Why I Oughta...

Earlier this fall, I stopped at a yard sale up in Twin Lakes and saw this Santa on the table with an asking price of $0.25.  Couldn't pass him up.  Mostly because I liked him, but also because I thought - at the time - that he looked just like a Santa that sits on my inlaws counter in their kitchen at Christmastime.  There's a story involved, but I believe that the Santa in question (the one on the counter in Naperville) is from Nat's Dad's childhood.  So, it is loved. This one, looked just like it.  But had better paint.  I brought it back and figured there was no better home than with Nat's parents.  I mean...it was just a quarter, so if it got thrown out, that's not the end of the world.  But, they loved it!  And confirmed that it *is* the exact same one they have at home from Granddad's childhood. I've looked around and you can see on eBay that the mug that he's holding in his hand holds a bulb in some cases.  Not sure, exactly, how that w

On Sunday, I posted about the new antique mall that appears to be the one we'll be frequenting now that we've shifted from Michigan to Wisconsin (despite the dude being a wingnut...).  In that post, I showed off the new "Vintage Christmas Motherlode", but have to say that there was a lot more there than I even took in during our visit. And, as I mentioned, I did, indeed, buy something.  That's this metal paper roll holder.  It hold a 3.5" roll of paper on a wooden dowel  and if you pull the paper out and hold down the thin metal piece, it serves as a 'cutter' of sorts and you can tear off clean note-sized pieces of paper. I was drawn to this because I'm always scrounging for post-it notes and the idea of being able to have short or long or...extra long notes was appealing to me.  I can pull on the paper for as long of a length as I need, then press the metal cutter down and tear.  Suddenly, I have a note paper that's just long enough f

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

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

A week or so ago, we went out to the Kane County Flea Market with the kids to hunt for some treasures.  We found a few including this The Chipettes vintage glass featuring Brittany, Jeanette and Eleanor that I couldn't pass on based on Nat's affinity for this bunch. This feels a bit like I'm heading down a rabbit's hole with vintage glassware and I think I'm going to have to get a bit more choosey going forward.  But, I do, like to think about having some vintage items in our everyday use instead of as decorations and the such, as is the case with most of our Christmas stuff. The idea of grabbing some of these glasses from my childhood (I'm really after the McDonald's Muppets ones that my parents had...) and getting them into regular rotation in the cupboards is a nice way to bring some 'treasures' into our everyday life.

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.

Yesterday, I posted about this sweet, vintage Fighting Illini sweater that I scored at a swanky Estate Sale in Elmhurst , and today comes another item that came out of that very same sale:  this moose creamer. I spotted this moose and did the same thing that I did with the sweater:  texted a photo to Nat and asked her if we should pick it up for her Mom - who is into the wilderness and other mountain-related-what-have-yous.  Just like the sweater, Nat said 'yes' to this one. I gleefully brought it home and we gave it to Nat's mom the following weekend.   Only to discover that she already has one of these!  Well...not *exactly* one of these, but something pretty similar.  So, now she has a pair. Check the thing out below:  the cream (or perhaps gravy?!?!?!)  comes pouring right out of the moose's mouth: One different between the one I bought and the one already on hand:  this one is stamped "Austria", so it has some international provenance - which

A few weeks back, there was a pretty awesome Estate Sale at a house in Elmhurst on Cottage Hill (the swankiest street in town, maybe????) and after taking my number and waiting to get in (yes, they had you take a number and limited the number of shoppers in the loaded house), I came out with a few items including this sweater that I just *had* to take a selfie of that morning. I snapped this pic and texted it to Nat with a 'What do you think?' and instead of her usual 'pass' on the garage sale junk I come across, she said 'of course!  Buy it!'  So...this sweet, kinda tight beauty came home with me and I can't wait to break it out on a college football Saturday this fall when I support Lovie Smith and the boys in orange fight against their Big Ten brethren. Last month, I posted 3 other Estate Sale sweaters , so I'm starting to wonder to myself is *this* becoming a thing now for me?

Found a set of four of these Coors chalice glasses at a garage sale.  They wanted $1 for the pair.  But...since we have neither a bar in our basement nor...a house...I had to pass.  Seems like they'd be a welcome addition to Uncle Peter's collection?  Maybe we should have sprung for them after all? They read: Brewed With Pure Rocky Mountain Spring Water.

I found these sweaters at an Estate Sale in Elmhurst and thought really hard about buying them.  No real reason, other than I was drawn to them.  Kinda strange, right?  Just look at that one above.  The 1966 across the chest?  That's just rad, isn't it?  And look how trim/slim it is??!? And these below?  The orange one is awesome because of the orange.  Then add the chevrons on the arm, the pins on the letter in the middle?  The v-neck?? And this cardigan?  From the Glee Club?  Pretty awesome. Alas, they didn't come home with me but I'm hoping that they went home with somebody.  And that they didn't end up in the garbage dump.

I've posted about all the various brass critters that we've come across and (most of the time) picked up at garage sales, estate sales and antique malls/stores.  This one, an elephant that is rearing it's trunk up was at the Naperville antique place on Ogden.  Earlier this year, I posted a couple of candle holder brass deer critters here on the blog .  These have always been gifts for my sister-in-law, but at some point, she said that she had *enough* critters, but now that she's moved into her big, beautiful house, I think we're back on in terms of getting her more critters.

Found this at an Estate Sale in Elmhurst along with some 70's era Shell Oil/NFL themed drink glasses and couldn't pass it up.  It is still full and how about those graphics on the front of this can?!?! If I'm being honest, this can isn't quite a perfect fit with our other vintage Christmas stuff (mostly Santa figures), but it will look cute in our china cabinet along with the other vintage holiday/Christmas stuff, won't it?  And, it was just $0.25. And, you guys know that I have a soft spot for things that I feel like I am rescuing. Meaning...rescuing them from the dumpster.  If *I* didn't buy this old can of spray-on snow, I'm thinking nobody would.  And it would have disappeared.  Maybe one of my kids will have an affinity for it as they grow up - and they'll value and be attracted to some old things like Nat and I are today.  Or...maybe it will end up in a dumpster eventually anyway. No matter.  It has at least a (temporary??) new lease on li

At one of the garage sales up in Coloma, I came across a tub of old Christmas stuff and as I usually do and dug out this tree topper angel.  She has a cardboard cone body and a porcelain head and is about 12" tall.  I picked her up and set her aside and kept looking to see if there was anything else in the tub worth picking. When I set her to the side, the lady who was running the garage sale remarked "oh...I remember that angel!  My mom used to put that on top of our tree.  That brings me right back to my childhood.  We would put it up on our tree every year!". I immediately thought...'ut oh.  She's sentimental about this thing, so she's going to either say that she didn't know it was in there and she doesn't want to sell it or tell a higher price like $10.' So...I replied to her:  "Oh yeah.  That's neat.  So...how much do you want for her?" Her answer?  "How about ten cents?" A dime?!?  Seriously?  I ran to m

Found this $2 coffee cup tree with an owl on at at a Garage Sale up in Michigan and was surprised when I turned the mugs over and found this: There were four mugs and a little pitcher on the tree.  For two bucks! But...alas....I passed.

These sets of blue and pink babies and storks were in a set of cake toppers that I came across at a garage sale  this week.  Two bucks for the whole set of them.  But...I passed.

We couldn't pass up this 'Winnie the Pooh for President' glass when we saw it.  I thought it was too much for something silly like this (I think they were asking like $5) so I put it down after admiring it, but..when you put all the pieces together, it almost seems like this glass was destined for our family.   Nat said we *had* to buy it.   It is Disney (of course) and is marked with 'Walt Disney Productions' - which this page tells us that it could be from a VERY wide range of 1939 to 1986 when they changed to 'The Walt Disney Company '.   So...why buy it? Let's count the reasons: Pooh bear?  Check.  The Bird's favorite guy in the world.  She sleeps with a Pooh Bear everynight. Political reference?  Check.  I'm a sucker for political kitsch stuff. And...it was sold through Sears?  And has a Sears mark?  Check.  The Moran's have a deep Sears connection.   This guy now is ours and as you can see from the top photo is

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.