Why I Oughta...

Last week, I posted about our trip to the MAGA Antique Mall up in Lake Geneva and how we came across those vintage "Made in Japan" Poinsettia candle holders that we passed on .  Before we were asked to leave by the MAGA guy who runs the place (because...gasp! the boy was playing with some vintage toys!), I spotted this Schlitz glass mug.  They were asking $6 and this thing was H - E - A - V - Y! I've posted a lot over the years about vintage Schlitz stuff , but this mug is a dead ringer for the big Schlitz pitcher that we bought at a flea market last summer .  Seriously... click here for just a second.  And look at the bottom of that pitcher and the bottom of this glass.  Then look at the logo with the thin maroon line around the box.  And the white "The Beer that made Milwaukee Famous" font/mark.   This was totally released at the same time as that pitcher, right?  Had to be part of a set?  Like a tavern would place that pitcher on your table and four of

Back a few weekends ago, we packed the kids up in the van and headed up to Wisconsin.  The goal for the trip?  A visit to the Elkhorn Antique Flea Market .  Started more than 30 years ago, dealers, pickers, treasure hunters and lookie-loos descend on the Walworth County Fair four times a year (May 21, June 25, August 13, September 24 this year) to wander around and look for treasures.  We've been to the Kane County Flea Market , Shipshewana in Indiana and plenty of other one-off's or season ( Christmas ) vintage markets and antique malls . And, I have to say:  I think this was by far the most comprehensive and best of the bunch.  There is so much there that we didn't see it all.  And while there's *some* junk, there's LOTS of treasures.  Deals?  Fewer to find than you'd think.  But the 'merch' as they say was high quality stuff.  And, perhaps that's why the dealers were pricing their stuff the way they were.  I mean...I'm not expecting Gara

Recently, we were up in Wisconsin just puttering around town when I spotted a sign for 'Auction Today' coming out of the gas station.  I followed a few other signs back into this light industrial park and arrived at this place:  Blue Toad Auctions.  Nat and the kids were with me, so I just left the car running, begged for forgiveness and hopped in to check things out.  The auctions take place on Saturdays at 10 am with a 'preview' session starting at 9 am.  I got there about 10:15 and the auction was already running. The place has seating for more than 100 people and has items displayed up front and down the sides of the building.  The auctioneer was moving fast and getting people to bid on the various items.  The day I was there, the place seemed VERY heavy in sports memorabilia.  And very little antiques and what appeared to be almost no furniture.  Perhaps that's how it always is?  If so, this might not be for us. Nat and I have had luck at the Shipsh

I spotted this big, brass Elephant up in Wisconsin at the Flea market in Richmond back in February.  This wasn't at the Lake Geneva Antique Mall, which I've posted about previously, but it was at this weird Flea about 2 blocks off of the main drag in Richmond.   We had the kids in the van and I think we were running somewhere, so I didn't have a lot of time in here as I just ran in there myself to check it out and see if it was worth coming back.  Turns out, there are dozens of booths filled with lots of junk (think: tube socks), but some gems if you could look past all the other stuff.  One of them was this big elephant.  If you look closely, you can see the price tag on him:  $35.  So, I passed, but snapped this photo to show Nat when I got back in the car. I posted a companion 'little' brass elephant on the blog back in the summer of 2016 .  Don't they look like a mother/child pair??? Also, there's a whole host of [Flea Market] posts here on the t

Our middle child picked out this little early wooden horsecart at the Lake Geneva Antique Mall on a trip up there.  I'm not sure exactly how it went down, but I think Nat told the girls that they could pick out something small - a 'treasure' - to reward their patience while we wandered around the place.   Now that they're not in strollers, it is a lot harder to wrangle them at places like antique malls where they don't go crazy. The Bird picked this little wooden horse and cart.  The tag says "Early Japan" and the bottom is stamped directly on the piece, no sticker: Kind of a sweet little treasure, isn't it?  It is super brittle, so I know it won't last long. But, one of the horse legs was busted off already, so it wasn't perfect in the first place. Just like my Dad did to me, we're (I think) doing to our girls:  encouraging them to love old things. The trick, however, is something that I'm not quite *there* with that

I thought this would look good in our place.  But, alas, it didn't come home with us.  Not sure who John Henniger was, but I love his sign.  This was hanging in the Lake Geneva Antique Mall and it was in great shape! Was "The Best Milwaukee Beer" before the "Champagne of Beers" tagline?  Who knows why it says that because the MillerCoors blog makes it seem like the Champagne line was around since the beginning ?

I've been chronicling something I've been calling the "Vintage Christmas Motherlode" at the Great Lakes Antique Mall up in Coloma since back in 2013.   I posted about it as recently as this past June when we were getting ready to say 'see you later' to Coloma. But, now that we're spending time up in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, one of the first orders of business was to discover the local antique mall.  Either Nat's parents or her sister found one just a ten minutes away in Lake Geneva .  So on a trip up there earlier this year, we went.  A bit smaller than the one in Coloma but a lot more furniture.  Turns out the guy at the counter is a wingnut and was getting all excited about the prospect of the incoming President-Elect, so it has that going for it... But, in we went to wander around. And lo and behold...what did I discover:  a new vintage Christmas Motherlode!  Look at that case.  Some pretty great stuff.  Ornaments, lights, little figures, Pu

How cute are these two upside down Uncola glasses?  I picked them up - and frankly couldn't pass them up - at Antiques on the Bluff in St. Joe's recently because of how they looked and how they were priced.  And now we're starting to have a little bit of a problem in terms of vintage and pinched glassware.  But these were too special to me to pass up as I always love a good underdog story. I don't love 7-Up, actually, but kinda love the spunk in which they took on Coke back in the day.  The details of how they came about comes from this story on 'Retro Thing ': The profile of a Coke bottle and the classic distinctly-shaped Coke glass are (seemingly) eternal icons of American nostalgia. Many retro pop-culture icons are tied to a specific time period; the Elvis mic, a disco ball, Rubik's cube... but the Coke glass represents a sort of American uber-nostalgia. Coke has spent millions protecting and propagating their iconography for decades, and small

Earlier in August, we spent a few hours at Antiques on the Bluff in St. Joe's Michigan digging through the tables and piles of stuff that the vendors have hauled to the bluff.  We bought a few things for ourselves, something that is likely a gift, and this yellow Care Bears suitcase that you can see above.  It was picked out by The Babe herself and was a deal at $10.   It has a tag that says 1983 and is super clean and in just about new condition. Nat has a soft spot in her heart for Care Bears, so we've picked up a few vintage items (glasses, books, and now this suitcase) that the girls have glommed onto.  But, I don't think they've ever watched a single episode? The Babe is proud of her 'treasure' as she calls it and has taken to it already and is using it for her American Girl dolly clothes and gear.  So much so, in fact, that I went hunting on eBay for another one for her and another one for her younger sister.

Came across this Schlitz stein recently and thought the graphics and slogan "World's Finest Draught Beer" were pretty cool.  It is pretty narrow, so doesn't hold a big volume.   This doesn't carry the tagline of "The Beer that made Milwaukee Famous", so perhaps this was either before/after that in their brand campaign heritage? Alas, you can add this to the pile of Schlitz 'found' vintage items that I've passed on.   Here's a pitcher .   Here's a set of coozies . If I would have picked them all up, I'd have quite the Schlitz barware collection.    Now that we have a *plan* for our house situation, maybe I can start to dream about a vintage basement bar.  Thinking...a tiki theme, right?

One weekend this summer, we were up in Coloma and Saturday was a bit rainy, so as we usually do, we found ourselves milling around at the Great Lakes Antique Mall.  Going up and down the aisles is kind of therapeutic and I seem to wander and linger in certain booths more than others now that I've kinda gotten to know them with each passing visit. In one of the booths that we've scored a few items, I came across this Chicago White Sox rocks glass.  It was all by itself, but I have to think it was clearly part of (at least!) a pair at one time.  Alas...this is the only one that's survived.  The booth was having a 50% off sale and this was only listed for $2.50, so I figured I had to have it for the $1.25 - no haggling necessary.  It was going to be a perfect gift for my brother-in-law who is both a Sox Fan and the owner of a basement bar.  It'd be perfect. Then I fell in love with it.  And...stuck it in the cupboard at our house.  To stay.

As you can see, they were asking $12.50 for this beauty of a beer pitcher from Schlitz.  The slogan at the bottom reads - as you know - "The Beer that made Milwaukee Famous".  We don't have a house, let alone a place to put big glass pitchers like this, but if it is still around when we go back, I think I might grab this to start our barware collection that could reside in a potential butler's pantry.

These pair of merry guys with pretty nice mustaches were found up in Coloma at our usual haunt.  They're Christmas ornaments and were sold in a pair for just fifty cents.  The one on the right with the red hat is missing a pearl pin in the center of his hat on the front, but otherwise, these things are in pretty great shape.  Especially for being decades old.  Hard to believe that someone kept them for all these years only to let them go for just a quarter a piece? They'll go great with the rest of our vintage Christmas stuff , won't they?

This.  Yes...This.  Weird spaghetti trim poodle thing.  Somewhere rattling around the back of my brain is a memory of something like this sitting on the floor of my Mom's Mom's house when I was a kid.  In fact, I think there were a pair of them together.  I don't have a focused memory of them, but just when some sort of connection to them.  When I passed these by in the antique store, I just *had* to pick them up.  Drawn to them.  No...not for our house.  But just to travel back to my youth for a moment to be back in 'Da Boosch's" house.  Sitting on her plastic-covered furniture.  Eating little ice cream treats.  And staring at these weird dogs.  Yes...weird dogs.

There isn't a brass critter that we spot at an antique mall or estate sale that doesn't make me pause.  There's someone in our life that has a small menagerie.  This pair of deer with candlestick holders on their backs didn't meet the imaginary threshold for purchase.  Could have been the price or more likely was the very thing that makes them unique - the candlestick holder - that made us pass.  Oh well.  Hopefully, another owner came along and snatched them up and put them in their proper spot in their home.

Saw these Party Chimes - which appear to be a metal set of bells that hang above taper candles - at an antique store recently.  Kind of like a German Pyramid but with music, I guess?  The heat from the candles causes some part of the metal to move and strike the bell it appears. These didn't come home with me, but now you know that $10 is the 'going price' if you come across them again.

At the Antiques Mall out in Naperville, I came across this sealed six pack of vintage Schlitz koozies.  They wanted like $20 for the set, so I passed as it was too rich for me.  There's got to be somebody out there that would die to have these and I'm hoping they'll find their right place at some point.  They're Styrofoam, so I don't know how sturdy/long-lasting these will be? But, it seems like they deserve to be used and not just sit on a shelf.  Nothing better than camouflaging that ratty Bud Light can you're drinking than behind this 70's era beauty.

We picked up this kids bank at Affordable Antiques some time last year but we had to wait until this Spring to give it the intended target:  my brother-in-law. He's a hardcore Sox guy and also has an appreciation for old stuff, so it was a perfect fit.

Nat picked up this 2nd edition (I think) earlier this year.  She has a warm spot in her heart for the Red Cross after serving there as an employee for a few years.  They're typically our #1 place we turn for donations it seems because of her guidance. The book looks great along side the rest of her antique books.  But, this one is special to her!

This is a photo I took last week up in Coloma at the Great Lakes Antique Mall of the Christmas cabinet that I always check out. Here's the same cabinet last year .  From the quick glance, there isn't that much missing (or sold).  I see the Santa/Sleigh and Reindeers on the second shelf from the top on the right side gone.  That was the nicest piece in the whole case, imho, so I'm not that surprised that it sold. The spaghetti trim Santa that I was admiring last year is still there (far left, second shelf from the top).