Mon Idée Fixe=My obsessions. Professional author, writer, blogger, ghost writer, mother, wife, and lunatic. I write about what I want not what I must. If something catches my fancy I'll write about it here & hope it catches yours too! I have a wide range of interests & write about about it all! I hope you enjoy my blog and stop by often!
Next up are some more things I found this weekend. Its interesting I can go months on end without finding a thing, then in one weekend find a plethora of goodies! Without further adieu, here they are!
Irish wool blanket. The label says its a shawl, but its so big it'll fit a twin size bed easily.
Irish wool blanket, found at the church sale on Friday.
This 50's chenille coverlet was purchased last spring at a church sale. It was filthy but I was able to get all the stains out, now making it perfect! It makes a nice throw when it gets chilly out on the porch at night.
Got this linen towel Sunday at the first estate sale on Sunday, I actually have two others exactly the same purchased unused over 20 years ago!
From the first estate sale Sunday. The woman had tons of hand embroidered, crocheted, and knitted pieces that were in beautiful condition.
Another Mexican themed embroidered linen towel from the same sale.
Look how pretty they look all lined up!
I found two of these linen towels.
Look at the beautiful embroidery!
I know it seems crazy that I have all these linen and tea towels, but I actually use them. I prefer using them over wasting paper towels. Love the pretty birds in the tree on this one!
This is one of three kitchen cabinet units we found. This one dates to around the 40's-50's and has a lovely grey formica top typical of the era.
Bread box!
Here is the second cabinet, same formica patterned top.
This one is the last and the oldest, dating to the 30s. It has a cast iron enameled top with great deco details around the bottom.
The interior, made by "Artcrest"
The top view, its not grey, its white enamel.
My evening cocktail... I created a new Pimm's Cup with Pellegrino Blood Orange and a dash of Pomegranite juice, yuuuum! (It looks better when the ice hasn't melted!)
I have probably one or two more posts, so more linens (I found a lace tablecloth that is exactly the same as the one my grandmother made!) and some funky clothing I've picked up over the summer. But for now I have a zillion errands to run and need to get hopping!
Here is the second part of what I was able to find this weekend at a few yard sales.
I had recently mentioned on Bella Morte's blog that I had a great teapot collection (pissed that I missed out on a sale that had a monkey teapot!), but really needed to start looking for teacups. And I found them in abundance! So many I had a hard time choosing! I love the look of mismatched teacups and plates when setting the table for dessert, so it only stands to reason that I'd like a nice variety of teacups!
The ivy planter on the left is made by Metlox, and I have one I got about 20 years ago when I had my flea market booth. So now I have two! I'd like to find some nice succulents to put in both. (I'm on a succulent kick at he moment, filling all my little vintage planters and vases with them as they look so interesting when you group them together and are very easy maintenance! The only problem is the dearth of succulents this time of year, I guess I'll have to wait until the cooler weather hits and people start thinking of houseplants.) The hot place looks like it might be from either the 50's or 60s due to the print on the reverse which was a typical print for kitchen counter tops back then. The yellow flowered plates where not from this weekend, I went garbage picking when a house nearby had a ton of things destined for the landfill. These are made by Blue Ridge and quite collectible. I probably won't keep them as they don't match any of my other plates, so some lucky person may get them when I do the flea market in a few weeks! (If you're interested, let me know, they'll be going for very little as I like to pass on a bargain.)
Some of the cups and saucers I picked up at the first tag sale. All the cups and saucers were $3 a set and in perfect condition with no chips or cracks. The blue (the remind me of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton) is by "Rosina", The green by "Paragon", The black by "Royal Stafford", all made in England. Oh look, a shot of my husband's work van in the background. Its so weird looking, one of those Mercedes vans that are super tall -- they look so odd when you're used to seeing "regular" vans. He can't wait to be rid of it!
The green is by "Aynsley", the footed iridescent cup and saucer have no markings, nor does the yellow on the left, and the yellow on the right is by "Aynsley".
Large closeup of the footed iridescent cup with delicate cutouts on the saucer. We actually went back towards the end of the sale and I couldn't leave that one behind!
Note how the "Aynsley" saucer doesn't match the cup ): I actually love the cup more as it looks very 30s.
An unopened envelope of doilies! Look at the fantastic graphics! I may never open it, even though the doilies look so pretty and would make any dessert so glamorous!
The Dansk crock (soup tureen?) was picked up Friday at a church rummage sale. There isn't any marking aside from "Dansk" so I have to do a little research to see if its heatproof. It would be so useful if it can go stove top or in the oven as I love to make soup and stew when the temps drop. I have loads more to show from that excursion, after they get out of the laundry! The Danish plate is from the first yard sale, such a lovely shape with delicate design.
It was never used, still with its original sticker. Have no doubt, I will definitely use this piece!
I always snap up vintage glasses as I'm a klutz who breaks them easily. I actually already broke my fav one, the pink and black! (Yeah I was drinking iced tea when I took the pics!) The black pitcher is sooo heavy, purchased at the second sale where the owner told me it was quite old. Perfect condition too!
So there you have the next installment. I will try to get to the rest over the week... at the sale I got the Viking sewing machine, I also picked up a ton of other stuff as the second day we went they had a bag sale. Cute vintage, newer items, housewares, and more. And thankfully we dropped off four boxes and three massive bags of donations so I made some room for new goodies to come into our home!
I hope this was an enjoyable peek into the types of things that catch my fancy as I love seeing what all of you choose to keep from clogging up the landfills!
Today we went to a few tag sales, which we hadn't done in some time. They were interesting sales, one was the estate of a 102 year old woman who ran a farm locally. She traveled extensively, and had some great finds. The house, basement and garage were stuffed to the gills, and the sale had actually started yesterday! Another was a family with many years accumulation. I've got a bunch of stuff in the dishwasher, but here is what I did manage to photograph.
Large framed French fashion print -- I have quite a few smaller ones so they will look nice grouped together. A small framed Picasso print, a rusty old toolbox, a fab faux leopard hat that came with the hat stand and I was able to snag another hat stand as well!
A 1930s peach silk teddy, unworn! (The lighting makes it look pink, but its peach.)
A silver mink stole in perfect condition -- goes great with my hair!
60s tote, it has snaps so you can make it into a smaller size.
Same tote opened to full size. Love the colour combo!
And for the old lady with a back injury and bad knees, a 60s heating pad that still works!
I have a whole bunch more, mostly glassware and housewares, some interesting tea cups and little bits and bobs which I will photograph after they've dried. I also got some fantastic vintage 30s-50s freestanding metal cabinets. Since I've been trying to do small renovations to my kitchen, I may wind up ripping out some of the hideous cabinetry and use them there instead! So look forward to more pictures this week!
Also, if you fancy a ride up to the' burbs, I'll be doing a flea market at the local historical society the weekend after Labour Day. Its always a great sale, with a variety of vendors, mostly vintage and antique and I'm hoping I can move some of my clutter out! I have so many fab vintage items I no longer use (most have been replaced) as well as some fantastic vintage clothing. If you're interested, please feel free to email and I'd be happy to give you directions as its quite easy to get to from the train station or by car. (punk.glam.queen at gmail dot com) Hopefully this will give me a leg up and I can get my Etsy shop going again as I did really well in the past! (But then got too lazy... wish they would come up with an easy shipping calculator!)
I hope you had a great weekend, besides hitting the tag sales today, I hit a church rummage sale on Saturday and found some interesting things as well!
A little public service announcement I thought everyone in NY state should be aware. Gov. Cuomo is about to allow the use of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") in the Catskills and I believe through the Adirondacks. This area has one of the largest natural water tables in the US and supplies water to NYC as well as other areas. Fracking could destroy not only the landscape -- its already destroyed massive areas in PA -- but poison our drinking water (as it has also in PA) amongst other horrors (please go to the website to learn more.) I urge you to become aware and involved in this issue as it is of vital importance to those of us in the areas served, but also could set precedence for future laws against fracking across the US. Artists Against Fracking
Here is the official video, loads of faces you'll recognise!
Last week I was up in Woodstock, and took a few snaps. Woodstock in one of the areas that would be affected by fracking. The area is mostly beautiful countryside, with the tiny main town of Woodstock in a very small area (thank goodness it hasn't become a massive mall!) Here are a few snaps.
Tinker St. Woodstock, NY. They have different guitars spaced along the whole of the town.
Village Green, Woodstock, NY
If you visit Yoko Ono's site -- Imagine Peace -- you will also find more information, such as the letter she wrote to Gov. Cuomo, and ways to tweet to alert others to what could happen in NY state.
For those of you overseas, NY state is not just big cities like NYC. We have it all -- except a desert, which I could do without, frankly -- our countryside goes on and on, we have mountains aplenty, valleys, rivers, oceanside, and more. I often come back from other areas of the US feeling a little disappointed, mainly because we do have it all just within our state of NY! I Love NY is a tourism website, but can give you an idea of what you will find within NYS.
I do hope this information has helped to get the word out, as well as urge action to stop fracking within the beautiful state of NY. We can devote our time to developing alternative fuel options, rather than destroy our landscape, poison our people, and cause a mass exodus of those who can afford to leave the state. I love NY through and through and while I have lived elsewhere, I always must return. I would hate to have to leave forever -- there isn't anyplace else I'd want to live!
Okay so I didn't plunder a village and bring home a real Viking, but I did feel like I did some pillaging when I snagged this Viking Husqvarna for $20 last week at a church "White Elephant" sale (amongst other goodies I'll try to show off soon.)
There isn't a copyright date on any of the booklets that came with it, but judging from the fashions in the "For Fashion or Fun" booklet I thought it to be late 60's early 70's. Upon further investigation I found a date written by the owner on the inside of the "How to sew with your new VIKING Husqvarna 6000 Series" booklet, saying 30 Nov 1971, a day after my birthday! (Ahem, and some years after I was born.)
Still with the $20 price sticker!
I was told that the woman who donated it was the original owner, said it does work, and is a "workhorse" but she was elderly and didn't sew anymore so she donated it. I love that it has a sticker inside with her name and previous address, as well as a receipt for some repairs made in 1998. Imagine that -- she owned the machine for 27 years before needing to do any repairs! (That's what I'm presuming since she kept everything else with the machine.)
Look at the pristine striped interior! The piece covering the machine is a piece that comes off so you have a free arm to work with -- great for doing things like leg or arm seams.
Still in the box, but looking good, quite clean and well-cared for!
I'd been told that Vikings are one of the best (if not the best) sewing machines around however new ones are cost prohibitive, and vintage ones are pretty pricey as well. After sleuthing a little on eBay I found one a bit newer to mine (just by a little, model 6030, mine is a 6020) had manuals as well as cams A-D (a "cam" is the piece you insert to get different stitches on older machines, new machines just have a dial you switch to and it will sew in that stitch) like mine, sold last week for $281.85 plus $37.07 shipping (these suckers are HEAVY nearly all metal!) But others without the case or any manuals, and only one cam sold for $49.99 to $75.00. This week there are more active listings and the prices are all over, going from $30.00 to $249.99. (There is one I found amusing because one of the booklets has the date of 28 Dec 1973, a day before my husband's birthday! How bizarre to find two manuals with dates so close to me and my husbands birthdays!) So I'm not really sure what mine is worth... as I used to say when I had the flea market biz "it's only worth as much as someone will pay for it!" To me, its still a steal as a working machine for $20 is pretty damn good, especially one that has so many of its original components.
The booklets that were included.
At look at the fashions in the "For Fashion or Fun" booklet.
The only thing it looks like I might have to fork over some cash for is if I want a different presser foot (or possibly "feet" should I need more which are used for different stitches) and cams E-K if the stitches they create of use to me. All these little parts add up quickly, so if I do need extras I'm hoping to run across bulk lots to keep the prices down. Who knows, I haven't even taken it out of the case yet to play, so there may very well be more presser feet hiding in there somewhere, now wouldn't that be a nice surprise?
I've had a bit of a trip down memory lane lately, being pushed (from all angles) into writing my rock n roll life stories. I came across a diary from the early 80s where I had written "Met Peter Murphy" and nothing else. Wtf? I loved that man, still do. Why I didn't write more details is beyond me. I guess I was happy enough to have met and hung out with him. Told the Punk Glam Princess I loved him because he sounded like an animal when he sang! Anyway got talking with the husband (Grand Master Flash of the Ministry of Silly Walks) and remembered that the popular Maxell advertisement here didn't feature Peter Murphy like the one in the UK. YouTube to the rescue!
And since I was taking this wee walk down memory lane, I remembered the opening sequence of
"The Hunger" with "Bela Lugosi's Dead". While I wasn't thrilled with the YouTube videos (they went on and on and def NSFW) I did find an interesting live version with Trent Rezner (Pope Trent, whom I also love as he can sound quite animalistic -- got a theme going there...) and Peter Murphy. It won't let me embed, so you'll have to click on it to view, but definitely worth it!
Another great late 80s, early 90s band. In the US they had to change their name to the London Quireboys because of some other band (boo!) They were an amazing live band, I think this was another I had seen both here and in London. I do recall I met my husband right when they had hit NYC (thinking back, I think I met him the night before I saw them perform!) so the album (yes I have it in vinyl, looove my vinyl!) "A Little Bit of What You Fancy" will always be special to me. Special thanks to Nadia for making me go through my iTunes library!
