Prepped some goodies for a holiday bazaar

Every year where I work they host a holiday bazaar where they let vendors set up in the office - from crafters and artists to things like Pampered Chef, and this year I get to set up a table, and the folks I work with will get to see what my "other job" involves.  And if I'm lucky, I'll make a little money!  The sale is on the 30th, and I want to be sure to turn out the best little treasures I can, so I've been spending a little time sorting through and cleaning up some gems that have been neglected in my garage for far too long.

First up, a thick, soft, lovely vintage camel-colored cashmere sweater:

Followed by a great pair of men's tweed caps:

The camel-colored one on the left is by Lands End.

This is the label inside the herringbone tweed one.  It reads:  "Donegal Handwoven.  This tweed was handwoven from pure new wool in my small cottage in Donegal, Ireland.  Like my forefathers, I have put something of my own character into this cloth.  Ruggedness to wear well, softness for comfort, colours from our countryside.  Joy and health to you who wear this."  And it's signed Daniel A O'Donnell, Weaver.  How cool is that?

Next up, a very pretty mid-century gravy boat with a blueish pine-cone pattern:

And a pair of bright, sunny, lemon-meringue-looking yellow/milk-glass bowls:

The polka-dotted mushroom toothpick holder I put in the shop got snatched up immediately, but no worries, I've found another!  This one's only got flowers painted on, so you can see the wood underneath:

And check out this awesome retro (but I think repro, rather than actually vintage) brushed aluminum ice bucket/martini glasses set!:

There's plenty more of course, but I also wanted to be sure to let you know that this weekend, you can avoid the Black Friday madness by shopping local, shopping green and shopping frugal all at once!  Kenrick Antique Mall is having a big sale Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and 2ndhand Moon (booth 78!) will be 30% off every single item.  And don't forget, if you buy something from 2ndhand Moon, post a picture and tag us on Facebook, I'll send you a special one-time-use speakeasy-style password for a discount on the item of your choice on your next visit to the booth!

Linking up to:
Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrifty Tuesday and Me and My Shadow's Magpie Mondays

Winter vintage

Last Tuesday when I was at the booth, the mall was putting up Christmas decorations.  I, in my newbie-seller wisdom commented that it's just too soon, it makes me nervous, etc., but it got me thinking.  October was... not good, sales wise for me.  I need to actually make some sales for the holidays, and step things up.  I almost backed out of the weekend's road trip to spend a couple of days totally revamping my booth, but...  obviously, I didn't.  So I'm just going to have to go a bit at a time and see what I can do.  So today, I started on the clothing side of things.  I went in and pulled out all the Halloween stuff, and all the stuff that's really just not appropriate for the weather anymore, and added in coats and jackets and dresses.  Some of these are things I had in there when I first opened up shop last February, some are newer finds I have picked up at estate sales and thrift shops over the last few months.  I think all of them are pretty fabulous.  What do you think?

First, a full-length deep orange wool coat with wide collar and exaggerated pockets:

                                  

Next a pair of velvet beauties:

Short quilted black velvet jacket

Double-breasted vintage beauty!

Synthetic and suede!  The royal blue 3/4 sleeve is some woolly synthetic from I'm guessing the late 60s.  The red Positano suede is totally 80s Firenza:

Plaids:

The all blue is a long-sleeved, zip-front number with handy pockets.  It's got more shape to it than shows here.

The other is a colorful dress and coat combo à la Jackie O:

And here's a gorgeous, insanely soft double-breasted full-length red cashmere coat with pretty buttons:

Next up, a short, teal jacket with a gorgeous floral lining.  I can't really swear that this is vintage, but it has a lovely vintage feel and hand-stitching on the lining:

And next is a heavy, warm nubby green tweed coat with fun swirls on the buttons.  This one would keep you warm in Siberia!:

I had one other short navy and white double-breasted hounds-tooth jacket, but I forgot to get a shot of it, but you can see it in the picture below.  With all these new additions in such great saturated colors, I think the clothing rack in the booth is pretty eye-catching right now:

While I was there swapping it all out, a gentleman stopped into the booth and looked at a few items and commented that in his opinion, I have a good eye.  It pretty much made my day to hear that after just barely breaking even for the month of October.  He didn't buy anything, but a bit of encouragement's worth something too!

I'll be working on revamping more parts of the booth soon, which I'll be sure to share with you.  In the mean time, check out these link-ups for other people's treasures!:

Me and My Shadow's Magpie Monday, Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrifty Tuesday.

Road trip!

Guess what you guys?  I had a vacation day to take, so I made this a long weekend, and took off on a road trip with a friend.  We left St Louis Friday afternoon and made our (leisurely) way to Cape Girardeau that night by way of Kaskaskia and Jackson, MO, and we did it our way: no schedule, no agenda.  See anything interesting?  Detour!  That's my favorite kind of road trip.  Here's a quickie pictorial view of yesterday:

         

So this morning we went to check out downtown Cape Girardeau.  It's a river city on the Mississippi, like St. Louis, but obviously quite a bit smaller, and the historic little downtown area is quite pretty:

But more than pretty, it's chock-full of antique shops.  Some of the treasures I coveted up and down this street?:

 

 

I'm on a pretty tight budget for this little road trip, and have sworn to buy only that which is so fabulous, so cheap, or both, that I can't possibly justify not buying it, so after gazing longingly at so many beautiful things, I did stop in to a Salvation Army thrift store I found, and spent fifty cents (too cheap to pass up!).  Here are my two little purchases thus far this trip:

Tiny gold space man bank.

Who might actually be a scuba man instead.

Pretty/funky vintage floral fabric scrap.

That turned out to have already been partially
turned into the front half of a dress!

I did pick up one other thing today that I consider to be a real treasure, but it was free!:

It wasn't the very cool fishing net I found under a railroad
bridge over the Mississippi.  It was the smooth, flat, dark
gray river stone just below it in the picture.
I can never resist picking up a good rock!

So what about you guys?  Any great treasures lately?  If you want to see some other folks' treasures, check out The Thrifty Groove's Thrifty Things Friday link-up!

Love her or hate her

So here's the thing.  Barbie... she's maybe not that good for girls.  I know, I get it.  And I don't particularly care for her.  Now.  But when I was a kid, she was a great outlet for a vivid imagination.  The weeds along the fence in the back yard were a vast jungle.  The bathroom sink was a huge luxury Jacuzzi.  The cat was a panther, the basement was a great place for a road trip for Barbie in our awesome Tonka Winnebago (she had to lay down - she was a bit too tall for it), and eye shadow rubbed into her hair was great for giving Barbie a little punk edge!  Also, her head and limbs sometimes came off, which was funny - you could (just about) cram her head on Ken and vice versa, on some models.  And that's not even getting to all the cool clothes, and the zillions of ways you could mix and match if you had enough of them.  I put a yellow cowgirl shirt on her over a ballgown skirt and thought I was a true fashion rebel.  So what I'm saying is, good for me or not, I quite liked Barbie when I was a little girl.  But that was long after her debut.

Today I learned just how much baggage the old girl truly carries.  Today, I found The Barbie Game: Queen of the Prom.  Très vintage!

Apparently when she was young Barbie was allowed colors other than pink!

Apparently a reproduction version of this game came out in the 90s, but this is the original in all it's glory from back when Barbie had little short bangs.  It even has a wooden die:

See?  you can't beat Barbie for the fashions!

The graphics are simply awesome.  Check out these game cards and money:

Seriously gorgeous fashion art!

Barbie's profile on the money!

The box is in really good shape for it's age.  If descriptions I found are to be believed, the game is from 1961, only 2 years after Barbie scarred her very first young girl's psyche, and over 50 years ago now.  And boy do the years show, not in the condition of the game, but in the conditions of life as a teenage girl.  The goal of the game is to become queen of the prom.  To be able to go to the prom and try for queen, you must accomplish the following:

1. Become president of a club at school
2. Get a boyfriend
3. Get the boyfriend to "go steady"
4. Get a fancy dress

Seriously, there are Boyfriend cards!:

Dashing Ken appears to have some competition, although
perhaps not from bachelor #3.  I'm guessing Poindexter
was kind of the Barbie game version of The Dud.

This game is from my Mom's era, so I don't know how appropriate it was in it's time, but seriously you guys, check out this stuff - I'll make these extra big so you can read them:

Ok, I'll admit it, once in awhile I wouldn't mind somebody shuffling the boyfriend cards for me!

Do you see those "on a date" squares?  "HE CRITICIZES YOUR HAIR-DO.  GO TO BEAUTY SHOP"
!!!

So yeah, vapid, limiting and sexist, but Barbie's been an astronaut since then, and anyway it's so, so pretty to look at!

What do you think?   

Thanks for stopping by, and if you're not sated on thrifted vintage just yet, I'm linking up here:

Me and My Shadow's Magpie Monday and Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrifty Tuesday.  Check them out!