My first love
was milk glass

I can still remember the first vintage thing I fell in love with. I was in middle school when my mom took me to an antique mall for the first time, and there it was: milk glass.

I didn’t know its history. I couldn’t have told you who made it or what made one piece different from another. I just remember thinking it was so pretty—and wanting to look at every piece.

My mom and I still talk about that trip.

Looking back now, I love that my introduction to vintage was that simple. I didn’t need to know what I was looking for. Something caught my eye, and I wanted to keep looking.

You don’t have to know everything to love something

When Jacob and I spend so much of our lives surrounded by vintage, it can be easy to forget that someone else is discovering it for the very first time.

Someone is seeing Pyrex and noticing the colors and patterns. Someone is finding a piece that takes them straight back to their grandma’s kitchen.

Someone is bringing an older piece home and realizing it fits beautifully with the things they already love—even though they never thought vintage was “their thing.”

I think about that girl in the antique mall whenever I remember how many different ways there are to begin. Sometimes it’s a memory. Sometimes it’s curiosity. And sometimes you simply think something is pretty.

There’s always something you haven’t seen

One of my favorite things about vintage is that you never really reach the end. There’s so much to discover, and being around it every day hasn’t changed that for us.

Jacob and I still see things we’ve never seen before. We still learn something new almost every day.

A familiar kind of piece can have a detail we haven’t noticed, and something completely different can remind us how much there is left to explore.

That’s part of what keeps it interesting. You can start with one thing you love and let your curiosity take you somewhere else. You don’t have to choose one style and stay there forever.

A little bit of everything

I’ve always had eclectic taste. I love a little bit of everything, and vintage gives me plenty of room for that. Loving milk glass doesn’t mean I can’t fall for something with a completely different color, shape or feeling, too.

What I couldn’t have imagined in middle school was where that first spark would lead. That girl who wanted to look at every piece of milk glass had no idea she would eventually live a life surrounded by vintage.

Now, with Jacob beside me and something new to discover almost every day, I still understand exactly what she was feeling. There’s a lot of joy in finding something that makes you stop and look a little closer.

What was your first vintage love?

Maybe you remember the very first piece. Maybe you remember a place, a person or a feeling. I’d love to hear what started it for you.

Join the conversation on Ashley’s original Facebook post and tell us about the first vintage thing you remember falling in love with.