Why I Oughta...

After an early morning session of "Biddy Soccer" with the Babe (and some celebratory Slurpee's from 7-11), we stopped at a few yard sales.  The Babe looking for some cheap My Little Ponies and me looking for some treasures. I came across this cute little vintage ceramic Christmas tree.  As you guys well know, I'm all over vintage Christmas stuff. I was pretty surprised when I tried to pick it up and it came apart.  What was it? A sweet lighter and four ashtrays.  How very retro!?!  They were asking just $1.00, so I tried to hide my excitement and casually handed the lady my dollar bill.  I brought it home and immediately emailed my dad some photos to show it off.

A few weeks back, we dropped off a load of stuff at GoodWill and while there, I couldn't help but take a quick pass through the aisles to see if there was anything interesting.  This blowmold Santa - standing at about 15" tall - was listed at $1.00.  With the 20% off coupon in my hand from the donation, I snapped him up for all of $0.80. It wasn't until I got home to figure out if it worked, but lo and behold, after a tightening of the bulb, it glows just right! The Babe was with me and she said that she wants him to stand guard in her room during the holiday season.

Yesterday, I posted an image of a little caroler that we picked up at the Kane County Flea Market.  She was all by herself, but too much of a bargain to pass up. I went hunting around on ebay and found this listing which has her and her four friends accompanying her.  She's part of a band!    (that's them above) I'm awfully hesitant to buy something like this on ebay.  I like the hunt, so I'll start to keep an eye out for each of these guys.  Guessing they'll cost more than the $21.99 (including shipping) that this seller is asking, though!

Over the long holiday weekend, we took the girls and went with Nat's sister out to the Kane County Flea Market.  Everyone came home with something.  Nat scored an old book, her sister added to her bronze 'critter' collection, and I picked up a few vintage Christmas things including this little Mrs. Claus. She has some spaghetti-like trim, so she'll go nicely with the other pieces we have like this Santa . There were a bunch more things I would have picked up, but the prices seemed high to me.  That appears to be the big difference:  garage sale folks just want to get rid of things and sometimes don't really care what the prices are whereas the Flea Market folks know *exactly* what they have and charge prices as such.

The ceramic Santa bank wasn't the only Christmas item we picked up at the garage sale this weekend.  We also got this guy.  Look at that hand-painted mustache!  He's about 4 inches tall and has this made in Japan sticker on his hat, so we can *kinda* date him.    The sticker is in an odd spot, though.  Not on the base of his feet, but up on the back of his hat.  And...it seems to almost be stitched in there. He'll look great in the mix with the rest of our stuff.   Talk about Chrismas Creep?!?  Guess I'm just as guilty as Costco, eh?

Speaking of Christmas Creep ...we got into a bit of it ourselves with a few purchases at a garage sale in our neighborhood last week. I couldn't pass this guy up and I think he'll go great amongst our collection of other vintage Santas in our holiday decor.  T he most recent example of one of these guys here .  And, here's another one with Spaghetti Trim . This one is old, but I'm not certain the exact date of manufacture.  As you can see below, it is a bank, but it also has a "Made in Japan" sticker on it, so that gives it some historical markers and places it amongst the rest of our collection. Pay no attention to the price tag on this one.  Every year we go to the Vintage Christmas show, we always pay quite a bit more for these ceramic guys, so I was thrilled to find a deal like this. I'll post about the rest of the stuff we bought, but after putting together a 'package deal', I think we paid less than even what they were asking here (

We were at Costco over the weekend and what did we find?  Christmas stuff was already out! Last year, I documented Christmas Creep all the way to August 30th and in 2012, it wasn't until the first week of September that I spotted the Christmas decor making an appearance. This year it was August 19th - almost two weeks ahead of schedule. Like I've said in the past...I'm not a Scrooge, so I don't mind these things.  But....I *do* feel bad for Thanksgiving.  Halloween has hired the right PR firm the past few years and has started to keep up with Christmas in terms of 'stuff'.  Thanksgiving on the other hand?  Not so much.