Vintage Glory

Hi strangers....sorry I have been invisible this past month. You know, the holiday craziness  in addition to  everyone is this family being sick, sprinkle in some general laziness...that's why I have been AWOL for a bit. I am back now, and I suppose I have a bit of catching up to do.

I will start with a little "Shopping Shenanigans with my Son"

Came across this at Target. No, we did not do it. Yes, we would have- had we thought of it first.

This made our shopping trip so much fun...knowing that there was another prankster amongst us.

Now to some recent finds, well, at least in the past month since I have blogged.

All of these items can be found at my shop RANDOM GOODS VINTAGE


I was so excited when I found this retro beauty. It was at Goodwill, which I don't go to very often and when I do, I usually never find anything good. But you never know, its always a crapshoot.

Photo came out a little pixelated. but it is a retro giraffe crewel. I love how funky and psychedelic it is.


I am always a sucker for Pyrex! Sometimes one is a bit imperfect, which is fine, because then I have an excuse to keep it. This one is not being added to my  personal collection, it is now listed in my shop.

Pyrex Golden Hearts casserole. 2.5 quarts will fit a whole lot of holiday food!


I have never come across vintage wrapping paper before. I have seen people selling it, but as much as I hit the thrifts, one would think I would come across it often. Nope. Until last week. 9 unopened packages! Yay me!

 

 

Listed and ready for wrapping. Just for someone to rip off the gift and throw away. Ugh. I didn't think about the fate of this paper.......

 

 

I do so love Florida kitschy souvenirs. It reminds me of when I lived in Detroit and would come to Florida in the winter and we would go to all those hokey souvenir shops and buy all sorts of doo dads. Things made from shells, little license plates with our names on them...fun stuff and good memories.

Cute, kitschy and  cheery. Perfect to warm up a cold winter home!


Speaking of warming up......

I may end up keeping this one. I'm just saying that if it doesn't sell, I won't be too upset. I could put a whole lot of coffee in this baby!


Ashtrays aren't my best sellers. Even cool mid century ones. But this is a mid century CAT ashtray...seriously, did you think I would pass this one up? Almost makes me want to start smoking. Actually not really. I would never start that nasty shit! But it still is a kick ass ashtray.

These next fun finds can be found it my vintage book shop RANDOM GOODS BOOK ROOM



Even though this next beauty is a bit faded, there was no way it wasn't going home with me. Teenage beauty guide full of all sorts of dreadful outdated shitty advice that we would never want our daughter to follow. Such as, always wear a girdle to improve your figure, and when a boy takes you on a date to a restaurant, always let him chose your meal and order for you. Ugh, really?

So I will hand this to my daughter one day and say, "Do the opposite"

This next book is pretty stinking old. I love when I find heavily illustrated old picture books for kids.

So pretty I can hardly stand it. 1942. The year my dad was born. I think about this type of book being in his house when he was a baby.


Then I came across this fantastic collection at a library book store. I was there returning books that were 2 months overdue. Yea...I said I have been busy and lazy lately. Whoopsy. My bad.

Also full of amazing vintage illustrations. The Bookshelf for Boys and Girls.


Remember a while back I found that Monopoly set from the 1950s? Well, I decided that the box was in really shitty condition and I figured I would just sell the pieces etc. They are so unusual, not the Monopoly pieces that we grew up with, but odd shaped wooden pawns and different colored metal cars. Also wood houses.

Also check out those dice! The have a picture on them instead of a 1. Made of... I don't know Bakelite? (okay doubtful Bakelite, but it has that sort of look)

I love all the old board games. My kids and I play most of them before I list them. Some we even end up keeping. The board games being sold today are so lame. I guess computer games took over. Its a real shame because board games are so much fun, and interactive and creative and strategic....We play a lot of vintage board games and I really hope they make a comeback. I would do a blog on just board games, but they sell as fast as I list them sometimes. Maybe in the summer I will hold off on listing them and post a whole bunch of them so you can see how awesome they are. Damn Pac man ruined everything!

Anyhow, I hope your holiday is going fantastic. Hopefully minimal stress. Any funny holiday stories and family drunken chaos? Do tell!

 

 

So Gross

Every Friday night my son goes grocery shopping with me. I know that sounds pretty lame, but we have a really good time. He actually looks forward to our shopping trips. We have our system. As soon as we enter the store, he goes down two aisles and grabs a snack and a Vitamin water to eat while we shop. Usually its Fritos or Sun Chips. But last week he came back to the cart with something new and said, " I'm really sorry, these are disgusting! I'm sorry I wasted your money. I was just curious"

That's why shit like this sells! People are CURIOUS! They are so foul that I don't know how they made it out of the board room!

AND totally false advertising! By looking at the picture my son thought (as did I), that they were going to be vanilla stick things. Nope. They were regular Pringles with nasty powdered flavored yuck on top of them.

Knowing my daughter will eat anything that is left out the next morning....she wakes up before anyone in the family, so she usually gets herself some breakfast. Well, we left these out on the counter, knowing that curiousity would get the best of her. When I woke up and came downstairs, the first thing out of her mouth was "mom, I tried these things and they were really disgusting!" I told her I already knew that. She then said," I ate one, and it was really bad, so I ate another one, and that one was bad too, then I just decided to lick the flavor off, because maybe that would be good and that was even worse." haha. She really wanted it to work!

A few months ago, we bought those damn Cappuccino chips that Lays made. Yep, curious. Those were also pretty nasty, but these white chocolate Pringles are even worse!
So this got my son and I browsing the aisles for other "what the fuck were they thinking?" food products.

Kettle Corn flavored coffee. Marked down half off. I wonder why....."the best part of waking up is sugar popcorn flavored coffee in your cup".

These next products make me feel sad. Sad because I know many food shelters and troops rely on canned meat products. And nobody should have to eat them. The first ingredient on everyone of these is "mechanically separated meat" Evan asked me what that means. I really don't know, but I picture something really wrong and freaky. Like a robot picking apart the random meat throwaways, like tongues and butts and eyes. Remember, we are vegetarians, so I think the whole process is gross anyhow.

Apparently they couldn't even go through they effort of having a more appetizing picture on the front. Its like they knew it was gross and they just thought "fuck it, this picture will work." Well, at least its not false advertising like the Pringles can was. You wont be surprise when you open up this can and get out a fleshy colored rectangle of gelatinous bologna smelling loaf covered in a goo. I am sorry homeless people and troops, that you sometimes have to eat this. I never donate this, I donate much better quality items. (BTW, I like how it says, "premium quality" on this can, Did they have better skilled robots mechanically separating the meat?)

My son wants to start another blog with me, where we go on grocery store adventures and take pictures of weird food etc. I kinda think it would be fun. Any opinions?


Anyhooooo, At the Flea Market last week, I came across a load of Wacky Packs and Garbage Pail Kids cards. I loved these when I was a kid! I picked up a nice stack and I will be listing them this week it lots of 4 cards.

Look for them this week here: RANDOM GOODS BOOK ROOM

 

 

 

 

I have tons more, this is just a quick example with crappy photos. 

Look for the listing this week!

Did you have Wacky Packs or Garbage Pail Kids cards when you were a kid?

Don't forget to check me out on Instagram and Tumblr for sneak peeks and secret sales! @RandomGoodsVintage!!

Btw-The reason why there was a two week break from my blog was that I got in a car accident with a semi. We were all fine, but my car was not. I have been dealing with car rentals, insurance claims (accident was the other drivers fault), etc etc. then all of us in this house came down with a crappy cold. And my son had an art show. So it has been one of THOSE weeks! Glad to get my mojo back!

 

Hey Mom!

Just came across some funky old pics of my mom and I figured all you retro lovers would enjoy the mod fashions.

My mom, Cyndee, was pretty damn interesting. My dad, Nolan, was also a character. Their good parenting made me grow up to be good, their bad parenting made me grow up to be better! (Lots of bad parenting hahah) I think that whole 50s and 60s era that they grew up in...may have skewed their views of parenting.....Hey, its all good.

I was raised by two artist hippies...in Detroit....what could possibly go wrong?

WHY oh why did she not save this kick ass zebra print jacket for me? WHY mom?

She told me she only dated this guy because he drove this sweet Corvette. HAH....the funny thing is that little did she know, that she would end up marrying my dad, and her father in-law was the supervisor of the design team who designed the first Corvette...(My Grandfather). My  mom was a playa!!!
She also gave me this bit of advice: When you date someone, tell them that your birthday is the following month, so they have to buy you something. Well when her and my dad married...the truth eventually came out. So he always ended up giving her two birthday cards: One on her real birthday and a funny card and gift on her fake birthday. (good man!) Thankfully, he had a sense of humor about the whole thing.

He always had a beard. This was the shortest his hair ever was. Ever.

After a while she went back to brunette. The leopard chair (they are a set of two), we had these in our house. Seriously comfortable too! I wish I still had them, I don't know where they ended up.

They got married and moved into this cool old house (1926) in Detroit. They moved in to it in the 70s, but this was the original picture, before the other houses were built (now which most are boarded up or torn down)...but this house still remains, I paid her a visit this past summer...still hanging in there. I loved living in this house, glass door knobs, leaded glass windows....just on and on with vintage coolness!

My mom won 2nd place in the beauty pageant, and boy, was she pissed off (I think that may be why there is some staining on the winners face)

 

She did some really trippy modeling. We had a bunch of these crazy pics all over the house. Kinda scared me when I was young...like, what the hell was wrong with my mom?!

 

 

She was a bridesmaid in a wedding....I think she must have starved herself to bones!

Seriously, throw that lady a sandwich!

See what I said earlier about my dads hair. Actually all of our hair! My brother hated how he had "girl hair" as a child. The shirt I am wearing...I remember it. It was a house with a mouse family and it was my very favorite shirt in the world, I wore it almost every day!

Again lots of hair in this family. Hahaha....look at my brothers clothes and a BOWTIE! I hated wearing tights I was pretty tall and the tights were never long enough. I hated wearing tights, but I guess with how bizarrely short my dress was, I had no choice but to shove my pork chops in those red tights. (OMG, mom, I think I needed a bigger dress)


So there you have it....My dad died when I was in my 20s and my mom died when I was in my 30s...(Damn you Viceroy full flavored tobacco!)

My brother is still in the Detroit area. I would like to say he has better fashion sense now, but that would be a lie.


I really do have tons of vintage goodies to show you and tell you about, I was just feeling a bit too lazy to get them all together. Some are on Instagram @RandomGoodsVintage....(secret coupon code!!) Anyhow, I just came across these old pics and felt compelled to share them.

So despite their odd parenting style, at least they weren't boring. I hate boring. Oh the stories I could tell......

You got any good childhood stories? You know, the real crazy shit? Do share!

 

Special Finds and Special Talent

In continuation of last weeks post regarding what thrift stores do right and what they do wrong, these are just some basic irritations. I know those of you who thrift know exactly what I'm talking about and could probably add a few:

**Thrift stores that use packing tape to tape together board games, dish sets etc.
Packing tape on vintage board games...well it destroys the box. I have seen a few thrift shops that wrap packages in clear plastic wrap and then tape it up. I know it takes a small amount of effort, but totally appreciated. I will gladly pay $1 more for the plastic wrapped item. When dishes are taped together, it usually does not ruin the items, but I have to spend a pretty long time using "Goof Off" and an old credit card trying to scrape away the residue. I have also had the packing tape rip off patterns on certain items where the pattern is painted on!

**Thrift stores that use a giant wax marker crayon to mark the prices on everything. Yes, in most cases it can be simply wiped off, BUT on anything porous, it will permanently stain. (Book covers, bottoms of unglazed ceramics, wood etc)

**Thrift stores who use a giant price sticker that has an industrial adhesive. Yes, I could buy a set of six glasses from Goodwill and have to spend the next hour letting "Goof Off" soak and once again, use my old credit card to scrape off the glue residue. Goodwill is the biggest offender with their stickers!

**Salvation Army is the ONLY shop that I can say does their pricing perfectly. They use tiny stickers that peel off easily, They also use these same stickers on glassware and dishes. They don't price the set individually, they price just a few items of the set, which makes the clean up easy...just peel off the few stickers, give the dishes a quick wash and done!

Okay, enough griping.

I had a fantastic shopping week, I am trying to bump up shopping before the holidays start, my sales have already picked up tremendously, so I know I have to kick it in high gear.

I came across some more dishes and dish sets. Dish sets usually sell well before Thanksgiving, for obvious reasons, and hopefully these will find new homes, because I hate storing them (they just take up too much space!)


This is a really large set, which is hard to find, includes serving platter, serving bowl and cream and sugar set, it was a sweet discovery!

 

It was such a large set, I had to photograph it by my pool outside and stack everything up as much as possible. There are lots of plates and bowls, such retro yum yum 70s glory. My son thinks we should keep them. I know that they would just get too banged up if they were used in my family, so they are listed and hopefully off to a new home for the holidays!

SAND AND SUN DISH SET



I couldn't resist this next group of dishes, just dessert plates and bowls, but I fell in love with the retro fun pattern. There was at least twice this amount at the shop, but half of them had major chips along the edges, really bad ones, I don't even know why they had those damaged one on the shelf, needless to say, I just left those on the shelf, inspected the ones that looked intact and then put them in my basket.

These are just so much fun, right? Yep, I was definitely not leaving these behind!

RETRO CIRCLE PLATES AND BOWLS


This next gem was one of my finds when I was in Detroit shopping the delicious garage sales, I hadn't listed it yet, because I wanted to try to spread out some of my northern finds. Its finally found its way to my shop!

 

Mid century hot pot, Great for keeping your coffee, tea, cider....nice and hot, heats up to five cups (which is my coffee serving size!)

MID CENTURY HOT POT


This next one is my very favorite find in a long time. My son Evan and I were stopping by FELICITOUS coffee house, where he has his art displayed until the end of October. We pop in there here and there to see how things are selling and if any of his prints need to be restocked. So we were on our way there and- lo and behold we pass a flea market. No big deal about the flea market, because it is a junky one that we don't even bother with. However the parking lot was full of sellers, my favorite kind of sellers: the ones that just lay blankets on the concrete and pile up the junk (just like FUN LAN does), Yea the vast majority is complete junk, however if you sift around, there are treasures to be found. Evan got this super cool old rusty gigantic bolt cutter thingy. He is the master of negotiation. It was $30, and Evan asks if he will take $5 for it (haha, Evan, that was ballsy!) The guy said he would take $10....Evan wasn't even going to stop there, he then asks if he will take $8! Well, my little champ got that thing for $9! Way to go little man! He wants to hang it on his wall. Its at least 2 feet long and heavy as shit.

Then I saw it! The coolest mid century chalk ware lamp! These are not an easy find, so I was thrilled! The funniest part was (Oh how I wish I took a picture!) that on top of this lamp, this person matched up a plastic fake stained glass shade that was 4 sizes too small. It looked like a shade that she got from Bennigans before it went bankrupt! So I asked her for the price, and she told me. Then I said, "how much for just the base, I don't want the shade?" I figured she would take off a buck or two. NO, she actually reduced the price by 75%! Like she thought that the shade was the real money maker of the pair!! Haha, she probably thought it was a Tiffany! So I happily purchased the lamp and it rolled around in my trunk with that damn giant vintage tool that Evan bought, I was terrified that those two were going to go to war....and that tool would have definitely won that battle. The tool and the lamp ended up being amiable and because of that tools gentle heart, he let my lamp live.  Thank you giant tool thing. Thank you.

Here is my happy lamp that survived the long ride home! I just love her so much! Did I mention that she is really large (no offense, lamp), she measures 28.5" tall!

MID CENTURY TABLE LAMP



I had lots more to say and items to show, but I guess that I will have to save that for next week. I just saw the time and every Monday is early release day and my kids schools, so I have to head out on my several hour commute.

Meanwhile I would love to hear about your thrift shop annoyances!

Hey Thrift Store-You're Doing it wrong!

After a lifetime of going to thrift stores, I have learned that there is a "wrong way" and a "right way" to be a good thrift store.

1. Bad Way--A thrift store that  has an Ebay store. This means that they already took the "good stuff" out of the store and are selling it elsewhere for more money. You are left with 1990s tumblers and plastic wastebaskets.

2. Good Way--A thrift store that doesn't even know how to operate a computer. Can't research items to find out the worth, and can't sell things online.

3. Bad Way--A locked counter or cabinet. This means that they have taken all the good stuff and locked it away so they can charge you more. They know what things are worth and they want every penny of it!

4. Good Way--No locked cabinets or counters, because they don't know or care what things are worth. As far as they are concerned, its all worth a quarter.

5. Bad Way--Thrift stores that count every item in your cart, no matter how much you have. They make you put it all on the counter and they ring each and every item up, even if you have 2 baskets full.

6. Good Way (my favorite way)--The cashier just takes one look at your giant haul and says, "$5.00". I am guessing that they are too lazy to ring all of that up, but I just pretend its because they like me and I am special.

7. Bad Way-- The store is overall too clean and organized. That always spells trouble for me. It means that everything is probably priced at retail, everything's been researched, cleaned, fixed and organized. Never a good sign.

8. Good way--I know this sounds weird, but if I go it to a place that is a jumbled mess, with random piles everywhere, I know I have found a gold mine! It means they don't know or care about any of it, they don't research anything, clean anything, inspect anything. It just comes in as a donation and they just dump it all on the shelves or in bins. It really is like panning for gold, I find I do the best at these kind of places.

9. Bad Way--thrift stores that charge retail. Seriously! Why?  Its supposed to be a "thrift store". $25 for a Fire king bowl, not even a rare one?

and 10. The Good Way--everything is a quarter.


So with that being said, sometimes the rules don't always apply. Last week, I passed by this delightfully crappy looking thrift store. You know, the kind that I mentioned in #7 being awesome gold mines...well this was more like panning for turds.

They even had a homemade crappy sign...I really had some hope for this one...the fact that there were zero cars in the parking lot, should have been a red light for me. But it wasn't, I had to go check it out, cause you never know, right?

First of all the whole place smelled like pee-pee. And it was full of dumpster dive stuff. I admit, I have dumpster dived myself, I'm cool with that, however, this was more like they dumpster dived after all of the professional dumpster divers already got the good stuff (yeah, I know "dumpster diving" and "good stuff" don't really belong together in the same sentence....), well, this shop got the stuff that the dumpster divers didn't want. Basically, if it was not up to the standards of dumpster divers, it ended up here. They were selling promotional pharmaceutical knick knacks, broken furniture, stuffed animals (seriously ick!) with a sign that said "SALE, normally $2 each, today, only $1 each) and they were all shoved into a nasty dirty stained baby play pen.

It takes a lot for a thrift store to gross me out....but this one did.

So needless to say, I came out, I mean ran out, empty handed.

Here are some random finds that I found elsewhere:

 I have never carried any crocheted afghans in my shop before, but I thought I would just try something a little different. The weather is getting cooler up north (not here in Florida), and I was really drawn to these colors, so I thought I would list a few in my shop and give it a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I have never seen one of these before, but I thought it had the cutest retro pattern so I couldn't resist. Its a heating pad cover, how cool is that?

Items available on the links on the side bar to the right.


I was able to pick up some really fun retro reads this past week, pleased about these!

1950s Cub Scout book

 

 

 

 

1960s Cowboy book

 

 

 

1938 Santa book

 

 

 

1960s Poodle clipping book. (seriously, I have listed and sold many times before anything vintage poodle, its an oddly popular hot seller for me, go figure!)

1960s fun retro Christmas ideas book! Just in time for the holidays!

 

 

 

Mid Century music book. Full of super fun mid century illustrations. I can never resist that kind of stuff!

All of these items are available in the links to my shops on the sidebar (right hand side)


Linking up with my friends SIR THRIFT A LOT  and WOMEN IN REAL LIFE and A LIVING SPACE, and also THRIFTER MAKER FIXER FARM


Enjoy your week, my friends! I always welcome your comments.

 

 



 

What's Been Brewing Lately

With Autumn here along with cooler weather (for you Northerners...we are going to be in the 90s at least for another month or so here in Florida), I have coffee on the mind. Okay, truth is, I always have coffee on my mind. Never Starbucks....no offense to the Starbucks fans out there. I don't particularly care for their coffee, I find their atmosphere boring at best, AND I prefer to support small independent businesses. Starbucks is anything but small. Why am I talking about coffee? Because, I will be featuring a few special independent coffee houses during the fall months.

Before I feature my first coffee house, okay, okay....my second coffee house. Yep, Last week I featured FELICITOUS...that is where my 11 year old son, Evan, is the featured artist until the end of October, so I'm biased. So before I feature the next coffee house, I want to feature ME, and some of my cool finds this week.

I did not attend Fun Lan Swap Meet this week. I figure every other week will be about all I can handle, meanwhile, I have been perusing quite a few thrift shops and rummage sales to try to stock up my shops as best as possible for the holiday rush.

Geeked when I found this little treasure! I so love string art, and string art with a string instrument is double yummy!

Cool mid-century vibe! STRING ART HARP, would make a fantastic present for the music lover in your life.



70s Wall Plague anyone? The cartooning on this reminded me of Schoolhouse Rock, which then reminded me of "I'm just a Bill...." and that song is stuck in my head. I totally adore Schoolhouse Rock!

This WALL PLAGUE would be fun in a Men's Den/game room or in a bar. Fun cheesy 70s goodness!



Nice vintage red plaid thermos for your warm winter drink. Coffee, hot cocoa, Cider spiked with rum....Whatever, do it in cool retro style:

ALLADIN THERMO will set you up with hot beverages that will stay hot as you get hammered while skiing (totally not recommended BTW)


One of the main reasons that I was drawn to these thermos mugs is because they are the type of mugs seen on "Orange is the New Black"!  Yes, a show about prison made these extra cool to me.

 

 

DINEX INSULATED WEAR because you can never have enough insulation to keep that coffee nice and hot!

 

 

 

 

As some of you know, I was born and raised in Detroit. I try to promote the cool stuff there, because there is a LOT of cool stuff there. Best city in the world (besides the snow, cause that really sucks....kinda the reason I live in Florida). I was so excited to hear about this ultra fucking fantastic coffee house opening up....sharing the same zip code with my childhood home!

 

 

ALWAYS BREWING DETROIT

 

 

 

 

And look at this kick ass menu:

 

 

 

I am so going there the next time I am back home!

 

From their Facebook page, I can see there is open mic night and supporting of the arts/handmade. That is so important to me: independent businesses supporting independent businesses!

 

Maybe next time we are there, Evan will be featuring his art at ALWAYS BREWING DETROIT 

 

 

Very proud of all the amazing positive changes that I see happening in Detroit.

 

 

 

Let me know if there are any independent coffee shops that you feel need a shout out.

 

 

Don't forget to check me out on Instagram @RandomGoodsVintage

for sneak peeks and secret sales.

 

And check out Evan's world of art on Instagram  @EvanDGatscher

Linking up with SIR THRIFT A LOT

 

Stay warm my Northern friends.