Local treasure alert!

Depends quite a lot on your definition of treasure, but if you like a certain kind of ornate vintage kitsch, get thee to the Goodwill on Watson Road in Crestwood, MO, and you can have this awesome thing for (Goodwill's killing me with their prices!) $9.00:

Naked lady pendant lamp/oil fountain!

My grandpa had a bigger one of these, with more plastic fauna (which was not as flourescent in color).  The lines you see that keep her in sort of a slanty looking cage are something like fishing line, down which drops of oil run continuously, so it looks like she's in the rain.  No idea if this version works, but the overwhelming sense of nostalgia and kistch that hit me when I rounded the corner and spotted her was enough to make me check the price, even though I was only there looking for shelves on my lunch break and am still not buying inventory.  Anyway, if you want to add some gilded silliness to your pad, you know were to look!

A second bit of Tuesday kitsch and some "old" stuff I found in the corner (ahem - hoarder!)

Last night I showed you guys Timmy, from my quick thrift stop-in that day.  Here's another fine bit of retro kitsch some misguided soul chose to get rid of, and I, seeing it's intrinsic awesomeness, rescued from the cold lonely shelves of the thrift store:

The thing I like best is knowing that somebody Made this.

I also picked up a super cool old pillowcase, and a little daisified lotus bowl:

The little bowl is a bit bold all by itself, but
it's almost a wallflower compared to that print!

And while snapping the above snaps, I noticed a bag sitting in the corner and found a couple of treasures I picked up awhile back and promptly forgot about!  

Handy Hannah hair dryer - and it still works!

This one fascinates me with it's machine-age chrome and it's early version of an ergonomic handle.  It's even got a hot and cold setting and a little slider to let you increase or decrease the amount of heat by opening or partially closing the vent holes.  Pretty impressive for something so obviously old. The smaller print around the circle there indicates that it was manufactured by the Standard Products Corp of Whitman, Mass.  These  were very well made machines, because there are lots of them still floating around out there, mostly for sale on Etsy and Ebay.  Some of the listings claim it's as old as the 40s, and the Handy Hannah name was not exclusive to hair dryers.  Apparently the same company made other "Handy" machines for ladies of the mid-century.  But I'll let you go look that up for yourself.

This next one is even more special:

Gorgeous gray-blue beaded cardigan

Tag reads Made in Scotland Expressly for Peck & Peck  and below that, Braemar, which I happen to know  (now that Wikipedia told me so) is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland that hosts annual Highland Games.  Wikipedia also tells me that Peck &Peck was a venerable name in fashion on 5th Avenue in New York going back to the 1880s, and it died out after it was bought out in the 1970s, so this is a real-deal mid-century beaded cashmere cardigan.  The beads are heavy and white with tiny, ever-so-tasteful rhinestones inside the U shapes of the swooshes.  Not a single bead or rhinestone seems to be missing, it's soft as clouds and it still smells like some delicate perfumed powder or other.  I would consider it a size small, probably.  If anybody is interested (in this or anything else I post here), let me know.  Otherwise, it's going in the shop on Monday or Tuesday.   

And on that note of elegant sophistication, I bid you all good night!

A few more lovely things that will be going into the shop

Hey all!  Just thought I'd share a few more bits and pieces that I've got pics of, that will be going into the shop:

Royal blue wool coat.

Spiral bound floral photo album.

I love the font on the photo album, and this one came complete with a few pages of actual old photos.  I haven't decided yet whether people will like it better with or without them inside, so I'm not sending this to the booth right away.  What do you think?

Vintage fabric - an old curtain panel.

\This fabric is amazing.  Its not very big, but what an impact!  I can't for anything imagine who designed it or who thought it would make a good curtain, but I'm glad they did!

Two planters and a small vase.

The green planter is a Haeger piece - stamped on the bottom, and there's a sticker still adhered to one side.  The other two are unmarked, but nifty.  I like the origami-esque nature of the brown and cream pot, and the speckle finish and sweet green interior make the little vase special.

Half a dozen Nancy Drew titles.

I don't know much about Nancy Drew, but I do love the cover art.  On one of them, the bottom corners of many pages are torn, or possibly chewed.  The others are in much better shape.

Bovano of Cheshire Connecticut ashtray

I love this thing.  The company is still in business, but hasn't made these glass-enameled copper trays since some time in the 60s (according to their website).  It's just such a cool mid-century Mad Men cocktail party kind of thing.  But I can't imagine smashing out your butts in something so pretty.  It should hang on the wall like the artwork it is!

Small desk lamp.

Sorry the picture of this is so dark.  Suppose I should have plugged it in and turned it on.  He may look shy, but just wait till he lights up - he's a handsome little guy.

Fabulous mid-century clock radio

This little lady isn't going into the booth just yet.  I haven't tested her out yet, and to be perfectly honest, I'm enjoying looking at her too much to be disappointed if she doesn't work.

Look how cool she is!

Autumnal kitsch - tin mural-clock.

I need to get some batteries and test this guy out as well.  So awesome - the image is printed on metal, and I love the font of the clock.  I could have kicked myself when I bent one of the hands slightly (after it had survived all these years unscathed), but it went back into place with no signs of a problem.

Semi-sheer red and white polka-dot dress.  AB FAB!

What can I even say about this one?  It's a show stopper.  Can't you just see it in a movie musical from back in the day?

New Kitsch and treasures - could use help IDing a couple of them!

I've been so bad.  I know I have plenty of great stuff for my booth for the short term, and should be spending all my free time on cleaning/researching/pricing my finds to get them ready for This Coming Saturday (eek!), and I have done quite a bit of cleaning and researching, but I can't stop myself from the fun of the hunt, and now that I can officially use the excuse that I'm acquiring "inventory", I just keep on doing so.  But I think I've acquired some nifty inventory, at least!  Here are some new nifties that have made it home with me this week:

Cool machine-age bronze colored desk lamp. 

 I love the (pencil-holding?) grooves in the front of the base.  Now I just need to test and see if it works!

Rubbery spindly-legged baby deer.  

Kitschy and adorable.  It's hard to tell but this little fella's huge.  He's at least twice as tall as the regular-sized coffee mug below.

Adorable bunny with pink and mustard colored mushrooms.

Very cute bluebird/angel print.

Sweet vintage Hoenig of California candy dish.

Hawaii tiki napkin-holder.

Fabulously kitschy scowly owl with rolling pin - love him!

Palest green sculptural bud vase. 

This little vase seemed so unique I had to snap it up.  It has the name "Mary Withrow" written on the bottom in what could easily be gold paint-pen.  That is the name of a former US Treasurer, but not of any potters I could find.  If it seems familiar and/or you might be able to point me in the right direction, let me know - I'd appreciate it!

Set of 4 black/gray/orange tumblers.

These really needed washed before getting their picture taken, but I couldn't wait.  Oh, and also they'd just come in from the trunk, so they were really cold and condensation was forming!

Signed and numbered picture in pinks and yellows.
Huge, in heavy wood frame (cropped out of pic).

 I love, love, love this, but the writing is faded so that, while it is definitely signed and numbered, I can't quite make it all out.  In the bottom left corner it says Ed 90.  In the middle I believe it says "Opera Interiors", and on the right it's signed Dorothy Something, 55 (which I assume is the date).  I Googled all the bits I could work out, but haven't had any luck.  If anyone has any guesses on the Something part for me (I think it starts with a B?), or can hook me up with a research resource, I'd be thrilled.

What about you guys?  Anybody else thrifting this week?    Don't forget, I'll be in booth 78 at Kenrick Antique Mall starting THIS WEEKEND!  

Oh, and for my very first time, I'm linking to Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday.  Yay!

How's that for thrifty?

A co-worker told me today about something he's very excited about, and now I'm kind of excited about it my own self!  Apparently there are some guys in Finland who make movies on the extra-cheap.  These guys crowdsource pretty much the whole thing!  Cool!

Co-worker-man says they made a Star Trek parody or homage or something a few years ago.  I just looked it up for ya - it's called Star Wreck, if you're into such things:

I'm not sure that having seen the most recent Star Trek movie (cause I love Simon Pegg!) and a handful of episodes of the one with the Reading Rainbow guy quite qualifies me to watch that one, but the new one they're doing sounds pretty awesome, if not as awesome as when martians-stole-santa-claus in the 50s or 60s:

The premise of this new film is that in 1945, Nazis built themselves some cool flying saucers and escaped to the dark side of the moon, where they've been plotting all this time, and now they're ready to come back and conquer the world.  How awesome is that?  The kitsch factor alone makes me smile, but then the co-worker showed me the trailer, and it's really quite beautiful.

This trailer is from 2008, but as I understand it the movie wasn't finished until some time in 2011 and the world premier is in February at the Berlin film festival (there are a bunch more trailers and clips and whatnot on youtube and at their site).  I guess they don't have a distributor or anything at this point, but you can go to their website and if you scroll about halfway down the main page you can "demand" it in your neck of the woods, presumably so they can show potential distributors that it would have an audience.  I totally made my demand - needed to make sure St Louis was on their little map, didn't I?  I mean, I get a kick out of the whole idea, but what's more, I couldn't help doing my part to promote such a thrifty endeavor (without spending money, of course).  So there's that managed - probably 3-5 more people in the world will know about their clever film because of me and my little blog. ;)

Bowling!

Saturday, to celebrate the birthdays of two dear friends, our whole big crew of goofballs went bowling.  The whole idea of bowling is awesome, isn't it?  It's probably not a particularly thrifty activity, but for someone who likes scouring thrift stores for vintage finds, it has quite the retro appeal, even if I'm not good at it.  At all.  I scored 80 points in the game Saturday, and felt good about it.  I even got two spares!  But the real point of telling you all this is to share the pictures!  I posted the pictures of people having fun on Facebook already, but I saved all the kitschy goodness for you all!

The moon through the window of the van on 70 north of
downtown, on the way there.

Crest Bowl, in Florrissant, MO has an awesome
old mid-century sign.  LOVE IT!

And look, the moon made it into that shot, too :)
So you know I had to give him some up-close attention!

Look how handsome he is!

Check it out - a bowl-relièf!

I don't know what the key is to, but I LOVE the keychain!
And look- tiny pencils!  They play a part in the two kitschiest
family activity/sports in the world.  I heart tiny pencils.

Concession stand, and the bar/pool-hall entrance.

Look at all the colors!  Why don't they make
footballs and baseballs in lots of random colors,
with swirls and sparkles and stuff?

The Glow Machine was not old - it's a vending machine
for glow-sticks and whatnot.  But  it LOOKS fantastic.

Cute mural.

I love bowling shoes!  You have no idea the amount of personal
restraint I have had to exercise not to sneak out with them in the past. 

A Tuesday estate sale - really?

A month or so ago (I really have no concept of time; it could have been September for all I know, but I'm pretty sure I had a coat on, so probably not) there was a random Tuesday-only estate sale right around the corner from my house in South City.  It just so happens that I'm off on Tuesdays, so that seemed particularly serendipitous to me, and I stopped in with high hopes.  I didn't find any one amazing, huge thing, but I found several small things that I quite liked, and that seemed like they might do well in this Etsy store I still haven't posted anything in.  First and coolest is this little Cuckoo clock-inspired looking plastic thermometer/"weatherhouse":

It's plastic, and in need of cleaning, but super cute! 

It says Made in USA, Chicago on the bottom, and there's a cardboard backing that says lots of other stuff, but I think it's still at the bottom of the box that I carried all my treasures out in, so I don't have the details handy.  I did find a similar one online that describes the little characters as "children" who come out when the weather is to be good, and a "witch" who shows up to portend bad weather, so while it's not very gingerbready, all I can think about now is Hansel and Gretel.

I love the marbly-swirled plastic of the house.  What's up with that?

I also picked up a bag of goodies by the sewing table in the back room which contained all of this:

Why do they call stuff like this "notions"?  Anybody know?

I particularly liked the advertisement/free book of needles from a local moving company from some time in the past, "Needles Moving and Storage"

They're "Lady Mary" needles, from England for some reason.

Oddly enough, there's one just like it on Ebay right now, except in their photo it's black and white, whereas the one I have is printed in green on a creamy cardstock.  

I also picked up a couple of linen items:

1964 Vera calendar tea towel.  Great colors!

2 Park Ave. poodle napkins.  Hee!

I always love Vera colors, and the napkins are uber-kitsch - love them!  One is pretty stained, and I'm not too sure about cleaning them because of the poodle-fur bits, but they are awesome just for existing.

I also nabbed a couple of things for the sake of the cool packaging.  The first was audio tape (not "an" audio tape):

Apparently, you could buy audio tape for $0.39 at some point in time,
and you could do so at Western Auto!

Nice that it looks cool, since I don't actually have an apparatus for playing it.

I'm guessing it was a recording of Julia Child, rather than one belonging to her.

The other was a tin that I believed to be for typewriter ribbon when I bought it:

I love the stylized art-deco-y gazelle!

But when I opened it up:

The spool inside was not for typewriter ribbon, but 8mm film:

I don't think that was the original contents of the tin, though, as it has "Underwood" clearly stamped on the bottom.

And finally there were coasters.  First an assortment of mid-century-ephemeral paper coasters:

I particularly like the Buffalo Ranch one.  These are "ROYAL CATCH-ALL COASTERS" according to the backs: "Used Exclusively by the Perfect Hostess for CARE-FREE ENTERTAINING" (all emphasis theirs).

But I know that the truly Perfect Hostess would use these next coasters, of the awesome melamine variety, with the much-less-austentations message on the back "Made in Boonton, USA":

I love the mid-century 4-colors thing and the speckling, and the fact that there are roses sculpted on the edges and daisy/star-bursts in the centers, like they can't make up their minds.

There was also a small bundle of rolled-up maps found in the closet with the paper coasters.  Fortunately for you, I don't happen to have pics of them at this point, but anyway, the moral of this story is, you never know what fun stuff you might find, even on a Tuesday!  Or maybe it's something like never miss an estate sale; they might have poodle napkins and plastic Hansel and Gretel weatherhouses.  Or maybe there is no moral, but just a bunch of pictures of some stuff.  Either way, have a lovely Tuesday, everyone!