Have I mentioned how much I love Fall?

I really, really love Fall.  I love everything about it (except the allergens)!  And here are a few of the reasons:

    

This particular Autumn weekend was pretty great.  Saturday I made a really good (and large!) thrift find which I'll show you in a minute.  Sunday was super festive.  We were participating that evening in a (to me) new phenomenon known as the Trunk or Treat, so the whole day ended up being festive.  After church and lunch with the crew we went back over to Todd and Beth's house and there was pumpkin carving and caramel apple making and a fire in the fire-bowl-thingy - all great fun!

   

   
                      
















Do you guys know about Trunk or Treat? I did not, and I was skeptical at first - people let their kids trick-or-treat out of the trunks of cars in a parking lot?  But it was really fun!  In a way it's like a parade, in that there's a competition for decorating your car for Halloween, but really just your trunk (don't waste your time decorating the front seats like I did - you can't really see that part of the car during the actual event!).  Of course, I decorated thrift-style.  I used some of my vintage clothing collection, plus some newly thrifted pieces just for the event, and made a ghost family in my car:

My dear friend Tora, showing off the ghost children,
Jacob and baby Marley, and the ghost dog, Casper.
Plus a dancing skeleton.  Just for fun!

Ghost parents George and Marian Kerby.  Marian lost her head again,
but I fixed her before the kids came!

My decorations were nothing compared to most of the other cars though.  Here's Todd and Beth's:

How awesome is that??

There was one that was done by a whole group of people who staged the entire Wizard of Oz out of the back of a truck, complete with cornucopia-hat sporting muchkins.  Unfortunately I failed to get a picture of that at all, but it was a really good time, including the chili cookoff that went along with it, where my friend Beth was robbed - her chili was so, so good you guys!

This morning I got to pick up the awesome thrift find I made on Saturday at Red Racks on Gravois.  Wanna see?  Much more exciting than the ghost-people's thrifted clothing above, I promise!:

There are actually 4 chairs, and a leaf for the table.  I adore the chairs!

Check out the splayed, tapered legs!

And a better shot of the awesome diamond detail of the chair backs!

The sort of blond pickled finish is in bad shape and one of the chairs has a semi-bum leg but it's sturdy, solid wood and the green vinyl seats seem to be in good condition, and once I find something smaller to practice on, I'm going to try redoing it.  In the mean time, it's nicer than the table I have anyway!  I haven't had much luck at first Google trying to ID it.  The chairs are marked "Valley Furniture Manufactures", and "Limed Modern Tan 20".  If anybody has any information on it, I'd love to know! 

I'm so thrilled with my new dining set, I'm sharing it on all these link-ups.  Go check them out!:

Cap Creation's Thrift Love Link Party, Chic on a Shoestring's Flaunt it Friday, The Thrifty Groove's Thrifty Things Friday, Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday and Me and My Shadow's Magpie Monday

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!

Some previously un-posted treasures

I didn't get pictures of all of the items I sold at the Green Shag Market sale, but I did snap a few shots while setting up, so there are some shots of items I haven't posted here before, and in actual natural light!  So of course, I'm happy to show them off!:

First, some awesomeness from a handful of estate sales I attended a couple of weeks ago:

How mid-century fabulous is this green iron?  Starflite, with gold star burst, even!  It's sitting on top of a chrome bread box I finally rescued from my garage for the sale (sadly, it ended up back in the garage un-sold).

Super cute little Jade 8 radio.  I bought AA batteries to test it out - was hoping to listen to
NPR during the sale.  Unfortunately, It takes a 9 volt.  Oops!

The ice pack inside is plaid and just as cool as it's original box with fantastic graphics and fonts.  Love it!

These I found in a garage, with all dusty/greasy tools and things.  Only 5, but an adorable made-in-Japan set!

Next, a seriously cool mid-century plant stand, and the treasures I displayed upon it:

It's bigger than most of these I've seen - you can see the child-sized card table next to it for perspective. 

This cute chalkware guy is in really good shape.  Found him at the Goodwill by my work. 

I can't remember where I found this awesome gold glazed planter.  I didn't take a very good shot of it though, did I?

This planter was snatched up at a local Salvation Army awhile back, and the kitty was,
appropriately enough, rescued from the Goodwill "Pound" Store.

The fiery glazed little planter was actually in one of my very first blog posts.  The tall yellow vase is Haeger, bought at September's last Wednesday 50% off sale at Value Village.  I can't remember where I got the cool candlestick, but if I'd had two of them, they would have sold on Saturday.

This wooden pestle I picked up at the Pound Store appears to be very old.  I just like the way it looks all organic/rustic.  And do you see the Mister Wizard book behind it?  The cover is priceless; wish I'd thought to snap a shot!

I have more pics to share, but it's getting late, so more next time.  Hope your having great luck in the hunt, and check out the Nifty Thrifty Tuesday linkup at Coastal Charm.  I know I am!

The Green Shag Market Sale

So I once again left a big gap in the blog.  The Cardinals were still dragging out the post season, which was keeping me antsy, and I spent this past week preparing for/setting up for/doing/recovering from the Green Shag Market sale on Saturday.  Now that's over and the Cards have imploded on me (don't worry, I still love you guys!), I suppose I can focus.  Wanna hear about the Green Shag Market sale?

I was super excited about this sale.  Felt really good about the opportunity.  I even had a plan to spread the 2ndhand Moon name.  I made prints of a bunch of the many, many pictures I've taken of the moon.  A few for your perusal:

 

I thought it would be fun if with every sale I could give the customer a moon picture with 2ndhand Moon written on the back and let them know they could find me on Facebook, and tell them about my new Speakeasy Deals customer appreciation plan.  If you missed that details on that, here's the scoop:

If you buy something from 2ndhand Moon, take a picture of it in it's new home and post it on Facebook, tagging 2ndhand Moon, I'll send you a one-time-use code word to give at checkout for a percentage off the item of your choice from booth 78 at Kenrick Antique Mall.

Anyway, I felt like I had a good plan, and when I got home from work at 9:30 or so on Friday night I got to work getting everything priced and ready.  I worked through the night and my dear friend Beth came over dark and early Saturday morning to help me load everything up and take it over there.  It was still dark (and ch-ch-chilly!) shortly after 6:30 AM when we started setting up.  We were ready well ahead of the 9:00 AM start time, and I was all nerves and excitement.  Here are few shots of sale day:

Love the big fun lamp in the foreground.  In the background you can see the garment rack that marks the beginning of my area (parking lot space).

Another area of the sale.  There were tons of vendors.  How cool is that red atomic fireplace?

Here's part of my stuff, thanks to Beth.  I took some close-ups of things, but totally forgot to get a shot of my whole space.

Unfortunately, whether it was the cold morning that made everybody want to stay in bed until the sun came out or something else, there weren't a lot of customers until early afternoon, and even then, I didn't make as many sales as I'd hoped.  At first I was worried that I was doing something wrong, but as the day wore on I heard from other vendors that they had similar experiences.  I think the only vendor that really cleared a lot out was the one in the space next to mine, who had tons of pots and pans and things at super low flea market prices.  I did cover the price of the rental space, the gas and food for the day and the prices of the items I sold, plus a little bit of actual profit, but it definitely wasn't an amount equal to all the work involved.  Still, the sun did eventually come out and it turned into a pretty day:

And I chatted with some really nice people, and I gave out my moon pictures and gave my spiel about the Speakeasy Deals to everyone I sold to, so there's a chance I may end up with repeat customers.  And while I had to pack everything up and bring it home again after the sale, at least that's a ton of stuff already prepped and priced and ready to go into the booth when there's room for it, so it's work I would have done in bits over time anyway.

I wish I had thought to take pictures of the items I sold, since most everything was stuff I've never shot for the blog before and especially because I actually did pretty well on vintage clothing.  I sold a butter soft leather jacket that I love nearly as much as the Tale of Two Coats one, and a nice, thick wool fisherman's sweater, a bright orange wool and mohair cardigan and a brown and white polka-dotted tie-neck blouse.  I also sold a handful of books, one terra cotta and one ceramic owl, an awesome floral suitcase and a nifty little peacock fan decoration thingy.  Luckily I do have pictures of the last few things:

The blue floral suitcase is the one that found a new home.  Isn't it spectacular?  Love!

I found this little peacock at an estate sale for very little.  Passed it on for not much to a
nice girl who says she buys vintage crafty things and tries to reproduce them.  Isn't that cool?

The short pot-bellied owl with the orange eyes and the larger terra cotta one with the pointy ears both sold.  Oh yeah, and the orange candle holder/centerpiece thingy in the foreground also sold!

Anyway, I admit I was a bit disappointed not to have sold more, but I felt good about the feedback I got from other vendors and people who seemed to be in the know.  It was a good learning experience, and if I come across a similar event (maybe on a smaller scale) while I still have so much stuff already prepped and packed up, I might be crazy enough to try it again!


Linking up to Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday and Me and My Shadow's Magpie Mondays.  Check them out for more thrifty, vintage awesomeness!

Sort of a long break, and two BIG announcements

Hi everybody!  Sorry I took kind of a break from blogging for several days.  It was my birthday last week, and my beloved Cardinals made the post-season, and I'm gearing up for something exciting this coming weekend, plus I've worked out a very special way to treat my customers well, both of which I'll tell you about in a minute!  All in all, I've been a bit distracted, but I've still been thrifting, and keeping booth 78 at Kenrick Antique Mall stocked and enjoying the gorgeous Fall, just failing to document any of it for posterity.  Here are the only pics I've remembered to take in the last week and a half, both of last week's additions to the booth:

First, a fabulous new addition to the Halloween costume options I've amassed:

Can't have only female prombies, can we?  So if you want to be
the zombie prom king of 1976, you know where to go!

And in the corner there above you might have noticed a whole bunch of bright colors.  I picked up this great afghan recently and had to get it into the shop - it's so fun!:

Gorgeous, well made chevron afghan

Seriously, I've completely failed to take pictures of anything else I had going.  Bad me!  But now it's time for a couple of announcements.  First:

This Saturday I'll be participating in the parking lot sale at the Green Shag Market!  

From 9:00 - 3:00 Saturday, 10/20, there will be a bunch of vendors of antique, vintage and collectible awesomeness in the autumn sunshine in the parking lot at the Green Shag Market at 5733 Manchester in St Louis City.  The location is easy enough to get to, but not the most obvious to spot on your first visit, so map it, and know that it's a bit East of where Manchester goes under Hampton, on the North side of the street.  Don't miss it, it's going to be great!  I'll have a parking-lot sized space full of vintage goodies, and tons of fun!

The second big announcement is:

2ndhand Moon now offers Speakeasy Deals!

What's that, you may ask?  Well, I can imagine why, since I made it up.  Here's how it works:

1.  Buy treasures at 2ndhand Moon - booth 78 at Kenrick Antique Mall (or this Saturday only, in the parking lot at the Green Shag Market!).

2. Snap a pic of your treasures in their new environment: adorning your home or your body or your life in some other way.

3. Post said pic and help a sister out with a bit of free advertising - tag and tout 2ndhand Moon on Facebook.

4. I'll private message you (on Facebook) a unique one-time secret password (that's the speakeasy part).

5. Shop 2ndhand Moon again, and at the checkout, give them a wink and your password for booth 78, and you'll be allowed into the secret world of special discounts - a percentage off the item of your choice!

6. Lather, rinse repeat - just like any speakeasy, regulars will be rewarded for their patronage.

Discount applies to one item of your choice from booth 78.  Past purchases can be posted, but one post per item, obviously, and one per person per week, please.

And even though I've only shared 2 of my finds, I'm linking up with Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday.

My Current Kenrick Covet List

Pardon my alliteration, but I'm a bit enthused about some of the items my fellow Kenrick Antique Mall sellers have on display, and I thought I'd share a few with you tonight, so you know there are treasures to be had inside this weekend as well as outside at the flea market:

This toy oven may be a little the worse for wear, but I love it exactly the way it is!

In the same booth as the above, this little blue owl pitcher is both adorable and handy!

This ceramic and wood pendant light fixture is so mid-century sleek.  Sexy!

This little lamp, I'm guessing from the 30's or 40's is such a pretty blue.

And for Halloween, a couple of exceptionally awesome scary clowns:

Love/hate!  The one on top is super duper scary - he looks frantic!

And just so you remember, here are a couple of the treasures still available in my own booth, #78:

The adorable sad-faced basset hound planter is willing to sell you his tiny shades!

I love this kind of old suitcase - great for an overnight or to carry your laptop.

There is something freaky about this little girl and her birds... Halloween-appropriate!

I think this little pitcher with its star bursts is more fun than the usual Blendo style.

My clown is a little more mid-mod dignified than the others, and not as creepy.

Don't forget, Flea Market at Kenrick Plaza in Shrewsbury this Saturday, sponsored by Kenrick Antique Mall, inside of which you can find all of the above, and lots more great deals.  Everything in the 2ndhand Moon booth (#78) will be 25% off all weekend!