Good afternoon/evening/morning, Beloved Fellow Members!
How is everyone? My name is Mette, I live near Philadelphia, PA, US, and, only 10 minutes ago, I finally succeeded at creating an account on this amazing website!! Jippi! I attempted becoming a member a few months ago, but something malfunctioned within cyberspace. Right after, my precious, loving, still-young cat, Baby, suddenly and unexpectedly died on September 5. On top of that, my family and I had no idea Baby had died--my stepfather found her poor dead body on October 2. She died fewer than 2 weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. I'm sure anyone reading this gets it when I say that doing anything but trying to keep going, grieve, etc, fell by the wayside for a while. I just adopted a new, young cat, fewer than 3 weeks ago, named Stormy. All is looking up!
Anyway, as soon as I successfully confirmed my registration, then successfully logged into this site, WOW!!! Immediately, I was blissfully flooded, for the first time in my life, with, "Hallelujah! I am finally home--among people who share the same passionate, authentic, dedicated, important, and wonderfully-joyful interest in antique and vintage clothing, accessories, fabrics, sewing patterns, and certainly much other fascinating areas of our world/community! Thank you, Lord--at long last, I no longer feel alone!" I'm so grateful to everyone who belongs to the Vintage Fashion Guild--every single one of you all, no matter where you are located/gender/age, tra la la. Thank you all so much for allowing me to join--and for free! I've been dedicated, since 1994, to the joy, fun, and excitement that vintage and antique clothing have given me all these years. It has always been, and shall forever remain, an intensely-meaningful privilege, since Senior Year in high school, living/dressing/learning about/caring for/locating/obtaining nearly anything which truly is authentic vintage or antique garments, and much else. Today, I'm all the way at age 43 (!). At this point in life, my collection has grown so tremendously that I often refer to my antique and vintage garments as, "The Museum, a viewpoint I realized many years ago. And I have had very many happy and enlightening times all these years whenever I've spent any time engaging in vintage + antique activities of every sort. But...until today, I was alone in our world. I have attempted to bond with a number of others, since 17, in the form of talking about the clothing, etc, I was head-over-heels in love with from Day 1. Unfortunately, until today, I never became friends at all with one single person to whom I'd disclosed this amazing passion. I don't hold that former loneliness, nor any emotional deprivation against anyone. Whoever might be reading this, please know that. Life is sometimes unfair/disappointing/painful/not what one expected it would be. I've always been aware of that, and never attributed my failures at finding others, with whom I hoped to spend time participating together in vintage's/antique's usual, super-fun activities. I was just unlucky, just as so many other people in this world end up being. No big deal, right?
But yay! I finally stepped up to the plate today! I am so blessed and happy, now that I can join in the forums on this miraculous website, run by what I've considered, for longer than I can remember, as the most useful, important, largest, best-educated vintage and antique organization on Earth!!! May God bless you all, and thank you for reading this!