I need to know.

Before I get started here let me just say that this much I already know:  I am a vintage dish junkie and therefore have NO BUSINESS whatsoever prowling around the dish aisle of a Goodwill thrift store BUT once I’m in the store I feel it’s my moral obligation to check out every. single. aisle. including the one with the lame used sporting goods (deflated soccer ball or random golf clubs anyone?) and so there I was.  

Doing my civic duty in the dish aisle. In the name of junking. Which sounds an awful lot like junkie.

For the most part I kept my hands to myself but while eavesdropping on two people discussing Pyrex (free continuing ed class over in housewares!)  I spied some pretty little plates and here comes a(nother) confession:  I have become THAT PERSON. The one who whips out her phone in Goodwill to google the item in her hand before making a potentially heinous mistake involving fours of dollars by taking a pass on something that maybe she should have bought but didn’t.  Because of the fours of dollars involved.

And now I’m also that person who refers to herself in the third person.

And it was just four dollars.

I really don’t know how to explain that part of the equation. It’s not like they cost forty dollars because then PROBLEM SOLVED.

The tipping point. 

Back to the dishes. The magical, pretty dishes that had many interesting things happening. A nautical theme. Not one but two marks on the back (mad googling begins here!) and those marks involved the words ENGLAND and FAMOUS ARTISTS. Surely those are good signs. And the crazing. I love crazing. And they were pretty. And I’d never seen them before. And they were pretty.

Oh that crazing...

Hands over four dollars.

Despite my frenzied googling at the store and later again when my dishes and I got home, I still couldn’t determine specifically who the “famous artists” were and somehow not knowing disturbs me.  If I were putting the works of “famous artists” on my merchandise (and adding a second china mark specifically explaining that they were made by “famous artists”), I would say in BIG HUGE LETTERS who the “famous artists” are.

A painting by a "famous artist." 

And now I feel as though the internet is keeping secrets from me. Because everything about everything is on the internet by now, isn’t it?

I will keep looking.

The post about Farm Chicks 2014 that involves way too many asterisks* (and quite a few parentheses)

Every person attending has a version of this photo on their phone. It's Farm Chicks law. 

After several hours of driving and Skittles-eating, my traveling companion, Pam, and I arrived at the Farm Chicks Antique Show a few hours after the event opened on its first day and I made a beeline to my favorite vendors, the Vintage Linen People.**

I immediately gave them all my money (holds up hands and says “I have this many”) and then got to work selecting the items which would ultimately return home with me to join their friends who were eagerly awaiting them in my vintage linen hoard/stash /collection/whatever-we’re-calling-it-these-days.

I was recognized right away by one of the Vintage Linen People thanks to my repeat performances on the exact same spot in 2011 and 2012. 

Three years later they still remember me because of my previous summit attempts on their vintage linen mountain.  

Vintage barkcloth 1.o

Once completed, this transaction resulted in a drop-off trip to the car because it’s physically impossible to navigate the aisles of Farm Chicks while carrying a garbage bag stuffed with vintage tablecloths, barkcloth and doilies. Trust me on this.

(I secretly suspect those shoppers pushing baby strollers through the Farm Chicks venue don’t have human babies tucked away in there.  I now believe their strollers were filled with toddler-shaped gobs of vintage tablecloths in an effort to avoid multiple trips out to their cars. Smart.

Note to self:  Begin bookmarking folding baby strollers on eBay.)

Vintage barkcloth 1.2

Occasionally I would cross paths with my friend Ethel and her rock star, vintage-toting mom, signaling acknowledgement with just a friendly wave and a nod because Ethel was in her ZONE, a ZONE which prefers to skip over non-essential chitchat while there is still vintage goodness to be discovered.

That’s why dinnertime was invented. For the chitchat.

And I get that.***

Wrinkled. So very wrinkled. 

The second day of Farm Chicks was very similar to the first day for me. I spent some time with the Vintage Linen People (they had replenished AND FOLDED (!) their inventory) and then I moved on to some general junk browsing since the crowds were lighter this morning (that changes quickly as the morning goes on). 

This day I was actually able to see more of what was for sale rather than who was in front of, behind and all around me, buying it before I could reach it.

I exercised great restraint and these signs were my only other purchases and I plan to resell them. 

As if I need one more thing. Or one more vintage tablecloth.

Except maybe for these.

The drive home included one small unscheduled detour because someone was talking while her smartphone GPS was waving its arms in the air, pointing and shouting to let us know TAKE THIS EXIT. NOW.

Whoops.

I made it home eventually, happy with my very own mini mountain of vintage linens.

------------------------------------

*See what I mean?

**Vintage Linen People, if you have a formal business name, I apologize for not knowing what it is and for bestowing you with such a McBasic (yet apt) descriptor. Maybe hang a sign or something? Or not. Whatever.  I love you.

***One of these days I’ll write a post about THE SECRET TEST**** Ethel gave me the first time I ever went junking with her.

****I passed. (spoiler alert)

Texas Antiques Week 2013 and what started out as the abridged version but then ended up rambling on a bit

Is it okay if we just pretend that since returning from Texas a week ago, I’ve been mentally processing all that which is Texas Antiques Week and was not bogged down by tedious and boring technical difficulties?

La Bahia Event

I knew you’d understand.

Day One, Stop #1. A random tent on the side of the road.

My most amazing traveling companion*,  Laurie/Magpie Ethel has written THE BEST day-by-day account of our trip, from sweet tea to rolling garbage cans and everything in-between,  starting HERE.

Beautiful display by Marburger vendor J Hill Designs

For me, this trip was first and foremost meant to be an adventure into the junking unknown (cue up theme from Star Trek) and a fact-finding mission for possible future trips. I also hoped to do a little buying for re-selling. And be inspired.

Mission accomplished!

A few of these came home to join my collection

Generally, prices were somewhat higher than what I had anticipated which is what happens when junking 2,100 miles out of my very affordable Pacific NW comfort zone.  I had a bit of sticker shock at first but as a reseller, I also understood why the prices were what they were. 

Not-yet-ironed but terribly affordable.

I confess I didn't understand the $125 very-nicely-ironed-but-nothing-I-hadn’t-seen-before vintage tablecloths. Ouch.  

Luckily, I found plenty of tablecloth bargains. 

Why we kept the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on our hotel room door. 

There were definitely deals to be found, especially toward the end of the week when the “50% Off Everything” signs started appearing and in the end I had no trouble at all filling two suitcases. 

To. The. Brim. (Thank you for the suggestion to nest one suitcase inside a larger, empty suitcase on the trip there – worked like a charm).

Good grief, I'm tall.

One of the absolute highlights of this trip was meeting my longtime junking idol, Sue of Vintage Rescue Squad.  It was a thrill to compare notes about junk, reselling and blogging, in person.  

Enamelware bought to resell.

I really do heart the internet all over again when it makes connections like that possible.

Out in left field. 

Sue, Laurie and I shopped the fields one day and I’m not sure which was more interesting … the shopping or watching what each of us gravitated toward.

Overall, I would give the entire Antiques Week experience 5 gold stars!

Marburger vendor A Wilder Place in Time

Would I go back? Of course!  Want to go too? Let’s make a plan for next year!!

*I could not have asked for a better or more compatible traveling / junking companion. Every single day we marveled about how well it was going and we were together, literally, 24/7 which included minimum 12 hours days of driving, junking and eating.  Thank you, Ethel.  You’re a peach. 

Jadeite enthusiasts, please stand up.

And step forward.

I need your help, please.

The other day, while shopping for two hours (!) in a Goodwill store, the majority of that time spent having a miniature heart attack in the dish aisle, which, as we know, I have no business being in let alone loading a shopping cart full of all kinds of heart-attack-inducing dinnerware, I now have a question:

How do I tell if these plates are vintage Jadeite (or not)? They have no particular pattern and no identifying marks at all. 

That worries me.

Should I be worried?

A pretty pair of Blue Ridge Pottery plates

Another Goodwill shopper seemed to think they’re vintage and I base that solely on her reaction when she saw them in my cart and asked, “Do you know that those plates are collectible?!”

My outside voice: “Yes, I do.”

My inside voice: “Yes, I do. They’re in my cart. Stop touching them.”

The latest additions to my personal mix-&-match collection of (indestructible) vintage Japanese stoneware

She also asked me, “Do you know what they’re worth?!” (nicely, but in the do-you-have-any-idea-what-you-have-there-because-if-you-don’t-I’ll-take-them-off-your-hands-for-you way)  

Outside voice, not wanting to disappoint:  “I think so.”

Inside voice:  “No clue. Just hoping it’s more than the $2 Goodwill wants for them.”

Resale score! Bunches of Haviland Limoges

We smiled and agreed it was a very good day at Goodwill.

Inside voice: “Yes, it is.”

(Thank you for your help with my question.)

In my drawers

There’s a new addition to the vintage Christmas tablecloth drawer and I’m especially happy about it because:

It’s one I don’t have and it’s one I’ve never seen before and (this is always the deciding factor for me) it was a really great price.

I have achieved vintage Christmas tablecloth nirvana.

As long as we’re in the Christmas tablecloth drawer, let’s look around, shall we?

My all-time favorite. 

 Somehow I’ve ended up with four (!?) of these which might mean there’s been a breakdown in my Vintage Tablecloth Inventory System.  Or I’m hoarding. Or both.

 I really don’t know exactly what went wrong here.

My second all-time favorite.

Which I guess explains why I have only one.

Instead of four. (!?)

Do you iron before you store yours?

Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don’t.

 I’m random like that.

None of these fit my table but I like to layer them over a big, plain white tablecloth.

That way no one gets left out.

Or in. The drawer, I mean.

Christmas comes but once a year.



I swear, it followed me home

Can I keep it?

It gets along great with my Dollar Store plates.

 And it's very quiet.

This was the best (and scariest) part.

(After unpacking, I was very happy to discover only 2 pieces were chipped and from the appearance of the chips, they happened before these pieces were tossed together to become a ‘boxed set.’)

Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!



The Putz village idiot

On a recent trip, I spent some time at an antique mall where I attempted to purge the display case of a vintage Christmas collector who was downsizing.

There was entirely too much to choose from so I kept my looting limited to vintage glass bead garlands and little vintage cardboard (Putz or not) buildings, mainly because I had to ship it all back to Oregon.

Honestly, I don’t know a Putz house from a housecoat but this seller had so many of these little buildings so inexpensively priced that I bought them strictly for their curb appeal despite the missing church spires, sub-standard glitter application or other aesthetic disfigurements.

(Proving ignorance can be bliss.)

In the corner of the display case was a handwritten note taped to the wall suggesting a visit to this seller’s vintage Christmas website.  (If you head over there, I would suggest turning down the volume on your computer and perhaps investigating anti-seizure medication beforehand as there is a lot going on.)

photo courtesy of Papa Ted's Place

One of my favorite pages on this website is the one where this (very schooled) collector has compiled photos and prices paid on eBay for vintage Japanese-made miniature houses along with his colorful commentary regarding whether the buyer made a wise decision or not.

photo courtesy of Papa Ted's Place

I also love the page with glimpses of these vintage Butler Brothers Christmas catalogs and am now pining for a catalog of my very own.

Santa, are you reading this?