My Vice: Tupperware & Books

If I come across vintage tupperware (and even non-vintage) at a garage sale or thrift store, I will undoutedly buy it. Books too. Vintage and non-vintage. I have hundreds and hundreds of books. And I'm working a pretty good tupperware collection too. The vintage stuff is so indicative of the 1950s.

My haul the last few weeks has been pretty good. I haven't posted much because I wasn't able to get good lighted photos until the recent time change. Also, I'm going to be making the move here in the next month and to cut down on the packing, I'm going to have to take a break from thrifting. Ack! Not sure if I'll be able to do it. Especially since there are 7 or 8 thrift stores within walking distance of my work. Maybe just one more trip tomorrow.

Books. I cannot pass up shelves of books. If you're thrifitng with me and you can't find me, check the books shelves. Books about homelife back in the day are so fun to read. I have a lot of the Heloise books and Good Housekeeping cookbooks as well as vintage children's books. I think I'll do a separate post just on the books I've recently found. Stay tuned.

How cute is this flyswatter? Not only is it 50ish and red, but it's from Nebraska. I live in California and I love to find things from the different places I've lived. Key West, Nantucket, Virginia, San Francisco, Greece, Nebraska...

The Peeps aren't vintage but I got them for $.25 and they are stinking cute, no? I got all this great Tupperware for a bargain. The little Pak-n-Carry lunch tote is adorable and is in mint condition. Some little tot did not get to enjoy this as much as I would have if I'd had one back then. I may not be able to let this one go.

Romper, bomper, stomper boo... I guess Romper Room was our version of Barney. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do... I must have been really small when I watched Romper Room because I can barely grasp a memory of it. Magic Mirror, tell me today... I do remember actually standing up and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Have all my friends had fun at play? I remember her magic mirror in which she said this rhyme but never my name. I can see Scotty and Kimberly and Julie...and all of you boys and girls out there. Do you remember? Disclaimer: Yeah, I had to look up most of the lyrics.

Rocking Nuns, Archie Andrews and a Score!

Finally able to get some thrifting in the last couple weeks. Took my Aunt Margaret with me this past weekend. You could tell we're totally different generations - she was chatting everybody up in the stores, telling them what great stuff they had and how her niece finally took her to her secret stores of vintage goodies. I'm not a chatter - just want to get in, rummage through everything and get out with my finds. At one point she couldn't find me and was roaming the aisles hollering my name. I just ignored it and she eventually found me... "Oh, there you are. Didn't you hear me calling you?"

Didn't find a whole lot of things. I'm going to be on the move in a couple of months so I can't buy any big furniture type things - which is really, really hard to not do. But the smalls (a vintage finding word I learned from Sue @ Vintage Rescue Squad) have been pretty good finds. The china is Noritake Reina and I got an exceptionally good deal. This is the Score! I refer to in the post title. There is a teapot or coffee pot out there somewhere that goes with this line and I am on the HUNT to complete this set. It's such a pretty set, it will be hard to let it go. But when do I ever have tea parties? Someone out there will put it to good use. Right?

Check out these rockin' little ladies. Too cute.

And this lady? I know she's Avon and not very vintage, but she is beautiful and she was another good deal (it was 50% off weekend at the Salvation Army). When my aunt saw her, she about fainted. She held her the whole drive home. Mine.

Archie! I love Archie comics. These aren't old, as you can see by the price, but they were a quarter each. I used to collect the really old Archie comics and had quite a collection but in eBay's early years I sold them. Got a good deal on them, but now wish... oh well.

This little dish I bought expressly for this reason - to hold these adorably cute little sugar flowers. I got the idea to make them from Jessica @ Such Pretty Things. Totally easy and totally cute. And tasty. Totally.

Since I'm moving soon and am going to do a vintage store booth when I get there, now I gotta pack all this stuff up. I think I'll keep the Archie comics out and read 'em.

And oh, I taught myself to knit this weekend and made a loaf of beer bread. I got hobbies all over the place!

Finding Joy at Target, a Bus Stop, and Even a Cemetery

Sometimes you feel like a nut...

I haven't had much time to "find vintage" lately and really only have a couple of new/old items on hand. But tomorrow is Friday and I like to walk over to the 7 or 8 thrift stores by my work during my lunch hour on Fridays.

So for now, I thought I'd do a post on Finding Joy. Since Christmas I've been trying to find something everyday that gives me joy. Most days I forget because... well life is like that. You blast through your day and rarely take the time to smell the roses, or find the joy. But here are a few that I have found.

Little Blonde Girl at Target

I was next in line at the checkout at Target a couple of weeks ago. A woman and a little blonde girl (5 years old maybe) were in front of me. As the woman was paying for her items, the little girl was sitting in the child seat of the cart facing me. I said to the little girl, "Hi there, how are you?" She just smiled sweetly and shyly. And as the woman pulled the cart forward to leave, the little girl excitedly said, "Mommy, that pretty lady said hi to me!" Little blonde girl at Target made. my. day.

The School Bus Stop

Everyday as I drive to work I see this a young boy and girl (maybe 7 or 8 years old) waiting for the school bus. They make me smile every day because they're very cute and they're usually all happy-go-lucky, talking animatedly and just being silly. Couple of days ago, it was just starting to drizzle and as I passed the bus stop, I noticed that the boy was holding his book bag over the girl's head. Chivalry at such a young age is heartening.

The Hummingbird

This past weekend I visited the gravesite of a very special person. As I was arranging the bouquet of flowers in the ground vase, a hummingbird fluttered up. It startled me at first cause... well those things dart around quite quickly. I smiled and went about my business and the hummingbird just kept fluttering about me. Now I know he was just waiting for me to hurry up so he could sample some fresh nectar. But he just fluttered around while I finished with the flowers, dusted the headstone off, picked up some trash that was littered about, and knelt there for some reflection. He was so close to me at one point, his wings ruffled my hair (and his wings sounded like a helicopter). As I walked away, he darted in and out, in and out of the bouquet of flowers. I thought about that hummingbird all day.

Here's hoping the rain stays away tomorrow and I'll find some vintage things to share.

P.S. And oh yes, I find joy in eating Almond Joys, my #1 favorite candy bar!

Maiden Post

In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm launching Finding Vintage with a pink theme. I'm not all that keen about it and will likely change it, but I wanted to get this blog thing going.

Finding Vintage... one of my greatest joys is walking around an antique store, a thrift store, a garage sale... looking for vintage things. One of my longest running dreams is to have a booth in an antique store displaying (and selling) all of my vintage finds. My life is "on the move" yet again and I'm not quite settled where I want to be; so until then, I'll just blog along the way.

Need to give a shout out to a couple of bloggers who inspired me to get going - Jessica at Such Pretty Things, such a pretty pretty blog - design, photos and crafts; Suzy at GeorgiaPeachez, her creations are divine (and I saw one of her aprons in a magazine at Barnes & Noble just yesterday!); and Colleen at freshvintage. freshvintage was the first blog I happened upon on a sick day home from work and I was hooked. I read every one of her posts and her other blog - FreshBlogTips - was the kick start to my blog journey.

So on to the vintage things...

I found these things at various thrift stores over the past few weeks and probably spent no more than $20 total. I ♥ the metal wall shelf and basket - which I painted pink, they were originally purple and brass - I'll have to think twice about re-selling those.

Do you know what this is? I'd never seen one of these before and didn't know what it's use was, but it was $2 and really cute. After some research (thank you Google!), I learned that it's a sugar scuttle and usually has a little scoop with it. Wish I could find that. How cute would that be? In it, I've had M&M's, altoids, red hots, etc. Candy didn't last long, so now it's got little flowers.

And my favoritest find of this bunch...

I am a '50s freak. I was born in the '60s. The late '60s. But I ♥ everything '50s - kitchen stuff, furniture, cars, music... I think my parents kept all of their '50s stuff for a good 20 years and I was just so used to seeing it. This Yellowstone Park travel bag just screams '50s to me. I found it at a thrift shop for $1 and it was in bad shape. It had a bunch of puffy Christmas stickers on it and the prior owner had written her name on the bag in the little name tag windows (her name was Ethel - totally '50s huh?). But I cleaned it up pretty good and I'm gonna have a hard time giving this away. And... I would so totally carry this on a plane.