Never Again, Sally Ann

I have used this space many times to malign my local Salvation Army thrift store. To me, it is like the Wal-Mart of thrift stores- huge, noisy, smelly and filled with junk no one wants. It makes even a die hard thrifter like me not want to go there- I almost always go somewhere else when I need a fix.

But lately, my two preferred thrift stores have not had much of anything vintage, much less clothing or Pyrex, the two things I buy most often. Such was the case yesterday when I made my weekly trip- I actually walked out of those stores with nothing. I can't remember the last time I did that.

So, I had some time to kill and thought I'd stop in at the Sally Ann, just for kicks. Well, darned if I didn't score. 

They had tons of Pyrex! Of course, I scooped up the only Butterprint, a 402 mixing bowl- and for only $2.49! I have almost completed my set of fridgies and Cinderella bowls in this pattern, but this is my first mixing bowl. I left a lot behind for someone else- a complete set of Forest Fancies casseroles with lids, a set of Town & Country Cinderella bowls, and a few others- I think maybe a Colonial Mist mixing bowl- as they are not patterns I particularly care for. (This is the same store where I found my turquoise 503 fridgie and my jadeite mixing bowl- why did I ever doubt it?)

I have also had good luck with blue Ball jars at this store in the past- every other thrift I go to prices the blue ones at $3-$5 each, which is a pass for me. I got this one for only 99 cents, so this was definitely a deal. And I use them all the time to store pantry staples- I was just thinking I could use another one.

The Tupperware ketchup & mustard dispensers were 25 cents each. Tupperware tends to sell well in my Etsy store so I definitely will list them.

But the most fun, and unexpected find of the day was a toy I remember from my childhood:

Remember Alphie the Robot? This version came out in 1983, when I was 8. 

I saw him on the shelf and had to bring him home for $3.99. I was hoping he would work and after a few tense moments because the batteries were in backwards, he came to life! My son, who will be 8 on Friday, really fell in love with him. I originally bought him to resell (thinking of Van over at Thrift Core) - because who doesn't want to buy back a cool robot toy from their childhood?- but have a feeling he may be sticking around for a while. He is so cute!

In case you don't remember, here is the original TV commercial from 1986:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yhY0IUxCeM8

So, I want to take a moment and apologize for bashing my local Sally Ann, who has been so good to me of late. I'm sorry!!!!

Eagle Eye strikes again!

Yesterday my son Jayson (aka Eagle Eye) and I had dentist appointments to get fillings. He is only 7 years old and this was the first time for him- he didn't know what to expect- so I promised him we'd do something fun afterwards to help him get through it. It turned out that we both had such small cavities that we didn't even need novocaine and it was really quick and painless (and we have a great dentist!).

So what do we do when we need a little R&R (and have a lot more time to kill than we expected?) We went thrifting! He has really been bugging me lately to let him buy some things for resale- he's very motivated to make some money for himself and wants to do what I do (Yay!) Besides, he has a knack for picking out good stuff- he's got the eye...

This was the first thing we spotted when we walked in to the store- a fez! I've wanted one of these forever and this one was really nice. And it was only $5! Woo-hoo!

This was Eagle Eye's first pick of the day. It's a large dried blowfish. (Of course, he's a 7 year old boy!) On it's own, it's not worth a lot more than the $2.50 he paid for it, but we are going to put a light bulb in it and turn it into a tiki bar lamp. It should be worth a bit more after that!

This strong box caught both of our eyes. Me for the box and his for the contents... 

Yes, there were about 1000 pom poms, pipe cleaners and googly eyes in it (and now all over the floor...) Lots of kids craft projects, plus a cool new toolbox for mom for $4.50.

Of course, we found something for his collection of wood slice plaques. This one is huge (like 18-20" tall) and hand-painted.

 Since we had such good luck at the first store, we decided to try our luck at the local Sally Ann. I have written before about how this store can be hit-or-miss, and this time it was a hit.

Eagle Eye actually spotted this, and picked it up before I even got to it. He has no idea who Elsa Schiaparelli is, of course, and it's just pure talent, I guess, that made him pick it up :)

It is a stocking box, and there were stockings in it, but not Schiaparelli ones. And someone did write with a ball point pen "no heel or toe" on the box, but it's still worth the $1.50 we paid.

The stockings inside are NOS, and were a bonus- if they don't fit me, they're headed for my Etsy store, and the profits will go to Jayson. Curiously, these were stuck in with the housewares; my guess is that the employees had no idea what they had. (But Eagle Eye did!)

We also picked up this game of Risk for $1. It's a very early version and has great graphics. I've never played it, but I've been buying all the old board games I can find lately. They're cheap fun and make good decorative items as well.

I also snagged these blue mason jars for 99 cents each. One has the original zinc lid, too. 

I was excited to find them for this price- at the other thrift stores even regular clear mason jars are in the $2-$3 range, and blue ones-way more! I'm not sure why- you can still buy the clear ones new by the case in every grocery store for $7 a dozen. Do people really think that canning is so old-fashioned that even plain clear jars are 'antique'? I mean, I'll pay up to $2 for blue ones, but the clear ones, really? Anyway, that was our thrift adventure for the week- stay tuned for more treasures from Eagle Eye!

Thrifted Thursday: Time for a Picnic!

School's out and it's time for picnics in the park!

I found this great old biscuit tin while out thrifting last week. It's plenty big for sandwiches and snacks for four. In fact, I already used it to take to WWII weekend Saturday. It was only $3 and in great shape, except for some wear on the lid. But no rust!

The Skotch Jug cooler is one of my favorites. I thrifted it years ago and it has been on every picnic since! It's the old style with the glass lining so it doesn't absorb any odors. (Remember how your Thermos used to smell back in elementary school? Yeah, me too- like it was yesterday. ;)

WWII Weekend 2012!

It's here! My favorite event ever, combining two of my most favorite things (aviation and vintage living, that is):

World War Two Weekend in Reading PA

We are going tomorrow (Saturday), since the weather looks exceptional. I'm hoping to see other vintage friends and bloggers there- please do leave a comment if any of you want to meet up somewhere. 

I'll probably be wearing the same outfit as above- my Rosie the Riveter getup, with gray Freddies overalls and blue chambray shirt with saddle shoes. Or I might wear a yellow dress- haven't decided yet!

The star of this year's show (like last year's as well) is the world's only flying B-29 Superfortress. There will also be a bunch of B-17s (my personal favorite) B-25s, P-51s, Spitfires, P-40s, and many others.

This is such a great event- really like stepping back into 1944. You get to see all these things up close and personal too- it is so worth the price of admission. I have been to every show for the last 15+ years and it gets better every year!

Two years ago I was a vendor and had to be there all 3 days- for me that was like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one. I'm actually kind of bummed not to have anything to do but enjoy myself this year, LOL. 

I'll post a wrap up next week- would love to see everyone there!

Indoor Activities: Easy and cheap tabletop garden

I thought I'd take a moment to show off an easy indoor project for those of you craving a little gardening fix in the middle of winter. I'm totally in love with miniature worlds indoors, be it dollhouses, or terrariums. And while I didn't have the skills or materials to create a terrarium, I did have this great collection of stuff that we could put together in a tabletop garden.

This is such an easy project, I let my kids do it. (Well, most of it; I'm kind of OCD about the messy factor, so I did the dirt part...). I used an outdoor planter that was shallow and wide. This was a cast off from one of my aunts, so it didn't cost anything. Since it doesn't have any holes for drainage, we filled it half way with gravel I scooped up from the road (why pay for fancy river rock that no one is going to see anyway?). I added a couple scoops of topsoil, and then placed the large items.

My son found the large fossil rock at the river this summer and he added a couple pieces of turkey tail fungus and pinecones for variety. We also dug a few tiny ferns up from the woods.

I had a sad miniature palm that was barely hanging on; only a few tall sections were still growing, so I put those in the planter for a bit of height. I bought the pink plant new for a couple of dollars at the grocery store. Any small scale plant will do, but I liked this one for the bit of color it added. 

We peeled up some moss from the yard and used it to cover all the remaining dirt. Every few days I just add a bit of water to the plants and spray the moss with water from a spray bottle. My kids added the army men, which I think came out pretty cool- kind of an homage to jungle warfare- without being too kitschy! 

A snowy day

I've been busy thrifting and stocking my Etsy store, so those of you starting the hunt for Viva, head on over and check it out! If you see something you like, enter coupon code PIT20OFF for 20% off your purchase!

I have a whole bunch of neat purchases to show you, but I'll save those for Thursday.

In the meantime, enjoy these photos of my daughter, aka "Mini-me", walking in the snow. We just got a dusting yesterday, but she wanted to go outside and play in it. She was enjoying making tracks through the yard. I think this sequence of photos captures that perfectly:

Living in a Fishbowl

Well, I finally finished my TV-to-fish tank project. For those of you who are long time readers you may remember that I had a 1950 Motorola TV that I bought at a yard sale. It never worked, but the cabinet was nice solid mahogany, the speaker cloth was fine, and I knew it had potential.

I took the guts out of it- that picture tube was heavy! It had a few scratches (OK, gouges) and water marks on the top, so I had to refinish it. After my coffee-table makeover project earlier this summer, I knew this would be fairly easy.

Here's the 'before':

And the 'after'. Came out pretty well! I also restored the knobs with a little elbow grease and some black marker to color in the dial numbers (remember those? LOL).

But that was the easy part. The hard part was finding a fish tank that fit inside and that covered the whole porthole window. I finally found one at a yard sale this weekend for $3. It's actually a hermit crab tank, but it fits great and has a cover. I had trashpicked a filter pump and aerator from our neighbors and two seascape backdrops, so all that went inside as well. At some point I want to find a large black and white still from a vintage TV show to use as a backdrop, so it looks more like the TV is still playing a 1950s show. 

I had to buy some lighting for inside the tank. Since there is very little headroom, I decided to get a string of rope lighting and attached it to the inside upper edge. It's not real bright, but it does the trick- it was more important that the lights didn't get very hot.

We made a shelf out of plywood to fit on the rails that held the TV chassis and slid the new tank in.

It's hard to see, but we have two fish in there- Gomer Pyle and Barney Fife. One fish is white and the other black and white. My son is a huge fan of the Andy Griffith show, so hopefully we'll find a B&W photo from that show that we can use as a backdrop. (We lost our best fish, Nemo, earlier in the week, so he never made the move. RIP, Nemo.)

And lit up at night, with a Helmscene 3D TV lamp on top. (I must have taken 100 pix trying to get a good one, and this is the best of that lot. My camera stinks!) That is a vintage ad for the 1952 version of this TV on the table next to it. I used that for reference when putting the knobs back together.

Nov. 2011 update: I changed the background to a vintage test pattern, and added period rabbit ears and a UHF tuner:

It is definitely cool, and I think just about anyone with an old TV could do it, if I could!

Trash Picked Tuesday: Tricycle chopper, part 2

For those of you following Jayson's tricycle makeover, here is the finished project! He designed it himself, as well as doing the painting and parts of the assembly. (Adults used the power tools!)

Note the working headlight and tailight- they run off a bicycle generator. There is also a license plate and horn. We did not buy anything for this project except paint, and the thrifted stadium seat.

As a reminder- here is the starting point:

And the midway part (last week's update!)

Trash Picked Tuesday: Tricycle chopper!

You may remember this trike which I trash picked a couple of years ago. It wasn't in the greatest shape; the back platform was all wobbly and it could no longer be ridden. But nevertheless, I had held onto it out in the shed, intending to use it as a garden prop eventually.

Well, a couple weeks ago, my son (age 6) got this idea that he wanted to make a go kart. He is very good at taking things apart and fixing them, so I let him have a go at this trike and see what he could come up with. He took it apart himself and separated out the usable parts. He prepped them and painted them himself- even bought the supplies with his own money.

He had a very specific idea of what he wanted to do, but at his age, with limited drawing and design skills it was hard for us to communicate on what he wanted the adults to do with power tools! After a little frustration on our part, we finally helped him bend the frame out, attach a new rear axle and lay a floor for the kart.

This is what we ended up with- kind of like a tricycle chopper:

It's still not quite done- he wants to put on some plywood sides and two seats. I'll see if we can find two kids' chairs at the thrift that we can take the legs off, and we'll get the plywood cut. Then he gets to attach the sides and paint them- he's going for a yellow and black color scheme, aka the yellowjacket. (I just found out that I am severely allergic to bee stings, so we thought we'd bite back a bit!)

Raising Kids (and other crops ;) in the garden!

We are big into gardening here at Chez QT. When we moved in 9 years ago, one of the very first things I did was to get out a shovel and break some ground for a small kitchen garden. Well, almost a decade later it has turned into much more, and is now a family affair!

We strongly believe in sharing the workload! Our kids would much rather help out in the garden than watch TV, even on a dreary and chilly day. They just want to be outside all the time, and if they can work on a project, so much the better. 

If anyone is pondering the meaning of life or just not feeling very satisfied about their existence, do some good, hard, manual work. The feeling of a job well done with your own two hands is something that I want my kids to appreciate, starting now. Sitting on your butt playing video games (not something we do, ever) will not produce the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction of work. Get outside and work play in the dirt!

Jayson is fixing a bluebird box, while Jay is preparing the garden for planting at our cabin. Jayson is 6, and can be trusted to use hand tools like a hammer and pliers. He has a great mind for fixing and solving problems, and will spend hours doing this type of thing. 

This is farther north than where we live, so the seasons are a little behind.

 Even Kate wants to help. Of course, the rototiller is not actually on but it's the principle of the thing... She helped by putting the dead plants and weeds in the wheelbarrow.

The rhubarb is going full blast and the strawberries are up.

Make your mark in the earth!

Trash-picked Tuesday: V-mail

Today, Trash-picked Tuesday is a two-fer. (How many times can I type the letter 't'?!) Not only is this item trash-picked, it's also one of those rare times when I get crafty.

I found this cute little mailbox in a junk heap in the woods. It was black, a bit rusty, and the lid was all dented. I think there was a mouse living in it.  But it had potential, so I carted it home. If I got my mail delivered to my porch, you can bet I would've used it for its intended purpose. It was pretty cool in a rusty, beat-up vintage way.

After a couple of years of trying to figure out a creative use for it, I hit on this idea- a Valentine mail box. It's the perfect size for my kids to put all their little cards in it.

I happened to have some pink and red Rustoleum spray paint laying about (what, doesn't everyone? LOL), so after a bit of sanding and knocking the dents out, I painted the body pink and the lid red. My son applied the stickers, and we had a fun little Valentines mail box re-purposed from a vintage original.

Trash-picked Tuesday: For the Birds!

Yesterday my son was home from school for MLK day. Fine; everyone needs a day off once in a while. But today we woke up to an ice storm, and there's no school again. So what to do with two kids who want something to do, and a mom who is not a big fan of plopping them in front of the TV?

Do a trash-picked Tuesday post with bonus: kid activity!

(And FYI, for 2011, I'm broadening the definition of "trash-picked" to include recycling things we already have, that might have gone into the trash anyway...)

This project recycles three things we had around the house:

1) our Christmas tree - we finally took it down on Sunday
2) some pinecones used as Xmas decor
3) a wooden clementine carton

Some of you might be able to guess what the project is, from the first two items: pine cone bird feeders!

 I think many of us did this in kindergarten or scouts. Nowadays most schools would probably prohibit this because of the blatant use of peanut butter contraband!

So anyway, after taking out the tree and propping it up outside by the barn, we gathered up the required materials:

Peanut butter, bird seed, pinecones and string. Easy!

Tie a string about 18 in long around the top of each pinecone- good activity for kids learning to tie!

Smear the cones with peanut butter- the more the better!

Roll to coat with the birdseed.

Place them in the box for transport. I lined it with wax paper to keep the seeds from leaking out the bottom. 

Tie to your old Christmas tree outdoors, and watch for the birds (and maybe some deer) to enjoy! When all the birdseed is gone and the tree is really ratty, find a tree recycling program and donate it to be made into mulch.