Addicted To :: Sweet Love Vintage

I first stumbled upon the shop of today’s interview subject in a post right here on My Vintage Addiction, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Sarah’s shop on Etsy is charmingly quirky and colorful, and just my style. It’s no wonder Sweet Love Vintage has made several appearances in our daily finds. Read on to find out more about what makes her a vintage addict.

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?

A: My name is Sarah. I am a mom to two busy, beautiful boys. The super spouse and darling dog are also boys. I live in a sea of testosterone, wrapped up in a green two story house. I am a friendly, slightly neurotic, silly, eclectic, creative girl with too many passions and never enough time. I have always been a junk-seeker, treasure-finder, what-can-i-make-with-this-stuff-buyer, dumpster diver, free-box checker, garage sale queen. Currently this is a part-time job/hobby, but perhaps it will evolve into a full-time career next year when both my boys are in school. I’m also tinkering with the idea of opening a separate etsy shop to sell my art. I dabble in jewelry making, metalsmithing, painting, collage, drawing and random crafting/repurposing. I’m interested in learning all art forms. Except glass blowing. I sweat enough with my workouts.

Q: Do you have any favorite, never-let-you-down, treasure hunting spots? Would you like to share, or are they top-secret?

A: My main sources are garage and estate sales, but I’m from the midwest where junk season is only 6 months so the rest of the year I go to my local thrift shops. I live near many small towns where several people live in houses Carol Brady would be proud of, so vintage is never too far away. My favorite stops are the dirty, cluttered, gotta-dig-through-gallons-of-debris spots. Places where the average Joe would be grossed out. I like having the ability to see things in different ways than Joe.

Q: Is there a certain aesthetic you look for when you’re thrifting? How do you decide what to pick up, or just pass on? Do you wait for an item to speak to you?

A: I gravitate towards color, humor and originality. I basically buy what I think is unique and envision it in the right setting. In a dirty store, a pair of wood horse head bookends next to a rack of used tighty-whities and a tacky fake floral arrangement doesn’t look so appealing. But sandwich some colorful books between those horse heads on a clean white bookshelf — sha-bam! — instant fabulousness. If it makes me smile or giggle, it’s sold. I will also buy great pieces that are not necessarily my style.

A lot of the time, I look at an object and think about how it will look in a photo. I love the creative aspect of staging and taking photos. However, photo editing and shipping are so time consuming and harder to enjoy. Sometimes my house looks like UPS had a major binge on cardboard boxes and then threw up all over my house. What can brown do for you? Make you frustrated. I will pass on an item if I think I can’t find a box to ship it.

Occasionally, the very odd and ugly will speak to me. I will impulsively buy that horrid item just to blog about it. I also think it would be fun to have a store that only sells ugly vintage. Someone out there must be looking for that special ugly thing.

Q: Be honest, do you keep many of your finds, or is it strictly business? And do you have any personal collections that you have built over time through thrifting?

A: I tend to collect old board games and pieces for their colors and graphics. I can rarely pass up vintage boots, books, original art, old signs, or a colorful, old metal box and I would love to collect old albums if I had a record player and a place to display them. I sell almost everything I find, and I decorate my house with a lot of my inventory until it sells. My decor and clutter is ever changing. Kind of the best of both worlds!

Q: Are there any items you’ve regretted selling and wish you would have kept for yourself?

A: Not recently, but when I was a teenager, I thrifted a pair of 1970′s Schlitz beer shorts that had this obnoxious pattern of the beer logo all over them and I wore them all the time. I wish I still had those. They were mad cool.

Q: Pick one and tell us about it: Weirdest, most valuable, or most satisfying find?

A: The hardest question! I wish I had a great story about something I bought for a dollar and was worth thousands, but that hasn’t happened.

Yet…

In addition to great vintage items and stellar photography, Sarah from Sweet Love Vintage has quite the knack for storytelling. I highly recommend you check out the story of how Sweet Love Vintage was born on her profile, and hop on over to her blog for more good belly laughs.

See you next week!

Robin Eastwood is a treasure hunter and vintage fanatic. Visit The Fancy Lamb on Etsy to drool over some of her latest finds, and follow Robin on Twitter to hear about her latest thrifting adventures.