Halloween is Coming...yay

You wouldn't know it to look at me..housewife, 43, driving the car pool to football practice...but inside beats the heart of the Queen of the Damned Vampires from the Underworld Werewolf Coven..in other words, I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

It probably stems from Halloween being my first taste of freedom. When I was little my father and our neighbor would follow far behind us, sipping beers (this wasn't frowned upon in 1975) and letting us run ahead to ring doorbells. We felt like we were big kids out there on our own - although secretly happy to catch a glimpse of moonlight reflecting off the Bud cans in the distance.

When I was eleven my parents released the reins completely on Halloween and my friends and I were allowed to go out in the neighborhood on our own unsupervised...at night...dressed up...scoring Reeses Peanut Butter cups...in the dark and everything...it was the coolest thing EVER. None of this was frowned upon in 1975 either in case you were thinking of calling child protective services.

So when October 31st approaches, I get that old giddy feeling and my jewelry-making takes a decided turn to the spooky. I already enjoy making steam punk pieces, so it doesn't take much to push a little more over to the dark side

Here are some pieces I made the other night and put in my etsy shop.
This is a vintage necklace and pendant I found at a yard sale, but it once held a plastic cabochon with a smiley-faced-sun picture...not anymore...bwaahaaa...I ripped out that smiley face and replaced it with an illustration of a cobweb from an old children's fairy tale book and sealed it with resin. Hoping this will make some little witch very happy.

I got a little spooky-Steam Punk with this piece made from a vintage chain and adorned with a crystal from an antique chandelier (picked up at an estate sale last summer). Also with a pendant made using an illustration from an old Four and Twenty Black-Birds book.


This one isn't really macabre, but has an old, mysterious feel. I cut out the word "sacred" from an antique dictionary and put it behind glass. The clear sealant gave it an even darker, more aged look than it had originally. Perfect gift for your secret society friends.

I am just a little sad this year that the boys might be officially too old to go out trick-or-treating. But maybe not, they may surprise me. They also like the freedom of running around with their friends in the dark without parental supervision. Although I never walked behind them with a beer in my hand...some spiked cider or a Cosmo in a coffee-cup maybe...but not beer.

The Ugly Step-Sisters of the Salvation Army

Friday was one of those combining errands with poking through thrift store kinda days. It makes my chores a little more fun when I know I can do some picking too.

So the other blond, her mom and I headed towards Baltimore to Trader Joe's and then the Salvation Army for a quick look around. Unfortunately, the shelves were dissapointing, as far as hunting for merchandise for my etsy shop went...but for bringing you a little strange, much better.
Found these lovely ladies next to each other on a shelf and the image of Cinderella's ugly step-sisters popped in my head.

The dark-haired girl on the left might need an appointment at the salon for a good eye-brow waxing.

And her friend must have once starred as the creepy girl in a B-rated horror movie.

Oh, the things people once had decorating their homes.

I Could Build a Robot

Stuff seems to come in clumps for me. One week I'll find five jewelry boxes, and then not another for months.

The next week I'll find half-a-dozen pieces of extra-pretty Pyrex. After that, nada, not one kitschy bowl for ages.


Its the same with electronics.
Clocks, radios and cameras were everywhere I looked last weekend as I poked around some yard sales.
This is a flip-number clock...do you remember these from the late 70's and early 80's? My parents had one next to their bed. I remember staring at the numbers on Christmas morning, willing them to flip down from 5:59 to 6:00...I wasn't allowed to go out to open presents until 6:00. It took forEver for the stupid numbers to flip!
And this radio looks just like the one my husband's grandfather kept on a shelf in the kitchen to listen to baseball games while he read the paper.

Just love this old Polaroid camera that I found with the original case and paperwork, another great piece of nostalgia, and mid-century design. Makes me want to "shake it like a Polaroid pic-tcha."

Not sure why I'm suddenly finding all these cool old electronics, but I have to wonder if the universe is trying to tell me something. Like I'm suppose to build a robot...or listen to the radio while taking pictures in a timely manner.

I wonder what the next group of things will be.

What is that?

Sometimes I find an item at a yard sale or on a thrift store shelf that I really just don't know what it is, or what its trying to be, or why anyone thought it was a good idea to make it at all...this would be one of those times.
Linda actually found this little beauty and - although it frighted her a little - she held it up for me to photograph thinking it would be a fun item for the blog.

A sunflower... a child... a sun-child?

Is it surprised, angry? Doing a jig?

My etsy shop is running a little low on super-cool things, and this angry sun-child is not going to help me turn my inventory around. Yard sale season is coming to a close and I am going to turn my attention to auctions.

I will miss the yard sales, but I'm hoping to find a better quality of items at the auctions, although I'm sure the strange and odd-looking things will be lurking in the boxes there too.

Lifting the Doldrums

Fall is upon us and the spontaneous, and occasionally lazy, days of summer have been replaced with a rigid schedule of 7:00AM bus pick-up, football practice, soccer practice,Boy Scout events,Sunday school and back-to-school nights - and anything else the universe can throw our way.

Is it June yet?

And I have decided to make my way back into the working world so that we may continue to feed two always-hungry teenage boys and somehow, someday (someway) pay for them to go to college. So my once flexible daily schedule will also soon be handed over to a boss (hopefully a benevolent boss). I can sympathize with the boys as they hang their heads over their cereal bowls and moan while hoisting their overstuffed backpacks onto their shoulders.

This change in schedule, and life in general, has put me in a bit of a funk - the "doldrums" seems a fitting word. This is not a place I like to be, so to give myself a little lift, I headed to my favorite thrift store yesterday with the other blond and her mom. What we found put a smile back on my face. Most of the merchandise was 50% off as the store tries to clear space on the shelves for fresh items for Christmas.

Yay.

Linda and I had the most fun at the counter where they keep items that are a little more valuable; there you have to ask an attendant if you want to see the merchandise. I have bought several pieces from this area of the store in the past, they are usually still reasonably priced. But there are other things that were just a little too rich for my blood.

Until 50% off day. That made several things just the right price.

I've had my eye on this PA Dutch teapot for ages, it was the first thing I pointed to on the shelf.
Linda directed the attendant's attention to a great 70's picnic basket/ice chest and quickly put that in her cart.Just as I was about to leave, I spotted these two stainless and enamel Reed and Barton bowls on the counter and quickly stashed them in my basket like a kid in a candy store (who's just found out half the candy is free).
So as more meetings, structure, dinners crammed in on the run and becoming a responsible adult all loom, yesterday was still a day to run amok in my favorite candy - I mean, thrift- store.

Doldrums, what doldrums.