No Ramble Today!

Sorry, everyone, but I won't be rambling this week due to EXTREME busy-ness.  Due to partly to circumstances I could not control and partly to my own poor planning skills, I am smack dab in the middle of Junk Set Out AND a massive booth re-do.  I barely even know what my name is right now.

I'll get some first looks at the booth re-do and the first finds of the set out later this week.

In the meantime, enjoy this little bit of booth staging humor:

Also, here's the latest odd couple to cross my path:

When I bought the bird hatching figurine, the cashier told me that I would never sell something that ugly.  In one of those wonderful twists of fate and junking, she was the cashier who rang it out a week later to a customer who was totally tickled to find it!

I guess I can also give you all some music for Monday:



Hope your week is filled with happy teddy bears, decorated wig heads, and--of course--the right shoes!

See ya!

PS Lok at it this way:  It may not be rambly, but it is on Monday!  Woo hoo!

2018 Finds So Far!

Before we get started, a word from the producers:

Once more, for those of you who happen to be reading this blog while lying down:

I've got one more 2017 finds post, and I'm contemplating making a post of some even older finds that I photographed but never shared.  I normally wouldn't bother with something older like that, but these things are kind of cool.

However, for today, I wanted to show some things that have crossed my path since the beginning of the year.  I really want to stay on top of sharing stuff this year, so these need to go up before too much more time passes.  Everything in this blog came from the New Year's Big Flea (including the Welcome sign above), first week of January shopping at the thrifts, and some trash picking.

In case you didn't know, early January is a good time to go thrifting.  Most non-profit thrifts get hit with a huge lot of last minute donations at the end of the year from people trying to eke out a last minute tax deduction.  One of the Goodwills here in town keeps their donation drop off open until midnight on New Year's Eve to accommodate people.  This large influx of stuff means a smorgasbord of new stock hitting the sales floor during the first week of January.  At one store I went to, four carts crammed with new stuff came out in the hour I was there.

I picked up an instant vintage clock radio collection at the Big Flea.  I saw them early in the day, but didn't buy any at that time.  I wanted to go back after I'd seen the whole show and pick up a couple at that time.  When I went back the dealer was in "Let's Make a Deal" mode, and I ended up walking off with the whole lot for a super, super price.  That's why I go on the last day.

The one on top is an Emerson.  It's also my favorite.  It's got some damage on the back, but still displays well.  The one on the bottom of the stack on the table has a real wood outer shell, which is just crying for an inventive DIY-er to make it over.  By the way, the table came out of my storage stash.  I've been on a small furniture roll since the week before Christmas.  I can't keep it in stock.

Speaking of small furniture, the pics don't do the pattern on this vintage kitchen chair justice.  It's amazing in person.  Goodwill find.

I'm normally not one for these cheesy, faux-primitive signs, but they were really cheap.  I thought they'd be good for Valentine's.  Big Flea.

This cute Kitten with Mittens looks kind of like Tucker, except that his eyes are amber-colored.  Also, his mittens are sparkly purple. Goodwill.

I love it when I find things with an OUTRAGEOUS original retail price tag in thrifts.  This one is on the bottom of this:

Which just blows my mind, since it looks like an ordinary bathroom trash can.  It's made out of a hard plastic, kind of like Melamine, but thicker.  I have a feeling it would shatter if dropped hard enough.

Cute, handmade blue step-stool.  Goodwill.

These cute, Day of the Dead-style skeletons are hanging out on a clear Pyrex bowl.  I didn't know Pyrex still made things with designs on them.  Goodwill.

Since I do go to the Big Flea on the last day, I usually run into lots of dollar deals.  These were even better:  two for a dollar deals!  I love the designs on these pieces.  The figure in front is a cute pig.  The eggs in the middle are salt and pepper shakers.  There is also a bird figure that I couldn't find for the pic.

An odder couple I cannot imagine. Big Flea.

Mini oil lamp collection. Big Flea.

Does anyone know anything about this character.  I've drawn a blank in my searches. The only thing I found was an expired trademark application taken out by the Weekly Reader people.  (Remember them?)

Cute vintage metal tray perfect for Valentine's.  Goodwill.

Sweet original painting.  Peddlers Mall find.

I love educational comics of all kinds.  These are for my collection.  Big Flea.

Couch Potatoes.  Goodwill.

The second-hand store down the street from our house cleaned off its shelves over the weekend, so I cleaned out their trash shortly thereafter.  Picked up a lot of stuff that will be great for the booth, but the only blog-worthy bit was this 1980 Smurf wind-up toy. The little knob is missing from the winder, but it's still awesome.

Speaking of trash-picking, we are now only three weeks from the next junk set out.  Not that I'm counting or anything.

More 2017 Recap (Further Sights Unseen)

Continuing from yesterday, here are some more of the finds from last year that got photographed, but never blogged.  Unless noted otherwise, everything here is a trash find.

I always grab discarded lawn ornaments, regardless of the shape they're in.  This one wouldn't even stand up on its own any more.  I thought it could be painted and make a cool door stop or something.  It actually sat on our stoop for a while, until Keith told me it was creeping him out.

One of our across the street neighbors is also a garbage picker.  He used to do a yard sale every so often.  Now he just sets his old finds out during set out.  I've gotten some good stuff from his curb over the years.  These wheels came from there.  I grab stuff like this and toss it in my salvage booth as spare parts.  Someone must need them, because they do sell.  I'd rather see it go to a new person than be tossed out.

Rusty metal plant shelf.

My price tag on this one says:  "Make your own 10 Commandments!"  That was my thought when I first saw it.  I also added another tag that says:  "Thou shalt shop Booth 62!" That's an order!  

I found a huge bucket of these canning jars.  They're not at all old, but the rusted lids lend them that feeling.  They are waiting in the shed to be filled with odds and ends.  I sell lots of stuff in jars--spools, buttons, clothes pins, beads, etc.  My best seller is actually just jars of miscellaneous junk, which is what I use these larger jars for.  I keep one by my desk and just toss random stuff in it until it's full.  Usually, it's the leftovers from a bag or box of junk I bought that are too small or uninteresting to sell by themselves.

MCM wall hangings, which I thought were cool.  It's amazing what people will toss out.  Even the broken one sold.

Big Flea find.  I am kind of obsessed with wooden boxes, particularly homemade ones like this one.  They're a top seller for me, so I jump on everyone I can find.

More Big Flea finds.  

Remember the awesome cast iron vent I found a while back?  I went back to that house for the last set out, and all I found was Mr. Bubble.  That's kind of a metaphor for this whole business, I think.

Speaking of that vent, I sold it to a downtown antique dealer Who was a new customer to my booth.  I was working my spaces that day, and we talked for a long time.  I saw him again right before Christmas, and he told me that he had taken it to a big antique fair in New York and someone bought it from him right as he was setting it out.  I made a real nice deal off of it, and so did he.  I also got a regular customer out of it.

I found two bags of old paper in an alley, and brought them home to sort out.  Oddly enough, a lot of it was papers and  stuff from a tiny town in far western Kentucky where my great-grandfather lived when he was a boy.  There was also this poster.  Take a closer look at the bottom.

Interesting world, ain't it?

Big Flea find.  Also, guilty pleasure TV.  I don't actually watch the show itself.  I view clips of the big meltdowns on YouTube.  I look at it kind of like I do all those Real Housewives shows.  I can watch a little bit of it, turn it off and say to myself:  "Maybe I'm not rich, but I'm also sure as hell not CRAZY!!!"

Hiding in my front bush is a shy little squirrel blow mold I found in the alley that was  strewn with stuff.  He's by Don Featherstone, the guy who designed the pink lawn flamingo.

Finally, a happy find.  I got this at the Peddlers Mall.  The vendor had a bag of them and had misidentified them as Happy Meal toys.  It's actually a vintage Wilton cake decoration.  I htink it dates back to the days of the TV show.

It even look a little like Adam West.

Still more to come.  Tune in tomorrow.  Same Bat Blog.  Same Bat Channel.

2017 Recap (Finds Unseen)

I know that I haven't been blogging for the last few months, but I've been intending to blog.  That's something, isn't it?  I've got a folder full of photos to prove it.  That's right.  I found the time over and over again to take pics of stuff for the blog, but not to actually put them in the blog.  It's hard to be me sometimes, let me tell you.  Sigh.

For the next few posts. I'm going to dump as many of those pics out as I can to at least give a snapshot of the junking for the last half of last year.  That should give me a handful of quick posts and enough time to at least get the rest of the month planned out.  Plus, I know everyone likes finds posts.  Right?

Ready?  Let's go!

Let me start with the first finds of 2018 (or at least a teaser), courtesy of the New Year's Big Flea.  This was what Gran, my granny cart, looked like at the end.

Care to guess what's inside?  I'll give you a hint:

It's the start of a vintage clock radio collection!  I bought a couple from the guy, and he made me an offer I could not pass up on the rest.  There are nine all together.  That's the benefit of shopping on the last day of the Big Flea.  Tomorrow, I'm pulling my Christmas out of the booths.  I have a good idea about what to replace it all with.

If I remember/have time, I'll get some pics of everything else in the cart.  We'll see.  By the way, did you catch the helpful advice printed on one of those boxes?

Words to live by.

I found all this stuff in an alley during junk set out.  It looked to me like someone had cleaned out a relative's house and bagged it all up for the junk pick up. Someone had ripped open all the bags and scattered stuff everywhere.  (DON'T EVER DO THIS!)  I ran home and got a bunch of bags and filled them all up with stuff.  This is a pretty representative sample.  Bith the Jean Nate powder and the Stanback stuff had never been opened or used.  The Jean Nate made me think of this girl named Gina who sat across from me in my Trigonometry class during my junior year of high school.  She was always carrying on about Jean Nate stuff and how good it made her smell.  She would actually say things like: "Gee, I smell good today."  Isn't it odd the memories this stuff brings back?

Most of the stuff from this find was paper goods and ephemera.  There will be pics of some of it later.

When you find a cheap Thor helmet, you just gotta buy it.  Then take a selfie while wearing it.

The long, shaggy, slightly disheveled  look I'm rocking these days kind of fits with the viking motif, doesn't it?  For Odin and Asgard!

There's an old Democratic Club down the street from us that was gutted and renovated over the course of last year.  The dumpsters yielded wonderful salvage treasures like these.  I love the detail work on the hinges.  I found a dozen or so of them, and they've been popular items at the booth.

Sadly, I also found some awesome wooden drawers and two wonderful tables at this site.  They went straight to the booth, but I did set them all up for a nicely staged photo, only to have my phone battery give out before I could take it.  They all sold on the same day to the same person, so I never got a picture, but they were awesome.  Two of the drawers were the old cash drawers from the bar. 

In case you didn't know, a Democratic Club is a lot like a VFW or American Legion post, basically an open bar.  I had the pleasure of speaking at one in the 90's, when we were trying to get LGBT anti-discrimination laws passed here in town.  I learned that you don't ever go to a group to talk about anything, when they've invited you to come after the bar has been open for two hours, even if they do say they're Democrats.  I actually met the then-Democrat state Senator for that district (which included my neighborhood) who told me I could shove the information I had brought "up my ass."  A year or so later, he switched to the Republican Party.  Again, odd memories, huh?

Does anyone know what this is?  I thought it was some kind of jewelry holder, until I realized that there was nothing to keep it from sliding off.  I bought it because I thought it looked cool.

Half-Price Books does this traveling clearance event in several cities every year.  For the last three years, Louisville has been one of the sites.  They reserve a big room at the fairgrounds and fill it with stuff.  Nothing is over 2 bucks, and a bunch of stuff is less.  This was my cart at the last one.

Not everything at that sale is new or recent.  There plenty of vintage items, like this trivia game from the 70's.  The book below might be my favorite find from that sale.  I love kids books. I got it for the title--I'd never seen the word "Brimful" used before--and the Tasha Tudor art.

You gotta grab your finds where and when you find them.  All this stuff was a curb find when I was on the way to the bus stop one day.  I crammed it all in my booth bag and still managed to catch the bus on time!  The baskets were an appreciated find.  I use a lot of them for displays.

People seem to like these big family-style Bibles, so I  pick them up whenever I can find them cheap.

This is an odd, little display I made in my salvage booth.  Nearly everything in it was a curb find.

I think that will do it for this installment.  There will be more to come.  Now, if you will excuse me, I have some fresh buns in the fridge and I have to go get them out.