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Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Panoply 2022: It's a Wrap!

It's time to collage all my blog posts for 2022 as a final step before closing the book, figuratively and literally, on 2022. This blog is primarily my personal journal, and my final step each year is to have all my yearly posts bound in a yearbook style format using Blog2Print (no affiliation, I just love the product and service). 

I only blogged 24 posts (counting this one) in 2022, the same as 2021. Perhaps that's my new norm. It is my hope, though, that there is entertainment and inspiration within these posts for you, my readers. My blog is non-revenue producing by choice.

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Nutcracker Classic Christmas Tablescape

Hello, readers! Are you making preparations for the holidays? Today I have a Nutcracker Classic Christmas Tablescape to share with you as part of a springboard of ideas for you to consider for dressing your holiday table. This tablescape (previously not shown) completes my Cottage Christmas Home Tour which I shared last week.

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Tales of the Traveling Tote #33 and Giveaway

Happy December, y'all! It's time, once again, for a quarterly recap of the Tales of the Traveling Tote. This is #33, wow! My personal tales began here, but it all started even earlier, here

I'll quickly take you through some of the fun things I did with family & friends over the past few months. Afterward, you'll find the direct links to all my traveling tote sisters' posts near the end of this update, and you can travel virtually with each one. Enjoy!

Monday, November 28, 2022

Cottage Christmas Home Tour 2022

Welcome, readers! My little elf self has been busy over the last two weeks, readying our cottage home for Christmas 2022. Last year we had only been in our home a little over two months so I didn't really pull out many stops for holiday decor. Not this year! Grab your favorite holiday beverage and snack, and be prepared for lots of photos. Please come in! 

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Homeland Merriment Thanksgiving

Welcome to my blog, Panoply. Today I am happy to be hosting a group of stylists who will offer you ideas for setting your table for Thanksgiving. The theme for my table I'm sharing is Homeland Merriment Thanksgiving.

Monday, October 31, 2022

Cottage Landscape: One Year Later

Hey, readers, if you like a good before and after, and/or are a garden enthusiast, today's post is for you. It's a bit detailed, so I understand if it makes some of your eyes glaze over. 

Today I'm taking a look back on where our landscape was when we moved into this cottage home in early October 2021, and recapping the landscape transformation since. Here it is in a nutshell:

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Apothecary's Mystical Halloween Laboratory

Today I invite you to come with me, into the Apothecary's Mystical Halloween Laboratory. Let's see what the scientist has in store for us, shall we? 
Ooh, it looks as though his laboratory is set up with a tablescape for lunch for us, yes? You go first, and I'll follow behind you, okay?😉 

Monday, October 3, 2022

Miscellaneous Musings No. 22

Those who know, know. When you see the heading of Miscellaneous Musings, you know it's time for another brain dump. These are an assortment of happenings and sightings that have amused me in one way or another over time, captured like journal entries. This is number 22, not to be confused with tutu, but could be too too much for those without a sense of sarcasm or humor. Here we go....

Friday, September 9, 2022

Recent Panoply Booth Displays

I don't even know how long it's been since I've taken readers on a tour of our booth displays at the antique mall where my Panoply sisters & I have rented space since 2008. That's about to change right now. We cleaned and reset most of our entire 500 sq feet of rented space on August 31, so let me take you through our current vignettes now. (Photo heavy, deserves beverage and possible snack while viewing).

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Ready for Fall: Game On Tablescape!

Welcome to Panoply and almost fall! Are you ready for fall?! It's "Game On" for me today, as in a game on fall tablescape. 

Thursday, September 1, 2022

Tales of the Traveling Totes #32 and Giveaway

Hello, readers! Today is the 32nd quarterly installment of the Tales of the Traveling Totes group. Not sure how it all originated? Start here. Want to see all of the prior tales? Go here

Today we are starting off on a high note - the Criel Native American Burial Mound in South Charleston, WV to be exact!

Thursday, July 21, 2022

Mid-Summer Cottage Garden: First Year

Hey everyone! Today I want to share my new-to-me landscape garden as it is fleshing out in July of our first year here in our new cottage home. It was May when I did my last garden post, so go get a drink and get comfortable. Lots of updates and photos ahead.
New Garden Bistro

Monday, June 27, 2022

Purse Collections Excavated from Storage

Last week I shared my summer 2022 collected home and all the furnishings I've placed since winter. In that post, I mentioned I would show you how I styled various curio cabinets in my 'girly' room with my vintage and antique purse collections.
Full disclosure: what I'm about to share with you is still only a portion of my collection of vintage and antique purses. 

But today, I'm excited to at least have these displays to share and show you. The gateleg table in the left frame of the collage below was a new, old love since moving into this cottage house. The DuBarry Beauty Preparations display case sitting on it was something I've had for years. I've also owned the French curio (middle frame) and purse 'tree' (right frame) for several years.
Let's look at what's inside the DuBarry Case first. There are three shelves with layers of handbags.
My bezel-set French rhinestone handbags ...
French-made sequin, beaded & enameled purses, as well as two of Whiting & Davis' Star Series (Silent film stars Renee Adore and Charlie Chaplin)...
On the bottom shelf are my first purchases of beaded 'rug' and beaded figural (after Francois Boucher's 1737 "Charms of Country Life"). The beaded figural handbag also has a matching compact and hand-painted snuff box with the same figural depiction.
Atop the beaded 'rug' and figural are my chatelaines. I did an entire post on these fascinating accessories, here.
The leather chatelaine was a recent acquisition in the past couple years, and it is actually on the mannequin in this room's reading corner with other early 20thC period clothing and accessories.
On the table beside the DuBarry case is a small display stand of mostly 'finger' - or dance - purses, as they were called in the 1920s-1930s. These were worn by Flapper women while they danced, often by the ring attachment at the end of the design of many. 
Here's a sampling of some of my finger and dance purses. They ranged in functionality from being an entire makeup compact to carrying just a coin, some even with built in clocks!
The French curio has a plethora of purses, vanity items, and other related antiquities relating to the [mostly] Flapper Flapper era.
Here is just a sampling of the many snuff boxes, vanity compacts, and unique leather purse fit for a small pistol (with the imprint still clearly visible) from this case.
On the wall where my girls' photos are hung, I have another curio that is mostly vintage and antique children's purses and vanity items.
Children's purses and vanity items are not easily found, as children would wear their items, so finding them, and in good condition, is always a treat. The collage below is just a sampling of mine, with recurring themes such as Clara Bow faces, Scottie and Airedale dogs, and children's classic stories and rhymes. Materials may be oil cloth, felt, vinyl, leather, plastic, silk and/or metal mesh.
In the corner near this curio is my purse 'tree'. This displays most of my vintage and antique mesh purse collection.
Again, here's just a sampling of those on the purse tree:
A couple other displays of French beaded and mesh bags are atop the French curio and to the left of the children's curio. I also have a shelf in my bookcase dedicated to reference books on purses and chatelaines.
As I said, what I'm sharing today doesn't even begin to touch my collection of beaded purses, some of which are true collectors' rarities, and book referenced pieces. Here's a sampling collage I created some time ago, a few of which are repeats in today's post and are not beaded.
I have many beaded purses that I need to figure out how to display that are either in individual Riker boxes (no affiliation, only linked for illustrative purposes), or individually wrapped in a storage box since downsizing. I think perhaps a wall shelf for lean-to displays might be a good thing for those in the Riker boxes. 

I've even had a mess of a World War I beaded purse I bought and had restored (top left in collage above). I did an entire post on that restoration, and to see the before and the history behind the purse, see this post. Here's a photo of the after: 
She's a beauty now, but was a complete mess before. I was able to - years later - win a hankie serendipitously at an auction, which now accompanies this purse. It's made of silk, and the note inside the original gift box reads: 
"To Mrs. W.B. Rullings 
Wishing you a Mery Xmas 
& Happy New Year. how is the 
electric lights. Ha. Ha. From a 
Soldier Friend Raymond Whitcomb
2nd Rgt Engn bat AEF" 
(AEF is an acronym standing for American Expeditionary Forces)
I have been a member of the Antique Purse Collectors Society since 2008, and consider it a privilege to be friends with many of the collectors featured and even authoring some of my reference books. I've inventoried my entire collection via photo albums and an Excel spreadsheet, but there's always room for improving my cataloging system. If you are interested in the other links to various posts I've written on my purses, the list below will conveniently take you to each of them.
Thank you for allowing me the guilty pleasure of visiting some of my old friends that have been in storage for so long. If you've stuck with me all this time, you are gracious readers, indeed. Leave me a comment, let me know if you have an obsession a collection like this or any other, such as dishes. Believe me, there's more from where this came. 😜

Rita C. at Panoply





Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Summer Vibes in Our Collected Home

Happy summer solstice day for all you in the Northern Hemisphere! Right now I've got summer vibes throughout our home. Today I'm inviting you inside my collected home for a little tour of updates I've made since the first of the year. It's kind of a vintage armchair shopping (hence, collected) / home tour thing, since it's our first summer in this new home. Grab a beverage, and come virtually inside!
Front entry summer 2022

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Summer Garden Party Tablescape

Hello, readers. Today I'm inviting you to step into a virtual garden party tablescape - being held inside where it's nice and cool - to celebrate spring segueing into summer. 

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Tales of the Traveling Tote #31 and Giveaway

Hello, readers! Today is the 31st quarterly installment of the Tales of the Traveling Totes group. Not sure how it all originated? Start here. Want to see all of the prior tales? Go here

The past few months for me have been quite busy with home and garden, mostly in routine, at-home activity. I will begin with the most recent (and most significant!) event for me and my tote, which occurred mid-May. Miss Lola is seen below in our city loft, making her final farewell. We closed on the sale of the condo! Thank you for any and all prayers, positive vibes, and well wishes for this to happen!

Monday, May 23, 2022

My New Garden: Surprises, Delights

Y'all! My landscape garden has been surprising and delighting me at our new home each week since the start of Spring. I want to show you some of the highlights and successes, and even the fails (luckily, not many). I haven't posted a garden update since last fall, so this is a photo heavy post. Grab a drink!

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Blissful Signs of Spring / Easter Tablescape

Welcome to my blog, Panoply, and welcome Spring! I am so very excited for Spring this year, for two reasons. First, Spring is absolutely my favorite season and, two, this year we are in a new home with a small landscape garden that I'll be able to play in again. But today, I'm bringing Blissful Signs of Spring / Easter indoors with a tablescape for you.

Thursday, March 10, 2022

St Patrick's Day Flying Colors Tablescape

Hello, and welcome to Panoply! Today we are celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a table fit for the occasion. My theme is St. Patrick's Day Flying Colors - the tricolor of Ireland's national flag.

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Tales of the Traveling Tote #30 & Giveaway

Hello, tote traveling troupers! Join me as I recount my travels in this 30th edition of the Tales of the Traveling Tote. This past quarter has been mostly a sleeper for me, especially when compared to moving in the last quarter. Winter - a time for resting, rejuvenating, and reorganizing - and that's primarily what I did.

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Miscellaneous Musings No. 21

Rabbit, rabbit! Well, hello there, Panoply friends. We made it through January! You know when you see the heading of Miscellaneous Musings, you know it's time for another brain dump. Little things amuse me, whether just plain cool, or funny -  ha-ha, or sarcasm-ly speaking. This is number 21. It's not the least bit adult-like as you normally think of 21.

Do you remember my concrete Bunny Van Gogh that I rescued from the street and had in my garden? 

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

I Only Have 'Ice' for You, Valentine

Welcome to Panoply! Today I'm sharing my Valentine's Day 2022 tablescape with you. Inspired by a wintry weather mood and one of my favorite torch songs, I'm calling this, I Only Have 'Ice' for You, Valentine. You might enjoy listening to my favorite version of the song from which I loosely interpreted my table title as I go through the details. I don't claim any rights to the song. Cue the music.

Monday, January 17, 2022

Vintage Shopping Finds: Design on a Dime

Sharing vintage shopping finds and antique mall booth displays is really the reason why I started this blog. One of my Panoply sisters lives out of state but is still very active in buying and selling with my other Panoply sister and me. So, the main purpose of blogging was to share vintage finds and collective booth displays for her to see. I know it's something many of my readers enjoy too, so this post is an attempt to catch up in sharing the finds that I was drawn to buy in the second half of 2021. 
Pearson sofa (with ivory pillows only) - estate sale Nov 2021

What's different about this post, though, is that these finds ended up being ones that are currently being used in my new home, not for sale.....yet! My recent vintage shopping goals have been to fluff our new nest. You may want to backtrack to see a mini tour of my home in winter, here. Otherwise, armchair shoppers, get yourself a drink, and let's go shopping! 

Monday, January 10, 2022

First Winter in Our New Home: Bare Necessities

Hello, and welcome to Panoply! Today I'm inviting you for a partial tour of our new home. With all the Christmas decor put away, it feels like there's a lot of white space (literally, there is!) in our home. As we transition to what are normally viewed as the cozy winter months at home, you may get the impression I'm living with bare necessities. I beg to differ, so please allow me to explain.
Winter 2022 Reading Nook, Spare Room