Crap I Didn't Buy

Thrift store shopping is fun, not always for what you buy, but sometimes for what you DON'T buy.

Here is some crap I didn't buy this week. Do you think I made a wise decision passing up these gems?




Someone's clown collection. I bet when I go there the next time, they are still there. I suppose there are a few individuals left in the world that like clowns. Maybe. Anyhow, I had to pass these up.

Another plaster head thing. I think this is a wall hanging, but it was with all the platters and dishes. I had to pass this up. 

I don't even know how to explain this next thing. It was dumped in a bin. It was a styrofoam head (and ya'll know how I feel about styrofoam heads, this one had a stocking wrapped around it and it was staring at me......I ran the fuck outta that store as quick as I could. Needless to say, I didn't purchase it. 

I did pass up a lot of crap this week, I also purchased a lot of awesomeness as well. For instance this treasure:

Some German toy that I took a chance on. It was taped closed and I couldn't read anything, not even find a year on it. But by the clothes the children on the box are wearing, I am guessing 1970's (early)

I brought it home and did some research and it appears that I picked a winner. It has a gazillion pieces, I took them out to sort, photograph and count. It took me a full hour to line these fuckers out in nice rows...then I didn't have it in me to count them.(seriously, look at all the pieces, ain't nobody got time for that!) If someone convos me to ask how many pieces, I will just tell them to count them from the photograph. 

Look at all the pieces:

Yea....I'm not counting them. They are listed in my shop and would make a really cool holiday gift.  Kind of like legos, a wee bit bigger...great building/construction toy.

I am constantly loading items in my shop in preparations for the holiday shopping season, Seriously, take a look, at least 150 new items posted this month alone....and still working on it!

Shop links are on the side bar. 

Follow me on INSTAGRAM, TUMBLR, TWITTER, and PINTEREST @Random Goods Vintage. 

Shop and support local and independent businesses, so they can afford to have a nice holiday with their families!  Walmart doesn't care about you, they just want to sell you their cheap mass produced crap. 

Say HI in the comments and tell me what kind of crap that YOU passed up at the thrift shops.

Ybor Daily Market

Ybor Daily Market is a cool market and coffee house in the middle of downtown Ybor. Cassie, the owner is very much into supporting the community and the arts. The place is bursting at the seams with fantastic local creations for sale. My daughter Avery does yoga on the rooftop with Urban Wilderness Yoga. (How cool is that) A view of the city while doing yoga! While she is doing yoga, My son, Evan and I sit at one of their tables and have coffee while he draws.

Here is some of the awesomeness that you will find there:

Yoga on the rooftop

Okay, so you get the drift. Pretty kick ass, right? Here's the problem: They have to move. In fact, Oct 24th is their last day. They have not been able to renew their lease and maintain such a large building so its time to move. Cassie is looking for a new place. A place similar and in the same general area. She still plans to support local artists (even though she admits that she really doesn't make that much money off their commissions, but she wants to keep on supporting them).

Here is the deal, she set up a Go Fund Me page to help with the move, and cover all the many costs involved. She has supported the community for so long and now its time that we support her!

Please show Cassie some love. Even a buck or two....

YBOR DAILY MARKET GO FUND ME PAGE

Please remember to shop local and indie this holiday season. No one wants cheap mass produced crap from Walmart. Show some love to the small businesses, so they can afford to have a holiday with their family.

More vintage chit chat next week, I promise. 

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest @Random Goods Vintage

And check out my shops on the side bar. I have been working feverishly to list a ton of new stuff (many at crazy bargain prices) as the holiday season comes closer. 

So Much Melmac!

So much melmac! What the hell is that, you ask?

Well, I will start by giving you some fine examples. I was at a thrift store that runs a great special: The first Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the month, the whole store is HALF OFF! Yep, you read that correctly. HALF OFF! Which is pretty dangerous, because I can buy twice as much...and that's what I usually do.

October 1st was a Thursday, so I headed out to do me some shoppin'. The store opens at 10, and by 10:30 there is a line that wraps around the place, people like me who like to take advantage of the half off bargains. Unfortunately, I came a wee bit later than I had originally planned, mostly because I was feeling particularly lazy trying to get my ass there in a timely manner. So I knew that I was going to be stuck in a line from hell.

The first thing I walk in there, I stumbled upon a Boonton Ware ginormous set! Probably about 50 pieces! I took the giant box and asked if I could keep in on the counter, cause I was still shopping. (they are cool with that kind of stuff)  I ended up dividing the set by color, because there was so much.... first the yellows....

Then some pink and teals.....

Then some more pink and teals....

I haven't even got around to photographing the whites and dark teals yet. 

So I continued shopping, putting more things on the counter so I wouldn't have to lug all of this crap around. No shopping carts at this place. Boo!

Picked up this sweet mid century Texas Ware melmac set, put it on the counter and said "I'm still shopping"

 I don't think I could be more in love. I am drooling on myself as I type this. AND remember...half off! 

So now you have an idea what melmac is...kind of a retro plastic indestructible dining goods.

Indestructible is why it has lasted throughout the years. 

But that is not all I got. Other stuff too ya know. Like these beauties...

Nobility Mist China...Not a full set, but who cares? Someone has to complete a set somewhere, right? I couldn't pass them by...half off...remember?

I am still photographing the rest of my stash, so stay tuned and please check out my shops, links in the side bar, to see these and other retro goodies. (so many! You know, because half off)

NOW LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT I DIDN'T BUY:

  

This:

Some sort of plaster thing with a tiny head,, encased in a plastic shadow box $37, the half off deal didn't seem like a good bargain to me. 

And this:

I don't think I really need to explain why I didn't buy this....

UPDATE ON THE HEAD: (see previous blog for details)

My husband threw it away. 

So there you have it. Great shopping, great deals, happy me! 

Show me some love, leave a comment and follow me. 

Check me out on Instagram, tumblr, pinterest and now twitter. @RandomGoodsVintage. 

I am new on twitter and so far, I think it kind of sucks. I don't know what the hell I am doing. But I'm going to stick with it for awhile and try to figure it all out.  

And don't forget to check out my shops listed on the sidebar, I post new items almost daily!

Please don't forget to shop local this holiday season!

Any vintage related topics that you would be interested in me blogging about? Let me know, I love new ideas!

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)

If you enjoy reading my blog, please follow me. 

And follow me on Instagram and Tumblr for secret coupon codes and sneak peeks. 

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!

Why go Thrift Shopping?

WHY GO THRIFT SHOPPING?

So many reasons. I am sure you already know about the importance of thrift shopping for environmental reasons (stuff not ending up in a landfill, manufacturing waste...), you already know that you save money (duh!), you already know that most thrift shops are non profit and the money goes to some sort of charity and gives people jobs. So I am not going to bore you with the stuff you already know. If you don't know that stuff, you should.

Reason 1: I don't  want to support greedy big box stores? umm...Walmart, really?

Reason 2: I don't  want to have the exact same tee shirt from Target or Aeropostle that every other person walking around has.

Reason 3: I don't  want to have the same table lamp that everyone else bought from the same furniture shop down the street that was having a big sale that weekend.

Reason 4: I don't want to spend $450 on a purse? (okay, money saving that you already knew about, but still...)

Reason 5:  Its fun. No really, it is a lot of fun. 

Reason 6: Everyone needs a hobby.

Reason 7: You never know what you're going to find. Maybe you will find that million dollar oil painting (doubtful, just saying...) Maybe you will find that hilarious piece of junk that you can't imagine that someone actually owned at one time. OR maybe you will find that perfect dress that you have been looking for. With matching shoes if you are having a good day.

Reason 8: This is an important reason. We live in a very wasteful culture. People buy stuff they don't need, want or like. And they keep it for awhile until they need to get rid of it to make room for more things they don't need, want or like. So it ends up getting dumped at a thrift shop with all their other items that they didn't need, want or like. Many of the items that you will find at a thrift shop is still new with tags. Yep. BRAND NEW merchandise with thrift shop prices. New toys unopened, clothing with store tags still attached, New games still in cellophane wrap, books with not a crease at the spine...The list goes on and on. NEW stuff! 

Reason 9: Why pay retail? Seriously are you rich? If you are rich, congratulations! Do you want to stay rich? Do you like wasting money? 

Reason 10: (Refer to reason 8) I bought my daughters school uniforms at a thrift shop. All items were NEW with tags. I bought 4 pairs of navy and khaki uniform shorts for $2.50 each (she still has white polo's from last year.) I also bought jeans for my daughter and son. I got 8 pairs of jeans for $2.72 each. My friend just complained how much she spent on her child's jeans ($45+ a pair) Um..No, I don't think so! I got 8 pairs for about $20, and at least half of them were brand new with tags. 

Reason 11: My son likes to wear vintage rocker tees, and vintage shirts in general. He has a closet full of rocker tees, a few Simpsons tees, and I just picked up this weekend and vintage Woody Woodpecker tee shirt. (score!) My daughter also snatched up a super cool Ren and Stimpy shirt (wish is was in MY size!)

Reason 12: School supplies, art supplies, office supplies, craft supplies. GALORE! You know how you will see something cool on Pinterest? So you go and buy the supplies, Then it comes out wrong, so you buy more supplies and it still looks crappy, so you buy more supplies and then you lost your ambition. Then your spouse is sick of seeing all the shit all over the house and 1 year later, you think its best to part ways with your 5 boxes or craft supplies, and you get drunk one night and then cry about your lost dreams to be a super amazing crafter, so the next morning you pack it all up and donate it? Same with all the scrapbook crap that you never got around to doing because it ended up being too much work. All that stuff is now at the thrift shop for the next inspired person to waste their time with. But at least they don't pay full price to have shattered dreams. 

I'm sure there are at least another 100 reasons, These are just some of the top of my head. I used to shop thrift when I was younger and HAD to. Now I shop thrift because I am older and WANT to. Funny how that worked out. 

Meanwhile, here are some goodies I just picked up this past week, Actually on Monday, National Thrift Shop Day!

They are listed in my shops:

RANDOM GOODS VINTAGE

AND 

RANDOM GOODS BOOK ROOM

I got about 4 packages of these mid century bobby pins. I think they are the cutest thing ever!

Large first edition Wonder Woman book. Girl Power!

I snatched up about 6 or 7 different retro "stained glass" kits, All different. Put the color crystals in the chambers and bake and then stare at your creation in awe!

Because why have an ugly tissue box in your bathroom, when you can have this groovy accessory?

School starts in just 3 days. Which means more shopping for me. YAY! 

Follow me on Instagram and Pinterest for more shenanigans and vintage goodness (oh, and coupon codes, gotta follow me on Instagram for those, they are top secret, shhh) 

Any other reasons that you shop thrift that I failed to mention?