The Rest of the Stuff

In addition to the ironing board I wrote about yesterday, I picked up a few more things.  Some to sell, some to keep.  Just the right mix.

I bought this giant clothespin at the Super Cheap Thrift for 75¢.  When the ladies at the counter saw it, they told me that they had all looked at it, but on one could think of a use for it.  I said, "Well, you could use it to hold a recipe, hang it on the wall to hold a note or a sign or a poster or a jacket or an apron, you could put a vintage postcard in it, you could hang it by the door to put you outgoing mail on, you could use it as a paperweight......" and I kept on going.  As I mentioned each thing, each of their eyes got big, like "Why didn't I think of that?"

Little did they know that I already had two others at home.  Three, that is the magic number that creates a collection.  You can see how big they are with the bunny in front.  

Speaking of him.  He is a Stone Critter.  I don't know if they still make and/or sell Stone Critters, but I remember going to the Mall and seeing them in glass cases at the fancy gift stores years ago.  So, now whenever I see a Stone Critter bunny at a thrift or yard sale, I pick them up since I remember how expensive they were once upon a time.  

Here is another item that I bought for that very same reason.  A Snowbaby.  The high end stores at the mall had Snowbabies on display and they were very expensive too.  When I spotted this one for 40¢, I grabbed it.  He will go to the booth later in the year.  

I bought this giant Starbucks cup for pretty much that same reason.  I bet it cost $15.00 or more originally.  I paid 25¢ for it.  I will list it on ebay and if doesn't sell, it will go to the booth.  Or it might become my new cup - it is HUGE.  

This German Goebel Stein will go on ebay.  She's a portly lady.

This Lori C. Mitchell Santa is wonderful.  The tip of his hat is broken off, which probably means he won't sell for much as he ordinarily would.  I wasn't familiar with these figures until I bought several Bride and Grooms this past Fall.  

I don't think I ever showed them on here.  They aren't my usual vintage style, but I still think they are adorable.  They are on ebay this week.

A Bunnykins Dish and two handled mug.  I love Bunnykins stuff, but more than that, I love how well it sells.  So, to ebay it will go!

A donkey toothpick holder.  To the booth it will go.

A wee little pitcher with bluebirds on it.  To the booth...

And for ME!

A brand new unused set of Bride Bingo.  I am not a Bride, but I love these old Bingo sets.  The handle is a child's parasol that has seen better days.  But, that handle spoke to my heart - "Take me to your house!" it said.  *Really, it did!*

The parasol has some tears, but it is still sweet with those handpainted birds.  We watch "How's It Made" on they showed how these are made.  Most items are made in a factory, but these are made by a couple ladies sitting by a fire and it takes many, many steps and a lot of time to hand make each one of these parasols.  Not to mention they are hand painted afterwards.  It's just too sweet.

A giant honeycomb heart for my Valentine's display.  It had no price, so "you just take that honey" they told me.  :)

The first Post Secret book.  I have a collection of books from my favorite blogs - Pioneer Woman, Stuff on my Cat, Cakewrecks (of course!), NieNie Dialogues, and a few others.  Just waiting to put my book in there someday.  :)

The most adorable baby outfit EVER.  First, it's PINK.  Then it's GINGHAM.  Then there's the RUFFLED BUM.  I mean, seriously - it is adorable.  

 And lastly, a new old basket.  

But, this one is special.  I tiny vintage handmade basket.  I adore miniature baskets.  

But, they must be handmade.  And this one is.  See the nail hole where the base was attached to a piece of wood while it was being made into a basket?

And the tiny nails that attach the bottom to the basket?  It's handmade for sure.  

Another example of pride of craftsmanship and handcrafting something.  It;s just the right size to hold my iphone cord.  I'm sure that'w why someone made it  50-70years ago.  Or not.

Ironing Out Some Issues

Tuesday I did a little thrifting and found a few things.  First being this neat old wooden ironing board.

Which brings to mind how things used to be made versus how they are made now.  

This ironing board, which might even be handmade, is well made, heavy duty and loaded with charm.  Some people don't see the "charm" in old things like I do - but you do, RIGHT?

 The top is straight and smooth.  

But, at some point, it was wobbly or loos, so it was patched on the bottom with two pieces of wood.

And, while the legs are still strong and supportive, at one time one was broken.

So it was fixed too.  With yards and yards of heavy duty wire, around and around and around it until it was strong and sturdy once more.

Lots and lots of wire.

Even though it is old, it has been patched and it has a fixed leg - 

it still has years and years of usefulness left in it.

And, it has oodles of character.  

Pride in craftmanship, pride in ownership - people used to have it. 

Now we throw things away and buy new.  We drove behind Goodwill the other night and there were 47 TV's lined up along the wall with a FREE sign on them.  Goodwill doesn't even think the older TV's are worth selling even though they obviously still work.  We have five TV's and only two are flat screens.  

Okay there's my muse of the day - use what you have and appreciate it.  

More thrift finds later.  

*I don't iron.  

* I will never iron.

*This will be an impromptu table at shows or when we need an extra buffet.

*I repeat.  NO IRONING.

:D

When Nothing Happens

One night, several years ago, there were supposed to be a monumental amount of falling stars.  The Breadman was in the bedroom watching some sort of sporting event (who remembers, who cares) when The Bean and I went outside to see if we could spot any falling stars.  It was a warm summer evening, so we sat down on the driveway and eventually ending up lying on the driveway to see if we could see any falling stars.  I don't remember if we ever saw any, but what I do remember is that we were out there for two and a half hours and The Breadman never noticed we were missing or attempted to find us.  That's when I knew I count on him to notice if I went missing.  But you guys - you wonderful blog readers.  Well, I don't blog for a week or so and I start getting emails to see if I am okay.  From people that I don't even "know"!  Isn't that just the sweetest?  Will you guys marry me and report it if I go ever go missing for real?  :D

So, every night I tell myself I am gong to blog, but then my brain goes blank and I decide that I haven't done anything "blogworthy" so I turn off the computer and go to bed instead.  But, I have learned that sometimes when I blog about 'nothing', people seem to like that - so here goes.  Nothing.

I decided to sign us up for a six month trial of HBO since we don't have any movie channels.  I thought it would save us from running to Redbox or ordering On Demand movies.  The very first night we had it, we came across "Con Air" with Nicolas Cage at 11:00 pm.  We sat, mouth agape and watched it without moving for two straight hours.  When it was over at nearly 1:00 am, we looked at each other and said, "Well, that was awful."  Yet, we watched it.  Yes, we did.

Last weekend we installed a new mailbox complete with a new post.  That involved one semi fight, one big fight, one argument about the selection of house numbers, three trips to Lowe's three phone calls from Lowe's, a trip next door to borrow a post hole digger (they didn't have one), a total clean out of the shed to find a two shovels, an incident whereupon the husband says, "What's the plan, Stan?" and I wait for my son to answer and the husband looks at me and say, "No, you- you're Stan", pone hole dug until we hit concrete, another hole dug and measured, a post sunk with two bags of Quikcrete, a quick coat of white paint to the post and a mailbox FINALLY installed all within the span of TWO DAYS.  Thank goodness Monday was a non-mail holiday.  We needed all the time we could get.  

Wednesday I had my annual eye exam where I had to have my eyes dilated.  They always tell me that the dilation will last about thirty minutes.  But, it always lasts at least six to eight hours for me.  That makes for a fun day of not being able to see anything far away or close up.  Kind of limits what you can do.  Oh, and you have to stay in the dark or wear dark glasses out side.  FUN!

We went to see "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and it was really, really good.  I picked out the movie, which rarely ever happens.  We usually see something with Super Heroes in it or a movie based on a book that The Bean has read.  Seeing a movie that neither of us knew anything about was a treat.  We went to a matinee and the movie was in a small theater and we were the only two people in the theater.  It was great.  Usually if I have something to comment on during a movie, I either don't say it or I lean over and barely whisper it in The Bean's ear.  Since no one was in the theater we had fun yelling at each other.  Well, not really yelling because that still seemed rude.  We're such rule followers!

Yesterday we went to my Dad's house for his birthday.  I baked a cake for him which he liked.  We went for a ride around the lake, then went back to the house and played poker.  I started playing poker when I was four years old.  My Dad would have poker games and I would stand there in my pink jammies holding my doll watching them play cards before I went to bed.  Eventually, one of his poker buddies would say, "Oh, let her play a hand" and they would let me in the game just to be nice.  That's when I would KICK ASS and take all their money.  I was quite the card shark!  Then they would say, "Uh, doesn't she need to go to BED?"  I was pretty good at playing craps too.  They would sit me on the counter and let me throw the dice.  I would KICK ASS and take their money doing that too.  Yesterday, The Bean got a Royal Flush, a Royal Straight and a Full House in less than an hour of poker playing.  I think he inherited my Card Shark gene!  

There you have it - my blog post about nothing.  I've thrifted a bit, but nothing worth even taking a photo of or even remembering what I bought.  There a few garage sales popping up on Craiglist, so maybe the season will come soon.  Although with temperatures this week reaching 3, I doubt that.  

Have up been up to something?  Or nothing?

*I don't even have a new photo to add to this sad, sad post!

PS - Heidi had a delicious new chubba bubba baby BOY yesterday.  Go show her some love.  

The Booth - Restocked At Last

Today I spent almost five hours in my booth clearing out the Christmas an putting out an entire car load full of new vintage stock.  I sent through a lot of my personal collections last week and cleared out a lot of things to take to the booth - vintage red and green handled kitchen tools, aluminum pitchers and tumblers, vintage drink ware, orange juice decanters and glasses, vintage spice tins and vintage cookbooks.  I needed some better quality items to put out and I haven't had the best thrifting luck lately, so I sent into my own hoard.  So, I hope most of it sells in time, because I don't want to feel compelled to bring it back home!

I always feel the need to remind you that there is a huge fluorescent light in my booth and it makes or terrible photos, so I turn it off when I do take photos.  Then it's dark, so those photos aren't' too great either.  But, having the best well lit booth in the whole store is a definite plus.

I redid this area and I like it, but I am wanting to get rid of that particle board shelf and find something shorter and more vintage like my other shelves.  This area holds all my ephemera - Bingo cards, Scrabble words, letter card words, tokens, tickets, ephemera packets, buttons, marquee letters, etc.  I added in a plethora of fun paper straws today in all sorts of colors and designs.  I have a lot of red paper straws too that I am hoping people pick up for Cake pops and other things for Valentine's Day.  I finally took out a bunch of those cool old Add-a-Count Math Scales, an old Royal Glass keyed typewriter and my stash of beaded safety pin baskets.  

Before Christmas, the Super Cheap Thrift had big plastic baggies full of die cast cars for 25¢. I made $1.00 goodie bags out of them with each bag having two cars in it plus some old McDonald's toys and other fun things for kids.  Kids like junk, right?

I put one of my old Nehi crates on this wall and added in all the old spice tins I had in my collection.  I noticed today that I had a "Tumeric" tin in every brand - and they were all full even though some of them were 35-45 years old.  

I took a bunch of aprons and hung them low so people can look through them.  I made a sign that says, "These aprons were worn by Mama.  They aren't perfect and neither was Mama." They all have a minor stain or a tiny rip in them, but they are all still fun and usable.  

The "Pocket Telescopes".  They are just peepholes, but I keep selling them.  

 The back wall.  I think it's funny that the first thing everyone says is "You have a lot of stuff".  And, I do have a lot of stuff in there.  But, I think I have something for almost everyone.  I usually sell more items than any other vendor during the month.  That's not saying I make the most money, but I usually sell at least 60 items, sometimes over 100.  

I took the Bakelite handled Peculator set out today.  It makes me nervous to take something out there that I think is really special.  I placed it on a high shelf and put a high price on it.  Maybe just the right person will come along and see it for what is is - beautiful!

I love those old paint by numbers.  They've been there a while so I need to mark them down.  I decided to put them in a prominent spot for a bit to see if they sell.  I cannot give that damn Merry Mushroom Cookie Jaw away.  I thought that stuff was popular?  I only have $10.00 on it, I  think.

Here is most of the new stuff I took out today from my house.  Lots of cool old vintage kitchen collectibles.  

Cookbooks in a wire basket, aprons and doilies in another. Lots of other old cool things in between.  That yellow box has hundreds of recipes in it from the 1950's.  Tongue sandwich?  Check.  Lime Gelatin with tuna?  Check.  Hurl?  Check.

I hung a bunch of the old 1966 Flash Cards across the top of the entrance.  I've had trouble figuring out a good way to display them without them getting bent or torn.  I framed a few and sold them, but it's hard to know exactly how people want them framed.

So, there it is - all restocked and ready for customers.  I had a crummy December due to the weather being so bad most of the month.  Her's to better days of people out shopping and BUYING!

It Was A Good Day

On Saturdays, The Bean still has his Saturday morning sleep late, eat cereal and watch TV routine (who wouldn't want to still have that life, right?) and The Breadman has a nap and/or watches some sort of a sporting event involving a ball.  Since they are "busy" I usually head towards the booth to straighten it up and hit the Super Cheap Thrift along the way.  Of course, garage sales too if I can find any.  But, yesterday, I implied I was going to the booth (where neither of them want to go or ever do go) and instead went into THE BIG CITY and went thrifting.  I didn't end up finding a lot, but I did enjoy a little bit of ME time. I may or may not have even gone to the old timey greasy drive-thru for an order of hand-cut hand-breaded onion rings and a Vanilla Coke, neither of which I EVER eat and eaten them in the car ALL BY MYSELF.  I did feel a little guilty when the boys announced they had each eaten a nineteen cent packet of Ramen for lunch. Ah, heck, I didn't feel guilty ONE BIT.  :D  (There was a ton of good food in the house, they just like Ramen.)

The days loot.  My first stop I almost left empty handed, but then I found the two wooden crates for 50¢ each.  They originally were for holding cassette tapes, but they work to hold about anything.  

The piece of pottery was 99¢. The little flowery baby shoes were $1.00.  The potter isn't my usual style as I am not a flower person.  More on that in a minute.

The AQ Chicken House has been located in Springdale, AR since 1947 and it is world famous.  Bill Clinton loves the place.  President Bush ordered food from Air Force one and they landed to pick it up on the way through.  There is a book in the lobby to sign and there are very famous signatures in that book from all over the world to politics to celebrities.  EVEN ME.  This is a Buffalo China plate  - I don't know how old it is, but I think it should be a quick seller in the booth.  

I hesitated for a bit on this big bag of cake decorating things for $1.99, but then I decided to go ahead and get it.  Sometimes I am silly about things.  Thank goodness I came to my senses.  In the bag were all these great old cake toppers, seventeen metal Wilton icing tips and some cake decorating booklets.  I have a special fondness for those sweet "Happy Birthday" toppers.

"Pop is Tops" is a good one too.  Does anyone call their Dad "Pops" anymore?

Those old blackboards in the background are Happy Hoppy Pupil Blackboards for handwriting practice.  I found them at the Salvation Army.  When I was walking in the door, Lara was walking out.  She had a few books and things for the kids, but didn't find much vintage.  I almost didn't go in, but I was happy I did after I found the three blackboards.  I think they surely must have put them out while I was shopping or Lara would have found them first.  If she would have, I would have been as happy for her as she was for me.  

So, about this piece of pottery.  It's matte white and old and really sweet, but I don't usually like flowery type things.  

But, one by one, over the past few years, I have found these three mate white vintage vases with flowers on them.  And, I sort of fell in love with them.

And this one fits right in.  So, now, I apparently collect sweet old flowery vases.  

Not that that's a bad thing, necessarily.  

The last find which was a really, really good and HAPPY find!

A beautiful PINK tree.  It's not old, it's brand new.  It was in the still sealed Walmart box.  But, it's a lovely shade of pink and pre-lit.  When I set it up and plugged it in, well, it just glowed this lovely pink shimmer.  The best part was it was priced $5.00.  No, wait, the BEST part is that it was 50% off so only $2.50.  I swore I wouldn't put the Valentine's Day stuff out until February 1st, but now I am DYING to put this pink tree out with all my hearts on it.  

Pottery - PINK Tree- Onion Rings  - Oh yes, it was a GOOD day.