Why I Oughta...

At the Elkhart Antique Flea Market there were so many treasures that it was hard to focus.  It was colder than we thought and we weren't dressed for the wind and weather, so we were hustling around.  I posted about the Schlitz glass pitcher yesterday , but today comes a treasure that is closer to my sweetspot:  vintage Christmas stuff. Above you see Santa and Mrs. Claus on a little bench giving each other a smooch - and it is pretty cute.  They're salt and pepper shakers and this is what I *think* is the first matching pair of vintage Christmas ones we have.  I posted about this "Merry" (without Christmas) one  back in 2014.  And this spaghetti trim Salt shaker (no pepper) in 2015 . This new pair was in a booth that was close to the entrance and I picked them up and liked them right away.  But, it was like the 2nd booth we had visited, so I passed and moved on.  Just like the Schlitz pitcher, since it was on the way out, I stopped by and the vendor was packing

Last week, I posted about our experience at the Elkhart Antique and Flea Market up in Wisconsin and how we scored a few items including a chandelier for our #newoldfarmhouse .  One of the other items I picked up was this beauty of a glass pitcher from Schlitz.  It has "The Beer that made Milwaukee Famous" written in a cute script and was a steal at just $5.00.  We were walking out and I was carrying - gingerly - the light fixture that Nat had scored in a box and it was awkward.  So, about every 100 yards or so, I had to put it down and re-adjust my hands on it. One of those stops happened to be in front of a booth where the guy was packing up.  He had this pitcher on the table.  I picked it up, turned it around and looked at the price.  $15.  I set it back down and said.... "nice pitcher".  But it was too much for me.  The guy practically begged me to buy it.  He said it was a rough day for him and that he'd take anything for it.  I hemmed and hawed and fin

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

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

I grew up with a set of these McDonald's Muppets glasses in our kitchen cupboards in Frankfort and this one of Miss Piggy riding a motorcycle through what I think is a stained glass window was the one that I recall most vividly.  I spotted these glasses at the Kane County Flea market, but they wanted like $8 a piece for each of the four glasses.  I passed. But the idea didn't leave my mind.  So, I came across them recently online and had to pull the trigger.  I've been using this one in particular - but all of them, frankly - since they arrived. The back of the glass is marked with a 'Henson Associates, Inc 1981' along with the golden arches from McDonalds.  Or...Mac-and-Donalds as my oldest sister (apparently) says. These were released alongside the film The Great Muppet Caper.  Now, they're living their second life in our (temporary) home where my kids get to enjoy them.   #vintageglasses tag page can be found here where this one becomes the fourth

I came across this table of mini helmets recently at an estate sale and had a fun time poking around the collection.  If you know guys born in the 60's or 70's that like old, vintage things and have an affinity for sports, they're probably nuts about gumball helmets .  My brother-in-law up in Park Ridge has a thing for gumball helmets.  Has a collection.  Has even made his own helmets, which is kinda neat.  While I can appreciate them, I'm not drawn to them - unless I see an Illini one, of course - and passed on these.  But, I did send the photo to said brother-in-law.  These don't appear to have any age to them, right?  All pretty much modern day versions? The part that jumps out to me here, though, is the four baseball caps at the bottom of the photo.  They appear to be NFL team hats like Quarterbacks wear on the sidelines.  Those are a thing now?

We saw this three-piece set at the Kane County Flea Market a few weeks back and I stopped to take a photo of it, but didn't buy.   I've used 'teh Googles' about six different ways to try to find a description of this thing, but can't, so I'm not sure what it is/who made it.  But is sure is cute. If I was a kid, I'd be all over this set and would love how the bowl, mug and plate stack up to make me a cowboy.  It feels like this thing has a proper home and hopefully someone walked by after us and discovered it and brought it home to it's proper place and home.  Someone saved it all these years and it is worth being in someone's life.  Just not *our* life right now.

Despite never getting a trophy showing off a punter during my time in Jr. High or High School or even college down at the University of Illinois, I have NOW rectified that and am the proud owner of this sweet vintage punter trophy!  I picked it up at the Kane County Flea Market during the same trip when we got these Fraggle McDonalds cars and the Chipettes glass . I had never seen a punter trophy before, so you know the old rule:  when you see something you've never come across before, you need to buy it.  So, I knew I had to have it.  Fortunately, Nat was looking at a vintage book in the same booth and after decided she wanted it, I packaged up the book and this guy.   I think the vendor figured that if she didn't sell this thing to me, she wasn't going to sell it to anyone as the buyers for a 60's era vintage punter trophy are rare, I'm guessing.  So, she gave us a great price for the book and basically threw the trophy in for nuttin'.  Pretty sweet deal

While Nat came away with a little loveseat/couch, a shirt, and a neat map to go on our wall, all I got from Shipshewana was these 4 tire valve chromies.  At least that's what we used to call them when we were young and attempted to steal them off of cars in the Apples Grocery Store parking lot so we could put them on our bmx's. Ever been to the Shipshewana Flea Market ?  It's billed as the "Midwest's Largest".    This was (at least) my second visit.  And I tell you what....I wasn't that impressed.  Loads of junk.  Absolute junk.  All the action is in the auction barn where they're hording all the good stuff including furniture and such.   I don't think we need to go back for a while just because the booths were full of a lot of nothing, but the Amish are kinda interesting to gawk at, though.