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.

 



Fun Lan...AGAIN!

I don't even know why I end up at Fun Lan Swap Meet....Oh, wait, I remembered...because it is the only thing open at 7am when I am returning from dropping my son at school in Ybor. (That and the fact that I have no self control..anyhoo)

Its kind of weird, I usually find something cool and nobody there knows or cares about if it is actually worth something. Its all laid out on dirty blankets on the ground of a deserted Drive In movie theater. Actually, it is not deserted, it is still active. Can you believe it? But it needs to be deserted, because it is really  run down and in a very nasty part of town. Being from Detroit, I'm cool with that.

Looky looky! Fun Lan goodies!

These milk glass mugs (possibly Glasbake or FireKing) were just on a random table with a bunch of other crappy mugs and doo dads, like broken jewelry. He didn't have change when I paid him. So I told him to keep the change, because it was such a ridiculous price. I think I made his day.

Get 'em here------>APPLE MUGS


I couldn't pass up this little rainbow shot glass. I find that I cannot pass up anything rainbow. They are popular among the 70s lovers, Gay Pride, just a whole plethora of groups of people love rainbows. So that is a bit of advice: never pass up rainbow stuff!

 

 

Rainbows and booze, can't go wrong!

 

 Bottom's up------>RAINBOW SHOT GLASS

 

Then this sweet little old lady had a stack of these old LIFE magazines from the 60s and 70s. Its like she was just cleaning out her garage, found these and plopped them down on her blanket on the concrete with all the other useless crap that she was selling.

 

I had to have them. Mostly because I am addicted to vintage ads, and these were full of them. I scanned the ads and now they are listed in my shop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite ad! Tanning with baby oil!

 

 

 I also got tons more goodies during the week. Most are listed in my shops, (links on the sidebar)

 

 

 

AND I hit the mother load of vintage sci fi! Like 30-40 pulp fiction sci fi, with fantastic cover art...The good stuff, and half already sold before I could blog about how cool they are. I am still going to blog about how cool they are, because I am in love with them!

 

 

 

 

 

So many more! Good stuff, wish I had time to read some.

 

 

 

 

I haven't done a indie business of the week this summer, I am starting up again this week. And it's not just because my son is hanging his art on the walls of this awesome little place. Its because it really is a kick ass establishment...and because my sons art is currently adorning their walls until the end of October.

 

 

FELICITOUS

 



 

Coffee house and art gallery. Seriously, how cute is this place? (Yep, that's my Evan)

 

 

 

Some of his art hanging out on the walls, making this place look even awesomer

 

 

Drinking some decaf latte...spoiled little shit!

You are invited! Come and take a look and have some super yummy coffee and fantastic nibbles (seriously, the desserts...Yow-Za! )

 

 

If that picture of a mug topped with melty soft marshmallows didn't make you stop whatever you are doing and  rush right over there, you must have a dead soul...just saying.....


That is it for now, my friends. Check out my shops for goodies! Follow me on Instagram and Tumblr @RandomGoodsVintage (lots of sneak peeks and special sales!)

Follow Evan and his fantastic world of creature illustrations on Instagram
@EvanDGatscher

Just don't follow me home at night. That would be creepy!

Linking up with SIR THRIFT A LOT and Thrifter Maker Fixer Farm this week.

Tell me about your week? And good found treasures and vintage delights?

 







 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Reclaimed Wood Project!

My husband scored with this. He knows me well. Last week he was describing these cool things in the stockroom at work, sitting there for ages and they were supposed to be tossed. (omg, TOSSED as in GARBAGE!). So he was describing them to me, in a way that didn't sound too amazing, but I knew that if it was something that he was willing to pick up from work and shove into our already overstuffed garage, that it must be pretty cool...
Today he brought them home....thus begins an amazing project. We are both so stoked!

 

He brought home two vintage shipping crates from Europe. OMG they are just so kick ass, when I saw them my head just about exploded in a million pieces. Full of vintage shipping stamps burned in the wood. Seriously, WOW, Both are unique with different stamps. Metal on the corners...Yow-za!

We decided that we are going to keep one and hinge the top, create a base and make it into a storage chest/coffee table. The other one, we are going to do the same, but sell that one. We only have one top, which as you can see is much newer looking and doesn't quite match the rest of the crate....so we had to get it dirty and weathered. We didn't want to stain it because that would create a new clean consistant look...my husband just grabbed a handful of potting soil that was next to him in the garage and ground it into the wood...omg, perfect finish. And free. Nature will provide!

For the other crate, we are going to purchase some reclaimed wood for the top. Fun! I love these kind of projects!

 

 

^Dirt^

 

 

Decided to put Evan to work. He likes this sort of thing. Here he is...just grinding dirt into the dampened porous wood.

 I asked Avery if she wanted to help, but she was sitting on the sofa wearing roller skates in her underwear playing Mario Galaxy. Its her new thing, to put roller skates on while she is still in her PJs and not even skate around. Just wear skates in her PJs...(underwear and tshirt) She will wear that until 1 or 2 pm unless we are leaving the house and make her change into clothes.  PJs and roller skates. So she didn't want to join us in the garage for the renovation fun.

I made Evan do the dirty work, rubbing potting soil on wood. Then we all jumped in the pool fully clothed. Full of dirt and sweaty, not a good combo.

Here is how the top came out

 

 

Can you believe it? Potting soil and water! Come to find out that this reclaimed furniture has a nice resell price. A couple of problems: 1) I don't have a bricks and mortar shop and 2) These things are insanely heavy, and it is not something I am interested in shipping. (shipping a shipping crate in a shipping crate...)

So, I have checked around and there are a few places that will hopefully purchase from me and sell in their retail shop. These things sell for a pretty penny, so I suppose receiving half of their retail price would still be pretty decent. We have access to several more of these shipping crates, so if all works out, we are going to make some more. They are the perfect coffee table size and having the top hinged makes for awesome storage. If you are local (Tampa) and interested, let me know.

 

 

I am so excited about these. And Greg (hubby) is also geeked that he found something that is so on the mark. This is a fun family project....as soon as we get Avery off her roller skates and join us in the hot garage with a pot of dirt, so she can be a part of all of this!

 

 

Also we have an industrial metal (greenish gray) map chest that (maybe) will be on our selling list. Again, heavy as shit, so it will not be shipping. It is perfect coffee table height and has casters. (I really really want to keep this one, I just have to find the right place for it) Which is why I am not picturing it. I am not 100% sure that I want to part with it.

 

 

 

Any projects that you are working on? Any suggestions of local places that will buy our super amazing reclaimed wood coffee table/trunks (without me having to do monthly booth rental) So far we are looking at Broccante in St. Pete and Rare Hues in Carrolwood....Any others that you know of?