Orphans and Oddities and Another Contest

Now that Tim and I have decided to open our vintage/handmade store in some yet to be determined city (did I tell you guys this?), I've been sharpening my eye for those one-of-a-kind vintage finds.  Here are some recent finds, some of which weren't really found so much as unwillingly thrust upon us, and others that aren't worth the paper they were printed on except as a hilarious reminder of the collective foibles of our society, i.e. Glamour Shots.

We found the little man to the right and his sheep/dog in an antique store in a small town in South Georgia.  The man who owned the store was very kind and gave it to us for the excellent price of $10.  Not a bad deal for the adoption of a creepy child AND what looks like a genetically mutated dog.  What really gets me are the shoulders, or lack thereof.  My question is, at what point in history did this type of  portraiture seem normal.  Whatever.  I'll gladly hang it on my dining room wall to freak out and amuse our guests.

I found this odd little chair at a Goodwill last year and for the longest time I thought it was a sewing chair because it had this little compartment underneath the seat.  Only recently did I find out that it's actually a valet or butler's chair that's missing it's hanger which would normally be screwed to the back, under the little wooden tray.  This type of chair was originally designed in 1953  by a Danish man named Hans Wegner to serve as an all-in-one caddy for a man's personal items.  I'm only sharing this knowledge with you because I just learned it on Wikipedia and I'm feeling super well-informed.  I doubt this chair is worth anything because it was made in the early 70s by a Michigan company that apparently now specializes in wooden hangers, but I thought it was a pretty cool show piece.  I've almost gotten rid of it a few times but something makes me hang on to it.  What can I say, I just like the weird thing.

Alright, let me just come out and say it, I'm officially obsessed with 1950s and 60s Pyrex.  I mean, it's just so cute and you can find quite a lot of it for pretty cheap.  I realize that I'm kind of jumping on a vintage bandwagon here but every time I go thrifting now I have my eye out for that unmistakable milk glass/brightly colored pattern.  Just this weekend I found this lid to a baking dish.  I didn't find the dish, but I had to get it because, well, look at the thing.  Look at those colors!  Come on!  After doing a little research I've only been able to find this particular pattern on a website called Pyrex Love which shows you all the Pyrex patterns.  Even on that site it's listed as an "unknown" pattern, but I think it's pretty awesome.  I'm just waiting for the day I stumble upon it's brother.  That will be a good day.

These "things" have kind of been creeping me out ever since they came into our house.  We got them in, what else, a secret santa exchange.  I believe they're bull horns carved to look like peacocks and made into bookends?  Whatever, the orange eyes are scary.  Plus, they seem to be slowly decaying.  Weird.  Tim wouldn't let me sell them at the yard sale we had this weekend, so here they remain staring down at me from the bookshelf as I type this.  One of them is missing an eye.  Eek.

Last but not least, an item totally out of place in this blog which I try to keep completely devoid of any glamour of any kind.  Especially glamour spelled with a "u".  We found this sitting on the shelf of one of the scuzzier local thrift stores and it was calling out to us.  What a throwback.  I don't exactly long for the days when there was a Glamour Shots studio in every mall in the country, but how can you not get a kick out of this.  Even back then it was ridiculous but now I feel like it offers us some sort of insight into the psyche of the average American circa 1993, which is when this picture was taken.  So, I'm having another blog contest.  Here's the scoop:

Come withe a name, hometown, and occupation for this lovely lady and leave a comment on my blog.
I pick the winner based completely on my own preference.
Winner gets a free pack of funny animal cards from my store, pictured here.
Now go out and be funny and poignant and don't disappoint me!

Felt-Up #2

Success! Sort of. Ok, maybe not success per se, but better than last time, right? Right. I knew you'd agree with me. I actually think the gray looks rather sophisticated. And, although the lace pattern didn't show up as visibly as maybe I was planning, I think it adds a nice textural flare. Blah blah blah.



Anyway, I sent it to Detroit so you Detroiters should go to City Bird and buy it. All of you buy it!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the hilarious train of badly felted items is chugging along and some pretty awful things are beginning to accumulate around my house. For example, this "hat" which resembles something like a tea cozy and I didn't even use a pattern for, thank you very much! I think I'd better just toss it, but if growing up during the great depression taught me anything, it was to eat anything I can find and don't throw anything away. So, any suggestions for what I should do with this?



Here's what I've come up with: pillow, cat saddle. Okay, that's it.



I've actually started to enjoy getting ideas from other people and using them as my own, so anything you guys could come up with would be much appreciated.


Cat stare:

Crab Say What?

Ok, this is all you, readers. And by readers I mean my sister and my boyfriend if I tell him to. You've gotta help me out here. As you probably know if you're one of the two people previously mentioned, I've been working on a series of animal drawings in which the animal depicted is saying something completely out of context and thus hilarious. The hippo and bear are some examples of what I've done in the past.


So here's the deal. I've got this crab here and he's drawings a blank. Please leave a comment with the funny thing you think the crab should be saying. If I pick you, I'll send you the original drawing with your saying added. I will also be making these into cards and prints so you're saying will be famous! FAMOUS! Here's the crab so get going being hilarious and get back to me soon. I'll give you until Thursday at midnight to submit something. Ok, go!