THE HEAD!!

Today's blog is not about vintage, not about art, not about shopping local...and it may be about something that doesn't concern or interest you in any way. But it is on my mind so here  goes....

THE HEAD

Ummm...what? 

So when I was a wee one, my horrible, evil, twisted older brother got a Styrofoam head. You know, the ones they use to display wigs on? This was a featureless smooth head. And because my brother is kinda fucked up in the head, he drew a face on it. Just a typical scary face...not well done or realistic. Two blood shot eyes...a piggish nose and a mouth with blood dripping down the sides. 

But what my brother did with the head was the really disturbing part. He would kick it and beat on it and he would poke pencils holes in it and burn the edges....(you are thinking future serial killer, right? As was I. But he turned out kinda normalish and a decent dad...) It was just a time in his life that he was into horror movies, Dungeons and Dragons, etc...so maybe that was just all part of that twisted little world he lived in. 

He would try to terrorize me with this head. And it did freak me out a bit....but what changed everything was...one day, I was in my room and my brother threw the head right outside my door. I looked at it. No big deal. Then I looked at it again, and it turned its head and looked at me! 

I ran down the stairs screaming bloody murder and my brother just cackled!

It really did turn its head and look at me. 

My son has known this story for years, "Seriously, mom, its just a Styrofoam head..."

Every time we'd go thrifting, he'd see a head, displaying wigs or hats and he would ask to buy it. Thankfully they would never sell them because they are used as display. ( I really don't know why he wanted one so bad...really, wtf, kid?)

Last night my son got a Styrofoam head from Michaels. 

I begged him not to...

After all these years of him wanting one of these, he finally did it. He bought it.

So he threw it in the trunk of my car and it rolled in an unnatural position...facing us.

We thought that was really odd, but we kinda laughed nervously.  As we drove, I warned him that these heads are possessed and he is going to be very, very sorry that he bought it and it better just stay in his room because I don't want to see it. Meanwhile it continued to do strange things in our car, rolling around in odd ways trying to look at us. As our drive continued, my son was getting freaked out by the head's behaviour. And then he finally said,  " I wish I didn't buy it, can we just throw it away when we get home?" I said " No, it will only anger him more" Now he says "I don't want it in the house, we have to get rid of it." I said, "In due time, in due time, let it be, we can't anger the head" I took him out of the garage ( where we decided it best stay) to take a picture, Evan took it and colored the eyes red and tried to scare me by rolling it out to me. It immediately sat upright, looking at me. I swear to god, I can't make this shit up. 

It landed like this.....

Do yourself a favor, don't ever buy a Styrofoam head. 

I'm not kidding with you this time. 

Follow my blog if you want to see if we survived.

Check me out on Instagram and Pinterest, @Random Goods Vintage for non creepy head related stuff.

What to do When the Kids go Back to School

What to do when the kids go back to school? Well, Duh! Back to my twice a week (or more) thrift shop/estate sale routine! In all fairness, my kiddos don't mind an occasional thrift jaunt,  in fact, my son would probably be happy going every day. But still..I do enjoy some alone time to really spend my time digging around and exploring every nook and granny. 

Yep, so that very first day of school, mama hit the trails! I kinda felt guilty at first, like I should have stayed at home, crying about how much I miss them and how big they are getting...however, I did think about them the whole time, so that makes it okay, and I was super excited to pick them up and hear all about their first days and their new teachers etc. 

My day out was pretty decent. I didn't get a whole lot, but I what I did get was pretty kick ass I must say....

I am dying over these dishes! Seriously, it is very challenging NOT to keep these gems! A perfect set of four and there is four in our family....but I know they would be trashed in a week and I would freak out with every fork scraping along the bottom. My kids would be scared to eat and I would become the plate nazi.

So in my shop they go!

Find them here ------>MID CENTURY PLATES




This next vintage toy has a story of redemption behind it. When I was a little girl, I had this one friend that was an only child. She had a gazillion cool toys. Her basement had wall to ceiling built in shelves and every single one of them were filled with toys and games, much of which my family couldn't afford. This "friend" was sorta a bitch. She had this tree house toy sitting on one of those shelves and I always wanted to play with it. And she would never let me. She always wanted to play "school" in which I always had to be the student and she always got to be the teacher and she would boss me around. (I told you she was a bitch.) I wanted so bad to play with this Tree House toy and she NOT ONCE let me. Yea, a control freak at age 6. 

So when I found this toy last week, I about died! So I took it home and even though I really didn't want to play with it, (I'm 44 years old for crissakes!) I did play with it just to spite her and to feel redemption after all these years, then my daughter wanted to play with it, and guess what? I let her. Cause that's what cool people do!

I know what you are thinking: "That was my favorite toy when I was a kid!" Yea, well good for you.

If you want to relive the joy again, its available here:

TREE HOUSE THAT I NEVER GOT TO PLAY WITH

I did get lots of other retro goodies, so check out my shops and take a looky (link in side bar on the right)

Then I stumbled upon the motherload of vintage sci fi books, I believe a shop closed up and the boxes were donated to a thrift shop. I am a sucker for vintage sci fi, I was able to select about 80 books. There was at least 500 to chose from, I kid you not. You know what pissed me off? So I go to the cashier with a cart full to the brim with these books and I asked for a discount. And that bitch said NO. Really! How rude! So I had to take each and every book out of my cart for her to ring up at full price. 80 books and not one penny off!

 These are just a fraction of my booty, still sorting by author and pricing. Did I mention that they are ALL in brand new condition? 


Now that I gave you a small taste of my finds, I want to check out my talented friend's shop. I just love love love her shop, she has the cutest items! 

Do yourself a favor and check out her shop. The holidays are just around the corner and this is the perfect spot to find a cute gift. Your friends and family deserve better than Walmart crap!

MISS JOHNNY SQUIRREL

Who doesn't love pickles? 

...or cute squirrels?

I love the colors of this pair of piggies!

Of course there is much more in her shop than pillows, take a look and see all the goods!

It is a 3 day weekend (labor day on Monday), so my shopping time is reduced my one day, but my sleeping-in days are increased by one day, so its all good!

What was your favorite childhood toy? Or a toy you always wanted? 

(by the way, I am still friends with that selfish girl, and she is still a bitch. I question our friendship, but sometimes, like an old crappy tee shirt, you just hang on and don't really know why, except that its been around for so long you kinda got used to it)

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Follow me on Pinterest, because you need to see something besides crafts that you will never do and recipes that you will never make. 

Cleaning Vintage Goodies

Cleaning stuff! Not the most fun thing, but its all part of the vintage biz. Old stuff is supposed to look old, but it shouldn't look dirty and broken.

I spend a lot of time cleaning stuff, Actually most of the cleaning I do is getting rid of the packing tape, stickers and wax crayon marks from the thrift shops doing. Thrift shops love packing tape! They most go through a roll every 5 minutes!

Here are some of my top cleaning supplies:

Bar Keepers Friend, or as us vintage sellers refer to it as BKF. This is a must have! I heard about it for a while and never got around to actually using it until last year. Why did I wait so long!? This product is best used on Pyrex and enamel ware. (pots, pans etc) I have been able to make blackened pots white! Seriously WHITE! I do not have before and after pics of anything. Mostly because my hands are so wet and full of chemicals that I don't want to touch my camera.

So what works for me is that I slightly wet the inside of my Pyrex (for example), then I pour in some BKF and scrub the bejeezus out of it. Then I rinse and soak in bleach cleaner (next pic) I think some people consider bleach a big no-no when it comes to vintage items, but honestly, I use it all the time with no issues. So after it has had the BFK and bleach treatment, if it still has some remnants, I give it another BFK treatment. Works like magic. I was floored the first time I used it, then I kicked myself for not using it earlier. I feel like I am an unpaid spokesperson for this product.

Yep, a bleach product! I use it and I am not ashamed. It works, I find this product is less abrasive than full on bleach, plus it comes in a handy spray container. I have even used this to spot treat vintage sheets (white ones, of course) It never ate through anything. Maybe I am pressing my luck, but I have used bleach for years with no problems. And it works great on vintage plastic toys.

Do I even need to tell you about Magic Eraser? It truly is magic. I'm not quite sure how this even works, but it does. This is good on almost everything. Get the smaller squares or cut the larger ones in half. You will get more use out of them.

I go through gallons of this! Goo Gone. Mostly to undo the packing tape frenzy that the thrift store employees do. I use this and an old credit card. Credit cards are softer to scrape with than a metal scraper which could damage the item by scratching it. I spray this on, wait a few minutes than scrape forever. This is my least favorite cleaning job.

This is a great little item for touching up little nicks and scratches in wood items. Wood stain marker, available at Lowes and Home Depot. I find that this color "Early American" is the most universal. It is light enough for the lighter wood products, and if you leave it on longer or do a second coat, it works well with darker wood too.



I know many of you also have some great cleaning tips and I would love to hear them!

Share the info!

Don't forget to check out my shops (side bar) and follow me on Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest for sneak peeks, secret sales and coupon codes!