Magpie Ethel

Coastal Road Trip

My good junking buddy Amy and I took a quick little coastal junking road trip earlier this week. We left early Tuesday a.m. and headed to the northern Oregon coast. We spent the day hitting antique shops, thrifts and any spot that looked like it had potential.

Amy dragged me to spots like this. She had been here before.  Hobo Junction in Long Beach, Washington with the nicest fellow running it.  There is a path to the front door past all those floats!

This playground bobble horse enticed me. I would love one of these in my yard...but I have no spot for one.

We ate clam chowder. We ate ice cream. I made Amy climb the Astoria Column.  She had never been there before and the 164 steps to the top reward one with a magnificent view.

We both found fun stuff. We spent the night in Seaside, Oregon and woke up the next morning to junk our way home along the Columbia River. It was a beautiful sunny day on the coast and junking was fun.

Treasures from our trip.  No rhyme nor reason to what I came home with. The two pink shutters will become a project.

I found two of these old bunny racks.  I have one that I display with my Easter goodies that I found this past year.  I found these in TWO different shops in the same city.

I also found this cowboy style rack which I had not seen before.

A tin dollhouse complete with candy striped awnings.

With all those charming details inside.

My spun head radar was on when I found this bag of heads in Astoria at an antique mall. A putz style house (that needs to be flipped), an old ironing board (for my shows), a lone salt cat shaker, a Christmas list box and a couple of rolls of old wallpaper border.
I love the graphics on the old wallpaper border rolls.  These were found in Long View at a darling shop called Elizabeth Hue Mercantile.

I also found two chippy metal stands and a turquoise cake container. Another road trip junking adventure!  Short but sweet and with its rewards. Hurry for summer trips like this!

 

Busy Days

I got all my Easter out.

I know it is still a month out, but my calendar for those thirty days is going to find me very busy.

My kids are home from college.  They are on spring break this next week and we will all be flying to San Francisco for some family time and to explore the city. 

After our little family excursion Amy and I are planning to road-trip down to the Alameda Flea Market the first weekend in April.  I love, love that show.

A few days after we return from Alameda, Tom and I will be making a trip to Minnesota and the Junk Bonanza show. (Tom isn't going to the show with me...my sister-in-law will be my shopping buddy)
When I turned 50 earlier this year this is what I wanted to do to celebrate that landmark birthday.  We will be staying with my brother and sister-in-law in Minneapolis.  I am looking forward to shopping this show and crossing it off my bucket list.

A whirlwind of a month to look forward to.

I love having the house all decorated so when I am home I can enjoy the springy scene.  Posts coming on Easter decorations too...boy do I have a ton of Easter.

Happy day!

 

Alameda Antique Show..Long Post

I have done two previous posts on our road-trip down to Alameda. You can find there here,and here.

Now we are on to the show itself. Amy and I stayed overnight in Emeryville which is very close to the show. We got up at 5 a.m. and were at the gates at 6 a.m. (or just after) for the early buying time.  It was chilly and I had three layers on plus gloves! (this is August..dress in layers for this show).  Quite a few of the dealers were not set up at this early hour which made us question our early buying ticket price ($15). We ended up making two rounds through the show as so many of the vendors we passed during our first round were not set up. 

It turned into a glorious day after the fog burned off and the sun came out. It really is such a unique setting with the San Francisco skyline in the background.

Some of the vendors had gone to town and gotten their displays and merchandise out to buy at the 6 a.m. hour. Some were still pulling out tables.  Here are a couple of go-getter vendors with their set-ups.

This fellow had gotten all his stuff out and then fell sound asleep.  It IS an early morning hour.

Tons of vintage clothing. Fun vintage finds. I love the bread wrapping roll.

I thought about this sign for my bathroom. It was expensive and the glass was cracked on the back. I passed.

Super flower chair!

Loved the huge furniture sign. They pretty much only sold boots though. When I am not looking for vintage stuff, I am people watching. There are  wonderful outfits at this show that people wear!

Always love things in a group.
This was one of my favorite finds that I saw. An old playing card album.

It had over 2000 playing cards with wonderful graphics on the back of the cards.  I have a ton of playing cards, but this was pretty awesome. It was also $200.

I did find some fun stuff.  For me this show is not only finding stuff, but the scenery, the people, the food and the whole experience.  My finds seem to be all holiday based.

A bunch of old Halloween picks including two black cat spun heads.  I have not seen the little witches on the brooms before.
Great old candy canes on original cards (marked Japan), reflectors and glass garland.
Super snowman head. A herd of reindeer and a reindeer vase.

One more deer, some old ornament package tie ons, mercury glass picks and a fish rattle. Happy to find a larger Easter chick to add to my collection. He is about ten inches high.A spun head Uncle Sam.

A good assortment of misc. vintage Christmas.

Such a fun day. Such a fun trip with my favorite junking buddy Amy.  I so enjoy doing road trips like this...where will we go next!?

 

Alameda Road Trip - One Crazy Stop

Amy and I hit all the small towns as we drove up and down I-5 to the Alameda Flea Market outside San Francisco. One town that we hit we stumbled upon an old printing company.  It had some items dragged out on the sidewalk for sale. We went in.  It was like a time warp of a shop with old inventory from the 1950s and 60s STILL ON THE SHELVES and FOR SALE.

It was dusty but we spent an hour and a half searching for stuff.

Some old menu blanks to be printed up for menus with your information..with a cute little chef graphic.  A bunch of old receipt pads intended for restaurant use.  They are yellowed with age from sitting on the shelf so long. Old rolls of tickets, old map tacks (one lone box on the shelf for sale), penny roll wrappers and some old tags.

Great graphics on the tags.

Old signs.
A bunch of the old menu protectors where the menu slides in the plastic sleeve on the other side. And last but not least. Our last find in this shop.  Amy and I split them.  We bought FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY EIGHT SIGNS.  We were only going to buy some of them and then we realized that this was one of those times we would kick ourselves later if we did not buy them all.

Amy and I were on a giddy sign high when we left.

I wish I had one of these in my house.

I think I could use more room for my vintage finds.  Crazy, crazy purchase and what a trip!

p.s. Signs will eventually be listed on Etsy.

 

Alameda Road Trip - The Trip Itself.

I have to break up these posts.  Such a crazy trip and fun finds. 

Amy and I left Portland on Friday after my good estate sale.  We basically hit antique stores all the way down and all the way back. There are some good shops and a ton of bad ones.  We drove and drove and spent the night in Redding, Calif.  Saturday a.m. we woke up and decided we should see if there was an estate sale to hit on Craig's List. We hit one sale. We got lucky.

This is my haul.

The sale was on the third phase and they were knocking down prices. I got three old scrap books and a bunch of old photos.

The scrapbooks are amazing.  Tons of cards and fun stuff.  I will do a post on those finds after I got through them. Here is a teaser.

I collect vintage photos of kids on Santa's lap. I especially love them in the old department store folders with the good graphics.
I have seen lots of old class photos but never one where the kids brought a favorite toy.

I can't wait to go through the scrapbooks and see what I find. I got three scrapbooks at this sale and one on Friday.  That is a crazy haul of scrapbooks in 24 hours!

I also got five bags of old vintage cards all from the 1950s. I have plenty of sorting to do.
Here are the rest of my finds from our antique shop jaunts on the road.  The wastebasket I showed in a previous post.

A couple of old putz style houses and some pine cone elves.

A pink metal pail that evidently belonged to Jeannine Withers (name scratched neatly on front), some turquoise plastic bell garland and a cute little pixie. A pair of old honeycomb flower pots. A star glass for my Fourth of July display.

Some killer concrete mushrooms.  This purchase left me giddy!  These mushrooms are huge!

A concrete pink flamingo.

We hit one spot on our I-5 drive that deserves a post of its own.  Stay tuned.  Alameda after that.

Alameda Road Trip

Amy and I are headed to the Alameda Antique Fair this weekend. Junking our way down I-5 with our destination of Alameda on Sunday.

This will be my third visit to the show and I am really looking forward to it.  You can read about my previous visits, here, here, here and here.  Will be reporting back on the show when I return.  Happy Day!

p.s. Thanks to Maddie and Erica for a stash of vintage maps..they are perfect for this post. (and will be put to good use in Kate's dorm room)

A Quick Road Trip

My Mom and I are headed to Seattle, Washington to go to the Antiques Roadshow.

You have to submit your name into a lottery system to get tickets for the event.  My mom and I both did this and she got lucky with winning a pair of tickets.  Looking forward to a behind the scene look at a favorite show!

I am not taking anything I think will bring me millions (I don't think), but will be interesting to know a bit more about a few items I own.  Post coming on the show...

Alameda Show Finds

As I mentioned in my previous post about Alameda, I did find some fun stuff. I did not buy a huge amount, but found a few things that I had never seen before.

I always seem to gravitate towards smaller items and this trip was no exception.

A pink tinsel tree that is about 10 inches tall.  It needs a bit of help with a new base, but that is an easy fix.

A vintage celluloid party girl complete with tiny hat but missing her arms. She had seen better days.  She was the best of about 10 that were there, and I thought she should have a home in my cabinet of curiosities.

Old paper cups with a good holiday snowman graphic and an air bon tin.

A tiny vintage spun head bunny and some old Dennison type stickers.

An old Halloween cardboard spinner game.

An old Humpty Dumpty style cardboard figure that may have REALLY fallen off a wall as he has seen better days.  He will go live out the rest of his life in my cabinet of curiousities.

Anthropomorphous melon(?) fan with wonderful googly eyes.  He was part of a set that also included a couple of elephants, Minnie and Mickey Mouse and a few other figures.

I bought a good sized box of old paper items. The box had old greeting cards, wrapping paper, ribbon and gift tags. 

Yet more vintage wrapping paper to add to my stash.

And last but not least, my favorite find.  A dice throwing tiny celluloid boy.  I liked the detail and expression on his face and he will live in my cabinet of curiosities.

Fun stuff and a fun show! Wish I lived closer and could hit it every month!

Sunny Day at The Alameda Flea Market

I just got home from 5 days in San Francisco.  I went down with a girlfriend to help "fluff" her college daughter's new apartment.  I agreed to go and help as she dangled the "carrot" of a trip to the monthly Alameda Flea Market.  The "carrot" was well deserved after lots of apartment projects and was a wonderful day.

I spent over 6 sunshine filled hours just browsing the aisles of the show. (view towards the city)

It was good people watching and had a huge variety of stuff to buy.  I did not find anything that was mind blowing, but did enjoy the hunt and found a few goodies.

A glimpse of some of the booths or objects that caught my eye...none of which came home with me.

French posters

Yummy colored crepe paper, which I passed on as I have a huge stash.

A petunia pig head.  I don't think anyone bought this as It was still there near the end of the show.

For those jadeite collectors.

This booth only sold paper items, posters, old advertisements and such.

Watch parts, old keys and other goodies to sift through.

Tons of vendors had a good assortment of vintage clothes.

And speaking of clothes, this was a great spot to people watch.  Some of the outfits that I saw were one of a kind.

Note the stockings, the orange gingham skirt and a tiny straw hat perched on her head.

I liked this dapper sailor outfit as well. Even the shoes were vintage with a little green embellishment.

A giant metal turtle perhaps part of an old play structure. It I had bought this it would have had to have been strapped to the top of our car from San Fran to Portland!

My favorite thing I saw was this old ice cream sign.

Alas, she had a $400 price tag and I did not have a spot that she would have fit in my house.

She sure was sweet tho.  We left the show with a bag of freshly made kettle corn to munch as we started our drive home.  What I found will be in my next post.  Awesome day!

One Of My Favorite Events

I am driving to Spokane this weekend with my mom for one of my favorite events of the year.

I love the Farm Chicks show and this is the fifth year that I have gone.  I will be posting about it when I return...hoping for lots of goodies and eye candy and a meal or two at my favorite spot Chaps.

Yippee!