A favorite vignette.......

........My houses (several over the years) have always been decorated in vignettes. I've had many people look and comment on how it is divided into small areas where they can stand a long time and enjoy the many things in front of them. The word vignette was first applied to "something that can be written on a vine-leaf". It is still used to describe small decorative designs placed at the beginning or end of  book pages, often leaf drawings. But, mostly what we think of for the word now is, a grouping of several things. In decorating, it must be done well or it becomes just a conglomeration of stuff and an eye sore.  I do believe one can get away with having more things in a room if it is done in a good decorative vignette style. I have probably crossed the line with the amount of things in a small house, but a lot of people still seem to enjoy looking. What you choose to put together and how it's placed makes all the difference. Not to forget that each vignette in a room needs to blend into a creative, eye-pleasing whole.

Today, I am showing the vignette on my guest bedroom dresser top.  I have included this in about three posts before but never emphasized the individual things. I want to feature this old suitcase and the things that are in it.

You can see it here in its vignette setting.

Samsonite on both the brass plate and the handle.

I am not a collector of old suitcases. But, the day I saw this one in another dealers booth in the antique store that I had a booth in, I snatched it up in a hurry. It is an old leather Samsonite in very good condition. And, has style that the ones I had been seeing didn't have.  This was during the time when many people were buying them to use for decorative purposes. I was surprised to see it priced at $11.00. 

The whole inside is lined in the nice checked cloth, including this divider piece.  The darkness in the lower right is a shadow not soil.  It is near impossible for me to get good pictures in this tiny dark room.

The divider is kept in place with two leather pieces with snaps.

I have chosen a few old soft pieces to display inside, along with a few things you might have found on a dresser top long ago.

There is a handmade throw here on the left side, a baby dress, gloves, a handmade ladies nightgown and in the right back, a crocheted purse. And I almost forgot the crocheted tie-on collar.

I love the bodice of the old gown. The skirt part is made of plain cotton fabric. 

Sorry for a  fuzzy picture, but you get a glimpse of one pair of gloves with its embroidered design and the brass glove holder.

                                        An old dresser mirror lying on the crocheted throw.

And last, the little folded baby dress. Do you notice the pearl in the "V" of the yoke?  I was fluffing and getting ready to take the first picture and noticed the pearl move. Sometime I have dropped it there without realizing it.  It looks so much like it "belongs" that I just left it for the picture.  I bought the little dress in an antique store for my only grand-daughter (I have five grandsons) to wear to my first tea party to give and her first one to attend. Lucy, my youngest grandchild is in her second year of college!

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This week marks the first year anniversary of my blog. I have probably averaged two posts per week. How so many bloggers are able to do a post a day is beyond me! When I first started I hardly knew what a blog was much less what to do with one!  I have enjoyed it and hope you do too. I haven't tried to "grow" it as most bloggers do with links, etc. I do have enough people viewing however to make it seem worthwhile.  If you have tips, suggestions or questions to make it more interesting/better, I would like to hear from you.