I’m on a Roll… October 6, 2008

I’ve got butter on my pants!  Boom-CHA

2 in one day.  Special for you because you’re special.  Blogging is like that, spurts and spells (most of mine, dry).

I had such a good rummage/yard sale day on Saturday.

I met my friend at a church rummage sale first thing Saturday morning and got some good bits for the shop plus a huge framed papyrus with all the Egyptian gods painted on it for the growing collection of Ancient Egyptian art and artifacts in the boys room.  After the Unitarian church sale we went to Charlie and Pat’s rummage sale were I pick up 2 beautiful vintage Italian Christmas creches.  You don’t have to celebrate the holiday to have a good eye, my pretend Jewish great grandma always used to say!  On the way to drop my friend off back home we squeezed in a yard sale.    We got some cool games and random goodness.  I hit “just one more sale” (or two) on the way home and hit the MOTHER LOAD.  You know how when you pull up to a yard sale and you know if it’s a match or not.  I parked and immediately began scooping up the scores.  I really wanted all the other folks to vacate the premises and claim this one as MINE.  I bought a pair of vintage roller skates all rusted and lovely:

3 framed vintage children’s albums.  Some framed funky prints, an atomic tea cup and saucer that had a tin sheriff’s bandage in it, and 2 metal tables that are the most perfect shade of green. They are keepers.

Photo does not capture the olive-y greatness that these possess.

I told the woman I loved her taste and stuff and we had a great conversation.  I even slipped her my card, which was my challenge to myself of the day.  She let me into the garage, which was blocked off ( I had already asked about buying a metal globe located in the cave twice), and showed me 2 boxes of dolls. This beauty caught my eye and I bought the boxes off the cool woman with fabulous taste (you should have seen the house!).  A kind flickr flickrer informed me it’s a Japanese pose doll.  She’s fetching.  I’ll be posting her and some other finds in my shop today and tomorrow.  I hope she goes to a great home.  I had a blast acquiring her.

Here is an old Japanese ad featuring pose dolls:

Who Am I Kidding? June 22, 2008

Here is what summertime REALLY means to me:

Yard Sales! With a few rummages thrown in and an estate sale sprinkled here and there!

Yesterday was a fruitful day. My big little guy and I had took some time to ourselves and we hit the sales.

All the old guys and I scoured the garage at our first estate sale. It had been striped of all the vintage tools by the time my son and I got there. I did come up with this beauty. It will go well with the orange shoe shine stand my brother gave me a few years ago. Check out that wooden container for the shine!

I picked this up at the same estate sale. 1 dollar. I think it was a salt or pepper shaker at one time. It’s heavy and delightfully bug eyed. I am smitten.

I also picked up these cameras for 8 dollars a piece. I’ve got a collection going now. Mostly vintage super 8s with a few cameras sneaking in.

I also got these books at a thrift store last week. I’m going to do a separate post to share their illustrated goodness.

I rescued this vintage textile from a yard sale.

It’s not exactly my style (I AM a sucker for orange) but I feel like it was lying there, indignant at the low price tag stuck on it’s rich fibers, calling for my help. I’m a saver.  Anyone know where it’s from?

My soon to be 6 year old passed by the plastic toys and went right for this at another yard sale:

He asked the woman having the yard sale how much it was and she said, “Are your parents interested in this?” Like I was using my kid to try and get a lower price. I didn’t want to offend her with what I was thinking, “Are you freakin’ kidding me? That is not going in MY living room!”. So I assured her it was all my boy’s idea. He bought it for 5 dollars and repeated a number of times throughout the day, “Isn’t it beautiful mom?” He’s hooked and I could not be more proud.

Money Well Spent June 5, 2008

We’ve had a rainy couple of days here and as you may have discerned yesterday, in the battle of grey day vs my camera, grey and cloudy kicks my butt every time. And my homemade light box had lots of spunk but not much light. But I just can not wait to share these scores.

I got most of these gems from Charlie and Pat’s (their big sale is this Saturday if you are local). A few are from a recent church rummage sale. I toy with the idea of getting a tattoo from time to time, and really, deep down I know it’ll never happen. But the word Rummage tops my current never gonna get it tattoo list. I also keep a mental list of punk band names and you and I both know that will never pan out. Maybe someday (maybe this summer?) I’ll open my own junk shop and there will always be rockin’ tunes playing and classic Bollywood clips showing and craft circles craftin’ in the back room with tattooed types lingering amongst my riches. It’s a nice daydream. Let me see if I can get an etsy shop up first or manage my first eBay sale. Baby steps.

I picked up this vintage weaving loom, primarily for the graphics. I was also impressed it had a boy on the cover. Maybe he was able to weave a toy gun cozy or something. Whatever he made, I’m sure it was lots of fun!

I wrongly imagined our stairway to be light-filled and photogenic and yet still I will show you this darling mug. As you may have read from my previous post, Spelling Lesson, (I’ve always wanted to reference myself) I am not afraid of the traditionally defined “bad words” but I do, however, feel like washing my own mouth out with soap after merely typing the word, “darling”. Please excuse. But she is cute, right?

I got a whole series of these wonderful cookbooks. The illustrations deserve to be set free from the binding and framed but I have a hard time cutting into books. I’ve done it a few times but it feels illegal.

I also got a huge plastic orange tray and the smaller purple one you can see here with the cookbooks. They aren’t even part of a set, these two trays, but they are perfect together. I had visions of cupcakes and birthday parties when I saw them and for $4 it would have been wrong NOT to get them.

Here are some of the illustrations. Believe it or not, I am trying to edit my photographs and not plaster this post with them all but it’s kind of hard.

I bought this because I am not one to pass by anything touting an E-Z pour function.

This vintage beauty is the only thrift store score from today’s collection. I got her for 99 cents. I do not usually dig in the stuffed animal bins of my favorite thrift store. Mostly because it’s terrifying and sneezy but she drew me to her and now she sits atop a massive pile of crap in my craft room. Not totally unlike her previous residence.

I can’t find any marking on her. Any toy experts know anything about her? I reckon she’s German made but I have no idea.

And here is some cheer to brighten this rainy day. A portion of my collection of thrifted and family tins with a little bit of my childhood doll collection thrown in. These are also in my craft room that I hope to have finished to share with you sometime THIS SUMMER.

I hope you enjoy looking at this crap as much as I enjoying finding it!

Stuff Overload May 5, 2008

The other day my blog stats spiked and I couldn’t tell why. I think I figured it out. I swung by Charlie and Pat’s today (the best thrift store on the planet if you haven’t been playing along) and I saw Charlie hand a folded slip of paper to another customer. Turns out along with a purchase, Charlie is handing out my blog address. Charlie introduced me to the recipient of the blog address handoff, a local firefighter! Another woman in the shop patted my little guy’s head and then my arm and told me she had seen my blog. Thanks for tooting my horn Charlie and a big hello and howdy to all my peeps from the shop! Not who I imagined my target readership to be (hi mom!) but totally and completely perfect. It’s moments like this, that can’t be photographed and cropped, that make my town “beautiful”. This nomad just might be home.

And now on to the good stuff. Some of this is from C&P’s shop and other bits are from a rummage sale I recently hit.

–

Who can’t use a little waxed linen lacing cord and a oven thermometer?

I think this is a vintage handmade knitting bag. The fabric has a nice heft to it and I particularly like the color of the lining. I will be putting this up in my shop, when I have a shop!

This fabric caught my eye. I usually like to work with linen or cotton and this one is neither but I couldn’t pass up the colors and the circles.

This fabric is super wrinkly and much cuter in person. It’s a grey silk with little flowers and pears. 2 yards – $2.

Orange and pink? Every time. I googled Metsovaara and think I got a score.

I bought this mostly because it’s orange but also because it’s “all-powerful”. Another for the shop-to-be.

Ahhhh, can you see those price stickers? On the right are 5 buttery cloth napkins with a beautiful linen one below it. The ones of the left are pillow cases.

Random toys and craft supplies.

These are possibly my favorite of the rummage sale. I bought a large Weis wooden file box and when I got home to inspect my stuff I found these tucked in the box. They are printed by Signal Press in Evanston Illinois, no date. Anyone know what they were originally for? Book marks? They’re seem a little big though…?

I also got some beautiful old books.

This was hidden inside one of the books published by the H.K. Fly Company in 1919. It’s a homemade card/book mark that has sandpaper in the belly of the cat. My favorite part is how stained the book is, looks like this little guy has lived in this book for a long time.

And lastly (phew!) this little illustration is for my brother who was born to sport a fancy walrus moustache.