Why I Oughta...

Over the weekend, we packed the kids into the minivan and drove around Hinsdale looking at some houses/house features as we work to finalize our own house.  We saw some pretty beautiful places, but we also came across an Estate Sale.  Which.....I couldn't *not* go in, right?  It was a nice, old house on the outside, so my hunch was that there'd be some gems inside. After waiting for my number to be called (yeah...it was one of those Estate Sales.  Where they had you pull a ticket like you do when you're waiting at the deli counter.), I got in and poked around.  Nothing.  At least for us.  So, I went outside to the garage and discovered something!  They had a few cases of vintage 3 1/4" glass ornaments in their original boxes.  That's the side of the box above and the top of the box below.  They say "American Made" from Coby Glass Products.  If you poke around on the web , it turns out that Coby likely didn't make these, they were using Corning bl

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

After staring at - or at least referencing often - this clock for close to twenty-five years, it is now a member of the permanent collection of the Elmhurst/Downers Parrillos as it came home with us from Coloma this past week.  I'm considering it a kind of 'see you later' kind of token and as we build out my new home office in our new place, I'm sure that I'll figure out how to give this a prime spot somewhere on a shelf or bookcase and I'll always remember where it sat for a long part of it's time in our life. It isn't the prettiest or best looking clock, but it has been in my life for a long time AND it had something that drew my Dad to it two decades ago.  It has #147 on it - meaning it was an early member of my Dad's collection - so I'll honor it and keep it in a place of high regard.  And yes, that means my Dad was a collector of sorts and he even kept records on all the treasures he came across.  Good lesson to learn, I think.  Probabl

On the same trip to the Kane County Flea market where we picked up that rad Chipettes glass from Natalie's childhood , we also gave each of the girls ten bucks to buy whatever they want.  The Babe bought some dollie cloths that fit her American Girl doll, but the Bird?  She went all-in on toys.  And specifically, she dug though a few different zip lock bags of vintage fast food toys to find these three Fraggle Rock toys from McDonald's.  Turns out, after looking on the web just now, this isn't a complete set.  There was a fourth . But we do have Gobo Fraggle in the carrot car, Red Fraggle in the radish car and Wembly Fraggle along with Boober Fraggle in the cucumber car.  We're missing Mokey Fraggle who was, apparently, in an eggplant car.   Full details of the set and even more about some special Doozer cars can be found at the Muppet Wiki site . But, I have to tell you, that seeing her select these guys - amongst other things like My Little Ponies and Barbies a

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.

I posted some photos of the batch of vintage glass ornaments I bought at an Estate Sale earlier this week and mentioned in that post that there was one more ornament that came with the set.  And here she is!  She's some sort of felt version of Mrs. Claus who has a bunch of bedazzling on her with her Christmas best on and she's carrying a pie with both hands.  She's maybe five or six inches tall and a mirror image on the other side of her.  And awfully cute. We have a few ornaments that look/feel like this and they all came from Anthropologie.  I could totally see something like her hanging in their store and selling for $12.99. As for us, she was a no-brainer.  We are always open to 'unbreakable' ornaments that we can hang low on the tree for the kids to see, touch, and yank on.  She'll go great down there amongst her brethren.

A few weeks back, I picked up this ornament case and these 14 vintage Christmas ornaments at an Estate Sale in Elmhurst.  It was the same sale where I picked up this hobnail milkglass pitcher and this vintage White Sox book .  Quite the haul... The ornament case was found where most Christmas stuff ends up - buried either on the floor under a table or in the basement.  When I opened the case, it was totally full, but I pulled out the ornaments that I didn't want that were newer and the seller at the sale was glad to keep them to try to sell to someone else.  We see these type of ornaments all the time at sales and most of the time they want anywhere between $2 and $4 a piece for each of them. Sometimes they're not even really that old, but just look old.  And each time, I usually pass. Both, because glass ornaments like these aren't destined to last super long on our tree with the three savages roaming around and shaking the tree, but also because we have a tree ful

At the very same Estate Sale that I picked up that hobnail milk glass pitcher and the big set of vintage ornaments, I picked up this book from 1982 about the Chicago White Sox.  It is written right at the point when Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn took over the club and installed the big new "Diamond Vision" scoreboard out in centerfield with the old Veeck-era exploding pinwheels on top.   I thumbed through the book and it talks about the new arrivals like Carlton Fisk, Greg Luzinski, Tom Paciorek, Rudy Law, Ron Kittle, and Greg Walker who were all - incredibly - in their first or second year on the South Side.   Reinsdorf took over the team from Bill Veeck in 1981 and if you read the opening of this book (which...in the fine print states that the White Sox themselves cooperated with in terms of photographs and such), it reads like a love letter to the new ownership's commitment to making the Sox a winner.  And...just in looking at that list of players that they br

Another weekend, another stop at a few garage sales.  And...another vintage book added to the collection here on the blog .  This one is a Golden Book titled "Walt Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh and the Honey Patch".  It has a 1980 date printed on the inside and with Pooh Bear being The Bird's favorite (or all time!) and him being generally a big deal in our house, I couldn't pass this one up.  This will make for some good bedtime reading together!

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.

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.

That above is a cabinet of little vintage Christmas items that is located in a booth in the Great Lakes Antique Mall in Coloma, Michigan.  I've documented this very cabinet for the past few years.  I don't appear to have taken a photo of the cabinet in January of this year, so this one is about six months later than normal. Here's a post showing what the cabinet looked like in January of 2015 . Here's the photo from our 2014 trip . And... here's a photo of the case from 2013 trip . I've looked back and forth between today's image and the one from January of 2015 and I see VERY little difference.  Wonder if the stuff isn't moving?  The shelf in the middle looks a bit more crowded, but I can't confirm that there are indeed, more or less.  Can you?  

I mentioned in the post from earlier this week featuring a vintage angel Christmas ornament that we were out garage sale'ing this weekend and that there were other treasures that came home with us on Saturday.  Above is one said treasure.  This pair of carolers were on the table amongst other Christmas stuff, but they were the only things that jumped out to me.  They, too, have the same eyelashes as the angel and reindeer , but they also have this on the bottom: Made in Japan?  Priced right at under a buck?  Sold! I brought them home and snuck them into one of the tubs that are remaining in our garage that are still full of Christmas stuff.  We've hauled off most of the stuff to our storage unit, but there are still a few that are on a rack awaiting for me to rent ANOTHER storage unit because the other three are jammed full.

Over the weekend, the kids and I piled into the minivan and ran some errands around town that included a bunch of stops at various garage sales in and around Elmhurst.  On one of those stops, I came across this little angel ornament.   She has those *big* eyelashes.  They totally remind me of these 'lashes on this reindeer ornament that I found a few years back . Sure, she's cute, but when I turned her over, I was sold.  After all, this thing was, indeed, made in Japan, but exclusively for Lee Wards in Elgin, Illinois .   The asking price?  A mere $0.25.  She's gone to a good home and will (hopefully??) make an appearance on our tree this year (or...if we're still not in our house, then maybe next year!

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?