Two Blonds and Several Brunettes

It doesn't get much better than this morning...70 degrees, sunny, a church sale on the horizon and the Suburban filled with some of my favorite people...ahhh.

The free community newspaper gave us the heads-up on a church fundraiser in the lovely area of Seven Valleys on this Thursday morning. So, I picked up Linda and her mom Lee, and then headed to my aunt Joan's to pick her and her daughter Gail (my most awesome of cousins) up too for the twenty-minute trip northward.

We arrived just as the doors were opening and the long, long line of our fellow pickers shuffled in to see what the church ladies were offering. The space was large, open and spread out in three areas. When I first walked in I got the same overwhelmed, and slightly confused, feeling I often get at these things. There are so many people and so many directions to go in, I become a little like a deer in headlights.

Eventually, I shook off the feeling and headed towards the jewelry section. I didn't find any jewelry and was beginning to despair that I'd find anything I wanted, when I looked under one of the tables - my heart got a little lighter. I saw this old GE Show-n-Tell player. I had one of these as a kid and loved it. Had to have it!
As I stood up with this find, I glanced up on a shelf in front of me and saw one of the coolest old metal, tub radios I've ever come across. I snagged the radio too and then worried I was spending $10 on only two items, and then I shook that feeling off too and headed for the check out.Once I'd paid for these bulky items, I deposited them in the Suburban and then headed back inside to see if there was anything else I had to have. I ran into Linda with a joyful look on her face, she'd found one of her favorite things, a vintage clown costume (everyone's got their thing).
Blonds and brunettes alike had a successful day at Grace United, as you can see from the back of the Suburban.











I reversed my trip and deposited everyone back at their homes with their treasures.

By 10:00 the Suburban was empty and I was home and putting my finds on etsy.com, hoping for another morning just exactly like this one in my near future.


twoblondsandavan.blogspot.com/

Stage Mom

I'm so proud, one of my little finds is headed for stardom in California.

This old metal child's toy "tool box" - hammer, saw and level included -- was purchased by the art director for CSI. Yes, C...freakin' S...I
Now I'm left wondering if my yard sale find will be part of a murder scene...will the victim be beaten with a mallet, jugular vein sawed, or bonked on the head with the level (that one does seem pretty far fetched).

Or, will this old metal box be a part of the background in a scene in an antique shop or the home of a homicidal vintage toy collector...I am so curious!

I'm going to have to watch every CSI episode now and scan the background for this fun old metal toy. I'm such a stage mom.

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...

Back in the Saddle Again

Today the two blonds climbed into the old suburban and headed for our favorite thrift stores, the first time since the holiday craziness began.

To make it even more fun, Linda's Mom, Lee and her wonderful friend Kay (also the mom of another great friend of mine and all around awesome lady) joined us as we braved the cold and snow to poke through some old stuff.

Although the company was great, the picking was so-so...where is all the cool old stuff people should be cleaning out of their houses after the holidays?!

I did, however, find a fun circular plant stand...
And this little mid-century mod glass pitcher is a cutie too...
It' a new year and a the blonds are ready to find some more great stuff...now where the heck is it!?

A Little of This and a Little of That

You always want to find that one great thing hiding among the cra...old things on the shelves of the thrift stores or the folding tables at someone's yard sale...and I have found a few, enough to make me keep going back looking for more.

One of my best finds was this super cool child's booster seat I found at a yard sale just on the other side of town. I bought it for $2 at 8:05AM and sold it for a whole lot more by 11:30 that morning to a man in Italy.

Or the set of three 1940's Pyrex bowls I found in perfect condition and bought for $3 and sold a few days later for $45 - maybe not a fortune, but enough to keep me hooked.

But the truth is, I end up making most of my sales on smaller items...twelve dollars here, ten dollars there...it adds up. Again, not a fortune, but enough to keep me going back like Pavlov's dog to yard sales and thrift stores scanning the cast-offs.

So while the single larger sale is great, and needed if you're going to stay in the black, it's the accumulation of smaller sales like this vintage Lefton planter shaped like a bowling ball I bought for a quarter and sold for $12.And the beat-up old suitcase I found at a church sale for a dollar and sold for $15 a week later...those are the sales that build up little by little in the old Pay Pal account like little nuts getting stored up for the winter.

Think Real

A few months ago I was walking around a beautiful shop in Philadelphia admiring their very pretty, and very expensive wares, when I was struck with how much an antique-looking enameled pitcher (like the one pictured above) looked like one I had just seen on etsy.com from a seller of vintage items.

When I reached up on the shelf to take the pitcher down and look more closely at it, I also noticed there were about six behind it exactly like it. Mass produced pitchers made to look like an authentic one-of-a-kind one from the past...and more expensive than the original.

Here is one (pictured below) I found in an etsy .com shop that got its chips and character by being passed around the family table on a farm for a generation or two (or three). And it costs less than the imitation.


And there are so many choices, too, and you won't find any two exactly the same. Here is an adorable one with a Pennsylvania Dutch design, and it's only $10!

So when you are looking for something special to decorate your home or give as a gift, consider something authentic. It doesn't take any more time to go onto etsy.com than on crateandbarrel.com, or go to a local antique shop than the Pier One store - let yourself be delighted and surprised at the really special and beautiful things you will find.

Santas, Santas everywhere

Just like the retail stores, the thrift stores are gearing up for the holidays and putting out all their Christmas paraphernalia. I was struck today by the sheer volume of Santas on the shelves, I swear there were almost a hundred old St. Nicks staring back at me.

One even looked like he was getting goosed by one of the other elves.

I think my favorite grouping, though, must have been done by someone who'd never heard of King Arthur and Merlin the Wizard...he got shelved among the Kris Kringles...how embarrassing for such a famous wizard.

I was able to make my way through all the Santas to find a wonderful travel trunk, complete with drawers and a hanging rod on the other side and brass fittings, all for a little over $20...it was like Christmas had come early!

Auction Day

For the last eleven-years, since I moved to south-eastern PA, one of my favorite things to do is go to a local auction house with my Aunt Joan. There is a small kitchen there and we usually get a bowl of soup or a sandwich, and then we walk around and poke through the tables stacked with pictures, boxes of pots and pans, costume jewelry - you name it, it's probably been through the auction house.

I love listening to the cadence of the auctioneer as he rattles on at a hundred-miles-an-hour, always scanning the room and upping the bid with each raise of a finger or nod of a head from the audience sitting in folding chairs in front of him. It's at these moments that I get completely paranoid that my nose is going to itch and I'll have to scratch it, and then the auctioneer will think I just bid on something - probably something really expensive or really horrible, or both.

Although I enjoy observing all this, I am a big chicken about making a bid myself. There is an entirely different language going on in that room, so while I like being on the outside taking it all in -- I'm actually intimidated as heck about jumping in myself.

But, now that the weather is turning colder and soon there won't be yard sales and church sales to plunder, I am going to have to put on my big girl panties (one of my husband's favorite expressions when he thinks I need to suck it up), grab my piece of paper with the number on it and raise my hand when something I want to bid on turns up. I just have to hope I understand the auctioneer enough to bid on the right thing and not pay three times what I thought.

So stay tuned, in a few weeks they will have another auction and I am determined to register for a number and pay complete attention to what the auctioneer is saying, and I will raise my hand high...or scratch my nose and end up with a $200 used-Flowbee, one or the other.

There's an Estate in Glen Rock?

It's Saturday morning, which means one thing, time to fire up the van, make a to-go cup of coffee and hit the road. This morning both Linda and I had to drop off our sons with the Boy Scouts at 7:20AM. Once the boys were deposited with the right people, we raced back to the van and consulted the list of yard sales we'd compiled from the paper and Craig's List - which I, very shortly after, lost.

We were especially excited for the first sale because it was advertised as an "Estate Sale in Glen Rock." Wow. How fancy.

Actually, not so much. When we arrived at the advertised address, we were faced with a steep gravel drive with cavernous pot holes and a rusted tractor in the distance (see picture to the right). The van ground it's way up the drive and we ended up in a small home, although with some nice things, meeting two very pleasant women running it. I bought a vintage Christmas tablecloth and Linda found a neat old clock.

After bouncing back down the drive, we headed out in search of more sales - without the benefit of the list. As we kept our eyes out for yard sale signs, Linda and I chatted, mostly about our concerns that both our usually docile sons had a love for shooting, war-type games on the X-Box. How could two such peace loving moms allow it? We never did reach an answer, but we did stumble upon another really good yard sale.

Linda's favorite find for the day was an old child's size aluminum rocker folding chair (check it out on her site - link to the right - very cool).

My favorite buy is an antique toy tool set (see below).
Unfortunately, no super weird stuff today - I'll try to find some more next week.


Can't wait to see where we end up next.

Off Roading in Jacobus

Linda and I didn't really want to go off roading in my Suburban this morning, it just kind of happened. We were trying to follow some yard sale signs, stopped in the municipal parking lot to consult with my GPS, then drove straight on what we thought was an alley back to the main road, which continued to get narrower...until we were on a walking path.

My words were, "Why is this road getting so narrow?" Linda's were, "Oh, my God, we're in the middle of the park." I apologize to the old man we startled who was getting his mail near the area where we exited the field. He stood in the middle of the road staring after us. I tried not to make eye contact.

But, besides the off roading, I had a very nice morning in a beautiful church in York. I put a picture up to the right of the pathway we followed to the yard sale, a wonderful place to find yourself early on a Friday morning, and one of the reasons I seem to be addicted to this pursuit.

And so now for the strangest thing picture. This is a hand crocheted cover for a tissue box with a plastic face on the front, and although you can't see them in the picture, matching pot holders.