How I lost my (Auction) virginity, or What Goes Around comes Around.

OK, now that I've got you all excited, let me tell you a story.

Back when I was 5 or 6, my parents went for 2 weeks to London. For some reason (this is very much out-of-character for my mom, but hey, it was the 70s) my parents hired a nanny to watch my brother and I while they were gone. The woman they hired ("Mrs. T") apparently came very well-recommended from some other parents in the neighborhood, and they must have felt comfortable leaving us with someone they had never really met before.

I don't remember very much about her, except that she had a blue 1974 Nova, was in her 50s, and impressed me as being fairly strict. We did not like her. So much so, that one day after kindergarten, I went home with another boy from my class because I didn't want to go back to Mrs. T. I stayed for lunch and played for a while (I guess I assured the other mom that it was OK for me to do this- remember, again, this was the 70s) until a police officer knocked at the door and brought me back to a very anxious Mrs. T.

I guess I kind of scared the hell out of Mrs. T; maybe that experience with me began to lead her down a dark path to becoming a hoarder...





...Fast forward about 30 years, to last week, when the fabulous MaryDeluxe asked if I wanted to accompany her to an estate auction in my old home town.

"A True Hoarder's House!" went the auction listing, with vintage clothing, jewelry, Lionel trains, ephemera, and 400 box lots. Looking at the photos, I thought yes, this may be a great time to lose my auction virginity and go to one. Plus, something about that neighborhood was very familiar.

I couldn't tell exactly from the map which house was the hoarder house, but I had a feeling I was about to step back 30 years in time and pay another visit to Mrs. T.

Sure enough, bright and early Saturday morning, there I was, standing once again in Mrs. T's driveway. But this time it was filled with a giant dumpster, hundreds of boxes and years of dust, mildew and mouse poop. Well, I said, "Mrs. T, I'm back! And this time I am here to buy your stuff...." and I proceeded to do just that.

It was a very productive auction for the both of us. Since I was an auction newbie, I probably overspent and overbought little bit, but there was so much good stuff I couldn't help myself. (See, it's a short road to becoming a hoarder!) And since we both have Etsy stores and a booth at an antique store, we needed the merch.

Besides, with stuff like this- and you all know how hard it is to get good vintage clothing for a good price anymore- we were almost obligated to buy Mrs. T's old clothes!

Check out my part of the haul- MaryDeluxe got a bunch of great stuff too- 14 dresses from the 1930s-80s (mostly 50s), plus two skirts, a skirt/top set and a 2 piece playsuit set. And a beautiful Persian lamb coat with a mink collar- for $5. I think I spent about $175 on all of it. It's hard to tell from these pics, as I have them out on the clothesline, but the clothes are all in great shape- shocking, really, considering the condition of the rest of the place. If you see anything you like, email me (practiceintime@gmail.com) for a pre-sale deal or just wait for them to appear in the shop.

I also scored some Pyrex in the box lots- a yellow and green primary mixing bowl, plus a pink fridgie- the black Rooster dish was a thrift find later the same day.

This is the rest of the stuff from my box lots- all freshly scrubbed! 

I have about half a set of Steubenville Fairlane (including the butter dish and some platters) there, some misc glassware and a bunch of chalkware Madonna and Child images. I got a MCM vinyl stool for $1 that also came with a gigantic vanity mirror. I don't know what I will do with that yet, but if anyone needs one...

There's still a whole box of bird figurines in the garage I have to go through, but there are some really neat pieces in there amongst all the junk. Some of it will be donated back to a local thrift store, but I will certainly make my money back- I don't think I spent more than $15 total on the box lots. (I spent the remainder of my $ on some items for my son's Lionel train set- another really good deal, as it has so far kept video games out of our house.)

So for my first auction, I think it was a great, if somewhat bizarre, experience. What goes around definitely does come around.

Road Trip: Northlandz Model Trains

As some of you are aware, my family is really into trains. My husband and my son are just nuts about real trains and model trains. Jayson got a Lionel set this past Christmas and plays with it just about every day. We also have a pretty large HO scale layout in our basement which keeps my husband occupied during the winter months, but what he's not likely to tell you is that the trains and accessories that he used to get started first belonged to me.

I got my first train set when I was about 12. I liked the trains and cars OK, but what I really enjoyed was building and painting the buildings and scenery. So it may be a bit surprising that we have never made the short trip to visit Northlandz, the world's largest model train layout.

And you just know that any place that bills itself as 'the world's largest' anything is a natural destination for a vintage- and kitsch-loving gal like myself. I can't believe we had never gone before!

So when Jayson had a cold, rainy day off of school, we took a road trip to Flemington, N.J. and Northlandz.

Northlandz is unique in that, among all the model train layouts I've ever seen, both the trains and scenery are to scale. When I say that, I mean that the distances between buildings, town, and mountains are scaled accurately. There is plenty of room along more than 8 miles of track to get in rivers, gorges, towns, train yards, cities, junkyards, amusment parks, etc. etc.  without them being all on top of each other.

The building is absolutely immense. It's three stories high, with a one mile walkway that circles around 50,000 square feet of indoor display. The tallest mountain is 30 feet high, with 400 bridges (the longest is over 40 feet long), half a million trees, and 4,200 buildings. And it's largely the work of one man, Bruce Williams Zaccagnino, a model train enthusiast, musician and video game developer.

As a matter of fact, on the Monday when we toured the building, Bruce was the only staff member there. A jovial man, he welcomed us to tour the facility, and also ran the gift shop, cooked at the snack stand (fashioned after an old fashioned soda fountain, with really good hot dogs and pizza) and provided the musical accompaniment on the building's three grand theater organs.

Now, of course, it needs to be mentioned that if he was the only staff member there, it wasn't that busy. I guess Mondays during the colder months are not that well-attended, because we saw only about 10 other people there. Also, the building was quite chilly, probably in an attempt to cut heating costs. And there were a couple spots where the roof was leaking onto the walkway. From the outside, the building does not look that well-maintained, either. So definitely call before you're planning a trip to make sure he hasn't cut the open hours back!

But, that said, all things like this have their little quirks, and it was definitely worth the price of admission ($13.75 for adults and $9.75 for kids 2 and up, which can be a bit steep for my 2 yr old). But the kids probably got more excited than the adults, because around every turn my daughter would scream "look at this!"

As an adult, I appreciated the scope of the construction, and the amazing detail. The trains themselves were not that great- most trains were only 5 or 6 cars long, and those cars were mostly "Northlandz" promotions.  But the scenery is simply incredible- have a look at the following photos and also take a look at their website for more. (Apologies for the blurry and overexposed shots- it was hard light to photograph in.)

And they obligatory 'awkward family photo' LOL- my mom was having trouble with my camera. I was going for a 1930s look with vintage wide legged navy pants, a red polka dot blouse that tied at the neck and a cropped white sweater. Believe me when I say it looked better in person than it does here! ;) Kate has on the most adorable cherry print sundress, which of course was totally inappropriate for a day with freezing rain, but hey, when you're 2, you can pull that look off.