freshvintage

Momomatic Jewelry on Etsy. And Batman Legos.

Every once in a while, I check out the Etsy store of my new friend, Lotta, who I met at BlogHer. Her store is called Momomatic and she makes jewelry out of vintage buttons, beads and other nifty parts.

I ordered a necklace from her. It arrived in this pretty little package, complete with a black scottie dog tied to the purple string:

Upon closer inspection, I noticed the words Scrotum, Glans and Urethra on the wrapping paper.

And then I remembered that she bought one of my sex books at the BlogHer Swap Meet in July: Picture Stories of the Sex Life of Man and Woman. This was one of the pages from that book. Surprisingly, I just found the same exact book at an antiques store in Lancaster, PA yesterday. That sex book is a like one of those cats that gets lost, and finds its way home after two years and 500 miles.

Anyway, beneath the ball sack was my necklace:

Isn't it gorgeous? Lotta warned me that it was missing one of the rhinestones, but I didn't care. I receive so many compliments when I wear it (which seems like every day). It is one-of-a-kind, but she has many other fabulous jewelry pieces for sale, and frequently updates her shop with new items. Thanks, Lotta!

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Do you remember my Lego craziness a few years back? When I found five Lego sets at a thrift store for $12 and sold them for over $500 on eBay? Well, the insanity has returned with a vengeance. 

I was at a yard sale last week with my sister, Heather, and I spotted the Batman Batcave Lego set, one of those enormous sets that sells for around $100 in the stores. I tried to hide my excitement, but I'm not very good at that. I literally "called dibs" on it to the homeowner and went in search of any other Legos. Heather hid behind an old fridge in embarrassment. I ended up buying the Batcave set and three Indiana Jones sets for $15.

When I arrived home, I made the grave mistake of giving the Batman set to my seven-year-old son who is obsessed with Legos. I know - what the hell was I thinking? I did this once before with a $100 Harry Potter Lego set and I ended up regretting it.

Finn immediately ripped the top of the Batcave box off. Unlike most moms who wouldn't care if their kid ripped a box, I yelled at him, "You just slashed the resale price by ripping that box!".

Fortunately, he started playing with one of the Indiana Jones sets and didn't start bonding with the Batcave. A few hours later, I checked eBay to see how much the Batcave sells for on eBay.

$300!

That's when I had to have a 30-minute-long conversation with Finn about selling the set on eBay. There was some yelling. And tears. Then I told him about his 15% commission. It is hard for a seven-year-old to understand percentages and commissions. But he understood perfectly when I said he could pick out any toy that he wanted, including a game or two for the new Nintendo DS he got for his birthday a few weeks ago. No more tears.

And so began the four-hour process of checking that all 1075 pieces were in the box. I printed 20 pages worth of inventory listings from Peeron. Maeve helped me sort by color:

The set was missing nine pieces. The ripped box and the missing pieces will bring down the value, but not by much. I am guessing that we will get around $275 for the set. You can follow along with the auction here: 7783 Batcave: The Penguin and Mr. Freezes Invasion Lego.

And here's the bonus: inside the Batcave set was this little boat from an other Batman set, the Hunt for Killer Croc. That set also includes Batman's Batboat, but we only had the Killer Croc's boat.

It recently sold on eBay for fifty bucks! The little crocodile man alone sells for $20.

To recap, your lesson for the day is: If you find boxes of Legos at a yard sale or thrift store, BUY THEM. Also, if you find a big disorganized bin of Legos at a yard sale, dig through them and see if there are any minifigs (those are the little Lego people). They are worth big bucks on eBay!

And don't forget about my 15% commission.

Sweet Tea Vodka & Lemonade

The Skyy Lime Light is so 2008. Get over it, for god's sake.

The weather in Pennsylvania is perfect for introducing my new favorite fair-weather drink: Sweet Tea Vodka with Lemonade:

I made it with a generous shot of Jeremiah Weed (?!) Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka, Minute Maid Light Lemonade and lots of ice. If I had some lemons in the house, I'd probably use those instead of lemonade. Or maybe not. I'm really lazy.

There are a few other Sweet Tea vodkas on the market, like Firefly and Sweet Carolina (which also comes in other tea flavors like mint, raspberry and peach), but I haven't tried those yet.

What shall we call this drink? Or does it already exist, and I am completely out of the loop?

Oh - and don't forget your bug-cover (also known as a cupcake liner). Don't want any nasty bugs trying to drink your cocktail.

 

Typewriter Tables, Pottery Marks & Wine in a Can

My husband, Chris, went to an estate sale on Friday while I was at work. He came home empty-handed. I went to the same sale after work (because it was only 10 minutes away and I don't fully trust his junk-hunting skills yet) and saw a typewriter sitting on top of this gray metal Sears & Roebuck typewriter table. The price was $35 for the typewriter and table, but I asked to buy just the table because the typewriter wasn't anything to write home about. The seller happily agreed, since it was the end of the day and no one else had shown any interest.

When I arrived home and walked in the door holding the table, Chris said, "Oh, yeah - I saw that there and I knew you would love it". He just assumed that the seller wouldn't want to separate the set. Now do you understand why I have to do a follow-up visit?!

Typewriter tables make great night stands. My son has an olive green one next to his bed. I'm going to use this one as a printer stand next to my desk.

Last week, I bought this large ironstone platter and tureen at a yard sale for $10:

At least, I think it is a tureen. I assume that it had a lid once - but it doesn't have a lip on the inside of the rim. Any ideas?

I love figuring out the age of these old pieces. Sometimes there isn't enough information on the maker's mark to do a Google search. So, I look to my favorite website for pottery marks: thepotteries.org.

When I looked at the mark on the bottom of the bowl, I determined that "Hanley" is the name of the factory town where the piece was manufactured in Staffordshire, England. The manufacturer is W & C - but that doesn't help me because there are many potters that start with "W".

I went to the W page in the Alphabetic listing section of thepotteries.org. I clicked on all of the manufacturers who had W & C initials and whose location was Hanley. Eventually, I found the maker: Whittaker & Company. When I looked at the other examples of the Whittaker mark, I learned that "Windsor" refers to the name of the pattern and that it is made between 1886-1892.

The mark on the bottom of the ironstone platter was much easier to research, since it had the full name of the manufacturer. I found it right away when I googled "Porcelaine De Terre" "John Edwards". Here is the result on thepotteries.org. I learned that this platter was made sometime between 1880 and 1900.

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Thanks to Grace from Poetic Home for featuring a few of my favorite vintage things on her blog. As I told her, I am happy to be a part of anything that has any references to The Sound of Music. And I especially love that she compared me to Conan O'Brien. That made my day! Be sure to check out the other bloggers in her Favorite Vintage Things Series, too.

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Since yard sales are scarce at this time of year, I've been trying to fill the void by visiting local wineries. Surprisingly, there are several in the area and they all have beautiful locations, fun-filled events and great wine, to boot. There is one winery called Paradocx that sells their wine in paint cans.

Isn't this the cutest thing ever?

It is equivalent to four bottles of wine and has a little spigot at the bottom for pouring. I bought the Barn Red variety, which is a Sangiovese/Cabernet Franc blend. They also make Whitewash, which is a blend of Chardonnay, Vidal and Pino Grigio - it has a white barn on the label. I opted for the red, since we have that big red barn in our backyard (which isn't ours, unfortunately). The can even comes with a wooden paint mixer, imprinted with "Paint the Town, Responsibly".

I can't wait until the weather warms up so we can sit on our deck and play "Pass the Can". It is so much classier to drink wine out of a spigot than a bottle.

Stool Sample

Sorry. I couldn't resist. 

I bought two stools at a garage sale last week:

The little one has a compartment that probably held shoe-shining equipment at one time.

I also found this glass cocktail shaker from the 1960s. Each hot air balloon has a drink recipe inside. And it even has the little chrome cap that is usually missing:

Here's the Martini recipe:

Speaking of drinks, I was so excited to finally use my pink cooler at our St. Patrick's Day party on Saturday. Doesn't it look so cute?

It was a little difficult to get a photo of the beer cooler by itself. My neighbors and Doug kept getting in the way.

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Other ramblings...

Ever since I bought those stools, I can't get the Stool Boom song from Waiting for Guffman out of my head. Here's the video, in case you aren't familiar.

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Have you seen the preview for the HBO remake of Grey Gardens with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange? If you haven't seen the original documentary, you need to rent it. Train wreck is an understatement. You can get it through Netflix, if you are a member. You can find more in the story of this mother/daughter duo here.

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I signed up for the BlogHer Conference in Chicago on July 24-25. Is anyone else planning to go? Rumor has it that there are only 60 tickets left.

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My mom was in the hospital for the past few weeks, which is why I haven't been writing much. She is at home now, and doing really well. In an effort to bring some humor to an awful situation, my family has been keeping a list of funny quotes that we've heard during the last month. Here's a stool-related one that I thought you might enjoy:

While talking to anesthesiologist before the first of five surgeries:

Doctor: Have you ever had any problems with anesthesia?

Mom: Well, there was that time during my hemorrhoidectomy when I lied to the anesthesiologist about my weight and I woke up in the middle of the surgery.

Lesson learned!

If you are new to freshvintage, take a gander at this post to find out more about my mom and her favorite stool sport.

And if you are already familiar with my mom, you know that she gladly gave me permission to share the above-mentioned quote. Any publicity is good publicity!

Beets, Bloopers & Bunny Cream at the Martha Stewart Show

Last week, my sister Erin and I, along with our friends Denise and Ellen, went to New York City in search of fame and glory. And to sit in the audience at the Martha Stewart show.

Our first stop was the infamous Tinsel Trading. We didn't buy anything, but is was fun to visit this store that I've read about in so many magazines.

Our next stop was Rockefeller Center, where we saw Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb during the 17th hour of the Today Show. We called our husbands and mothers, and they spotted us on TV during the Jeff Foxworthy segment.

You can see us a few times on this video. I'm giving the peace sign on the right side of the screen at 1:17 and again at 3:30. My friend Denise is on the left side of me and Erin is on the right. In a few shots, we tried waving Erin's long red hair into the air.

Then, I spied the next guest: Chris Isaac. And I squeeealed. Right after I took this picture during the commercial break, he spotted me in my Target red trench coat out of the corner of his eye. He couldn't wave back because he was playing his guitar, but he gave me a nod. I squeeealed again.

Does it count as an affair if Chris Isaac nodded at me and I didn't stop him and I liked it? I tried to tell him that I was married, but he couldn't hear me through the bullet-proof glass. And I guess he doesn't read lips.

After I broke up with him, we headed to Martha's studio.

The audience coordinators emailed ticket-holders a few weeks before the taping to tell us that the show that we would be attending was a celebration of the special Color issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine for May. Everyone in the audience had to wear solid, bright, springtime colors. We even had to respond to the email to tell them what colors that each of us would be wearing. Luckily, they still let me into the building even though I emailed them that I would be wearing pink, but I ended up wearing blue.

This food truck was parked outside while we waited in line. Everything on the truck was free! Cappuccino, brownies, smoothies. All on Martha's dime.

The set was remarkable. And so Martha. Clean, organized, colorful. The audience looked like so bright and cheery in our springy shirts. The audience members who didn't wear bright colors were given large, colorful shawls to wear over their tops.

After receiving the email about the show's theme, I was convinced that we would receive fabulous and colorful freebies. Maybe some aqua KitchenAid electric appliances or colorful cookware or even one of the spring craft kits from Martha's craft line.

I think I had set my expectations too high, and was a little disappointed with the taping. There were no celebrity guests, no chefs and no fantastic freebies. The show opened with a segment on beet varieties along with instructions for pickling beets. I don't know about you, but I don't have a particular affinity for eating nor pickling beets.

The beets were followed by a segment where Martha made a creamy jello strawberry shortcake concoction. The segment DID NOT go as planned. The gelatinous berry was supposed to set up inside an antique tea cup. Martha was then supposed to casually turn the tea cup over, and the 1970's-style domed jello was supposed to plop right onto a vintage porcelain dish. But it wouldn't come out of the cup. Or any of the cups. This went on for ten minutes. Even after she dipped the tea cups in a bowl of hot water and busted out the blow torch (seriously). She kept joking that this would definitely be added to the blooper reel.

The chefs in her kitchen watched in horror on the monitors. It was an eerie foreshadowing of the beatings that would surely ensue later that afternoon. Martha tried to laugh about the debacle, but it was obvious that she was fuming. It will be interesting to see if they completely remove that segment when the show airs on April 20th.  

That was followed up by segments on floral arranging and faux painting techniques. After the taping ended, Martha had a very brief Q & A session with the audience.

The audience wrangler, comedian Joey Kola, gave out some freebies to the audience if we screamed loudly and clapped at the precise time. I'm good at screaming, so I received a jar of carrot-flavored hand creme. Carrots are so hot and so sexy. I wonder if Chris Isaac likes girls who smell like a bunny patch.

 

By the way, you can find Martha on Twitter. It's strange to read her tweets to people like P. Diddy, Snoop Dogg and Perez Hilton. 

Oh - and I am occasionally tweeting as well. How about you? Leave your twitter name, and we can all follow each other!

We have a winner!

Congratulations to Heidi Kenney from My Paper Crane! You were randomly chosen by my children as the winner of the $25 gift certificate to Bake It Pretty. 

Thanks to everyone who entered! Stay tuned for my next post, when I'll recap my trip to the Martha Stewart Show.

P.S. Heidi is paying it forward with a giveaway on her blog! Take a look...

Bake It Pretty $25 Giveaway!

I first heard about Bake It Pretty after spotting this photo on The Small Object's flickr photostream.

Candy that looks like vintage buttons? Say no more. I've mentioned my love for buttons in the past. I immediately ordered the vintage button mold and some colored candy melts.

I'm not much of a baker, but I am totally in love with the selection in Amanda Krueger's shop. She has more cupcake liners, cake toppers and candy molds than you can possibly imagine, including a mustache lollipop mold! I think they would be adorable for a little boy's birthday party.

The Bake It Pretty Blog has several tutorials on creating candy buttons and chocolate skeleton keys, and tips on making the perfect icing.

Best of all: the prices are reasonable, which is always shocking when you find a shop with unique products.

I emailed Amanda and let her know how much I loved her shop. She generously offered to give away a $25 Bake It Pretty gift certificate to one lucky freshvintage blog reader!

Leave a comment below to be entered in the drawing. The contest ends at 8pm on Sunday, March 1st. I'll randomly pick a winner after the contest closes. Please include your email address, so I can contact you.

If you mention the giveaway on your blog, leave a second comment to let me know. You'll get an extra chance to win.

Thanks, Amanda!

{Images courtesy of Amanda Krueger}

Amelia, Martha & eBay

February in Pennsylvania does not bring much in the way of yard sales, so I don't have much to share. But - I hit a couple of thrift stores where I found these Amelia Earhart suitcases and children's blocks:

The inside of the large suitcase is beautiful burgundy satin. And I'm not normally a big fan of burgundy satin. It even has the (original?) portable hangers.

I have a ton of children's blocks, but no one ever buys them when we have a sale. Am I the only one who loves these?

The set on the right caught my eye because they are unusually small:

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Guess what?! I'm going to be on the Martha Stewart Show! Okay - so I'll be in the audience, but it's all the same. Audience. Stage. What's the difference?

I'll be attending the taping on February 26th in NYC, but I'm not sure when the show will air. My sister Erin, and our friends Laura & Ellen will be joining me. We all went to a taping of The View a few years ago. The guests were Geraldo Rivera and a man who had over 30 plastic surgeries. (And, yes, they were two different men). Let's hope that Martha's guests are a bit better.

Have you been in the audience at Martha or any other talk show?

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I'm unloading some things on eBay to make room (and money) for springtime vintage finds. Take a look:

My Vintage Christmas

 The green table has found a temporary place in my home. (Well, I'm not too sure about the temporary part yet). My favorite post-Christmas bargains are sitting on top: three glittered houses that I found at Target a few years ago.

I went totally old school with our Christmas tree this year. Usually, I am so anal about using only white lights, matching aqua and green ornaments (the freshvintage palette) and some special ornaments that family members have given us over the years.

This year, I went completely nutso and bought colored lights. I know - so crazy. The small ones andthe big fat 1970s ones. Damn, those big ones get hot. That's what she said. (Sorry - couldn't resist.) I also hung all of the Shiny Brite ornaments that usually just sit in my garage, waiting for my next sale.

My mother-in-law gave me this vintage glass bird ornament:

I filled a big glass candy jar with vintage ornaments and put it on top of this white cabinet, which is in my living room now. I found the jar at Goodwill for a few bucks.

These just arrived in the mail today from eBay: over 500 Christmas price tags.

 

Yes, I surrendered once again to my ridiculous love of useless old price tags. Nothing but death can keep me from it. (That's a quote from one of my favorite movies. The first person who leaves a comment with the name of the movie wins a sampling from my vintage price tag collection. Forget it! WE HAVE A WINNER! To my sister, Erin: You cannot participate. Don't even try it, byatch!)

Here's a hint: The movie has absolutely nothing to do with vintage price tags.

A few nights ago, I bought this Gingerbread Train Kit for the kids to assemble. Doesn't it look so cute on the box?

 

That's bullshit. This is what the picture on the front of the box should really look like:

 

Waaaay cuter.

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Take a gander at my interview with Sarah from The Wedding Hub's blog. I sent Sarah a nice, safe photo from my 2001 Key West wedding. But, for my dear readers, I am crafting a special blog post to share the down and dirty details & more photos from my wedding. Look for it in the new year.

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Thanks to Marty from The Ephemera Blog for including me in his list of the Ten People All Ephemera Collectors Should Be Following. Sure, it's not People Magazine's Ten Most Beautiful People list, but it's something. Thanks for the love, Marty!

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My list of Top Ten Vintage-Inspired Blogs is being featured on Blogs.com. It was hard to narrow down my favorites to only ten. If you have any favorites that I missed, leave them in the comments so we can all take a look.

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For more "That's What She Said" fun, check out this video that includes every "That's What She Said" line from The Office.

Floating Shift, Favors & Facebook

My new partner-in-crime found this 1930's Smith Corona typewriter and square picnic basket for me at an estate sale a few weeks ago. That would be none other than my keen-eyed husband, Chris. He voluntarily took Maeve to a sale one Friday while I was working. He has some time to kill, ever since Finn started kindergarten. That's when Chris reduced his work hours so that one of us will always be home to get Finn on and off the bus each day. Chris is on his way to being Mr. Mom. And I love it! I just have to keep him from playing cards with my slutty neighbors.

On his first solo attempt at yard-saling, he found this typewriter for eight bucks. It even has the beloved "Floating Shift" key. 

While I was out at yard sales last Saturday (with nothing to show for it), Chris took Maeve to her Ballet class. There was a huge yard sale next to the dance studio, where he found this chair for four dollars:

Here is my dilemma...is he really interested in antiquing? Or is he just trying to butter me up, with the hope that extra-special "favors" will be offered in return? I'll keep you posted.

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I created a Facebook page for freshvintage. I swore that I would never join Facebook, but you can now officially call me a big fat liar. If any of you totally hip & cool readers are on Facebook, feel free to add yourself as a fan of freshvintage. I have some super-exclusive, never-before-seen photos on the page, as well as some blog post outtakes. I'll be adding to it frequently. And, guess what? You can even add your own photos to the page and start your own discussions.

If you aren't on Facebook already, consider this a perfect opportunity to join. I originally joined because my brother and sister were on it, and I wanted to see the photos of their families. But now I recognize its true value: looking up ex-boyfriends and the bitches that were mean to me in high school. Oh - and finding old friends.

No one can see any information about you, unless you add them as your friend. The only thing they can see is a tiny version of your profile picture and your name. You can change the settings and let everyone see everything in your profile, but that is mostly for celebrities or people in dire need of attention. 

It is the same deal if you become a fan of freshvintage...I won't see any of your personal information - just your tiny profile photo and your name (and you won't see my personal profile). The only people who can see your profile are the friends that you approve. (Just to clarify: Fans are typically for groups/bands/businesses/websites and Friends are for an individual's personal page.)

So, don't be scared...sign up! My mom even has her own Facebook page, for Christ's sake! 

P.S. Leave me a message on the freshvintage "wall" while you are there.

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Does anyone read my blog via Bloglines? Are you getting an "invalid feed" error (with the red exclamation point)?  I can't seem to figure out what is going on. If you are able to see updated feeds in Bloglines, can you leave me a quick comment and let me know? The feed seems fine in Google Reader.