A Goddess, Seattle and a Lamp

Just a quick catch up on some things that have been going on in my etsy shop this week...

I sold a statuette of the goddess Kwan Yin (that I completely wanted to keep for myself but was a good little etsy shop owner and put up for sale instead - and someone bought it, damn!) I found her a few months ago at a church sale hidden behind a pile of Tupperware.So glad I did and that she is on her way to Texas to be appreciated again.

And a lovely lady in Portland bought this pendant I made with a piece of vintage atlas of the great city of Seattle. I've never been there but I want to go really, really bad. Although, I love rainy days so much, I'm a little scared that if I did go I'd never come back.

 And this mid century Tensor desk lamp was one of the coolest things in my shop and will be leaving via Priority mail tomorrow for...wait for it...Brooklyn, New York. Yes, currently the coolest place in the known universe. Wish I could tag along with the lamp.

   But it might be a little awkward, I'm not that cool.

Another Coach bag...Love it!

It was only the last week when I was out at a thrift store with the other blond and her mom, Lee, that I complimented Lee on the beautiful leather purse she was carrying. She always has the cutest bags. And, of course, she had found it at a thrift store for only a few dollars. I told her I was jealous as I never seemed to find very nice leather purses when I'm out poking around.

Well, the goddess of vintage leather bags must have heard me because it was the same day I found the two bags I mentioned in my last two blogs and I just found this Coach bag in perfect condition at the Salvation Army early Black Friday sale.

Oh, how I do love a nice bag...and shoes, but that's a whole-nother fetish.

This one looks like it might go to a buyer in Australia, and I'm going to keep my eye out for more at the thrift stores.I know I'll find one that will have to be ripped from my cold, dead hands before I put it for sale in my etsy shop, but so far I'm happy to send them out in the world and make a little profit to boot.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone and happy thrift storing! I'm going to a sale at a thrift store on Black Friday, can't wait!

Juggler - A Circus Act or Recipe for Disaster

An update on the leather bag in my last post (the one that hadn't sold yet and I was kind of hoping didn't because I wanted to keep it for myself) - it sold too. Which is good for my etsy shop's bottom line, but not for my wardrobe.

So today I will box that up,


along with a divided vintage Melmac bowl that also sold the other day, and head to the post office.

Then home to put on the domestic goddess hat and clean my house and catch up on the laundry.

Because tomorrow I have my second day on my new job and a half-off sale at the Salvation Army for some new merchandise for the shop.

And I really want to get two submissions out to agents of my last manuscript, still can't quite give up on my pursuit for publication.

And my youngest has a food drive for Boy Scouts on Saturday, so up early to drive around the neighborhood scoring canned corn.

And my oldest needs to be run back and forth for set crew all week and weekend because the play starts Saturday afternoon....
Can you hear the circus music in the background as all the balls are juggled in the air, or is that just me?

Ah well, nothing more than most people do anymore with jobs and kids. I'll just keep smiling like the clown...no, wait...not the clown. Clowns kind of creep me out. More like the lady on the high-wire as she smiles brightly while walking carefully across the abyss.

You know what? Its all good, I just remembered I love the circus.

You Old Bag

Some times I feel a bit...well...old.

Especially this week when my son turned 16. How could my baby be 16?! We are going to get his driver's permit next week. Ahhh.

Or, when I'm introduced to my husband's colleague who reveals in the course of our conversation that he graduated college in 2001. Wasn't that, like, yesterday? I gasp. How is he a grown-up, accomplished professional-type guy and graduated in this millennium? I sound old even to myself.

But age has its advantages too. In my early forties vs. my early twenties, I don't wake up hung over after doing beer bongs in smelly frat house basements. I don't buy used-cars based solely on how cool they look and then continually find my cool ass stranded on the side of the road.

And I think I have a little more character than I did in my misspent youth. I don't even mind how my years have made smile lines (I like to refer to them as "smile lines" instead of crows feet) around my eyes (mostly, occasionally I panic a little as I scrape the bottom of my Oil of Olay bottle). I think this applies to well-made leather bags too.

Last week at my favorite thrift store I came across this vintage Coach lady's attache-shaped leather bag. I think it has gained character in its years, the leather buttery soft and supple. And a customer in New York City agreed with me, she bought it an hour after I put it on my site.
And this vintage Stone Mountain leather slouchy bag was in the same bin at the thrift store. It hasn't sold yet, but I'm not sure I'm disappointed about that - might need to keep it for myself.

In fact, I think I will wear my old bag with pride - along with my crows feet -- while I'm teaching my son to drive and telling him the story of how in my day I didn't even have a car but had to walk to school uphill, both ways.

Bloggidy Blog

I got an email today through my etsy shop from a great blog that highlights cool items on etsy.com. In fact that's what its called...the blog...what's cool on etsy this week.

http://www.scoop.it/t/whats-cool-on-etsy-this-week

I am just tickled pink that they featured two of my items in their blog.

One was this portable radio which appears to never have been used.
The other is this super-mod phone in yellow. You know someone wore bell-bottom hip-huggers once as they pushed the giant square numbers on this phone.The bloggers , Nina & Kristina from Norway, think my stuff is cool! Where were these people when I was in high school?

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.

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.

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.

Props

Last March I was so excited when an antique metal tool-box I had in my etsy shop was purchased by the props department of the show CSI.

See my past "Stage Mom" blog ...
http://twoblondsandavan.blogspot.com/2011/03/im-ready-for-my-close-up.html

And a few days ago some cute little canning jars were bought by a prop manager with an intriguing email address that has me thinking they may be heading to the set of Mad Men.Just think, these were all things that were basically discarded at a donation center for a thrift store or one step away at a garage sale - just about in the old dumpster -- then the next thing you know, they are being used on a Hollywood set of a big-time show. A twist of fate for a vintage thingy.

In case any other prop managers are looking for items for their sets, I have a few suggestions from my shop...




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Please don't put me on "Hoarders"

In the far, back corner of my basement is a room that was once called my "craft room." It held a computer, antique drafting table, sewing machine and old cabinets containing various arts and crafts supplies for the kids and I. A place we could go and create and then leave if we were in the middle of something without having to clean up, so we could continue on with our creating.

Now, not so much.

When I started the etsy.com shop I decided this area would be a good place to store my merchandise - the boys are not into doing "crafts" with mom anymore and I was taking a break from writing so I wasn't visiting that computer as much either -- and at first, I kept everything fairly tidy and organized.

Now, not so much.

This summer has been a whirlwind and I have been running in and out of this backroom either grabbing something that needs to be shipped or throwing in a pile of stuff I just bought at a yard sale. There is no more order, only chaos.

This highlights a pitfall to this business, the ever-present possibility that you will make the transition from someone who is finding "merchandise" to sell, to someone who is a hoarder. I do not like a lot of clutter around me. That is not to say - as anyone who has entered my house will attest to -- I'm not a clean-freak, nor am I a minimalist with one Eames lounger in the middle of the floor and a white canvas on a white wall...I have some stuff around.

But there is, for me, an acceptable level of stuff. I have crossed that level and am at the threshold of freaking out and throwing everything away. I know if I just spend a day in the basement sorting, organizing and cleaning, my instincts to throw it all away (or just burn the house down) will calm. I just have to find that day.

That will probably come on August 30th...the day the boys return to school. Which will probably be a good day to distract myself from the fact my oldest "baby" will be going to high school and taking another big step in his size 12 Converse towards adulthood.

I do want to get rid of the clutter. And we are all ready for school to start. A clean, uncluttered, quiet house is coming...of course, there will have to be some chaos, just keep life interesting.

Summer Travels and an Anniversary

I have been remiss in my blogging of late; I have been off and running with my boys (excuse me, young men) this last month and haven't stopped long enough to sit down and put two thoughts together.

My excessive wanderings have been prompted by the realization that this July is really the end of an era for my sons and I. Carefree summers with easy schedules are coming to a close.

By next summer we will probably all have jobs (in addition to the etsy shop) and sundry sports and Boy Scout activities that are already making way more black marks on my calendar than I care for...life flows on.

However, in all our activities of this last month - as I squeezed out as much fun and memories as I can possibly fit into this precious summertime -- you know I've made time for some pickin' too.

On our camping trip to New Hampshire, I found this great, hand-tooled leather briefcase in a thrift shop. It sold two-weeks after we got home.
A few weeks ago, I was able to go out in the van with Linda, her mom and my aunt to a tiny burg in south-eastern PA, their community center was having a fund raising sale. I found this, one of the prettiest pieces on Milk Glass I've ever come across...shaped like a bird's nest.
The boys have found a few nice things too on our travels. Will picked up this green, Russel Wright baking dish.

Evan found this fun 70's ice bucket.


And while I was off camping, my one-year "etsy anniversary" passed. On July 8th my etsy shop had been open 365-days, and I had sold 408 items...yay. My goal had been to average an item a day and feels very good to have passed that goal.

I do love etsy.



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