The Bookstore in the Movies

One of my favorite shops to hunt in is one of those bookstores from the movies. You know them- the really crowded, dark and out of the way ones, with an old shopkeep who has a mysterious air. You can get lost in it's stacks of old, dusty tomes. This is the place where you find the book that has been lost for centuries, and when you blow the dust off of it's cover and open it up, it sucks you into an adventure in another world.

Or, as my stepdaughter calls it, The Never-ending Story Store.

I swear, I could go to this place everyday for two weeks and still not see everything in the store. There are a labyrinth of rooms. The stacks leave just enough room in between them for one person to fit through, and definitely not two. Things are hanging from the ceiling, stacked on the floor, set in front of books- Fluffy (the old shopkeep) is just my kind of hoarder. A list of things that jumped out at me this time:

-A stuffed buffalo head hanging on the wall
-An indonesian frog statue with wings
-A very old copy of Peter Rabbit
-A carved stone statue of two pigs humping
-Some cool old weaving books
-A seven foot long alligator

And that is just 15 seconds of looking. I could walk out of this place with all kinds of things, but I try to pace myself. I found my item of the day in a back room:

A Canon 310 XL Super8 movie camera, made between 1975 and 1983. This one is in great vintage condition, with just a few issues: 1. Library markings are scratched in on the sides. 2. The switch to open the tape case is missing, but I had no problem opening and closing it by sticking a pen in the hole where the switch was. 3. No extras, like a case or lens cover.

Not huge issues, and the camera works, so I am still in love with it. I have spent some time walking around the house looking through the viewfinder, playing with the zoom and focus and narrating my own personal Super 8 movie in my head. Seriously. Even looking through the viewfinder looks cooler than anything my boring old Flip can do!

Interested? Check it out here.

Thank you, Fluffy, for another amazing find.

Existence

What do you do when your life gets in the way of something you love? Find a way to make it fit into your life once again.

I started Gravity and the Everyday out of necessity- the need to shop, or rather the need to hunt and gather. Since I was a teenager I have loved the hunt. Second hand stores, garage sales, estate sales, antique stores and flea markets- they call to me with their siren's song. I can't see one without itching to look. Crazy knick-knacks, bedding, clothing or weird ships used as lawn art- it's hard for me to leave empty handed.

And then... in 2009 I had my first daughter, Luna, with Dakota following quickly on her heels in February of 2011. As you may know, with children comes stuff. Lots and lots of baby stuff, filling up our apartment with a rapidness. As each new piece of baby-ware came in (the changer! the swing! the toy box!), something had to be moved out of the way (the repurposed plant stand! the armchair! the vanity!). And as babies tend to like to put things in their mouth, my fun little kitschy knick-knacks were soon relegated to boxes in the closet.

I quickly realized that this was the end to my hunting expeditions. Nothing more could be fit into our living space as the child tornado grew and grew. And yet... my sister had been bugging me for years about how I should start a vintage shop. Why not now? I could work on it while the babies slept, could do it from home, and best of all... I could continue the hunt. And so it began.

While my shop is a collection of the things that I find and love, I am hoping that this blog can be my vintage backstory. Stories on my favorite pieces, tales of my latest expeditions, what I'm loving on Etsy and more.

I'm excited to share everything I love about all these old beautiful things. I hope you'll come along for the ride.