Bad Blogger Blues

I know, I know! I've become a most unreliable blogger. (Hanging head in shame.) 

Lately, life just keeps intervening to keep me on the hop. I can't remember the last time I had a week at home with nothing special to bump my routine out of sync. New babies, dental appointments, unexpected visitors... On and on. 

Speaking of new babies, our second grandchild was born two days ago. This is the baby for whom I've been sewing diapers and knitting sweaters. She surprised all of us by being huge--9 lbs. 15 oz. As my daughter exclaimed when she saw the photos, "She looks three months old!" I was making newborn/small diapers and dresses. I think now I had better change gears--or patterns--and start producing the next size up. And the sooner, the better! My daughter was pleased at finding a beautiful vintage baby sweater and bonnet she was planning to send for a gift, but now I think she's scrambling to rethink that idea.

This is baby Gwendolyn and her proud mama.

I did manage to hit a few garage sales this morning. Emphasis on few. I dodged into Goodwill as well, which was a good thing or I'd have basically nothing to present for this week's Sheer Trash Road Show.

Here are my lone garage sale finds:

The first is a very cool aluminum kettle with a handle and a lip for pouring. I think it must have been for milking or maybe canning. It's quite large, measuring 13 3/8" across and standing 8 inches tall. It was made in the USA by Wearever. I paid a whopping $2 for it. Not bad! It's very "farmhouse chic" and I may end up selling it, but I will use it myself for a while first. I'm thinking how cool it will be to hold my yarn or some fabric or maybe even the stash the mail in until I have time to sort through it. (Hate that junk mail!)

My second item, from the same sale, is a vintage doorbell. This is a departure from my usual kitschy genre of junk, but it's so fascinating! It makes a satisfying "ding" when I pull back the striker. My husband tells me this was made from a kit. He says they used to sell the kits in the backs of magazines. I paid 25 cents for it, and can probably sell it under the "industrial" heading on Etsy. On the other hand, we may just install it and use it. Or hook it up to a telegraph key for our older granddaughter to play with when she visits. 

I fared better at Goodwill for kitsch trash junk. I bought two plastic bags filled with vintage Christmas ornaments and a box of fascinating paper ephemera, illustrated cards for flannel board use.

https://sites.google.com/site/earlyliteracy8/FlannelBoard_Classroom.jpg

Flannel boards, for those of you born in recent decades, were the cutting edge of fun educational tools before computers came along, back when kids had these antiquated things called attention spans. The teacher would tell a story and press paper pictures onto a felt-like surface to illustrate her story. Yes, stationary non-moving pictures! We were riveted and it was a special privilegeto be called up front to help the teacher place the paper cutouts onto the flannel board. I was fascinated that seemingly-plain paper could stay in place without tacks or tape. The trusty, classic flannel board was the staple attraction of every Sunday School class in the nation, not to mention every first grade classroom.

The ones I found are fairly old. Made by Ideal, they date to probably the 1950s - early 1960s, because not only are they pre-barcode, they're pre-zipcode. These I will definitely be offering on Etsy, individually, for framing. If you think that sounds dopey, you should see all the individually-sold flashcards going for $5 apiece now. (It's one of the new trends. Go figure. See for yourself. www.etsy.com/listing/161697036/flashcard-ephemera-to)

Here are the two bags I bought:

I knew I was getting a deal because I could see the old flocked ornaments mixed among the modern rubble.

These acrylic atrocities are heading straight to the wastebasket. I don't care if they are vintage.

But these goodies will be well worth listing on Etsy, and if they don't sell, I'll happily use them myself. Especially the deer!

The top Santa (on a floral pick) is the oldest and most collectible. But the other two are unique and fun and should be snapped up quickly. I can't quite tell if they're meant to be scuba divers or if they merely have big elf-like feet.

These ARE ugly, especially Mrs. Claus, but that doesn't stop them being collectible.

Yes, of course it's sheer trash, but it's kitschy sheer trash and meant for fun, not like some miserable colorless acrylic discs pretending to be elegant glass ornaments. These are vintage made in Hong Kong or made in Japan ornaments from the 1950s and 1960s.

There were also some questionable borderline ornaments in the bag, mostly made of wood, and one of cardboard:

These are pretty ho-hum and not my style at all, but the wooden bear may be put to another use in repairing a vintage crib mobile I acquired recently. Hopefully I'll get around to sharing that with you soon.

The two Goodwill baggies came to roughly $5 total, but I'm confident I can recoup that fairly quickly once I get these items listed on MelmacParadise. 

Speaking of recouping my investment, remember these dolls I showed you last month? Three Barbies and one Francie, all 1960s vintage, for which I paid $5 apiece. I thought you'd be interested to know what they fetched on eBay and Etsy. Francie netted me $19. (She's the one in blue.) I switched the yellow two-piece outfit onto the long-haired blonde "Marlo Flip" Barbie on the far right, and she brought in $68. Both these sold on eBay. The brunette Marlo Flip Barbie I sold on Etsy for $30. The blonde bubble-cut I'm not selling, but will be sending to my daughter for her collection. So, all in all, of the three I sold, I paid out $15 and grossed $117, which was a profit of $102. Not bad, eh?

As usual I have numerous unfinished projects underway and, should I manage to finish any of them, I will share them forthwith on the blog. Feel free to hound me if I take too long--I need all the motivation I can get.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Added later....
www.etsy.com/listing/159440109/vintage-flash-card-orange 

(And you thought I was kidding about the flashcards!)