Why I Oughta...

At the Elkhorn Flea Market up in Wisconsin, I came across this American Bricks Building Set of red and brown bricks.  They're Lego-like, but they made their appearance twenty years prior to Legos making an appearance in America.  This Google Arts & Culture page is really awesome .  It is from "The Strong National Museum of Play" in Rochester, New York.  Details from there : The Halsam toy company of Chicago offered the first sets of American Bricks construction sets made of wood in the 1940s. The interlocking stud and socket system that held the bricks together was similar to the blocks in LEGO sets that arrived in the United States in the 1960s. The American Brick pieces were grooved on the outer face to resemble the texture of bricks. I think that the vendor wanted $30 for a few bags of them, so they weren't cheap.  And because of the price, it was easy to invoke my collecting mantra and pass on them.  Say it with me: It is enough to enjoy the existen

Another day, another post of an Estate Sale item that got away.  This one, too, is from the Twin Lakes Estate Sale that I visited a few weeks ago.  First, I shared the photo of a telephone desk .  Then the Mayor Daley (first one) Primary campaign poster . Today, is this glass Snoopy bank.  It has a slot at the top for coins.  You can see in the background that this guy was a Peanuts collector.  He had a bunch of Peanuts stuff, but none of it was of interest to me except for this bank.  I have posted another Snoopy item that I picked up at a Goodwill - a Snoopy political glass . Why this bank?  Because we had one of these in my house when I was a kid.  I remember it well and remember that it didn't have a hole on the bottom to let any of they money out.  The only way to get dough out of this thing was to smash it.  One of my sisters used this and she stuck dollar bills in it, which gummed up everything even worse.  With the slot and *just* coins in there, you could kind of ti

There I was:  sitting in my office one evening doing some work and mindlessly watching one of my favorite shows 'American Pickers' on the TV.  I looked up from my laptop and notice that Frank Fritz has picked up a Santa.  I know I've seen it before.  I pause and rewind and sure enough.....I *know* that Santa that Frank has in his hands! It is one that Nat picked up at an antique sale somewhere over the past few years.  He's now proudly displayed in the front entryway of our #newoldfarmhouse.  Check him out below.  He's awfully cute taking a nap in his big chair: This piece survived and is proudly displayed.  But....with our new house and fresh slate in terms of decorations, we've gone through some growing pains with our vintage Christmas collection.  Nat has, wisely, parsed some of 'finds' and has decided that we can't keep all of them ourselves.  Of all the pieces that she decided weren't a fit, some of them have been re-hous

I didn't want to get too far away - calendar-wise - from Halloween before I got around to posting the pics of this pretty awesome vintage McCoy Pottery pumpkin Halloween mug.  Or...at least that's what I thought it was when I came across it the first time.  I saw it, picked it up and immediately turned it over to reveal this mark:  McCoy LTD USA.  Hmmm....McCoy?  But...McCoy LTD? I went to my phone to find out if it was, indeed, the McCoy that we have some pieces of (and my oldest sister Linda collects).  A quick turn to the McCoy Collectors Society page, reveals this subpage all about McCoy Limited .  And if you scroll down, you'll see a pumpkin.  Not this one, but a pumpkin.  And a close read of the copy tells us that this, is, indeed the real deal : Halloween is a favorite holiday of many and is well represented by various sizes of Jack-O-Lantern items. Among these are cups, napkin holder, salt and pepper set, and different shapes, such as different size gh

At a Garage Sale down the street from us recently, I couldn't pass up this American Legion School Award medal that was in a $0.25 bin.  I mean...come on, right?  I grabbed it and scurried home to find out that it is a 1925 medal given to girls.  On the side you see above it reads:  For God and Country. How do I know it is from 1925?  From this piece where it shows both sides that match to the medal I now have in my possession.  1925 is the first year they gave away awards to girls , so this one is the inaugural version and is listed on eBay across ranges from $29.99 to $89.99.  To me?  It is priceless and will go into my stash box...or maybe even a gift to my Dad for him to treasure.

I came across a garage sale up in Twin Lakes earlier this summer that I was drawn in via a vintage bicycle (that turned out to be a reproduction and was too expensive for me!) and ended up buying this silly coffee mug for $0.25.  It has this husband/wife and a pig on it and just spoke to me for some reason.  It has a comic strip kind of quality to it, but I can't quite place it. Not Frank and Ernest .  Not quite Beetle Bailey .  Kind of like a hillbilly Blondie ? The same mug is on eBay for $19.99 , which seems nuts, right? Oh, did I tell you?  This got a MAJOR eye roll from Nat.   I made the mistake of leaving it in the front seat after I picked it up and she came across it before I could put it away. It has some crazing going on and I have to think it will survive the dishwasher if it still looks like this after 40 or 50 years, so I stuck it in the cupboard in Twin Lakes and I'll use it when I can. One of the big reasons why I bought it?  This "Made in Japa

About three years ago, we stopped at an Estate Sale at this beautiful white house on York Street in Elmhurst, just south of St. Charles.  After looking around, we were told that the house is the old "Hill Cottage Tavern" that was once located on Cottage Hill Avenue but was - at some point - moved to it's current location .  The house was up for sale and if not for the location, would have been SUPER hard for us to pass up . We bought a few things at the Estate Sale, but one of them is this plate that you see above.  We bought it and then 2+ years ago, it went into storage only to be unwrapped and discovered as we unpacked our stuff at our #NewOldFarmhouse. On the back of the plate are the details:  it was made by the York State Bank and Trust Company and this plate was made for their 55th year.  They made 1000 of them and this one is #538. Once we saw it unwrapped, Nat knew immediately what we needed to do.  She quickly came to the conclusion that this plate

Day three of showing off the various treasures from the Elkhart Antique Flea Market up in Wisconsin that we scooped up during our visit in May.  First there was the chandelier that Nat scored from these two sweet gentlemen .  Then there was the Schlitz beer glass pitcher .  And then yesterday was the vintage Santa and Mrs. Claus salt and pepper shaker sitting on a cute bench .  The last of the treasures is this Lionel Gateman accessory - item number 45N.  It is destined as a Father's Day gift for my Dad who is the original model train guy in our family.  He runs his early 1940's train set from his childhood and has a handful of vintage accessories. This one was cheap - the guy took my $5 offer - and because it doesn't come with the box is probably priced close to right.  The reason?  There just aren't that many guys who want to buy vintage trains these days, right?  They either have them or they're gone.  I think that is driving the prices down a bit on vin

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

A few weeks back, I stopped at an Estate Sale in south Elmhurst and came across a house that was basically frozen in the 60's and 70's.  They had a lot of interesting furnishings and built-ins, but nothing seemed like a fit for us until I wandered into an upstairs bedroom and saw this lamp.  It is a tall, floorstanding lamp that has a wood (teak, maybe?) base that is made up of three 'prongs' with a bronze/gold rod running up the middle.  The shade, as you can see, has a butterfly scene on it, but it is totally replaceable and appeared to be a standard-size shade that you could easily buy today.  I really liked the base and how the legs give that Mid-Century/Danish/rocket-age look to it.  I also love how the teak blows through the top of the shade. This was a deal, I think based on this one listing I found that shows a pair of companion table lamps that were listed for $625 for the pair.  They'd be a great grouping put together, right? Here's a screensho

Back in 2011, I posted here on the blog about how the University of Illinois Athletic Department was rolling out a limited number (just 77 of them.  Get it?  Grange was #77??) mini replica statues of the famous (and massive) Red Grange statue that sits on the west side of Memorial Stadium . But they were $4800.  Wowsa.  Obviously, I passed. Fast forward to this fall and the Athletic Department announced that for Homecoming they were going to give away smaller replica statues to the first 5000 fans who entered Memorial Stadium for the game against the Minnesota Gophers.   We weren't heading to Homecoming, so I figured I would have to hop on Ebay to find one of these to sit on my desk.  Welp, the first few weeks after the giveaway, there were a few statues popping up on Ebay, but the auctions were driving the prices pretty high (at least for me!) and I just stayed on the sidelines.   But, I kept 'watching' auctions and I finally found one that looked like