Friday Finds Mash-Up

For all of you Glee and Pitch Perfect fans, you know what a mash-up is.  For the rest of the world it’s something created by combining elements from two or more sources [Merriam-Webster].  We have several different things going on in this post: regular finds, crazy vintage pamphlet fun, and a giveaway (details at the end of the post).  We like to shake things up a little from time to time.  Last week, a reader asked us how we keep finding all this crazy stuff.  Truth to tell, it’s a combination of things: we’re pretty observant, we’re easily amused, and we’re lucky.  I think the harder thing to explain is why we keep laughing at all the crazy stuff.  Maybe it’s because we’re glass-half-full kind of gals and it’s always better to laugh than to bang your head on a thrift store shelf!

Boy, it was a near thing with this vintage lacquered photo album!

   

It had wooden feet on the back, so it couldn’t slide into a shelf, and it was pretty darn big–that’s what prevented me from bringing it home.  I have at least two of those black lacquered jewelry boxes that were made in Japan after the war, and I have forced myself to leave countless ones on the shelf.  My house is plenty big, but I do collect more than boxes. The photo album was there the next week, but gone after that.  Hope someone is loving it!

Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus:

I’m putting these strange Asian statues with the Japanese lacquered album just to show how export goods run the gamut from good, or at least fun, to huh???  Although you can’t see it, I’m sure the Martian in the back is lining up his weapon for a good swing at another Martian who isn’t pictured.  He surely couldn’t be in that heroic post just to hoe a field!  Meanwhile, the geisha in the foreground peacefully plays her shamisen, totally oblivious to the testosterone fest behind her.

We really don’t like this kind of decoration:

 Sure, it might be cool if the faux-finish footed bowl were full of Chihuly glass, vintage marbles or buttons, paper weights, or some other tom-foolery.  What we don’t like is that the overly ornate bowl contains overly ornate and matchy-matchy orbs.  To us that shows a lack of imagination.   A bowl of flowers or a plant would be ever so much prettier.

We try to ignore these things, we really do!

This is a particularly mawkish example which I titled: Indian Maiden Consoles Bambi.  It’s a really, really good thing that the Southwest craze has gone the way of enormous bison herds–hopefully never to return.  Resurrecting awful decorating periods of the past and putting them in a theme park may be a scarier prospect than Jurassic Park!

Here’s another thing that we would like to put a moratorium on:

These cheap fake wood and plastic souvenirs are shuddersome!  The thermometer at the top was at least ten degrees off no matter what scale it was using.  I wish that people on trips would just buy postcards if this is the alternative!

You KNOW that you think this from time to time:

Especially when you’ve been digging in the mud, painting, doing heavy cleaning, or had a hard day at the office.  The kitchen is closed because this chick has had it!

We saw quite a bit of unusual china at a local thrift a couple of weeks ago:

   

This Russian plate has been through some hard use, but is pretty cool.  We didn’t buy it, but hopefully some dramatic soul will and use it lovingly.

This California ’50s pottery was super fun:

     

I really liked the shape of the cups and serving dish.  It’s marked Weil Ware and I think the quality was pretty high.  It’s got mid-century modern written all over it.  If there had been a few more pieces, I might have gotten it for the Etsy shop.

We went to an estate sale last week and saw a couple of interesting things.  You might recognize this couch:

We didn’t like it the first time we were blinded by it!  Why the heck would the estate sale company move it to another sale?  I’m pretty sure it was still sitting there at the end of the half-price day.  Wonder how many times they will move it before they put $10 on it and act grateful to get it.  The shape of the couch is good, but it’s not comfortable to sit on, and that fabric has to go!

Now, this vase left us gobsmacked us for a minute or two:

Yes, it’s a real Tiffany vase!  This isn’t my photo–it’s the one from the estate sale company’s Facebook page.  I was so stunned by a real, honest-to-estate-sale-gods Tiffany vase in the flesh, so to speak, that I forgot to take a picture.  Kathy actually picked it up; you know I would have dropped it had I touched it.  The price was fair–somewhere around $950.  Kathy found an auction where a similar vase was expected to fetch over $1100.  It’s something that both of us would be thrilled to own; however we passed on this one.  Kathy wasn’t in love with the color, and I would HAVE to buy a sturdy display case to put it in, since my family is prone to breaking valuable things.

Okay, now onto the pamphlet portion of the post:

Kathy picked this up somewhere–or maybe it was her dad.  Gosh, allergies make me even more absentminded than usual!  ( Kathy here, she almost had it, I ordered some stuff FOR my Dad and got this too. )  It was published by Coke, probably in the ’70s, and in between pictures of hamburgers, potato chips, and baked beans topped with a hard-boiled eggs (I kid you not!) there are some short articles.

We thought you might enjoy this one since we torture you with owls:

I’m going to quote just in case you can’t read the fine print, “A curiosity about the mystery of today’s rage for collecting owls of all kinds can have but one end result  You don’t solve the mystery.  You become an owl collector!”

Okay, you’ve been warned–do not investigate or have any curiosity about owl collecting unless you want to join their cult!

This next picture shows you how practical your collection can be:

You COULD use it for table decoration for your fall feasts–harvest or Halloween.  I was thinking that the brass owl at the top of the picture would be perfect for a theme party while you watch Clash of the Titans (1981 version of course!).  The pictured owl looks like it’s ready to start moving and talking in a clockwork fashion, just like the movie owl!

I had to laugh at this page:

Oh yes, the Money-maker Gift Mart–all you have to do is “Gather some inexpensive paper pails, bowls and drinking cups.  Decorate with bright tissue papers and felt marker pens.  Add flourishes of flowers, fruits, baubles.  Result? Attractive money-maker gift items …”.  It’s pretty hard to choose between the gold-painted pine cone bucket or my favorite, the hair curler storage basket where you slide your curlers over fake roses! (Right side of the picture)  Good luck selling any of these crafts, no matter how worthy your cause.

There are other articles about orchids and dried plant materials, but the owls are the biggest hoot!

If you’ve made it through all the other nonsense, you probably deserve to win the giveaway!  We have three prizes, well, two prizes and a booby prize.  Which is which—you decide:

   

The first prize is a child’s apron that has a sweetheart pocket and a matching doll apron.  The second prize is a linen table runner with crocheted flower basket cutwork.  The last prize is something from the Facebook page:

It’s the pile o’ poo plastic buttons!  To win, leave a comment here or on the Facebook page saying which prize you would like to win.  Honestly, if you want the buttons, it will probably be a slam dunk! 😉  The contest will close June 12th at 9pm mt.  We’ll draw names and notify you via email, if we can, or on Facebook and the blog.  Good Luck!