No Pattern Required

By RetroRuth

I found the cutest salt and pepper shakers while out thrifting recently, an adorable little mouse and his piece of cheese. I decided to name the mouse Jeffie.  He just kind of looks like a Jeffie, you know?

Jeffie and his cheese are a nested set of S&P shakers from Lefton.  And no, I did not recognize them.  Jeffie was considerate enough to come with a label on his little backside.

I was drawn to this set because of Jeffie’s enormous eyes, and the fact that he is kicking through a piece of cheese!

Ooooooo…three dimensional!

For now, Jeffie is hanging out with my Harlequin collection in the big china cabinet.  But I hope to find a shadowbox for him and his cheese soon!

What do you think, Sara??  Would Jeffie and George be good friends???

Tell us what great stuff you found this weekend, guys!  We would love to rejoice with you!

By RetroRuth

I was so pumped about the thrifting haul three weeks ago I brought it home, unpacked it, photographed it…and then promptly forgot about the photos. Sigh. So, here are some of my thrifting finds from a few weeks ago.  Also, I love our new camera!

A vintage Danish Modern stainless steel bowl.  I dug this out of the kitchen cabinet at a estate sale with killer, rock bottom prices.  This pretty thing was 50 cents!

I officially declare it the best chip bowl ever.

This shot looks like a set of nested bowls, but it is actually….

Measuring cups!!! From the same estate sale as the bowl, and barely used.

I fell in love with “Foley” on the handles, and couldn’t walk away from them.

And excellent set of aqua melamine trays.  Not sure how old these are, but I loved them anyway.

A bunch of scarves and hair-wraps snagged from various sales. Some silk, some rayon, and some made of pure awesomeness.

A few have signatures.

This entire basket of ornaments was 75 cents at another excellent estate sale. At first I thought it meant 75 cents each, but then a really nice lady working the sale pointed out the price was for the whole basket!

Once I saw this little reindeer deer inside, I was sold.

More vintage Christmas ornaments from the same sale. This box of striped lanterns was 25 cents.

Yeah, I would say that was a pretty good haul! 

How about you guys? Find anything awesome this weekend? Let us know!

By RetroRuth

Hey guys, got a TON more pictures for you from thrifting.  Now, don’t droll too much on your keyboards.  I don’t want to be responsible for breaking anyone’s computer!

I loved this pattern!!

A Mink Poodle!

Ta-da!  Hope this eye candy made your day a bit better!

By RetroRuth

Hey guys!  Happy Monday….or something.  Hope you all had a great weekend.  I had a busy and fun weekend, even though my birthday was on Sunday and I turned the big 3-0.  Boo-urns.  So, to counteract my mild age-related depression (my hands look like my mom’s hands! Help!), Tom decided to take me thrifting/antiquing. And it was sucessful!   Here are a bunch of pictures, in no particular order.

More on the way! Sorry about the blurry ones!

Hi All!  No guest blogger today, you guys just get little ole me.  I decided to give Jan the day off since she did such a great job filling in for me while Tom and I were in Wisconsin this last weekend.

What were we doing in Wisconsin?  Well, Tom ran a marathon this weekend, and came in 6th place!  Great job, hon!  He also was third in his age division, which is awesome.  I am so proud of him. Pictures of him running are coming soon.

In the meantime, I convinced Tom to stop at a Goodwill while we were out shopping the day before the race so I could check out the goodies they had in stock.  And here is some of the good stuff!

I almost had Tom convinced to buy this for the casseroles I make in the Mid-Century Menu.  Sadly, the back was scratched up pretty bad and it wasn’t really worth the price they were asking. Sigh!

This had one of the edges broken off, but I still loved the pattern!

I LOVED this coffee pot/tea pot, but Tom just couldn’t get excited about it.

This table was almost ours as well, but the veener had chipped off on one side, so we decided to pass.

Someone totally jacked this painting up!  As you can see, they pasted photos and pictures of a bride and groom OVER the picture underneath. Jeez.

You can still see the edge of the painting underneath the collage. We tried to peel it off, but it was just damaging the painting, so we gave up. I wonder what was under there?  A landscape? A bullfighter? An abstract? Ahhhh…oh well….

This chair was amazing! It was two-toned pink and burgundy vinyl with bronze accents.  I was so sad to leave it, but it had three big cigarrette burns in the seat, so I would have just hand to recover it. Dang.

Another item that Tom didn’t really care for but I loved.  Check out the awesome upholstery on this baby.  Love those birds!

Here is a close-up.  As you can see, the sofa is even quilted AND tufted, and the colors were gray and mustard yellow. Hubba hubba.  And only $35!

Last one.  I thought this one was great because this is the sofa everyone’s parents or grandparents had in their house in the 1970′s! Ahh…memories…

Interesting art, Sara!  Very cool find.  And is your picture ”before” you fixed the frame or “after”?  I need to know!

I bought this picture a few weeks ago at Goodwill for $6. I don’t normally go for images like this, I am usually more into to the kitschy weird 50s pictures like ballerinas and bull fighters  - but I was really drawn to this picture. I thought it was so cute with all the cherub angel babies! I searched ALL over the web for any info I could find on the picture, but came up with nothing. Has anyone out there in blog-land ever seen this picture before, do you know anything about it? I know it is old, maybe 1930s or 1940s. It kind of reminds me of those old Atkinson Fox prints, but this one has a different look to it. I opened it up and there was no name anywhere so I am at a total loss. The frame is really unusual, it was covered in a plaster/chalkware and then painted to look like wood. The frame was REALLY damaged, you cannot tell in the picture but there were big chips along the sides of the frame and a huge crack in the bottom – along with a lot of scratches all over the wood grained surface,  so I had to patch it and paint over it. If anyone can tell me anything about this picture I surely would appreciate it! Thanks in advance y’all!

Oh my god, I am so tired! Feeding kittens is so hard. Thankfully when I talked to the vet today she said that I can stop getting up in the middle of the night to feed them. When she said that I seriously started bawling from relief. I got about 3 hours of sleep last night, and I just can’t keep going like this.  I feel like a zombie.

Aaaaanyway, here are some pictures from when Tom’s sister came to visit us.  She was patient enough to put up with us ducking into a few antique and thrift shops to check out the goodies.

My fingers itched while I was taking this picture.  I wanted everything in this room. Except for…that lion and tiger playing checkers.  What the heck is up with that?

Check out the kid’s shell chair! So cute!

These want to be on my porch.  I know they do!

Yes, those are giant piles of snow outside the window.  They are mostly gone after all the nice weather this week, though.

Here is the same sputnik light that I featured abuout a year ago.  They still want almost $700 for it!

Maggie, looking at the sputnik light. Thanks for coming to visit, and Happy Birthday! (Even though it is a little late)

Hi all! I have been thinking a lot about vintage bathrooms and vintage tile lately, so I did a quick check around Ebay to find any vintage colored bathroom tile listings to help out those still looking.  Here they are!

I have got some more pretty calendar girls for you! Check out the original post for some more pretties.

I am DY-ING over the red dress on the February girl and her awesome shoes.  Total vintage fabulous-ness.

Thanks to Sara for this great guest post.  Gotta give the love to Goodwill!

OK, I admit I have been obsessing over Goodwill lately. There are 3 Goodwills really close by my house, and it seems like I am ALWAYS going in there and trying to find a new kitschy goody. And Sale Day Saturdays, well just try to keep me away!   

My first find was a 50s/60s magazine rack. As you can see, I already have it loaded up with my old Ladies Home Journals from the 1950s. I love the look of these old magazine racks, and there are SO many different varieties. They are really useful too – especially if you have a bunch of old Ladies Home Journals laying around! This rack was $3.99.

Next up, a FAB pair of Mermaids Mike found for me! I am totally in love with ceramic mermaids and fish from the 50s/60s. If I can find them cheap I will definitely pick them up. I *somehow* managed to walk right by these mermaids, and then Mike walks up to me with them in his hand – I felt like a dork! But, I was so glad he had spotted them. Maybe it was the madness of Sale Day Saturday that caused me to miss them – who knows. Anyway, since it was sale day, the mermaids were only $2.50 for the pair.

Next up is a cool McCoy Pot my Mom actually bought. I know McCoy is pretty collectible, so we definitely thought $9.99 was a fair price for this Pot. It is really big, about 10 inches tall, and it is a cool turquoise green color. I love the design on the pot too.

I found these really cool 1960s kitchen towels for 60 cents each. They seriously do not look like they have ever been used or washed. How could I pass these up???

And, lastly, the funky and kitschy wall art I found. I know it looks like a tile mosaic, but it is actually one big giant piece of chalkware. It is SOOOOO heavy too – it probably weighs 15 lbs, maybe more. I thought it was really cool. It kind of reminds me of New Orleans/Mardi Gras. This was purchased on Sale Day Saturday for $4!

Has anyone else gotten the Goodwill bug – Ruth, Sable? Does anyone have any great finds they would like to share with the rest of us. We all would love to hear about it.