Vintage Scrapbook

Do you ever get something from someone that makes you realize how well that person knows you? And how lucky you are to know that person? My penpals constantly surprise me with the most thoughtful gifts. It never ceases to amaze me that these lovely people could know me so well without, in most cases, never meeting me. It really goes to show you the kind of connections that can be made between people through pen and paper.

One of my penpals, Emilie, recently sent me this amazing vintage scrapbook. Something that she picked up in a thrift store and decided I would appreciate receiving it. I think I literally gasped when I pulled the scrapbook out of the envelope. It had such a beautiful cover and I was so excited to flip through it!

This scrapbook contains so many amazing details and random things. My favorite thing has to be the pressed flowers. I'm seriously surprised at how well they held up! This book has things from the late 1930s and early 1940s. It kind of makes me sad that it ended up in a thrift store. I can imagine this book being handed down from generation to generation, and then finally it ends up in a thrift store because no one in the family wanted it? Or was it because there was no family left to take it? Either way it's still a sad ending but I'm happy to have this in my possession for the moment!

There are so many beautiful paper bits in this scrapbook. Letters, telegrams, greeting cards, old pieces of tape and corner stickers. The handwriting on everything is beautiful and now I have new handwriting goals. The one thing that creeped me out was a fingernail that was taped to one of the pages. The photo for it is above. The written description is "Loda's nail we cut off for being too long. July 29, 1940." I have no idea why someone would keep a fingernail (just one?). I wish I had more of a backstory for the person who put together this scrapbook! I guess I could try to Google them but that would take most of the fun out of it, I think.

Have you ever found anything like this in a thrift store? I haven't! I'm just lucky enough to know people who have. Thanks, Emilie!