Happy Halloween!

And here's a clue to who I'm supposed to be.



That's the retro version anyway.

This is the nerd version.



Take your pick.

Retro Y'all (Halloween Edition)

Sometimes, you gotta go with the classics!



Linus rolling with the pumpkin always makes me giggle.

And of course:



If you watch closely while they're all at the door, you can see the rocks going into poor Charlie Brown's bag.

How about some stuff?

Earlier this month was our junk set out.  Due to the ongoing booth battle, I was unable to devote whole days to the hunt like I normally do.  I was stuck with doing all my picking in the morning and evening, before and after the booth.  I was afraid that I wouldn't really find much because of this.

Thankfully, it only rained one day early on, which meant stuff was dry.  Also, the garbage folks got way behind  on the pick up.  Usually, we have a weekend to set stuff out (Fri-Sun), and they pick it up during the next week (Mon-Fri).  By Friday evening, it's all gone.  Sometimes, they're still picking up that next Saturday, but that's as late as it has gone.

However, this time they were still picking up on the first three days of of the next week.  There was stuff still sitting out on Wednesday!  Plenty of days to pick.  Since people often add to their piles until they get picked up, that meant lots of stuff to look through.  Woo hoo!

Let's look at some pics.

 I honestly found this stuff sitting out in a junk pile.  I don't doubt that sometimes people people put out old out of date groceries, but this is the first time I've ever seen a few, unopened, in date items just sitting in a box.  I left it all for someone else, who must have come by, because this stuff was gone by the next day.

BLOW MOLDS!  There's another one I found, but it is still waiting to be cleaned.  That awesome cart they're sitting on was not a curb find, but a bargain I nabbed at the mall sidewalk sale.  It's already sold.

I fell in love with this rusty, crusty, industrial-looking plant stand.  I also found a lot of old jars filled with dry tempera powder at the spot where this was.

  Old desk drawer with dividers.  I think it would make a great shelf.  There were two of these.  I actually found several more drawers this time around.  There were so many that I had to stop picking them up.

Cute Sesame Street organizer.  These pics are all from the booth, by the way.

Most everything you can see in this pic was found on a curb or dumpster at some point.  The wood box on top and wood spool on the bottom came from this particular set out period.

Finally, a perfect project chair and  mod looking wall shelf. These came from a HUGE pile down the street from us, outside a restaurant that just closed.  The owners also fancied themselves to be re-sellers, so the place was also filled with (mainly over-priced) junk.  I went back to this pile four or five times, finding stuff every time.

That's most of the big stuff, I think.  Well, except for the trunk that sold before I could clean it.  I'm still working through the smalls, so there might be more to come!

Fenomenal Foto Funnies!

Still embroiled in battle with the booths, so here's some random pics of randomness for your entertainment.

First up some bits of fortune cookie wisdom:

Try not to think too hard about the way these two might fit together.

This was the roster for a recent weekend animation fest.

It was a good weekend.

Classic yard sale parking job I saw a couple of weeks ago

The house is on the corner of two streets.  There were spaces to park on both streets.  What did they do?  Literally parked on the corner!!!  These are my people?

I'm used to seeing odd lots of stuff at the curb these days.  In fact, I seek it out!  However, I do have to say that finding a neatly folded pile of clothes on the corner is kind of new to me. 

Although, I do have to admit it was set out time!

Retro Y'all!

To get you ready for the upcoming trick or treaters:



In case that one isn't retro enough for you:



We will not be bringing up the Aaron Carter version.  Do you understand me?  Anyone who does will be denied treats.

Hang in there folks!

The Hershey's Truck is on its way!

It's just been delayed by an emergency stop in Louisville.  It will be back on its route as soon as the situation is resolved.

It should only take about six or eight weeks.

Or until I get full.

Whichever comes first.

You might want to call for another truck or two.

Those would be for me.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know!

No this isn't a comment on the election.  But it could be.

Can you ramble in bullet points? I'm not sure but I'm going to try.

• Has anyone else noticed how long some of my blog titles have gotten lately?
• I think I'm in a dramatic titling phase.
• I watched a lot of "Pets seeing their owners after long periods of time" videos last night.
• Because, apparently, I like crying happy tears.
• This is the week that will either make me or break me at the booth.
• That means I'm still not done redoing things.
• I was close to being done.
• Then I pulled a lot of stuff for our sidewalk sale on Saturday.
• Which messed everything up again.
• Don't you hate it when you try to fix a typo and only end up retyping the error?
• A couple of weeks ago, there was the junk set out in our area.
• I found great stuff.
• I still need to take pics of it.
• This is kind of like only typing the key sentences of each paragraph.
• I'm hoping you all can fill in the rest.
• It should be easy.
• Just add a lot of cussing and cartoon references.
• You know the drill.
•  I hope this is legible.
• Blogger won't let me double-space the bullets.
• Stupid Blogger.
• I have to finish this booth stuff this week.
• Just have to.
• I am single-handedly killing my sales.
• Things were starting to bounce back from the summer slump.
• August ended good for me.
• Then I started this project in mid-September.
• And I'm still working on it.
• A MONTH LATER!
• Can't sell crap if your booths are trashed.
• Sigh.
• The manager told me last week that I am over $700 off from this time last October, so far.
• October is always a good month for me.
• I only have a sad smidgeon of fall stuff out.
• And no Halloween.
• Sad smidgeons are the worst.
•  Smidgeons should be happy.
• Make a smidgeon happy today.
• Won't you?
• I used to think I knew what I was doing.
• Maybe that was my mistake.
• Chiquito says "Hi!"
• It's my own fault.
• I screwed myself by trying to start it all at once.
• I should have gone a bit at a time.
• Or just left well enough alone.
• I got overwhelmed.
• When I get overwhelmed, I get depressed.
• Not sad.
• Depressed.
• Real depression.
• I've dealt with it most of my life.
• Usually, it's under control.
•  The meds help me a lot.
• But sometimes, it sneaks out.
• Like when I'm overwhelmed.
• When I get overwhelmed, I get paralyzed.
• It's harder to make decisions and get things done.
• It's also easier to get distracted.
• Sometimes, I actually end up working on other things that I can do quickly.
• Because it's easier than dealing with the overwhelming.
• One day, I helped the manager clean out an evicted booth.
• When my own spaces looked like hot shit on a stick.
• Cleaning out the other booth was something I could get done.
• And feel like I had accomplished something at the end of the day.
• Depression makes you think funny like that.
• I think I got over the hump last week.
• It's looking less daunting.
• Maybe I can get done this time.
• Before it's time to redo again.
• ACK!
• The sidewalk sale was only so-so.
• It was slow for everyone all day.
• I was unloading perennial shelf-sitters.
• At the end of the day, I just started giving stuff away.
• That always works.
• Now I have more room for new stuff.
• I hope I can take pics this week to show everyone.
• That's my goal.
• I also hope to have a week full of stupid, silly posts for you all.
• Because I love you.
•  Seriously.
• I do.
• Thanks for sticking with this ridiculous blog.
• Music for Monday:

• This is in honor of Chris Thile's debut as the new host of the Prairie Home Companion over the weekend.
• Plus, it's a  fun bit of music nerdery.
• And nerds always ROCK!

Retro Y'all!

Well, Hello Dolly!

This has already made the rounds, gone viral, been seen by the world and probably all of you, but I cannot get enough of it.



I love Dolly Parton.  I have for ages and ages and ages and ages.  But she frustrates me.  Or, rather, her schtick can frustrate me.

Dolly has spent years crafting a persona--this larger than life image that is the consummate entertainer and performer who makes such an indelible impression on people.  I, and millions of other people, adore it.  And her.  It's certainly played a large part in her popularity over the years and kept her relevant in a country music industry that has become increasingly image-obssessed.

But Dolly the performer, the persona, the image can get in the way of Dolly the artist.  Dolly the musician with the beautiful voice.  Dolly the gifted songwriter.  Emmylou Harris wrote about this in the liner notes to a Dolly tribute album a decade or so ago.  She expressed the wish that more people knew the sides of Dolly that she has known for years. 

Get a copy of her first album, Just Because I'm a Woman.  It is mind-blowingly awesome--full of layers of emotion and beauty and honesty that you don't always feel from the persona.  Then check out any of her bluegrass albums from the 2000's where she's striped down, acoustic, and pure feeling, like the best bluegrass should be.  Finally, get her original greatest hits album, if you can find it and revel in all of her classics the way they were originally recorded.

Which brings me to this video.  "Jolene" is one of Dolly's best songs, but it's never better than the way it was originally written to  be sung--stripped down and raw.  This version is the purest and cleanest I've heard in years.  The original is marked by a plaintive acoustic guitar line that runs through the song.  I've always felt that Dolly's best songs layer in a lot of folk music influences among the country touches.  That's "Jolene" in a nutshell.

By going acapella here, they've restored that original feeling to the song.  I love that Dolly plays with the song in concert--changing "Jolene" to "drag queens" to acknowledge her cross-dressing fans--but this is a song about heartache, yearning and hurt.  You cannot listen to this recording and not feel your heart-breaking for her.  This is pain and inadequacy and fear.  There's nothing polished and slick about that.  That little whisper at the end just nails it.  "Oh.  Jolene."  How can you not cry for this woman?

The other thing that comes out here is what a great harmony singer she is. Honestly, that should be no secret, especially after the Trio albums.  I love to hear her sing with others.  And the look on everyone's faces is awesome--a mix of the sheer joy of performing good music and being awestruck over singing a classic with a legend.  How cool is it that Dolly swaps out her lead vocals for the climactic last verse?  Amazing.

Okay.  I just rambled on and on about a video that is less than three minutes.  I've always told you all that I can overthink and over-analyze anything.  That's why I blog.

I like it when Dolly entertains me, but I love it when she moves me. 

I'm going to have another listen. Or three.

Who else thought the bald guy was wearing a bathrobe at first glance?

Ramblette

I debated doing a full on old time "Monday Rambles" ramble today, but it just ain't in me.  A short paragraph will have to suffice.  I have been fighting a losing booth battle since mid-September, which has pretty much eaten up all my blog time.  I am very sorry if anyone worried about me.  I think I finally have things on the ropes.  I finally came up with a solution to my last nagging problem.  I just need to put it into action and I should be finally finished with this whole mess in a couple of days.

We'll see, I guess.

When I do have things under control again, I'll write more and include some pics.

In the meantime, enjoy some happy kitties.



PS I'm spending more time on the book of faces, because it's easier to do on my phone when I'm taking a booth break.  You can always check in on me there, as long as the increasingly frequent political post or article doesn't bother you.

We Interrupt This Recently Sort of Defunct Blog to Bring You a Moment of Nostalgic Warmth and Silliness

I'm okay.  I promise.

More tomorrow.

In the meantime, dance along!

Retro Y'all!

Retro Y'all!

Duplicate Dwarves and Naughty Ladies

Eddie-tor's Note:  This post contains vintage boobies.  Nothing really racy by today's standards, but in its day, it was probably considered scandalous. You have been warned.

Remember that great trunk that I found at my one 127 stop?  It had a TON of papers in it.  Most of them were common records of every day life--receipts, bills of sales, policies, report cards, etc.  I love that kind of ephemera, but they don't make for exciting blog posts.

There were a couple of more interesting items, however.

A gaggle of dwarves, for example.  Why these two and why multiple copies, I couldn't say.

I would LOVE to have a full set of all seven like this!

On the other end of the spectrum, there was a battered vintage girlie pin-up calendar with these wonderful illustrations!  Here are three of the tamer ones.  I love that some of them include pencil roughs.

There's a little verse on each page, along with a calendar for the given month.  I can't find any indication as to the year, however.  I also can't find any info on the artist.  The signature is hard to make out.  It looks like "Mac Pherson" but that could be just a last name.  It could also be "Marc Thompson."  I'm having no luck pulling anything up on anything I might decipher from the signature.

Miss March

Miss September

Miss December

I love Miss December's strategically placed bow!

There were also some really awesome cards in the trunk, but they're for another post.

Big Flea Finds!

Eddie-tor's Note:  I had this post written last night and was getting ready to add the pics, when Blogger decided it was hungry and ate the post. (Burp!)  This is attempt number two, which probably won't be as good as the ine you'll never see.  Stupid Blogger.

Let's start with that box of comics from yesterday's post.

I always check all the vendors with comic books, even though there are some that I really don't like.  One vendor in particular always has this guy with him that pesters every customer with the same questions over and over again:  "Do you have any old comics you want to sell?"  "Any old toys?" "Games?" "Magazines?"  No.  I'm looking to BUY thank you very much.  It's pretty annoying.

So, I see this vendor, and thankfully the Interrogator is not with him.  Plus, he has a box of dollar comics--just my price range.  I pulled a nice stack out of the box, some for me, but mostly to sell.  There were a lot of older Disney and Looney Tunes comics in the box in pretty good shape.  I have a couple of regular customers who are looking for that kind of stuff, so I'm confident I can sell them.

There was a lot more in the box that I could have gotten, but it was only like the second or third stop, and I didn't really want to spend all my cash just yet.  When I went to pay, the seller uttered the magic words that everyone longs to hear:

"Would you like to buy the rest 

of them for 25 cents each?"

Why, yes.  Yes, I would.  Thank you.

And just like that, SCORE!

There are a few comics without covers in the box.  Some of these I'll keep to use as placeholders in my own collection, until I can find a better copy.  The rest I can sell.  Coverless comics are really not worth that much, but I bundle them up and sell them in batches.  If nothing else crafters might want them.

And, just like that, the theme of the day was set:

Buy something.  Get something 

else for free or cheap.

Buy three boxes of vintage ornaments.

Get the loose ones free.

Buy a bunch of 2 dollar comics (all for me).

Get the one dollar book free.

Buy a bunch of 4/$1 items.

Tonka Trucks Galore!

Instant Ancestors!

Get a flat (much lower) price when the vendor gets tired of counting.

Yes, this is your bargaining tip of the day:

Wear them down!

Buy some comics.

Yes, that Isis.  She used to have a comic.

Get a bunch more of a quarter each.

I just grabbed a bunch of X-men, Spider-Man, and Batman titles.  Sometimes it pays to stick with the sure sellers.  I'll have to bag all of these, so the 25 cent price makes for a better margin for me.

Walk by a bunch of books.

Get them for free!

It seriously was that kind of day.

I also got a Brooke Shields doll.  (No, I didn't squeal and dance over this one.)

A couple of DVD's for me.

Yes, that says "Ninja Cheerleaders."

And a bunch of random bits and bobs of awesomeness.

Representative Sample

If I ever get cool enough to have my own posse, I'm going to call it the "Random Bits and Bobs of Awesomeness."  Take that, Taylor Swift!

There is one picture you're not seeing:  the vintage, three piece child-sized kitchen playset--stove, sink, and fridge--in excellent shape that was only $10.

The reason you're not seeing it?

I DIDN'T BUY IT!!!!!!

Oh, I dithered and dathered over it.  I dillied and I dallied.  But I just kept thinking over and over again:

"I don't want to make that 

many trips to the van."

It wasn't until the close of the day when I realized that:  a) the Fairgrounds has carts you can use and b) we could pull the van up to the front of the hall.

But, of course, by that time the set was GONE!

Yes, I am an idiot.

And that is why I will never have a posse.

People don't want to be in a posse with idiots.

Unless the idiots are young, rich, and pretty.

And I am none of these.

Well, I am kind of pretty.

But am I posse pretty?

The world will never know.

It would be cool to roll into a thrift store with a posse, though.

Come with me to the Big Flea!

Let's see what there was to see yesterday at the Big Flea!  Wheeeeeee!

Here we are at the Kentucky Fairgrounds, getting ready to go into the West Wing.  Whenever they have the Antique Wing added on to the Big Flea, it moves back to the West Wing.   In the days before the South Wing was constructed, all the Big Fleas were held in the West Wing.  For some reason, the show always seems bigger when it's in the West Wing.

During the fair, the West Wing is where the livestock is judged and displayed.  The room where the Antique Wing is held is used for the small animals, like rabbits and such.  The fair just ended last week, so I hope they got everything cleaned out.

This is a pretty big deal.  The Fairgrounds raised the parking to 8 bucks a few years ago, and that has impacted the attendance at the Big Flea ever since.  That's just outrageous and I go to all kind of lengths to avoid paying it.  The half off deal is new.  They experimented at first with only making purchases from certain vendors eligible for the rebate.  It always seemed like it was vendors that Were of no interest to me, so I never did it.  Now, any purchase at all qualifies you.  And can make some purchases!

And, we have arrived at our destination!  Please remain seated with seat belts fastened until the pilot has finished pulling into the gate.

Whoa!  I just got here.  How did all this get into my cart? I think Gran just attracts the stuff to her like a magnet!

Look Melissa!  (Definitely not in your price range.)

I tried to take a bunch of pics of cool stuff, but this is the only one that turned out at all.  The lighting in there sucks.  As a result, this is kind of a boring photo essay.  Sorry about that.  i did have good intentions.

He shoots!  HE SCORES!  See tomorrow for the story on this one.

Rearranging the cart.  Mavis the tote bag is  photo bombing in the upper right corner, along with my knee in the lower right. I'm keeping the finds under wraps until tomorrow, because I'm a tease like that.

Overall, it was a good show for finds.  I had to make an unloading trip to Mazda about halfway through, which is always a god sign.  It could have been even better for me, but I lost my mind and did something stupid.  More on that tomorrow too.

I heard from several vendors that it was a slow weekend.  Some were already starting to pack up at noon.  Several of my regulars weren't there, especially in the Antique Wing, which was only about 60% full.
 

And so we leave our day at the Big Flea.  Come back for the finds tomorrow.  They're adding a Halloween show this year, which I am really psyched about.  There won't be an Antique Wing, but it will still be worth attending.  They haven't done a Big Flea in October in several years.  I always liked this show, because it is right before my birthday!

Monday Rambles

OH MY GOSH!

It was so nice this past weekend that I can almost envision fall being on the way.  Woo hoo!

I was able to get out in the backyard and take care of several projects that I had been totally putting off due to the heat.  Our junk pile for the set out at the end of the month is off to a nice start.  The back porch is cleaned off and organized and I made a nice dent in the shed.

After all that, I think I deserve a little Big Flea action today.  Don't you? 

NEW NEIGHBORS

With the milder weather, I've started taking walks again.  My doctor is really pushing for motre exercise on my part.  Apparently, pushing a shopping cart down the aisle of the Peddlers Mall doesn't count.

Other folks are starting their early junk piles, so some finds are popping up here and there.  I'll take my incentive wherever I can get it.

I did discover that Gargoyles are moving into the neighborhood.

I'm going to start researching to find out what kind of food I need to leave out to attract one to our back fence. We could use the extra security.  Someone pushed in our back gate last week and ransacked two of our sheds.  Thankfully, they did not get into the biggest one, but they did take our chainsaw and spare window AC unit.

I want the kind of security that will eat the soul of the next bastard that tries to do that.  You know, like a Gargoyle.

LOOK WHAT I FOUND

No less than five new construction dumpsters have moved into the neighborhood recently.  I'm checking them daily and it's paying off.

 I love the handles on these windows.

Sadly, one dumpster is in front of the house of the neighbor we haven't seen in a while.  They are rehabbing his house so hard that they're almost rebuilding it.  I'm fearing the worst now, which makes me sad.

Our across the street neighbor would know for sure what happened to him, but we haven't had time lately for a good chat.  He's the kind of neighbor you have to lay aside a solid hour for conversation, even if you only have a simple question.

THE BOOTH

The last week of August was one of the most consistently strong weeks I've had in ages.  I ended the month pleasantly surprised and very happy.  I am looking forward to fall sales.  I have a van load of hay bales and pumpkins ready to festoon the place with autumnery!

I am also finally going to begin my big redo project.  I ended up scrapping my plans last week to stay at home and do much needed work in the house.  I have a hard time balancing house needs vs booth needs some times, and usuallu my time gets slanted in favor of the booth.  It was good to have some productive time at home for a change.

I'll be doing before and after pics here, so watch for that.  This is going to be a near total top-to-bottom, side-to-side, wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling, back-to-front, and any other way-to-any other way that I might have forgotten reworking of my spaces. 

Plus, a complete restocking.  I've been just letting things go without bringing in a whole lot of new in order to make room for the fall, Halloween and Christmas stuff that's on the way.  I've got lots of holes to fill!

TRADING SPACES

The other day I was going through some paper goods for the booth and came across a stack of booklets full of trading stamps.  You know, like you used to get at the grocery store.

I realized that one of the booklets was empty and that I also had an envelope full of loose stamps.  The next thing you know, I was licking and sticking and pasting until I filled that sucker up!

It brought back a lot of memories.  I used to help my grandmother do that when I was a kid.  She would put the large denomination stamps in and leave the singles for me to do.  My grandmother was serious about her trading stamps too.  A couple of pieces of furniture in her living room came from the trading stamp store.  When my parents got married, she got them a pair of lamps with her stamps.  (She also liked her poetry.)

Of course, we never did the stamp books while watching low budget 1980's Italian apocalyptic sci-fi movies like I did that afternoon.  Grammie preferred that her cinematic visions of dystopia come from Poland.  She was a bit of a cinema snob. 

I will say that the glue on those things was nasty.  I was worried that I might end up repeating the envelope scene from Seinfeld.  It's probably not a good idea to go around licking 40 year old glue.  I think I'll make a note of that, just in case.

MUSIC!

You enjoy some music for Monday.  I'm going to  get ready and scoot to the Big Flea.  Wish me luck!  I picked this song out so you'd be thinking especially about me.



Look for posts all this week, but expect things to get a little silly.  I'm in one of those moods.

Retro Y'all!

The Greatest Find EVER. EVER! EVER! DO YOU HEAR ME???? EVER!!!!!! AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

It is no secret by now that I am a HUGE Batman fan, I think.  But over and above and beyond and before that I am a Wonder Woman fan.

So when I found this at a parking lot sale on Saturday, I took to skipping and singing and squealing all over the place, despite the heat.

BEHOLD!

You seriously have no earthly idea how long I have wanted one of these.

She's missing her tiara, bracelets and boots, but I don't freaking care.  Her arms and legs have been glued back on, most likely because the band holding them on gave way with age, but I don't care about that either.  She's absolutely, totally, perfect to me.

She's seen a lot of action, my little Amazon princess.  Most likely, it was fighting evil gods and monsters, overthrowing dictators, and, of course, whaling the ever-loving shit out of her enemies with her Throwing Wheel.

According to the Wonder Woman collector site, this doll was produced in conjunction with the 70's TV show, but I have some questions about that.

For one thing, I am pretty sure I remember seeing these dolls advertised a few years before the show aired.  For another, this part of a set that included Nubia, a character from the comics in the early 70's, who never appeared on the show.  Finally, even on the WW collector site, they show a picture of this doll in the box WITHOUT the Lynda Carter image.

Personally, I think these were produced pre-TV show and, later on, a new box was produced with the Lynda Carter graphic to tie in with the show.

One of the things I love most about my Wonder Woman is her painted on top.  A later version had a cloth top.  Also, her blue eye shadow. 

Speaking of the WW collector page, I was tickled to see some other things on there that I also have, like this mirror, and this beach towel, which I have had since I was in 7th or 8th grade.  There's also this invisible plane toy, which I had when I was a kid, but don't own any longer, sadly.  Also in the "former possessions" category is this album.  I remember that the bullets bouncing off her bracelets were recorded as this odd tinkling sound.

And before you say anything, Shara.  Yes, she is a doll.  But she's NOT creepy.  Wonder Woman is NEVER creepy.  Only fabulous.  ALWAYS fabulous.

Can you say "FIERCE"?

PS Dig those eyelashes.  They are so stiff that her hair gets stuck in them.  Awesome.

All together now:

AMAZON SISTAHS HOLLA!