Some Exciting News!

This little pile of treasures is brought to you by the VOA and Monticello.  The blue birdie, dresser box and the cabinet card are from Monticello Antique Marketplace.  I was so glad I decided to stop in because...
wait for it...
The manager saw me shopping and told me she may have a small wall space for me in April or May!!!  WooHoo!!  I was losing hope and backing off on buying the things that I consider too big or too heavy to offer on Etsy.  It is really hard to leave things behind but there is only so much I can cart up to my attic before my house sinks.  It is a very small space and still can't hold anything very big but it is a foot in the door.  I am excited and NERVOUS, too.  I'm on the hunt now for a furniture piece I can use to display things.

The rest of the treasures are from the old, reliable, VOA.  This adorable donkey planter is marked Japan on the bottom.

The mid-century coffee mugs and bowl are Inarco and still have their original foil labels on the bottom.  Sadly, I could not get the Forest Green tray clean.  I even tried Barkeepers Friend, but no luck.  Since I have a collection of Forest Green, this will be a keeper and put to use in my kitchen.

I was delighted to find two of these pieces with china roses.  They are ALWAYS chipped when I find them and these two are perfect.  I guess I forgot to take a close-up of the other one - oopsie.

The sweet blue birdie has the original label, as well, and is Goebel.

These are the "keeper" plastic buttons from the huge VOA score.  You can click the picture bigger for a closer look.
A couple of updates...
Several readers reminded me that the crockery cloche in the last post is a chicken feeder or waterer.  Soon as I heard it I remembered and I thank you for the memory jog.
There have been several guesses about the "What's-it" in this post, including something to check the temperature inside wine barrels and something to check the temperature of maple syrup.  Both seem totally plausible but it is still a mystery. I did find out you can still buy new ones that are very similar.  They are sold by scientific instrument companies but none of them tell the purpose.  I found both plastic and wood and the wood seemed to be so it wouldn't spark.  Just another piece of the puzzle...

Some Creepy Junk and Some Pretty Buttons

My name is Kathy and I am powerless against the siren song of The Bins.  I knew resistance was futile when they built it so darn handy to the big girl job, but I tried, I really did.  In my defense, I did set a goal to leave my desk more at lunchtime this year.  This is my lunch stop on Friday.

I read once what these crockery cloches are used for but it escapes me now.  It looks like a mouse hole, doesn't it!

Love, love this very vintage key hole.  One of the things that makes digging The Bins so much fun is that it really is true that one man's junk is another man's treasure.

A couple of Putz houses that need some fixing to join my décor for next Christmas.  The spun head angel is in the Ethel box so Laurie can lavish some Magpie love on her. 

The lovely lady on the postcard is Bessie.  Why are there no more Bessies?  Surely that name will come back in fashion one of these days.

If you follow me on Instagram then you have already seen creepy wind-up baby.  Trust me, it gets even worse when you turn the crank and it's arms and legs flail.
Vintage white birdies, seam binding rolls and an unusual cupcake pan.  I am guessing it is WWII when metal was going to the war effort so they eliminated what they could from the pan and just hooked the cups together down the center.

Does anyone know what these tiny little animals are?  The stand about 1/2" high.  I already had a donkey and then found these two in a bin.  I thought they might be Cracker Jack toys but that didn't seem to pan out when I Googled.  My donkey has a tassel like the camel does and they are made of plastic.

Dismembered china dolls and some very vintage leather baby shoes.  To clean or not to clean??

I have no idea why this picture decided to turn sideways.  Maybe you can tilt your head.  Yes, I bought a box of air, but those old graphics are just so darn cute!

A few more of the buttons from the VOA haul.  The ones on the left are vegetable ivory and the center are MOP.  The ones on the right are among my very favorites I have found.  They are wood on one half and a transparent plastic on the other.  This is the first time I have found ones like this.

Plastic rhinestones.  I prefer the ones set in glass or metal but it's hard to not love sparkly stuff!

Glass Buttons and a What's-It

I finished the first pass through the shoe boxes of buttons.  As I said, at first glance it looked like mostly modern buttons but it turned out there were quite a few vintage ones, too.  These are the glass buttons.  I was tickled with the green one since that is the color I find least often.

China stencils.  

Glass and metal rhinestones.  There is a BIG pile of plastic rhinestones for another post.

An now to the what's-it.  I found this at The Bins the other day.  There is a mercury thermometer mounted in the groove and it is lined with metal.  The cup at the bottom is brass.

There is a hole at the top that could be for hanging it up or maybe for a string if you needed to drop it in to a pipe or something.

The whole thing is about a foot long.  Since it has the cup on the bottom I am thinking it was to dip up liquid and check the temperature.  Has anyone seen this before??  Any ideas??

Back In The Saddle!

She lives!  Despite all my big talk about turning corners and being sure I was nearly well...  well, I ended up with pneumonia and eventually had to admit defeat and hit the recliner chair for a week.  On Sunday I FINALLY started to feel like myself again and hit the VOA for a long-overdue look-see.  They greated me with "Where have you been, we have buttons!".  Oh boy, did they ever!

I also found a blue vase in the color my son is fond of collecting, four glass door knobs and a metal souvenir ashtray.  This is the second one in my not-quite-a-collection and was happy that is is an Oregon souvenir.  My other one is Montana.  Only 48 to go!

The buttons looked like mostly the modern novelty variety, which is fine because they sell well.  Once I got to sorting, there were plenty of old ones to add to my collections, as well.  I will show a few of my favorites in a future post.
I have missed you all and happy to be back!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing you all a sweet

Valentine's Day!

Pre-Flu Junk

Yes, my life seems to have become pre-flu vs. something-that-is-not-quite-well around here.  Clearly not back to my regularly scheduled programming this week.  I am hopeful, though, that a weekend of rest will close the deal.  Don't get this bug, it is a pesky one!

I am calling this my "last hurrah" on junk that is not small for a while.  That mall space is more elusive than I imagined so I will be ratcheting back to what I can list in my Etsy, at least for now.  These treasures are from the VOA. 

I simply could not resist the graphics on this rolling toy box.  Seriously cute!!

Since it is on wheels, I will be using it for art room storage. 

I currently have a cardboard box under the table that is stuffed with things waiting to be photographed.

I can't even feel guilty about this purchase when it is going to be such a perfect and practical replacement!

A Collage of Smalls

I have been under the weather with flu all week.  The unintended consequence is it supports my goal of buying less.  Unfortunately, it does NOT support my goal of listing MORE.  No junking or listing to be found around here this week!  This pretty little collage of smalls was purchased last weekend at Nina and Joe's.  I hadn't been there in about 3 weeks so I stopped in to say Hi and, of course, I always spot a few things.

The two thread boxes are filled with buttons.  The are still sitting on my desk, exactly as found.  I am looking forward to having the sick behind me and getting back to my regularly scheduled programming in the coming week.
But today....   It is football day in America..  GO SEAHAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!