Looking at our upcoming weekend weather forecast, it’s apparent that winter is here! I know that the northern part of the country got a lot of snow and may be getting more, but this weekend looks bitter, bitter cold for a lot of the country. Our high on Saturday is supposed to be 3°F, and it’s going to be single digits, with below 0° temperatures at night, until Tuesday. Plus snow!! It doesn’t usually snow when it’s that cold out. We really haven’t had too bad of weather, just a bit of wind, so we are due. I spent part of the day really cleaning my bird feeders so I can put some peanuts, dried fruit, and seed out, plus covered a couple of my less hardy outdoor plants. I need to get outdoor things finished up as early as I can tomorrow so I can sneak a quick walk with my doggy buddy—he’s not getting any walkies this weekend!
This was kind of sad:
I can remember when Hummels were desirable and collectible and here are two shelves, and there was another, full of unwanted figurines. My grandma would have been devastated as she was so proud of the ones my uncle brought home from Germany. Lots of these were priced around $4.99, with a couple of bigger ones up to $15. Kathy liked the bunny one in the top right, but he was close to $15 and she didn’t like him that much! It’s like seeing old glassware, ceramic dishes, and Wedgewood just languishing on the shelves because no one wants it any more, and Granny had to move into an apartment. Collectors have to deal with changing tastes and the fact that probably few young folks want what we gathered. We’ll see how many are left this Friday after a week on the shelves. There will probably be less after a half-off weekend sale.
Well, you know why this was at the thrift store:
It’s kind of bright and cheerful, and parts of it even look like they were decorated by someone competent. If a kid made it for their MOM then I could see keeping it. But, that right eye looks sort of twitchy, like she’s ready to blow. And, it was most likely made by an adult, so maybe a fun (?) decoration for a baby shower and then off to the thrift store with you. For some reason, it makes me kind of uneasy looking at it.
This also makes me uneasy while looking at it, but for entirely different reasons:
I like mermaids as much as the next person, but I’m not sure how imprisoning them in a snow globe is decorative. This was so cheaply made, with the chintziest of plastic impregnated with glitter, that it almost looked too tacky for a thrift store. Our local Dollar Store has nicer things than this. On the other hand, I’ve known many a 3 year old who have fallen in love with crap like this, and you just have to tolerate it until it’s broken (hopefully), or they outgrow it. I would be willing to clean up the liquid and live with the glitter just to see it gone!
We wished that these prints had been in better shape:
They were unusual, sort of cool, and all those signatures were interesting. But, the overall condition was just awful as you can see paper loss, foxing, fading, and staining all over the place. They remind me of costume drawings from movie or stage productions, but I can’t remember seeing these in a movie. These were from last October, and I can’t even remember if we checked to see if they were original work, a working copy, or a print. ( Kathy here: They were prints, or we might have been more intrigued ) They are unconventional, to say the least.
The maker worked on this sooooo hard:
I want to like it, I really do, but some times more isn’t better and this is one of them. I really don’t like the pink cheeks for some reason; she isn’t overly made up or childlike, so just let her face be. Also, some of that trim, as awesome as it is, needs to go. Instead of nine nonrepeating rows, maybe have four double rows. My eyes just don’t know what to do with all that texture and color. Or maybe make the skirt out of felt adorned with a couple of complementary rows of trim. Kathy and I usually love pompom trim as well as fringe, but this is just too much! Does anyone have an idea what this might be a decoration for? I was thinking maybe Day of the Dead if the circle above her head is a halo.
I’m suspicious of the claim of 500 yummy recipes in either of these booklets:
We both already have these booklets so we weren’t tempted to buy either. The Coronation Salad (left book, middle left column) was so bizarre looking that I had to look it up. It seems to be chicken salad for the most part, and I could see that maybe the glop of chicken salad has eyes and a cockscomb as decoration. It’s so hard to tell from these pictures. That might be the funniest part of these booklets—the pictures are so awful that you would never try the recipe. The titles aren’t great either. I’m a vegetarian, but shrimp and cranberries sound like an obnoxious coupling to me. As far as the sandwiches go, they have placed all their money on people liking the sound of an asparagus and something sandwich with a limp slice of bacon over the asparagus. Yum, Yum!
Finally, a twofer:
It’s a piece of Mid-Century design that is also pareidolia, or faces in places for you laypeople. I’ve never encountered this design before, but now that I see the face, I can’t even really appreciate the decoration as a seedhead.
Thanks for reading along. It is the time of the year to curl up on the couch, sip hot cocoa, and recharge your batteries, at least in the northern hemisphere. Hope you all can do something relaxing this weekend!
Second Hand Roses 