Collecting

Hundreds of Star Wars toys from Scott's collection packed for the Antique Station

The habit of collecting is a hobby I never fully understood since I never thought of myself as a collector. But when you break it down I'm willing to bet that everyone is or was a collector of something at some point. Two obvious types of collectors are those like myself who don't fancy themselves collectors and those like my now live-in-boyfriend Scott who border on hoarding.

Although I do feel like a complete fake calling myself by the term collector, it's been quite the epiphany realizing the collector of my childhood. Isn't it safe to say that all children are collectors? I collected Barbie Dolls and Cabbage Patch Kids, granted they were my toys and I did play with them, unlike Scott who has hundreds of unopened Star Wars toys and boxes of unopened baseball cards, I had more than three and in one bloggers opinion that constitutes a collection. The difference - his are pristine and mine, well... they were sold in a yard sale years ago.

Early Birdies

Prepping for an early morning tomorrow, rise and shine is 7am - hitting the sales with a gang by 8am! I've just compiled a gnarly list of yard sales from WEHO eastward, three pages to be exact. Why you ask, I'm unsure, it's far to many for one day! And since I hate to be selfish with my time I thought I should offer to share - if there's anyone out there in LA who'd like join my yard sale email list (so far it's just me) hit me up at SELLINGVINTAGE@GMAIL.COM and I'll forward it along to you whenever I compile one! It's not every week but hey, why should we both do the work.

Also, the list will change weekly, some days I'll be hitting up Santa Monica and others the Valley or OC so you'll never know what you get. Surprise, surprise lovelies.

Vintage Mag Ads - Oh My!

Sorry I've been MIA this week my darling readers, really there is just no good excuse. But I'm coming back at you with this fantastic collection of magazine ads ranging from the early 1900's to the 1970's. They're inspirational, they're fun, and... they're for sale! Most anyway.



Wrangler 1978



Foster Grant 1967 featuring Woody Allen



Carlye 1952

Liliann 1954



Peck and Peck 1952



Ship 'n Shore 1952



Monte Sano and Pruzan 1949



Himelhoch's 1949



Acme Gloves 1949



Revillon 1925



GD Corsets 1902


Aren't those little gems fun. I can't tell you how much in love with magazines I am - always have been. It's such a shame what has happened to that industry due to this "recession" that we are in, all of these fantastic magazines have gone under. I can only dream that when things pick up again we'll see a swarm of new and wonderful titles hit the shelves.

Ojai - City Guide

This weekend I was finally able to mark Ojai off of the day trip agenda. After living in LA for five years, after wanting to visit Ojai and always visiting Santa Barbara instead the clouds parted, the sun shown through and I finally made the pilgrimage to the artist enclave North/East or West/East according to signs on the 101, of LA. I picked up my new-to-me Jeep Liberty on Friday and bright and early Saturday morning Scott, Lucas and I packed up and headed out.

As with a trip to any town it started out with a quick perusal of my Iphone Yelp application to scope a fine eating establishment and local thrift stores. Here's what we found.

WHERE WE ATE:

Jersey Mike's Subs
423 E. Ojai Avenue
Ojai, CA 93023

We ended up here for two reasons, one - it was cheap, two - they had tables outside and Lucas could join. There were a lot of restaurants on this little strip in Ojai but only two others had outdoor seating and Scott wasn't feeling Mexican that day. Jersey Mike's is simply a great sub shop with freshly saved meet, basic ingredients and a heavy helping of olive oil and vinegar.

WHERE TO SHOP:

Second Helping Thrift Store
108 Fox St
Ojai, CA 93023

Don't mind if I do take seconds when they're coming from Second Helping Thrift Store. The prices are great which is number one on my list of a good thrift store, as for the selection of clothing, it was as if no person with an ounce of taste had stepped foot inside. I found three purses, three wool scarfs, two silk scarves, two pairs of gloves - one leather, the other felt, and two shirts. What a day!

Hidden Treasure Thrift Store
Located a couple blocks past Fox Street on the opposite side, it's right on Ojai Avenue.

A little overpriced but fun quirky items - I didn't buy anything but it's worth a visit.

Community Thrift Store
North of Ojai Avenue on Montgomery

Closed after 2pm.

TO DO:

Old Creek Ranch & Winery
10024 Old Creek Rd
Oakview, CA 93022

Great things were said about this winery when my girlfriends learned I was trekking to Ojai, it has excellent Yelp reviews, and given more time it would've been a necessary stop along the way. Even so, it's still on the list for another day, another time.

WHERE TO STAY:

Ojai Valley Inn & Spa
905 Country Club Rd
Ojai, CA 93023

Having never visited the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa it's surprising that I am able say it has an aura about it. Of course that's a direct effect of advertising but it also receives rave reviews through and through. I'm longing for a romantic visit with a stay here... hint, hint - Scott you better be reading this. ; )

FINAL SAY:

A real artist community with cute shops and restaurants. If you're looking for a great day trip from LA visit Ojai, the air is fresh, people friendly, the town is peaceful - a place to breath. And if you're looking for thrift stores they are plenty, but Ojai has a lot more to offer.

We ended the day with a drive past Lake Casitas and back to the highway home.

Oh la la - vintage dresses!

Traditionally I have two rules when shopping for a vintage dress, these rules also apply when shopping in general:

1. Do I like it?
2. Does it fit?

Pretty simple. But now that I'm Selling Vintage I'm finding myself considering and making myself crazy over clothes that fall under "other".

Things that go through my head:

It's cute but has shoulder pads (a loud shriek ensues).
Doesn't fit.
Would someone like it anyway?
Is it worth anything?

The frustration over having these questions and the inability to promptly locate the item on my Iphone gets to be too much - I toss it all back and leave. That's what happened today anyway.

Below are a few photos I took before jumping ship, I would love to hear what you think.


Cindy Mancini spilled red wine on her mother's white suede dress, could this be it - died to cover it up!



Paired with a belt and pretty tan flats this vintage dress could be the closest thing we have to a winner.



A little electric blue number could add a lot of fun to any closet but this one isn't worth it's $7 price tag.



Those are separate sleeves with what I assume looks like a necklace on, and the dress... velvet. Need I say more?

Promptly upon arriving home I jumped online to see what I could find out about some of these dresses, and promptly I was side-tracked by the dance dresses at Posh Girl Vintage. The images in the collage of photos above are taken from their website - merely a handful of the goodies available.

I have one last question for you - bring back the 50's mom with me?

DIY: Camera Strap from Design Sponge

Anybody who knows Design*Sponge loves it, maybe that has something to do with posts like this DIY for a camera strap cover - tops.

Mission: hunt down camera straps at thrift stores. Make a run at this DIY. Let you know how it turns out.

Father's Day

With Father's Day around the corner I decided to browse Etsy's section dedicated to just that and see what the handmade folks had for me to choose from. I have to admit that I'm slightly disappointed with having searched one hundred pages to find seven items but, you know what your taste could be different than mine, and there really is all kinds of great stuff just waiting to be discovered.

But maybe you'll like the items I picked out.


My childhood was spent on a boat, my father loved to fish. The go to gift for my dad has fish on it, or Harley's, Levi's, Rock 'n Roll. Too bad he doesn't drink coffee but if yours does I LOVE this mug.



Gift baskets are always really terrific gifts, and this particular one was so well thought out for the man in your life. Okay, I'm just sold on the "Bites Stings Burns & Ouches".



If only my dad were this adorable, or my boyfriend - these caps are plain nice.



My boyfriend received a guitar strap for his birthday last year, possibly his favorite gift from me in the three years we've been together. This one is vegan, and oh so cute. It looks comfortable and so very hippie.


A great looking laptop bag for the man who's always working.


Nothing says I love you like a card that says I heart U.

Adding to Etsy

Opening an Etsy account has been a very exciting thing so far, not in the rah-rah kind of way of course but in the something new to work on kind of way. Adding new items to the store has kept me busy, in fact deciding which items to sell on Etsy kept me pretty busy today.

I made a pilgrimage to good 'ole Antique Station to load up and out, choosing a few new items for Etsy that I don't mind gracing the house. The Etsy store is up to a big eight items, check them out: www.sellingvintage.etsy.com.

The photo above is of one of those things I REALLY enjoy around the house. It's pure crystal and super heavy, I had to guess $20.00 to ship it! Wows ah.

Rose Bowl Flea Market

No matter how hard I try you just can't get me out of bed early enough. It's said by most people that you need to hit the yard sales early, hence why I don't hit them all to often, and the same goes for the flea markets - they even have a special VIP-extra-expensive entrance fee for the early birds. I'm of the school of thought (and I may be the only person who belongs to this school) that it's good to hit up flea markets later in the day, because the later you go the more likely vendors will be to haggle with you on the price, after all they don't want to load it back up and take it home.

Today I packed up and headed to Pasadena's Rose Bowl Flea Market on the early side of noon. The $8 entrance fee allowed access to an overwhelming number of dealers slinging goods, most of it too expensive for me to resell, however a little searching did result in a couple decent deals.

If it weren't for a girl holding this condiment tray flat in her hand and contemplating it's purchase far too long for my patience I may have past right by my favorite find of the day.

For more information on this condiment tray check it out at http://sellingvintage.Etsy.com.


I actually paced around this lamp while waiting to pounce on the above condiment set, and finally decided to haggle the women down from $25 - she took it because "what the hell I don't want to pack it back up".

Also bought a couple of aprons which I have yet to photograph. I'm really excited to see if these will sell at the Antique Station.

Here are some items I passed on up:


Here is an incomplete lot of dishes designed by two different California pottery companies that I'm quite sad I didn't go back for - only $25!

I own one of these cups - it was kind of fun to see the set.

Ooohh... Ahhh...

Old books are just way too cool.

Now that I own Milk Glass it's catches my attention but I saw no deals to be had.

These brown chairs, all four of them, are "one of the first prototypes" and valued by their owner at $1200!!

80's stickers - sweet.

I just love this suitcase for the stickers.

And there you have it, a Sunday after noon.

Etsy

I'm so excited about the Etsy account I just set up! It was an easy process and it's reasonably priced - only $.20 to list and Etsy takes 3.5% of the sale. Check out my store: www.sellingvintage.etsy.com.

Vintage Giveaway

There's one thing I love more than a great deal - FREE stuff, actually, great free stuff! It's a little jarring how much you can find online for free, given the time of course, but the problem I find with most of the stuff most of the time is that, frankly, it's all crap I don't need nor want, and if it is desirable you find yourself competing with thousands of other people.

Every now and then there's the gem of a "contest" that pops up and you find yourself with a good chance to take home the prize. If you're into that, if you like good-looking vintage goods and you like getting them for free then you should check out Sonya's giveaway on her blog Dime Store Thrift which you should check out anyway.

Good Luck!

Barter

Time is a commodity I have a lot more of than money these days, a theme that resides with much of the country, and with time has come the opportunity to put more effort toward discovering new interests. Obviously I have focused some of my time on scouring thrift stores and yard sales, and writing about my discoveries on this blog.

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately for me my interest in design doesn't mean I'm good at creating design, and as mentioned previously my friend Tony and I entered into a barter agreement - he designed the logo you see here and I've been ever so periodically on the hunt for vintage tee's. The enjoyment I find weeding through thrift store bric-brac does not relay over to thrift store clothing but a deal is a deal. Hitting up the racks attempt number one left me empty handed but once again thrift store Mecca paid off, here are the finds, some better than others.

This here is the shirt Tony likes - HALLELUJAH, I found one!

This shirt is cool but looking like it was purchased from a department store within the last couple years isn't all THAT cool. I contemplated it but unsure what I was looking for gave it a go.

This would be great if it wasn't made by the Gap - same issue as above.

Love this shirt. It's not Tony but I think it might be our friend Chris.

What girl doesn't love herself a fire-fighter, really, just wear it.