Feelin' Squirrelly

Another new vintage squirrel; this one's for my collection of ceramic animal figurines with fur.

Mouseketeer's Talent Round-Up Record

Retro Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Club record Mouseketeer's Talent Round-Up, #653, copyright, 1975; the 45 has the following songs: We're The Mouseketeers, A Rollin' Stone, Talent Round-up, and Hi To You.


The record itself has a big straight split, so I can't play it -- but I can't toss it either. Maybe there's a collector out there who really really needs this cover. Maybe I can discover a way to mend & play the 45. Maybe, maybe, maybe...

This is why I blog; to excuse the crap I hold onto under the guise of helping another collector find what they need.



Thanks to reruns playing after school during my teen babysitting years, every time I spy this on my shelf (and that happens more often than you might think), I hear the Mickey Mouse Club Today Is Tuesday song:

Today is Tuesday, you know what that means.
We're gonna have a special guest
So get out the broom and sweep the place clean.
And dust off the mat so the welcome can be seen.
Roll out the carpet, strike up the band,
And give out with a Hip, Hooray!
Wiggle your ears like good Mouseketeers.
We're gonna present a guest today
'Cause Tuesday is Guest Star Day!

This has nothing to do with the songs on this record, I suspect; but if I must have an earworm, you will too.

That would also be why I blog.

Piggy Bank Tales

I nearly bought this old kitschy piggy bank. It wasn't the padlock sans key that made me decline it (hubby has plenty of old keys -- and should his hundreds fail, my dad has thousands more); it was the fact that I'd already loaded my arms with books and spent my allowance. In hindsight, a locked piggy bank might have been more wise?

Hefty Hefty Chalkware

Huge (easily 14, maybe even 18 inches, tall) vintage plaster or chalkware pieces I didn't add to my collection because they were $65 for the pair. I love the lady reading!

Squeaky Peep Toe Hobo

Find out why my hobo is a wealthy bum

Look Like A Vintage Secretary

You could dress like Maureen O'Hara, or just carry a vintage movie star tablet.


I'm surprised any of these vintage writing tablets have survived... The "tops," with their celebrity images, maybe; but with paper? Amazing.

Read more about them at Things & Other Stuff, who also has some for salenow.

I Want To See Evelyn Green Dolls

In that amazing, amusing and much loved vintage issue of Profitable Hobbies magazine, a brief article on dolls by Evelyn Green, who, in 1951, had already made nearly 200 dolls.

Her collection, one of the most valuable in the nation, includes fur-clad cave-dwellers, Gay Nineties models, and modern bobby-sox types, depicting the fashions of mankind from 18,000 B.C. to the present. Mrs. Green requires a week or two to make a small doll and two or three months to complete a large, elaborate model. She has spent fourteen years on her hobby.

There's scant information about Evelyn Green dolls online; even though the doll maker was featured in Doll Collector Magazine in what appears to be 2005 (presumably prompted by the Evelyn Green portrait dolls which were de-accessioned, via Theriaults, from the collections of the Strong Museum in 2004). I found no clearly labled photos of the dolls themselves. Pooh.

Evelyn Green dolls now appaer to sell for between $200 and $400 each.

Contest Alert

This month Antique Trader is giving away a copy of Price Guide to Holt-Howard Collectibles and Related Ceramicware of the 50s & 60s. You can enter here, once a day for the entire month of June.

Looking For Vintage & Retro Fun?

I've started two new vintage carnivals: The History Is Ephemeral Carnival and The New Vintage Reviews Carnival. The premiere edition of New Vintage Reviews has been published here, and the first History Ephemeral carnival will be published within the next few days -- so keep looking!

You Can't Dust M&Ms

I had to buy this retro turquoise glass snack dish -- I mean, come on -- it's fab-u-lous! As the rooster says, "It's something to crow about!" (The photos don't do the turquoise color justice.)


At $2, it was a thrift shop steal.

But then, being 9.5 inches tall, and having a mouth diameter of 4.5 inches (much narrower than the base), it would cost, what, $45 to fill it with peanut butter M&M's?

Plus there's the additional cost of "a lifetime on the hips" -- because you cannot dust off M&M's, you have to eat them.

Vintage Snow White Chalkware

Added this cheap Snow White knock-off to my chalkware collection. She's not official Disney -- but that is real silver glitter. *eyebrow wiggle*

A Real Collector's Swap Event

Our family interviewed to be cast for ABC Family's Wife Swap.

But after a few long talks, we decided that we weren't a good fit for the show. Not only do we have a crazy family dynamic but the requirement to forgo being on any other television show for 18 months would then limit our pursuit of more educational projects, such as my work with domestic violence, special needs, and history/culture issues.

(Plus, while we don't mind laughing at or being laughed at especially regarding our collecting habits, we* aren't exactly loud exhibitionists.)

However, if you belong to a family of collectors and welcome the chance to participate in this social experiment called reality television (for financial honorarium too!), check out the casting call and then contact Matthew McLaughlin at matthew.mclaughlin@castingrdf.com ASAP. Don't forget to tell him that Deanna from Collectors' Quest sent you!

* When I say "we aren't exactly loud exhibitionists", I mean some of us are :cough-Me: and some of us aren't :cough-Him:

Bowling Pin Animals To Spare

I did add this bowling pin stork family to my stork collection... It was just $3.50.



But this deer made of small bowling pins (and on wheels -- so my mother-in-law would have loved him!) had to stay behind due to the $40 price tag. :sigh:

What's Verrry Intersting?

Find out more about this retro Laugh-In lunch box at Kitsch Slapped, my new blog at Twolia.

Looking Forward To Spring? Maybe Not With This Old Lawn Sprinkler

Via Collectors' Quest, an old clown lawn sprinkler:

It was in Indiana that I found this unusual lawn sprinkler clown made in Defiance, Ohio. Its tin body is held on a cast iron base, and one arm is articulated, holding the hose.

Vintage Geek Link Round Up

Vintage Goodness helps us all declare our Vintage Geek Pride.

Speaking of geeks, Michael Duff made me smile with his comment on the definition of "geek":

The Urban Dictionary defines “geek” as: The people you pick on in high school and wind up working for as an adult.

All this really proves is that the Urban Dictionary is written by geeks.

Past Perfect Vintage gives us history lessons on the inaugural dress of former First Ladies.

Cheetah Velour knows her stuff. The proof lies in the stuff she didn't buy -- and with good reason!

Crafting geeks, I wonder how well you know your pine cones!

Good Night, Nurse?

Back in September I promised I'd be reading some of my retro nurse novels; well, I just posted a review of Night Club Nurse at Collectors' Quest.

Trade Your Spaceship For Christmas Lights?

That's what I said.

Advice On Collecting Snow Globes

Freya collects snow globes and has this list of tips for collectors which I just love:

1) the trashier the better
2) glass is pretentious - go plastic whenever you can
3) like stamps, flaws can be awesome - if you see a Swiss Alps snow dome with no snow in it, grab it!
and 4) always leave the price tag on.

High-Five Friday - Thanks & Christmas Kitsch

1 & 2 Thanks to both Boing Boing and Jezebel for linking to the pixie pajama bag!

3 Hey, did you know I was interviewed over at Marty's ephemera blog? Thanks to Marty, you can now get deeper inside my twisted little mind. (You know you want to!)

4 Shawnee at Kinsanity has a cool campy Christmas series called The Holidays Are For...

5 Friday Night Lists has posted a Top 10 Bits of Christmas Kitsch.

Want to give high-fives too? Sure you do!

Make A Mammy (& Pappy) Racist Utensil Rack

Go ahead, I double-dog dare you.



As a white girl, I don't think I should even own these instructions and pattern from a vintage set of Coping Saw Carpentry For Boys & Girls cards... As I've said, Black Americana isn't something I feel good about collecting myself.

Whoopie, if you're reading this, I'll gladly send this to you for your collection. Free, of course.

Battle For The Soul Of Christmas

There's a war on between my evil soap people & the vintage felt Christmas elves, as noted in my CQ article.

What's A Pink Pussycat Worth?

I traded ephemera from the Pink Pussycat to Silent Porn Star (NWS, duh) for some magic beans -- the magic part is 'when' they will arrive *wink* Now she owes me. Big time.

Butts In The Air, Like They Just Don't Care

Vintage pottery animals with their butts in the air and holes where their tails ought to be.



I only have two, so it's not a collection yet. The cat is a rather popular planter motif and typically they had cactus planted to be their kitty tails. But the dog is more of a mystery -- despite a partial label on the bottom.



The hole is too small for the pup to be a planter; hubby suspects it had a bobble-tail which wagged. The tag reads Little Pete (or, it could be Little Peter), but exhaustive searches have turned up nothing. Know something about Little Pete or his missing tail? Let me know.

Meanwhile, I keep my eyes opened for a third vintage pottery animal with it's hole-y butt up in the air.

Bertha & Tina Postcard

A cute postcard, unless you find out the truth -- which is more than you likely wanted to know about Bertha & Tina.

From my travel and tourism collection.

It's Not My Mom

This looks like my mom, but it's not; this lady's name was Jeri and she was famous. I don't know her. But I do know my mom.



It's a small photo, just like the ones you give away to your friends in school. Only I didn't get this from Jeri herself (I told you I don't know her); I got it with some other vintage photos of famous people. That explains why it's not signed on the back with a note for me to 'stay sweet' (which I did) or how fun I was in math class (which I was).

If you know who this lady is -- even if she's not your mom -- please let me know.

Bray-Bray The Donkay

The kids thought this little vintage donkey was the donkey from Pinocchio; we had to explain that back at that time, nearly all donkeys had that huge-ear look.

I, of course, was smitten by the ears -- but it was the remnants of fur on the figurine which made me whine and have the cashier at the thrift store bring her out from behind the glass so I could photograph her. You know she's expensive if she's behind the counter...



Not only is her mane real, but the saddle blanket is cloth. On her belly is a golden sticker stating she's hand painted in Japan, produced by the Ries company. But still, she was priced at $8.99 -- and they don't negotiate at the thrift stores. No matter how much you whine.

:sigh:

She was put away.

Hubby occasionally caves to my whining; that day he gave in. Bray-Bray The Donkay now lives with my other figurines with fur. Wo0t!

Personalized Banking With Kitschy Checks

I've long been toying with slapping the Kitschy Kitschy Coo poodle on checks (she is just too darn cute!), but the funny thing is, once you start thinking of what you could all put on personalized checks -- and who would see them -- you start to want them in the dozens.

I'd forgo cute kids and corporate logos, and put something seemingly incongruous on them. Something they'd actually look at (and no offense, but other than grandma, who looks at your kids?)

I want something on my checks that would make the envelope opener and the cashier pause and wonder just what kind of person they are dealing with here. And then smile and laugh at it so hard that they have a cute work story to share at the family dinner table -- and maybe even want to break the rules and photocopy the check for show-and-tell. (In some cases, maybe even run to their supervisor and ask if they should really do being business with this person.) Now that's real personal checks.

Of course with this household of kitsch collectors that's a rather long list of possibilities.

If I had to pick just one (which both budget and banker would prefer), I'd go with the "you've been kitsch-slapped" image. I'd love to at least send that message to those I owe money to.

And the thought of some future ephemera collector finding & coveting such a prize is equally delicious.

Our Kids Asked To Be Left Alone, Please

A reminder-slash-warning at one of the local thrift stores to watch your children, or they "will be given an espresso and a free puppy".

A Unicorn Missing Its Horn Is Not Just A Horse

I've asked you before, but you've ignored me. So I'm asking again: What is this?



Aside from missing the bulk of its horn, this unicorn has strange holes as well. More photos of the odd details here.

Daylight Savings Time: Bane of Clock Collectors

If you're a clock collector, there are two things you hate: spring forward and fall back. Crazy-clock-lady, above, has 4,000 clocks to re-set, while crazy-clock-guy here, will spend two weeks re-setting his clocks to the correct time. That's a sign of a true clock collector: no matter how many you have, ten, a hundred, a thousand, if your clock collection isn't accurate, you may as well toss the whole lot in the trash. You're not a real clock collector.

Rosie The Riveter, More Than A Hill Of Beans

At the museum conference last week, I had a chance to meet the Famous Be'an Collectibles. Yes, I hugged the beanie version of Rosie the Riveter. But the saleslady made me give her back.

Think, Edward!

(from superpoop)

Thanks, But I Prefer Bald Condiment Dispensers

OK, so you know I collect these figurines with pasted on rabbit fur; therefore you might not think I have the right to mock these retro S&P kitties...


But honestly, who wants to shake salt or pepper from them, knowing full well that dust & whatever else sits in the rabbit fur will also be shaken, not stirred, onto your food?

The Man Who Never Was -- Until...

The previous owner dared to defy the author, Ewen Montagu, and draw in the face of The Man Who Never Was. Now he was. Albeit in pencil.



I wish I knew the kid's name; he'd get 20 extra bonus points for the "nice head" comment with arrow.

The Nock-A-Bouts

After the Trash or Treasure event at the Plains Art Museum today, we stopped in one of our favorite local antique malls where I snapped-up, at $1 each, these 8 x 10 promotional photos of the band the Nock-A-Bouts.




I believe the men are older in the second photo; hubby says the photos were taken the same day because of their suits. I insist the first photo of the trio is them in their hey-day, playing the college & club circuit; the latter them on the way down, older musicians trying to get a gig -- the same suits are the result of not being able to afford new suits.

A little research shows very little on the trio, other than they were Dorsey, Flo & Jimmy Clark (Dorsey presumably the one, in both photos, with the "D" hanky in his pocket) and they cut at least one comedy/party album. As the title of the recording is The Two Sides of the Nock-A-Bouts, I'm guessing hubby is right. And now I'll need to eat my own hat. Or pith helmet. Or whatever.

Destiny Meets Wes Cowan

In association with the Plains Art Museum's Trash or Treasure event, tonight we met Wes Cowan:

Wes is an anthropologist, auctioneer, appraiser, and in his spare time he appears on TV. Tomorrow, D and I will be meeting with Wes for Collector's Quest (more over there during the weekend), but tonight was Destiny's only opportunity to meet Wes. We were early, so he sat down and chatted with us for a while after we introduced ourselves. During the Q&A, one of the audience asked about how to improve childrens' interest in collecting, and he pointed to Des as an example -- but pointed out she was weird, because she had weird parents. Des was taking notes, and I saw her scribbling like mad to write down his commentary on her interest in collecting. She had a great time, we enjoyed Wes' speech, and look forward to more in the next few days.

Retro Push-Button Phone Pushes My Buttons

This powder-blue push-button telephone caught my eye, but the cord, as usual, was discolored. I wasn't sure if it was faded or dirty -- and I wasn't going to use my finger nail to lightly scratch the cord to see which either.


Those enough old enough to remember using phones with coiled cords remember all-too-well how difficult they are to clean -- and that knowledge, my friends, was what removed the idea of purchasing from my mind.

Mixed Fortunes

What's this old gypsy fortune telling book got to do with one woman's Uncle Stuart & his knickers and another woman's parent's marriage? Read it, if you dare.

The Unknown Comic - Artist

From The Saturday Evening Post, June 14, 1941, a full-page ad for Hotpoint electric refrigerators and ranges. The top portion features a comic, Just Around The Corner: Ed And Alice Open Up The Summer Cottage, which extols the virtues of having appliances in your summer cottage "just like in town." So much for getting away from it all & roughing it.

And no one ever shows up to help me move.


Having a title seems to signify a series -- be it a regular comic series or an ad campaign -- but it's unsigned. The style is so familiar... Capp? Marge? I honestly don't know; neither does Google. If you do, please share.

Here's the bottom portion of the ad, in case that helps.