Hi, my name is Kim, and I'm an alley picker.
They say the first step is admitting it, but I have to say, I have no plans to quit. I mentioned in my last post that I am on the lookout for a tall, skinny shelf - something around 5' tall and narrow, maybe 18" wide. I am keeping my eyes peeled at the thrift stores, but I am also checking the alleys of my fair city, in hopes of coming across a free one, like the shelf already resident in my booth, which you may recall seeing covered in snow and ice the morning I moved everything in there for the first time:
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| Alley shelf #1 |
Once I signed the rental agreement on my booth, I had about 3 weeks before it was time to move things in, and I really badly needed some shelving upon which to display my wares. So of course, rather than buy any, I just started taking alleys instead of streets when driving around the city, and soon I was wedging the above slightly swaybacked non-beauty into Chester's backseat. I didn't have anywhere to store it and my opening day was still over a week away, so it sat exposed to the elements a bit longer in my backyard - hence the coat of snow on Booth-Day morning.
Anyway, I've started cruising the alleys once again, in search of another shelf so that I can fit more vintage goodness into my booth. Today, I made a nice score, although not of the tall-skinny-shelf variety (more phone shots today, forgot my camera):
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| Cool old captain's chair. |
Check it out! A perfectly good, sturdy, well-designed chair. The (admittedly boring) upholstery is in perfect condition too. Currently it's residing on friends' porch, because I had to vacate Chester's back seat in order to pick up/take home people. I have offered it to the friends if they want it. If they don't, I'll try out one of the wood-spiffer-uppers I've heard about on the bloggernets and pop it in the booth and see what happens. Suggestions on the best wood-spiffer-uppers? Would be appreciated!
Also, I spent some time in the booth this morning, and was happy to find another nifty bit of goodness had sold:
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The awesome vintage radio has found a new home!
Congrats, new owner of stylin' little radio! |
I had quite a bit of stuff to add, and found that had sold, so I did some rearranging. I moved a set of Southern Comfort glasses up to the top shelf, moved the Autumn Harvest Pyrex bowl down where they had been, rearranged a few more things and added the brass mirror and funny little elephant I mentioned yesterday:
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| Rotten quality due to the phone-shot nature but the mirror and elephant are there! |
I also added another men's cardigan - this one with stripes of mustard and gold, 4 more men's hats, some ladies' blouses, and these guys:
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| The blue decoupaged Marie-Antoinette and Louis are in the house! |
I also added (and completely failed to photograph) 11 pieces of Sabin China SAB76 pattern, which looks like this (thanks
Replacements Ltd, for the ID and for the picture):
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I have 2 plates, 6 cups, one oval platter, a creamer and a
small gravy boat or another big creamer - not sure which.
Most have some crazing, one plate has some discoloration. |
After that and before spending a nice evening singing with people I love and enjoying the backyard breezes and view of Jupiter and Venus hanging out in the Western sky tonight, I made a stop at St. Vincent de Paul in search of the elusive tall skinny shelf. Still no joy on that front, but I did find a new, super-kitschy little friend:
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| Hint, the red dot is not a button. It's a stopper. |
I've decided to call him Timmy. He looks like he's from the 60s maybe, and he's plastic. I wasn't sure what the deal with him was at first, and I kept trying to push the little red button, but it turns out it's not a button. Once I figured out it was a stopper, I got it. The square base is a reservoir you fill with water, and Timmy, well, he's kind of a rude little squirt. We had lots of fun surprising people with him this evening, and he will be in the shop next week if you would like him for your vintage toy or novelty collection, or if you just think he's as goofy as I do. My childhood and young adult selves would both have been too mature to be entertained by my friend Timmy here, but I've grown down a lot since then. Also, you have to give it to him, the squirt-mechanism still works fine after at least 40 years; that's impressive.
And on that note, I wish you all a lovely evening, and a lovelier tomorrow. Good night!
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