Thrift Store Art Find

Roaming through a local thrift store today with June, I found this original watercolor tucked away in a corner. It was $1.75 and is signed. I did a quick search on the 'net but didn't find anything. The store's label on the back called it a self portrait so they may know more about it than I do. I think it's really well done. The condition of the artboard isn't great, and it's roughly cut in places. It may even have been used behind another piece for a while.  But she'll have a place out in the open now.

June also bought me a cool little telescope there. The next clear night or celestial event and I'm going to try to see it, lol! At the least I bet I can get the moon in pretty good focus.

Sparkly Things: Vintage Gold Mesh Bags

I really don't know anything about these vintage gold mesh handbags. They were my mom's, bought in the 1950s, and are still like-new. One of them actually still has a little blue sales tag on it! The maker is "Whiting & Davis, Co" and they're still in business. I've always liked to hold these bags, even as a child. They're slinky! They're cool to the touch, have nice linings, and one has a little mirror inside wrapped in the same gold satin as the lining. The history of the company can be found, here. Apparently beginning in the 1950s the company started gifting each new First Lady with their gold mesh bags, but with diamond clasps...

Clown Car Arrives at Pink Gardens

Given to me just a few days ago, this newest part of my collection makes me smile so much! I love clowns and, of course, I love cars, so this vintage tin toy Clown Car is awesome! Expect to see him in some of my art really soon.

I turned 57 today, born in 1957. I guess it's a special year but I'm flat on my back with a sciatica flare up! 

One turns the clown's head to wind up the toy. Once you do, the car moves forward for about a foot, stops, backs up for about a foot, stops, and keeps on repeating. I love it.

The painted details are right up my alley with stripes, tiny squares and colors with a lot of patina.

Wandering Around Inside Recently

 

Some of my antique dolls sitting around resting and picking out their next book they want read to them.

This begonia is normally dark red in the summer, but it changes to a pale pink during the winter.

Fake pearls but real silver is the thrifty New England way for a certain generation, lol.

Vintage games and a 19th century toy gun wait for patiently for children that will never come back.

My shamrocks, Oxalis, prefer living on the porch in the summer, but they're suffering through the winter in my kitchen fairly well.

Working  at the computer most of the time, this Matlock marathon was a great boon this past weekend. I could watch older TV series like this all the time. Above, Andy Griffith and Don Knotts sure had a long history of acting together. 

My stuffed "Pop-n-Fresh" sports a hand crocheted cap these days. He looks thrilled about it!

 Vintage stuffed rabbit on the other hand prefers equally vintage silk scarves.

This wicker sewing box dates to the early 1950s and was bought in Japan. The interior is bright red satin, stuffed to use as a pin cushion, and the box is full of period sewing items.

Antique Minnesota brand sewing maching is home to all sorts of collectibles these days. My art surrounds it on all the walls.

Corvette is apparently in the hands of Uncle Sam these days, lol. Needs dusting. Spring Cleaning is not that far away, but there's no way I'm going to open a window yet these days!

My three-violet garden is flowerless right now, but has grown to a full 18-inches in width. I'm sure as soon as the days grow longer giving them more light, they'll all burst into flowers.

Vintage Ibelo Monopol Lighter

I've recently begun doing new scans of some of my cooler items. There are 14,587 I'd like to do first, lol. This is a vintage Ibelo lighter, engraved stainless steel from what I can tell, around 4-inches by 3-inches. The company is German, and I'm guessing my dad probably bought it in the late 1950s while we were stationed there. Love the art deco pattern! It just needs a small pin at the top to align the section that pivots, but I'm sure it's around here somewhere.

National Little Yellow Car Day!

Not really a national day, lol, but I felt like this table needed a bit of brightening up today. I walked around and found a bunch of yellow cars that were just right. I also added those cute little yellow vintage banana salt-and-pepper shakers.

Randomness

 

Self portrait, 1983. Cut paper, Rapidograph pen on cardboard, covered with Saran Wrap since new.

 

USS Goodrich, 831, Destroyer. Commissioned at just about the end of WW2, this was one of my Dad's ships. He was in the Navy from 1938-50 and then the Army until 1961. Image faded from hanging in the sun for years.

Lithographed letter from the LBJ White House, 1964-68. For some reason, LBJ sent out letters like this thanking deceased servicemen for their service. My grandfather died at home in 1942, and was a veteran of the first world war. While the signature is printed, not handwritten, the gold eagle at the top is nicely embossed. Faded/discolored from being framed and hung on a wall for decades.

 

This print of a WW1-era Fokker biplane probably dates back to only the 1960s or '70s. After taking it out of this wooden frame, I've decided it's actually probably cut from a calendar and then framed. Probably a garage-sale item. My parents used to love to go out weekends and find "bargains" around town, lol. I love the colors on this image, probably the reason my dad bought it. He loved colors as much as I do.

 

One of my mother's keepsakes, this 1938 Ice Follies program has lovely typography and period photography. This would have been my mom's nursing school days in prewar New Haven. She loved to go to the theater, events like these Ice Follies, restaurants, you name it. 

Shadows Dancing in the Early Morn

Regular readers of my blog know I'm fascinated with shadows. On the rare occasion I wake up very early, they always seem to be the strongest in my apartment. Above, a "shadow rider" gallops into one of my pieces hanging in his way. Some of the images in this post are brand new, some are from 2012. I've shot more than 30,000 photos in the past 10 year sor so and I frequently go back and look in old folders to see what I may have never processed.

One of my family ancestor's reflecting the livingroom curtains on its glass as well as the early morning shadows.

 

Shadows perfectly frame his eyes, which, yes, do follow you around the room in the best horror show tradition!

 

If it weren't for the mostly-closed curtain behind it signifying winter, this morning sun almost looks warm. It wasn't, lol!

A study in black and white, these circa 1990 Spring Maid towels have been a staple in my bathrooms since new. They're a bit threadbare and are covered with paint spots, but then again, almost everything I own has a bit of extra paint on it by now!

 

 

This antique framed portrait is completely original. It has never been opened up in the back since it was framed in the late 1800s. This piece was left in an attic for more than 75 years during an almost 50-year legal battle and is much the worse for it, but I love every tiny detail of its history writ large across it.

I've rearranged a few of my pieces around the apartment. The gold glazed vase on the left is a recent thrift store purchase, and absolutely beautiful Victorian piece covered in 24K gold. The style of glaze matches other pieces I've had in my collection but the fluted shape is new to me. I'm not positive of the technique but these pieces are "warranted gold" which is good enough for me, lol.

Perhaps a bit too harshly lit for her own good, my pink-haired Wishnik troll stands watch from her art case perch. That's my aunt's last car's gascap to the right from a 1972 Hornet. The covered "chicken dishes" were always used to hold salt to dipping fresh radishes into, something my Uncle Bill insisted on every summer.

 

My eyes are always open when I'm walking. Above, just a branch I found in the woods that just about yelled to me to bring it home. The curves and twists are just so elegantly formed, I've kept it for almost ten years now. That's a very thin Wedgewood bud vase on the left and a now-vintage wooden child's airplane toy. I like the "modern era's" electrical and cable outlets almost centered in this early morning image. This is actually the top of the TV and behind it. I'm not sure what I'd do with a modern flatscreen, I'd lose an entire horizontal surface to display things!

Happy 2014!

In the spring of 1954 my mother, father, and brother flew from San Francisco to New York. I believe they were coming back from living in Japan during the Korean Conflict. I wouldn't be born for another few years, another few Army bases, and another country. These three tickets added up to about $500, including extra baggage charges. Judging from all the Japanese antiques, paintings, and fragile collectibles they brought back, it was probably a charge they didn't mind paying. They must have shipped a bunch of it first, though. Make sure to scroll down and check out the in-flight menu! United Airlines even mentioned the chef in New York that had prepared the meals! This is quite the flight pack, inlcuding the tickets, seating plan, menu, information about traveling with babies, Rent-a-Car charts, even adhesive stickers and decals still in their waxed paper envelopes.

I hope everyone out there has a great 2014! From my perspective it can't be any worse than 2013, but then again, I somehow always find new cellars and basements below what I thought was the bottom floor.

From the Inside These Days

Much has been dusted and rearranged for the indoor seasons this year. I wasn't going to look at everything the way it had been for so long. Some things went up to the attic, some things came down, much really stayed pretty much the same but dusted and polished.