legs. We love that it has 4 different designs of embellishments (top pediment, fretwork, recessed areas on either side, and pediment on the center support) and they all work together to keep things interesting! The two shelves inside are adjustable and could be for china or maybe some proud woman with a talent for sewing used it for showcasing a quilt collection. We guesstimate it's from the late 1930's - 1940's.


Now it's your turn! Please share your passion for vintage items by following these simple guidelines:
1) Post a picture of something vintage that you love, on your blog and tell us all about it! What’s the story behind it? Do you have an entire collection of them? Where’d you get it? Who did it belong to? What do you use it for, etc?

2) Add a link to your blog (in the MckLinky area at the bottom of this post).

3) Feel free to add the "Past Due Tuesday" button to your post or your blog’s sidebar.
(To add the button & image to your sidebar, follow these steps:
A. Save the image on this post to your computer.
B. Go to your add page layout page and click on the sidebar Add Gadget.
C. Scroll down to where you see add picture, click on that. Now select the image from your computer to download.
D. Now add the ROOMIES blog link in the link window and click save.)

(Please be sure to have your post up before linking in.)

4) Test your links and make sure they’re working! If your link gets deleted, it's because you missed one of the rules, so just reread them and repost again!5) Visit and comment on as many of the other bloggers who are participating in “giving vintage it’s due” as you can.

Fear Not!

No, you haven't gone nuts. You DID NOT miss the October Sales Event for Room With A Past. BUT...


if you want to have a



without knocking your head trying to remember when it is...



make like a tree and "leaf" the computer right now...



so you can write it on your calender that it's this Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday!



If you missed it...well, now THAT would be scary!

Past Due Tuesday ~ Vintage Dresser

Welcome to Past Due Tuesday, where all things "vintage" get their due by sharing them with others!
If you are new and would like to participate in “PDT”, please follow the instructions below. We would love to have you join us!



Beautiful furniture is a joy forever (as long as there's someone around to appreciate it!) This dresser is estimated to be from the 1940's. It's got a great carved wood applique on the drawer fronts and a mirror that tilts (behind the small table on top of the dresser). But why does the mirror tilt? Was it so different height people could use it or is it just the way the hardware was designed to hold it? The mystery remains unsolved...

Now it's your turn!
Please share your passion for vintage items by following these simple guidelines:


1) Post a picture of something vintage that you love, on your blog and tell us all about it! What’s the story behind it? Do you have an entire collection of them? Where’d you get it? Who did it belong to? What do you use it for, etc?
2) Add a link to your blog (in the McLinky area at the bottom of this post).
3) Feel free to add the "Past Due Tuesday" button to your post or your blog’s sidebar.



(To add the button & image to your sidebar, follow these steps:

A. Save the image on this post to your computer.

B. Go to your add page layout page and click on the sidebar Add Gadget.
C. Scroll down to where you see add picture, click on that. Now select the image from your computer to download.

D. Now add the ROOMIES blog link in the link window and click save.)

(Please be sure to have your post up before linking in.)


4) Test your links and make sure they’re working! If your link gets deleted, it's because you missed one of the rules, so just reread them and repost again!

5) Visit and comment on as many of the other bloggers who are “giving vintage it’s due” as you can!

(This is our first time we'll be hosting here, so please bare with us if we run into any problems. In the end I think any efforts made will be worth the treasures we'll be seeing! Thanks!)