Why I Oughta...

Hard to put away all the Christmas stuff without a few glitches, right?  This year, we lost a number of our vintage glass ball Christmas ornaments.  Most of them were common ones - just a single color.  But a few of them were these more interesting ones - with writing/stripes/what-have-you on them.   I posted some photos of a good haul that we picked up at an Estate Sale in Elmhurst back in 2016 , but I don't think the one in the photo (below) was from that group.  That same year (2016), I bought another set of vintage glass ornaments (in these nice cardboard storage boxes) and *those* blue ones were some of the ones that shattered this year.   One of the things that I'm trying hard to focus on in 2022 is the notion of 'stuff'.  I read this post from Jason Kottke that references a Wired piece from Paul Ford titled:  A Grand Unifying Theory of Buying Stuff .  After reading those posts - the line about not 'buying stuff for my stuff' stuck with me.  It also made

 Christmas is coming.  And the goose is getting fat.  But, we're also (thankfully) paring back some of the little decorations and vintage Santas that we have out and about.  This is a box of items that didn't make the cut this year.  There are guys in here that I've collected from garage sales, estate sales and even the Randolph Street Vintage Christmas market.  There are angels, carolers, a couple of planters and a really cute Santa with his sleigh and reindeers on reins.   With no Christmas parties to go to this year (thanks, COVID.  Seriously...the introvert over here says "thanks"), I suppose these can't serve as host/hostess gifts.  They'll have to sit and wait for another year.  

Walt Disney Productions retail store sign, circa 1930s pic.twitter.com/0rR4dfbh5S — The-Disney-Elite (@JuoshM) March 17, 2020 I came across this tweet recently and it made me pause.  Not just because of the fact that it sits at the intersection of my interests:  Vintage Disney + Vintage Christmas.  But, also because of the description:  'Retail Store Sign'.  I found this post on Hakes Auction that talks about the use case of signs like this one .  From a description of a different Disney ToyTown sign : Double-sided 11x14" cardboard features repeated image of Mickey Mouse on skis, Donald Duck throwing snowball and Santa Claus pointing at large blank area for store to write advertising text or store name. So...the folks at Disney would give these signs out to retailers?  Genius. 

This might be the killer crossover.  For me, at least.  This is a vintage Mickey Mouse Christmas ornament.  Sits right at the intersection of vintage Disney and vintage Christmas and is perfect for our house.  I was given this as a gift by Nat's Mom recently.  Mickey himself is in great shape and has almost no wear on him.  He's holding a big candy cane and some holly and waving with his other hand - covered in a green mitten.  He has full eyes - he's not 'pie eyed' - so someone with some history with Disneyana can likely date this particular ornament.  There isn't a sticker on him, but on the back of his belt there seems to be a little bit of residue that a sticker might have lived.  I imagine a 'Made in Japan' sticker was there, right?  I have a few pieces of Disneyana here on the blog including this Estate Sale Disneyland pennant (which...reminds me to post about something else soon).  The other items posted here are: First was this Pooh

My collecting mantra is codified.  I've created this post  on the blog outlining the details of that very mantra.  It came from an Instagram post from Imagineer Joe Rhode and is something that I've tried to remember whenever I go to an Estate Sale, Garage Sale or an Antique Mall.  Over the years, I've bought dozens of little vintage Christmas items including these three Santas.  The first one - at the top of this post - is a little guy with pipe cleaner arms in a gold glitter sleigh. I bring up the mantra because last year these three weren't chosen to be part of our Christmas decorations.  They were left behind in the tub.  That means that this year, they're going to have to find a new home. Below are two more:  the one on the right has a green glass ornament as his belly and he, too, has pipe cleaner arms (and beard!).  The guy on the left might be Mrs. Claus?  There's that white trim below his/her chin, but it isn't necessarily a beard, right?

At the beginning of the month, I posted a couple of photos of the beginning of Menards Christmas setup at their Bolingbrook store.  The 'Enchanted Forest" is something that I look forward to every year as they always have some new items to check out.  Anybody who has been in a big box store during the holidays the past few years will attest that there is a HUGE market for inflatable outdoor decorations.  I've succumbed to the inflatable trend and we have a couple of BIG ones we put out at Halloween .   But, Menards is also holding strong with the blowmold market.  They put out holiday blowmolds for Halloween - and I've covered them here on the blog before - and looking at the analytics of this site, that's a popular post, so plenty of people are looking for Halloween Blowmolds from Menards.   There's more Halloween blowmolds in this post from 2011 , too.    They also do quite a bit of Christmas blowmolds as part of their Enchanted Forest incl

Back in September, Nat and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary.  10 years.  Holy cow.  I find it so hard to believe how lucky I've been.  Although I failed at *some* of years in terms of delivering to her the 'traditional' anniversary gifts, I've tried to stick to the plan.  For instance...nine years is pottery.  So, I got her both a flower pot and a glazed tile.  Ten years?  The traditional anniversary gift is tin or aluminum .  That one had me scratching my head.  I try to buy something vintage for these gifts and all my searches turned up housewares (platters or toasters or serving utensils) and I knew those wouldn't work.  But then I found this Merry Christmas banner.  It is tin.  Or maybe aluminum.  Not sure.  But it *is* metal and super thin and foldable/bendable/creaseable.  It was broken at the time - cut into four segments.  But the price was right - $5 - and I figured I could use some brads and a hole puncher to reassemble it back together

Continuing the annual tradition of trying to document on the blog the various times we first come across the Menards Enchanted Forest Christmas setup.  Posting this on the 24th of September, but I took this photo a week ago.  I've talked over the years about the notion of "Christmas Creep" and how I'm just fine with it.  Mid/late September is right in the middle of Fall holiday planning for most, but I understand why retailers are moving Christmas earlier and earlier.  I've done the Christmas Creep documenting on the blog over the years.  Here's 2017's version  that I posted on September 28th. Here's 2016's version that I posted on September 26th. Here's 2015's version that I posted on October 6th. Here's 2011's version that I posted on September 17th. So this is the second earliest, but based on when I took this photo, it might have been a tie?  As for the actual display, they have both their Halloween stuff up in

Continuing the series of items that 'got away' from a recent Estate Sale up in Wisconsin.  First there was the telephone chair .  Then Da original Mare primary poster .  Then the Snoopy bank from my childhood.  Today, it is this set of beautiful Christmas ornaments.  I've bought plenty of vintage glass Christmas ornaments from Estate Sales and Garage Sales over the years.  But they were almost always a deal.  Like $1 a piece.  As you can see in the photo above, this sale had a heckuva collection.  Some really nice ornaments.  But they were asking $5 a piece for each of them.  Too rich for me.  I took this photo on Friday and knowing that they cut the prices on Saturday, I went back.  And all of these were gone.  At 50% off, they're closer to being the right price for me.  But alas, they weren't meant to be.  Seems that how I value these is off from the market?  Good data point for when I come across more ornaments in the future.  Seems that $2.50 is the po

Just last week, I posted the most recent Marshall Field's Walnut Room Christmas mug that I came across at an antique mall up in Wisconsin .  That made it five in the collection here on the blog. Here's the list of posts on the topic here on "Why I Oughta...": 1980 -  Tree with Bear tall glass . 1981 -  Contortionist Santas glass mug . 1983 -  Uncle Mistletoe tall glass . 1986 -  Greetings from Mistletoe Bear Red outline 2000 -  Mr. and Mrs. Santabear Marriage glass mug with multiple colors . But, you'll note that sometime between 1983 and 1986, Marshall Field's moved from using Uncle Mistletoe to someone called Mistletoe Bear.  And then by 2000, the bear had gotten married and his name changed to Santabear. That set me down on an eBay rabbit hole to see if I could piece together the full list of mugs.  Here's the fruits of that effort:  The Definitive Guide to Marshall Field's Christmas Mugs.  I have been able to document every year starti