Broken Bindings

I am not going to talk about my vintage stuff, my teenage sons or my writing (lack of) career today.

Not even going to show you any weird stuff I found on the thrift store shelves (even though I saw a ceramic angel this week with huge nipples - but the picture didn't come out very well, so no one would believe anyway how disturbing it was to see an angelic little cherub with giant headlights).

After a snowy pre-Halloween weekend where I was grounded from all yard saling, I'm going to write instead about my second shop on etsy.com that I opened a little over a month ago, Broken Bindings.

After a slow start I was losing all hope that any of my handmade jewelry from old children's books, atlases and dictionaries would sell, and then five pieces went in the last few weeks - and that just makes me happy.

This Sacred pendant made with a piece of antique dictionary was the one to break the ice. Felt like a spiritual blessing of the shop as its first sale.

 The next two sales to leave my worktable, made their way to the same customer. One is made from an old reading primer, See Pat Go, and a silver vintage Sarah Coventry bracelet.

The other is this fun set of a ring and earrings made from an old Lets Go to the Circus children's book. These are both some of my favorites that were sitting unnoticed in my other shop for quite awhile, so I was extra happy to see them make their way out into the word. 

I almost kept this one for myself, but decided to put it in the shop as well, and glad I did as it sold next. A little Yoga and Yogi definitions from an old dictionary, now a necklace.

And last (hopefully just for now) is a piece of vintage atlas of Key West I put under a glass cabochon and mounted on a silver-toned pendant setting with little flowers around it. Kind of wanted to keep this one for myself too, but I was a good shopkeeper and sold it to a lovely lady in Alabama.

My sales in Broken Bindings are not near those in my vintage shop Found Things, but there are only 17 pieces in total for sale (vs. 250 in the vintage shop) and it has just started so doesn't have the same exposure, but I'm good with that. Just enjoy making these pieces from old paper and hope someone else will enjoy wearing them...although certainly an added bonus to make a little extra money doing something I enjoy so much.

Here they come...weird Santas

When I was at the post office on Friday the postman - who, after sending 500 mailings over the last 15-months, I've gotten to know pretty well -- was teasing me about Christmas coming in only 60-s0me more days. Ahhh!

But he was a little late in freaking me out about how close we are getting to the holidays, the thrift stores are way ahead of him. Everywhere I look now there's snowmen, reindeer and, of course, so many, many incarnations of old Saint Nick.

Some are cute. Some are kitschy. Some are even regal.

And some are just weird, or even a little gross. This rubbery santa in the bathtub caught my eye first because it looked like Santa was an amputee - and you don't see that everyday. Then I realized his arm was just bent behind him holding a towel stretched between his two arms, which moved back and forth if you hit a button on the bottom.

Plus, he's naked. I don't need to think about the big guy naked.
The actual gross part comes when you take a closer look to find rolls in his belly made of dirty-rubber that move too when its turned on. Eww.

And its not just Kris Kringle who lands on the shelves. His wife is there too.
In all the Christmas stories Mrs. Claus is portrayed as super-nice and friendly. Baking cookies for the elves and feeding Santa a big Christmas Eve meal because "Nobody likes a skinny Santa." So what's with the angry, librarian-looking-over-her-glasses incarnation of Mrs. Kringle here? She needs some gingerbread and cider, I think. Right away.

But not all the old Christmas decorations are bad. I picked up these cute, vintage, Homco angels and I'm happy to put them in my etsy.com shop.
They remind me of my father-in-law. Every year I ask him what he wants for Christmas, and every year he answers, "A blond, a brunette and a red-head."

I should give him these. Probably not what he meant, though.

More pretty

In my last blog I gave a little taste of some of the more...unusual...things that turn up on the thrift store shelves that sometimes make me pause and think, Oh, my. Someone actually bought that on purpose, at some point, and put it in their home for decoration, or...holy crap...gave it to someone as a gift.

Today at another thrift store I was struck with the same thought, and here's why...

The photo isn't even doing justice to the matching girl and guy with the livestock, their outfits are florescent orange. The cow to the right looks friendly though, more so than the spray-tanned blond with the holes in her skirt.She looks a little pissy, her bow is probably too tight.

Although today there were some things on the shelves that reminded me of why I do look for - and often find -- some more desirable old thingies.

This 1950's tea pot made in Japan was on the thrift store shelf at 10:00AM this morning, in my etsy shop at 12:45 and sold to someone in North Carolina by 1:00...now that's how I like it!

And this mid century magazine rack may be hard to part with, looks so cool next to my husband's favorite chair (which also came from an estate sale - just an irrelevant fun-fact).

 I do get a kick out of wading through the weirdness at the thrift stores and estate sales to unearth the cooler old collectibles and atomic ranch decor. Sometimes I'm not sure which I like better.

Oh yeah...its the cooler stuff.

Pretty, pretty, pretty

This is going to be a very short blog.

I was at the local Salvation Army today and noticed the following collection of items on the shelf.

I just want you to look at them and realize that each one was at one time purchased - or given as a gift -- knowingly, willingly and probably with excitement.
P.S. Yes, that is a multicolored ceramic monkey on the left.

Enough said.

Enamel Me, Baby

Perfect fall morning, leaves turning, sun reflecting off the water as the Suburban crossed over the Codorus Reservoir...and the other blond and her mom riding along...all good.

Our first stop was a church sale that held much promise, but turned out to be a dud. Although, it was a nice way to start the day, none-the-less. An older man excused himself when he thought he was standing in front of me at a table, and I assured him he was not by saying , "You're fine." He took my hand, looked me in the eye and said, "Why thank you, you are fine as well." And kissed the back of my hand. Had he been a few years younger, I would have found this creepy, but coming from the elderly white-haired gentleman with a twinkle in his eye, I took it as a charming little moment.

Not sure where to go next, we decided to turn the truck towards Hanover as there were several yard sales listed in that area on Criag's list. As we pulled into town Linda pointed to a church parking lot on a hill. "Something's happening up there. Let's go see." What we found was the second day of a church sale, so not much left, but what was left was all $1 stuff-a-bag. Nothing spectacular but I did score this little turtle planter.And a pair of red-metal candle-stick holders that would be especially cute at Christmastime.After grabbing a cup of tea at my favorite book shop/coffee house in Hanover, where I picked up a fresh copy of Writer's Market (yes, I'm going to start torturing myself with submissions and rejection letters once again), we admitted defeat for the day and started homeward. About 5-minutes from home we came across a sprawling yard-sale in an old garage and the picking became a little more promising. I found this great enameled, cast-iron, mid century Cousances saucepan in yellow.This was the second piece of enameled kitchenware I'd come across this week. I found this refrigerator box at a thrift store on Wednesday. I have a little thing for enameled metal, don't know why...maybe I should ask my brother-in-law what that means...he's a shrink.
I have several other pieces in my shop.
This set of pallella pans is one of my favorite examples of mid century kitchenware.And this super-mod frying pan in orange and purple could have fried up some fish while the cook was watching "Threes Company."
This tea pot is more kitschy than mod, but love it anyway.
These pieces stand the test-of-time because of how well they are made and how strong the materials are. I have a set of Le Crueset pans that I use and figure someone in thirty-years will probably buy them in a yard sale. I hope they enjoy them as much as I do.

Pickin' in a Pavilion

The first stop this weekend for the other blond and me was a church sale held in a pavilion a few towns away. The air was autumn crisp, leaves starting to turn, met my aunt at the sale too...all made the morning wonderful...but not the picking.
Left with nothing but a few pieces of pink depression glass...pretty, but not exactly the treasure of the Sphinx.
I did come across this statue of an eyeless girl eating a baby arm or a tree limb, or playing the flute, not sure. So creepy.
But it was all worth it anyway - not only because I got to be outside on a beautiful fall day with some of my favorite people looking for treasure in a churchyard -- but because I found the perfect Thanksgiving Day hat.Turkey hat...yay!Best $1.00 I may have ever spent. Buddy likes it too!

Quirky

Quirky...love that word...quirky.

One of those words that if you say it over and over again, it starts to sound weirder and weirder...or quirkier.

I have been called "quirky" myself, actually. I've been called much worse, so I don't mind.
And maybe that's why I have some odd little things in my etsy shop.

Here's some highlights.Who doesn't need a snake charmer bank from the 70's? I certainly do.
And Book Worm bookends. Everyone needs a set of these.


I'm not even sure why I grabbed this funky little dish off the thrift store shelf, but she appealed to me.

I even like to make quirky jewelry. Put these little crows from a vintage "Four and Twenty Black Birds" children's book under a glass cabochon, and then mounted it to an old metal brooch I found at an estate sale.

Can't wait to find the next weird...I mean quirky...thing.

St. Pauls and a New Shop

It was a busy weekend for me in the etsy world. I did make a few sales, but it was more about trying to find some fresh merchandise for Found Things, my vintage on-line shop. September was busy getting kids back to school and fall sports...blah, blah, blah...long and short, it was not so great a month in sales and I had to take a hard look at my stock.

Conclusion. A little shabby.

Luckily, the best cure for adding new, and good quality, merchandise to the old etsy shop is a church sale...and there were two this weekend (my hands still fly to my mouth as I think of this, so exciting). Yes, I am that pathetically simple that even the thought of a church fundraiser, filled with little old church lady things for sale, makes me bounce in my seat.
Even more luckily for me, Linda (aka: the other blond), her mom Lee and even her daughter Emily - who was visiting from Philadelphia -- are also like minded, or simple minded, whatever, so I was in good company bright and early on Saturday morning as we made our way to St. Pauls in York and filled our bags with goodies.

The first thing I spotted was this beautiful porcelain figure of Kwan Yin, goddess of mercy and goodness - she rocks.
She is standing, holding a tall lotus blossom while her robes are blowing in the wind. The base is decorated with water, waves and more lotus flower blossoms. She is also known as Guanyin and Quan Yin. I may have trouble parting with her.

On the other end of the spectrum of cool was this exercise video from the 80's that made me giggle. I think my mom might have worked-out to this in our living room in front of the console TV when I was a teenager, and I think I might have laughed at her...in fact I'm certain I did. Of course I was probably snorting through my braces, ponytail on top of my head and striped leg-warmers pulled up too high, so I'm sure she was laughing right back at me.


In addition to hunting down old stuff, I love making pendants, rings and bracelets with bits and pieces of vintage jewelry, mixed with old illustrations, dictionary pages and atlases.

My Jewelry felt like it was getting lost in the vintage items in my etsy shop, so I decided to open a second shop just for the jewelry called Broken Bindings...

http://www.etsy.com/shop/heathermosko1?ref=si_shop

This is a piece I just made using an old dictionary - the word "Divination" under a glass cabochon. Hoping it will appeal to people during the Halloween Season.
So here's hoping October is a more profitable one than September with some lucky goddesses and a fresh etsy shop...fingers crossed.