Oopsy - Busy!

Oh gee, I've been busy and neglecting my blog - the shame! What's that you ask? What have I been up to?! Well... let me tell you: shopping, sorting, photographing, moving and listing.

It's so much more fun to show you though!

I love to entertain and have a very real affinity for any item that makes my job as hostess easier. These low ball glasses are gorgeous and the mid-century style carrier is just right to stun your guests. I just hate to let it go!



Pyrex is one of those items that makes cooking down right delightful hence the popularity of this vintage kitchenware. I was so lucky to find this casserole dish in mint condition.



Isn't this the cutest?! I haven't a clue about it's use but I just love it.



This is a vintage AVON piece. It's really pretty but I mainly bought it because I know there must be someone out there who wants to buy it from me - I just know it!



All of these goodies were bought on recent thrifting trip to Ventura. There's more but I haven't shot those items yet. And a city guide to come!

A Mint Condition

In the previous post I highlighted passes for last week, yes, I'm a bit behind on my posts and as you can see from the passes I was not busy last week therefore... I don't know, the dog ate my homework?

Under normal circumstances I would wait to post about a pass and I'd do it with many more, but I'm finding it difficult to wait on this one because I cannot get it out of my head. I really like this table, on the verge of mint condition it was way worth the $46 The Salvation Army wanted. I'm sure it will be gone when Friday rolls around and I make my way back to the OC but I'll check - should I buy it? Remember, I have to "try" to resell it.

Proper Logo

Notice something different on Selling Vintage? Don't worry, I'll spell it out for you - the kick-ass, super-cute header made by the very talented and brilliant Tony Vitali, thanks Tony, I will forever be browsing for the perfect t-shirt.

Opinions? Praise? Tony deserves it!

OC Bound

Oh, tomorrow is such an exciting day. I love heading to the OC with my car packed full, I love filing all the toys into my booth, and I'm so excited to see if anything sold. Part of me suspects that I won't have a ticket to my name since all of my goodies were priced fairly high but I really really hope that suspicion is wrong. It'll be so thrilling to see which items went and what people will pay for these things. I mean, it is completely possible that I'm the only fool out there who would be willing to pay $80.00 for a fondue pot - it's possible.

Check back tomorrow to see what sold, or not.

Driving Vintage

Buying vintage is fun but finding vintage that you can't buy due to size constraints is not. Four months ago I was dying for a sports car, specifically the Audi TT, but the stars never aligned and I was stuck driving the wreck of a VW Golf that I'm driving today. This turned out to be a very good thing, I lost my job and would never have been able to afford that car and now I can buy a car that will actually be useful in transporting all kinds of goodies - can you imagine trying to move a baker's rack with an Audi TT, good luck.

Purgatory isn't such a bad place, the VW Golf has decent cargo space, it enabled me to take home that great little desk, but it is entirely not capable of hauling the table I am oh so obsessed with. The one I've already highlighted twice on this very blog and visited again today only to find out that it was not only half off the price tag but an additional 30% on top of that - and still I cannot pack it up and bring it home.

And so the hunt continues, not for vintage but for a car, a car capable of hauling vintage, that is fuel efficient, and stylish. Let me just say that the search for a car is not nearly as fun as scouring thrift stores for cute bric-brac, in fact it's quite nauseating. I have a budget, I have expectations and nothing seems to meet my expectations and so I keep looking, and looking. So far I've narrowed it down to a few roomy, and one not as roomy (hey, it's cute) and for what they are, they kind of like the environment too.

This could be my favorite of the four. It has good ratings and reviews, I think the only bad review was the ergonomics of the driver and passenger seat. Mitsubishi Outlander:



Next up we have the Saturn Vue, I really like the body style but reviews - comme ci comme ca:



I've owned a VW for almost six years, at first I loved it, and still I'll tell you the engine is quality but dang the rest of it just falls apart! With that said, I'm considering another, the Jetta wagon:



And finally the Subaru WRX wagon, so cute! I've always loved this car but it's proving to be quite difficult to find one in my price range, and honestly I wonder about the cargo space:



So there it is, four semi-affordable vehicles that will get me what I need and want. I'm actually quite excited to get a new car, it's the leg work that drives me nuts.

This weeks pass.

What to buy is never a sure bet, either the price tag makes me question the likely hood of a profit or I'm not 100% about the item all together, sometimes it's a question of both, and every now and then size really matters. Although I am working on some ideas about how to overcome the storage obstacle, I've yet to figure out the pricing obstacle, which I imagine will come in due time.

I've decided to post a weekly blog highlighting items I've passed on, but due to the fact that I only decided this yesterday this weeks blog is going to be a bit slim. I'll do my best to take pictures and remember the cost, but every now and then I'll probably slip up - it's what I do. And I would love to hear your thoughts - tell me, do you agree with my decision or are you in love, should I have jumped?

The first item here you saw highlighted on yesterday's blog, this is a white Formica (I think, I'm no expert) table that seats four with two additional leafs to seat six or eight, the number of pretty blue chairs it comes with. One chair had a big gauge in the middle, another had a small one on the side, and the third was taped with green duct tape where it was coming apart on the bottom near the seat. All of which could be covered with a little creativity. Asking price - $125.



Here we have a hanging wine rack - $10 at the Salvation Army.



Today when I was out and about I decided to skip on this cute little lamp shade that was going for $3 at the UCLA Thrift Store.



I also passed on a pair of 70's style sugar and flour containers, white with a brown floral pattern ($5), a rough piece of desk with great form that had seen better days ($10), and due to transportation and fear of breaking glass I had to let the sweet little vanity that I probably would've kept go ($150). But I did get this adorable scallop chair that fit it perfectly.



More to come on the things I actually did buy tomorrow.

Day One

A couple of things: one, I don't know what I'm doing and two, it's fun. I started this blog four days ago and for you eleven readers out there, thanks, I'm having a blast. Initially my plan was, well, non existent, but it certainly did not involve sharing my ventures, but thanks to the one person that randomly commented on my blog I became motivated to tell my friends, and friends, I love you.

Today was the day, I woke up early, 6:00a.m. early, for reasons that don't pertain to this blog and I headed to The OC, car loaded with goodies. Fortunately for me my uncles employ a lovely man named Tony who unloaded that awfully heavy desk from my car and kindly moved it to my "antique" stall. Not only did he do all the hard work but he even cleaned the desk up for me and filled in that nasty gauge with something that made it not-so-nasty.

I made two trips to Home Depot and both times I bought items that need to be returned. Not only did I not know what I was buying but I don't know that I have ever felt so out of my realm - "I don't know, I need one of those L things for a bookcase, you know, they keep it steady against the wall" - seriously, the looks I received were priceless.

But everybody was so helpful and so nice, from Tony, the guy who sells goods he finds on the street in the Antique Station alley way, and who used to "live on the street", to the dude with Ray-Bans and a Hawaiian shirt directing me to pegs, at "the end of the isle and three bays down". Jason found the proper L-thingy (yes, L-thingy) and steadied my bookcase and Mary, the manager, seems like a pretty nice lady.

My booth is sparse. I'm shocked that my car packed full with nearly everything I have barely made a dent in that tiny 8x8 booth, but really, it barely made a dent. Check out the photo above, that's only HALF the booth, and it's nearly ALL of my stuff. I still need to bring some clothes, shoes and purses down, a couple of home ware goods and the Baker's Rack, but for now that's it.

I haven't decided if I'll head down again this week or if I'll wait until next, but I guess that's the beauty of it - it's for me to decide.

Salvation Army

I realize that what I'm buying I am significantly marking up, but as with any art (yes, I consider a good eye an art) there are those times that you just may not make a dime, today was not one of those days. Today I hit up the Van Nuys Salvation Army and let me tell you, it kicked ass. I left with a bag, a big bag, full of goodies and a pretty blue, round lamp for $20.08.

It's safe to say that if you're looking to turn a buck thrift stores are not the way to go - wake up early to hit the yard sales, head to a flea market, or as referenced in last nights blog scour the free section of Craigslist, but as a friend who's been doing this for years told me "thrift stores SUCK". That is except for the Salvation Army - the Van Nuys Salvation Army.

The most expensive thing I bought today other than the mid-century style desk with lock and key in-tact for $28 from the gold mine that is VNSA, was the retro cup holder pictured above - it was $8.40 and it came from a not as great Salvation Army in Canoga Park. Please note that it came from the "collection" section, a different cash register, a different room, displaying over-priced items. Fortunately this little treat was discounted 30%, the entire store was discounted 30%, in fact both Salvation Army's were discounted 30% - it was senior day and apparently I'm a senior!

I should probably explain that I did in fact leave thrift store heaven with a big bag and a round lamp, during which time I kept asking myself if I should return for the desk. Return for the desk I did. After much questioning, after sending a picture to my good friend and vintage connoisseur Julie Gollins and deliberating with her via text I decided I could throw the $28 down to see what comes of it. So far, no regret.

Tonight the desk sits where Josh left it, in my car, waiting for miss muscles here to make it magically appear in my stall. Tomorrow is it, I pack up and head to The OC with my VW treasure chest loaded to the gill, and then I wait.

Free

Another late night weeding through Craigslist, this time I went for it - FREE. What I thought would be complete junk resulted in some interesting finds, some good, some strange, some good to know and others... junk. I found free yarn, a lot of it according to the women who never followed through with her soon faded passion for knitting; free used doggy chew toys, I understand that it's a dog but something about that is gross to me; a free BOAT, it doesn't come with a trailer and there's no picture but it's a boat; and if you're looking to landscape your yard go here first there's sand, and gravel and dirt - tons of dirt, and plants; and plenty of wood, I feel a beach bonfire coming on soon. And then there's the "curb alerts", people just toss their stuff on a curb and hope it finds a new home, they post the address on craigslist and the race is on.

Around 10:00pm this evening I fell for a curb alert posted only 15 minutes before, I begged my boyfriend Scott to go with me, after all I would need help loading that "Trunk (Heavy, dark, antique looking)" that I was certain would still be there. An hour after the post we pull up at 1522 Michigan avenue and nothing. I am shocked, I circle the street like a stalker, creeping around until finally I'm convinced that someone beat me to the scene. But I'm not the only one, in the two minutes it took me to leave I saw two other cars creeping and turning, stopping and going, and I realized then that an hour is a long time in the "CL" world.

Stuff

I love stuff. Specifically old stuff, stuff for the house, designy stuff, cute stuff, 50's stuff or anything with nostalgia. I recently got a stall at the Antique Station in the Orange Circle, in the city of Orange, in the county of Orange just off Glassel. My stuff is being sold there. Here I am blogging about my stuff, stuff I keep and stuff I sell. It's not easy for me to sell my stuff, everything I buy I love. I've vowed to only buy stuff that I would keep in my house, stuff I would wear and stuff I hate to part with, that way if I can't sell my stuff at least I'll be happy with what I have.

I question myself a lot so even if I love my purchase I may still be nervous about it, and I'll blog about that and we'll see what happens. And if I love something too much I may just mark it up like crazy, and we'll see what happens - like the kick-ass fondue pot I recently bought, really, I don't know how I can part with it. Or the chipped pottery - I've never owned pottery. And if those camel suede shoes fit it'd be very, very tough.

I'm always on the hunt, for cool, for kitschy, danish modern, great dresses and shoes, and kitchen stuff, I love that nostalgia 50's mom with the apron and the dress, I love my apron, I love to cook and to entertain, and to be crafty. My Nana and I have the same style, what I have of hers I am fortunate to have - I wear my Nana's jewelry, I use her vases for my flowers, and her dishes for my food. I like birdies, and bright colors, and clean lines.

I like to hear what people think and get ideas from them. I'm always looking for a good thrift store, a good yard sale, a deal. I'm blogging about my stuff because I think it'll be fun, and if anybody decides to read this and wants to buy my stuff let me know. Some stuff I sell, some I could be persuaded to sell and there's some I just can't get rid of.