Patriotic Pimps, Suave Amish Men and Dolls with Fetishes

Can you believe I found a vintage white felt hat with a grosgrain American flag ribbon? On July 3rd? For a buck! Crazy, huh?  My son wore it all weekend. My little patriotic pimp.

This is only half of the stuff that I found this weekend. I scored big at the yard sale of an antique dealer named Marjorie. She gave me permission to be an early bird on Saturday morning, after I emailed her on Friday and asked for a little more information about the "vintage items" that she mentioned in her craigslist yard sale ad. See...it NEVER hurts to email someone and ask for specifics. The least they can do is ignore your email. Or tell you to suck it.

Anyway, Marjorie sold me the hat, the quilt, the white bread box, three ironstone bowls and a few more things that will be in future posts.

She has these sales a couple times a year to purge all of the extra little things from auction box lots, and to get rid of the antiques that won't sell at her shop. She had a lot of quilt patterns, which she said would appeal to the Amish women that usually come to her sales. My ears perked up when she mentioned one Amish man that frequents her sales, whom she nicknamed the "Metrosexual Mennonite". She said "I swear he has his eyebrows done! They are always perfect."

Alas, I didn't stay long enough to see him. But in my mind, I imagined him showing up at Majorie's sale wearing a murse and holding a fresh-from-the-cow vanilla latte. And I bet the horses pulling his buggy have Aveda Texturizing Creme in their manes.

I should stop making those jokes. I don't want to beat a dead horse. Even if its hooves are beautifully manicured.

New topic. Isn't this metal box so perfectly chippy?!

It holds six metal spice tins, each stenciled with the name of the spice. Some of them even have their spices still in it. I love the green paint, but it would be worth much more if it wasn't painted on the outside.

And for my favorite find of the weekend: this medicine cabinet that I bought at a monthly flea market in the parking lot of an antiques mall. It has a big glass knob on the drawer and an old, mottled mirror. Just as I was paying for it, a BMW backed up into the bumper of a pickup truck that was parked nearby. The dealer yelled "That's my truck!" Yikes. Luckily, there wasn't any damage to her truck, so she didn't need to bump up the price of the cabinet to cover her increased insurance rates.

I bought all of the floral frogs from the same dealer for $3. The colored ones have a few chips, but they still look good.

This fancy gold-painted table set me back $15 at a yard sale:

I love the claw-and-ball feet and all of the fancy curves. I am not a fan of gold, so I am thinking about painting it ivory. Or a really glossy black. Or maybe a muted aqua? What do you think?

 

So, this doll. She is creepy in a cute way, right? But she is nothing compared to the dolls that freshvintage-reader Kelly found at a yard sale and shared on my Facebook fan page. THANKS SO MUCH FOR RUINING MY WEEKEND WITH THOSE FREAKY-ASS DOLLS, KEL!! For the love of God...if you plan on having sweet dreams tonight, don't click on this link.

UPDATE: If you can't see Kelly's photos, click on this link to my Facebook page.

I am wondering if my sweet armless, legless dolly is worth anything. Can any of you doll-lovers out there help me identify her? Here are her stats:

• Composition head (I think)
• No hair, but it looks like she had a wig at some point
• Green eyes that sleep
• No markings on back of head or anywhere else
• Body length: 11 inches (a toddler body?)
• Head circumference: 16.5 inches
• Voice box in the body that still works
• She had rubber arms and legs before they were gnawed off by a goat
• That last stat is just a hypothesis

Oh - and her mouth is open and the inside of it appears to be floating.  In fact, it looks like there is a red felt gag ball in her mouth. With teeth.

Is it weird for a doll to have a gag ball? I mean, I'm not judging or anything. Maybe she's just into that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm in 30 newspapers this week! I was interviewed by Marni Jameson for her syndicated column, At Home with Marni. The article is about decorating with your passions and features my apple crate labels (the same ones from Country Home). It appears in The San Jose Mercury News, The Denver Post, New Orleans' Times-Picayune and The Hartford Courant, among many other papers. Thanks to Heidi for letting me know that it was published.

Here's the link to the article in the San Jose Mercury News.

Comments

[Tasha Griffin]

It's official, I'm going to hit up the garage sales and flea markets this week. I love all your fun finds...especially the spice box! Thanks for the inspiration to get out there and dig!

[Shabby Vintage Junk]

Yayyyyyyyy Colleen....I LOVE all of these Treasures....ummmmmmmmm....EXCEPT for the stumpy doll....hahahahahaha....In my defence though, I was NEVER a doll girl....Stumpy or otherwise.... :o) !!

I was kinda thinkin YEAH paint the stand but then I had a GOOD look at the detail & reckon it's just PERFECT as it is....I'd leave it that way for sure....If you paint it though will you post a pic....??

Cheers,
Tamarah :o)

[Shabby Vintage Junk]

PS: CONGRATS on the article.... :o) !!!

[Alicia ~ Time Worn Style]

Cant help you with that creepy doll and floating gag ball (yikes) but I have to say those finds are amazing, well done!
alicia
ps. I agree with Tamarah, I wouldnt paint that stand either.

[Tammra]

You crack my ass up. The doll is scary alright. But I cannot believe you didn't stay for the Amish, geeze, what a post that would have made, talk about scary.

[Gina at Vintage Junk in My Trunk]

Great post! Awesome finds! Love the spice box (I have a similar white one). Congratulations on the press! PS links to scary dolls aren't working (for me?). Drat.

[lisa]

Love all the awesome finds, especially that curvy legged table. I think it would look great ivory.

Those dolls on Kelly's facebook were freaky. Especially the one with the green moldy face. I friend requested her, I don't want to miss what she finds at the next yard sale.

[marykayandrews]

Mennonite Metrosexual? Could be a best-seller, like Mennonite in the Little Black Dress...

[Angela]

Argh! I can't see the FB link since Kelly is not my FB friend. But do they look anything like these:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8fIdA6Y_bIo/TB2eKGvLeGI/AAAAAAAAA70/VRmWmchRcRI/s1600/heads.jpg

[Esther]

Definately paint the table stand. I'm not into gold either but I think it would come up beautifully.
And I can always count on you for a laugh and some freaky dolls.

[freshvintage]

@Angela- Here dolls are similar to those. Ew.  I am not friends with Kelly on Facebook, so I am not sure why I can see the photos and you guys cant. I asked her to send them to me, so I can post them on my Facebook page.

[Angela]

Ha, ha. Maybe you'll like these tattooed baby arms I saw at the same booth:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8fIdA6Y_bIo/TB2d3bY3YVI/AAAAAAAAA7s/yzW1SBbIpqM/s1600/arm.jpg

[Carol]

My sis and I had dollies like that--with arms and legs--and we're in our 60's. Still have them. Likely the arms and legs are gone because they became sticky, as mine are. Our dolls didn't have wigs. They were quite the thing then with eyes that closed, a voice that said mama when layed down, oh and I think the red felt in the mouth was meant to be a tongue? Now I've told you all I know about the creepy dolly.

[Hope]

I always love to read your blog. Imagine my surprise today when I realized that the Marjorie you were talking about is my sister .

[Leah]

congrats on being published! that is so cool. paint the gold thing aqua. that is the answer to any color question: aqua. always aqua.

i just sold a doll head and a clown head today. i have an entire box full of doll arms and legs in my garage. i dont know if its creey gross to list them or if i scored a fun box??!!

[Persis]

lovely treasures...congrats on all the publicity =)

just stumbled across your blog and i have to say its LOVELY! do drop by mine too when you have some time. perhaps we can follow each other. =)

Persis
http://www.onestylemile.blogspot.com/

[Natasha]

I am not sure which is better: your fun and fantastic writing style or your great finds. I am off to ponder it all.

[Beth]

Good Morning!
I just found your blog and L~O~V~E I~T!!!!
You an I would be cat fightin over stuff!! LOL!
Can't wait to see more,
Beth

[deb]

am so jealous of the sales in your area - esp ones complete with strange mennonites...

congrats on the newspaper article!

am jealous about that too.... :P

[Elspeth Grindstaff]

I don't like the gold on the table, either. But I think aqua is not the right color--the table is too fancy, and I have this impression, right or wrong, that aqua things are a little simpler. I would go with the ivory, so you can really see all the details. Either way, lose the tacky, tacky gold.

[Air Jordan]

The worst kind of love is the one when you want someone but you know you can’t have them. Best wishes for you.

[Emily Thompson]

Great stuff! Love the white pottery... check out my blog on collecting...

http://www.ilovecollecting10.blogspot.com

Best regards,

Emily

[sheena]

looving the items in this post ... the babys just a tad scary though