Cemetery Trip

I still owe you all pics from our cemetery trip the weekend before last.  This is your warning that you're about to embark on a journey with a fat guy in a white tee that he probably should not have ever worn in public, rainy day or not.

I should also note that I got all the flowers I took down that day from a couple of cool booths at the Dixie Peddlers Mall.  The flags I brought were leftovers from my own booth 4th of July stock.

Putting flowers on my grandmother's grave

I always have to take a couple of minutes to chat with my grandmother when I'm there.  Out of everyone at the cemetery, I miss her the most.  My cousin who lives across the road says that she comes over and talks to Grammie all the time.  She was something else, my grandmother.

My grandfather's parents

My grandfather has two flags, because I brought one and the one the VFW put out on Memorial Day was still there.  

My grandmother's parents

This is the plainest my great grandparents grave has ever looked.  Bit by bit, the ones who do most of the flower-bringing are fading away.  I wish I lived close enough to get down there more often.

I need to do something about all those bare hooks at my parents' graves.  It just looks kind of sad.  At least one of them needs to go, but I start to fear that someone will come over and not have a place to put some flowers.  The hook on the far right is the one my mother used to put out flowers for my father.  Next time I'm down there, I'll move it between the graves and take the middle hook, that I put in.

Missing Mama

I wasn't sold on that saddle arrangement, until I saw it on her tombstone.

It's a good thing I brought the flags.  Dad's VFW flag had broken off, so I replaced it with this one.  I cannot believe it's been almost ten years.

Finally, a shot of me cleaning bird shit off Dad's grave with my bare hands!  (I used a lot of hand sanitizer when I got back in the van.)  It was just a small spot.

Look What Else I Found!

This is one of those posts about finding something you've been hunting for a long, long time.  There must be something in the air, because SvelteStuff just recently posted about making a long sought after find just recently.  Those are the special days when you're out junking.  We've all got our personal "finds" list.  Every now and then, if we're lucky, one will turn up.

One turned up for me on Saturday.

Seriously.  How frikking cool is this?

That's a Playskool "Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" toy, named after the famous nursery rhyme.  I had the Fisher-Price version as a kid and loved it!  I played with it all the time.  I used to pretend the old woman was my grandmother.  Before you start thinking how sweet that is, let me tell you that (when I played) when the children were "bad," the old woman would tie them up in the shoe laces as punishment.  I don't recall that my grandmother ever did that, but then again I was never bad.  Weird, yes, but not mad.

I totally love the older F-P toys and look for them wherever I go.  Clearly, I am not alone in this, because they are really good sellers at the booth.  I've made some good F-P finds this year, but this is like the icing on the cake.  I've found one before, in all my years of searching.  Even though it's a Playskool and is a little different from the F-P version (the FP old woman doesn't wear a funky bonnet, for one), it's still close enough for me and brings back all the memories.

Speaking of the shoe lace, I'm psyched that this one has it!  It's the little bits like this that get lost over time.  I don't know if it's original or not, but I think it might be, on comparing some online photos.  It's half red and half white, which is really cool.  When it's laced into the shoe, it almost gives the impression that there are two different laces being used.

The funny looking kid on the end is actually a dog.  I think.

Best of all, it has the figures with it, including the old woman and her headgear.  I think the F-P version might have had more children and they were smaller.  There was undoubtedly a lot of overlap and copying between PS and F-P.  The different shapes on the boys' bodies would be matched up with the shapes of the windows. It was a multi-purpose learning toy!

Really odd looking dog

Now could that sweet face give anyone both without bread?

Totally rocking that bonnet!

For the record, my grandmother never had a bonnet like that, either.

I'm going to hang onto this one for a while, but will sell it in a bit.  I need to figure out how I want to do that.  Putting it out in the booth is an invitation for the figures to become "lost."  Got some pondering to do.

Plus, I want to bask in the glow of making one of those special finds!

Saturday Finds: The Smalls

So, yesterday's post had the large finds.  Now, let's look at the small stuff.  I had kind of a limited budget this time around, so I was trying to focus on furniture/large items and more vintage smalls.  I think I did pretty well.  Take a look.

Most of this stuff still needs to be cleaned up a little bit.  I was going to to do that, get pics, price it all and put it all out last night, but there was an issue about one of my sales for the day.  Dealing with it cut into my work time, so I only had time to get pics.  The rest will have to wait for tomorrow.

The mixing bowl has a chip on the bottom, but it's really not noticeable.  The only enamelware I ever seem to find is bowls and, well, bed pans, so I was kind of psyched to find both a pitcher and a coffee pot (in a fun aqua color, yet!).  The milk glass thing in the middle is a vase.

I've been having a really good Fisher-Price summer.  This is one I've never seen before.

Push the zero...

...And your pal pops out!

Is she talking with you?

Or talking about you?

Oh, the mysteries of the Fisher-Price phone pal!

This was my Shara moment:  a whole big box of vintage ornaments and lights for a dollar!  Not all of the sets are complete, but I think I can condense some of them together and make it work.

Speaking of Shara, she's going to give me a hard time over this Spanish dama.  I'll deal with that right upfront and say that she's not a doll. She's a muñeca.  (This has been your bilingual smart-ass moment of the day.)

She does look like she might be up to no good, though,  Actually, she reminds me of this:



Or maybe it's this.

I did cave at one point and pick up a bunch of random fun small stuff, despite my careful purchasing plan for the day.  It was towards the end of the day and I was doing okay on cash, so I decided to live a little.  Honestly, it doesn't feel right to me if I don't fill at least one box of nick nacks, plastic bugs, and tacky toys.  That's kind of what it's about for me.  I know I cannot float a full booth on this stuff, but it does sell and sure helps shore up the other sales.

Those Dallas books are pretty racy!

What can I say?  I gotta be me!  By the way, the trunk from yesterday's post?  Sold already!  BAM!

I held one special thing back for a post of it's own tomorrow.  Tune in to see what it is.  I'm still psyched about finding it.

Linking up with:  Thriftysaurus!

Monday Rambles

I'm a bit behind on just about everything this week, since I'm still adjusting to last week's schedule change.  I feel like I didn't get anything done last week!  The older I get, the harder time I have changing routines.  Even though I was only on summer schedule for a month and a half, that was enough for me to get out of the groove, especially with evening work.  Hopefully, I can get things pulled together this week.

I'm about to wrap up another really good month at the Peddlers Mall!  I met last month's total yesterday.  Since that was a record total, that means that this month is going to be a new record, even if I only sell a few dollars each day this week.  Despite all of this, August makes me nervous.  It's typically a lower sales month, since school starts and the State Fair (which takes place in Louisville) runs for two weeks in the middle of the month.  We'll just see, I guess.  Nothing to do but forge ahead and keep working.

Yard sales were very good this weekend.  We started off in our neighborhood, following some signs I had seen on Friday night.  Some lead to fun finds and good stories.  Others, well, there's a reason I call them Deliverance yard sales.

The first sale we hit was being run by these three older ladies who had the most fascinating stories about every item they had.  When one of them told me that the metal statue of Our Lady of Lourdes came from France. "where I lived as a young lady,"  I told her that she seems to have had the most fascinating life.  They all laughed and then said that there wasn't enough time for them to tell even half of it.

Right around the corner, was a moving sale with awesome prices and vintage treasures.  I found something there that I have been hunting a long time.  (You'll have to wait until Wednesday to see it.)  We had paid for our stuff and were loading the van, when this older man came out of the house, causing Keith to do a double take.  Turns out the sale was being run by this man he's known for years!  We'd seen him around the neighborhood from time to time, but I didn't know that we lived so close to each other.

Then we went to a sale in an alley where all the furniture was supposed to be five dollars.  That's because it was all curb finds.  Not the good kind of curb finds mind you, but crap that was put on the curb because it was crap.  I told Keith I wasn't going to pay five dollars for something that big and heavy and ugly that I would be lucky to get ten dollars for when I sell it.  A lot of things at this sale had booth tags on them.  It was a failed booth yard sale.  I've seen a lot of them and most of them aren't very pretty.

We also hit a church sale where the cashier couldn't add or subtract.  I told Keith that person must have been the only one to volunteer for the job.  We walked into one social club sale where they announced that "most things" were now one half off.  The "most things" didn't seem to include anything I was picking up, however.  The person running the sale was saying one thing and they cashiers were saying something different, so I started putting things back and very politely saying "No thank you."  All of a sudden, confronted with the fact that I wasn't going to buy these things, they became half price items!

So what was in Mazda?  Well, here's the big stuff:

Vintage child's rocker with cushions

Two green stools

Triangular end table

Handmade stool

Painted trunk/chest

Vintage metal trash can

 I love stuff like old office trash cans, because they have such a utilitarian look.  You can see some of the smalls peeking out of the can, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see them.

In the meantime, do yourself a favor and pop over to Roger's blog and read the amazing acrostics she did as part of her homework.  She's obviously got a creative bent and is developing a fun sense of humor.  I think you'll enjoy them.  Roger, you should be very proud her (which I know you are).  She's pretty special.

What's In Mazda?

It's been a while since I had a yard sale weekend worthy of a Mazda shot.  Yesterday was really good.  Take a look:

It might not be quite as full as in other shots, but these were carefully chosen to make the most of a somewhat limited shopping budget.  I'll start doing the reveal tomorrow with the large items, then do the smalls on Tuesday and a really special find on Wednesday.

In the meantime, here are a few hints:

That red thing is a cat tunnel we got for Chiquito.

The small box in front has comic books in it.  There was another comic book shop Nerd Herd sidewalk sale yesterday.  They don't usually do them two weeks in a row, but if they're selling 50 cent comics, I am so there.

Now this....

Is one sweet, sweet St Joseph!

Don't you think? 

Seen while junking

Well, I guess if it had to happen, it might as well happen in Kentucky!

For those of you not in the know (one way), it's a game.  The rest of the world calls it bean bag toss.  I have no idea why we have to be so different.  It even has it's own official association, which kind of tickles me. 

For those of you not in the know (the other way), it's also a slang term with certain...let's say...anatomical implications, if you know what I mean.  I'll leave it to you to Google it, if need be.

Yes, I am eight years old and giggling over the pseudo-naughty words.  Why do you ask?

Oops! I did it again!

Okay, I thought I was kind of past this problem.  I mean, I stopped buying every one I saw and then sold most of the ones I had.  I thought I had it licked.

Then I found this.

It's even got little bits of the old paper label attached!

How in the hell am I supposed to walk away from a blue graniteware bed pan?

Seriously.

Just can't do it.

I am weak.

Sigh!

Shoot me now.

Or at least come buy the damn thing.

We won't even get started on this one:

 Seriously.  We're not talking about it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go find start some kind of support group.

Let's just call today "Something Wild Wednesday!"

Okay?



Purr-fect!

Monday Rambles

Not much to ramble about this fine Monday morning.  Maybe there is, but I'm kind of distracted because I have to go back to working regular hours this week.  Bye bye, summer!  Hello, full paychecks!  Those will come in handy for sure, since I really need to score some furniture for the booth.

I didn't hit any sales this weekend.  I guess something was going around.  Since we were heading to the country, the plan was to hit some sales down there, once we were through in the cemetery.  Unfortunately, it drizzled on and off all day long.  It was a steady drizzle, just enough so that you would notice that it was there, but not enough to keep you from doing what you were planning to do, unless what you were planning to do involved putting stuff out in your yard and letting strangers come and buy it.  It was totally non-conducive to such a venture.

I did manage to hit the sidewalk sale at the comic shop before we left (and before the drizzles started).  I picked up a nice stack of stuff, mostly for the booth.  The thing I like about buying for the booth is that I don't feel compelled to go through every single comic box looking for stuff.  I can slip around and through the crowd (the nerd herd, as I call it) to the boxes no one is going through and still build up a nice stack of stuff.

I did witness a nerd violation while I was there.  Well, not a nerd being violated, but a nerd violating the rules of the herd.  Instead of waiting to get to a box, this one guy went around to the back and starts going through it, which meant that he had to pull everything out of it, since he was looking at the backs of the comics.  Then he just starts putting them back in the box any old way, some facing front, some facing back.  And everyone knows that number one rule of comics nerd-dom is:  The boxes must be orderly!  The herd was aghast.

Since I witnessed the violation, I was obligated to report it to the High Nerd Council.  Which, in turn, slowed us down, because I couldn't find my Nerd ID Card and I forgot my Nerd ID Number.  What can I say?  I'm a bad nerd these days.  Someone should probably report me to the council.

Anyway, we got down to the cemetery, loaded with flower arrangements for the graves, and were just starting to take things out of the van, when my cousin, who lives across the road, came over to say hello.  Right after that, one of my mother's cousins pulled in and we had a mini-family reunion.  (Okay.  I know that technically my mother's cousins are also my cousins.  I was more referring to the fact that he was more in Mom's age group than mine in the family circle.  I think you know what I mean.)  It seems like I never see some family members any more unless it's in a cemetery.  At least there wasn't a funeral this time.

We all had a good visit in the on and off drizzle, then Keith and I got to work.  I took the old flowers and stuff off Mom's grave, then put the new ones out.  I also added a new flag to Dad's.  I also had small flower arrangements and flags for my uncle, grandparents and great grandparents as well.  I got everything at the Peddlers Mall, so I was able to get more than I would have elsewhere at a really good price.

Keith took some pictures, but I haven't gotten them yet.  I'll post them when I get the chance.

To make up for the lack of yard sales, I went to a couple of flea market/vendor malls, but didn't really find that much.  Guess I'll have to find some time to thrift this week.  Oh darn!

Speaking of this week, I'm not totally sure what posting will be like, since I have to get used to my new schedule.  I don't have a lot in the pipeline right now, so  I may be silent for a couple of days.  I'll get back to things as soon as I can!

Do you wanna know?

Do you wanna know what my favorite movie of all time is?

This one:



Obligatory song:



Do you wanna know which movie I've seen more times than any other?

This one:



Obligatory song:



Do you wanna know which movie reduces me to a crying mess every time I see it?

This one:



Sorry, but I could not find a subtitled version of the trailer.  Basic synopsis:  Priest falls in love with a young woman from a well-to-do family in his parish in Argentina during a time of political repression in the mid-1800's.   Things don't end well.

More info.

And also this one:



The last scene gets me every time.   Even now.

Do you wanna know which movie I could watch over and over without getting tired of it?

This one:



Odd choice, I know, but I've been fascinated by it ever since I saw it for the first time.  Here's more info about it.

And here's that wonderful song:



What about you?

Jeepney!

I found this little beauty at the Goodwill last week.  Isn't it just too awesome?  (Goodwill by the way is in one of their reasonable pricing phases here locally.  I'll be heading there again soon!)

Big.  Golden.  Kind of tacky.  What's not to love?  Really.  It's heavier than one would think.  The metal chassis wraps all the way around the plastic undercarriage, and all the fenders and decorations are metal as well.  It's really cool.

I totally love these little horses prancing on the hood.

What kind of wondrous creature is this, you ask?  Let's allow it to speak for itself:

It's a Jeepney from the Philippines, of course!  (But you knew that, didn't you?)  A Jeepney is a form of public transit used in the Philippines.  They were originally made from leftover US Army Jeeps, hence the name.  You can read more about their history and development here.  The outrageous decor is par for the course.  In fact, mine seems kind of tame compared to these real life examples.

I love finding stuff like this that is just pure fun!  When I started my booth that was what I wanted it to be about--eclecticity, if you will.  It still totally floats my boat when I find that kind of stuff.

Tootsie Tuesday!

No, not Tootsie Rolls, silly. Tootsie Toys!  (Or, if you prefer, Tootsietoys!)  Tootsie Rolls are yummy, though.

I found a dealer with a stash of late 60's and early 70's Tootsie Toy diecast cars at the big flea recently.  The price was really good, so I bought all he had.  I told him I was going to go home and "be eight years old for an afternoon."

They're bigger than your average Matchbox car-type toy, and there were quite the variety.  Some of them had been played with quite a bit and lost a lot of paint, while others were in pretty good shape.  There are some generic "trucks" and "cars" but there are also some specific vehicles like this police van, which is one of my favorites.

There's also a SWAT van!

Most of them have a metal chassis that's snapped on to a plastic undercarriage.  They all have dates, ranging from 1967-1971, stamped on the bottom.  All of them are also marked "Made in the USA."

The Tootsietoy company has been around for quite a while, according to Wikipedia.  I was kind of surprised to see that they are still around, but most of their toys are now made overseas.  I also found this really awesome site with lots of pics of older toys from the company.

Crooked sticker, but it's in otherwise perfect shape!

I had a lot of Matchbox cars (a couple of cases full) when I was a kid, but I probably also had quite a few of these as well.  I can't say for sure, because of the great purge that cost me most of my childhood toys and comics.  I always liked things with details like labels and stuff.  These would have really excited eight year old me, for sure.

Fuel truck

My favorite one is this little oddball car with the big, sweet smile.

Wish I had some people to put in this one.

It's all metal, except for the wheels, which is the way all older Tootsie cars were made.  I bet those holes would fit whatever Tootsie's version of the classic Fisher Price Little People was, and probably the Little People too.  You know how kids are.  I certainly would not have cared that I had one company's people riding in another company's car!

Monday Rambles

I haven't mentioned in a while how much I appreciate the folks who comment here on the blog.  The experiences you all share really add to the posts, as well as your different perspectives and the points you add to whatever I originally wrote.  Thanks so much for being part of this blog.  It makes sitting down and throwing thoughts around in the ether worthwhile.  You're not just a part of my blog, you're a part of my life and I'm glad you are!

Speaking of my life, last week was a bit of a whirlwind, as usual.  Saturday was the fifth anniversary of the Peddlers Mall in its current building.  Since I took my booth there and started my reselling career a week after they opened here, so it was also my fifth anniversary.  So, I had a sale!

I also set up for the sidewalk sale outside.  While cleaning my booth, I piled up a cart of stuff that had been there for way too long, including (shockingly) a few things that were celebrating their fifth anniversaries!  I took a look at that cart and said to all that stuff:  "No offense you all, but it's time to go, as of now, you all cost 25 cents!"

It's a real kick to look at people's faces when you tell them that everything on the table they're only half-looking at is a quarter.  Without exception, they all stopped and picked up a few things.  Several of them bought bags full.  I wasn't looking for a money maker here, just a booth-cleaner.  I made 25 bucks, but that's a lot of quarters, so that's a lot of things gone!  Happy Eddie!

When I was cleaning off my table, I made a plan for each item left:  what will get donated, what will get given away, etc.  A very few things will hang around, displayed very differently, but not very many.  And their place will be taken by new stuff that I've got coming out next week.  I'm hoping to put out two-three carts full of "new" stuff.

And I've certainly got the room for it, since the sale on the inside was a huge success.  In fact, I was only a few cents under my sales total for the June sale, which was my one day sales record.  If this keeps up, I'm going to get spoiled!  I sold a couple of large items and a whole lot of big bugs and other small items. 

Of course, lots of sales mean a lot of work to do.  The booth needs to be rearranged to fill the holes.  The shelves need to be straightened and refilled.  I'm just about out of large stuff, so my yard sale hunting has got to pick up, stat!  Not that there's a problem with that, mind you.  Heh!

I've become a little more active on Facebook recently.  I've always kind of seen FB as more of a nuisance than anything else, but lately I've been reaching out to old friends and family members that I had lost touch with over the years. I guess I'm getting sentimental in my old age or something. FB is actually a pretty decent platform for that.  I've had a Facebook page for years, but finally added a profile pic and some info to it so folks could find me.  If any of you all are on Facebook too, hit me up with a friend request, if you feel like it.  I'll be glad to add you and let you in on my ramblings there.

I'm going to be blogging about some specific recent finds here for the first part of the week.  I know that some of you will be really interested in those.  Days of Our Lives has been hitting an interesting stride of late, so I'll be doing a long, long, overdue "Day by Days" post around Saturday or so.  I know some of you will really not be interested in that, but it's coming anyway.

We're do for some cooler weather this week, which will be nice.  Saturday is that annual trek to the old home town to visit my parents' graves and decorate them a bit.  I'm on my last week of reduced summer hours at work, so I intend to enjoy the extra time, even as I get prepared for the extra work next week which will earn me extra money.

Finally a couple of videos in homage to some of the events of last week.  It was thirty-three years ago last week that a certain all-female band released their debut album and rocked their way into my heart forever:



Also last week, we lost the last surviving founding member of one of the seminal American rock and roll bands.  They influenced hundreds of other musicians, including those ladies playing up there.  Good-bye Tommy Ramone.



And to put the two together:



Wouldn't a Go Gos tribute album of Ramones covers be freaking amazing???  Can someone please get them started on this???