It's Time for Celebrity Look-a-Likes!

Free Mickey!

He's been unleashed!  Let the pigeons loose!

Or at least the Mickeys.

Snow globes, even tiny ones, where some or most of the liquid has dissolved or evaporated or leaked really depress me.  Breaking Mickey free seemed like the right thing to do.

I was going to do one of those junker "how to" posts on the process, but I figured everyone should already know how to gently tap something with a hammer.  If not, drop me an email and I'll make a YouTube video. 

Oh wait, that's already been done.

I will say this:  The liquid in those snow globes stinks!

So I couldn't go to any yard sales on Saturday....

...But I still found some stuff.

I spent part of Sunday working at the booth, which means I also did some shopping while I was there.  Shopping is a part of the work routine, after all.  I'm still figuring out where the booths with the best stuff and prices are, but I do have a few regulars already that I hit every time I go to the store.

Here's the haul.

Sweet pair of vintage duck planters

I am so not one for planters, but c'mon!  Cute ducks!  She even has a bonnet on.  He, apparently, is naked.

I honestly don't know what the re-sale potential of stuff like this silver plate shell dish is, but it was only 50 cents.

Vintage office supplies!

The tags on these babies read "Glass Item"

These flower frogs have some chippage, but it's mostly on the bottoms.  Still, at 50 cents each, I had to get them.

Greek style icon painting

I've got no clue who this guy is.  My Greek is not so hot.  I'm not sure if the symbolism on Greek style icons is the same as for Western style imagery, but if it is, then the book would mean that he's a gospel writer.

This list is one the back of the picture.  There are twelve names, which would imply twelve disciples, which gives more substance to my theory about the saint in the picture.  I'm not sure how to translate Greek online, but I'll give it a shot.  I totally flunked Hebrew in seminary and never even made it to Greek, so I'm flying a little blind here.  I'm not good with languages that don't use the standard alphabet.

Finally, this sweet church scene, which is really a vintage night light.  I love the carving on the box.  I need to test this baby and see if it works.

So Monday, I went to Goodwill.  Well, I had all that money from the sale! What else was I going to do with it? Invest?

Not much to find there, but I did get some stuff.  This Goodwill remodeled last year, and lately they've been rethinking their pricing.  In the past, it's been hit or miss, but lately nearly everything is reasonably priced there.  I'm starting to head over there on a regular basis again.

I've been finding a lot of those Bible on tape sets lately, which is all right by me!  I always get nervous when I try to buy them at Goodwill.  Tapes are supposed to be fifty cents each, but the price guides don't say anything about tape sets.  If they ever end up being 50 cents per tape, then I'm out of luck.  It takes a lot of tapes to record the Bible, you know.  So far, though, I've managed to get them for 50 cents for the set!

The dish at top is a cat dish with Disney cat characters on it.  I'm keeping it hidden from Chiquito.   I try to never pass up anything with Winnie the Pooh characters on it, hence the box.  The candlesticks are pewter, a material that I am way too fond of.

Swoon!

I've also hidden this adorable kitty wrapping paper from Chiquito.  He'd never let me take it out of the house to sell.

Trendy coffee cup picture and vintage strawberry note paper set in tin.

I think the owls were a night light at one time.  There's a small notch on the back for the cord to go.  I hope the owl trend hasn't died yet.  Snoopy cup?  Yes, please!  Small stack of comics, priced normally for once.  Usually this particular Goodwill is a good source for comics and manga at a decent price.  The other stores will have them, but the prices are unreal.  

 

 

The labels on this painted basket may say "Rome" and "New Orleans" but all the places painted on the sides are from Lexington, KY.  This must have been someone's college memento, I think.  It's one of those things that is either  so quirky and unique that someone will love it right away or so personalized that no one will ever buy it from me.  Gotta take the chance, I say!

An interesting (albeit perplexing) thing happened while I was at the Goodwill.  There was a woman wandering around the store a few feet in front of me.  She had a few items in her hands.  Suddenly, she turns, walks over to the office door, bangs on it, and demands to see the manager.  Why, I have no clue.  One minute, she's shopping.  The next, she's storming the office.

The manager says that it will be a few minutes.  She's trying to get a problem straightened out at one of the registers.  The woman waits a few minutes, paces around, waits some more, then goes back to shopping!  Eventually, she gets in line, right behind me.  The manager finally comes out and walks by both of us.  The woman never says a thing to her.  The manager starts ringing people out because there is a big line, so I let the woman go in front of me, so I can finally see what this is all about so that she can talk to the manager, but she never says a word to her.  At all.  Only in a Goodwill.

Finally, my pitiful haul that I brought up in my whiny post last week.  It's not really worth the blog space, but what the hell?

Seriously.  That's all there is.

The woman I bought the ornaments from whispered to me that "They're fifty years old."  Yes.  Whispered.  Like it was a state secret or something.  I wanted to whisper back "I am too, but I don't care who knows."  They're in rough shape, with what looks like mildew spots on the inside.  I'm afraid to even attempt cleaning them.  After all (whispering) they're fifty years old.  Maybe I should stop taking showers for the same reason.  Who knows what could happen?

The Pee Wee Colorforms are mostly all there and have been played with.  The set was only 25 cents, so why not?  

I'm planning to head to an estate sale today, so maybe I'll have some more to post later on!

Your Chiquito of the Month for April

Somehow, it's sort of fitting to feature this silly boy on April Fool's Day!

He's even doing one of his topsy-turvy, upside down poses.  Can't beat that.

By the way, Blogger's spell check suggests "autopsy" as a correction for "topsy-turvy."  Now, that's some April Fool's stuff going on right there!

I Found a "U"

Something interesting happened the other day when  I was straightening my booth.  I found a "U."

It wasn't my "U."  I do sell various kind of letters from time to time, but this particular "U" was not part of my inventory.  Since I don't live in some magical land where letters hurl themselves from the sky seemingly at a whim, I was a bit befuddled.  Where did this "U" come from?  Was someone trying to send me a message?  Was this my destiny?  Could someone not have spared a few more letters so that I would know exactly what I'm foretold to do?  With just a "U" to go by, I might head off to save the Princess of Uzbekistan, when I was really supposed to be teaching unicorns to juggle.  Messages about destinies that only contain one letter are certainly prone to misinterpretation.  Clearly, I had a lot to ponder.

After a few minutes, I realized what had happened.  It had fallen off of this sign, which used to say "CLA CLU" instead of "CAL CL."

That little section of wall is located right above my booth.  It's actually supposed to say "CLASS CLUB."  Letters have been falling off for a while now.  Across the mall from my booth is a sign that's a bit more intact.

At least it's only missing a "C" and you can see where it's supposed to go.

Most Peddlers Malls are located in buildings that used to house large stores that closed or moved.  Typically, they don't do a lot of remodeling when they open the Peddlers Mall, so fixtures, signage, etc is left intact.  "Class Club" was the name of part of the kids' clothing department at the store that used to be in the mall.  Since the signage hasn't been maintained, letters fall off from time to time.  And I end up with a mystery "U."

This is the sign that hangs above the little nook where my storage area is.  It's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me!  I just know some customer has seen my sizable personage strolling out of my area, looked up, seen that sign, and thought:  "Yeah, right."

As for that "U"?  I stuck it on the wall in my storage room.  Maybe I'll find some more letters and make a new word or sign of my own.

Presenting.....

A BOWL FULL OF CUTE!

Would have been cuter if those damn tags had cooperated and stayed out of the way.

BEHOLD!

The Top Secret Project Revealed at Last!

Here you go!  Take a little bit of this:

Many of the items in these pics came from my Arkansas junk haul

Add a bit of this:

And a tad of this:

I'm kind of mad about that window.

And this is what you get:

And I'm nuts about that brown cabinet!

That's a Marx play vanity in the middle there

Okay, it's just another booth.  Not all that exciting, really.  Certainly not worth all the secrecy.  It's actually kind of anti-climactic when you take a close look and see all the holes I need to fill and stuff I need to do.  But it's mine and I love it!

My plan last fall when I left one of the stores I was in was to get into another market as quickly as possible, but be picky about it.  The "vintage" market proved to be not quite my cup of tea on several fronts.  I like the idea of the flea market style mall, with the variety and eclecticism you find there.  There's an energy and a feel in those kinds of places that I think suits me better.

I put my self on this list for another vendor mall that's a couple of miles down the road from the Peddlers Mall.  That's one of the reason I kept it kind of secretive for a bit.  Both malls are kind of rivals, and I didn't want to announce anything until I let the Peddlers Mall know.  It's no big deal to be in both spaces, really.  There are a lot of vendors who are in both, but I also know firsthand how gossipy the junker community in this town can be.  Rumors start and spread seemingly at a whim.  I just wanted to let them know that I'm not changing my relationship with them before I started talking about any changes here.

While I'm curating this space a little more closely than I do my other spaces, I like the flexibility I'm finding here.  There's a wide range of booths and products here and that means a wide variety of customers looking for a wider variety of things.  That I think bodes well for a seller like me, who may specialize in some things, but doesn't fit into a particular niche.

It's still not quite the way I want it to be.  My name came up on the list right before we went to Arkansas, so I did not have a lot of time to prepare.  I also couldn't move in until January 1, when the space was available.  In other words, I moved the first batch of stuff in, then I got sick and the weather went to hell and my little bit of stuff started selling and I could not get out there with any more.  I piled a bunch more in there over the weekend, but you can see I still have a way to go before it's up to snuff.

I'm selling okay there for a new space that's still under development in a month that's been plagued by horrid weather.  The pressure is on for this month, since I've got to make back the rent I've had to pay for January, plus make February rent.  I think once I get it completely ready, I should do okay.  I have plenty of stuff for the space, since I have the items that came out of my closed booth, plus things that were bought for that booth.  Unfortunately, I have to re-tag many of those items because I was not able to keep my same booth number for the new store.  It's one digit off, but that's a lot of stuff to re-tag.  I've been kind of focusing on things that had not already been priced, so I'm not doing a lot of duplicate work as yet.  This week, I'm going to start pulling a few things from the Peddlers Mall that have been there a while.  Hopefully, a new environment will work for them.

The new space does give me some challenges.  I've never had a booth with walls before.  I'm a little intimidated by all that pegboard.  I'm not totally sure what to do with it.  I'm contemplating painting it, but I'm not sure I want to put that much work into a space that's still in its trial phases.  That bare floor gets to me too.  I'd like to put a rug in there, but I'm afraid of people tripping.

I have this marquee over the booth, so I'm toying with the idea of signage.

 
I'm playing it by ear at this point.  We'll go month by month and assess things as we go.  In a few months, if it's not working, I'll cut my losses and get out.  I stayed at the other place about a year too long.  I'm not doing that again.  I've got a good feeling about this one, though.  We'll see, I guess.

 At least I have interesting neighbors!

Now, on to Top Secret Project Phase II.  Mwa-ha-ha!

What the?

So I'm having breakfast in a cafeteria I go to the other day and I got to noticing the decorations.  And then these caught my eye:

Seriously.  What the hell are those things?  Christmas frogs?  The Martian elf contigent?  A bizarre chapter of the Nutcracker that I am not aware of? 

I admit that the last one is quite possible as I really know next to nothing of the Nutcracker Suite.

Should I be afraid?

You know what's fun?

Finding vintage books about the rhythm method!  That's what's fun!

Love the logo!

The full title!

Every corner heard from!

It's even got cool, tipped in charts!

 

And somewhat suggestive drawings!

Well, I thought it was fun!

Thursday Rambles

Oh dear!  I missed Monday!  I had the day off and spent it with my uncle and then at the booth, getting Xmas stuff up.  I'll have some pics of the finished product in a few days, when it's all done.  In the meantime, enjoy some rambling.

Oh the humanity!  (Part I)

I got on the bus the other day and the driver said his fare box was broken, so no one had to pay.  I use monthly passes, so it's not that big of a deal to me.  The woman behind me had cash and the following ensued:

Woman:  I need a transfer, please.
Driver:  I can't give you one.
Woman:  Why not?
Driver:  Because you haven't paid.  I can't give a transfer when you don't pay.
Woman:  You said not to.  Here.  (Tries to give him  the money.)
Driver:  I can't take that and the fare box is broken.  Just get on.
Woman:  But I need a transfer!
Driver:  I'm sorry.  I can't give you one when you can't pay.
Woman:  How am I going to get on the next bus?
Driver:  (Points to the dollar in her hand.)
Woman:  Oh.  (Goes and sits down.)

Oh the humanity! (Part II)

We're out looking for Halloween clearance items during my birthday shopathon.  Keith is waiting in the car, and I am wheeling a cart out from the store when I see them:  Vultures!  Waiting for a parking spot!  Our parking spot!  One woman is holding up a couple other cars in order to swoop into our spot when we vacate it.

I unload my cart and then take my cart to the cart corral.  And she HONKS HER HORN AT ME!  Apparently, I am not moving fast enough to suit her.  My response is to slow down.  I don't mind people waiting for a spot and the lot is pretty full.  But honking at me is behavior I don't tolerate.

I get back to the car, walk over to the driver's side and say to Keith:  "We need to have a pretend conversation because that woman (I might have used another word here) honked her horn at me."  He looks and me and says:  "Really?  I think I need to look at something in the back."  He gets out of the car and we go to the back and he grabs something out of a bag and we pretend to examine it.

By now, she's got a line of four or five cars stretching out behind her and they are honking at her.  She roars off, the line breaks up, we get in the car and leave.

Oh the humanity! (Part III)

I'm in one of the other Peddlers Malls as part of my birthday shopping extravaganza.  It's the day after Halloween and they are playing Christmas music and I am totally hating it.  Totally!  I mean, it's barely November, people!  As I'm shopping, I start hearing other people complaining about it.  Over and over.  Eventually, they start getting on my nerves more than the music is.  At that point, I decide that maybe I like the music after all.

I had a wonderful birthday, as you can see here.  This is me in the process of turning 49.  I think that's my "I'm turning 49" face. (Although it might be my "I really need a haircut" face.  They're kind of similar.)

We went to dinner at my favorite restaurant.  The food was fabulous!  We only go there a few times a year, so it stays really special for us.  It's the "go to" place for happy celebrations!  Guess who my birthday present was?  Yes, I did say "who."

Here's a hint:

Get it?  Here's another hint:

They're gonna be here in February and guess who got tickets as a birthday gift?  (No hints this time.)  I'm over the moon, whatever color it is!  According to folks on the Emmylou mailing list I belong to, it's a fabulous show.

Speaking of birthdays,the extravaganza shopping was not quite all it was cracked up to be.  I found a few things here and there, but not much.  Perhaps my best two purchases were this vintage Santa blow mold:

He's an Empire, dated 1968.

And these:

Santa's a little more interesting than previously believed.

I did get some other stuff, but nothing blog-worthy.

The Halloween clearance hunt was a little rougher than usual this year, for some reason.  Most of the Walgreens did like two days at 50% off, then shipped it all off.  Every other place kept their stuff at 50% forever before dropping it to 75% off.  There's no profit margin at 50% when you consider that you're going to have to sell it for a little less than the stores will have their stuff at next year.  You can do that and make a healthy profit, especially in bulk, but you have to get it cheaply.  That means at least 75% off.

I saw a few too many booths during the birthday shopping that not only didn't really have a handle on this concept, but they were trying to sell their Halloween stuff at more than the regular retail stores were!  They also had tons of stuff left over.  All I had was this:

 It actually looks like more than it is.  None of those tubs are completely full, due to the odd size of some of my leftovers.  I had over 80% sell through, which is really good.  Not to worry for next year, I finally did hit a well-stocked Target with tons of 75% off stuff:

Cashiers do not like to see me coming!

 Now I just have to price and store it all.  A junker's work is never, ever done!

Speaking of junker's work, here's a preview of the Christmas set up at the booth:

Charlie Brown trees UNITE!

In other booth news, the end table Albatro$$ sold!  And I didn't lose money on it, as it was marked down to my cost.  I was so excited, I did the Happy Dance at the booth.  And then I put the Deliverance Desk in its old spot.

Lastly, there's been a new development in the phone saga.  I think it's trying to return the kindness shown to it during its time of need.

I can remember when phone calls were 10 cents!

I've kind of got a lot to do right now, with the holiday transition and Thanksgiving prep and all, but I should still keep blogging.  Look for the return of the vintage Christmas cards right after Thanksgiving.  I've got a ton of them, so I'll probably so several each day.  I've got some scanning to get to!