My Vintage Soul

A Wreath Finds Its Home

I have been selling on Etsy for more than five years. One of the things that I love about it is that I often hear that buyers are reunited with a happy memory, especially at the holidays.

Many times they tell me they bought an item because they remember it from their childhood. Often they purchased at item because Grandma had one just like it, and more than once someone has bought something for a sibling because they had it when they were kids.

Last weekend, I had a sale that is still making me smile. A woman in Texas bought a Santa wreath that I had made a few years ago. She’s originally from Central New York and is now living in Texas. Earlier this year, she was among the flood victims of Hurricane Harvey and is now rebuilding her home.

The wreath features a Santa theme. All the items on it came from local estate sales and thrift shops, so I’m so happy that she will be able to have a little bit of “home” in her new home.

She has been through more than I can imagine in the last six months and that humbles me. It also makes me even more thankful of what I have, especially at this time of year when the significance of home becomes all the more important.

 

Happy Halloween!

It’s been quite a while since I have put all of my vintage Halloween items on display. But this year was special. Both of my grown daughters have been home in October, so I decided to go all-out.

They enjoyed this display so much as children, and honestly, I didn’t realize how much I had missed it. 

So sit back, eat a piece of candy or two (you know you will), and enjoy.

The foyer is home to a vintage Beistle skeleton that I bought many years ago for $2 (!) and a reproduction paper lantern from D. Blumchen. The tissue paper garland is also from Blumchen.

Left to right, some vintage honeycomb tissue pieces, an upcycled Christmas candolier that I made (there are more in my Etsy shop) and some blow molds.  

I rescued the skeleton trick-or-treat bucket from the Blow Mold Graveyard during Town Cleanup. 

The witch diecut came from a garage sale several years ago. The frame, which I painted black, is from a past Town Cleanup. 

The witch's hat is a new addition from the this year's Madison-Bouckville Antique Week. 

More blow molds and Gurley candles on top of the kitchen Hoosier cabinet.

 

A wreath that I painted many years ago is above the kitchen window.

My small collection of plastic candy containers.

And my smaller collection of vintage Halloween party hats.

Town Cleanup Roundup

Week 3: Blow Mold Graveyard.

Here I am once again in a familiar place, which is offering an apology for disappearing for so long.

I wasn’t abducted by aliens (well, at least not that I remember). Life, or more accurately, the crunch of doing two big projects at the same time didn’t leave me with much time to pursue junk or blogging. But longtime readers know that every fall I make time for the annual Town Cleanup, which is basically sanctioned trash picking in my little corner of Upstate New York.

The town in which I live is divided into seven fire districts, and each week the residents in the various districts put out all sorts of stuff at the curb. Over the years, I have found a great bit of treasure in the trash, everything from vintage Christmas ornaments to feedsack fabric to Haeger pottery, and much more. (You can read about those adventures in the archives for Sept. and Oct. for the last few years and for April and May before that because Town Cleanup used to be held in the spring.)

This year’s cleanup hasn’t disappointed. While I look less for stuff to cart home (still trying to down-size), over the last six weeks, I have found a Blow Mold Graveyard, a long sought-after cabinet for my laundry room and the sweetest scrapbook ever.

Here are the (visual) highlights in no particular order. I have been posting them on Instagram @lindavintagesoul.

This is what I salvaged from the  Blow Mold Graveyard, which was a H-U-G-E pile of old plastic blow molds and lawn ornaments. And, yes, that penguin does have propellers for wings. 

 Ahh, so sad. It's an aqua Mid-Century sofa with armrests as big as the fins on a '57 Chevy. Too bad it was well beyond saving. Also, no cushions for the sofa or a matching chair were anywhere in sight.

 Picked this Pottery Barn desk hutch in Week 2 and sold it on Craigslist for $25.

What I think is the end of a kitchen peninsula shelf. Found during Week 1. 

 A lyre-style end table in just about perfect shape. I sold it for $10 to another dealer. That thing on top is another of those Christmas tinsel spheres, the third one I have found this year. 

Oversized Jack-o-lantern blow mold. I sold it on Craigslist.

 Scrapbook, dated 1934. It belonged to Virginia Palmer Reed, a young nurse and newlywed.

I think that's Virginia and her guy in the top photo on the boardwalk. How sweet they are. 

Some shower cards. Look at all the Scottie dogs.

P.S. A quick plug for my Etsy shop, which has lots of Halloween items available. They're all at 20 percent off through Halloween.

 

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Here's to Halloween

It's Halloween in my Etsy shop. I have a variety of vintage items listed, plus a few crafty things I whipped up myself. Check it out.

To Bouckville and Back (and Back and Back)

I have been to Madison-Bouckville Antique Week in Upstate New York many times.

In fact, because I am one county and about 40 miles away, I started going before there was an official Antiques Week. Today that annual event draws about 2,000 sellers and many more buyers to what is usually two small bumps (Madison and Bouckville) on the road (U.S. Route 20). Years ago, the big event was the weekend show. I would go to that most of a Saturday and then squeeze in a couple of the smaller shows that were staged along Route 20.

Well, times have changed. The main event is a much smaller show that really isn’t worth the price of admission ($7), and  the 14 official fields that make up Antique Week (it does run for an entire week) have become bigger in size and influence. This year, I actually went to Antique Week three times because I am writing a guide to next year’s event for the magazine that I edit.

I also had the chance to visit with two of my favorite bloggers, Gina from Vintage Junk in My Trunk and Sue from Vintage Rescue Squad. They’re M-B regulars and buy quite a bit. Gina buys tons of vintage Christmas, which means we’re in competition for the same items, but I’m really trying to scale back and down-size a bit. So I was there mostly to observe and gather information, although I did eventually buy a couple of things that I hope to flip in my Etsy shop.  

Here is my visual tour of the Week:

Lots of vintage staples, including Pyrex, linens and Jadite.

Not everything you come across is old. You can find the odd, the interesting and the downright bizarre at M-B.

But, thankfully, there was quite a bit of vintage Christmas -- even after Gina bought tons of it.

Which brings me to my best purchase: An aluminum Christmas tree. Frankly, I was surprised to find one for a reasonable price. And it included a color wheel.

I crossed my fingers as I put it together on Saturday. Luckily, all the pieces were there, and here it is, fully assembled.

The next task is to find a box for shipping. The original one is pretty much trashed. When I get the box, the tree and the color wheel will be in my Etsy shop. Updates to come of course.

 

No-Brainers on Route 90

I set out for the 50-mile Route 90 Sale on Saturday with a clear mission (or two): Enjoy the beautiful day and try to buy only no-brainers, which I define as items that are sure to sell.

 Here's the tally: (And forgive the trunk shots. I was on the road after all.)

Round tartan plaid zippered 1960s suitcase. Check.

 In the pink with pink piece of 1950s pottery and plastic pink toy stove. Check and check.

Vintage Halloween blow molds and vintage honeycomb tissue scarecrow. The blow molds made me especially happy because I had passed on two of them that the guy with the plaid suitcase had in his booth. Those were quite faded by the sun. I told myself to be patient and that there might be something better. Luckily, there was. The scarecrow was a bonus. Check, check, check.

 

Assorted vintage red kitchen curtains in cute prints. The ones on the right with the red trim will cover two windows. Unfortunately, with the other print, on the left, there’s just a valance and one odd curtain, but I’m hoping that someone will still be charmed by them. Check.

Vintage California tablecloth. It has some issues, including a small hole and some overall fading, but I think someone could make a whole lot of pillows out of the border print. So check.

Finally, a piece of peach pie. Here's a bit of advice: If you’re taking a 1-day break from your diet, eat peach pie made by the Amish. You’re welcome.

P.S. Here are three items that I didn't buy, but made me think of Magpie Ethel and her love of children's shoe boxes (they were from the 1970s), vaporizers and oversized Santas.

Happy Holidays With Frances Bliss

Some days, I wish I could live the life of a 1950s housewife and be like Frances Bliss.

I didn't know Frances, but after attending her estate sale, she seemed to me to be the quintessential 1950s housewife.

 Frances loved to bake as evidenced by the hundreds of cookbooks and the dozens of Wilton cake pans shoved into the bedroom closet.

She also liked to sew and to knit, and there were dozens of patterns, lots of yarn and gobs of sewing books that she left behind.

There were also aprons and hats, which, as we all know, went out of style in the 1960s.

 And I think that Frances clearly loved the holidays, especially Christmas, which was the reason I went to her estate sale.

Some of my finds:

Two boxes of Jewel Brite plastic ornaments with small spun head Santas, angels and elves inside.

A “traditional” candolier in “modern” plastic.

And lots and lots of Gurley candles. You might call this new collection of mine a regular Gurleypalooza.

Most will hop on over to my Etsy shop once I do a quick inventory of what I already have. I might be keeping a few of the Thanksgiving candles that I had never seen before, including a praying woman and the Mayflower, as well as those always elusive (at least to me) Indian candles.

One more thing: On the bottom of every candle, Frances wrote her last name several times, ensuring that no one ever mistakenly walked away with her Gurleys.

 

 

It's All in the Timing

My timing was completely off when I walked into the thrift store the other day. That’s because a lady was walking out with one of those rotating lights for an aluminum Christmas tree in her cart.

 And, no, there wasn’t an aluminum Christmas tree left behind in the shop. I checked.

So, feeling a bit dejected, I started to head home, and what do my wandering eyes see? There! It’s a cool 1950s lamp and a wooden desk organizer in a pile of trash.

Whoa, Nellie. I pull over and pop them both in the back of my van. A few days later, in the same pile, there’s this cool metal stool. It goes home with me too.

 

So let that be a lesson to you in both good and bad timing.

Finally, I’m excited about an upcoming sale because the listing said 1960s Christmas, and there’s the name of the dearly departed: Frances Bliss. There has to be something good when these two intersect, right? I’ll keep you updated.

Thrift Store Santa Score

Usually, I come up empty-handed at the thrift store. But I still stop, hoping that every once in a while, my patience will be rewarded with something like this.

That’s two over-sized vintage Polish ornaments that were rolling around in a basket of random Christmas junk (and I mean junk not in a good way).

I picked them up, put them in a basket for safe keeping, and then I saw those #$%& price stickers on the bottom. That’s one of my thrift store pet peeves as you might remember from this post.

Luckily, the stickers were on the bottom and they came off fairly easily with some nimble fingers, a prayer and bit of breath-holding.

I almost didn't get the pink Santa ornament, which is just about perfect, out the door in one piece. The thrift store cashier proceeded to drop it and it bounced just like a basketball across the counter. I couldn’t believe that it didn’t break.

At that point, I took over the wrapping and the bagging. 

So, if you’re keeping score at home, that’s two Polish glittered ornaments for just about $2. And that’s why I keep going to that #$%& thrift store.

A Not So Hidden Mid-Century Print

When I watch a movie, I am watching more than the movie, especially if it is a period film.

I’m looking at the architecture, the clothing the actors are wearing and any pop culture items that reference the time when the movie is set.

I was doing just that the other night when I was watching “Hidden Figures.” If you haven’t seen it, please do. It’s the inspiring story of the African American women who calculated much of the mathematic equations for NASA before the days of computers.

The film focuses on three brilliant women in particular: Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe). 

In one scene Mary Jackson and her husband are discussing if she should try to attend night classes at an all-white high school to receive the certification she would need to enter NASA’s engineering program.

I’m listening of course but I’m looking too, and, there, on what I think is Mary Jackson’s sofa, is a Mid-Century leaf print fabric. It looks like, I think, the same fabric that is on the drapes that I have listed in my etsy shop.

So I snap a photo of the TV screen with my phone and compare it to my drapes, and, yes, it is the same fabric.

I purchased those drapes at an auction, which is not my usual way of acquiring things. Now I know that they date to at least 1961, which is the year that the movie is set.

Now I only have to figure out how to get what I think would be a dream job: acquiring all those period touches for a movie.