The vintage items I picked up at Jardin Antiques

A little over a month ago, in a post called Blue Jean Baby, OK Falls lady, I mentioned the fact that around that time my husband and I had spent a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon in the neighbouring community of Okanagan Falls, where amongst our stops, we paid a visit to one of the Southern Okanagan’s longest standing and, in my opinion, best antique stores: Jardin Estate Vintage Jewelry and Antiques.

Nestled in a small building on OK Fall's quaint little main street, this shop  is one that I remember visiting occasionally as a child in the company of my mom and paternal grandmother (who, like me, has always adorned the Victorian era). Back in those days OK Falls had two antique shops in the same area, but today only Jardin Antiques remains.

I'm very glad that it does, because there are really aren't too many vintage and antique stores in this neck of the woods, and I think that the community needs to try and hang onto those few that we are fortunate enough to have. As such, whenever I'm in the vicinity of one, I love to stop in, chat with the employees and hopefully make a purchase or two.

It had been so many years since I lasted visited Jardin, that I couldn't say for certain any more what types of items they carried (aside from jewelry, which they are renowned for). I was delighted to find that amongst the gorgeous antique and vintage babbles, beads and jewels on offer, there as also a lovely, well curated selection of household goods (from fine china to recipe booklets), accessories (I hummed and hawed over a black lamb's wool muff, but decided against it in the end because I felt it wasn't in quite good enough shape to survive the many future Canadian winters I'd want to use it for), books, and sundry other terrific items.

While they did have a few vintage garments (mainly 1960s frocks) in stock, the selection in that regard was sparse. What they weren't lacking for however, was vintage hats (a blend of 40s-70s styles) and gloves - two of my absolute favourite wardrobe pieces in the whole world.

Though I could very easily have bought more, I spared my credit card a beating and opted instead for the following five items (all of which were, to my mind, quite reasonably priced).

Far from collecting merely for the sake of collecting, I frequently wear vintage gloves and hats, so I was tickled pink to find three of the pairs of 40s/50s era gloves (they had several other, too, but again, I was trying to be a budget-conscious shopper) and a gorgeous green velvet hat all in my size.

I'd been hunting for a dark green hat in that sort of hue for ages, and was thrilled to pick this one up for (if I remember correctly) $22.00. It's beyond comfortable and I've already worn it a few times since bringing it home to join my other vintage hats.

 

 
{Close ups shots of the dainty crochet, ultra tiny buttons, and chic rouching that, respectively, adorn my three new pairs of beautiful vintage gloves.}

As some of you will recall from this post back in March of 2011, I've long been a fan of the classic young reader series of books, Cherry Ames, and have been on the look out for a title from that series to add to my vintage book collection for some time now.

 
{I love that Cherry's cheerful, smiling face appears on the spine of this fun vintage book about the adventures of a young nurse, who, in this title, finds herself at a wild west dude ranch.}

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Given that Ok Falls is a mere 15 minutes or so away from our town, we'll likely be out that way periodically (especially during the summer months when the town holds a public flea market on main street there every weekend), and will no doubt stop in and visit Jardin's many more times in the future. I hope that on subsequent visits I'll find additional "must have" vintage treasures to add to my collection, too.

Should you ever be in this sage green, lake filled corner of British Columbia, I highly recommend stopping in at Jardin's. We spent over half an hour there and I still could have kept looking for longer, because every last one of their offerings is just the sort of thing that makes a vintage loving gal's eyes light up.

The exciting adventures of Cherry Ames, mystery solving WW2 nurse

✯ Day 82 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

All right vintage lovin' gals, hands up if you read Nancy Drew detective stories as a youngster? (*Enthusiastically thrusts hand in the air*) Now, hands up if you read Cherry Ames stories?

While perhaps not as famous as Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames was another beloved fictional female youth who broke onto the literary scene in the mid-20th century. Written by Helen Wells and Julie Campbell Tatham (each authored different books as opposed to collaborating on a story together),the myriad novels these ladies penned chronicled Cherry’s exciting adventures, and were favourites of mine as a youngster.

Though both Nancy’s and Cherry's tales were ones centered around mysteries, Cherry (whose full name was Charity) was a young nurse (the first two books in the 27 title series cover her time spent in nursing school) who held nursing positions in a variety of places, always ready and able to solve any strange conundrum that befell said medical establishments.

Though Cherry Ames books were written until 1968, they began during the war-torn year of 1943, and thus many of this bright and ambitious young nurse's first escapades deal with the world war that was in full force at the time. While these days few would raise an eyebrow at the idea of a female character in a girls' storybook series being a go-getter of a career woman, back when Cherry burst on the scene such fictional characters were relatively few and far between.

Cherry Ames' stories always struck me as being a bit more mature (though still entirely child-friendly in every sense) than Nancy Drew. It was fun to run around the house pretending to claw through cobweb covered attics and find clues in old clocks alla Nancy, but Cherry was a character I felt more like I wanted to emulate when I grew up. She was as much a role model to me as a girl in the (comparatively progressive) 80s and 90s, as she'd been for those in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s.

Whether you spent your youth thumbing through Cherry's tales or are just hearing about her for the first time today, you can quickly add a serious dose of vintage medical mystery charm to your (and/or your child's) bookshelf with the immensely lovely boxed sets of Cherry Ames books that I just discovered this week on Amazon.

Though recently manufactured, these delightfully lovely stories have been packaged with their original vintage cover art, and come housed in elegant boxed set holders that makes it instantly easy to place anywhere you'd like around the house.

A great place to start off your Cherry Ames collection is with the boxed set above, which contains the first four stories in this entertaining series. Comprised of a quartet of hardcover books, this wonderfully old school looking Cherry Ames boxed set is quite a steal at $26.37.

Whether you'd like to help Cherry solve exciting medical detective stories yourself or think you know a budding youngster with their eye towards becoming a nurse or doctor, these absorbing mystery novels are a seriously fun way to lose yourself in a great vintage book.