Life in the Button Factory: A scrapbook page & thoughts on antiques

I've had this page in my head for a good while, but it took its sweet time coming into being! I'm okay with that, though, because it came out just how I pictured it. These are a few of the antiques I've collected in the last six or seven years. I am ridiculously sentimental (which, at least in my case, leads to pack rat tendencies), and I just cannot seem to resist things that evoke memories for me.

Seems like to me, there are three kinds of antiques: pretty antiques, technological antiques and sentimental antiques. Of course, pretty antiques can also be sentimental, as can technological antiques. Let's look at some examples, shall we?

Pretty Antiques. This is my mom's niche. When we go antiquing together, we never have to worry about fighting over a find, because she zeroes in on the pretties. I definitely appreciate the pretties, but they're not what gets my heart racing.

Now, technological antiques...ooooh, that's what makes my heart sing. Old phones, old cameras, old typewriters...Sign. Me. UP.

I actually wanted to get a fan like this for my daughter's room. My husband took one look at all the places she could easily stick her finger and crushed my dream.

My collection of cameras sits on the shelf above my scrapbooking table. I can't even glance at it without smiling.

Finally, sentimental antiques. These are the ones that make kindred spirits squeal, "Ohhh! I REMEMBER those!" and normal people ask, "Is that a....????"

Like this thing:

The Wham-O Magic Window. My grandmother had one--just like this one, in fact--and if I ever come across one, I'm snapping it up. Back in the day, everybody seemed to have one, but now they are scarce as hens' teeth. Who would have thought that I would obsess over 1970s kitsch?

Or this, the glorious Donut Phone (also available with rotary dial):

And what I would give to casually pull this little number out of my purse to refresh my lipgloss after dinner with the girls:

My childhood frenemy had one from her mom's Avon lady and I was PEA GREEN over it. She wouldn't even let me touch it. To this very day, I harbor a little ill will. I can't help it; I think it says something about a person if she won't share such fabulously-packaged cosmetics.

Whoops, I just thought of a fourth category: antique books! Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em! Besides my collection of "little orange biographies" (aka the Childhood of Famous Americans series) pictured on my scrapbook page, I've recently found a couple of children's books that I spent years searching for.