Meet Miss Ohio! This Green With Indie vintage vendor sells 1940s-1990 vintage and 1990-1995 retro finds, perfect for your throwback moment. Get to know Miss Ohio in our interview, below, and be sure to visit her booth tomorrow at Green With Indie!

Q: Tell our lovely readers a bit about yourself. Is buying and selling vintage your full-time gig or a hobby? How and when did you get started in this business?
Although vintage buying will always be a hobby and favorite pastime, I made the decision to become a “hobbypreneur”, as my father calls it, last February when working on an estate sale managed by my parents company, Riverbend Estate Sales. It was a gem of an estate, full of wonderful vintage treasures. While organizing the vintage goods into a single room, I realized I had a much wider base knowledge than I’d ever credited myself. I was enjoying the organization, pricing and research so much I decided to combine my love for events planning with my favorite hobby of vintage shopping, thus Miss Ohio.

Q: Are there any items you’ve regretted selling and wish you would have kept for yourself?
There are many items that I find and appreciate dearly, but I keep very little. I do have a favorite belt, “the miracle belt” we call it, that every one of our models has her eye on, but I’ve managed to keep their paws off! I’d definitely miss that one. I think the hardest part is finding amazing Aigner shoes that are a half size too small. Bummer!

Q: Pick one and tell us about it: Weirdest, most valuable, or most satisfying find?
Our most valuable finds in dollars and cents are probably bakelite, specific leathers and furs or some special Austrian crystals. However, our most satisfying finds tend to be our Aigner items. We’re pretty into it, and the more we find, the better they get! It went from a favorite designer to an all out obsession.

Our next featured Green With Indie vintage vendor is Thomasina Jewelry and Vintage Finds. Her vintage dress scores are to-die-for! Dig in and get to know Dana from Thomasina, and be sure to stop by her booth this Saturday.

Q: Tell our lovely readers a bit about yourself. Is buying and selling vintage your full-time gig or a hobby? How and when did you get started in this business?
My love of vintage is about as old as I am. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of my sisters and I dressing up in my mom’s 1950’s and 1960’s prom and bridesmaid dresses and doing our own version of a fashion show. My most favorite items were a satin cinnamon colored formal (which I still have) and one clear Lucite heel whose mate was long gone but I unevenly wore that shoe all the time!

I’ve been in the vintage business for about 6 years now. I started off just selling personal items from my own wardrobe on Ebay. Then I moved to Florida in 2005, which is one of my most favorite states to find vintage, and my online Etsy shop, Thomasina Jewelry and Vintage Finds, opened shortly after. Having lived in St. Louis for almost a year now, I currently split my time selling vintage online in my Etsy shop and working for The Vintage Haberdashery in Tower Grove South.

Q: Are there any items you’ve regretted selling and wish you would have kept for yourself?
Regrets? Oh yeah! I often have seller’s remorse. The two items that stick out most are a 1960’s cream lace long sleeve mini dress that was just a wee bit too small and a pair of 1970’s slouchy Frye boots that were way too narrow for my wide feet. My rule is, if it doesn’t fit me well, I must sell it, but it sure was difficult to put those packages in the mail!

Q: Pick one and tell us about it: Weirdest, most valuable, or most satisfying find?
Discovering a black Victorian mourning jacket at a yard sale in Florida (for 5 bucks!) was probably my most exciting yet painful vintage find. Without considering how tiny people were back then, I immediately tried it on, got stuck in it, and somehow pulled a muscle in my shoulder while trying to get it off. It caused such serious pain that I couldn’t drive for nearly one week! The mourning jacket/torture device will be making an appearance at Green With Indie so come check it out, if you dare….

The Key of A creates one-of-a-kind jewelry and accessories using repurposed vintage. We asked her a few questions about her love for giving vintage a new lease on life. Check out her interview and be sure to stop by and see her designs at Green With Indie Art & Craft Show Saturday at Webster University!

Q: Tell our lovely readers a bit about yourself. Is creating jewelry from repurposed vintage your full-time gig or a hobby? How and when did you get started in this business?
I am a creative mind that has always possessed the ability to take trash and create treasure from it. I was a floral designer, starting in my parents business, and then progressing to larger shops for a total of about 17 years in the industry. After rehabbing my first house, I wanted to find another rehabber and moved to some acreage and farmhouse where I devoted all of my time and decided to get a job where the hours weren’t so hectic over the holidays and the pay was much better. I missed designing, but didn’t miss 17 hour days during holiday weeks every year.

I stumbled upon a woman in Chicago over three years ago that had a simple typewriter key bracelet on a cabachon form and that’s where my interest was sparked. I couldn’t rush home fast enough to find an old Underwood I had stored somewhere in my now 1896 farmhouse that I have full of antiques, junk, and trash to treasure pieces that I have created over the years. With my inspiration, I created four of these typewriter bracelets, took them to my job and they sold in a day. I scratched my head and said, “well I guess I have to find another typewriter!!!”

That’s where it began. Using my artistic talent I have created a full line of typewriter, cash register and most recently skeleton key jewelry. These designs are all my own and I utilize only authentic keys in all of my work – no reproductions.

My jewelry is all vintage inspired and many of my newer designs incorporate a fashion forward look to them while retaining their vintage nature. My jewelry is wearable which is very important to me. So many times you will visit a jewelry booth that has really cool pieces, but you would really never wear it. Not with my jewelry. It is such that you can wear it everyday and infuse it into your current wardrobe. For example, my skeleton key necklaces have longer chains for today’s babydoll and tunic tops.

What I take pride in regarding my repurposing of these keys is that all of the typewriters I find, I do not let them hit a landfill. I’m conscious of the environment and I have many restorers and collectors who purchase the remainder of the machines. I will part them out, scrap them, but not just toss them into the trash. This is important to me and I feel it’s important to let all of my customers know this as well.

Overall, I continue to expand my line and even carry accessories for men and your pet! I enjoy what I do and I have a full show schedule again this year. My new website will have a page that lists all of my shows through December. In addition to working on my craft, I also continue to work full time at a large law firm that will have a new home in Clayton in the coming weeks.

Q: Are there any items you’ve regretted selling and wish you would have kept for yourself?
I love the white glass topped keys that I come across and I also love when I manage to find a Remington that has the three red keys on it. These are fast sellers, but hard to find. No regrets on selling any of my work. I can always make another one, be it a loaded charm bracelet or a simple pendant! Typewriters are still very plentiful!

Q: Where else can we find your creations?
I have operated an Etsy store for the past year and a a half. You can find me here.

I will have a new website that will be launching in the next week which will be a full eCommerce site. It will reflect my new branding, logo and colors and I’m really excited to have been able to hire a professional web designer to make a site that is more upscale and professional than my old static site that I had created on my own. I can’t wait for it to launch. You can visit the placeholder page right now to catch a glimpse of my new logo and colors. Become a fan and catch me on twitter too!

The next featured vintage hunter in our Green With Indie series is our very own: The Fancy Lamb! Find out more about Robin in her interview, below + be sure to stop by her booth at Green With Indie this Saturday!

Q: Tell our lovely readers a bit about yourself. Is buying and selling vintage your full-time gig or a hobby? How and when did you get started in this business?
My name is Robin and you might know me from the Addicted To interview column, where I interview other vintage sellers each week. So it’s kind of fun to have the tables turned on me! The Fancy Lamb is my full-time job, and it includes selling vintage as well as creating handmade goodies out of vintage components. My vintage book journals are probably my most popular line of handmade goods but I also sew things using vintage fabrics and work on other miscellaneous projects with my treasures.

I’ve been in and out of antique malls my whole life — I think there’s a hereditary collecting gene in all the females in my family — although when I was younger, I didn’t exactly enjoy the junking like I do now. I really began doing this as a business endeavor after I got laid off from my real world job in April 2009. It was a perfect scenario for me to be able to do something I enjoy, while finding a little more balance between my work and my home life. Little did I know that The Fancy Lamb would soon swallow up everything (sometimes I feel like I work 24/7/365!) but at least I can do much of it from home in my pajamas, and take a break to walk one of my dogs whenever the mood strikes me.

Q: Are there any items you’ve regretted selling and wish you would have kept for yourself?
When it comes down to it, I don’t really regret selling anything. Although there are many pieces I’ve loved and hated to see go, if I don’t have a use for something I don’t really see any point in keeping it. It feels much better to pass it on and hope that someone else enjoys it even more. Plus, most things I purchase with the sole intent to resell them so I never really get too attached.

Q: Pick one and tell us about it: Weirdest, most valuable, or most satisfying find?
This probably qualifies as one of the most valuable AND most satisfying finds… My husband and I were out estate sale-ing, which is our standard Saturday morning routine. We stopped by a home that looked totally normal and current from the outside, but the moment we stepped in, we knew that this was no normal home. It was a snapshot straight out of the ’60s, with flocked wall paper, shag carpets, and retrolicious hanging lamps. As I made my way into the first bedroom, I saw a hint of red peeking out of the closet. Making a beeline for it, I knew it was going to be something special. And I was not disappointed! I discovered, hidden in the depths of the closet, a set of 3 bright red matching Amelia Earhart suitcases. They were in amazing condition inside and out. Oddly enough, though, they weren’t marked with a price (although it seemed that just about everything else at the sale was). I asked my husband to lug them up to the front check-out since they were too large to carry through the house (of course, I needed my hands free to pick up other treasures) and while he was up there, he asked the boss-man how much they were asking for them. “How about $2 a piece?” he replied. You’ve got a deal, boss-man!

Well, months later, they’ve all sold but I am pleased to report that 2 of them were purchase by the upcoming movie “The Sin Bin.” And my little $6 investment turned into a cool $234. Not bad for a morning’s work!

I was first introduced to Anita from Rolling Hills Vintage in an Etsy article. I was blown away and so inspired by her! It was only natural to want to get her know her better. Read on to learn more about her vintage addition.

Continue reading Addicted To :: Rolling Hills Vintage