From My Etsy Shop - Click on "hmmosko" to enter

Monday, February 28, 2011

Owls

A classic icon of the 60's and 70's, the owl.
This wise-old-bird decorates everything from pot holders to jewelry to salt-and-pepper shakers and has proven to be a popular item in the retro world.

I don't think it's just nostalgia that draws people to this nocturnal bird, but that it represents quiet dignity and wisdom in this chaotic world...plus they're just cool looking.

The pictures in today's blog are of items either currently in my etsy.com shop or have already sold.

The set of silver owl-shaped salt-and-pepper shakers below still hold the record for my quickest sale at just five-minutes on the site before they were bought by someone in Texas.

My own memories of the 1970s include a collection of ceramic owls on a window shelf, a macrame owl hung in a patio-room, and a silvery-pendant with turquoise-eyes hanging from my mother's neck.
In my first 20 sales in my etsy.com shop, five of them were owl-inspired items, including this great umbrella stand...so a quarter of my first sales were owls, and that statistic hasn't fluctuated that much.

Whether majestic or kitschy cute, we love our owls!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Easter's Coming...you know what that means

More weird bunnies!


Linda, Lee and I haven't been out poking around together in the thrift stores for weeks and were having withdrawal, so we went to two of our favorites today.
Lee won the best picker prize, scoring a few nifty doo-dads like two antique wooden shoe-forms and a souvenir tray from the 1967 World's Fair. Linda found a couple interesting things too, and I found a vintage enameled copper bowl and some funky 70's mugs.

I couldn't help notice the thrift stores are getting ready for Easter, so the shelves that were recently wiped clean of Santas, are now full of bunnies - and a lot of them are not very cute. Some are down right creepy.






I've said it before in this blog...beware, demented bunnies multiply on the thrift store shelves.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

The 70's Rule


After I used my curling iron to make two perfect rolls of hair to be feathered away from my face, I slipped on my clogs, kissed my Davie Jones poster and went outside to jump on my banana-seat bike and meet my friends at the 7-11.



Sorry, channeling my childhood in the 70's. They might be slightly fashion impaired years, but they are still good memories of a simpler life and a time when people were challenging old ways of thinking, and doing it in killer hip-huggers (my father's personal favorite part of the 70's).



It is this nostalgia that has people not much older than I was when the 70's were upon us, now buying little pieces of that time to decorate their homes and themselves.
















I have a lot of fun searching yard sales and thrift stores for little bits of the past, my past, that make me smile and I know will make someone else smile too.

The pictures in today's blog are items from the 70's I have recently sold in my etsy.com shop.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Fun Friday

Last Friday was one of my favorite days that comes but only four times a year, a fundraiser at a very nice retirement village called the "Treasure Sale"...and it usually is.

This time I was only able to run in the sale for about 45-minutes. Usually, the other blond, her mom, and anyone else that wants to hop in the van, spend a good two-hours there fighting the crowds and making sure no box has been left unexplored. Friday, however, the other blond had a dog emergency and I had an appointment in the afternoon.

So, as I checked my watch and made my way through the crowds of people, I wondered if it had been worth the fairly long drive down to get jostled around as I tried to sort through linens and poke around the housewares table.

I'm still not completely sure how to answer that question as I didn't find anything that blew me away as I have on past occasions - like the antique chenille bedspread, bright-blue mid century modern enameled casserole dish and 1970's green sewing basket -- but I managed to grab a few nice goodies to bring up to the retirees who tally your purchases by hand at check-out.

Here are a couple things I have added to my etsy.com shop from the Friday trip...




Thursday, February 10, 2011

Blogging and Etsy

I have talked before about the connections made through etsy - online magazines and bloggers. Today, Aleya, who has a blog called StyleMache, contacted me through etsy and let me know she had added one of my up-cycled necklaces to her blog about creating with found objects (use what you have).

Here's the necklace I made with odd bits of vintage jewelry she added to her blog...


And here is the link to her blog...

http://stylemache.blogspot.com/2011/02/etsy-round-up-upcycling2008-recycling20.html

What's Up With the Rabbits?

In at least three of my posts (see below) I have commented and shown pictures of the weird ceramic rabbits I've come across in my picking.

http://twoblondsandavan.blogspot.com/2010/12/good-bad-and-ugly.html

http://twoblondsandavan.blogspot.com/2010/10/wimp.html

http://twoblondsandavan.blogspot.com/2010/11/silly-rabbit.html"

It's not unusual to come across a strange looking cat, the requisite duck planter, the odd turtle soap dish, but consistently I have found at least one demented looking bunny each week huddling on the shelf, hoping a lover of demented bunnies will come along any moment and snatch him up for her collection at home.

I just returned from Ohio where I was able to fit in a quick trip the local Goodwill store, and yes, even in Ohio they are following me...strange looking, sometimes purple, ceramic bunnies...













Ahhh! They are following me!

Maybe I should just give in and start a collection.

Monday, February 7, 2011

I did it!

I am no longer an auction-virgin! Amidst the smell if sauerkraut, dust and soft pretzels, I not only registered for a number, but finally raised it high.
I have to thank my neighbor John, who has recently started going to auctions himself, and encouraged me to go too - figuratively holding my hand during the process.
And what, you wonder, was my first fantastical purchase? I became the proud owner of a vintage jewelry box filled with all kinds of fun old jewelery.
I know, not earth shattering, but there are a lot of fun pieces that I have started to list in my etsy.com shop, and some others I put aside to dismantle and re-assemble in some new and strange form.

Here are a couple pieces that made their way out of the box and into my shop...


Saturday, February 5, 2011

Snow...ice...no pickin' for me

We have had a heck of a winter. Seems like every other day there is snow or ice, and I have a confession, one that makes my winter-weary neighbors cringe...I love it.

I love how the weather keeps you close to home, slippery roads making you not want to run around like a crazy person to all the places we seem to endlessly need to run around to like a crazy person. Fires in the fireplace, snow men in the front yard...bring it on.

The only thing that has been a little bit of a drag is the lack of places to pick or ability to get to the thrift stores, and even the post office to mail off the goodies people have bought in my etsy shop.
The brighter side is that I have used the time to do more jewelry making, and that part of my shop has become more active. Here is a piece that just sold yesterday...
And I just bought a baggie full of broken watches...bet you never heard someone excited about that before...and I plan on sitting in front of my fire again this afternoon taking them apart and using the pieces to make some Steam Punk jewelry. Here's one I made with some watch parts that also sold fairly quickly in my etsy.com shop...So I will count the days to spring as I stare out at the snow, waiting for the thaw...and yard sale signs to blossom on telephone poles, steering the two blonds in the van to picking once again.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

De-stashing

I learned a new word today..."de-stashing."

As I understand it, de-stashing is the act of going through your stash of leftover art and craft supplies - the remnants of your creative frenzy, as it were -- and offering them up for other artists and crafters to use in their own creations. Like when someone who makes stained glass windows offers up the smaller glass pieces that are left, and someone who makes mosaics or jewelry buys them to use in their own work.

It can als0 mean offering up any extra supplies you don't want anymore - like, some extra lampwork beads you made that are laying around after you finish that necklace.
No waste. Win, win. Love when that happens.

So after I learned what it was, I decided to try it out myself.I use small pieces of illustrations from damaged, vintage children's books in some of my jewelry making. I use only a small part of the book, so there is an alarming pile of them growing around my craft table. So to, hopefully, get the other great illustrations in these books out into the world for any artist or crafter that might want them in their own artwork or collage, I went through them and pulled out the best pages and have added them to my etsy shop.
I get excited about not wasting things... reusing, upcycling, repurposing...now de-stashing...yay.