A-B-C's of Accessorizing.

Joan O'Connor has an infinite passion for all things alphabetical, and her wonderful San Francisco shop, Timeless Treasures is stocked to the rafters with a plethora of beautiful, old vintage letters, as well as great cards, jewelry, travel souvenirs and wonderful cards and stationery. It's pretty much the perfect stop for unique gift giving and accessorizing.

Joan's collection of letters has also caught the attention of prop stylists and on-line shoppers from all over the world. Prop stylists are using Timeless Treasures' old letters in catalog shoots and store vignettes; when I dropped by the prop stylist for Pottery Barn was gathering letters for a recent photo shoot. And customers are calling from around the globe to enlist Joan's alphabet expertise.

Joan first started collecting letters when she read in the SF Chronicle that the old Regency Movie Theater was about to close. She bought the marquee letters, and displayed them in an old wooden shoemaker's rack of red plastic alphabet letters in front of the shop, and found that people just loved them. From there, back around 2000, Joan started going to salvage yards, flea markets, auctions and sign companies looking for letters that were destined for the dumpster. Even now she loves to track down the owner of any building when she sees old letters still hanging on a storefront, that looks as if it may be closed.



And, now Timeless Treasures seems to be finding new fans among people who want to incorporate repurposed, refound accessories into their homes, as well as people who love to know there's a great story behind something they acquire for their collections. Drop in, or contact Joan via her website and she'll help you find just exactly the words rolling that have been around on the tip of your tongue.





Timeless Treasures
2176 Sutter Street
San Francisco 94115
415.775.8366
Hours: Monday - Saturday 11am - 6pm

Alphabet Soup.

I still quite like the look of letters used as decor accents. I am a big fan of graphic type and have a fondness for fonts of all kinds. I really love the look of funky vintage letters, like the ones used above, to spell out a special word, or message. I thought I'd take a look around and see what's out there in the way of alphabet accessorizing!

I get my letters from a local shop, Timeless Treasures, and owner is so helpful
and is always up for helping to find you the letters you seek.

Clockwise from left to right: Fabulous Font Coasters from CarolinaCottage;
Custom Embroidered Wall Wear from Neawear; and beautiful
Ceramic Letters from artist Stephanie DeArmond.

Clockwise from left to right: Wood Type Collage from Green Chair Press;
Recycled Metal Letters from Urban Outfitters; Oversized Letters from
Pottery Barn; and colorful Enamel Letters, also from Urban Outfitters.

Letters for all the loves in your life.

I was just thinking what good gifts individual letters, or ones that spell out something special can make. I've blogged about Timeless Treasures, Joan O'Connor's great shop before on my guest column on Apartment Therapy San Francisco, so I thought I'd remind you all what great gifts her shop has. In addition to letters galore, there's all kind of fun accessories, jewelry, collectibles and vintage finds. Drop in and see Joan, or email her at janddoc@yahoo.com about special letters you may be seeking. She's really friendly and very helpful and visiting Timeless Treasures is so much fun.

Alphabet City.

Your first impression of Timeless Treasures is that you've perhaps walked into some kind of crazy alphabet museum. Everywhere you look there's a word spelled out in various, eclectic, vintage letters.


Owner Joan O'Connor is an outgoing, enthusiastic proprietor who will engage you in wordy, creative banter the moment you enter the store. Joan imports much of the store's collection from Paris flea markets and there seems to be a story behind every piece. She convinced me to buy letters spelling out LoVe mY D o G. I'm not sure how she did it, but then kindly threw in a 'V' for Victoria. Nice touch.


Letters have fashionably come and gone, but done right, and I believe, minimalistically, they still have their place. I think they're great, unique and personal gifts for good friends, family or maybe a bridesmaid. My office hosted a holiday dinner and used our initials spelled out as funky place settings and it was visually interesting and totally personal. We all got to keep them and I loved it.






But the shop offers much more than letters...Joan collects vintage glassware from all over, of impeccable quality and grand in color scheme.



There's antique jewelry, furniture, carved wooden Madonnas, you name it, if it's eclectic and unusual, it's probably there. And it's very well organized and displayed, so you can clearly see its future place in your home, on your shelves, or even perhaps decorating your neck. It's delightfully all spelled out. A-B-C....

Vintage Finds For A Modern World: Collage.

Collage Gallery is a funky little shop up on San Francisco's Potrero Hill. It's the kind of spot I go to when I'm jonesing for a flea market and there's not a one in sight. Collage has a wonderful selection of vintage oddities, gift ideas and collectibles, like letters and old maps. There's wonderful handmade jewelry, too, all created by local craftsmen. Owner and collage artist Delisa Sage is really friendly and very helpful, which makes for my favorite kind of local shop. It's also in a great neighborhood for walking around, and you can stop into Farley's next door for coffee and a score of your favorite magazines. Vintage finds and magazines, just my idea of Heaven.












Collage
1345 18th Street (between Missouri and Texas Streets)
(415) 282-4401

Scrappy Little Spot.

This weekend my good friend, artist Leigh Wells introduced me to Scrap. I'd heard her speak of Scrap so many times, a place where she rummages through their gritty, packed to the gills warehouse for reusable materials for her artwork. Paper, old photographs, paints, old books - it's all there at Scrap for the taking, or at least, at dirt cheap prices. It's a scrounger's paradise for reusable art parts. And by bringing new life to these old objects, Scrap reduces the huge amount of waste headed to our city's already crowded landfills.

Scrap is an old warehouse full of donated cast-offs from all kinds of people, businesses, and local artists who have all contributed to Scrap's stockpile of goods. There's old frames, fabric remnants, paper, yarn, buttons, cards and envelopes, old letters, candles (I swooped up a bunch of votives). We even saw old teeth molds (Leigh was strangely drawn to these, but she resisted, gosh darn it!).

Kids love it, too, and there were a bunch of them in Scrap this weekend, exercising their imaginations, and finding recycled goods to make their own art projects. So, if you are an artist, or crafty person in seek of inexpensive, reusable materials, you should most definitely check out Scrap. And if you have items you'd like to donate, check out Scrap's website to find out about drop offs, or in some cases, arrange for a pick up.





Scrap
801 Toland Street
San Francisco 94124
Open Tues thru Saturday 9a - 5p
415.647.1746

Vintage Finds for a Modern World: Shopping Etsy.

I seem to be on a vintage tangent these days...well, maybe most days. But, I feel like I need to refresh things around here. Out with the old, and in with some brand new "old". I'd like to replace some of my older accessories with some new vintage pieces, just to keep things interesting. But it's a few weeks away until the next big flea market here in San Francisco (I just missed the Alameda flea because I was out of town), so I went to my back-up source for vintage finds - Etsy. There's a whole lot of great vintage sellers on Etsy and sometimes a whole lot simpler and sometimes more affordable than shopping and bidding on Ebay. I just had to have this beautiful camera (above). Here's a look at what else I found shopping around on Etsy.

Shiny Chrome Kitchen Cannister Set from Rarae Aves.

Vintage Wire Storage Basket from Extra Virgin Home.

Antique Folk Art Wooden Bust from DomestiKate.

Wireware Wall Clock from The Vintage Supply Co.

Vintage Letters from Vintage Embellishment.

Turquoise Smith Corona Typewriter from Junk Culture.

French Bottle Carrier from Extra Virgin Home.

Franciscan Earthenware Serving Platter from Sparker.