More charming finds to share

I know I could have posted all this great fun stuff at once last night, but I was tired and my long weekend had finally run its course, which means now I have tons more great stuff to show off!  First, some phones of the non-mobile variety:

Ugh, in the crummy dim light of my house I didn't notice how much more of a scrub this needed!

This is two of three that picked up at the Goodwill pound store on the same day, from the same bin.  It took me awhile to untangle all the cords.  I almost threw the beigy one back before I turned over the hand set and noticed the rotary dial.  Isn't nostalgia funny?  I actually have a rotary phone, albiet disconnected, hanging on my kitchen wall from the old folks who lived here before me.  I haven't yet been able to bring myself to take it down!  If I still had to use it, I would find it wildly annoying to wait for the dial to spin back around every time before dialing the next number, but since I don't have to, it's oddly satisfying.  The resistance as you dial it, and the otherwise unmatched sound it makes as it slides back around feel so purposeful.  Sometimes when I'm in the kitchen on my handy little Virgin Mobile phone (not product placement, but I do love Virgin - such a good deal, and I have the biggest, weirdest crush on Richard Branson!), I'll be idly dialing away on the big old thing.  If it were an awesome color I'd definitely want to keep it forever, but I've started toying with the idea of taking it down, possibly to paint it red, or blue.  Or yellow!  I need to figure out how to take it apart and paint it, but keep the numbers and whatnot... project.

Next up, a couple more small appliances to go with the awesome green iron I posted yesterday:

Crusha!

This thing is seriously sexy.  And yes, that's the original box next to it.  It's practically brand new!  It's the wall-mount kind, far more rocket-shippy than the counter top varieties, and this one's extra special - black and gold instead of the usual chrome finish.  I found it at a little resale shop that I've found by accident twice, and can never find on purpose.  I don't even know what it's called, but I know it's in South County, and this is not the only really nifty bit of vintage I've found there.

Oh yeah, mirror finish, baby!

Speaking of practically new condition - can you believe the finish on this awesome vintage Sunbeam toaster?  I couldn't, when I spotted it at the Salvation Army on Cherokee Street.  It's a later model - probably from the 70s, which I know from perusing this site dedicated solely to vintage Sunbeam automatic toasters.  These things are amazing - there's nothing to push down.  You just put your bread in the slot, and the weight of it lowers the mechanism and turns on the coils.  When the toast reaches it's optimum toastiness based on the setting you choose, the heat turns off and the toast slowly and calmly raises back up.  It's that mid-century futuristic awesomeness we all love!  This one still works like a charm, although it needs an adjustment.  It's idea of optimum toastiness was a little blacker than mine.  There's a "fixing your toaster" section on the website I linked to above that I'm guessing might help out with that, but I haven't perused that far yet.


While we're being retro-futuristic, how about these awesome silver shoes?:

There's barely even a scuff on the soles of these things.  They clearly never made it out of the house.

Not for you?  how about a groovy full-length oxblood leather coat, or the cool mid-century rope-seated valet chair on which it is displayed?:

The chair is in really nice shape, and the coat as well!

Did you see the fun penguin picture?  I'm not knowledgeable enough to say if it's a print or a watercolor - it's signed and either dated or numbered 11/76, and was accompanied, on Saturday, by a very cute little girl:

Isn't she precious?

And if one pairing of little girl and bird pictures isn't enough, I had another one!:

Isn't she a cute little hippie-chick?  She's leaning on an ancient-looking trunk lid (sans trunk) that I picked up in an alley near my house a few weeks ago.  The pretty little blue floral apron came from the same estate sale as the green iron from yesterday.

There was a ton more, but once again its getting late, and Mary Poppins the kitty found her fuzzy-thing-on-a-stick toy, so I'm gonna go play a bit before bed.  Good for the soul!

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