Where’s the Hope Diamond When We Need It?

Right in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, along with Empress Josephine’s jewels and Marie Antoinette’s diamonds. While Kathy was eclipse chasing, well, a little before to be truthful, I was in Washington, D.C. with my sisters drooling over the fabulous contents of the Smithsonian museums:

If you aren’t up on your Hope Diamond lore, you need to be. A previous 20th-century owner was incredibly reckless with it, letting others wear it, even her dog! The necklace was bought by Harry Winston, the famous jeweler, and he ended up donating the diamond and mailing it to the Smithsonian through the USPS in a plain box with a $1,000,000 of insurance! I just love looking at it and admiring its lovely color.

We dream of finding the equivalent of the Hope Diamond at a thrift store, but we seem destined to just see a bunch of crazy stuff!!

Oh, we do remember this kind of decorative item:

These fake Hobnail wall sconces weren’t even ceramic; they were plastic!! Neither of us really care all that much for milk glass or the Hobnail pattern by Fenton Art Glass Co., but either are preferable to plastic imitations! You can see the line in the candleholder where they put two pieces together, not seamlessly. There was a warning on the backs of these items to save fools from having to scrape melted plastic off their living room walls, or worse.

The proverbial shelf of carp:

On the top center shelf you can see someone’s bobblehead collection of hockey players for the local minor-league team. I’m from Michigan, and can say that as a kid, my family was interested in the local team, so I get following a team. I’m not sure that there is anyone in the world that would want to house a bobblehead collection of those players. I’ll have to see if they are still there. I’m not sure that I want the mermaid or the small child on a rocking horse figure, either. The most promising thing from the bottom shelf might be the unicorn–it’s sweet, but kind of big. This is a microcosm of what we usually stare at when shopping thrift stores. It’s pretty rare to find a “good” thing, or even blog fodder.

This small minaret has some weird sloppy decoration:

It looks like a Russian onion dome, if it were painted by someone who had consumed vast quantities of vodka. Checking the bottom label of the thing, yeah, seems about right, except for Thailand being the country of origin. What we can’t understand is why someone would keep it after consuming the contents. I wouldn’t even want it for my garden, it’s hideous! Maybe that’s the point—no one would pick it up and discover your stash of alcohol.

Okay, this may be something you would buy after drinking a bottle of Stoli:

Drunk shopping on the internet has lead to some very questionable purchases, and this might be one. I’m imagining that you just broke up with your boyfriend and are consoling yourself with Ben and Jerry’s and some Stoli, say, to wash it down while doom-scrolling on your phone. Then you see it, the clock with the customizable face, and before you know it one is winging its way to your doorstep. Of course you don’t want it after sobering up and having your blood sugar return to normal, so you drop it off at the thrift store, leaving all the shoppers mystified and mentally writing novels about how such a thing could exist. You need to stay off your phone while vulnerable to impulsive purchases!

Oh, how I needed this some days when I worked:

I don’t know why, but some folks wouldn’t even let me take off my coat, before dropping their disasters in my lap. I would try to sneak in a back door and tiptoe to my office, but there was often someone camping out waiting for me to show up. I really needed this sign, maybe tattooed on the palm of my hand, to stop them in their tracks. It would have been more pleasant for both of us!

We aren’t exactly sure what this is:

It doesn’t really look like a fan, but it is on a long flat handle. She is very nicely done with the lovely hair ornaments and a nice fabric kimono. I’m wondering if she moves at all with those cords from the hat to her instrument (?). I’ve not seen anything quite like this figure, before. She was locked in the cabinet, so we couldn’t examine her. I hate dragging someone away from their job just to satisfy my curiosity. There were a number of Asian dolls on the shelves, and I even bought a cute wooden bobble-headed child flying a kite. Someone obviously let their big collection go.

( Edit to add: A loyal reader passed on the following info on this item. The Japanese looking fan is called Hagoita. They are wooden paddles for the Japanese game Hanetsuki during the New Year. )

Just wanted to share what is going on in the garden:

I love irises, and have all kinds and colors. This is a sweet early short one that is up, maybe just a tad early, along with some grape hyacinths. This is the time of the year when my garden looks its best!

Have a wonderful weekend! We will be on the lookout for more treasures and tripe. If you come across either on your ramblings, shoot us a picture at: thesecondhandroses@gmail.com.

Eclipsed

Part of the reason for last week’s pause in posting was my trip to Texas to watch the solar eclipse. We saw the one in WY in 2017, and couldn’t resist catching this one, too. Road trip time! We started out with a horrific windstorm and battled it all the way down. By the time we got into Texas it looked like this:

At one point it was so bad we couldn’t see even 10 feet in front of us and that was in a town! Needless to say when we got to our hotel that night we had scratchy eyes and throats. It got better once we reached the hill country and there was more vegetation.

Being Texas in April, a lot of that vegetation was blue bonnets:

Interspersed with the red of the native paintbrush flowers, the fields were a sight to behold. They have scattered wildflower seeds in many of the exchanges on the highways too, so it was pretty.

On Monday we headed to Sugar Ridge Winery. They were doing an event just for the eclipse that included wine, Texas BBQ, and a lovely area of the grounds to watch the eclipse in. It started out cloudy, and the sun played hide-and-seek for a good portion of the morning. We all got ready to watch:

The sun was about 90% covered and there was a large cloud in the way, but just before it went to totality, the cloud slipped away. The small crowd cheered and we were treated to just over 4 minutes of darkness:

I didn’t take my good camera this time, as I really wanted to enjoy it, not fuss with photos, so this is on my cell phone. You have all seen much better photos, I am sure. It was still awesome. The birds stopped, but bugs started, then stopped again, as they noticed the darkness. When the sun slipped out again, everything went back to chirping and singing as normal. I get why folks travel around the world to experience this.

For the next two days it rained and was cloudy all day, so Mother Nature gave us a break.

Since we were traveling and it was raining, we had to hit a few thrift stores and antique places. Honestly, I didn’t see a whole lot of interesting things in Texas. On the Sunday before the eclipse, the sun was shining and we found a huge outdoor flea market. Best thing there was the old screen for the drive-in it used to be:

Must have been a sight back in it’s glory days with that wonderful mid mod styling. We spent a solid couple of hours wandering it, but didn’t see a lot or buy much. I bought a handful of beads at one of the first vendors, and that was about it.

Found a combination mini antique mall and hair styling salon in Austin. (It’s not weird for nothing.) The best thing I found there was this cool set:

It was plastic but very groovy. Not really my style or price range, so it stayed there. We found Austin so large and overwhelming that we really didn’t see a lot of it, and moved on to some smaller towns.

In Waco we found a beautiful antique mall that had been there over 60 years, but was being bought out to be made into a bowling alley. Sad to see so many dealers displaced, and talking to some of them, they had no where to go, and were just shutting down. We didn’t find a single thing in the whole place we needed, and it was huge. The scavengers had been hitting them hard, and being jerks, as the place was a mess and the dealers couldn’t keep up.

As we were so close (being a relative term here, as this is the West) we decided that a quick stop in Santa Fe was in order. Found a lot more fun things here.

This might have been the oddest thing I have seen in a while:

Combo clock and mini fireplace? The book gives it scale, and I am assuming when it was plugged in the fireplace had a light that flickered. I guess if you really had a small apartment and you wanted ambiance, then this would be the piece for you. Forgot to look at the price, but things were pretty pricey in this shop, so I think I just ignored it.

One of our favorite antique places in Santa Fe (not because we can afford it mind you, but just because it has cool stuff) yielded this gem:

It’s a cool old store display spool cabinet for thread. I want a spool cabinet desperately for my sewing machine addiction, but at over 600 bucks this was not the one. Plus, after posting a pic of it on my sewing machine group, someone pointed out that their cat would take one look at this and read scratching post, and thinking about it, I know mine would too. It was designed to look like a giant spool of thread, so the white was actually twine wrapped around it. The front had some issues with the veneer and the back, with the drawers, was poorly refinished and had lost the signage part, add in mismatched knobs and it was a big no. Sigh.

Same shop had these:

They were andirons for an old wood burning fireplace. Someone had glued marble eyes in them, but they wouldn’t have had them in the first place, as the heat of the fire would crack them. (I take that back, just looked and they make ones now that have the glass eyes!) I made grabby hands at these, too, but again a price tag halted me in my tracks. I saw a post on my Weird Finds Facebook group that someone was gifted a pair of these in their group. I could cry. Anyone have a set for me?

This cracked me up. I am sure you were the coolest kid on the block in your land speeder:

It was a battery operated car, and priced at only $600. Made by Western Flyer and looks like the original price was around $500, so it has gone up in value? Had to take a photo for the summer intern, as he would be amused, and was not able to come with us. Ok, it might be time to get to the giant H.R. Pufnstuf in the corner. I was trying to ignore him. Looks handmade but why? I might get it if it were a costume, but no, it is just a giant stuffy. This show was after my time, but not so far that I didn’t recognize it. No matter what, I really don’t think there could ever be a need for this, and yet it exists.

One more giant, of maybe a mini, if you get right down to it:

If you are in Santa Fe and don’t wander around the galleries a bit, you are doing yourself a disfavor. There are so many wonderful things to see. I think it is the best window shopping anywhere. You can see clothes and bags all over the world, but there is nothing like a free museum show. There were several of these large sculptures in the gallery, and photos were encouraged, which can be a rarity. This was probably my favorite, Bumblebee Transformer, for the less geeky among you. It was all made out of old auto and machinery parts, and extremely clever.

We had lots of good food. Steaks and BBQ in Texas, fantastic breakfasts and Mexican food in Santa Fe, drove over 2000 miles, and saw a total eclipse for the second time in a lifetime. Met some nice people, saw some strange things, and some pretty things. A pretty good trip I’d say.

Zootopia

Some weeks you just see a ton of the same things, and well, last week it was our forest friends. It makes it easy to organize your thoughts.

Just an FYI that next week we are taking a break and won’t publish a new post. It’s the first time since we started, 13 years ago last month. No worries about anything bad going on, we are just taking a tiny break. If you are jonesing for a Second Hand Roses fix, take a wander through our archives. If you click on a word from the cloud of tags to the right of this week’s post you will be lead to a number of associated posts. The pictures below that are our most popular posts ever, which might be the best place for a newer reader to start.

Oh my goodness! My front yard is the sweetest smelling place in the neighborhood:

I absolutely love hyacinths in all their sizes and colors. I have white, purple, and pink, along with small grape hyacinths that come a little bit later. Hyacinth flowers are waxy and smell like heaven. I always enjoy the ones planted near my front door. They might not be all that visible from the street, but I’m selfish and want some just for my own!

This is actually an Easter leftover, but it fits better here:

This isn’t the happiest of bunnies, and “Baby” Williams must have not been that thrilled to have this painting in their room. I did have to laugh at the hairy chest; none of the varmints who chew up everything in my yard have a thatchy patch on their chests. I think he would be a bit more fun if you could tell what he is looking at. Those two patches of grass couldn’t be the reason for the confused expression.

I do a lot of jigsaw puzzles when visiting my mother and didn’t realize this was a finished puzzle until we got close:

This one is impressively huge and at least parts of it are 3-D. We were down an aisle looking at it and there was something weird about it—I mean weirder than the subject. Why is the cosmic white tiger who is floating out in space so big? Those paws will probably pack a punch if any intergalactic threat tries to attack Earth. We couldn’t quite figure out the relevant symbolism; I guess it could be related to the turtles holding up our planet. Anyways, it must have been a booger to finish so that’s why it’s framed.

This might have been owned by the white tiger lover:

Another huge, mysterious cat figure. You can judge its size for yourself by the 12 x 12 inch floor tiles below it. We aren’t quite sure what family to place this beast in—I’m leaning fantasy. He’s sort of spotty, so maybe a jaguar or leopard but there are also some squiggly lines, too, and he’s PURPLE. The stuff of nightmares with those demon eyes.

How about something silly?

It’s our old friend, shell crafts, but they’ve gotten super fancy with this one. They must have painted a boatload of tiny whelks, lacquered up a clam shell, and then carefully glued a conch on top. So far, so good if you’re a shell-craft aficionado. The possible fly in the ointment are the figures. Are they bears, are they cats? Bearcats? And what do they have to do with a beach or the tropics? Honestly, it’s always the last added thing that pushes it too far. Some kind person should buy this and liberate our furry friends.

Okay, we loved this when we saw it:

It was probably a kit or at least a pattern from days gone by. We stood in front of it smiling like a pair of loons because it made us happy. We were wondering if it was supposed to be a dodo bird, or a flamingo. Both were pretty popular in cartoons and animated movies when we were kids, and even before. We thought it was fun, but just took a picture and moved on. I hope someone buys this and gives it a home.

Oh goodness:

The crimes crafters commit against innocent stuffed bears! I know this is yarn, but from a distance they looked like bears dressed up with industrial mop heads. How does any of this enhance those bears? I have to plead guilty to making ballerina bears in the 1980s when it was a thing. My only defense is that I came to my senses pretty quickly and stopped the bear torture. This might be the same vintage, although I never saw a pattern for them. Honestly if you have lots of yarn, skip the this craft and make gloves, socks, hats, and scarves.

Last up isn’t an animal, but frankly, we could use a break:

There was a whole travel doll collection on the shelves one day, and we picked him out as the best. How could you not love that mustache? He is vintage and cute as could be, but alas, we don’t spend $6 on dolls that don’t fit our collections. But, he almost made the cut; thank goodness he wasn’t less than $4, or one of us might have crumbled!

Please check back in two weeks to find out what we’ve been up to. In the meantime, we hope there will be some sunny spring weather that you can enjoy!

The Bunny Trail

I found a quote the other day that perfectly sums up Deb and me.

Behind every crazy duo, is just a pair of unstable best friends who convince each other that their behavior is normal.

Honestly, we spend a whole lot of time propping each other up. We give each other permission to make snarky remarks about whomever and whatever, allow each other to buy ridiculous things, by twisting each others’ rubber arms, and justify all of the above for the sake of our Etsy shops and this blog. I mean what more could a girl ask for in a best friend?

Well Easter sure snuck up on us, didn’t it? Not often it lands in March. I barely had time to put away the shamrocks before the Easter eggs were supposed to come out. Did I manage to get out Easter decorations? Nope, still have a green runner on the dining room table, but I managed a couple of Easter garden flags and that is just going to have to suffice.

At least we have some Easter finds to brighten your basket by NOT being in it.

These two are having a good gossip:

Probably laughing at the silly price tag attached. Even if it does say Italy, it’s not worth that much. It’s a bit overly large, and not particularly pretty. Plus, I don’t remember what they felt the need to tape to this piece, but I am sure it wasn’t very useful. It will sit there till a half price day, I am sure.

Here is a little trifecta, two bad bunnies and a good one:

I think we don’t have to explain which is which. The bunny with the tassel hands (paws?) is downright terrifying. Looks like she was swallowed up by a rabid pin cushion. The bunny with the five o’clock shadow whiskers is not the worst, but it sure doesn’t make you want to grab it and add to your Easter décor. On the other hand the yoga bunny is rather cute. I wouldn’t feel bad about him peeking out from among my house plants at all. He might even go well outside. Although, I really don’t feel the need to remind our local rabbit population to exercise and stay in shape. I would rather they were couch potatoes over at the neighbor’s house.

We seem to find at least one of these a year:

And for some reason they almost always are sort of squished on one side or the other. I think folks think they are great idea the first year, make it to the second year of use, and after that, they just get pushed down farther and farther into the Easter bin, till they come out looking like this and head to the thrift store. They always look a little sad and downtrodden.

This fellow also looks a little worried:

He is still rather cute though. Why is it bunnies look worried? It’s not like they end up on the Easter menu like turkeys at Thanksgiving. Most folks leave that to the ham, and yet, we see many that look like they are going to the guillotine at any moment. Maybe they are just so anxious to please. If so, this one can relax. We approve.

This poor fellow seems to have had a super growth spurt:

That is one long tall rabbit. Do you suppose he is planting carrots for himself to dig up later? Or maybe he is trying to help his doggy friend bury a bone. No mater what he is doing, he commits the sin of being made of the that nasty resin junk. We are just happy it can still be broken, and we hope this happens soon, before he grows any more! We apologize for the blurry photo. Sometimes Deb’s camera tries to protect you from us a bit overzealously.

This is for folks who want to be really subtle in the the Easter decoration department:

If it weren’t for the burlap ears, you would never figure it out, as that white bunch of flowers would never read cotton tail without the ear accompaniment. It’s not even silk, but plastic, so a hard pass for us. We prefer our rabbits front and center.

We spent a good few minutes laughing at this display:

Ummm, one of these things just might not belong in PG rated Easter display? Deb added an arrow in case you don’t quite see it. We wondered if this was done purely tongue in cheek, or did they really not know. We are more the tiara bunny ears than the Playboy sort, so we left them all for the proper folks to come by and claim them. You know who you are, and we won’t tell.

Hope you have a lovely Easter, and that all your bunnies are solid chocolate!

Give the Buried Flower a Dream

Thanks for that image, Robert Frost from “To the Thawing Wind” which is an appropriate poem for here in breezy CO. Especially in the spring when it blows a lot during the Chinook winds. Here are a couple of pictures of my unburied flowers that sprung up after last week’s snowstorm:

These are my miniature iris and they aren’t even four inches tall, but are very irisy! And of course, the old reliable:

I don’t think that I’ve ever planted croci, so these must be 30 plus years old and they come up every year like clockwork. It’s sort of strange that my hyacinths aren’t up yet since they usually bloom with the crocuses. There are daffodil buds all over, so it’s probably going to get cold and snow again because that’s what happens to them every year.

As far as our latest finds go, we didn’t shop last week because Kathy and family took a quick trip to Las Vegas and I wimped out with the cold and snow. So, sorry for the slightly stale finds, but bad is bad no matter when we saw them.

Let’s start out with maybe the worst picture I have on tap:

Hard to miss the strangest thing on the shelf, but none of it is good. We still aren’t exactly sure what the black and white thing is supposed to be—but maybe a plague-mask gnome? Hopefully someone didn’t make this in honor of our recent epidemic, but we were baffled why this even exists. Nothing funny or attractive about it, especially not at $5. The amateur ceramic project to the left is so earnest and wholesome in comparison that I can hardly complain about it. And that big white glass pineapple is just weird. I would be tempted to paint a face on it because it is such a void. Blank slates are so tempting.

These poor things might be in need of therapy; maybe they caught sight of the shelf above:

Owls frequently look startled to us, and these two appear positively shell-shocked. It’s so bad the the poor little one has lost his left eye. Pitiful purple guy looks frozen in place which is weird for a predator. However, you all have seen what’s on the shelves at our thrift stores, so maybe this look isn’t so surprising. Maybe I should grab a photo of us after seeing a particularly atrocious clown; our own expressions might be just a little too familiar (WTH did we just see?).

Wow, I would have loved to see the dining room these were part of:

Grandma must have really liked salmon pink, which looks pretty dusty now. The carving is pretty clunky, and six or eight chairs around a huge table would be quite a sight. Then, you really have to consider the wallpaper, curtains, and there probably was a chair rail, too. Add in the china cabinet full of pink dishes, and the tablecloth, and I feel sure that we have been in this dining room at some point. It would be a quite costly to recreate the set as each chair is marked $20 or $30—I can’t quite read the tag. We didn’t see the table, but I have to confess that we didn’t look too hard.

While talking about dining rooms, these next two things seem appropriate:

We just love the covers of this particular cooking pamphlet series. The pictures are absolutely disgusting, and this one isn’t any different. Tasty is just laughable as a descriptor!! Everyone loves their appetizers on toothpicks stuck into a fresh purple–pink brain, although this one is probably just a bit too smooth to be convincing. Thank goodness for the olives because there isn’t another thing I would eat off of this display! Yum, yum, bring on dinner, please!

And for dessert:

At least it doesn’t say tasty on this one. The yellow coconut things in the center look like something a cat might hork up. I guess there isn’t too much you can do to fudge, although these samples don’t look particularly alluring. I was looking at the upper left corner and I’m wondering if those are fondant produce, or real fruit and veggies. Either way, why are there two balls of dirt on the front edge? I cannot believe the artistic choices made by the photographers.

It’s so strange seeing vacation tchotchkes never used:

When I was in Great Britain in the 1980s on vacation, I saw these kinds of plasticized coasters and placemats in a number of places. I thought they were pretty cool, but didn’t spring for a set. I found a set of placemats (famous London buildings) much later in a thrift store and bought them instead. This set was just sitting there, but the scenes are much too grand for my house. It’s funny how things look “right” in one place and very obviously “wrong” in a different situation. These would probably work in a museum, or old home on antique side table. Modern casual decorating is just a bridge too far.

Finally, something good:

We love looking at old china, and this caught Kathy’s eye right away. We think it’s supposed to look like a pretty napkin folded on your plate—a very different design. I can’t remember if it had a mark, but the flowers are dainty, and the “woven” area above the napkin is well done. ( Kathy here: It did have a mark and was much older than it looked. It was a Victorian mark so the plate is well over 100 years old! ) This would make for an interesting plate to serve cookies or candy from, just none of the 250 types from the recipe pamphlet above.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll have an Easter post for you next week. Hope you all are seeing some pretty flowers while you’re out and about. It gives us hope that spring will be here soon.

Shop Harder

We live and breathe this motto:

Honest, the only reason we both have Etsy stores is so we can get rid of the things we buy that we don’t need, or grow to love less. Etsy has been pretty lame recently, so it is putting a real crimp in our style. We had to laugh at the stupid Superbowl Etsy ad. Apparently, Etsy is the go to place for cheese boards, at least that is what most folks now think. They now have gift mode, but unless the person you are buying for is just a very generic “her”, “him”, or “kid”, it’s fairly hard to find anything, much less have anything vintage show up. So hey, if you are looking for a vintage gift for a collector loved one, take a peek at our shops! Links on the side bar. Ok, sorry for the ad. Feel free to ignore it, but I have to try once in a while, and heck, we would be thrilled with just a few clicks!

Bet most anyone would be happy with anything OTHER than this plate:

After putting up with him, I mean joyously living together, for years and years, I think you would deserve a whole lot more than this. Say a cake, or a good coupon for a cup of coffee. What are you supposed to do with this anyway? Fling it at his head when he invites his mom to stay for a month one more time? Throw it on the floor in a fit of pique when he watches one too many football games? Notice all my options contain the destruction of said plate. Best use for it ever.

Back to some shell games:

This piece was HUGE. I hope my hands convey enough of the scale of it. We did love the way they put the white shells together to make a flower. If this were, say a plant pot hanger, we might be all over it, as it was pretty clever. As a necklace, the scale seems painful to say the least. That much weight on those pokey shells could give you a real injury. Seems the person who deposited this at the thrift store did a lot of tropical vacationing, as there were quite a few shell leis. Lucky dog.

These were mind boggling:

If you really, really, like oysters and need a craft for all those shells, have we got the one for you! They were actually rather small oyster shells, but still, it took a whole lot of them to cover those trees. Even the Summer Intern felt the need to point these out the next week when he accompanied us. He knows us so well. I have to ask what is with the string bows on top? You went to all that work to glue a bucketload of shells to a form and the best you can come up with to top it off is a string bow? It certainly doesn’t make them any better. I suppose it doesn’t make them any worse, as I am not sure that is possible, so we will let them go at that.

The holidays are ganging up on us this year, so quick, let’s get in the St. Patrick’s stuff before Easter sneaks up. I just know all the kiddies are going to be doing Easter egg hunts in the snow, when it falls in March!

This little leprechaun was a bit too odd for us:

Methinks there was a whole lot of green beer involved to make him that happy! Either that or there is some real mischief on his mind. Hopefully, he is not toddling along your way to promote chaos in your life; you never know with a leprechaun.

How about a nice Irish Hamster:

He was rather cute, but not rather useful. Hamsters are just rats with better P.R., I have heard it said. They are a bit more fun than rats, at least in my mind, but having had rodents, they really don’t do a whole lot, so maybe a stuffed one is the way to go. We are not even sure why there is so much St. Paddy’s merch. It’s not a holiday that begs a whole lot of décor. I do have some garden flags, and a table runner, but I am content with that. Don’t need a stuffed hamster or a big sign:

I mean this takes up a bunch of room when not in use. So unless you are a giant fan of Notre Dame, and can leave it up all year long, it’s not a good use of space for much of anyone. I am sure this is one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time.

Just for fun I thought I would share a recipe. I have a friend who is very, very Irish and a very good chef. When I had this one time at an event, I asked for the recipe and this is what he gave me:

Dublin Codal (Coddle)

• Ham, large chunks
• Sausage, large chunks
• Leeks (Not what you do after some brews.) (I left that in, as it made me laugh!)
• Onion, large dice
• Red spuds sliced thin
• Beer

Brown the sausage in a cast iron pot, add the onions & leeks, then the ham, deglaze pan with beer, add some water. Put sliced spuds in the bottom of a roaster, put all the meat and onions over the spuds. Put in oven and bake about an hour till spuds are tender. Served best with Guiness.

Honest, most any combination of this comes out super good. He says it is way more Irish that corned beef and cabbage. He has given me leave to be honorary Irish for the holiday, as I am mostly Scottish, but he says all those Celtic folks count.

Hope you have a very green day, and get ready to shovel the snow on Easter!

It’s Snowing but at Least it Ain’t Blowing!

It’s been windy, really, really windy, all winter long. The last couple of weeks it’s been really, really, awfully windy along with sunshine. We’ve been getting red flag warnings because this is putting us at risk of wildfires—at the end of February and early March!!! I’m wishing we just had a normal frozen February with snow. Warm weather and more risk of fires isn’t actually a positive change in my book. Today it started sprinkling and it’s supposed to change to snow this evening with snow showers during the night. Usually we aren’t big snow fans, but it’ll be good to have some moisture in the ground in case the wind starts up again, which it will.

We didn’t get to shop last week because Kathy wasn’t feeling well. Sadly, she was only able to miss one day of work, and the whole weekend. What the heck, stomach flu? You’re supposed to hit on Tuesday or Wednesday and cause, um, allow, people to miss the rest of the work week, but recover in time for the weekend!

Thankfully, we have a reader-submitted entry to help round out this week’s finds. I give you the rare duck/horse:

Okay, believe it or not, you can Google duck horse and get a link to Huck on Amazon. I’m horrified by Huck as his duck head is roughly the size of his body—poor neck! I’m also amused that this retailer thinks he’s worth $19.99, because he’s $15.95 brand new. He is part of the Randimals hybrid animal pals who are “ready to be your loyal companion”; I’ll add, if you’ll have them. They are supposed to highlight diversity, which is great, but maybe they should warm us up with a dragonfly-butterfly hybrid instead of zebra-kangaroo, or elephant-gorilla hybrids. I am not making any of this up! We can all thank Robert for bringing this to our attention! He finds the weirdest things.

The rest of the post is going to seen anticlimactic, but here goes:

The thrift store put these eagles behind the cashiers where they store all the “good stuff”. I’m not sure that this representation of our nation qualifies. I would love to talk to the maker to see what the thought process was behind making them have orange highlights. The front one is trying to look fierce, but it’s hard to be tough when your dye job is so weird. Maybe they glow in the dark—that would be horrifying to the unwary walking through the house at night.

Vacation tchotchkes are just getting more and more peculiar:

That snow globe of the desert vacation getaway is a choice. The gold base just ups the tacky. I would give it a pass if I thought that a kid bought it, but you know some drunken tourist bought this and then was surprised when they unpacked. The Colorado souvenir might be interesting if it were from Dinosaur National Monument—just taking a shot from looking at the teeth. It becomes more mysterious when looking at it straight on:

It looks like a bear/dog hybrid or some other Randimal nonsense, but now I’m wondering about the dish in its throat. Is this an ashtray? OMG that is more junky than a Las Vegas snow globe. I wish people would stop buying trashy crap when on vacation.

Poor Skeletor was out on the floor recently—they didn’t even save him for Halloween:

I’m sorry, but this really doesn’t have much value except as Halloween decoration. It’s missing its head and a lower arm is loose and under the messenger bag across the shoulder. I have a sneaking suspicion that if we had looked in its bag we might have found its head which is about as Halloweeny as it gets. The stand is obviously the best thing about it. It was gone the next week, though, so what do we know? We were impressed with the huge vase next to it. It’s the second big one we’ve seen in a month; those babies are expensive and only a few people have a big enough house to decorate with them.

This was kind of puzzling:

That poor, innocent glass and brass box was just minding its own business and someone did this to it. Those plants are so far from decorative that at first I thought they might be plastic aquarium supplies. But, fish sure wouldn’t know what to make of pincushion flowers (Leucospermum) at least that is what it kind of looks like to me. I thought plastic flowers have gone the way of dinosaurs with the silk flowers available, but silly me! The best thing you could do with this is buy it, throw out all the contents, and then just have an empty glass and brass lidless box.

I just don’t know how to go to a whole post without a questionable craft:

I’m not sure what to do with this angel (?) since it isn’t very cute or decorative. Don’t people know that you can make dogs and cats from old magazines? There are whole Pinterest boards about it, and we have shown a few over the years from vintage craft books (search the blog for Crazy and Not-So-Crazy Craft Patterns to see some doozies!) I guess this angel is kind of appropriate since they made it out of a hymnal—I mean what else could you do? I’m not shocked it ended up at the thrift store, and I will be kind of surprised if anyone takes it home.

Last up is something nice that was also kept behind the counter:

That red wool wrap is pretty cool and has tassels and gold decoration. I have sold an old cape from Victorian times that were made in a similar way, but Good Heavens they were never red! However, tassels were a possibility. I have a couple of wool cloaks that I like to wear in the winter, so I didn’t need a capelet. Hopefully someone saw it back there and got themselves a fun and unusual winter wrap.

Thanks for reading along, and as always, if you see something horrifying you can email us a picture and we WILL use it. Thanks Robert for your help with this week’s post.

The Blues

I think I am hitting the wall of winter blues. Last week, I was so out of it, that when I went to pick up Deb for our shopping, she had to tell me she had published the blog, and that is SUPPOSED to be my job. I not only didn’t do it, I didn’t even know I hadn’t done it. I may need someone to hold my hand for the next month or so, just to talk me though it!

I wanted to add a little photo, just to piggyback on the sewing one from last week, as I got a bunch of really fun buttons a bit ago and wanted to share. Take a look at this whole pile of novelty buttons:

Lots of these little treasures date to the ’30s and ’40’s. Fastening your clothes with them seems like it would have been more trouble than it was worth, but they sure looked cute. The tiny alligators are listed as being 1/2 inch buttons, but that is only the length! I can see why they are still on the card! I pretty much bought the whole bag just to get the darling little brown kitten one. That is why my house is full of so much junk! Everything else just comes along for the ride.

I am going to cry foul on these:

I am pretty sure a candle burning is exactly one temperature, and there is no such thing as an extra hot one, except maybe for the paraffin ones. Especially when they look like ordinary votive candles:

The temperature does vary depending on what part of the flame you are in, with the blue part near the center burning at close to 1400 F. That is still enough to keep your coffee hot if you are using a candle on one of these. But, that being said, it’s still just a candle. Give them credit for trying though.

This poor gal needs a makeover:

Or maybe she already had one courtesy of her five-year-old. Let’s hope it wasn’t permanent marker. I am not sure we even bothered to take the time to check the bottom and see whether she was a ceramics fail, or just a Chinese factory fail. Sorry, we have let you down, readers! Let’s just say the jobs for the Disney Princesses are probably safe for a very long time with this lady around.

These were so odd:

I will give you the backs right now, and then we can move on.

We figured they were some sort of popular royalty commemorated on tin. Best I can tell is that it was coffee company, as I see a few other things with the same name on them, but not a whole lot of info. Maybe they were really cheap images. Royalty free if you paste our faces on your advertising? If you know, pass it along. Now let’s go back to the images. He has been up to a whole lot of no good and she has had her fill of it. That is one pained expression on her face. I am betting he will be sleeping in the dog house for the foreseeable future, especially, as he doesn’t look the least little bit contrite about anything he has done.

By the way, check out my cool rhinestone butterfly pin in the first photo. Nothing like a giant sparkly pin to bring on spring. Hope to be wearing it soon!

[Deb here. B.H. and I noticed some writing on the back of the plate, very small, and found out that this is King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola of Belgium. He was king until 1993, but this portrait was him in the 1960s.]

We featured a huge shelf full of Hummels a bit ago, and here are the plates that must have gone with them:

Quite a few were the Hummel ones, but there was a smattering of other ones as well. I have never understood “decorative” plates. Unless you hang them on the wall, they are not very decorative, and they are a pain to hang, as you spend a lot of time messing around with those stupid little wire plate holders. When you have a stack this big, there is just not a wall big enough for all of them. I might forgive them the whole thing if they were useful, but nine times out of ten, the back says “not for food use”. What sort of good is that? That means the only use left is as clay pigeons for target practice.

While in the ceramics section we spotted a couple of mugs. First up:

I am not sure I am up for my morning coffee giving me the stink eye all the time. Not to mention the color is a bit off. What the heck is this creature hanging out next to that they needed to change to this color? We chuckled and moved on. When we saw this next one, we decided the octo-mug wasn’t so bad:

Talk about damning with faint praise. I am asking, would you display this proudly on your desk? I get it if you are the continual screwup and just want to make yourself look good, but I am pretty sure everyone already knows. I laugh when my hubby gets stuff like this at work. Thank goodness they give awards out of paper and he can use them as toilet paper in a pinch! We do know why both of these mugs didn’t make the cut and are at the thrift store. There are so many pretty ones that can take up space in your cupboard. I know what I would take to a dish smashing party.

Just what did this poor skull ever do to someone:

You will be happy to know it was a cast, but that still doesn’t forgive giving him the Jackson Pollack treatment. Was it supposed to be artistic? Or maybe someone just had a case of the winter grumps. Oops, that might be me. Nope, chocolate will fix it better than throwing paint. Hopefully, someone comes along and knocks this off the shelf soon.

Stay warm safe where you are. Spring is coming, so they say.

Thimble Pleasures of Life

My S-I-L, Dorothy, knows that Kathy and I like sewing supplies—especially old ones. She had passed on the contents of several sewing baskets belonging to, I’m guessing, her mother-in-law, maybe her own mother, and great-aunt. Along with all the things that you would expect, random buttons, old snaps, needles, scissors, thread, I found some pretty fun things. I’m showing you these so that maybe you’ll give your basket a look-see, and maybe snoop around in ones belonging to the previous generations.

Sometimes thimbles are thimbles, and sometimes they are something a little more interesting:

This campaign giveaway is for a local election, but there are thimbles for national elections which can be collectible. They can be surprisingly old. For instance this thimble is for John W. Smith, who was Mayor of Detroit in the 1920s and 1930s. Can we have a laugh about the sexism inherent in wooing women-voters with thimbles yet? I would love to have been a fly on the wall to see what else was considered. The thimble on the right screws onto a longer thimble-shaped bottom and is a sewing kit, or needle case. There are dark green bands with shamrocks around the open ends. The base has an engraved horseshoe and shamrock, so it should be lucky! I need to give it a clean with a jewelry cloth to get some of the years off it. If you find a thimble in your shopping expeditions, give it a quick look. You would be surprised at how many sterling thimbles are out there, and they are usually marked.

Now, this was a mystery:

I found it all folded up and was puzzled. It wasn’t all that enlightening to open it up, but I can tell you it is 5 1/2 inches long. I looked online and figured out what it was, but wanted to know if a reader recognizes it. I will tell you what it is at the end of the post.

On the other hand, this is still an enigma:

It’s made of thin metal and is about 6 inches long. It’s riveted in the center and swings around, but the sides curve in opposite directions. I was wondering if it was a stay, but it doesn’t work because of the opposing curves. It’s springy, has no markings, and has round circular indents. If anyone has a notion, please shoot us a comment. People saved all kinds of old, odd things, so it may remain a mystery.

Speaking of random:

The little knob is plastic and has a metal threaded opening. I can see that you might keep it to replace a tiny knob. I tested the plastic and it wasn’t Bakelite, but I still kind of like it. If I have a tiny lamp that needs a replacement finial, well, I have just the thing. The “N” is from a typewriter, but the key is broken. I was thinking that I might use it on a card, or maybe in a scrapbook. I have tons of things that I have plans to use—we’ll see if I ever get to it.

Kathy and I love these little pencils:

The pencil on top of the ruler is plastic, with a fun yellow marbleized finish. I tried to pull it apart, but the way to get the lead out is to twist the metal cone. I can remember looking at that kind of plastic finish as a kid on bowling balls, combs, mirrors, and lipstick tubes in all colors of the rainbow.

The metal mechanical pencil has a loop so that it can hang around your neck. I can remember seeing pictures of store workers wearing them to write up their sales slips when cash registers weren’t as common. This pencil has a “Made in Japan” mark which means it was made after 1921, but that’s all I can figure out on the dating of it.

These were everywhere in the ’50s and ’60s:

Most people of a certain age recognize diaper pins. We never had fancy fun ones, just giant metal ones. What I hated about changing diapers was that you had to put your fingers inside so that you didn’t poke the wiggly baby. Instead, you poked yourself when Baby suddenly tried to turn or bounce off the changing table. The Micky Mouse pins are obviously the favorites and well-worn, but the little birdie on the bottom is still in pretty good condition.

I see these little buttons all the time:

They are old, old, old, and usually are found in dull colors. These are boot or shoe buttons which was how you fastened your shoes before shoelaces became common. You pulled the buttons through the buttonhole with a hook:

This is a random buttonhook from Wikipedia, but they all kind of look alike. In fact, you often find buttonhooks in sewing baskets, too. They are pretty useful for pulling things when crafting, or you might be glad to have one when buttoning up the back of a wedding gown that has seventy million pearl buttons.

Kathy and I are always interested in buttons, and there were a couple of nice old ones in the basket:

The red and blue fabric button could use a cleaning, but I love polka dots and just can imagine the dress or coat it came off of. It’s unusual in that it doesn’t have a shank or holes in it, but has a round fabric area on the back which you sewed through to attach, just like it had two or four holes. I have seen these called cloth back buttons and they were made from around 1825 through the 1980s.

The smaller white pearl button has the metal piece on the back. This is from a set of buttons that you could move from shirt to shirt, or I suppose dress to dress. There is a clip on the back to hold it in place, and then you just buttoned it up normally. Usually these buttons were made from precious materials, and you could use them on all of your fancy shirts, plus they didn’t get laundered. This could also function as a cuff link, but usually cuff links are bigger and fancier. You usually see these sets in a box to keep them together and nice. I think they are also called shirt studs.

Even pincushions hang around forever:

This little metal shoe has its burlap in the middle. I imagine that the burlap was covered with a small piece of velvet to make it pretty. I still use pincushions all the time, so I’ll recover this and keep it around, full of straight pins.

For those of you wondering what the mystery item in the second picture is, it’s a pipe smoker’s tool with a tamper, and thin piece of metal to clean the stem, and a spoon to scrape the bowl or fill it. Neither of us had ever seen one before.

Well, thanks for reading and I’ll leave you with evidence that Spring is just around the corner:

Post Valentine’s Chocolate Stupor

I am writing this on the best day of the year. The day after Valentine’s Day. when all heart-shaped chocolates are half off. I get a month’s supply to keep up with my chocolate fix. Woo-hoo. It is necessary to have a stash, as it is still a long way till spring, and in Colorado that means heavy wet snows that need a lot of shoveling. Sigh. I really can’t complain too much, as so far it has been a pretty mild winter with enough moisture to keep us going, but not so much that we have had ice build up, and have to negotiate a skating rink to go anywhere.

Shopping has been pretty boring, with not a whole lot of great purchases, but we go anyway, as we do feel the need to be snarky at least once a week. And you, lucky readers, get to scoff right along with us, so let’s get started.

We don’t know:

We assumed it was some sort of critter, possibly an owl, albeit a kind of warped one without a beak, and then maybe a memo pad holder, but the further along we got the less sense it made. The pencil is just fine, and if there were a spot for more than a one inch square Post-It, we would concede the point. Why they felt the need to make the base out of particle board with some fake wood laminate (Formica for those who insist) is beyond us. The shape of it is bizarre, too. Seems an awful lot of money for firewood!

I have always found these annoyingly awful:

Never understood why being in love in the ’70s meant running around naked with a sappy expression on your face. I am sure someone snapped these up to resell or add to an astounding collection of bad taste, but I just couldn’t do it. Notice what good shape these are in. No one thought to leave the nude glasses in the front of the cupboard, in case company came along, so they never made it through the dishwasher a million times, which is the kiss of death for these. Too bad.

This was so disagreeable, Deb’s camera couldn’t even focus on it:

We’ve seen just about everything encrusted with shells, but this was a new one. Kudos for the addition of glitter to the mix, as it is the crowning touch. That way when you make it, you have bad taste and an infection of glitter. No remedy that I know of for that. Just noticed a mirror frame in Better Homes and Gardens covered in shells, so apparently the fad will just NOT die out. Check it out, at least they left off the glitter:

Time for a respite:

Aren’t these sweet? They are made by Johnson Brothers, and totally not their usual style, but we thought it was a charming pattern. With a pretty plum-colored table cloth and green candles, wouldn’t your table be lovely? Just leave the naked urchins glasses in the cupboard, and get out the good crystal. We couldn’t find any cups that matched, too bad, as we might have bought a cup and saucer for tea, (and maybe some chocolate!).

Deb adores chicken scratch linens. This is a technique where you use the squares on gingham fabric as a guide for your embroidery. She has dozens of aprons using this, and a few other things as well. This abomination was a resounding “NO” though:

It was chicken scratch on steroids. Here is a closeup:

Somehow looking at our photos, it doesn’t seem that bad, but it had so much on it, and it was so thick and tight, that if you set a wine glass on it, it would topple over in an instant. As long as you make sure it is a nice dark red merlot, I would probably approve. The eyelet lace trim has to go too. Perhaps used as a nice rag for cleaning the inside of a wine cask would do it in properly.

This one had us on the fence:

On the one hand, you can see how large it is. It’s a statement necklace no doubt, but it was also pretty cheap. ’70s costume jewelry in spades. It was also fairly heavy, so you could give it as a gift to your rival and slow her down on the way to the buffet, or getting to the cute guy at the end of the bar. It would take a very interesting outfit to pull this baby off. More power to you, if you could!

I want to point out that I do have some restraint. I did NOT buy this sewing machine:

It was a tough call, as this 300 series Singer is a beast. You could use it as a boat anchor, it weights a ton, but why, as these babies are tough enough to sew through layers of denim and keep on ticking. Came with a nice buttonholer, and one cam (small black disk under the large silver knob) These allowed you to make decorative zigzag type stitches, clear back in the ’50s! For $24.99 it was a steal, and I was glad to see it got snapped up right away. Please folks, if you need a machine, go find one of these babies. You will be able to pass it along to your grandchildren! Which is why they don’t make them like this any more. They want you to go buy a plastic mess every couple of years. Just say no!

Hope winter is loosening its grip in your neck of the woods soon. The snowdrops are out, and it is almost spring. If not, I have enough chocolate to make it till April!