About Me

A little bit about me...

My story begins on a small farm in rural Northeast Ohio. From an early age I spent many hours alongside my family working in a barn full of rusty old farm equipment surrounded by tractors, machinery and horse tack that looked as though it had seen better days but still served an important purpose. I could see the story behind the work worn horseshoes that hung from the dusty walls. I could see the value in the rusty nails that had fallen from beams of a roof set in place long before I started picking through its treasures. I saw the simple beauty in items others saw simply as junk. Underneath this dust and scrap is where my collection of small relics began.

As soon as I turned 18, I flew the coop and headed for the big city.... Cleveland, that is (don't laugh, at the time it was a big city to a small town girl like me). Here I was inspired by the factories, warehouses, railroads, and the ethnically diverse neighborhoods that surround my city. Whether digging through old abandoned buildings or hitting up estate sales in the multi-cultural communities, I gathered many lost and forgotten treasures just waiting to be rediscovered and added to my growing collection.

Today, you will find me in the suburbs: the perfect compromise between farmhouse and factory. My weekends are spent on the back roads of Ohio and neighboring states. I dig through old barns, farmhouses, factories, warehouses, urban, suburban and rural homes on the search for overlooked and forgotten bits of history. I believe all it takes is a creative mind, a unique perspective, and the desire to keep history alive to give these old pieces a new purpose. To me, that is the ultimate form of recycling!

I created my vintage shop, Suite 22, as a home for these unique antiques, unusual collectibles, and whimsical oddities that I find. My hope is that while browsing my shop you will be inspired by these bits of history to create your next jewelry project, art project or find unique ideas for home decor. I believe that if we continue to recycle, reclaim, repurpose and reinvent these old, forgotten items, our history will carry on with them.

My husband, Richard shares in these same beliefs and runs an Etsy shop of his own called The Book Vault. His shop is dedicated to the preservation of antiquarian, vintage, collectible books, old photos, and paper ephemera. You can visit him here: http://www.thebookvault.etsy.com