Vintage Rescue Squad

Too Bad. So Sad.

My favorite find, oddly enough, from my trek to MB, was this awesome field band metal suitcase. It's a big beauty, and my photo doesn't do it justice. My love of suitcases is unsurpassed by anyone, but a black metal BAND suitcase made me swoon.

It was the very last thing I bought, and when I handed the seller my money, he asked: "You're not even going to ask for a better price?" My reply was that, as a dealer, when I find something at a fair price, I feel duty-bound to pay that price without being a weenie about it. Not everything needs to be dickered over. He responded by reducing it by $10 anyway, with a wink!

That, my friends, was my permission to slink home.

I've pondered long and hard why I love this so much, and I know a part of it is that my ex-boyfriend would love it. Too bad. So sad.*

*Upon reflection, I've edited the last paragraph. If the comments no longer make sense, so be it.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Back it up

What a crazy week! First I spend a frenzied few days in upstate NY—woo hoo. Sunday I decompress and unload.

 

Monday morning, I rent a van, load up, and begin moving into my new location. Tuesday morning, I go back and take everything out.

Yup. You heard me: I pulled out. Upon reflection, and getting a clearer sense of the type of shop it was going to be, I realized that it was not a good business fit for me. It wasn't a fun decision, and I truly wish them well, but I have to do what's right for VRS.

Fortunately, I'm able to stay at Leesburg Antique Emporium (where I've been for 4.5 years). I'll still have that hour-long commute, but am reinvigorated to jumpstart my booth. Sometimes you just need a little freak-out to make you realize you had it good all along.

VRS in Flea Market Style Magazine (#2)!

Many months ago, I was contacted by a writer for Flea Market Style magazine (my ab-fab hands-down favorite) with a query: she wanted to know if I'd ever reached out on any social-media platform for help in identifying what they call a UFO (unidentified flea object). Duh. All the time. I'm waaayyy too lazy to do research.

 

Saturday, I inexplicably received an advance copy of the new Winter issue and found myself mentioned on p10! Woo hoo! I had no idea I made it into print, and couldn't be happier!

There is, however, always a story behind the story....

 

Back in Sept. 2011, I posted my pathetic bleat. If you look closely, you'll see Kristi chiming in, as well as my smart-ass friend Pat with his ubiquitous snark. What you don't see is that Deb finally came to the rescue in IDing my finds (which I STILL haven't listed nearly a year later).

I provided this screen capture to the writer, and am a teensy bit bummed that it didn't make it into print, but can understand. I'm guessing that my salvo of "Help a heathen out" isn't the most print-friendly thing to publish. But it certainly got attention, and is the way I talk. Plus, I AM a heathen.

Madison-Bouckville: Budget Blown.

This trip (my second) to MB was completely serendipitous! After a grueling 7-hour drive, I parked, porta-a-pottied, and the first dealer I ran into was a dealer from here in Virginia. Weird.

I then immediately called Barbara (who lives nearby), as we were hoping to have dinner together. She told me to drop everything and head over to a certain booth that she proclaimed "looks just like your booth—you'll love it!" The directions were sketchy (and if you've been to one of these antique weeks, you'll understand): other side of the street, near the back. Yeah, right. As if I'll find it.

 

Miraculously, I DID. Am I that transparent? OF COURSE I loved this booth. I loved it so much, in fact, that I spent MORE than my entire budget for the 3-day weekend JUST on this booth. In under an hour. Within 2 hours of arrival. Owie.

 

Yeah, I might've blown my budget early, but I persevered for another day and half—by going to the ATM not once, but TWICE.

It was sooooo worth it—even if I snuck out of town a day early in an effort to stanch the hemorrhaging of money. Behold some of the haul:

 

Here's a bunch of my trademark industrial/office/school items, with some rocking metal letters! The typewriter was the very last item I purchased (Sat. morning), which was a relief, since I wasn't going home without one, no matter what. Another goal was globes and fans, so I feel pretty good. My sister should recognize that globe on the far right, as she had one until a few months ago! LOVE IT.

 

My no-tell motel was 30 minutes away, so driving towards MB the next morning, I espied "Fresh Picked"—2 women selling their awesome wares on Route 12, about 10 miles out of town. Dropped another walletfull on them.... Anyone and everyone within 30 miles of MB was having pop-up sales/yard sales/barn sales. These lovelies seem to have a semi-established gig going, though (with AWESOME junk).

 

Ab-fab is the dog food feedsack. Close runners-up are the sweet Swedish enamelware cups. These women were hilarious. It helped that I wore my hoarder t-shirt (always does).

 

Seeing a trend? I bought a TON of signs (all but 1 from that first dealer). And I reverted back to buying religious items; I just couldn't resist the chip factor on this pair!

 

Oh, and like you wouldn't have bought a couple of faded vintage 48-star flags, this deco vanity (wouldn't that be killer as a hall table?), and yet another testimonial-dinner photo. In fact, the dude I bought it from had probably 80 yardlongs and other group photos. I never thought I'd find someone who loved them more than I do!

 

Early Saturday morning, Colleen texted me asking what was the coolest thing I'd bought thus far. Until then, nothing too extraordinary, but her call clearly pleased the junking gods: this mamma-jamma HUGE sign marker printer's set magically appeared at a semi-reasonable price. Look closely at the top left rows of letters: the dealer had me at "antique fun and games". Indeed.

Sadly, it's still not the coolest thing I bought. THAT hasn't been photographed yet. I'm even virtually hoarding it at this point.

Dusty Bibles

Along the Route 11 Yard Crawl, I passed this sign and skidded to a stop. I'm guessing those behind me thought I got saved going 15 mph, but I was merely wishing I'd come up with this adage. Damn. The grammarian in me is even fine with the subject/verb non-agreement, if only for the sake of a beautiful photo. Plus, I'm partial to "dirty lives" judgements.

 

Just 2 days prior, I'd done a photo shoot of my stash of mini bibles. This photo represents just about half of what I've been hoarding.

You want Civil-War-soldier pocket bibles? French mini bibles? German ones? Czech? Spanish? Italian? I've pretty much got them all.

 

At my first Art & Soul vendor night, a woman sidled up to me, cradling an armful, and whispered: "I'm a bible cutter." I responded in a whisper: "I hear ya, sister." I have no problem with that practice.

For those that create religious-inspired mixed-media projects, vintage bibles are an invaluable source of inspiration in more ways than the obvious. Estate sales are the best source for these, so buy 'em when you can—they also usually have holy cards stashed inside, as an added bonus.

All will be coming soon to an etsy shop near you....

Car Full, Under Budget!

Whew! The Route 11 yard crawl was a bruiser Saturday. 43 miles of stop-and-start junking is EXHAUSTING. Part of it is obviously the physical aspect: getting up early, driving 2 hours to get there—utter endurance.

 

Another aspect is the mental one: bypassing so many mini-sales because of the glare of primary-color kids items, or piles of used clothing, is DRAINING.

 

But, any junker worth her skeleton keys will sniff out the cool-beans finds. I tried to be laser-focused on predictable sellers, as well as focusing on what I want my new space to spotlight: truly unusual finds (especially industrial/farm/schoolhouse junk)!

I got very lucky in that I found not 1, not 2, but 3 (!) roller tables: the Matco tools industrial cart (how cool would that be as a bar table?), red/white rolly table (perfect for a temporary kitchen island) and wood/metal typewriter table (destined to have a uber-high pricetag as I want that at my right-hand side, next to my couch). My 'hood is full of really old smaller homes, so we need small utilitarian pieces.

I was especially psyched to find super-cheap vintage license plates (at about 1/3 of what they go for), yet another 100-year-old ledger (you can never have too many), the Packard hubcap ($1—similar ones are on ebay for about $45), and the cameras—I've got to squeal that they were .50 each!!! Those of you in more-rural areas might scoff, but that's UNBELIEVABLE for me.

My ab-fab purchase (and I waffled, believe me), was the poultry ad display cabinet—from an antique store. I'm in a huge farm-item buying mode, which is inexplicable, but I couldn't resist!

Sure, I had to wade through a lot of non-vintage items, and sit in hours of very stagnant traffic, but if I only have to do yard sales once a year, it's worth it. But I'll never be a convert. There are just too many pilled tracksuits and germy Fisher-Price items to make everyday yard sales worth my time.

However, I'm marking my calendar for 363 days from now....

Sunup to Sundown

Tomorrow is the legendary Route 11 yard crawl: 40+ miles of splendiferous yard sales, flea markets, church sales, and antique-store sidewalk sales. In the past, I've found civil war era pocket bibles for 25 cents, $7
Smith-Corona typewriters, and an unseemly amount of gynecological tables (which I passed on, natch).

Should I or VRS ever make it into Wikipedia, it will be well-documented that I despise yard sales, and that I NEVER set my alarm clock.

However, uncharacteristically, I will be doing BOTH tomorrow (after working late tonight, I might add). It's in the blood, and a junker's got to do what she's got to do, right?

 

I'll be hooking up with my sister (aka Grasshopper) and have vowed to persevere as long as my stamina and money hold out. Buoyed by a phone call from Beth this afternoon, I'm stoked! Beth kept repeating the mantra "sunup to sundown", so I'm taking her advice. Driving 2 hours to get there at 0-dark-thirty shouldn't be an issue, right??? 

Easy Mirror Transformation

Yesterday, my sister, her husband, and I hit a new barn sale! Woo hoo. Those 3 little words make me smile. One of the items I bought was this ho-hum twee mirror. It's one of those 3-panel mirrors, but the outside images just weren't doing it for me. BUT, the price was.

In anticipation of my new space and what I hope to establish as what buyers can expect from me, I made a 5-minute transformation:

 

Now it is DEFINITELY my style. In fact, I'm not sure I even want to sell it!

Much better! I also picked up a few other smalls, including the rocking Pepsi crate.

 

When I asked the seller whether the vintage bottles were included in the price, she said, "Why not? I already drank from them so have no use for them now?" My kind of dealer, not trying to nickel-and-dime you to death. And that weird thing on the far right? It's a nautical-themed decanter, that is also a music box. Hard to imagine there was much of a mass-market for that, huh?